BBC4 is currently repeating its series The Golden Age of Railways. You can find two episodes - Small is Beautiful and Branching Out - on iPlayer at the moment. I don't know how long they will stay there, but there are plenty of other railway programmes archived on the BBC website. And some of the footage of the Talyllyn Railway I posted yesterday was used in Small is Beautiful. One thing that has struck me about the programmes is the interesting politics behind the railway preservation movement. Take this extract from Small is Beautiful, which begins at 10:40:NARRATOR: Tom Rolt's ...
I first met Ivor Porter, the British diplomat, writer and sometimes Special Operations operative, shortly after he had served as Ambassador to Senegal, at a time when I was Honorary Consul for the Islamic Republic of Mauritania to the Court of St. James's, though the fact that we were both Liberal Democrats (as we call ...
So the news all over twitter, the tech blogs, even the BBC is the change to the Instagram terms of use. Mainly this bit: Rights 1. Instagram does not claim ownership of any Content that you post on or through the Service. Instead, you hereby grant to Instagram a non-exclusive, fully paid and royalty-free, transferable, sub-licensable, worldwide license to use the Content that you post on or through the Service, except that you can control who can view certain of your Content and activities on the Service as described in the Service's Privacy Policy, available here: http://instagram.com/legal/privacy/. 2. Some or ...
The paper trail goes on... FROM: Brett West, Head of Modernisation and Business Practice TO: All Directors and Heads of Service The implementation of the Agile Stationery Strategy has been impressive and with 93% of ordering officers now trained by Piers, Gaveston, Edwards, the small teething problems over ordering should now be a thing of the past. However, the next quantum leap is to change the nature of our relationship with stationery. On our transformational journey towards the paperless office, OCC should have far less need of hard copy stationery. Early indications are that our expenditure on stationery is some ...
From the blurb to this video on Youtube: The Blue Boar Inn was medieval Leicester's 'Grand Hotel' and is believed to be where King Richard III stayed the night before the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. With the aid of detailed drawings, produced shortly before the Blue Boar was demolished, Richard Buckley has overseen a project to produce a detailed scale model of the building. The Blue Boar Inn is believed to have been built in the mid-15th century on Medieval Leicester's High Street -- now Highcross Street. It was a large and elaborately decorated building, which would have housed ...
Nick Clegg won the Liberal Democrat leadership by fighting a favourite's campaign and saying as little about policy as possible. But before that he gained himself the reputation of being something of a thinker and a libertarian. I can recall him, while still an MEP, speaking at a Liberator fringe meeting and calling for "crunchy Liberalism". Five years on from that leadership campaign, Nick gave a speech to the Royal Commonwealth Society. And, to be honest, there was not much that was crunchy about it. The passage that received most publicity was this: It is at times like these that ...
Eric Pickles, the Conservative Secretary of State for Local Government, has branded Tory-led Cornwall Council's policy on council tax benefit 'disgusting' and 'obscene' and he said that the councillors promoting it are 'unambitious'. I don't always agree with Mr Pickles, but in this case he is right. According to today's Western Morning News, Mr Pickles was asked about plans by some councils to end the granting of full council tax relief to some of the poorest families. He said: "That struck me as being obscene," "I thought it was a singularly unambitious scheme, just taxing people who are in receipt ...
[IMG: Winston Churchill by Cecil Beaton] There are still a few days left to see the exhibition of Cecil Beaton's photography at the Imperial War Museum in London. It lasts until 1 January. The evocative wartime photographs are, as you would expect, centre stage in the exhibition. But what really caught my interest was his personal story of disgrace and recovery: sacked and pilloried in the late 1930s for adding anti-Semitic phrases to a cartoon, his rehabilitation started with a commission from the Royal Family and he then went on to take some of the most famous and iconic photographs ...
From the reports from Channel 4 news this evening it certainly appears so.
Cicero's Songs asks if the Tories can last another decade. "In a policy debate that follows this narrative, the figures at the political pinnacle are being asked to admit defeat in a war, failure of their policies and to announce tolerance of the existence of what is widely regarded as a social evil. Even on a good day it is hard to imagine political leaders doing one of these things, never mind all three." Ewan's Liberal Musings on the difficulty - and necessity - of ending the 20th-century's war on drugs. MentalHealthCop has a terrific post on the reaction to ...
