I'm going to try to post more linkblogs for a while, because I suspect I won't be writing much/anything else for this blog for the next few weeks. I'm currently getting over a period of illness, which has meant that for the last couple of days I've been sleeping for about fifteen hours a day, ...
Why is the horsemeat saga continuing to dominate the news? It was the question posed by Peter Oborne in his introduction to yesterday's edition of BBC Radio 4's Week in Westminster: There's nothing like a story about dumb animals to bring out the most atavistic and juvenile instincts of your average British newspaper reporter. Few stories in living memory have been less significant than the Great Horseflesh Scandal. Nobody has been killed and and there's no evidence anyone's health has been put at risk. Not since rival teams of crack reporters from the Sun, Star and Daily Mirror raced around ...
The article below reports the (successful) efforts of local Lib Dem MP John Leech to recover the costs incurred by Greater Manchester Police in the wake of the G4S Olympic fiasco. Well done to John, but isn't this something the office of the Police and Crime Commissioner should have led on, not a local MP? In a post published on this site on 5 November 2012 I talked of the waste and inefficiency that still bedevils a giant organisation such as GMP, and how this should be tackled before simply throwing more money at the problem. I warned that vague ...
Sun 17th
21:25
Refund: Greater Manchester Police handed more than £440,000 for saving Olympic private securit...
Refund: Greater Manchester Police handed more than £440,000 for saving Olympic private security blunder | Mancunian Matters.
A trio of tweets I wouldn't have predicted to be on the receiving end this weekend... First, John Prescott re-tweets one of the most predictable jokes I've ever cracked: .@mrjohnofarrell I see Maria Hutchings getting mobbed on the streets of Eastleigh twitter.com/stephentall/st... via @stephentall — John Prescott (@johnprescott) February 16, 2013 For the record, I remain an Orange Book Lib Dem committed to propping up this EVIL Con-Dem Coalition/fascist government.
From the Daily Mirror website this afternoon: Former I'm a Celebrity star Lembit Opik is behind a plot to topple his Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg. The ex-MP delivered a motion to party bosses to make it easier to trigger a leadership fight. The move must now be voted on at the spring party conference in Brighton in March - one week after the Eastleigh by-election.The report goes on to explain that under the current system it takes 75 local parties have to call a leadership contest, the Opik amendment, if passed, would mean it would take only 10 delegates. ...
Welcome to Broxtowe Enews, brought to you by the Liberal Democrats and edited by David Watts, the leader of the Lib-Dems on Broxtowe Borough Council. 1. Stapleford Library May I start by correcting an error in last week's newsletter. I wrote that Stapleford Library would be shut for six weeks. This is an error and I meant to write that it would be shut for six months. Many apologies for this - it was one of those occasions where what was in my head and what my fingers wrote at my keyboard were completely different. 2. Toton The Borough Council ...
Vince Cable MP (Image (c) David Angell, via Wikimedia Commons) Business Secretary, Vince Cable will be welcomed to the city by MP Julian Huppert next month when he comes to launch Cambridge Business Week. Vince will be in Cambridge on Monday, March 18 when he will meet business leaders and the finalists who are hoping for success in the business awards categories. Business Week recognises entrepreneurship and business in Cambridge and the event will attract speakers and delegates from across the UK. Vince's visit will begin at TWI at Granta Park where he will officially open the event and meet ...
It was over a week ago now, but I did promise to tell people how I voted in every full Council. I voted against the Council plan. The plan didn't have a lot in it, that in itself was not too much of a problem. Previous plans have things like "we will keep our streets clean" as if any Council actually tries to make them dirtier. So I quite like the shortness. The thing is all the main events
Yesterday I went to Nairobi's Norfolk Hotel - a 1930s colonial era building which wouldn't have been out of place in Michael Radford's 1987 film White Mischief. As these pictures hopefully show.
[View the story "Eastleigh by-election: 17 February" on Storify] Eastleigh by-election: 17 February The latest from Eastleigh constituency as Mike Thornton, Maria Hutchings, John O'Farrell and the other candidates battle it out. Storified by Mark Pack· Sun, Feb 17 2013 11:09:11 It's understandable if some readers are a little sceptical about the number of 'Maria Hutchings messes up' stories I've included in previous round-ups. Is the Conservative candidate in the Eastleigh by-election really that bad? Well, don't take my word for it. Look what Google has to say: What Google reveals about the current state of play in EastleighBy Mark ...
Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 313rd weekly round-up from the Lib Dem blogosphere ... Featuring the seven most popular stories beyond Lib Dem Voice according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (10 - 16 February, 2013), together with a hand-picked quintet, normally courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed. Don't forget: you can sign up to receive the Golden Dozen direct to your email inbox — just click here — ensuring you never miss out on the best of Lib Dem blogging. As ever, let's start with the most popular post, and work our way down: 1. New ...
The Sunday People have today made the shocking revelation that Lembit Opik is trying to make it easier to unseat Nick Clegg. Of course, if they had read Digital Politico they would have known that ages ago. If they subscribed to the weekly Despatch Box newsletter, they would have even more information about how ...
Nick Clegg and Lynne Featherstone went to Africa this week. Shortly after he picked up every banana skin left for him at Deputy Prime Minister's Questions by Labour and the incomparable Peter Bone, and lobbed them back with vigour, he took a flight to Mozambique and Ethiopia. He was there to highlight the Girls' Education Challenge Fund set up by the Department of International Development. Its aim is to give a million of the world's poorest girls the chance to improve their life chances by giving them access to education. Nick said that this would help them escape HIV, domestic ...
Gibside is a wonderful 18th century pleasure garden that's now in the ownership of the National Trust. Perched above the River Derwent, where Tyne and Wear meets County Durham, it's just 15 minutes drive beyond the Metro Centre, yet it's a world away from the North East's shopping mecca. I doubt there's anywhere in the Metro Centre with an unobstructed 100 yard view, let alone the mile-long vista between Gibside's chapel and the soaring Column of Liberty. We've been to Gibside a fair few times before, so fancied a slight change of direction this time. Once we'd made the obligatory ...
The search results thrown up by Google often provide a neat little insight into what angles of a story are dominating coverage and people's attention. The angles that get the most prominent coverage and the most interaction and responses are the ones that rise to the top of the search results. So what do they tell us about the current state of play in the Eastleigh by-election? [IMG: Eastleigh by-election - Google search results] Here's what Google's top ten search results for eastleigh by-election (with the verbatim option turned on*) contain at the time of writing: Maria Hutchings and John ...
The setup team for the Loncon 3 tea-party Alex Wilcock's guide to Who in London, with locations mapped out Another version of the map (shower curtain pinned against the window) with extra marker for ExCeL. Tea in full swing Merchandise: Big Bang Theory crossover More merchandise: plush bacteria Ten and Five - Time Crash reimagined (they weren't together, just happened to be passing at the same time) Two, at the tea party Six, at the tea party Amy and Nyssa I got Fraser Hines a cup of coffee And bumped into Ian McNeice on the way. A Dalek going past ...
"It's lovely to see a face on the door step." The genial middle-aged woman had invited me out of the bitter cold into her hall after I had explained that I was standing for in the May elections. "And it's lovely to see someone under fifty in politics," she added. It took me a little time to extract myself from her house, but I walked away with a promise of her vote and completed survey form. I felt distinctly cheerful, which was quite a turnaround as the day had not started well. After a hectic morning trying to catch up ...
Oh boy it has been a fun few days in the Southend councillor blogosphere. It all started with Tory councillors Cox and Holdcroft seemingly publishing the private thoughts of their Labour counterpart Cllr Ware-Lane on the proposed cruise event down the seafront. This did not sit well with the councillor for Milton. So all in all some interesting beef. First of all lets look at the leader of the council and his sly dig that Cllr Ware-Lane doesn't live in the ward he represents. Pathetic. Cllr Holdcroft is a grown adult and should act like one. As for Cllr Cox ...
[IMG: Papers - Some rights reserved by NS Mewsflash] It's Sunday lunchtime, so here are a baker's dozen of thought-provoking articles to stimulate your thinking juices culled from all those I've linked to this last week. You can follow me on Delicious here. The lesson from Poundland: work pays – Tim Harford looks at the workfare which didn't work and the workfare which did work. Guess which one the Government scrapped? 'It is ironic that this is one of the few areas where the government is carrying out rigorous tests of what works, and yet few people seem interested in ...
