Earlier this evening, I attended a very productive meeting of the Blackness Primary School Parent Council. Mr Ferrier, Head Teacher, gave a very positive and comprehensive report on school activities that includes the school's fundraising efforts for the city's Haiti Appeal, sports and other activities for pupils and the recent well-attended "open afternoon" at the school. The Parent Teacher Association is soon to be renamed "Friends of Blackness" - a good move that emphasises that all with a connection to the school are welcome to participate.
[IMG: fin innovat book] Is financial innovation a good thing or a bad thing? Is it possible to tell in advance? We know that novel, complex and non-transparent financial products were at the heart of the Global Financial Crisis. So should we draw the conclusion that financial innovation is inherently problematic? Or should we conclude that the problem was, on the contrary, that the crash of 2007-2008 and its aftermath are in part a result of a failure to innovate sufficiently. From this perspective, more, and possibly more complex, financial innovations could have averted the recent and ongoing economic catastrophe. ...
Well, kind of... The Government's plans for the reduction in the number of MPs from 650 to 600 were defeated today when Liberal Democrats voted against the Tories in favour of a motion to delay Boundary Reform to at least 2018. And when I say that the Liberal Democrats voted against - I mean every last one of them - all 57, according to the BBC. (if you want to check Hansard yourself, feel free...) - and I am very happy with this state of affairs. But why am I so opposed when I agree with the equalisation of constituencies ...
[IMG: Preschool Art] Exactly three years ago, I was travelling with my young family to western Massachusetts to help develop the institution now known as the New Economics Institute. It was a fascinating time, but tough in its own way, snowed in for around five weeks on the side of a mountain outside Great Barrington. I have never welcomed the first emergence of spring quite as much as I did then. Mt children were then five and turning three, and it raised the question of schooling and childcare. Struggling into town through the ice and snow in a borrowed ancient ...
A week before Christmas I blogged about the BBC programme The Golden Age of Railways. Joseph Boughey, who appeared in that programme, left a comment on that post. Now Joseph has written a guest post on the uncertain politics of railway preservation and the relation of the 'small is beautiful' theme to wider political aspirations and economic arrangements. During the film The Golden Age of Steam: Small is Beautiful I explained some of my impressions of those who, in 1950, founded the Talyllyn Railway Preservation Society (not its present members, or members of similar societies). Of course, much was said ...
Today the Liberal Democrats voted with Labour to scupper Conservative hopes of a redrawing of constituency boundaries before the next election. This is widely thought to have greatly reduced the likelihood of a Conservative majority at that election. This Lib Dem move was a response to the Conservatives' refusal to support progress towards reform of the House of Lords. When you recall that Lords reform was in the Conservative manifesto at the last election, you realise just how foolish they have been. Stephen Tall helpfully pulled out the relevant quotes in a Lib Dem Voice post from April of last ...
.....and it takes 120,000 votes to elect a Liberal Democrat MP. I just wanted to highlight that really! STVThe British Electoral System Majority Rule - Strong Representative Parliament Proportional Representation MP's Representing The Localities We Live, Work and Play Real Democracy - As Easy As 1,2,3
Taking the kids from our districts, forcing them to kill one another while we watch - this is the Capitol's way of reminding us how totally we are at their mercy. How little chance we would stand of surviving another rebellion. Whatever words they use, the real message is clear. "Look how we take your children and sacrifice them and there's nothing you can do.' I had almost no expectations of this book except that I expected it would be a competent enough YA novel. It is better than I anticipated, a pretty ruthless indictment of reality television and game ...
Friends, if you only ever listen to one thing that I say, then please listen to this: I do not recommend your ever using a Finchley-based removals firm called Junk and Disorderly. My experience of moving house with this company today was so very disappointing (to put it mildly) that I cannot (repeat cannot) stress strongly enough that I would never, under any circumstances, contemplate using these people again.
