The Chartered Institute of Public Relations is the professional body for tens of thousands of people working in the PR, communications and lobbying industries. It has had a troubled recent past, including six figure financial losses and relocation of its HQ. Its recent presidential election was won by Lionel Zetter who stood on a platform of merger with other similar bodies. But it appears now that this election is null and void and will have to be re-run as a result of one of the two candidates for President submitting their nomination late. Here's an extract of the email I ...
Thursday I had settled down to write this Diary after breakfast when I was disturbed by the sound of mortar fire. A minute later, Heath bursts in: "Sorry about the noise. I thought I saw something moving in that covert of yours and thought it might be a badger. Best not to take any risks. I'll give it another biffing when the smoke has cleared a bit." "Why don't we have an early stiffener at the Bonkers' Arms?" I suggest hurriedly. "Meadowcroft can call the fire brigade." As I lead him down the drive I add: "They've got a guest ...
[IMG: aptopix_mideast_israel_palestinians] When I was younger and I went out to play I would look around me or down at the ground, the children of Gaza look up at the sky constantly whilst they play. What do you think they are looking for? Missiles and rockets. The count so far is 24 child deaths in Gaza. One was an 11 month old baby, he was the son of a BBC picture editor in Gaza. Will the deaths of these children bring the solution that Israel wants? Israel is carrying out the attacks under an act of 'self defence' it claims. ...
From the Leicester Mercury: A council's deputy leader has been sacked over a disagreement about where hundreds of homes should be built in the future. Blake Pain was dismissed from the Conservative-run Harborough Council's executive today. Council leader Michael Rook said he and his deputy had "irreconcilable differences" over policy on allocating building land. Coun Pain, who represents the district's Lubenham ward, disagrees with plans to review the council's core strategy, adopted a year ago.And the Harborough Mail has Blake Pain's full statement: "I came into local politics because I believe in democracy, localism and public service. "I'm disappointed that ...
I'm re-blogging an article from the New Statesman by George Eaton. It is about the implications of David Cameron's plan to abolish equality impact assessments and restrict judicial review. What lies behind David Cameron's latest bonfire ...
...I do. If I didn't I wouldn't be trying so hard to stay. But every time someone says "you should see a doctor about [insert minor complaint here]," and every time I have to fill in a form for a sporting activity (like say, Derby) that requires health insurance details, I have to fight a little tiny panic attack. I have insurance. I'm too scared not to. But everything about the process scares me to the very bottom of my spoiled British heart. I miss living in a place where I could risk breaking my ankle without being terrified of ...
I sat in a committee last week where Basingstoke Festival was discussed. This Summer saw the first Basingstoke Festival and apart from the odd cancelled event, it showcased local talent and celebrated the diversity of our borough very well. A personal thanks to the hundreds of volunteers who made the events happen. It seemed in the Officers report an after thought to mention the bombshell
This afternoon, after a number of visits to constituents, I attended the public exhibition about the parking proposals for part of the West End. The exhibition was well attended - see right - but what is very clear from speaking with residents at this that they want a proper public meeting at which the plans can be discussed and questions answered. The council is currently planning no public meeting and at last week's West End Community Council, I raised this concern. The Community Council is therefore inviting the council's Head of Transportation to its next meeting - this is a ...
As regular LDV readers may know, I've long advocated the idea of allowing candidates to put themselves forward for election on a job-share basis (letting constituents decide whether they want to elect job-share MPs). Today a Bill making this possible will be presented to the House of Commons. The Representation of the People (Members' Job Share) Bill will be introduced as a Private Member's Bill by Labour MP John McDonnell. It will be interesting to see how much cross-party support the Bill gets. Individual Lib Dems have certainly been sympathetic to its aims. Mark Williams MP tabled an Early Day ...
