The Station - Richmond's former railway station. once the terminus of a branch line from Darlington - advertises itself as "the region's most exciting tourist destination": beneath the sympathetically restored, high vaulted ceiling of this historic Victorian railway station sits a contemporary café bar and restaurant; a modern, two-screen cinema; an art gallery over two floors; a free heritage centre; and a collection of meeting rooms available for private hire. There is no visitor attraction quite like it. Pulling in 350,000 tourists a year and offering each and every one a unique experience, The Station is also home to six ...
My copy of the first issue of Ad Lib - the pocket glossy monthly intended to replace the weekly Liberal Democrat News - arrived today. As is apparently obligatory in Lib Dem publications, it carries a mildly satirical article by me, though what appeared in the magazine (reproduced below) is not exactly what I sent in. Whipped: From the desk of the Junior Whip The Chief Whip is not going to be pleased. He got very excited when he heard about Nadine Dorries being on I'm a celebrity... and insisted that I get a couple of our MPs on to ...
I really do feel very upset for the family of that poor nurse and the sheer pain she must have gone thru over the past few days. I too think the prank was funny, yes we can all have great laugh that they were able to get away with it, and i too feel sorry for the presenters who now must feel absolutely awful. The people I blame for all of this 100% are the royal bodyguards who obviously failed
Fifty weeks from today will be Doctor Who's fiftieth anniversary. Next week I'll be starting my countdown of fifty great scenes spanning the TV series so far to illustrate why it's the most marvellous show ever made. But I know what you're thinking - how can I have chosen fifty scenes... How can I possibly cram so many times and places into such a minuscule number? That is, indeed, impossible. So today I'll introduce what I'll be doing every Saturday until November 23rd, 2013, and offer tantalising glimpses of still more wonder in some of the ones that got away... ...
Most of us have done our best to forget 'alarm clock Britain', but What You Can Get Away With remembers it - and also "the most vapid, soulless and content-free article ever published on Liberal Democrat Voice". How funny are prank calls? Not at all funny, says Libdem Child. Andrew Hickey resists the canonisation of John Lennon: "Lennon was, in many ways, a fairly horrible human being. He regularly mocked the disabled on stage, made some arguably racist comments, was a terrible father to his first child, and was a violent thug who beat at least his first wife regularly." ...
Hot on the heels of the Government Inspector's decision to grant planning permission to the developers for their "underground" scheme (which some of us have christened the "Teletubbies scheme") which was a blow to the objectors and to GARA - the local residents association, has come a second blow. The developers (Linden Wates) have lodged an appeal on their "Plan B" scheme which was for a huge infill between the Gondar Gardens small mansion blocks directly opposite houses in Sarre Road. This was also turned down by the Council only a few months ago. Everyone is surprised and disconcerted by ...
... and @NicoleSchezy is rather superb too ... If Jahmene doesn't win, let's hope its James Arthur ...
This flier dropped through the door of residents who live close to Fortune Green but we thought it might be of wider interest. In case you can't read this they are holding an exhibition in the building on 17/18th December from 3pm to7.30pm Go and take a look and give us your views!
This edition of Saturday Six was started before the publication of the Leveson enquiry but I ended up too busy to post it last weekend. So, here are three from the week before last with the rest being finds from the past few days... Andrew Page declared himself proud of Lib Dem peers in respect of the debate on the Justice and Security Bill - and of Nick Clegg on the issue of Shared Parental Leave. On another Justice issue, Mark Thompson argues that giving some prisoners the right to vote - is the right thing to, on principle, and ...
An email of complaint I just sent to Marks & Spencer Customer Service: When shopping today in your Guildford store I was very disturbed to see that in your Christmas Gifts section next to the food court that you had a 'For Her' section of gifts which were almost entirely cooking and baking utensils. Quite apart from the ridiculous level of sexist gender stereotyping that indicated, I also imagine that if I were to give a baking tray to any female acquaintance of mine as a present then they would be likely to brain me with it. I find it ...
Note from the district council Christmas shoppers will have more opportunities to browse in the popular St Albans markets this year. St Albans City and District Council is holding more city-centre markets throughout December to make it easier for residents and visitors to do their Christmas shopping. Additional markets will be held in the week before Christmas, with a market open every day from Wednesday 19 to Monday 24 December. The regular markets will be open on Wednesdays and Saturdays throughout December (apart from Boxing Day, Wednesday 26 December). Farmers' Markets are taking place in the Market Place, St Albans, ...