Farooq Murad made some remarks overnight that left me feeling rather angry this morning. I found them to be so misleading that I just couldn't believe a man who is secretary-general of an organisation as the Muslim Council of Britain could have man them. But make them he did: Muslim leaders have demanded the same legal exemptions as the Church of England in legislation to introduce gay marriages. The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), with more than 500 affiliated mosques, charities and schools, said it was "appalled" by "utterly discriminatory" legislation on same-sex marriage set out by the government. The ...
[IMG: License Some rights reserved by DFID - UK Department for International Development] Channel 4 News/Dispatches/Michael Crick revealed some astonishing facts concerning the Andrew Mitchell cycle incident, now known as "Plebgate". You can read a summary of the revelations on Channel 4′s website here. It is reasonably fair to say that the whole affair potentially appears to have been a complete "stitch-up" of Andrew Mitchell. No doubt the wheels of justice will turn and finally bring the truth well out into the open. In the meantime, I offer two observations. First, one would hope that a post-Leveson environment will put ...
Discussing the Cabinet's Jubilee gift to the Queen: Asked whether she might have enough table mats already before today's gift, Mr Pickles said: "One can never have too many table mats." Further comment is superfluous. Related PostsLocalism thrown into the bin Eric Pickles and the Star Fraction Does Eric Pickles actually possess a brain?
In a curious and rather ill-informed debate at Warwickshire County Council today, Conservative members used their block vote to defeat a proposal put by me on behalf of the Liberal Democrat group, to establish a £500,000 fund for start-up grants for small businesses. We were debating how to spend a £3.5 million "windfall", arising from a higher level of general reserves than required, and how to focus spending on projects that would best support the development of the local economy and create/protect jobs. The whole point was how best to spend money NOW, when it is most needed to help ...
I have a theory that life is increasingly coming to resemble The Simpsons. Well it looks like I am wrong. It seems that life, via our health researchers and the Daily Mail have decided to imitate South Park too! From the Daily Mail Are you a redhead, but don't even know it? Research to be released this week indicates millions of Britons carry 'silent' genes for redheadedness. So, its a regressive gene for hair colour, what harm could that possibly do? Well, it could make you fat 'One of the latest links being examined is whether these mutated red-haired genes ...
Liberal Democrat Friends of Israel has issued the following press release: HUGHES AND HUHNE AT LIB DEM FRIENDS OF ISRAEL AGM Members of Liberal Democrat Friends of Israel (LDFI) were joined by senior Lib Dem MPs at LDFI's Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Parliament last week. Attendees included Lib Dem Deputy Leader Simon Hughes MP, former Cabinet Minister Chris Huhne MP, Lord (Monroe) Palmer and Lord (Alex) Carlile. Lord (Chris) Rennard, a former party Chief Executive and elections supremo, spoke to the meeting about his trip to Israel and the West Bank as part of an LDFI Parliamentary delegation. Recalling ...
I haven't written very much recently about 6.00x, because other than the lectures posted for weeks 10 and 11 (which were excellent as usual) there's been no measurable progress to report. At the time of the second midterm exam the course team announced that it was going to drop one of the problem sets for this presentation, with the final two problem sets (9 and 10) due to be released on 12th December and 19th December respectively. However, it's now 18th December and no finger exercises for weeks 10 and 11 have been issued and nor is there any sign ...
Earlier today, I attended the latest meeting of the Jericho House support group, the group that assists Jericho House with various projects and its fundraising efforts. Jericho House in the West End undertakes excellent work assisting people who have alcohol problems. We were all delighted today to learn that Jericho House has now taken possession of its new minibus - see right - following a sustained fundraising campaign over many months. We are organising an official 'handover photocall' after Christmas to mark this great step forward for Jericho House. The new minibus will greatly assist getting the residents at Jericho ...