This is a slightly longer version of an article posted on Liberal Democrat Voice this afternoon... It is hard to believe that it has been five years since Gordon Brown announced the abolition of the 10p rate band in an failed attempt to be too clever by half (as my mother would describe it), and I am as surprised that it has taken until now for someone to suggest reintroducing it. I have quite a lot of respect for the Conservative MP for Harlow, Robert Halfon, whose initiative this is. He does seem to have the ability to spot ideas ...
There are a lot of reasons to be concerned about homeopathy, but the casual way it is accepted by the wider public as, at best, quaint and harmless, is something we are concerned about. As its use in state-funded schools and as a treatment within the NHS gets wider publicity we want to shine a light on the practice that causes real harm. Humanists generally support scientists and researchers in their quest for knowledge and the improvement of human health and wellbeing. Much scientific evidence has been put forward refuting the claims that homeopathy can improve health and be used ...
Tory MP Robert Halfon is leading the charge to bring back the 10p tax rate. This has created some debate in Lib Dem circles with many saying we need to focus on raising the starting rate of income tax to £12,500. This is a good aim, and something I wholeheartedly support in doing this. It will enable the low paid to keep their earnings which will bring many out of 'working poor' status and ensure that those in full time work will be on a living wage. The one addition to this is that I would automatically up-rate the threshold ...
Tue 29th
19:15
Tories lose boundary review vote, Lib Dems vote against Coalition partners for first time
[IMG: The Boundary Commissions - book cover] The BBC reports this afternoon's vote: Plans to redraw constituency boundaries before 2015, backed by the Tories, have been defeated in the House of Commons. MPs voted by 334 to 292 to accept changes made by peers, meaning the planned constituency shake-up will be postponed until 2018 at the earliest. It was the first time Lib Dem ministers have voted against their Conservative coalition colleagues in the Commons. The two parties have been in dispute since proposed elections to the House of Lords were dropped last year. I think I've probably said all ...
I could waste hours on You Tube trying to answer this one. Here's a selection of good stuff. Tom Baker on Richard and Judy talking about Who, God and the pretty destructive relationship between his parents - when his autobiography was out, around the time I saw him at Cult TV. And Jon Pertwee on Wogan - it must be from Comic Relief's first year in 1988. And Matt and Clarkson on Top Gear Saving the best till last.You know, I think I watched this interview with Tom and Lis live on Swap Shop in 1976..."I'll never see a psychiatrist, ...
Wow! What a day on Saturday! Huge thanks and appreciation must go out to the whole Save Lewisham Hospital Campaign for an extraordinary achievement. Led by the inspirational Dr. Louise Irvine the team have been tireless in their passionate, mature and meticulous way that they have put together the campaign. I have to also mention ...
[IMG: Fortress Margate] Except perhaps for this once, I'm back from the dead, although the chances are it's likely that I will be back again. What has prompted this, you ask, well, my reader sent an impassioned plea a few weeks ago, desperate for shoddy grammar and the bitterness which comes with middle age. Anyhoo, many things have bitten my not inconsiderable backside just recently, and these are just the more offensive, the continued embarrassment of poorly motivated local councillors, more interested in personal vendetta's, the introduction of sexual orientation as something to be discussed endlessly, quite what it has ...
The other day I found myself in a very peculiar position. I agreed with Iain Dale. His blog post: "FORGET GAY MARRIAGE, IT MUST BE EQUAL MARRIAGE, AND THIS BILL IS DEEPLY FLAWED" was quite right to point out that what is being offered is not equal marriage but gay marriage. Then this morning I almost fell off my chair. I was agreeing with tweets from Nadine Dorries on equal marriage. LGBT.co.uk summarises these well (even if they come at it from a different angle to me!). I've written about the issues before, most recently here. And Cllr. Sarah Brown ...
A bit more positive news... I've just received a go live date for the parking and highways changes that have happened in Launceston. Some of these have been keenly awaited for more than five years. The schemes ready to go live include three residents parking schemes, new yellow lines, disabled parking bays and the moving of the motorcycle bay in town. To be honest, I think many people will be shocked to find that they aren't live and enforceable already! The delay is mainly because everything is contained within a single legal order to save money. But that means a ...
