David Howarth has posted an excellent article rebutting Tom McNally's article on secret courts over on Lib Dem Voice. It provides a useful summary of many of the biggest problems with the 'secret courts' proposals: They lead to one-sided justice. They don't just cover cases where ex-prisoners are claiming financial compensation. Civil procedures are the base for a wide range of areas including judicial review and habeas corpus Despite Government claims, under the current proposals, they will not be a last resort They establish secret precedent and therefore – as a direct consequence – secret law. To quote David: The ...
[IMG: Sharon Bowles] "The Cyprus bailout deal is a disaster for EU rules and Single Market principles" - Sharon Bowles MEP. Sharon Bowles MEP, Chair of the European Parliament's Economic & Monetary Affairs Committee, has said she is "appalled" by the Cyprus bailout, which includes 'bailing-in' some guaranteed deposits - i.e. swapping them for shares. Sharon Bowles MEP said: "This grabbing of ordinary depositors' money is billed as a tax, so as to try and circumvent the EU's deposit guarantee laws. It robs smaller investors of the protection they were promised. If this were a bank, they would be in ...
The Stones released this in the summor of love and released it as a single in December 1967. Incredibly, it did not chart. The song was written by Jagger and Richard, the strings were arranged by John Paul Jones and it features a mellotron played by Brian Jones. The piano was played by Nicky Hopkins, who began his career with Screaming Lord Sutch (whom I remember applauding around the hall when he came to the count at Littleborough and Saddleworth in 1995). He later became one of the great session musicians of his era. When Hopkins died in 1994 Ray ...
From the Daily Telegraph: Norman Baker, MP for Lewes, will next week be releasing an album called Always Tomorrow with his band the Reform Club, it was revealed in the Sunday Times. The 55-year-old junior minister for transport is the band's lead singer and chief lyricist, with most of the music being written by the guitarist, Mike Phipps.As the report goes on to say, Norman was once a regional director of the music chain Our Price.
Every so often I get a lobbying email from the Hacked Off campaign. At the end of those emails they offer to respond to questions. I have on a number of occasions. sent them questions or comments in response, but they don't respond - even though they claim that they will. I have also spoken to Evan Harris who has said they will respond, but nothing ever happens. This particular campaign are
From Babergh District Councillors Sue Carpendale and Kathy Pollard Council Tax Council met on 26 February 2013 to set this year's budget and council tax. As predicted, there is no increase for Babergh. Overall, the total Council Tax amounts for parishes in the Mid Samford Ward will be: Capel St Mary £1508.54; Great Wenham and Little Wenham £1437.16; Holton St Mary £1485.24; Stratford St Mary £1484.24. Housing Revenue account, rents and charges Housing rents are increased by 5.17% – the average will be £90.12 per week; sheltered communal service charges are increased by 5%; sheltered utilities charges are decreased by ...
Yesterday's Western Mail contains an interesting revelation about the continuing tensions within the Labour Party over devolution. The paper says that Carwyn Jones was given a "roasting" by Welsh MPs during a meeting at Westminster over his plan to have policing powers devolved to Wales: A senior Labour source said many Welsh Labour MPs were angry that the policy had been announced by the First Minister without it having gone through normal party processes and without them having been consulted. We have also been told it was made clear to Mr Jones that such a transfer of powers would not ...
It's good to see that work has started on converting the empty eyesore building on Island Road (by the park) into homes. The building belongs to South Liverpool Housing. It's some time ago that planning permission was given but here is a link to the details of what is being done (NB: the bulk of the information is in the related documents section so you need to scroll down and click again)
The party conference being last weekend (in Brighton) I was able to attend the Birmingham St Patrick's Day Parade today. Last year the Lib Dem conference was at Gateshead. That made it impossible for me to attend the St Patrick's day festival (particularly as I was up until 2am playing piano at the Glee Club). I have stopped taking around a camera as I think the camera in my mobile phone is
Given that, in my professional life, I spend rather a lot of time applying the fruits of our legislative process, and that my behaviour is constrained by a specific Act (the Commissioners of Revenue and Customs Act 2005), I perhaps have a conservative view on producing more legislation as a solution to a new or emerging problem.The notion of putting press regulation onto a statutory footing is a troubling one in a number of ways. Freedom of the Press is part of a framework of protections that serve to constrain the State, offering scope for alternative viewpoints and debate on ...
A few weeks ago I was wistfully looking out of the choo-choo train and I asked myself the very question that is in the title. I wasn't thinking about whether true love exists or whether it is possible to meet that person but it was more of a thought about how likely it was that you would meet them. It was a thought about basic maths. There are what just over seven billion people in the world so that is a hell of a lot of people. Now obviously not all those people want a person of the opposite sex ...