Back to that exemplar local authority, Odanglesex County Council, and its Agile Workers - another reposted adventure with maybe a few subtle changes. Odanglesex County Council wants agile, flexible workers and has set a target head:seat ratio. How are they getting on? FROM: Kenneth Spotlessnob, Assistant Chief Executive and Director of Transformational Excellence and Strategic Vision TO: Hamish Carpenter, Transformational Excellence Manager Hamish - could you drop into my office at 3:30 to discuss our response to the Intelligent Procurement draft? FROM: Hamish Carpenter TO: Kenneth Spotlessnob Kenneth: slight problem. I'm working from home to help reach our flexible working ...
FLAMSTEED ROAD SCOUT HUT NEXT MONDAY, TRUMPINGTON VILLAGE HALL NEXT THURSDAY Most residents of Queen Edith's will know that parking is a big problem in this area. Lib Dem councillors have for many years been calling for action from Conservative-run Cambridgeshire County Council, the council responsible for parking management and highways. Last summer the County Council set up a parking review group, to look at all of the south of the city, including Queen Edith's, Trumpington, Romsey and some streets in Coleridge. Cllr Jean Swanson and I attended the first meeting, and since then Cllr Geoff Heathcock has sat on ...
A win for the Daily Mail: Mutant 'super rats' with resistance to poison invade Henley-on-Thames
Harrogate, once regarded as one of the safest Conservative parliamentary seats in the country, was shocked in 1997 when Phil Willis became MP. Sadly, the seat was lost in 2010. With the Conservatives holding the Parliamentary seat and strengthening their control on the Council it was difficult to see how the local Liberal Democrats could break through to show that we are still a fighting force. This year saw John Fox, an experienced campaigner and former Election Agent to Phil Willis from 1995 to 2007, become Constituency Chair and the driving force to get local Liberal Democrats campaigning again. Campaigning ...
Boris Johnson played fast and loose with his elections pledges earlier this year and now, one by one, they are slowly unravelling to expose his mayoral campaign as a not-so-elaborate deception. Liberal Democrat assembly member ...
The Newbury Weekly News very kindly published the following letter from me in a recent edition. I reproduce it here in case it is of interest to a wider readership: Through your columns, I'd like to pay warm tribute to the extraordinary contribution to the Liberal Democrats and West Berkshire which David Rendel has made over an unprecedented 28 years as our local parliamentary candidate or MP (that, of course, includes time during the existence of our predecessor party). It's difficult to know where to begin. On a personal level, towards thousands of local people, David has shown consistent kindness, ...
There is an innovative new event making its way to London early next year, a Councillor Camp, led by Future Gov. Here is the idea, in their own words: The idea of holding an event around digital and social stuff with local politicians has been bounced around here at FutureGov HQ many times in recent years. And now, coming in January 2013, we're finally just getting on and doing it ... The day will be an opportunity for local politicians to share how they're using social and digital media to engage, campaign and change the way services are delivered to ...
Last week wasn't a great week for the Lib Dems. Three Westminster by-elections and no MPs and even one lost deposit. No Lib Dem PCC's and I don't think the Lib Dems even got down to the final two in any of the races. It is sounding glum but cheer up folks as the Lib Dems actually made five gains at local level and even held three seats. If you don't believe me maybe you'll believe Helen Duffett writing it up for Lib Dem Voice? She is generally regarded as more trustworthy than I. Anyway I also blogged last week ...
Advice from the county council: Residents should * Only deal with callers by appointment * Always ask for ID and check it carefully * Keep front and back doors locked * Fit a chain and use it whenever you answer the door * Never keep large sums of money in the home * Never buy goods or services at the door * Never sign anything without reading it through * Always say no to doorstep callers
Below you can find the current hours of Consett Library, and its hours effective from the New Year: Current Opening hours Monday 9.30am – 7.00pm Tuesday 9.30am – 7.00pm Wednesday 9.30am – 12.30pm Thursday 9.30am – 7.00pm Friday 9.30am – 7.00pm Saturday 9.00am – 4.00pm Christmas and New Year opening and closing times Consett Library will close at 1.00pm on Monday 24 December 2012 and reopen at 9.30am on Wednesday 2 January 2013. Opening hours from Wednesday 2 January 2013 Monday 9.30am – 5.00pm Tuesday 9.30am – 7.00pm Wednesday 9.30am – 12.30pm Thursday 9.30am – 7.00pm Friday 9.30am – 1.00pm ...