I was delighted this afternoon when I saw that Paddy Ashdown had arrived Twitter, and not just because the former Lib Dem leader promises to be very entertaining over 140 characters. Ashdown is leading the Lib Dems ground war into the next election, and it matters that he is engaging with people. It would all ...
From [IMG: [personal profile] ] liv on Dreamwidth: The gateway into this life is a PhD, and the PhD system is deeply, deeply fucked up when it isn't actively abusive. Doing a PhD will break you. It's pretty much designed to break you. Yes, even you, you who are brilliant (that almost goes without saying; it's because you're brilliant that you're contemplating doing a PhD in the first place). You who are resilient and have survived several kinds of shit that life has thrown at you just to get to the point where you're about to graduate with a brilliant ...
My feelings are a bit mixed, reading the Centre for Policy Studies report Neither Just nor Secure on the Justice and Security Bill, currently going through the House of Commons. Co-authored by Conservative MP Andrew Tyrie, it says that the Amendments passed by the House of Lords are not sufficient. The provisions to extend Closed Material Procedures (or secret courts) are not the only criticisms they make of the bill. They say that the Intelligence and Security Committee must have stronger scrutiny powers and the definition of sensitive information should have a tighter definition to stop Governments suppressing their own ...
Next in line of my Doctor Who rewatch is the first ever Who spinoff to run for more than an episode. Well, it's better than K9 and Company in oh so many ways... You can tell that Torchwood is going to be all grown up; the word "fucking" is used two minutes into the first episode, Everything Changes (the only other particularly adult incident is Owen's implied drug-induced threesome). After that, it's surprisingly watchable. Eve Myles returns, this time as Gwen Cooper, policewoman, rather than Gwyneth, haunted maidservant; she has a murder mystery to solve, and actually solves it, despite ...
Have been having a discussion on twitter with Charlotte Gore (whoisnotatory) and sundry others about the gendering of films. Charlotte points out that films which are generally considered "women's films" tend to suffer a 1 point penalty on imdb, whereas films that are considered "men's films" get a 1 point bonus over a theoretically gender-neutral norm. I pointed out that such descriptions are pretty meaningless anyway, at which point johnb78 chipped in with a description of Thelma and Louise as an awesome violent action movie with lots of semi-naked chicks in it. And that got me thinking. How would you ...
Tue 29th
17:24
The Tories have suddenly found out that actions have consequences - and they no like it
The problem with coalition politics is that everything is essentially a negotiation. No one party will get everything they want. For something one party wants they'll have to give in to something the other party wants. It is pretty simple stuff but of course with there being a Tory for every five Lib Dems (give or take) in the coalition it could easily be argued that the Tories should get more than the Lib Dems. However they shouldn't just get everything their own way... Today the Lib Dems didn't let the Tories rub their bellies whilst blowing raspberries on it ...
Congratulations to the House of Commons for voting by a large majority to kick plans for a cross-border Devonwall constituency into the long grass until at least 2018. This finally puts paid to David Cameron's plan for boundary changes before the next election. The Commons were voting on whether to accept or kick out a House of Lords amendment proposed by, among others, Lib Dem Chris Rennard. That amendment stated that no boundary changes could take effect until 2018 at the earliest. All three Cornish Lib Dems voted in favour of the Lords amendment and against Devonwall. I understand that ...
There are increasing concerns about the effectiveness of the new highways contract with Ringway. Chris counted 5 street lights out of action between the Peahen and Watson's walk the other night and spotted this example (on Jennings Road) of an obvious fault that nothing was being done about. [IMG: IMG_1120]
Along with Stockport Town Team members, I met Mary Portas today on her first visit to Stockport. We became a Portas Pilot town last May and since then have been working to improve the Town Centre – focussing on the Market/Underbanks area. After meeting Mary and her team at the station, we went to the Plaza for lunch and a round-table discussion. That was very useful – Mary had some challenges for us and there are certainly things the Town Team can be doing better. For example, Mary made the point that the Town Team can't construct a vision on ...
