An update on the events on Cressington Heath. Residents were shocked to see a digger arrive and start digging up part of the area that they love. We raised it with planning officers and they visited on Friday to talk to Redrow (currently the responsible company) It seems that the original planning permission means that the heath area is meant to be kept pretty empty without gorse and shrubs spreading across, but because there hasnt been annual maintenance there is now quite a bit to clear. This means Redrow isn't breaking any rules by doing this work. BUT the company ...
Yesterday, I had the pleasure of attending part of a morning meeting of the Dundee Partnership that focused on Dundee's bid for UK City of Culture 2017. This was an extremely well-attended and positive event where the excellent news that Lorraine Kelly, Sheena Wellington and Brian Cox have been selected to spearhead the city's bid was announced. Later yesterday, after my Monday ward surgeries at Harris Academy and the Mitchell Street Centre, I took part in City Council committees where there was an extensive discussion about proposed changes to Housing Benefit. As well as participating in that debate, at Policy ...
When I was a student I had a Saturday job in a bookies. Taking the bets, on horses or dogs, and paying out was surprisingly labour -intensive. Odds changed all the times and the bets varied hugely. Fast forward and many bookies are less "studying the odds" and more standing in front of machines. Last week I met one of the organisers of the Campaign for Fairer Gambling. They want to crack down on so called Fixed odds betting terminals. These are machines at which it's literally possible to lose hundreds of pounds in minutes. There is no thought or ...
Footage of some of the lost houses and shops from this part of the city. Right at the end you see a poster from the European referendum campaign to prove it really is 1975 and then a glimpse of the recently demolished Bowstring Bridge.
A change of pace with my response to the Liebster blog award meme, for which I was tagged by JennieReadsStuff. Here are the rules: Thank your Liebster blog award presenter on your blog and link back to the blogger who presented this award to you. Answer the 11 questions from the nominator and create 11 questions for your nominees. Present the Liebster Blog Award to 11 blogs of 200 followers or less who you feel deserve to be noticed and leave a comment on their blog letting them know they have been chosen. (no tag backs) Copy and paste the ...
Jo Shaw's resignation from the Liberal Democrats on Sunday created a vacancy on the Liberal Democrats' Federal Executive committee. The votes from the original internal party election in 2012 have now been recounted and Candy Piercy has been elected. Candy told Lib Dem Voice: Although I am very glad to be on the FE again, I am very sad that the reason for this is the resignation of Jo Shaw. Jo was a fierce campaigner on the FE who always spoke up loud and clear for her principles. I will do my best to carry on that approach. I will ...
Sir Peter Fahy's report for Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary on how much police knew about Savile before he was exposed as a sex offender in 2012 was published at midnight. But embargoes copies were sent out to journalists before that, allowing them to write stories for this morning's papers. Some even tweeted the findings in the small hours of this morning. That, you might think, is pretty remarkable. It is what you do with any report likely to be of wide interest. But it is certainly not what the BBC did when it published the Pollard Review into its ...
I have spent the last few months campaigning hard against secret courts. That's in no small measure down to the energetic and informative campaign against Part II of the Justice and Security Bill run by Jo Shaw and Martin Tod. On two occasions, Liberal Democrat Conference has overwhelmingly rejected the Government's plans. Hundreds of us signed a petition and wrote to MPs and Lords. I don't intend giving up until this measure is consigned to the dustbin. If it passes into law, I will campaign against it until it's repealed. Is that a good enough statement of intent? I am ...
[IMG: Heathrow_airtrack_logo] The London Borough of Wandsworth is commissioning a study by Arup of options for a rail link between Waterloo, Clapham Junction and Heathrow Airport. Such a rail link would be great for Southwark residents whether they live in the north of the borough not so far from Waterloo or equally near the East London Line 2 which means residents with one train change could use such a new rail route to Heathrow. Importantly it would take just four years once given the go ahead to open. Exactly the sort of infrastructure project thE London but especially London needs. ...
Caron has exhorted us to praise the Divine Ms Duffett at least once a day. I know we all have busy lives, so I thought I'd make it a bit easier by providing a standardised form of words:Our Helen, which art in Great George Street, Hallowed be thy Name. Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done in parliament, As it is on Lib Dem Voice. Give us this day our daily Focus leaflets. And forgive us our failure to deliver them because it was snowing, As we try to forgive them that vote the wrong bloody way in parliament and ...
