From the OGWT archive, the New York Dolls with Jet Boy. In 1973 (yes 1973)!
From Whats on the Fringe: "Impotent" is a pitch-black comedy drama set in the murky world of a Market Harborough Genito-Urinary Medicine Department. Enjoy it at the Lion and Unicorn, Kentish Town, until 26 January.
Heresy Corner writes on the extraordinarily poor judgement of Judge Tugendhat: "Part of the problem with Mark Kennedy was that he came to believe that he was the hero of his own thriller, doing things of vital national significance. But then this sort of self-aggrandisement is common enough in the culture of the organisations for which he worked, as typified by the use of terms like "domestic extremism": give something a scary-sounding name, and it is instantly metamorphosed into a serious threat. The last thing we need is High Court judges "lending credence" to their Fleming-style fantasies." A growing appetite ...
As I mentioned just last May: Sadly I don't have the pleasure of standing against Ukip candidate Dr Julia Gasper — who has said people who 'choose' to be gay should stop 'complaining about persecution' — in the elections to Oxford City Council this Thursday. It now looks like that pleasure may elude others in the future, too: Dr Gasper has been suspended as Chair of Ukip's Oxford branch after linking homosexuality to paedophilia: "As for the links between homosexuality and paedophilia, there is so much evidence that even a full-length book could hardly do justice to the subject." Credit ...
In which I look at The Three Three-and-a-bit Four Four-and-a-bit Five Doctors
With schools closing early Richmond Park was the place to be this afternoon...
This week, I purchased tickets for Matthew Bourne's Sleeping Beauty at the Bristol Hippodrome. It's still 4 months away, but I'm really looking forward it! Here's a flavour of the production: Andrew
As usual when we get a few flakes in the UK the press and media have gone berserk. There have been some issues with transport, but other than that and the British propensity to moan about the weather whatever the weather actually is, I really can't see what all the journalistic fuss is about. So you save a bit of money by not going shopping and you might get a day off work because the buses/trains aren't running. Neither of these are tragedies. Remarkably few of the journalists who are moaning know or care about people who are freezing to ...
At Stroud Green, Newbury, Berkshire. [IMG: image] [IMG: Post to Twitter] Tweet This Post
[IMG: Some rights reserved by Tim Ellis] Yes, he's a jovial cove who enjoys a drink, a rant and a laugh. ...Like a retired major you'd find propping up the bar at a Henley-on-Thames pub at 10.50pm. He talks so much that you are finally only able to focus on his tonsils, as his mouth is open so much. But on Question Time last night I finally saw Nigel Farage for what he is. All his answers were narrow-minded and quite disgustingly focussed on a single agenda of harping on on about pulling up the draw bridges on England. A ...
[IMG: image] There are actually two men working on the railway. In fact, their flourescent jackets and trousers make them stand out quite prominently against the snow, as you can see in this enlargement: [IMG: image] [IMG: Post to Twitter] Tweet This Post
It tends to do the job... [IMG: image] [IMG: Post to Twitter] Tweet This Post
Can't believe I'm into the second half of this already. We're on to favourite actor. Now, I am going to exclude the actors who play the Doctor from these or I could go on all day and, actually, I think we need to honour those other talented people who made the show so special. I thought Ian MacNeice made a fine Churchill in Victory of the Daleks, so he deserves a mention. Arthur Darvill, as Rory, has died so many times and so well. James Corden, father to Stormageddon, was brilliant. But I'm damned if I'm going to get through ...
On 5 December 2009 some 250,000 demonstrators took to the streets of Rome to protest against the politics of the then Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Both men and women joined the demonstration, but they joined for different reasons. That is according to a study published today in the British Journal of Social Psychology. This study, led by Dr Maria Paladino of the University of Trento, involved an online questionnaire which included a short video about Mr Berlusconi's behaviour during 2009. From December 2009 to April 2010, 632 Italian people (424 women and 208 men) completed a questionnaire about their views ...
In County Durham "imminently" means a bit more that a month. It's over a month since I pointed out to the county council that planning regulations required it, before submitting its new Academy application, to complete the right paperwork to remove the planning condition it had placed on itself in 2010 to keep its fencing within a boundary that would leave a significant area of open space for local people. I was told the paperwork was expected "imminently". Imminently happened today. Readers may want to read that application which can be found here. I hope they are more successful than ...