Last night I was invited to be a panel speaker at the final Rights and Humanity lecture of its lecture series on various aspects of culture and human rights. I went along thinking I didn't have a lot to say and then discovered that I almost had too much! What a shame that I wasn't able to attend some of the earlier events as the topics look as if they were fascinating. Anyway, if you haven't heard of this charity , do have a look at what they do at this link.
[IMG: hs2] Yesterday I represented Warwickshire County Council at a meeting about HS2 with Patrick McLoughlin, Secretary of State for Transport, organised through the local MP. Also present at the meeting were four representatives of HS2 Action Groups from across the county. The meeting was an excellent opportunity to demonstrate to the Secretary of State the close working liaison between the County Council and the HS2 Action Groups, in our joint fight for the best possible outcomes for the people of Warwickshire. Topics covered in the meeting included the arrangements for community engagement with HS2 Ltd, changes to the route ...
Yesterday, I mentioned that I had highlighted my concerns about the possible knock-on effects of the unfortunate delay to completion of the new Olympia swimming facility. I spoke further about this on Wave 102 news earlier today - you can hear this by clicking 'play' below:The City Architect has advised me: "Mansell had never offered the pool on 24 December 2012. They had indicated that they expected the building works to be substantially complete and that in the post holiday period they would be concentrating on finalising services and commissioning of plant. They had, up to mid-November, maintained their advised ...
Beyond the new census figures showing a decline in Christianity is an even more rapid fall of the established traditional churches while the charismatic and evangelical churches continue to grow. An article in the Sutton ...
An interesting e-mail has arrived in my in-box from the Badger Trust highlighting further research on the vaccination of badgers as a means of controlling bovine TB. Obviously a vaccine cannot eliminate disease where it is already established but it can stop it spreading and given that the life span of a badger is about five years, then an effective vaccination programme can remove the reservoir of infection in the medium term. In contrast culling spreads infection outside the area being focussed on, and once the cull stops then the disease will return with a vengeance. The Badger Trust has ...
Tue 18th
16:55
Did you know the Lib Dems have lost half a million voters to Ukip? Here's what I think it means.
[IMG: UKIP logo] Conservative peer Lord Ashcroft — who, as ConservativeHome's Tim Montgomerie has noted before, spends more on polling than all three parties combined — has today published the latest survey looking at the timely issue of the threat of Ukip. Nigel Farage's party is now regularly polling around the level of the Lib Dems, seemingly taking voters disproportionately from the Tories, contributing to lengthening Labour poll leads. I've only had chance to glance through the findings so far, but three things stand out: 1) The Lib Dems are also suffering from the rise of Ukip: 7% of those ...
Inspired by the 2012 Sports Personality of the Year, Bradley Wiggins, I took to cycling around his old stomping ground of Kilburn (and Brondesbury) whilst delivering and speaking to local members. More importantly, his background, a child of a single mother, shows that as long as opportunities are provided for, anyone can succeed in life. ...
I was genuinely proud when I was asked to contribute a piece to the new Lib Dem magazine Ad Lib a few weeks ago. When my friend, and Editor-in-Chief, Phil Reilly had told me what he was planning to replace Lib Dem News with I thought it was a really exciting idea – a modern ...
Here is my personal list of the best bits in Lib Dem Voice in 2012. Please add your suggestions in the comments. In no particular order: Lynne Featherstone's honeycomb surprise (Caron Lindsay) – any post about icecream will always catch my attention Opinion: Mental health provision in the NHS - share your experiences (Tim Purkiss) – only last week, Tim's brave post was a catalyst for some very moving comments Introducing... Lib Dems Against Factionalism (Adam Bell) – love it Opinion: A storm in a jam jar - my top 5 Euromyths (Giles Goodall) – jam, balloons and liquefied corpses ...
I don't know, and apparently neither does the geophysical survey team. In addition to the shafts outlined above the geophysics survey has detected an anomaly the cause of which cannot be identified. The anomaly is near to BH12 which is located on the northern edge of the pitch at the centre line and will be beneath the proposed building footprint. That sentence comes from paragraph 6.2 of the Coal Mining Risk Assessment which nestles amongst the many papers attached to the planning application for Belle Vue, and is just one of many issues I have raised directly with the county ...