Ahead of December 5th's Autumn Statement, we have suggested £17 billion of revenue-raising measures for the coalition parties to consider. Our proposals offer ways to narrow the deficit with as little pain as possible, and further measures to unlock growth. These include what might be called "wealth taxes" – those on property, inheritance, and financial assets. One of our key themes is that substantial revenue can be raised simply by ending wealth and income tax breaks. Spending cuts should therefore include cuts to 'tax expenditures'. Many of the measures below would make the tax system simpler, fairer and more efficient ...
Councillor Darren Fower would like to offer a BIG thank you to all those who chipped in and supported his Grand Challenge, on behalf of Peterborough based charity Spina Bifida * Hydrocephalus * Information * Networking * Equality – SHINE. Alongside top British para-badminton star player Gobi Ranganathan, the pair decided to take part in the Great Eastern 5K fun run and set themselves – what some considered to be – a rather ambitious target of £1000. Visit: www.justgiving.com/DarrenandGobi Commenting, Darren said: "Last year I managed to raise just over £700 and to be fair if I achieved that amount ...
The Welsh Liberal Democrat Assembly Member for South Wales West, Peter Black, has welcomed the decision by the Care and Social Services Inspectorate for Wales to invoke the use of the Serious Concern Protocol for Children's Social Services in Neath Port Talbot. Peter Black was reacting to an inspection report that was published today by CSSIW that concluded that "the service lacks direction and staff need clear guidance and support to promote consistent levels of good practice." The Inspectorate states that the "high turnover of staff has continued to have an adverse impact on the performance and continuity of service ...
'I'm having my boyfriend's baby... but I've also been sleeping with his dad' is the headline in the latest Dear Deidre piece in The Sun. Lets be honest here...a headline like that is going to clicked by me 100 times out of 100. I can't get enough of it even though surely most of it is made up because some of the stories are so unbelievable that if someone really was having the problems they were purporting to have then I'd seriously worry about the human race – even more than I do normally. Anyway lets look at this piece. ...
The Commission chaired by Paul Silk published its report today. The report recommends empowering Welsh Government by giving it tax-raising powers. Welsh Liberal Democrat leader Kirsty Williams said: "We have been arguing for greater devolution for over a century. This is the latest step in our long campaign for a federal UK. It will strengthen Wales and help make a real difference to the lives of people across the country."
Cambridgeshire actor Geoff Hales entertained a packed Rock Road Library when he visited earlier this year, at the invitation of the Friends of Rock Road Library. He performed a one-man show of dramatised readings from Charles Dickens' novels. 2012 is Dickens's bicentenary, so it is fitting that Geoff will be returning next month (13th December). He will be doing a variety of Christmas readings from Dickens as well as other authors. The show starts at 8 p.m. after a welcome drink. There is no fixed charge but the Friends invite the audience to donate towards their funds, which go back ...
This is the latest in my series of Random Thoughts posts with links, things found on the web and other stuff that has occurred to me between 9th November 2012 and 19th November 2012: David who? Bowles beats Cameron in poll of EU's most influential Britons Sharon Bowles makes it onto shortlist for Bank of England Governor More news on Sharon Bowles MEP. Not only does she make it on to the shortlist for Governor of the Bank of England but she's rated the most influential Brit in Europe. She seems to be having a good couple of months.. Slate ...
One of the government's most controversial bills of this session – the Justice and Security Bill – goes back before the House of Lords today for Report Stage consideration. The second part of the Bill makes provision for civil cases to be heard in a 'closed material procedure', with one side (and the public) barred from hearing the evidence of the other if a judge deems that it would be damaging to national security if it became public. Liberal Democrat members, of course, overwhelmingly passed a motion at this year's autumn conference calling on our Parliamentarians to vote down Part ...