Leveson makes me angry. Not because I work for NI (not as a journalist, because I'm bad with words and also it's hard and I like not having to immerse myself in bad news), but because I'm one of those ... Continue reading →
[IMG: steve webb] The Guardian's Simon Hoggart has been collecting examples of impenetrable jargon. This week, Lib Dem pensions minister Steve Webb features: Thanks for the many examples of jargon you've sent in, and we'll have a proper look at it all soon. In the meantime, there are examples which are actually quite helpful. Take work and pensions, which is without a doubt the most difficult of all government departments. Yet the Liberal Democrat minister Steve Webb actually seems to know exactly what he is talking about. He may be alone. See if you can decode his reply this week ...
After a hectic two and a half days at Scottish Liberal Democrat Conference, I had a "relaxing" afternoon helping the Countryside Rangers and a group of local residents undertake path cleaning at Balgay Hill - here's a few of the group pictured below: It was jolly hard work but the steps on the hill are now much easier to walk on following us removing lots of leaves:I also had the chance to call by the WestFest Spring Fair at the Vine: Kay Macfarlane's crafts stall ... ... and Pauline Murray's crafts ... Attractive and unusual plant pot holders
I was delighted to address a Saturday class at the Westside Young Leaders Academy in Willesden yesterday. I spoke about the media and fielded a great deal of questions! It was uplifting to meet a class-full ...
Could the Orkney Isles form part of a new Crown dependency? Supposedly we are, after yesterday's vote at the Scottish Liberal Democrats' conference. It's a conference I haven't been able to attend personally, due to work commitments. Unusually, the agenda was more daring, if not ambitious, than has generally been the case in recent years - with significant debates on secret courts (at which the government position was roundly defeated, again) and mental health issues (in which, even as an absentee member, I feel proud that our party had the courage to discuss this matter so openly and even prouder ...
My arrival at Brighton was a something of a financial shock. A huge £3.90 for a coffee in the Metropole. You can buy a coffee and a pint of beer for less than four pounds in Demsbury. A good slug of Pinot Grigio is only a few pence more! The Liberal Democrat Spring Conference was not at all as I expected. I'm an avid conference goer in my professional life, but this conference proved totally different. Okay. I have never encountered so many bad taste yellow ties before. But what struck me most was the diverse group of people, disabled, ...
I was challenged a while ago by Linda Jack as part of Alex Wilcock's Lib Dem Values series. Never being one to respond to a prompt quickly, it's stewed in my mind for a while, but now I think I'm ready to take a stab at it. In a truly liberal way, I'm going to ignore the rules and write about what I think the key areas and overall themes for the party should be, then see at the end if I can hone them into a coherent message. Liberty – freedom and justice: This is the freedom to do ...
"What badly needs debate is precisely how to regulate cross-media ownership better, and how to prevent semi-monopolies of influence from building up that subverts proper media balance - and prevents prime ministers paying court to one press baron and his acolytes in particular." David Boyle says the debate over Leveson is ignoring the most important question. Simon Titley on Liberator's blog gives an account of the rise and fall of economic liberalism in the Liberal Democrats. The Conservatives' A list did bring them more women candidates but made little difference in the areas of race and class, finds Michael Hill ...
Here's today's hand-picked selection that caught my interest... Forget 50p — scrap the 60p tax rate » Spectator Blogs .@JJ_159 on one of the more crazy aspects of our tax system > Forget 50p — scrap the 60p tax rate » Spectator Blogs http://bit.ly/15btElx How do you get more tax from the rich? Cut their tax rates. Lessons from Lawson, 25 years on. » Spectator Blogs V interesting graph via @frasernelson on share of total income tax liability: top 1% pay more in '08-09 cf '78-79 http://bit.ly/15bsWF7 The curious incident of the books on the Kindle » Spectator Blogs Why ...
Nick Clegg's latest email missive arrived in my email inbox this weekend. Two odd things about it... First, as Paul Walter and Jonathan Calder have already picked up: the absence of any mention of last weekend's debate on 'secret courts'. I understood why it wasn't mentioned in his leader's speech last weekend: he wanted to keep the media's attention focused on the party's core message. But if we go back to the original intention of the Letter from the Leader, it was – as Nick himself wrote in the first one – "to give you a bit more of an ...