The Voice newspaper has profiled rising Lib Dem star Yahaya Kiyingi, 20, today who is striving to become an MP at the next election. The paper reports: The political aspirant has caught the eye of ...
It's Saturday evening, so here are twelve thought-provoking articles to stimulate your thinking juices... Britain and Europe: Making the break – The Economist's verdict on many Europhobes' éjaculation nocturne: 'The most likely outcome would be that Britain would find itself as a scratchy outsider with somewhat limited access to the single market, almost no influence and few friends. And one certainty: that having once departed, it would be all but impossible to get back in again.' Boris shows that Eurosceptics are in a mess – Iain Martin examines the Eurosceptic Catch-22: 'If the single currency bloc must become more unified ...
Starbucks currently has around 8,500 employees in the UK. I'm all for individuals and organisations paying the correct amount of tax according to the rules the politicians are ultimately responsible for implementing. As far as I'm aware, no-one is suggesting that Starbucks are not playing by these rules. So I'm not quite sure why paying a "voluntary" £10m to HMRC for the next two years makes any legal sense – nor will it do very much for those 8,500 employees. I have a better suggestion which would have the effect of both the treasury receiving more tax (directly and indirectly) ...
As regular readers of my blog will know I have a family history that goes back to Donegal. Indeed one of my Great Grandfather's was a Grand Master in the Orange Order in that county pre-partition. Therefore with my roots divided by the imaginary line across our island I naturally associate myself as Irish as much as anything. Because even though my roots are largely within Ulster, they are by in large from the part of Ulster that joined the 26 Counties of the Republic of Ireland. Therefore the meaning of the Tricolour means something to me. The Orange quarter ...
The report of a joint committee of MPs and peers due to be published next week has underlined why so many Liberal Democrats are opposed to a new law that will enable the government to monitor and record internet traffic in the interests of national security. Supporters of the scheme say that it is simply a matter of collecting details of an e-mail or a message and storing it. They say that the authorities will be able to see who is in contact with whom and when, but not the content of any communication. However, according to the Telegraph the ...
Sent at another time this week; good to see that experimentation continuing. The link that is perhaps missing is this one. Dear Mark, This April, one of two things will happen to you. If you earn less than £9,440, you will no longer pay any income tax. If you earn more than that, then you'll be paying £600 less each year than you were in 2010. This is the biggest ever increase in your personal allowance (the amount you can earn before you start paying tax). It means we're now within a whisker of achieving our manifesto pledge of allowing ...
Please note, this isn't aimed at any one person. Today, like October the 9th, sees people all over the internet mourning for John Lennon. I'm not going to say they shouldn't (and they'd quite rightly ignore me if I did) — John Lennon deserves mourning. But unfortunately, a lot of them seem to be mourning ...
Letters have gone out to local people inviting comments on the planning application for the Academy/Leisure Centre. Some have already been in touch asking me how they should set about responding to be most effective, whether you are for or against the development. The simple answer is – stick to planning issues and I've previously put up advice about that e.g. here – but this is slightly more complicated because it's too late now to make points about whether the site is suitable for an Academy/Leisure Centre – it already has permission for that use from March 2010. Therefore comments ...
I was saddened to learn of the death on Wednesday of Mr William Bissell, at the age of 95. Born in the West End, Mr Bissell was the long-standing licensee of Bissell's Bar in Polepark Road (see right) in the West End Ward, and was also a leading member of the Dundee Licensed Trade Association for many years. Willie and Margaret Bissell and their sons were neighbours of ours when we were growing up back in the late 1960s and into the 1970s. Hugely respected in the licensed trade and by all who knew him, Mr Bissell will be sadly ...
There were a few things that made me cry yesterday. Seeing the way Bangor Councillor Christine Bower jumped when the glass fell out of her window, clearly fearful of another attack by so-called loyalists on their home was one of them. It breaks my heart to see a young couple, whose first motivation is to serve their community, intimidated in this way. They are not the only Alliance politicians to face violent repercussions over the decision by Belfast City Council to fly the Union Flag only on a designated number of days every year.The non-sectarian Alliance councillors had helped broker ...
So, there we have it: equal marriage for same-sex couples in the civil law and the chance for religious groups to choose to offer same-sex religious marriage if they want to. It's another step toward equality in front of the law for the LGBT community. The community has come a long way in the 43 years since the Stonewall riots in New York City. And the Liberal Democrats have led the way in the UK. We were the first party to commit to a policy of civil partnerships, in a Private Members Bill, and at our conference in 2010 we ...