Another week, another big idea from David Cameron to boost the economy. Well, I say another big idea, but it's just a reiteration of an old one. Yet again, just about the only thing standing in the way of unbridled and unrivalled economic growth for Britain is government regulation. After two and a half years in power, though, he has managed to narrow it down to a smaller target than just generic 'red tape', at least. Yes, the specific problem is the annoying fact that the Government takes the time to consult on proposals and try and assess what impact ...
Last Thursday I was the keynote speaker at the Irish Traveller Movement in Britain Annual Conference. There was a record attendance and some really useful contributions. [IMG: Posted by Picasa]
International Men's Day (19/11/2012): Today is International Men's Day, with the theme this year being focused on men and health issues. In a world where average life expectancy for men remains lower than for women in the majority of countries on the planet, where the victims of war are still overwhelmingly male and where finding good male role models can be a real struggle in the raising of children, I think it's important to have a day to talk about this stuff. I've long had a problem with the argument that dealing with women's issues means that men's issues will ...
The Economist's political commentator 'Bagehot' this week surveys the attitudes of Lib Dems towards the Coalition at the mid-term point — I particularly like its opening: THE Somerset village of Chew Magna, with its sleepy pub and Georgian houses, seems an odd setting for prognostications about Britain's political future. But prognosticate the local Liberal Democrats do. "In 40 years' time, people will look back and ask: what was all the fuss about being in coalition?" says Dine Romero, a councillor. Her colleagues nod. Multi-party government, they agree, is here to stay. "I like coalition—on principle", asserts a sprightly 91-year-old. We ...
The abysmal turnout in last week's elections for Police and Crime commissioners, averaging below 15%, sends a raspberry to our political establishment. There are in my view three reasons for the debacle: the posts, and thus elections for them, are unnecessary;the organisation was staggeringly inept;the election continued the stream of misrepresentations, distortions and and self-serving attitude emanating from all our parties.1. I suspect that the Tories (and this was exclusively a Tory idea, opposed by the Liberal Democrats and nothing to do with the coalition) felt they could jump on the "Laura Norder" bandwagon so frequently whipped up by the ...
Some welcome (On the surface) news today, that the UK is no longer the most spied upon population online, going by Google's data. The most recent half-yearly Transparency Report shows that, when analysed per-capita, we've dropped down into 4th place. Rank Country Requests 2011H2 1 United States 25.7 3 20.4 2 France 23.6 2 21.5 3 Australia 23.3 5 19.8 4 United Kingdom 23.0 1 23.5 5 Germany 18.7 6 17.4 6 Singapore 17.5 4 20.1 7 Portugal 17.3 8 13.8 8 Italy 13.9 7 14.0 9 Taiwan 11.7 10 9.7 10 Spain 11.5 13 8.4 (Requests refers to the ...
I've just seen this amazing short film - The End by Ted Evans [IMG: The End] Ted also has a blog which talks about all the awards The End has deservedly won. The premise of the film is simple - what if there was a cure for deafness? What if that cure was mandated? What if you refused? All good sci-fi stuff - with neat parallels to today's society. What really got me thinking was the way technology can have a profound - and often detriment - impact on communities. I'm not going to get into the politics of Deaf-with-a-big-D ...
I am, for my sins, Chair of the County Approval Panel for 2013, a role which entails organising interviews for potential county candidates, making sure that they take place, and maintaining a list of approved candidates, as required by English Party rules. This isn't a particularly difficult task, in that I have plenty of experience of it and, as an ex-HR person (I got better), and a Parliamentary Candidate Assessor since 1995, I do understand how such a process should work. Today was set aside to interviews for a collection of candidates who will remain nameless, partly to protect the ...
