[IMG: 700PoundCut] Liberal Democrats in Government are delivering Fairer Tax. £600 less tax than you paid under Labour this April – and now £700 less tax than you paid under Labour next April. AND we've persuaded the Tories that we must hold the top tax rate at 45% – 5% more than Labour's 40% rate (apart from that short five week period under Labour when it was 50%) This, together with an allowances cap for the very rich, means that thanks to Liberal Democrat policies the lower paid pay less tax while the higher paid pay more. And large numbers ...
[IMG: House front in scaffolds] The objections to George Osborne's latest wheeze to assist the housing market are hardly worth discussing. They are almost too obvious. And they have been rehearsed at length in relation to similar, smaller scale initiatives that have already been tried. The new "Help to Buy" scheme, announced in today's Budget, aims to provide equity loans of up to 20% of the value of new properties worth less than £600,000. Households have to come up with a 5% deposit to participate. The Chancellor is proposing that the scheme be backed up with government guarantees sufficient to ...
On Monday Parliament voted to bring in exemplary damgages, as recommended by Leveson, as part ofthe Crime and Courts Bill. To try and make some sense of the mess created by the Royal Charter I have been going through the Hansard record of Monday's debate and vote. Bizarrely, it seems that no party leader voted ...
I wrote last December about the need to regulate against press racism so its' disappointing to see that the issues is still being largely ignored by MPs. Much of the raging debate surrounding regulation and Leveson ...
Nick Clegg has announced that these families will soon be able to get up to £1200 off the cost of childcare for every child - needed relief for many in these difficult times. It will help parents make their own choices about how and when they return to work. Figures show that more than half of stay at home parents would rather work if good quality and affordable childcare was available. Many more would be able to increase the hours they work too. That's the kind of fairer society Liberal Democrats are fighting for in Government. [IMG: 179062_10151488760998270_824104640_n] The scheme ...
The Liberal Democrats are delivering a £700 Income Tax cut for 24.5m working people - a year ahead of schedule. The announcement that the Income Tax Personal Allowance will rise to £10,000, confirmed in the Budget, means the Liberal Democrats' top priority at the 2010 General Election has been delivered in full by the Coalition Government. It means: A £700 tax cut for 24.5m working people across the UK since the Liberal Democrats came to power2.7m low paid workers will no longer pay Income Tax at allFor the average family, we have cut the Income Tax bill by a thirdIt ...
Today George Osborne crossed fingers and hoped 'steady as she goes' will come good by 2015, says Stephen Tall on Liberal Democrat Voice. With graphs. Paul Nettleton is impressed by Cumbria Day, in which the county's six MPs put party difference to one side to support a showcase for local businesses. "I really believe Guantanamo has created more true terrorists around the world then we've gotten rid of." Brandon Neeley - a former guard at Guantanamo Bay - is interviewed by RT. "The attorney general of the United States has now admitted that the biggest American financial corporations have created ...
Has George Osborne forgotten to do an Equality Impact Assessment on his budget again? The chancellor was criticised by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) for failing to carry out the exercise to identify whether ...
UK Royal Charter requires Queen's signature.Unlikely without full all party support. Queen doesn't do politics. — Rupert Murdoch(@rupertmurdoch) March 19, 2013 [IMG: Post to Twitter] Tweet This Post
An article in the Canadian magazine Maclean's looks at the controversy over the publication of the American Psychiatric Association's "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders" (DSM-5): Every parent of a preteen has been there: on the receiving end of sullen responses, bursts of frustration or anger, even public tantrums that summon the fear that Children's Aid is on its way. Come late May, with the publication of ... DSM-5, however, such sustained cranky behaviour could put your child at risk of a diagnosis of "disruptive mood dysregulation disorder." This newly minted condition will afflict children between 6 and 12 ...
Wed 20th
20:05
Budget 2013: Osborne crosses fingers and hopes 'steady as she goes' will come good by 2015
[IMG: George Osborne with Red Box, Budget 2012] Move along, nothing to see here... This was a steady-as-she-goes budget at a time when the economy is anything-but-steady. Of course as Lib Dems it's great to welcome the final push towards lifting all those paid less than £10,000 out of income tax. As my Co-Editor Caron Lindsay notes here, this is a policy direct from the front page of our 2010 manifesto to the Coalition's budget. That's no mean achievement — we know that because the Tories keep trying to claim it as their own policy, even though it didn't feature ...
Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 317th 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 March, 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. Quote ...
Today, the Liberal Democrats fulfilled their key election pledge of raising the income tax threshold to £10,000. And they've produced a nifty little picture to tell us about it. And we should rightly be proud. This doesn't tell the whole story, though. How did this get in to our manifesto in the first place? Did it fall out of the Orange Book and hit David Laws on the head? I have to say there's no clue in either of the emails I've seen from Danny Alexander today. Actually no. It came from an idea by Chester's Elizabeth Jewkes, way back ...