It's Friday. It's five o'clock. Here's a fistful of lists that sum up the LDV week: 5 most-read stories on LDV this week And the winner of our Liberal Voice of the Year award is... Sam Bowman (64 comments) by Stephen Tall Opinion: Liberals must learn the lessons of Thatcher (63 comments) by David Thorpe Jessops - is administration a euphemism for obliteration? (14 comments) by Mark Blackburn So, about that Lib Dem wipeout in 2015 then... (129 comments) by Stephen Tall The Eurosceptic tide is turning. Lib Dems must be in the vanguard (40 comments) by Giles Goodall 5 ...
Next week is a busy week back in Brussels for the first Fisheries and Environment Committee meetings since the Christmas break. On Monday afternoon Chris will attend Fisheries Committee in order to express his support for a new EU-Mauritania Fisheries ... Continue reading →
For those who have had the good sense to not follow the Manydown thing here's the history. 1996 - Council looks into purchasing a large piece of land (Manydown) to the west of Basingstoke with the proceeds from the sale of Council houses. Council, with the County Council buy it to allow a well planned extension to Basingstoke to house future generations with the Manydown estate as a
A Complex Problem Fandom: The Scarlet Pimpernel (Baroness Orczy) Rating: General Audiences No Archive Warnings Apply Category: F/F (genderswap. With secondary M/F) Characters: Peggy Blakeney, Marguerite St. Just, Armand St. Just, Andrew Ffoulkes, Suzanne de Tournay A Yuletide gift for [IMG: [livejournal.com profile] ] croik Being the part of the story that basically consisted of me listening to kd.lang, crying and making the "now kiss" gesture at the fictional ladies. Mrs St Just was sought out and revived when her sister-in-law found the events of the night had become far too stressful to bear, and their carriage was ordered post ...
Started day with a visit to Mauldeth Road Primary school in Withington for a talk on Road Safety, organised by the Road Safety Alliance. As you know, this is an issue close to my heart, and one I blog on ... Continue reading →
Enough road salt to meet the worst winter conditions likely is stockpiled and ready for collection. The Winsford Salt Mine in Cheshire has been supplying local councils for decades, and has brought to the surface a 400,000 tonne road salt ... Continue reading →
...by reminding everyone that we've had a target for the 2015 general Election for some time now. It's 126 seats... You can imagine the comments... Anyway, here's the article.. There was much chatter following last week's publication of Labour's 106 target seats for the 2015 general election that everyone now knew what all three main parties' election strategies were: 106 for Labour, 80 for the Tories (40 holds and 40 targets) and, um, 57 for the Lib Dems, as we fight, Heinz like, 57 varieties of by-election campaigns to hold onto our existing seats.Well, hold the front page everyone. For ...
Goodreads Librarything number average number average 2312, Kim Stanley Robinson 1445 3.41 267 3.65 Dark Eden, Chris Beckett 138 4.09 30 4.50 Intrusion, Ken MacLeod 115 3.40 64 3.97 Jack Glass, Adam Roberts 79 3.89 18 5 Empty Space: a Haunting by M. John Harrison 52 4.19 31 3.5 NB that only one Librarything user has rated either of the last two, which is why those numbers are italicised. Full shortlist (including short fiction, art and non-fiction) is here. Posted via LiveJournal app for iPad.
In a piece for the Huffington Post entitled "The UK Is Sleepwalking to the EU Exit. It Is Time to Wake Up", Guy Verhofstadt, Leader of the Alliance of Liberal and Democrats in Europe (ALDE) Group in the European Parliament, gives a glimpse of the difficulties facing David Cameron in seeking to renegotiate the United Kingdom's relationship with the European Union. He warns; Cameron will not succeed if he attempts to hold his European partners to ransom, exchanging acquiescence to EU treaty change over the eurozone for a unilateral repatriation of powers. and notes, in language that Liberal Democrats would ...
(a list of the questions and links to all the answers can be found on this entry ) Ah. Foolishly I answered "favourite Actor" in a non-sexist way without looking ahead to future questions, so I have already answered this one here. Ooops. For those who can't be bothered clicking, those I mention are Lis Sladen, Cousin Di, and Jacks Pearce. ETA: although I suppose, to give this entry some content and purpose, I ought to add that I am a big fan of both Louise Jameson and Nicola Bryant, particularly in the way they have taken to new media ...