Last Sunday, I spoke in the debate against secret courts at Federal Conference in Brighton. This Friday, I'll be proposing a motion against this highly illiberal and unfair measure at Scottish Conference in Dundee. I am not going to post the speech I made in Brighton yet because I'm going to do the environmentally friendly thing and recycle it. Many Scots won't have heard it so I don't want to spoil the surprise. As I'm proposing the motion, I'll have some extra time to add stuff to it. If you don't know much about this issue, Jo Shaw's speech proposing ...
Voting starts today in the Vatican City to elect a new pope. It is an unusual election. The electorate is all-male. The voters are locked in a room and not allowed out until they have made a choice. And all of them are potentially also the candidates. It set me wondering what the election would be like if the Liberal Democrats had anything to do with it. It helps that the Latin word for Focus is 'Focus', so the party is already off to a good start. The Vatican Focus would probably be headlined something like "Lib Dem Cardinals - ...
In the tech industry there is an ongoing debate about having all male panels at events, which is beginning to filter into the world of politics. The debate kicked off today after a few of us attended a fringe on social media in politics at Lib Dem conference on Friday night, which was scheduled to have only ...
Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 316th 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 (3-9 March, 2013), together with a hand-picked quintet, normally courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed. This week's and next week's Dozens will be published later because of Federal and Scottish Spring conferences. 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 ...
South West Conservative MEP Julie Girling had a bit of a Twitter success today after a photo she tweeted of UKIP MEP Roger Helmer, who sits two seats along from her in the plenary chamber, went viral on the social media site. Shortly after midday in Strasbourg, as Israeli President Shimon Peres was addressing MEPs in Strasbourg, Mrs Girling tweeted to her hundreds of followers: UKIP MEPs hard
John Leech has today accused Labour of playing politics with their opportunistic opposition day motion on a Mansion Tax. He went on to say he supports a mansion tax but opposes Labour's attempt to play politics with the issue. John Leech said, Actions speak louder than words and Labour have more front than Blackpool promenade. They had 13 years to introduce a Mansion Tax and consistently refused to back our mansion tax. The Lib Dems have taken more than 2 million people out of paying income tax altogether, unlike Labour who scrapped the 10p tax rate in 2007, leaving millions ...
My thanks to Lord Bonkers for drawing my attention to David Boyle's posting written after he had appeared on Radio 4's Start the Week with Ken Loach. I guess David Boyle was there to plug his new book but the programme was centred around Loach's film on 1945. I have regularly referred to Beveridge's final report on Voluntary Action and it's critique of the 'socialist ' solutions in 1945 and it is good to see Boyle take up the point.We should add that Beveridge was educated in Birkdale and supported the Southport Liberal candidate in the '45 election David says ...
A bit of Brecht for a Tuesday. After the uprising of the 17th of June The Secretary of the Writers' Union Had leaflets distributed in the Stalinallee Stating that the people Had forfeited the confidence of the government And could win it back only By redoubled efforts. Would it not be easier In that case for the government To dissolve the people And elect another? I saw that quoted elsewhere as reaction to the recent mass resignations from the SWP. However, in the light of the resignations from the Liberal Democrats over the weekend (Rose, Shaw, Sands, Doctorow), the continued ...
Today's Guardian reports on an important but partial u-turn by Iain Duncan Smith on planned changes to housing benefit that will penalise under-occupation of properties by claimants. The paper says that the Secretary of State has now exempted foster carers and armed forces personnel who live at home from changes, so that their families will no longer be penalised if they have a bedroom reserved for those groups: The changes will mean that about 5,000 approved foster carers will be allowed an additional room as long as they have fostered a child or become a registered carer in the past ...
More comedy genius from Australia's Clarke and Dawe:
Camden is consulting on a proposal to introduce 20 mph speed limit in all those areas of the borough which are not currently so limited. For Fortune Green this means all of Fortune Green Ward from Finchley Road to Westbere Road. (not including Finchley Road which is a Red Route and managed by Transport for London.) (Note that West of Westbere Road has already been declared a 20mph zone) The Council says:"The proposal is to help reduce road casualties and create more pleasant neighbourhoods for everyone. Many roads in Camden are already 20 mph and a borough-wide 20 mph speed ...