[IMG: HM Treasury logo] There is an appealing simplicity behind the idea of having a zero structural deficit. It is the policy the government is committed to, with its plans to eliminate the structural deficit. And it's also wrong. For all the problems in measuring the structural deficit accurately, the concept is a useful one - to measure what the deficit is, once you have allowed for where we are in the economic cycle. Or, as the FT puts it, "A budget deficit that results from a fundamental imbalance in government receipts and expenditures, as opposed to one based on ...
Labour figures have long railed against the way that the National Health Service in England is succumbing to the private sector. It turns out that they are right. According to today's Guardian private firms now treat almost one in five NHS patients with certain conditions.. In fact the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) say in a report.that private firms have made such inroads that independent sector treatment centres, facilities set up to treat NHS patients, now carry out 17% of hip replacements (11,500 operations), 17% of hernia repairs (9,000) and 6% of gall bladder removals (3,000) annually in England. They ...
You may have seen in the press that Lewisham A&E services are under threat. We believe these are vital, life saving facilities for Downham residents and we need to fight to save them. Sign the peition here and keep up to date with local developments here.
The BBC report that the Labour Leader will give a speech to the CBI later today in which he will say that Britain is "sleepwalking" into leaving the EU, which would undermine the UK's economy and leave it "voiceless and powerless." This is the same Ed Miliband who joined with Euro sceptics a few weeks ago to defeat the Government on the EU budget, effectively taking a stance that would deprive Wales of valuable European funds. In the circumstances I think any reasoned observer could be forgiven for suggesting to Mr. Miliband that he needs to get his act together ...
In 1945 the Liberal News was a receipt for your weekly Liberal Party subscription. As a weekly newspaper, it outlasted Conservative and Labour Party rivals by some decades. Week by week party members, and a handful of others, were reminded of what the Liberal Party was up to when the mainstream media paid scant attention to it. At times, when Liberal members could only dream of the days when the party might return to Government, Liberal News (and then Liberal Democrat News) reported on the great by-election breakthroughs like Orpington, Edge Hill, Eastbourne, Newbury and Brent East. At other times, ...
This is a subject that has caused Ros much annoyance is recent times, and she isn't alone in that regard. So, when the chance came to add her voice to calls for action, and to gentle tweak the beard of the Minister, she wasn't going to miss out... Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Labour) To ask Her Majesty's Government what action they are taking to ensure that people do not receive unwanted text messages from claims management companies. Baroness Butler-Sloss (Crossbench) My Lords, would the Minister add e-mails? I get an enormous number of e-mails every day, generally about PPI but ...
I am on Radio Tay news and Wave 102 news this morning urging residents in the part of the West End that is currently subject to parking consultation to turn out today between 3pm and 7pm at Blackness Library to make their voices heard on the council's proposals for residents' parking. You can hear the interview on Wave 102 by clicking "play" below: Nearly 100 residents have already contacted me directly with their views already - an unprecedented number in such a short time since the proposals were released - and I have urged all of them to respond to ...
Amazing fanart film Posters by Olly Moss I particularly like the Evil dead one, but there's not a single dud. (tags: ) Made from Truth and Lies - Just to make it clear where I stand on people with different beliefs to myself My name is Jennie Rigg, and I approve this message (tags: ) Mark Thompson: Pros and cons of switching from an iPhone to a Samsung Galaxy And yet people still buy iPhones. (tags: ) voxeljet builds Aston Martin models for James Bond film Skyfall | 3D Printing news (tags: ) What did Damon Lindelof add to Prometheus? ...
It's just dawned on me that I never got round to posting Nick Clegg's second Letter from the Leader, which gave an insight into what it was like preparing for PMQs. This was a a performance which was lauded by the press at the time. I love this kind of behind the scenes stuff. Although I'm kind of disappointed that he didn't let us in on the secret of who played Harriet Harman during the rehearsals..... Dear Caron, I want to start writing to you, as a supporter of the Liberal Democrats, regularly and more informally than I have in ...