Today I am adding in TV and radio - I'm going to try and steer clear of the prime time mainstream stuff, though, and point you towards interesting things that you might have missed. Also, I'll try to link to internet sources (iPlayer for the BBC, for example) where you can obtain the content if you missed it on broadcast. Anyway, on with the motley: Solo Blog: Thagomiser by Debi Linton - if you like me, and you like my views on pop culture, but would like to read someone who covers things other than Doctor Who, then Debi is ...
The Gentleman of the Lobby have traipsed to Amsterdam to see David Cameron deliver a speech, which due to the ongoing terrible situation in Algeria has been postponed. Now, of course, I don't want to make light of something that is actually quite serious, However, watching the hacks on Twitter hike across Europe to try ...
We're a generally an optimistic lot aren't we, looking on the brighter side when the world and his wife thinks we should be walking around with our heads in our hands. I even wrote a piece about how genuinely cheerful we are for the New Statesman the other day... But whisper it gently... and just between us... you don't think we're fooling ourselves do you? I say this because we seem to be taking it as read that the mid term polls are generally where we are now. "It's always this bad' seems to be the general gist... Problem is ...
I have mixed feelings about the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights on the rights of Christians to wear crosses. The ruling against the nurse who wanted the right to wear a cross on a chain round her neck while on duty is surely correct. The court decided that the hospital's regulations for preventing infection were more important than her right to declare her faith in the manner she wished. In fact, the nurse had turned down the hospital's compromise solution, that she should clip her cross to her name tag, which suggests that she was more interested ...
Here's today's hand-picked selection that caught my interest... Floor targets and social mobility | FT data Education data guru @XtopherCook on 'Floor targets and social mobility' http://buff.ly/WcUHK0 What's wrong with the Tory party? Conservatives' urban prob via @djskelton: "only two Con MPs have Premiership football teams in their constituencies" http://buff.ly/VO2C2Y 1988 Bruges Speech | Margaret Thatcher Foundation And here's the background to Maggie's pro-Euro Bruges speech http://buff.ly/WcNvOb (Late spun a differant way by Bernard Ingham) Speech to the College of Europe ("The Bruges Speech") | Margaret Thatcher Foundation In lieu of Cam's speech why not try another pro-EU reformist outlook? ...
Ed Balls loves to make his flatline gesture every time the Chancellor speaks. However, Mark Thompson has crunched the data and created this graph, that shows how the Coalition have a far fairer tax system than the 13 years of Labour government. As Mark rightly points out, during that time their majorities were so large ...
Stockport Anchorpoint publishes a regular newsletter with the latest information on potential funding sources for charities and voluntary groups. Take a look and, if you want to know more, contact the Anchorpoint team.
I have just read my colleague Tony Robertson's Blog where he highlights "misrepresentations" in an article from a recently distributed "Labour Voice" paper. Tony went on to state: The other day a newspaper called 'Labour Voice' dropped through my door and from cover to cover it is little more than party political ranting. But, there is an article about Library closures which so misrepresents what has happened to date as to be laughable.It says 'The review of the Libraries was launched in 2009 (that much is true) by the Lib Dems who were planning to close a series of libraries ...
Not content with falling out with half her Conservative colleagues, Cllr Fiona Ferguson is now at war with a group representing people with disabilities in Cornwall. In the debate on council tax benefit on Tuesday, a number of councillors raised the issue of the effect of the cabinet proposal on disabled people in Cornwall. They quoted an email that councillors had received from Disability Cornwall. In rebuttal, Cllr Ferguson played the man not the ball and launched an extraordinary attack on the credibility of the group. She claimed that the chief executive was paid £60,000 per year and expressed doubt ...
As the next election begins to loom into view, the issue of immigration continues to pose a challenge for liberal progressives of all political persuasions. A new report published today by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) makes a rich and valuable contribution to this essential debate on the future of British migration policy. There are few politicians who would disagree with the report's urgent call to "actively engage[e] with the issue of migration - and the reality of people's views on it". The extent to which the political 'elite' have avoided talking about immigration has been exaggerated by ...