[IMG: Helioslough protest] The unpopular and ill-conceived Helioslough Railfreight plan has received a further setback when the County Council unanimously voted against the Eric Pickles approved plans. County Councillors from across Hertfordshire lent their support to Liberal Democrat County Councillor Aislinn Lee's impassioned speech in favour of the motion and her plea that the Council listen to the people of Hertfordshire and protect their interests. The County Council unanimously passed the motion, which after amendment was agreed as a joint motion and seconded by the Liberal Democrats.
But not County Durham. In the County Records section – you'll have to log on tomorrow if you want to know why I was there – I came across the minutes of my first action as a councillor. In May 1983 I had been elected as a young, idealistic, bright-eyed and bushy tailed new councillor on Derwentside District Council, only to run head-on into Labour control at its worst. It was the AGM, and not content with allowing only Labour councillors to be school governors – even in wards where there was no Labour councillor – they also passed a ...
According to Western Power Distribution, the answer is yes. The company claims that the infrastructure will shortly be insufficient to cope with the amount of energy being generated by renewable sources such as wind and solar in Cornwall. I presume that the problem isn't simply confined to renewables. If someone were to build a nuclear or other big power plant in Cornwall then I presume the wires wouldn't be able to handle that either. But there are no plans for such schemes in Cornwall (and nor are there likely to be), but there are still many renewable schemes in the ...
A little post as an aide-mémoire. I've found a lovely set of SVG playing cards. The only problem is each image is displayed within a page. This means the relatively small cards have an enormous white margin. Within Inkscape (the vector image editor for Linux) it's possible to crop the margins by going to: File > Document Properties > Resize Page To Content > Resize page to Drawing or Selection That's a pain in the arse for adjusting 52 images. Luckily, Inkscape will take command line arguments (called verbs). This means we can point it to all SVG files in ...
At Lib Dem conference this weekend I had a cunning plan. I had been challenged by my House of Comments co-host Emma that the next time I was at an all male panel at an event that I would question why there were no women to ask questions of from the floor. The idea being that the more this is highlighted, the more likely it is that organisers of events will eventually be embarrassed into ensuring panels have better gender balance. I had had my attention drawn by Jennie Rigg to an event that was scheduled for the Friday night ...
Here's today's hand-picked selection that caught my interest... Below the line, below the belt? | openDemocracy Interesting questions from @helenlewis on comment threads > Below the line, below the belt? | openDemocracy http://bit.ly/Y6U1Jw LibDems leave over support for secret trials; I resign from the party – Boing Boing Now @doctorow quits LibDems over secret courts > I resign from the party – Boing Boing http://bit.ly/YgRfQU (h/t @johndoran1) Stumbling and Mumbling: Supply-side socialism 8 ideas for what Chris Dillow terms 'Supply-side socialism': 1, 2, 4, 5, 6 and 7 (at least) are definitely liberalism http://bit.ly/YdczXp
[IMG: jonathanaitken] A former journalist, who rose through the political ranks to become a cabinet minister, resigns in the midst of a scandal of his own making, strenuously denies the allegations but is convicted of perverting the course of justice and goes to prison, with his political career and reputation destroyed. That was the tragedy of Jonathan Aitken, who has been doing the media rounds in the last 24 hours. I want to tell his story – it happened some years ago so some readers may not remember – because it is a tale of redemption. The incident that led ...
I will be leading a debate this week calling for the Welsh Labour Government to view spending on modern medicines as an investment, rather than just a cost and to extend the Health Technology Fund to support the development of new medicines. The Welsh Liberal Democrats have long argued for increased investment in modern medicines and treatments in Wales' NHS. In budget negotiations last year, the Welsh Liberal Democrats proposed their idea of an innovative treatments fund, which the Welsh Government agreed to take forward. Whilst welcoming the introduction of the Health Technology Fund, the Welsh Liberal Democrats have lamented ...
It was interesting to read on International Women's day last Friday that Television and Movie star Ashley Judd (pictured here in her role as Ensign Robin Lefler in Star Trek TNG) may be barred from standing for the US senate because she has appeared topless in her role as an actresss. This seems unnecesarily ridiculous. Had she made pornographic movies or illegal material I could understand but if you take a few moments to IMDB her filmography you'll see there is nothing of that nature here at all. Even if she had made Pornography in the past why should that ...
Where are we heading with local policing? It seems no-one really knows for sure. The debate around the future of policing in Camden has been plagued by poor consultation (and a fair bit of misinformation!) The Camden "consultation" event on Mayor Johnson's Police and Crime Plan held at the Camden Centre at the end of January was generally regarded to have been shambolic, and an occasion when the panel seemed more interested in talking at than listening to those who took the trouble to attend. A few days later some 50 local residents attended the West Hampstead and Fortune Green ...