I'm sad to say that this morning Cornwall Council let down the people of Launceston, and Launceston shops and businesses, again. After a hugely successful late night shopping event, they failed to turn up as agreed to sweep the streets first thing this morning. It is inevitable that late night shopping creates a mess. There is litter, discarded food and camel poo. That is why the organisers of the event make sure to contact the Council in advance and arrange for an early morning visit from the street sweeping machine. The same is arranged for the morning after Carnival. But ...
I've spent the morning at Stockport Market on the first of three weekends of big events in the run-up to Christmas. Today we had the indoor and outdoor market, Dickens-themes heritage market, Stockport dungeon, brass band, carol singers, Teenage Market and more. BBC Radio Manchester spent the morning with us speaking to people about everything that's going on. In my interview I talked about the free parking on Sundays between now and Christmas, free parking after 2pm in the week before Christmas and the free Metroshuttle bus (number 300) that goes around the town centre. The Teenage market was set ...
Liberal Democrat group Leader, Geoff Juby's column from this week's Medway Messenger - Needless to say I agree with Geoff on the Taxation! <hr> In recent months there has been a lot of publicity given to the subject of taxation and benefits. Are we in danger of following Greece, Spain and Ireland in running into massive deficits because of an inability to actually collect the taxes due? Major multinational corporations pay little or no UK tax - and many of the members of parliament, and the House of Lords, who should be addressing this problem are themselves in a questionable ...
One of the welcome features of the new expenses system is that constituents can see all expenses claims online here, including everything from claims for rent on the constituency office, office phone bills or standard class rail tickets to Wesminster. In addition, the subject of MPs' accommodation arrangements in London continues to be the focus of some attention, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to provide an update on my own arrangements. When first elected in 1997 I rented a room for a short period but it quickly became apparent that in the longer-term it would be ...
Yesterday afternoon, I received a call from an unknown number. I answered it, and a heavily accented voice said "Hello, can I speak to mister..." there was a pause while she tried to figure out the intricacies of my surname, "Ehdan?" I asked who was calling, and she said, "I am calling from American Express with important information about your card. Please can I take you through security?" You know where this is going, don't you? I asked her to prove that she was from American Express. "I assure you that I am. This is not a sales and marketing ...
ITV reports: Two Alliance councillors in Bangor, Northern Ireland have spoken of their shock after their front window was smashed following a controversial vote on future of the Union flag at Belfast City Council. Michael and Christine Bower say they are worried for the safety of the 17-month-old daughter after vandals smashed their front window with a paint bomb. Belfast East MP Naomi Long has had to leave her home following a death threat. The Alliance party of Northern Ireland is an official "sister party" of the Liberal Democrats. We'd like to express our solidarity with and sympathy for Michael ...
Each year, for the past 27 years, we have played this festive album. The gentle crackle of a slightly dusty needle before Band Aid kick in is my definitive sound of Christmas.
Not funny at all, is the answer, unless it is done to family and friends who are able to understand the 'in joke'. When it is done to a stranger, it is just cruel because they are unsuspecting 'victims' who are not in on the humour that is being enjoyed by the perpetrators. Also, the balance of power is in favour of the person carrying out the joke. The 'victim' is powerless. What is funny about this? Prank calling is what children do for fun till they grow out of it. Grown up adults doing it as part of their ...
I blogged some time ago about the future of the Greenhill nursery site. The Council had said it didn't want the land any more. My colleague Richard Oglethorpe and I wrote to people living near the site to ask for their views about what they would like to see happen on that land. The top suggestions (in terms of numbers) included allotments and sheltered housing of some sort. Anyway, the Council is due to formally decide to sell the land. The decision will be made at the Cabinet meeting next week (14th December) You can read the report at this ...
Night time workers. Work at night, sleep at day. That's not being a scrounger. Shame so many Conservatives and so-called populists crudely label them all as scroungers with their blunderbuss rhetoric for having the temerity to draw the curtains at home when they're sleeping after a long session at work. UPDATE: In other curtain commentary news... Jennie has highlighted in the comments her own post. Here's the link to it; the comments are well worth a read for a mix of the serious and the very funny. And here's an Olympian who left their curtains shut. * Mark Pack has ...
Sat 8th
10:16
49% of local housing applicants "...will never be successful in their bid for accommodation.."