I blogged a while ago about problems people in Mather Avenue were having with some selfish and inconsiderate parking by people visiting the police training college. There was in fact a length of yellow lines outside the front of the college which the police didn't need but which was helping cause the parking problem. I asked the Council to remove this to help ease things. The good news is that following the necessary consultation there have been no objections so the lines will be removed. Hopefully this will make things a little easier for people living there. Richard Oglethorpe (my ...
Here is the speech that Nick Clegg gave to Centreforum yesterday: Here is the Q+A session that followed the speech: * Mary Reid is the Tuesday Editor on Lib Dem Voice.
Here's today's hand-picked selection that caught my interest... The fight for the centre ground between Nick Clegg and David Cameron makes the Coalition fragile – Comment – Voices – The Independent Perecptive frm @steverichards14 on main Coalition tension > 'The fight for the centre ground between Clegg and Cameron' http://ind.pn/VOiGgP The welfare trade-off: Why raising benefits doesn't boost the economy | City A.M. Hmm, the headline's more certain than @ryancps's article > 'Why raising benefits doesn't boost the economy' http://bit.ly/U9jNv7 Q&A – Governing Britain from the centre ground – Nick Clegg – YouTube Nick Clegg's 20 min Q&A @CentreForum y'day ...
There are a few bus services running on Xmas day. These tend to be routes going to and from hospitals. In South Liverpool this includes the 201X which runs from Speke and Garston to the Royal and Women's Hospitals. There are six buses going towards the hospital and five coming back. You can find the timetable at this link.
[IMG: Green Bin] Shepway Council have announced their Christmas Waste Collection timetable, which is available on their website. Collections are on the whole one day later for the days after Christmas, except for those usually collected on Christmas Day, which be picked up the preceding Saturday. Collections will also be made as usual on New Years Day. Published and promoted by Tim Prater, 98a Sandgate High Street, Folkestone, CT20 3BYPrinted (hosted) by Prater Raines Ltd, 98 Sandgate High Street, Folkestone CT20 3BY
England can't play cricket in the subcontinent. They just can't. Last year they proved that by being basically humiliated in the UAE by Pakistan, then only scraping a drawn series in Sri Lanka thanks to a magnificent innings by Kevin Pietersen. India don't lose home test series. It rarely happens. Their last home series defeat was in 2004, by the all conquering Australian side containing Gilchrist, Warne, McGrath, Langer and co. India also don't let teams off the hook, last time they lost a series lead at home was in 1984/85 when David Gower's England won there. England have had ...
I have taken a few days to mull over the statement made by David Cameron last week, expressing shock, admission and apology over the assassination of Patrick Finucane in 1989. As with his Bloody Sunday and Hillsborough statements you would have to be super-cynical not to admire the PM for the forthright way in which he faced up to the enormities of official ignorance and cover-up under previous governments. I was disheartened by the very negative reaction of the Finucane family to the report of Sir Desmond de Silva. Obviously, anyone in their position would wish that there had been ...
[IMG: Tim Prater] Folkestone West County Councillor Tim Prater is leading the fight against a series of Kent proposed street light removals across Shepway and the rest of Kent. Kent have proposed over 200 streetlights to be removed across Shepway. The removal programme is explained as a plan to save money and power. Tim Prater led a move at County Hall to require any streetlight removals to have local approval. He moved a Lib Dem motion to ensure any removal would only go ahead with endorsement from local transport boards, but the motion was quashed to County Tories who voted ...
Tue 18th
12:24LibLink: Ed Davey - not a single penny on energy bills that isn't in the public interest
[IMG: Ed Davey - Some rights reserved by Liberal Democrats] In a speech yesterday at the Fair Energy Summit 2012, Ed Davey said: I don't want to add a penny to energy bills that isn't in the public interest. I am frankly fed up with commentators suggesting that the Government is deliberately increasing energy bills, when in fact we are doing everything we can to reduce them. As the independent Committee on Climate Change has confirmed, energy bills could be significantly higher in the coming decades if we do nothing to decarbonise the power sector. Yes, our climate goals are ...