Consett Neighbourhood Policing Team have put out the following message about yesterday's extremely serious incident at Belle Vue Leisure Centre: Consett Police are investigating an incident at a Consett Leisure Centre yesterday in which a young man was stabbed. Police are continuing to question a 20-year-old man arrested on suspicion of attempted murder. Officers were called to the Belle Vue Leisure Centre in Ashdale Road at about 2.20pm. A 22-year-old local man suffered stab wounds and was taken by air ambulance to the RVI in Newcastle where he is described as "poorly" but his injuries are not thought to be ...
In today's House of Commons debate about constituency boundary changes (aka the Electoral Registration and Administration Bill), Tory MPs will doubtless whinge about how unfair the present boundaries are. But the facts don't support their arguments. PoliticalBetting.com has today published statistics proving that the electoral system is not biased against the Tories. At the 2010 general election, it took an average of 34,940 votes to elect each Conservative MP compared with 33,370 for each Labour MP. The equivalent figure for Liberal Democrat MPs is 119,944. As discussed in a previous post, any imbalance is mostly due to low turnouts in ...
A few bullet points for you: I have been reporting pot holes that have appeared since the bad weather last week. If you have seen some you need to report you can do it via this form from Wokingham Borough Council's website: http://www.wokingham.gov.uk/transport/roads/highwaysfault/ or you can ring Wokingham Direct on 0118 9746000 Work was due to start this week on replacing the traffic lights on Reading Road at the junction with Woodward Close (by the M4 bridge). It has been delayed by approximately 3 weeks. There is still no news on Hatch Farm Dairies. Bovis got outline planning permission for ...
[IMG: target] In a recent post on Lord of the Blogs, Paul Tyler asks where the elusive Parliamentary rifle range is to be found. For some years, while I was still an MP, there were regular requests for this apparently anachronistic facility, somewhere in the basement, to be replaced with a creche for the children of staff and members of both Houses. One Conservative MP naughtily suggested that the two roles could be combined. Some years ago Nick Clegg said that it was absurd that parliament should have a shooting range and not a creche. A creche has now been ...
Not food – just some tit-bits from yesterday's Health Scrutiny Committee, or the Adults, Wellbeing and Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee if you want to give it it's full title. Great News. Government has kept it's word and protected Durham's Public Health budget, allocating £44.5 million for 2013/14 and £45.8 million for 2014/15. This is as was promised, and whilst the council does have legitimate concerns about the future budget, there's no doubt that it has been shamelessly scaremongering on the subject. They'll sing the song of "Government bashes the North" when it suits them. They ought to have the ...
Tue 29th
15:12
How can Commonwealth Games be inclusive if we ban seekers of sanctuary from helping at them?
We all know how the Games Makers were such an important part of last year's triumphantly successful London Olympics. When Glasgow holds the Commonwealth Games next year, we would hope for a similar smash hit. Sadly, though, the recruitment process for the volunteers who will help to run Glasgow's Games has been called into question by the Scottish Refugee Council. The Glaswegian reports that the Games Organising Committee have effectively excluded those who seek sanctuary in this country from applying as only those who are eligible to work in the UK can apply. Now, the UK Borders Agency is, in ...
From April this year, if you are poor and of working age in Cornwall, you will be forced to pay at least a quarter of your council tax bill for the first time. That is the decision made today by the full council. This will impose a poor tax averaging about £265 a year on the 26,000 poorest families of working age. At a time when the Conservative group leader is busy campaigning for a council tax freeze without explaining what services will have to be cut, her attitude seems to be that the poorest should still have to face ...
Hi all I am up on twitter and will occasionally tweet. But not about what I had for breakfast sort of things! P — Paddy Ashdown (@paddyashdown) January 29, 2013 Now this should be worth following....
It is hard to believe that it has been five years since Gordon Brown announced the abolition of the 10p rate band, and I am as surprised that it has taken until now for someone to suggest reintroducing it. At Conservative Home, Robert Halfon MP argues; Restoring a 10p rate of income tax, between £9,205 and £12,000, would cost around £6 billion a year according to the House of Commons Library. This is significantly cheaper than raising the personal allowance to £12,500 (which could cost as much as £14.4 billion). It also has the advantage that it would benefit all ...