Liberal Democrat blogger Richard Morris has published an excellent post on the New Statesman's blog, which gets to the heart of the matter: Every wing, arm and leg of the party is livid about this. They won't win another Eastleigh without the activists - and there's now a move by activists to refuse to support any parliamentary candidate who wandered through the yes lobby the other week. That's how seriously people take it. The leadership are no doubt sitting at home, cursing Jo Shaw's name and wondering why the grass roots aren't busy repeating the mantra set down from now ...
The City Council's planning committee met a little earlier today to decide whether or not to give permission for a takeaway at the corner of Greenhill Road and Melbreck Road (Caffleys). They effectively had three options. To say yes, to say no or to postpone a decision to go on a site visit (these are not that common but they do happen) Sadly they said yes. This is despite the volume of resident objections (52 were reported in the paperwork) and the list of concerns raised by local people and by Councillor Richard Oglethorpe and myself. Richard and I both ...
Lib Dem conference in Brighton last weekend started with a day of discussion between parliamentarians, ministers, and leaders of the tech/SME world. The day was chaired by games God Ian Livingstone, from Eidos. Attendees raised concerns over lack of finance, and immigration restrictions on skilled labour. Computer science must become a key part of the curriculum. ...
'INDIVIDUALISM RAMPANT!' the headline might as well of read, rather than the more demographically mealy 'Generation Self'. Apparently the youth of today are a source of concern to their elders, this time less in the form of angry old Colonel Blimp types despairing about their lack of a work ethic and more in the form ...
Well done to Polycarp Pengo, one of the Cardinals currently picking the new Pope. Lord Bonkers adds: Pengo could be a good outside bet if the favourite falls at the Canal Turn.
[IMG: annoyed.jpg] Sunny Hundal has a ridiculous piece up on Liberal Conspiracy about Vince Cable's refusal to play Labour's game on the Mansion Tax policy idea that they've stolen from the Lib Dems and reduced to a political gambit. That's a great shame – to the Lib Dems, it's a way to promote a fairer tax system, not a PR exercise. His claims that you can tell Vince is being dishonest about not responding to cynical party games because he didn't respond to Labour's move last week, and because he's really only responding to pressure from Downing Street. The obvious ...
A few observations from the weekend in Brighton. Lib Dem Voice luxury The Liberal Democrat Voice office was the loveliest we'd ever had. Normally we are stuck in a broom cupboard in amongst bottles of Domestos. This time we had proper desks, bottles of water and sweeties. And do you know what else was lovely? The Conference Office had factored us in and booked us a room without us having to ask. Our thanks to the person who did that. Rumour had it that the professional media's quarters were not quite as plush. I'm not saying that there was straw ...
Tue 12th
11:54
Next time there's a referendum on PR, I want the folk from The Falklands to run the 'Yes' campaign
Julian Huppert MP at the Saffron Brasserie (2012 Winners) MP Julian Huppert is giving the city's South Asian restaurants the chance to cause a stir nationally as he supports the Tiffin Cup competition for the third year running. Julian is encouraging nominations for the annual competition designed to find the best South Asian restaurant in the country. He is calling on restaurant owners across Cambridge to take part following the success of the city's Saffron Brasserie last year and Cocum in 2011. Both restaurants were named as runners up in the regional finals of the competition run by a cross-party ...
Here's another of Ros's interventions that I hadn't covered, from 10 January 2012... Baroness Scott of Needham Market (Liberal Democrat) My Lords, I very much welcome the Statement and, more importantly, the commitment to go ahead with the project. Does the Minister agree that if we are going to spend this amount of public money in these difficult times, it is very important that the public should have a general sense that this is a good thing; and that rather than the argument being entirely hijacked by questions of shaving minutes off journey times between London and Birmingham, we need ...
Franklin Road this morning It is true that the weather in the Medway Towns has taken an unexpected turn for the worse with wind, snow and flurries but it also seems to have caught Medway Council by surprise! Last night I was heartened by the sight of a solitary gritter going around Gillingham South ward but noted with some concern how icy the roads were like Canadian Avenue, Livingston road and Valley road. It seemed the main roads were OK though. This morning though the near 0 degrees seems to have shut the whole area down. Despite the Council's twitter ...