Passing on an email from Shepway Council: "Shepway Council's Community Overview Committee and Resources Scrutiny Committee review decisions of the council, look at how the council performs and investigate issues affecting the district. "The annual scrutiny programme is now being planned and both committees want to look at issues that are important in your community. It need not be about the council or its services. "If you would like an issue considered for the scrutiny programme please contact the Democratic Services Officers on 01303 853265 or email committee@shepway.gov.uk" Published and promoted by Tim Prater, 98a Sandgate High Street, Folkestone, CT20 ...
Here's another of Ros's interventions that I hadn't covered, from 15 September 2011... Ros is a former mature student, having taken her degree whilst leading the Liberal Democrat group as part of the ruling administration in Suffolk. As a result, she takes an keen interest in matters relating to mature students, and received the answers to the following two questions... Baroness Scott of Needham Market (Liberal Democrat) To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the funding of university tuition fees for, and repayment of loans by, mature students taking first degrees varies from that which applies to other students. Lord Henley ...
Wandering around the steets of London, I came across this excellent initiative from Camden Council on how to use QR codes on street furniture. If you see that a light - or anything else - is damaged, you can scan the QR code and report the issue. There's even a phone number and vanilla URL for those who aren't quite up to speed with new technology. [IMG: QR Code Lamp-Post] There's only one slight issue - the QR code points to this site. [IMG: Reporting Form] The fact that the landing page isn't mobile friendly is bad enough, but what's ...
My debut piece for Independent Voices has just gone up in which I argue that David Cameron is only responding to the electoral incentives that older people provide given that they vote in much higher numbers than younger people. You can read it here.
As Christmas draws closer, I find everything I do bears an increasing sense of urgency. Upon completing a task, I wonder "Is this it?": is this the last thing I have to do before I can finish for the year? I frequently harbour visions of sitting on a comfortable sofa with a brightly lit tree ...
Tue 18th
11:53
Top target for differentiation employee ownership?......this one just got a whole lot worse
Well I know there are many candidates but surely one of the first must be to scrap what Martin Horwood described as a 'nasty and vindictive' clause in the mis-names Growth Bill. This is the clause that wants workers to swap their employment rights in exchange for the illusion of profit sharing. This has just got a whole lot worse. Tory Minister Michael Fallon has just confirmed that job seekers may be sanctioned if they refuse jobs with reduced employment rights. Time for our colleagues in the Lords to assert some clear Liberal principle. We should be advocating reform of ...
[IMG: land] In 'Why Wealth can't be Taxed' it was alleged that a mansion tax is illiberal. However, as a liberal, I am concerned for the state of the property market in the UK. The average age of the first time buyer is now 35. Housing is a policy that has been forgotten, with health and education becoming the areas of priority. However as liberals, we can address the state of housing through taxation, for I would say that 'land is theft'. There is too much concentration of power in the hands of the few. Land Value Taxation is a ...
Yn dilyn cyhoeddiad Cyfrifiad 2011 a chwymp yn y nifer o bobl sy'n siarad Cymraeg mae nifer, gan gynnwys Cefin Campbell a sefydlodd y Fenter Iaith gyntaf yng Nghwm Gwendraeth yn 1991, yn galw ar y Llywodraeth i sefydlu comisiwn i edrych ar sefyllfa'r iaith ar draws Cymru, a pam mae Llywodraeth Cymru wedi methu ... Keep reading →
Monday 17 December 2012 was, in some ways, another day at the office for the Coalition. It started with a speech by Nick Clegg which was principally about his desire to move the Liberal Democrats, Blair-style, Rightwards towards ideology-free territory of the 'centre ground'. It ended with a signifier of what that might resemble, as Liberal Democrat MPs (with the honourable exceptions of Martin Horwood and Greg Mulholland) trooped through the Tory lobbies to vote for George Osborne's discredited 'shares for rights' proposal, to the Right of anything in the Coalition Agreement, rejected by over 90% of responders to the ...