A number of Labour figures and supporters have pointed to the example of President Francois Hollande's France as a viable plan B for the British economy. They may well be having second thoughts today as newspapers report that far from being a socialist paradise, our European neighbours are in fact verging on bankruptcy. The Independent say that the whole of France was left stunned and shocked yesterday after their employment minister, Michel Sapin has admitted during a radio interview that his country is "totally bankrupt". However, the Government do not seem to be completely united on this as Pierre Moscovici, ...
I have been shortlisted for the national award of 'Online Councillor of the Year' as part of the national C'llr Achievement Awards, organised by the Local Government Information Unit. According to their website: "The C'llr Achievement Awards aim to recognise and reward those councillors who go over and above what is expected of them; councillors who show absolute dedication to their communities and make positive change happen to the lives of people in them". Over the years we've done some really important work in Holyrood Ward to make sure that local people can keep in touch and up to date ...
Here's today's hand-picked selection that caught my interest... A Liberal Democrat vote against boundary reform would be a betrayal | Sarah Wollaston | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk .@drwollastonmp's concern for voter representation would be more credible if she thought they deserved it in the Lords http://buff.ly/115NEUE Space on trains: the only valid argument for HS2 .@Martha_Gill takes down some of the overblown arhuments for HS2 > Space on trains: the only valid argument for HS2 http://buff.ly/115N2hT The HS2 line is one big punt | Christian Wolmar | Comment is free | The Guardian Very good post by @christianwolmar > ...
[IMG: A Liberal Youth training session] When friends have lost their belief in religion, they usually describe not the freeing of bonds, but the emptiness left without a moral compass to guide them. My youngest daughter popped in after work today looking rather sad. When I asked her the problem she described herself as feeling weltschmerz. Never having heard of this before, I got her to elaborate. She told me of the alienation, the resignation and the overwhelming sense of the cruelty of the world. This is not a woman prone to melancholy, but rather one who is working hard ...
The Libertine has interviewed the new members of the Liberal Youth exec on a range of topics, in order to keep you in the loop. Here is the next in the series, an interview with our new Non-Portfolio Officer, Reece Edmends. 1) What is the first thing you will do in office? I'm going to ...
Labour Councillors have gone back on promises they made to the people of Chorlton to build a new swimming pool in Chorlton. Before the last election, Labour Town Hall bosses promised to combine the Baths and Library in a ... Continue reading →
Tue 29th
12:05The Independent View: National security is paramount but 'secret courts' are an illiberal attack on ...
[IMG: Supreme Court - Some rights reserved by cphoffman42] In September 2012, the Liberal Democrat Conference voted overwhelmingly against the most contentious aspect of the government's Justice and Security Bill – the extension of 'secret courts', otherwise known as Closed Material Procedures (CMPs), into civil courts. This would allow ministers to submit a CMP application to a judge that material relating to national security be withheld from the defendant/claimant and their legal team despite being used as evidence. As Andrew Tyrie MP and Anthony Peto QC explain in "Neither Just nor Secure", published today by the Centre for Policy Studies, ...
[IMG: Commando by James Owen] James Owen's account of the Commandos is one of affectionate myth-busting. The Commandos in this book are frequently failing, often disorganised and under-equipped, often of dubious military value – and almost always brave, dedicated and impressive. The mistakes and blunders as new ways of fighting were learnt do not take away from the incredible feats of endurance and bravery that so many so frequently demonstrated. Those heroics are made all the more moving by the number of people who are introduced to the reader in some detail before dying early in their career. There is ...
Last week I commented on David Cameron's speech on Britain and the EU, where he promised an in-out referendum, following a "renegotiation" if the Conservatives win the next General Election in 2015. For some days after I though this was a decisive moment in British politics, in which Mr Cameron seized the initiative, and the Labour leader, Ed Miliband, lost his chance to win the next election. A week on, the dust has settled and the news is dominated by other stories. Was is such a decisive moment, or a mere ripple, a failing prime minister making a promise he ...