The weather forecast is that it will snow all day Friday 18 January and settle. That it will keep snowing all day Saturday and Sunday with minus temperatures. So the snow is likely to stay. Monday the forecast is for snow but temperatures hovering just above freezing so during the day we should see some melting. Elderly. If you have elderly family or neighbours please check that they're alright. If you're worried about anyone contact Southwark Council's Older People team – OPS@southwark.gov.uk Roads. The Council highway contractors have been out gritting roads as per the winter plan: using their lorry ...
We now have a date for the meeting that'll take a decision about the plan for an off licence at the corner of Garston Old Road and Stormont Road. The committee (full title licensing and gambling sub committee) meets on 6th February. Richard Oglethorpe and I received a large number of requests from local residents wanting us to represent them in opposing the proposal. In particular people are worried about litter, noise and the potential for anti social behaviour on the park. The paperwork for the meeting will be available about a week before it happens at this link.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Well: This is the difference in income tax that people are paying in the current tax year versus what they paid under the last year of Labour government. When let's not forget they had had 13 years to align the tax rates in any way they wished with a large majority in parliament. We can see that someone earning £10,000 is paying almost 30% less tax now whilst those earning the highest amounts (£500,000+) are paying well over 20% more. Oh, and that line above seems to me to be the ...
Today's the day I feature in the CIPR's Meet The Members campaign: [IMG: Mark Pack - CIPR campaign]
In Terry Pratchett's book "Going Postal" he writes about the impact on the Discworld civilization of the semaphore tower. A new - but relatively basic - technology which revolutionises how people work, play, and interact. It changes the fortunes of the humble and the mighty. It is as useful for individuals as for nation states. In our universe, the modern semaphore tower was first conceived by Robert Hooke in 1684. Yet it the optical telegraph didn't really exist until 1792 - over a hundred years later. The basics of the optical telegraph are relatively simple. You stand in a tower ...
This morning's Western Mail carries a report on a DWP pilot in Torfaen which, according to various housing organisations proves that certain tenants are not capable of taking responsibility for their own lives. Essentially, the pilot is based around the fact that tenants currently have the choice to have their rent paid directly to them or to their landlord. The majority choose to have it paid to their landlord as it is one less thing to worry about. However, all that is to change with money being paid monthly into bank accounts as part of the switchover to Universal Credit. ...
Stockport jobseekers can now get a 50% discount on train tickets to job interviews, after this month's launch of the Jobcentre Plus Travel Discount Railcard. Commenting Hazel Grove MP, Andrew Stunell, said - "This is excellent news for those Stockport residents who would find it convenient to use trains to attend job interviews, or get to the jobcentre or to training sessions." The new card is a follow-up to an earlier scheme which was used for six and a half million rail journeys by jobseekers in the previous 10 years, saving users around £11million. According to research by ATOC 36% ...
As Kirsty Williams notes in opening a piece to mark the anniversary yesterday, 17 January would have been David Lloyd George's 150th birthday, and she took the opportunity to raise the issue of tax varying powers for Wales; Today seems like an opportune moment to consider how a future Welsh government can continue David Lloyd George's radical and redistributive legacy. We must take the opportunity of the Silk Commission to think big. As Lloyd George himself said, "You can't cross a chasm in two small jumps." We must take the opportunity to create a new People's Budget for Wales. For ...
I am sad to see the Labour party both nationally and locally is still in denial about their failure to manage the economy. Most disappointing is the continuing efforts to deny their tax policies which favoured the rich at the expense of everyone else. The coalition has been changing tax and cutting tax for lower earners as promised in the Lib Dem manifesto and the coalition agreement. I am indebted to Carl Mimms of Hull for the following summary which illustrates the point. No further comment is necessary. Income Tax rate 2009/2010 Labour 2012/13 Coalition % change £10,000 7.8% 5.7% ...
[IMG: Home buying process] Property markets are frequently implicated in economic booms. It isn't always residential property. But often it is. The last boom, which eventually triggered the Global Financial Crisis, had a strong housing market component. A while ago the Bank of England created the new Financial Policy Committee (FPC) with responsibility for macro-prudential regulation. Within its regulatory remit is action to stop the development of housing booms and bubbles. The FPC favours using so-called "sectoral capital requirements" (SCR) to take the froth off the market, rather than setting out rigid rules for loan-to-value (LTV) or loan-to-income (LTI) ratios ...