I spent a total of seven years of my life living in Belgium but I never met the man obsessed with penguins. Tabloids like to use "Brussels" as shorthand for the EU, as if there was some bureaucratic cellar in the Grand Place dreaming up madder and madder regulations to impose on Britain. Douglas Adams' take on Belgium was surprisingly unpopular when I played it to a Belgian friend.
David Boyle, the nearest thing the Liberal Democrats have to an intellectual guru, has a new book out: The Age to Come: Authenticity, Post-Modernism and How To Survive What Comes Next. David writes on his blog: The next age, the coming age, will try to challenge our contemporary conviction that nothing is true and everything is relative. It will not reach back hopelessly to previous ages of certainty, though people may accuse it of that: we have lost our innocence about social reality. It will not pretend it is somehow possible to work out unambiguously what is true in this ...
Way back in 2010, I got a pair of video recording sunglasses. I've been occasionally using them to "lifelog" what I'm doing. With the advent of Google's Project Glass, I thought it would be interesting to wear them to a fairly techy event - Not At SXSW London to see what the reaction would be. Here are my findings. Caveats These are not Google Glasses. These are £15 DVR Sunglasses . They are cheap and nasty and don't look anything like the futuristic Google Glasses. [IMG: Video Sunglasses] They record VGA quality video and have a mono microphone suitable for ...
There's either been not enough or too many things being written on the internet recently, but here's some of the more recent ones I'd recommend taking a look at. The Shame of Selling Yourself – Stuart Millard on the hard tasks faced by a self-promoting self-published author. Beware the New Fascism. You might not even recognise it. – A warning from Jason O'Mahony David Howarth responds on secret courts – Probably needs a better title (like 'David Howarth calmly and methodically demolishes the government's arguments on secret courts' for instance) but a reminder of what we lost when he chose ...
The recent debate about secret courts has had an extraordinarily unifying effect on the Liberal Democrats, uniting previously opposing factions. Admittedly, they have been united against their own leadership, which is another matter. But it does make you wonder why the party split into factions in the first place. The answer is that this is perfectly normal. Major political parties are broad churches and must remain so if they are not to become narrow sects. There are basic beliefs that all members share, otherwise there would be no point being in the same party. But in a broad church, it ...
[IMG: IMG_1181] Local residents in Alexandra, Inkerman and Bedford Roads have become increasingly exasperated by the failure of Thames Water to get on with the sewerage replacement – or even admit that it they who are doing the work. And one resident has been told that the plans the workforce is working from are incorrect. Chris is continuing to press the county council to use their powers to get Thames Water off the street. 'The sheer inconvenience and mess is simply atrocious,' said Chris.
So, Holly has a school trip to Bankfield Museum for a Churchill's Children day on Wednesday. My mum has her Tuesday nights, and therefore takes her to school on Wednesday mornings, and had assured me that the dressing up requirement would be taken care of. I got a text this morning: "Have you sorted out Holly's outfit for Bankfield yet?" *headdesk headdesk headdesk* My mum has decided she can't sort out the outfit, and has given me lots of notice to pick up the slack. So basically I have a day and a half to get hold of a 1940s ...
Am I missing something here? We have the main political parties arguing over press regulation like St Anselm arguing over how many angels were on the head of a pin. But the causes of media abuse - the outrageous hold that the Murdoch press had over politicians - goes unremarked. What badly needs debate is precisely how to regulate cross-media ownership better, and how to prevent semi-monopolies of influence from building up that subverts proper media balance - and prevents prime ministers paying court to one press baron and his acolytes in particular. As always, the most important Liberal issue ...
Dear Chris, When I came into work on Monday morning I thought this week was going to be about two things. First - National Apprenticeship Week, celebrating the achievements of the million new apprentices who have started training under this government. And second - finalising the Budget for next week. But that got rather overtaken on Thursday morning. The Prime Minister decided to pull the plug on cross-party talks on implementing a new system of independent, self regulation for the press, as proposed by the Leveson Inquiry. I was surprised and disappointed by this decision, but I am determined not ...
[IMG: 7617118618_86217f356b_b] ....And the News Channel will finish there at 1pm tomorrow. (The photo on the right is mine of the door of the famous Studio One at BBC Television Centre, taken when I went on a tour of the building last year.) It's all the end of an era. The last day of the BBC operating the Television Centre in White City will be on 31st March. On 22nd March, BBC Four will mark the occasion with Madness performing live and a two hour programme of nostalgia called Goodbye TV Centre: Former BBC Chairman Michael Grade will invite an ...