OFMDFM say that releasing the Cohesion, Sharing and Integration strategy, that has been ongoing, through consultation on the draft then review, almost as long as I have been back in Northern Ireland, at a time that all three are breaking down is the wrong timing. However, today the Alliance Party have issued they vision of what that shared future should be. The main points, as highlighted in The Executive Summary, that they look to cover are: Economics of a Shared FutureA Shared Approach to EducationSharing the Spaces in which we Live, Work and PlayA Shared CultureYes flags are part of ...
[IMG: Georgia] As an accredited party trainer I was intrigued to receive an email last week asking if I would like to provide some training for the Republican Party in Georgia next month. It took a moment to register that it was talking about the Georgia to the north of Turkey on the Black Sea and their Liberal party, not the one to the north of Florida and the GOP. Now I have acted for the party in a similar capacity before, when I met the youthful members of the Liberal Democrat party in Serbia and tried to convince them ...
Before I start, I want to make it clear that is definitely a personal blog and has no connection to the Local or National party - more a vent. Last week, at full council Medway's Labour group brought forward a motion to discuss Gay Marriage and urge the Council to write a letter to the Medway MPs urging them to support the motion as it passed through Parliament. I was unable to attend full council as I had an early (4am) start the following day but I followed along on Twitter. There was an amendment made by the Conservatives arguing ...
As you might image, I don't normally link favorably to Laurie Penny pieces, but today in the New Statesman she is pretty much bang on the money. Laurie is taking on the troll who terrorise women online if they dare to give an opinion. My personal experience of this is fairly small, but it's horrible, ...
Tue 29th
09:45I apologise for my lack of enthusiasm for HS2. It's been unavoidably delayed owing to the lack of ev...
[IMG: HS2] 'All aboard!' exhorts the email I received last night from Lib Dem transport minister Norman Baker, hailing his announcement of the Coalition's plans for Phase Two of Britain's High Speed Rail Network (aka HS2). I'm afraid, though, I'm going to have to apologise to Norman for the delay in arrival of my goodwill owing to what I suspect is the wrong type of investment on the lines. HS2, we are told, will cut journey times, help the environment, heal the North-South divide and boost growth. Each of these arguments is less secure than the government has made it ...
This year featured my longest blogging dry spell in my ten years, and then my decision to come back to regular blogging. Having spent the time to go through all these posts, it's fascinating to see how much blogging has changed over that time, but that'll be for a post tomorrow. For the first few months of the year, the blog's represented by just three posts in January – an announcement about roadworks, a link to the hyperlocal Colchester Chronicle blog and a plug for my writing group. And then in May, things sprung back into life, which may have ...
The announcement on Friday that the UK economy contracted again in the last quarter of 2012 offers a damaging blow to the Government, and our leadership in particular, who have rightly and continually reaffirmed during this parliament that generating economic growth is by far their greatest priority. And so it should be. Not only is the economy considered by far the most important issue for the public at large, but more crucially, a growing economy would do more than anything else to improve the collective well being of society, making things like the Government's spiteful raid on benefits seem relatively ...
Tue 29th
08:23
"The net effect of grammar schools is to disadvantage poor children and help the rich"
That's the conclusion of the FT's Chris Cook in a piece that looks at how educational results vary between selective and non-selective areas in England: [IMG: School blackboard] Poor children do dramatically worse in selective areas. There is an idea out there in the ether that grammar schools are better for propelling poor children to the very top of the tree. But, again, that is not true. Poor children are less likely to score very highly at GCSE in grammar areas than the rest... This is all driven by the process of selection itself: poor children are more likely to ...
The council has grant of £141,000 to support the facilities around the track. This is in addition to the £1.2 million from Sainsbury's planning application. We are hoping that the council starts the consultation on what this looks like shortly
Another charity is in the media today calling for people's food & drink bills to rise....sorry I mean calling for a tax on drinks they don't like. ( sugary ones which everyone thinks are just fizzy ones) Apparently, according to these campaigners, a can of coke is a mini time bomb It's all of the children of course because childhood obesity rates are rising inexorably leading to an epidemic. Apart from a downward trend in obesity, what their spokespeople seem to be either ignorant of, or just being quiet about, is that some pure fruit juices have A higher sugar ...