Fri 18th
09:52
Three ways to make sure you're talking sense on student numbers, tuition fees and all that
Want to make sure your comments are grounded in solid evidence when talking about the impact of tuition fees on students numbers and the like in England? Prefer evidence that stands up to a little basic scrutiny over that which falls apart the moment you apply a critical rather than a closed partisan mind to it? Then there are three things to remember. The number of teenagers is falling [IMG: Stories about education are meant to include photos of people jumping in the air, no?] Stories about education are meant to include photos of people jumping in the air, no? ...
From The Times [£]: [IMG: Children at nursery. Photo courtesy of http://www.sxc.hu/photo/434024] Generous tax breaks to help working parents to pay for childcare have been scuppered by the Liberal Democrats... The plans have been abandoned because wealthier families would benefit the most. Mothers earning less than £8,105 do not pay tax and so would not be eligible, while thousands who receive tax credits would be excluded... At a meeting this week of the "coalition quad" — David Cameron, Nick Clegg, George Osborne and Danny Alexander — the Lib Dems insisted that helping these lower-paid families had to be a priority ...
Please see below for details of a one-day conference to discuss a new Liberal Democrat approach to race equality. Tickets are available at http://www.amiando.com/DFLJFYC.html SLF EMLD Race Conference by Prateek Buch Scridb filter
In light of the crisis in Algeria, David Cameron has opted to postpone giving his much-trailed speech on Britain's place in Europe, which he was planning to deliver today. Of course, this leaves lots of holes in media schedules from people who'd expected to be writing pieces on it, based on what they were expecting to be in it, given what they'd been told was going to be in the speech from all the pre-briefings and carefully scheduled leaks beforehand. Which makes me wonder: why does he actually have to give a speech to get his ideas out there? (And ...
If you look in this site's archives for 2005, you'd think that I completely gave up blogging, save for writing review of Doctor Who episodes. This is because of the problems with my old hosting company that I mentioned at the end of the 2004 company, which led to me losing most of my posts from the end of 2004 to early 2006. Luckily, the Wayback Machine was making regular crawls of my site, so most of the posts from that time have been retained for posterity in some form or other. There's always going to be one abiding memory ...
The Second Amendment was Ratified to Preserve Slavery (tags: ) BBC News - UK and the EU: Better off out or in? (tags: ) Police demand DNA samples from gay men (tags: ) The Panasonic Toughpad Press Conference Utterly hilarious report of a product launch. (tags: ) The truth about randomised double blind controlled trials Doctors and most patients fully aware which pills are placebos (tags: ) Nanila discovers Jeremy Brett Holmes. Happiness ensues. (tags: ) Now hints of a story you never thought you would see: Nick Clegg - the Comeback Kid My theory: scrutiny on UKIP has shown ...
[IMG: Manchester City Hall - some rights reserved by nik_doof] A New Year, same pain is the message coming from Labour Councils – mainly in the North. Looking at my old stomping ground of Levenshulme, Manchester – the cuts beggar belief. Labour's slash and burn approach to Municipal Governance has come to the fore. Levenshulme has fought off attempts to close their swimming baths three times – now the campaigners are out in force as Labour tries again. A letter written by the Labour Leaders of Liverpool, Sheffield and Newcastle to the Guardian Media Group interrupted my Christmas cheer. A ...
Heaton Park management have issued the following information: "As you will be aware, for some time now we have been reviewing the Park's catering arrangements to make sure that they offer the best service for Park visitors and to minimise the cost to the Council. This was identified as a priority for action in the Park's business plan that was made public last May. The Lakeside Café, operated by the Council's Trading Services will cease operating in its current form on Friday 25 January. Over the next two months Park users and stakeholders will be able to have their say ...
A new planning application has been received within Holyrood ward as detailed below:- Application number: 55926 Type of application: Full Date Registered: 14/01/2013 Location: 9 Willingdon Drive, Prestwich, Manchester, M25 1PA Proposal: Two storey extension to rear (resubmission of 55783). Plans will be available to view on the Council's website here (use the application number to search). Please do not hesitate to get in touch if I can be of help or if you need further information. Tim
Here is the opening of Lance Armstong's interview with Oprah Winfrey last night. It answers all the questions cycling fans like myself wanted answers to, the details came later. I don't need to say anything else
Seven hazards for Cameron By Michael Emerson. (tags: EU ) 4 Years On Live-tweeting the end of the conflict in 2009 (tags: srilanka ) How to withdraw from the European Union? Confronting hard reality Another CEPS piece. (tags: EU )
For a number of years you could rent out a spare room tax free for up to £4,250 pa or £81.73 pw. But it hasn't change or kept up with rental inflation. Average property rentals are much higher. So although the tax break is welcome is it enough to make people interested in sharing an under occupied home? My hunch is it isn't sufficient to release the millions of spare bedrooms the UK has. So how many spare bedrooms could be released in East Dulwich, Southwark and London? Environmentally it makes more sense for people to share homes. Often two ...