Yesterday I was in the Telegraph magazine in a report about young bloggers. I was featured with Jake's Bones, Childtastic books, The adventures of Betsy Lou and Tolly dolly posh fashion. Jessica Salter, kindly, came to interview me and then Johnathon Williams photographed me for the magazine. I thank them for producing a lovely article which you can see online here. Here is what the article says: On the night of the last general election, in May 2010, Maelo Manning's house in south London was a local campaign base for the Liberal Democrats - her mother, Jane, a civil servant, ...
Good news blogosphere! I have found the perfect example to illustrate why blogs are more reliable than the press and articles in newspapers! Yesterday Lib Dem Voice published an utterly bizarre piece by one Michael Taylor in which, on the basis of a ten year old book he's just read, he asserts that the new discoveries (e.g. the decade old "discoveries") of "cosmoclimatology" turn all models of climate change on their head and that Lib Dems should consider this important new "evidence". Well, the article is a complete and utter load of hokum. Taylor begins the article with: I have ...
At my normal snail's pace, I am reading through A Walk-On Part: Diaries 1994-1999, by then Labour MP Chris Mullin. Last night I came across two entries which I think encapsulate the moment when Labour started to mess up the economy. It is quite spine-chilling to read this now: (Note that Ed Balls was Gordon Brown's economic adviser at the time). Monday 13 July Gordon Brown made a statement setting out his spending plans for the next three years. All good stuff on the face of it. Billions being splashed out. Education to rise 5.1 per cent of GDP in ...
The name Halabja, like Auschwitz and Srebrenica, is etched in the mind, yet it is hard to picture the place until one goes there. The photos one sees of the 1988 chemical weapons attack on the Kurdish population by Saddam Hussein's evil regime show closeups of bodies lying in narrow streets or on doorsteps. Gwynne ...
A shining example of the system we set out to destroy Nick Barlow on what the Lib Dem leadership have become. (tags: ) The Lovecraftsman: Film designer creates AMAZING man-sized Cthulhu costume (tags: ) Why you can't say "you" in the House of Commons (IMHO this is utter bollocks and would be far better scrapped, but I realise YMMV) (tags: ) Canada: Lawyer says bisexuality shouldn't have been a factor in client's murder conviction - PinkNews.co.uk (tags: ) Brighton & Hove Council: no tenant to be evicted over bedroom tax This could make things interesting... (tags: ) European Parliament Information ...
[IMG: Leveson report front page] I've got used to describing myself as "a liberal first, a Lib Dem second". Most of the time the Venn diagram works out pretty well. But not the last couple of weeks. First, there was 'secret courts' and the decision by Nick Clegg, backed by most Lib Dem MPs (though not by party members), to extend legal proceedings which directly conflict with natural justice and that elevate the state above the individual. And now there's Nick Clegg's decision, again likely to be backed by most Lib Dem MPs (and this time probably with the support ...
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the longest running science fiction show in the world I am taking a weekly look at some of my favourite Dr Who episodes focusing on one Doctor a month. This month it's the third Doctors turn. In the village of Devil's End an archaeological dig is excavating a Bronze age burial mound called the Devil's Hump whilst being filmed by BBC3. A local white witch arrives to protest, warning of great evil and the coming of the horned beast but she is dismissed as a crank. The Doctor is not so sure. What if ...
Rob Portman and the politics of narcissism. The great challenge for a senator isn't to go to Washington and represent the problems of his own family. It's to try to obtain the intellectual and moral perspective necessary to represent the problems of the people who don't have direct access to the corridors of power. Senators basically never have poor kids. That's something members of Congress should think about. (tags: Uspolitics sexandgenderandsexuality ) Bigger Than You Think: the Vatican and its Annexes Strange Maps untangles the pontifical cartography. (tags: maps pope )
Some months ago, I reported the City Council's intention to improve the untidy, litter-strewn and overgrown Hunter Street/Hawkhill roundabout. On behalf of residents, I had raised this matter with the City Council's Environment Department and I am pleased to advise that work to improve the roundabout has now been undertaken. The shrubbery has been well thinned-out and the litter removed - see right.
When I came into work on Monday morning I thought this week was going to be about two things. First – National Apprenticeship Week, celebrating the achievements of the million new apprentices who have started training under this government. And second – finalising the Budget for next week. But that got rather overtaken on Thursday morning. The Prime Minister decided to pull the plug on cross-party talks on implementing a new system of independent, self regulation for the press, as proposed by the Leveson Inquiry. I was surprised and disappointed by this decision, but I am determined not to walk ...
The views on this aggregator are a collections of views from various people's blogs.
LibDemBlogs and the Liberal Democrats accept no responsibility for the posts made.