Here's today's hand-picked selection that caught my interest... Are the Republicans Beyond Saving? by Elizabeth Drew | NYRblog | The New York Review of Books Question to which answer may just be yes > 'Are the Republicans Beyond Saving?' | Elizabeth Drew http://buff.ly/15a2Chp Tim Harford — Article — The lesson from Poundland: work pays Tim Harford essential reading as ever > The lesson from Poundland: work pays http://buff.ly/XhGLOr Hilary Mantel · Royal Bodies · LRB 21 February 2013 Hilary Mantel on great form > "We don't cut off the heads of royal ladies these days, but we do sacrifice them" ...
I enjoyed the Culture Show special on Black British swing musicians of the 1930s yesterday evening. One of the experts taking part said that although their music was clearly influenced by American big bands of the era, there was also a calypso-like influence that came from their Caribbean background. I am not sure, to be honest, that you can detect it in this track, which is the only one by this band I can find on Youtube. Snakehips Johnson was born in British Guiana and came to Britain at the age of 15, attending Sir William Borlase's Grammar School in ...
I recently got a MakeyMakey. It's a sort of ersatz USB keyboard that can be plugged into anything electrically conductive. I blogged about using it to control my Raspberry Pi using fruit and veg. I also blogged about controlling Android using a USB keyboard and mouse via a USB OTG cable. Hang on... the MakeyMakey is USB... Android can be controlled via USB... CAN I CONTROL MY ANDROID WITH FRUIT?!?!?!? Why yes! Yes I can. Watch and learn, young grasshopper. I couldn't find any games which said they could be controlled by a USB keyboard. Luckily, the mouse click on ...
The Conservative Secretary of State for Wales, David Jones is trying to keep a low profile after telling a TV interviewer on Friday that his reason for voting against gay marriage was that "clearly" gay couples "cannot provide a warm and safe environment" in which to raise children. However, the storm continues to engulf him. His clarification that: "Since same-sex partners could not biologically procreate children, the institution of marriage, in my opinion, should be reserved to opposite-sex partners" does not help. In fact it digs him into a even deeper hole. As Barbara Ellen comments in today's Observer, he ...
Nick's latest weekly missive focuses on two places: his visits as party leader to the Lib Dem by-election campaign in Eastleigh, and his visit as Deputy Prime Minister to Mozambique and Ethiopia to focus on 'the three Ts' – tax, transparency and trade. Here's his letter in full... [IMG: libdem letter from nick clegg] Like so many of you, I've been to Eastleigh this week. I was there to visit a local college with our excellent candidate Mike Thornton on Monday, and after a brief stop off to see the kids, I headed straight there again this afternoon after landing ...
[IMG: Bus station] Costs of the long awaited rebuild of Andover's bus station have soared by £500,000 because of delays in completing the project. The initial cost of £2.4 million has now been revised to £2.9 million. The increase is because of last minute changes and delays with legal negotiations. Once again the county council has failed to deliver on a major project and allowed the costs to soar. The bus station plans have been in place for over ten years. There is no excuse for the delays or the increased costs. Andover has been promised a new bus station ...
I have just been watching the Andrew Marr show and Iain Duncan Smith will not 'give way' on Poundlandgate. He sees nothing wrong in the Government's position and it was simply a technicality that allowed Cait Reilly to win her court case. She was taken from her voluntary work in order to work in Poundland despite the fulfilling and relevant voluntary work that she had organised for herself. Iain goes on to explain the Government's position. Many young people have told him that they cannot get work because they don't have experience. Now they are getting experience. I wonder if ...
So I'm currently heading south on my way to take part in the Liberal Democrat efforts in the Eastleigh by-election. Well actually, I'm currently on a replacement bus service across to Basingstoke because, as it turns out South East Trains are utterly crap when it comes to putting accurate information about engineering works on their website and so I thought I'd just be able to catch a train this morning. But never mind. Come the revolution they will all be nationalised and deported to Antarctica anyway (or so a man can dream). Now I haven't blogged in far too long ...