The current conflict in the West African country of Mali seems incomprehensible. And if you think you have a grasp of the situation, it is probably based on ill-informed and speculative reporting in the media, in which events are interpreted in terms of the stock narratives of the right ('war on terror') or left ('French imperialism'). If you know anything at all about Mali, it is probably because you are a fan of world music, in which Malian musicians such as Salif Keita, Oumou Sangaré and the Tuareg band Tinariwen are prominent and have built a substantial fan base in ...
Here in Northern Ireland we hear the argument that the flag has always flown 24/7/365. It is like something set in time immemorial. So imagine what happens when someone actually scours through some historical documents. Here is the page about flying the flag in the 1950s. Note the lack of the Princes Andrew and Edward and the fact that Charles most senior title is that of Duke of Cornwall. Note also the time for flying them is 8 a.m.till sunset. The days are: 1st January - New Years Day6th February - Her Majesty's Ascension17th March - St. Patrick's Day31st March ...
Yes, it's Friday and we start with the news that, according to Animal Planet, sea otters are the cutest animals in the world (say those last three words as Jeremy Clarkson would, why don't you?). Hat-tip to Stephen Tall, whose devotion to his Popbitch feed appears to be a thing of beauty (but not as cute as a sea otter, of course). The overnight by-election news is... unknown as I write this. Hopefully, when daylight comes to Creeting St Peter, I'll have more news... [IMG: Sea otter] So, what do we have today? In keeping with our usual Friday pattern, ...
The V&A public consultation event at the University of Abertay Library continues today and tomorrow and you can read further information here:
Fri 18th
06:11
Kirsty Williams calls for a new Welsh People's Budget on Lloyd George's 150th anniversary
To mark the 150th year anniversary since the birth of David Lloyd George, Kirsty Williams, Leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats, has called for a new People's Budget for Wales using powers proposed in the Silk Commission for the Assembly to lower taxes for Wales' lowest paid workers. Writing for the Institute of Welsh Affairs' blog 'Click on Wales', Kirsty Williams argues that if Wales were to be given income tax varying powers, the Welsh Liberal Democrats would want to lower the basic income tax rate from 20% to 18% to make the tax system fairer and continue David Lloyd ...
I was on Wave 102 news yesterday about the proposal by TACTRAN, the regional transport body, to create a "Dundee West" rail station to replace the station at Invergowrie. Click 'play' below to listen:
So I have a job on Thursday afternoons, now. Which means my time to watch and recap Arrow is sort of limited, on account of me not being the kind of blogger who will sacrifice sleep or anything else for the blog. So today I'm trying a new format. Instead of painstakingly describing each scene as it happens, I'm going to focus on each of the subplots. It didn't actually work in terms of getting this up before work, but oh well. The good thing is that the show's comfortably formulaic enough that I can do this. This episode for ...
Ask ten different Beach Boys fans their favourite period for the band as a live act, and you'll get ten different answers. Over the years, the band's stage show changed radically, and each period showcased a different aspect of the band. So some may prefer the band's shows from the late 60s and early 70s, ...
Chris White, Liberal Democrat county councillor for St Albans Central Division, has lambasted the county council for 'Soviet style' management by pretence. He said: 'I reported the no entry sign at the entry to Market Place as having faded away to nothing. In the last couple of days I received a notification that the case had been looked at and closed. 'I felt for a moment quite pleased but read the note more carefully and went and checked. 'As so often with the county council, nothing had been done – it has merely been put on the "to do" list. ...
Any formal function at the Mansion House in London is normally the Lord Mayor's show, but the annual London Government dinner — always held in early January — offers the incumbent Lord Mayor a challenge, as he is inevitably playing second fiddle to the Mayor of London, i.e. the man in charge of the whole ...