High-speed railways have spread throughout Europe over the past thirty years, starting with the opening of the first TGV line in France in 1981. Today, there are substantial networks of these lines throughout France, Spain, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, with more lines under construction or planned. In all cases, high-speed trains can operate both on dedicated high-speed track and at reduced speeds on conventional railway lines, enabling many destinations beyond the high-speed lines to be served. The result has been not only faster journey times but also significant transfers of journeys away from other, less environmentally-friendly modes of ...
Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands to abdicate for son One of the better royals around. (tags: world: netherlands ) The big space battle of January 2013 (tags: Games ) Nabokov. Lecture on "The Metamorphosis". You will mark Kafka's style. Its clarity, its precise and formal intonation in such striking contrast to the nightmare matter of his tale. No poetical metaphors ornament his stark black-and-white story. The limpidity of his style stresses the dark richness of his fantasy. Contrast and unity, style and matter, manner and plot are most perfectly integrated. (tags: Writing )
Episode 45 of the House of Comments podcast "Europe - The Final Countdown?" was recorded on Sunday and is out today. This week myself and Emma Burnell were joined by UKIP head of press Gawain Towler to discuss Cameron's announcement of an in/out EU referendum in 5 years time, the intemperate comments of Lib Dem MP David Ward about Israel and the blacklisting scandal. Around 10 minutes in for a few minutes the sound goes slightly echoey. We sorted it out after that but apologies. It gets better if you listen on! You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes ...
The Government has announced the launch of the Green Deal, which started yesterday, 28 January 2013. Essentially the Green Deal is a financing scheme to allow for energy saving improvements to be made to your house, paid for through a charge on your electricity bill going forward. This was one of the promises the Lib Dems made in our manifesto at the last General Election: "offer a home energy improvement package ... paid for by the savings from lower energy bills" . Energy-saving improvements include: insulation – eg loft or cavity wall insulation heating draught-proofing double glazing renewable energy technologies ...
Saturday 2nd February, 2.30pm at the Creche, Central Library - Concertina class. £5 - £3 concessions Following a very successful Come and Try event, a weekly concertina class, tutored by John Bagnall, begins on Saturday 2nd February. John Bagnall has been playing the English Concertina, invented about 1829 by Sir Charles Wheatstone, for about 40 years. John learned to play while living on Tyneside, which as well as being a centre for traditional music is home to some great concertina players, notably Alistair Anderson who has done so much to popularise the instrument. John has been to a large number ...
A number of residents have been in touch about some terrible parking problems on the streets around Heaton Park on Saturday 26 January 2013. This was the morning after the heavy snowfall when many people wanted to visit Heaton Park in the snow. The car parks were all closed and this caused very severe disruption on the streets around the Park. I have written to the Park Manager and asked for them to review their policies around snowy weather conditions to see whether car parks in the park can be gritted and kept open. Tim
Estyn's Annual Report for 2011-12 makes sad reading about the current state of education in Wales. Following a whole catalogue of numerous initiatives that seemed to have, rather than improved matters, actually made things worse, the Welsh Labour Government must start tackling the underlying weaknesses in our education system. The Welsh Labour Government first believed that scrapping annual exams was the answer to improving numeracy and literacy. Now, after years of decline in school standards, the Education Minister is reversing that decision. Following over thirteen years of Labour rule, teachers and schools have been given no clear direction and it ...
I can't believe I'm still up (the things I do for the party, tedious work with spreadsheets and PDFs...). I really should have been asleep for a couple of hours... I have therefore chosen a poem about, amongst other things, sleep. Although this is how the sleep of a angry lover can be a blessing. Sleep, Angry Beauty by Thomas Campion Sleep, angry beauty, sleep, and fear not me. For who a sleeping lion dares provoke? It shall suffice me here to sit and see Those lips shut up that never kindly spoke. What sight can more content a lover's ...