[IMG: men] Are you a man? Have you been or might you be on a fringe meeting panel at Liberal Democrat conference? If the answer to both is yes, I'd like your help... At the Spring conference just gone in Brighton, I nearly ended up being a speaker on an all-male panel - and one taking place on International Women's Day no less. The subject - technology and politics - is one where there are a good few female experts in the party, and it was only Olly Grender's last minute addition which saved my blushes from Mark Thompson's quite ...
Suffolk Liberal Democrats have revealed that the number of children being educated in temporary classrooms in Suffolk schools has tripled in the last six years. More than 1,500 pupils are being taught in portacabins across the County. Under the previous Liberal Democrat/Labour administration, there had been a significant drive to reduce the number of temporary classrooms. In 2007 there were 583 pupils in temporary classrooms. The figure of 1500 is set to rise even further with the announcement of the closure of four middle schools in the Stowmarket and Stowupland area. Spokesperson for Children and Young People's services, Penny Otton ...
Yesterday, this blog reported the Daily Telegraph's exposé of local councillors offering themselves for hire to property developers to provide planning advice. Today, the Telegraph's exposé continues with a report that local planning officers are also on the take: Moonlighting planning officers help builders exploit 'vulnerable' councilsPlanning officers are offering to draw up applications for developers who can take advantage of "vulnerable" councils in the wake of the relaxation of building laws, The Telegraph can disclose.The public sector officials, who work full-time for councils, charge thousands of pounds in consultancy fees to assist companies, including supermarkets and property companies, with ...
This morning's truly awful manufacturing data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has driven home the point also made over the last few days by other data series from the ONS; the British economy is spluttering along at a miserable pace. The spat between the Office of Budget Responsibility and the Prime Minister over quite why this is the case has thrown light on a long list of various contributing factors. Among them is the government's austerity programme - a programme I've previously been openly and highly supportive of - as well as various factors beyond the control of ...
I have been keeping this blog now for more than five years, sometimes more enthusiastically than other times. I began it during the Lib Dem leadership election in 2007, and my first post announced portentously - to the couple of people who saw it - that I was going to vote for Nick Clegg. "I know him to be one of those few in the Lib Dems who recognise the power of new ideas in politics, who understand that the party desperately needs to have a renewed purpose," I wrote then, and I stand by it now. But voting for ...
Slightly blowing my own trumpet here but Wokingham Borough Council's Liberal Democrat Group of Councillors is celebrating a Local Government Association award for Liberal Democrat 'Opposition Group of the Year Joint Winner 2013'. It was presented to me, as the group Leader, at the Liberal Democrat Federal Conference in Brighton on 8th March by Nick Clegg. I am delighted that our work as an effective opposition group has been recognised. We have held the Conservatives to account over the problems with their new waste collection service, forced the Conservatives into a U turn over plans to hand the library service ...
The newest Liberal Democrat MP spoke for the first time in Parliament yesterday in a debate on the Financial Services (Banking Reform) Bill, paying tribute to the work of his predecessors David Chidgey and Chris Huhne. As is traditional, he praised his constituency and described its history as a bustling industrial and railway town. Mike Thornton began by thanking all those who campaigned with him during last month's by-election, and the voters of Eastleigh for putting their faith in him. Mike's full speech, as recorded in Hansard: Thank you, Mr Speaker, for allowing me to make my maiden speech during ...
More than 2600 people were on an apprenticeship last year in Stockton-on-Tees thanks to the Liberal Democrats in government. That is a huge increase of 111% compared to the last year of Labour's government. These figures are a big boost for apprenticeships and young people in our borough which comes as National Apprenticeship Week is underway, aiming to raise awareness and celebrate the
Guest Article written by Alison Crane It's important for everyone's health and wellbeing that their home is warm enough and that fuel bills aren't too high. With this in mind, and to reduce carbon emissions, Birmingham City Council has introduced a scheme for all residents of the city to benefit from grant aided and subsidised insulation and heating improvements. Birmingham Energy Savers can
My piece at the New Statesman yesterday which caused a certain amount of angst for its author - but I thought it needed saying... Have added an addendum at the end... Last week, as ever before spring conference, every interviewer asked Lib Dem activists the same question - 'what's this year's row going to be about?' This time, the media gave us standard responses as well: Huhne, Rennard or"Plan V" for the economy.And all week, to a general response of rolling eyes, activists told them the same answer: secret courts.No one was interested. No one cared. 'Aren't you more bothered ...