The problem for local people looking for somewhere to live ..... has just got considerably worse! As reported in a recent article in the Peterborough Telegraph the Tory controlled city council – the ones who flogged off the Council housing stock – have plans "...to dramatically reduce the number of people on housing waiting lists in Peterborough..." Last time they used such phraseology – was a couple of years ago, when they had a waiting list of 11k, so they sent letters out saying they were updating details etc and that forms that applicants that did not return their forms ...
I wrote yesterday about the need for the Lib Dems to reclaim the idea of "coalition" as an effective form of government, given the unpopularity of "this Coalition" as the current Government. Along the way I caricatured some 'known knowns', including describing those Lib Dem members who've resigned over what were, for them, red-line issues: Another tranche of members and voters deserted the party over the leadership's U-turn on tuition fees or the messy NHS Reform Bill. These were the 'red-liners', the this-far-but-no-further group who are only ever one disappointment away from tearing up their membership cards. Jennie Rigg took ...
It's been a busy week, so for my take on the Autumn Statement, here is my trio of media hits (featuring that tie): * Mark Pack has written 101 Ways To Win An Election and produces a monthly newsletter about the Liberal Democrats.
Pandora's Problem: The More It Sells the More It Loses - WSJ.com This is going to be a problem for spotify too, I reckon (tags: ) Google Grants $1.2M to Help Analyze Female Roles in TV, Film | Underwire | Wired.com (tags: ) Dave McKean's Art before and after photoshop (tags: ) Mogulgeddon: Alan Sugar and Donald Trump compete to be most childish tycoon on the internet With bonus Piss Moron (tags: ) Leveson proposals: PM may use royal charter to set up press watchdog | Media | guardian.co.uk (tags: ) Off Life issue2 (pdf) Comic available in print in ...
As ever, Late Night Shopping saw Launceston packed with people as well as musicians, dancers, traders... and camels. Huge thanks to everyone for coming along, but especially to my colleague Sasha Gillard-Loft who has organised the event for six or seven years. She persuaded me to get on a camel this year (I thought they knelt down to let you get on - but apparently not). Thanks also to all the other volunteers and helpers who make this such a special event. The Late Night Shopping event is produced entirely by those associated with the town centre shops. One of ...
...and so the Have I Got News For You spreadsheet has been updated again. Amazingly, despite there being two female guests on it last night, the sky hasn't fallen and I can now report that: 29.17% of guests this season have been women 23.4% of guests overall have been women 22.65% of guest hosts have been women David Mitchell was the sixth male host in a row – the record is ten in a row, set a couple of times near the start of the guest host era You can find the updated version here. And if last night's HIGNFY ...
There has been plenty of chatter amongst the McTwitterati of late about Scotland's relationship with Europe if we vote Yes in 2014.The world is changing and the canvas of nations being painted in an age of crisis is very different to the past. This changing canvas cannot be ignored if we are to consider where Scotland's future place in the world might be. Today the BBC news website reportsthat Winston Churchill's 1946 Zurich speech has been featured on The European Council's YouTube channel. There are, believe it or not, those who regard Churchill as one of the fathers of the ...
Saturday: Happy Advent! "Doctor Who" is a series about TIME TRAVEL, so it makes sense to celebrate the series' Fiftieth Anniversary by spending it travelling BACK IN TIME to all those futures it's been to in the past. Daddy Alex is doing ALL SORTS of INTERESTING things on his diary, but here I'll be getting Daddy Richard to write reviews for stories from each of the first twenty-six seasons, two stories each, to last us through to November 23rd 2013. Why the first twenty-six seasons? Well, because we have ALREADY done reviews of all the Twenty-First Century Stories. Or ALMOST... ...
Residents in Dunmore Gardens contacted me recently about the state of part of the pavements in the street - some are not adopted by Dundee City Council. I raised this with the City Engineer, who advises: "I attach a plan showing in blue the adopted footways in Dunmore Gardens. These are currently not on the Unadopted Footway Priority List so will be assessed for inclusion in 2013/14." The plan referred to is given below but a higher definition PDF can be downloaded here:
A dedicated nurse. An Australian spoof. A British tabloid security scare. A world-wide "scandal". A suicide. Two kids are motherless, but don't worry the press had nothing to do with it. They did not doorstop her, or harass her in any way, so that is all right. But hey, its OK the British press can regulate itself. In other news. The Leveson inquiry finds that there is a systematic anti European Union (read = paid for) bias in several British newspapers. In other news, there is now an opinion poll that suggests that the majority in the UK would vote ...