A year ago I wrote and article for the Guardian website making the case for encouraging chess in schools. In it I interviewed Malcolm Pein from the charity Chess in School and Communities. Today comes news that the Education Endowment Foundation (whose development director is a certain Stephen Tall) has made a grant of £689,150 to the charity to test the impact of teaching chess to primary aged children: The programme will see chess being taught within normal class time for one hour a week by accredited chess coaches. A 30-week curriculum is used to teach chess, this starts by ...
Today, the Liberal Democrats fulfilled their key election pledge of raising the income tax threshold to £10,000. And they've produced a nifty little picture to tell us about it. And we should rightly be proud. [IMG: Tax Threshold infographic] This doesn't tell the whole story, though. How did this get in to our manifesto in the first place? Did it fall out of the Orange Book and hit David Laws on the head? I have to say there's no clue in either of the emails I've seen from Danny Alexander today. Actually no. It came from an idea by Chester's ...
The confusion regarding whether we will see bloggers and wider comment on the web being regulated is reaching monumental proportions now. Government officials are briefing Lib Dems that bloggers are not. Meanwhile other government sources don't seem to know, for example, on Monday the Guido Fawkes site would not be regulated but 24 hours later it would be. Organisations like Index on censorship are not so certain. This view is supported by the OCSE and the Open Rights Group Hacked off meanwhile don't seem too sure which way is up. According to The Times (£) They are demanding further negotiations ...
(Note to non-registered users: you can log in to vote with open ID ; open ID urls include blogger, google, flickr, yahoo and wordpress. A guide to finding your open ID url is here) View Poll: #13072 [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
Most Budgets fade into the mists of time. But some stand out in history. For Liberals, Lloyd George's 1909 "People's Budget" is surely the greatest. Peel abolished the Corn Laws in 1846, having re-introduced income tax in 1842. Of more recent Chancellors, the two longest serving have been Nigel Lawson and of course Gordon Brown. ...
I replied to the last Letter from the Leader asking for a full explanation of the secret courts episode. I have now received this response from the office of Nick Clegg: Dear Paul, Thank you for your email to Nick Clegg sharing your concerns about the Justice & Security Bill. I am replying on his behalf. This Bill is a judgement call over the best way to allow sensitive evidence to be heard in civil courts. It does not apply to criminal cases at all. Obviously people hold a range of views about this Bill but I can assure you ...
There are, at most, 777 days until the next UK General Election. Today's Budget was the last real chance to introduce measures that will have time to create a real impact before then. This, however, was not a Budget designed to alter the path of the economy in any dramatic way: the Coalition has never veered far from the course set at the Spending Review almost three years ago. Instead, this was a narrow Budget, full of small measures. That is not to say that this Budget is not important in terms of the next election. Small as its measures ...
The Coetzee mantra on display in Lib Dem Scotland HQ Nick Clegg has had to look to the Republic of South Africa to toughen up his strategy team. The word is that special adviser Ryan Coetzee, is a very forceful new voice within the Deputy Prime Minister's office. Liberal Democrats are repeating his mantra, "On Message, in Volume and Over Time" in local party headquarters from the Shetlands to the Scilly Isles. So over the next few weeks after the budget we should expect the Liberal Democrats to be repeating, in volume, over and over again their own little victory ...
[IMG: Helvetica example] Today British political commentators are absorbed by the 2013 Budget. I don't believe in the value instant comment, and my commentary on the 2012 Budget proved way off the mark anyway. So I will talk about graphic design instead. In the run up to the 2010 the Liberal Democrats launched a new house style, featuring a new colour palette and a new font, Helvetica Neue, in three weights (light, medium and heavy) and with an "italic" (which sloped rather than really italic). This was all part of the party's new, professional image. Getting a political party's activists ...
Our panel of science and innovation policy experts digests the details of George Osborne's budget statement In today's budget speech, George Osborne described research and development as "absolutely central to Britain's economic future". But is he doing enough to get us there? The science budget is one area of public spending to have escaped the worst impacts of austerity. In the 2010 spending review, a ringfence was placed around £4.6bn of annual funding, to the relief of many in the research community, who had been braced for cuts of up to 30%. Since then, the coalition has repeatedly stated its ...
Shock horror the very suggestion of corruption in Thanet council seems incredible, incompetent yes, over time I've heard some outrageous examples of the poor standards, at TDC such as, at the comic level a council officer telling me that the Tudor House in Margate was built in the 1950's, seen reports of the planning office misleading the public about planning a significant planning application in Newington, and of course witnessed first hand how two chief executives failed to allow unfettered access to public meetings although at least one had the manners to respond personally to complaints unlike the current. Anyhow ...
Today the Labour Party voted down my motion, even though I'd changed the wording to meet their objections. Read it and work out for yourselves what there was to oppose in this motion: Durham County Council welcomes the Government's protection of its public health grant for two years, with grants totalling £44.5 million for 2013-4 and £45.8 million for 2014-5, some of the most generous grants per head in England. This council supports both its own officers and the Association of North East Councils in their efforts to explore with the independent committee advising government a more evidence based formula ...