Let's Get Cooking for Older People is a new national project funded by the Health Lottery targeting people over 55. It aims to reduce isolation, increase confidence and independence, help people cook for themselves more often and provide information on healthy eating. Now they are looking for volunteers to help set up two Cooking Clubs in South Gloucestershire. An information session is being held on January 16th and training will take place in February over 2 days. You can find out more at Let's Get Cooking's website www.letsgetcooking.org.uk or there is a flyer on the South Glos website.
Happy Christmas to all local residents and thank you very much for your continuing support. Can I take the opportunity to wish everyone the very best for 2013. News update emails will be taking a bit of a break over Christmas, but back again in the new year! Information on Council Services over Christmas Over Christmas and New Year from Monday 24 December until Wednesday 2 January the Council's offices will be closed to the public unless stated otherwise in the information provided below. Do it online Throughout the Christmas and New Year period you can continue to access Bury ...
It was announcement last week that there were plans to expand operations of the Rochester Airport with the laying of a concrete runway and facilities that give opportunities for up to a thousand new jobs in the area. Rochester Airport has been blighted by bad luck in the past. Seven years after Short bros. and Pobjoy engine manufacturers moved to the site it was devestated by the Luftwaffe (15th April 1940) putting production back by a year and scattering production to sites across the UK never to return. Then followed the Channel Airways flights from Rochester in old Dakotas only ...
This blog is from Kavya Kaushik, about debates within the party. Being a Liberal Democrat means we're in this beautiful place of free speech and democracy. The Lib Dems hold party democracy in high regard and members are fortunate enough to voice opinions directly to the party as and when we want. Like the great ...
Christmas is a great time for most people, but it is also a time when people can need our support. We have put together a short list of local, and national charities who are looking for our support, and thank you for people who have made suggestions. - Donations of food and toiletries: Porch Boxes is a small local charity based in Radcliffe. They use use donated and purchased goods to make up "crisis packs", each of which contains non-perishable food and toiletries for two days. We make these available to vulnerable individuals through referral agencies, notdirectly to individuals. Their ...
[IMG: jaguar] For years people have been writing off our UK manufacturing industry and underplaying the part it plays in boosting the economy. In my view there has been too much emphasis on the service sector and not enough on manufacturing. I am therefore delighted about the announcement in the Autumn Statement on Capital Allowances. It is something that many people in industry have been calling for for years. By raising the allowance tenfold from £25,000 to £250,000, the government is encouraging investment in new plant and machinery, and providing an incentive for profitable manufacturers to invest in new capacity. ...
Plea from the Scariest Kid on the Block (tags: ) On fake geeks. Best reaction to being accused of being one EVER. (tags: ) BBC News - Problem families: Case worker intervention 'works' (tags: ) Hard-working Tory family The stock photo the Tories have used in their latest dog-whistle for hard working families appears in lots of other places. This tumblr details exactly how hard those tories are working. (tags: ) Oops. Tory health committee member lets slip: no more free healthcare | skwalker1964 (tags: ) Osbo's poverty trap and pinging the elastic of reality | Alex's Archives (tags: ) ...
Last Wednesday was the regular meeting of Bury's 'Full' Council. This was the first time that Bury's Council meeting had been streamed live on the internet. I'm not sure how many people were watching (!), or if the recording is to be made permanently available – which would seem sensible if it is going to be become a regular thing. A few things of note: Each councillor is allowed to ask two questions, but normally only the first 10 or so questions are answered within the time allowed. My colleague Councillor Donal O'Hanlon asked the Council to provide information on ...
Here's my take on yesterday's speech by Nick Clegg, along with some further analysis from the IFS's Paul Johnson and Conservative MP Robert Halpern, all via the World at One: (Also on YouTube here.) * Mark Pack has written 101 Ways To Win An Election and produces a monthly newsletter about the Liberal Democrats.
One of the questions I asked at last week's City Council Scrutiny Committee was regarding the decline in library borrowers in Dundee. I specifically asked if the recent library fines amnesty had been successful. The Director of Leisure and Communities has since updated Scrutiny Committee members as follows: Actions being taken by Leisure and Culture Dundee to reduce the marginal decline in the number of borrowers as a percentage of the population are as follows: • Implementation of a membership drive strategy which will target lapsed and inactive borrowers. This will involve making direct contact via email or mail to ...