I went to help out in the Eastleigh by-election yesterday, and it turned out to be a day when Nick Clegg came down to campaign as well. At the end of the day, with a lot of volunteers gathered back at Lib Dem campaign HQ, Nick and our candidate, Mike Thornton, spoke to those who'd gathered. As I had my bright and shiny new phone with me, I decided to record some of it. Unfortunately, I only realised when I'd finished that I should have been holding the phone on its side for the better picture. If you want to ...
[IMG: David Cameron] It's been quite a conundrum: what is the Conservative Party strategy in Eastleigh? Select a candidate with controversial right-wing views. Spend much of the campaign dodging interviews with the media, generating a slew of negative stories as a result. Slip in the occasional public comment that generates more controversy. And even after all that, leave Lynton Crosby largely out of things, rather than calling him in to sort out such a disorganised mess of a message. What could possibly be the logic behind all that? Incompetence, quite possibly. But wait a moment. Is there an alternative? Perhaps... ...
BBC News - Mercury shows off its colourful side (tags: ) BBC News - Vet makes tiny wheelchair for disabled piglet (tags: ) The difference between the EU and the ECHR Should be required reading for journos and anyone else interested in (whether for or against) Europe. (tags: ) [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
Well he has hasn't he? I mean this ruse to force a vote on the a mansion tax is piece of political genius surely? The Lib Dems will look like fools traipsing through the lobby with the government whilst Labour dangles something that the party in general and Vince in particular has wanted to bring in for years. Won't they? There's no denying it's an eye-catching move clearly designed to embarrass the Lib Dems. But of course the party's MPs will (largely – a few backbenchers may peel off of course) vote with the government on any opposition motion of ...
[IMG: 5202328378_026317008a_n] The horsemeat scandal has now been with us for over a month. It has morphed from a localised concern about adulteration of one processed meat product at one supermarket chain into a Europe-wide exposé of industrialised food production and lengthy supply chains that are ripe for abuse. Many people are outraged. But what sort of a scandal is it? That's harder to pin down. There is rightly much concern about the mislabelling of food products. You'd expect that when you buy food it is accurately described. That is the foundation of a food production system which relies, in ...
I've spent the latter part of the week in Mozambique and Ethiopia leading a government delegation as part of this year's UK Presidency of the G8, where we are making 'the three T's' – tax, transparency and trade – the focus of discussion. This was my first visit to Sub-Saharan Africa as Deputy Prime Minister, but I was lucky enough to have Lynne Featherstone with me to guide me through it all. Lynne's already gained such knowledge of 'her patch' in her short time at the Department for International Development, she has already met her second Ethiopian Prime Minister! In ...
This is just such a Top. Tune. From the incomparable Alicia Keys. On. Fire. First, though, turn up the volume. A bit more. Right - you're ready. Play. Andrew
Figures obtained by the Scottish Liberal Democrats have shown that there are over 80 000 fewer part-time places in Scotland's colleges since 2009. Answers to freedom of information requests have shown that there are only 8 000 more full time places in the same timeframe. Scottish Liberal Democrat education spokesperson Liam McArthur MSP has warned that the £25 million SNP government cut to college budgets combined with the pace of reforms being demanded by ministers could put a further chokehold on opportunities when thousands remain out of work. Commenting on the figures, Liam said, "College principals have already warned that ...
From the Curator of Museum Services at the University of Dundee: To accompany the exhibition "Drawn from Structures Living and Dead", currently showing in the Lamb Gallery, artist Lindsay Sekulowicz will be giving a talk on Wednesday 20 February at 5.30pm in Room T4, just off the gallery. Lindsay was artist-in-residence at the D'Arcy Thompson Zoology Museum during summer 2012, a collaboration between the University of Dundee, the Barns-Graham Charitable Trust and the Royal Scottish Academy. She will be talking about her experiences doing the residency and about her work on show in the exhibition. You can find out more ...
It would be fair to say that, when agreeing with Ros that we should go to Cuba on holiday, I did have some doubts. It is, after all, a communist country with a controlled economy, where those opposed to the state are imprisoned on a fairly capricious basis. And given that I am by nature someone who cleaves to the notion of comfort in travel, Havana might not be an obvious destination. As it turns out, the dictatorship is not entirely what one might expect. Experiments with capitalism have unleashed an entrepreneurial spirit hitherto unsuspected, American television shows are rather ...