Last week was the regular meeting of Bury Council's Cabinet, which I attend as an Opposition Group Leader. Two issues to highlight: Housing Allocation Policy The Council agreed its new housing allocation policy, for how it prioritises people who are waiting for 'council' houses (Six Town Housing houses). There are a number of fairly complex issues in the policy, for example around medical need, but basically the Council will 'band' housing applications according to need. Band 1-Urgent Housing Need Homeless and in priority need Urgent medical or welfare need Life threatening circumstances The Council has accepted a responsibility to re-house ...
The reason Vince Cable stood so far above his Labour and Tory counterparts during the financial crisis was his unique combination of economic subtlety and political guile; his rivals possessed those attributes the reverse way around. In his much mentioned essay in the New Statesman entitled 'When the facts change should I change my mind?" Cable shines a light on the dilemma serious politicians face in trying to balance the economic and political concerns inherent in policy making. The essay, which takes its title from a famous JM Keynes quote, debunks a number of the left's cherished myths, and delivers ...
Mark Thompson: My Secret Courts Pledge Mark will not campaign for any MP who voted in favour of secret courts. (tags: ) David Cameron may last even as he leads his MPs to their doom | Gaby Hinsliff Interesting article on bystander syndrome in MPs (tags: ) Victorian sewerage systems being "upgraded" in my local area not sure I approve of this. Don't want rats climbing up my toilet. (tags: ) The designer of Comic Sans speaks out (tags: ) If the Ministry of Justice gets its way in twenty four months the independent criminal bar will cease to exist ...
Nick Clegg meeting apprentices in the construction industry last year in Greater Manchester This week is National Apprenteship Week, which aims to raise awareenss and celebrate the success of the apprentieship scheme. The Govrnment has released figures for apprentices for the year that has just ended. More than 2050 people were on an apprenticeship last year in Bury. Final figures reveal that this is an increase of 64% compared to the last year of Labour's government. Apprenticeships seem like a great way for young people to learn the skills and get the experience necessary for a successful career. In Government ...
On Sunday, former Lib Dem parliamentary candidate and Federal Executive member Jo Shaw — the moving force behind LibDemsAgainstSecretCourts — announced her resignation from the party while proposing the motion opposing the extension of Closed Material Procedures (CMPs, aka secret courts) that was overwhelmingly carried by members. Her resignation followed the announcement by Dinah Rose QC that she was resigning from the party in protest at the party leadership's decision to back secret courts. That came the same day as Observer columnist Henry Porter, a long-time friend to the Lib Dems, publicly denounced what he termed Nick Clegg's "astonishing breach ...
Episode 50 of the House of Comments podcast "I'm a liberal and I'm against this sort of thing" was recorded on Sunday and is out today. This week I could not make it but Emma Burnell was joined by Liberal Democrat Linda Jack and former Liberal Democrat Jo Shaw who had dramatically resigned from the party on the conference stage during a debate on Secret Courts on the day of recording. They discuss Secret Courts, party leaderships being out of touch with their members, the differences between Labour and the Lib Dems and how women in politics and public life ...
His crime was speeding then lying (and lying some more). Her crime was lying and self-immolating revenge. Last night they spent their first night in prison. Few people will spare much sympathy for either Chris Huhne or Vicky Pryce. They are, as Mr Justice Sweeney said yesterday when sentencing the pair to eight months each, the architects of their own downfall. Though I also think it would take a particularly stony heart not to look at the ashen-faced photos of them, besieged by a mob-handed press as their humiliation is played out in real-time in the full glare of publicity, ...
Review: Trillion Year Spree Perhaps the most important place for the history of a genre to begin is with defining its topic. (tags: SF ) Under the Influence: Doctor Who Ryk E. Spoor explains it all. (tags: Doctorwho ) The Straight Dope: Did Renaldus Columbus discover the clitoris in 1559? In brief: no. (tags: sexandgenderandsexuality ) Harry Weathersby Stamps A great obituary. (tags: deaths ) It's Still A Bad Idea To Sell Arms To Somalia Yes. (tags: waronterror war Somalia )
I have today launched my March 2013 Update to West End Community Council. The Update covers the following issues: * Action on graffiti vandalism* Unadopted pavements progress* Leak on Magdalen Green You can download the Update here. The Community Council meets tonight at 7pm at Logie St John's (Cross) Church Hall in Shaftesbury Terrace. All residents welcome to attend. This month's guest speaker is Fergus Wilson, City Engineer.