The Crystal Ball chart blogged by Mark Pack highlights the interesting cases of Alaska and Utah. These outliers make sense given the dynamics of the race (the large Mormon population in UT provided a boost to Romney while the absence of Sarah Palin from the ballot hurt Republican performance in AK relative to 2008). But why do we not see more turbulence in the battleground states? Surely the gobs of money spent in these states along with the monumental ground efforts of the Obama campaign would push these states away from the crowd? The answer to this apparent disconnect is ...
Can you just imagine the outcry if Iran's President Ahmadinejad came out with comments like wanting to send somewhere back to the Middle Ages. What if he talked about inflicting a holocaust on a particular people? And then had his ministers scuttling around saying he didn't quite mean it like that. He really only meant "disaster". Yeah, because inflicting disaster on people is just fine..... Well, there would be resolutions and murmurings and outrage and endless condemnation. And these things wouldn't be unjustified. That's absolutely no way to talk about anyone. Military objectives driven by destructive emotions are not a ...
This weekend, I headed down to the Timperley Taverners (the Liberal club next to the Metrolink station) for a hustings event for the North-West Lib Dem Euro list. There was a fairly standard format – each candidate doing a speech, followed by a Q&A session. This is a write up of my notes, as verbatim ...
Whether you're a beginner or you've not played for a while, all are welcome to social basketball sessions. Men's sessions are on Thursday nights from 7.30 to 8.20pm at the Stockport Sport for All Centre, Reddish Vale Technology College, Reddish Vale Road, Reddish, SK5 7HD. First session is free, then just £3 a session. For more information call Stockport Sport for All Centre on 0161 480 2223 or email me and I'll get someone to give you a call. There are also women's basketball sessions – I'll track down the details for those.
I see that Nadine Dorries is no longer winning the vote to take the bush tucker trial on I'm a Celebrity. Her previous trial partner, Helen Flanagan (who she? – Ed) has also shed her repetitive trial run after an impressive performance. But now Nadine Dorries is chained to Eric Bristow for some reason I can't quite fathom.... [IMG: Post to Twitter] Tweet This Post
Today is World Toilet Day and it is important to remember that 2.5 billion people lack access to adequate sanitation. One in three women across the world risks shame, disease, harassment and even attack because they do not have a safe place to go to the toilet. This is unthinkable in the UK, but a reality in the developing world and the impact is devastating. Absence of clean toilets and inadequate sanitation facilities are key causes of diarrhoeal disease, the second largest killer of children worldwide, causing around 760,000 child deaths every year. Diarrhoeal disease is also a contributing factor ...
On Saturday I joined Bristol Photography Group as they went a walk round the Stokes Croft area of Bristol, known for its independent spirit and street art - including the famous Banksy "Mild Mild West". Here are a selection of the pictures I took: Andrew
Don't forget - later today - 4pm - 5pm ... Children's Craft activity at Blackness Library - making handprint Christmas Trees - all children welcome!
The City Council is currently consulting tenants on the possible rent increase for 2013/14 - the council is proposing possible increase levels of between 5% and 5.5% and it invites tenants to give their views on the proposals by 31st December. Click here to find out how to give the City Council's Housing Department your feedback. You can read more about the rent increase options here and the options relative to service charges here. You can also download a higher quality version of the above poster here.
It was a marked contrast to the flashbulbs and glory of President Obama's re-election; on November 15, I awoke at my usual time, 5:30 AM, fed the cats, made coffee, and took out the trash. Then I walked down to the community centre attached to the local Catholic primary school; the sun was not quite ...
Things that are Becca's fault #14: I really love social dancing. I've been going to dance classes with one or both of my roommates since I've been roommates with one or both of them: it started with West Coast Swing, but has really been mostly historical waltz (that is, not the boxstep waltz that is popular today, but a rotary style more popular in the Victorian ere) and Regency style country dances. This is kind of relevant to my other interests if you bear in mind my interests include Jane Austen books and other stories that are set, say, in ...
Back from Thought Bubble — we'll have a proper post up about that in a day or two, and I'll be posting more actual content here soon. But for now, links: The state of the art is terrible — I was trying to explain some of this to Plok the other day, but this person's ...