Some wag has produced a T-shirt tribute to George Osborne:
Cornwall's Liberal Democrats today launched our campaign for the elections on May 2nd. We were joined at the launch in Bodmin by Tim Farron MP, the President of the Liberal Democrats. This election provides a real chance for Cornwall to move away from the wasted years of the Conservative-Independent coalition. Instead, Liberal Democrats are offering a positive vision for Cornwall - cutting waste and investing in the services that the people of Cornwall want. Our key messages in this election will be: We will cut waste and inefficiency, not the services that local people rely on;We will provide homes for ...
So, the personal allowance will reach £10,000 on 6 April 2014, a year ahead of the target stated in the 2010 Liberal Democrat manifesto. Excellent work, especially in the teeth of a lengthy period of austerity, and I note that there is much excitement that we have 'delivered a £700 tax cut for ordinary people'. Far be it for me to demur from the celebrations (and there is much to celebrate), but perhaps a look at the numbers might help.To get a benefit of £700, you would have to assume that the personal allowance would not have been increased from ...
Wed 20th
16:36Danny Alexander MP writes... Budget 2013: putting Liberal Democrat principles into practice
Today's Budget delivers Liberal Democrat policies to help families with the cost of living and invest in the future of our economy, while making responsible choices to deal with the financial problems Labour left us with. The announcement that the Coalition will increase the personal allowance to £10,000-one year ahead of schedule-is a huge victory for the Liberal Democrats. At the last General Election, we made big tax cuts for people on low and middle incomes the centre piece of our manifesto. We have delivered that promise-helping deliver a strong economy in a fairer society, so everyone can get on ...
The Budget contains some welcome measures, especially on childcare costs and raising the personal tax allowance to £10,000 next year. The latter is a Liberal Democrat commitment being delivered in government, and will go some way to ease the spiraling cost of ... Continue reading →
Below is a message from Caron Lindsay, Returning Officer for Liberal Youth's upcoming elections. Here is the full message, followed by job descriptions under the 'read more' tag. The deadline for nominations is midnight, Friday 19th of April. Please contact Caron at lyelections [at] gmail.com for more information. Nominations are now open for Liberal Youth's ...
A decision was agreed at the Strategy & Resources Committee on Monday to allow the payment of a relocation grant of £35,000 to Orlit Freeholders to assist them in purchasing an alternative property following the council's buyback of their homes. The conditions of the payment were set out in a policy which had been circulated ...
[IMG: To post or not to post?] A furore has broken out over whether the Royal Charter on press regulation, and the amendments to the Crime and Courts Bill that accompany it, would mean that bloggers and tweeters would be subject to 'exemplary damages' in the event of successful complaints brought against them. The Guardian's live blogger Andrew Sparrow initially thought that blogs and Twitter might be subject to regulation by the newly created press regulator - the independent body recommended by Lord Justice Leveson. He was swiftly corrected, and the correction sheds light on the source of confusion - ...
During the 1998 Asian currency crisis, a desperate finance minister whose currency had come under sudden attack in the world markets called the IMF for advice. But it was after 5pm Washington time and the IMF officials had gone home. The security guard told him he would have to make up his own mind. The IMF may not have been there when they were needed them - at least outside Washington office hours - - but they were always able to help some of the most unpleasant third world dictators, including Mobutu, Moi, Samuel Doe, the Argentine junta, Marcos and ...
There is no doubt that today is a very good day for the Liberal Democrats. The party has delivered a major pledge from its 2010 manifesto, as this infographic from Mark Pack shows: [IMG: Mark Pack graphic on tax pledge] This is not an idea that fell out of the Orange Book. It came from Elizabeth Jewkes, an ordinary member. I wonder how she feels today. It goes to show that being a member of this party can give you opportunities to make a real difference to people's lives. To deliver on such a pledge a year early in the ...
Please let the police know if you can help trace Pamela Christina Jackson from Chester le Street. [IMG: Missing]
The application by McCarthy & Stone to build on the site of the former Magistrates Court will be decided at the Development Control Committee on Wednesday 27th March at 7.30pm in meeting room 1 at Civic Offices, Sutton. There have been just four objections to the application and nine letters of support. The proposals in ...
For political campaigning addicts, the 1992 US Presidential election is a classic. A party coming back to win after a series of defeats. A candidate coming back from the depths of personal scandal to a landslide win. A campaign team headed by charismatic characters who make Jeremy Clarkson seem quiet and modest by comparison. An aggressive and different approach to media relations. An innovative approach (for politics) to open-plan, non-siloed team organisation. A famous campaign message slogan. And all recorded in a great documentary film, The War Room. Watching it again a few days ago, I noticed something that had ...
Climate change is one of the greatest threats facing our planet - if we don't tackle it we will continue to see extinction of species on an industrial scale, parts of our world will become uninhabitable for humans, and we will see increasing conflict between nations over scarce resources and the mass migration of impoverished peoples. We need to step up to this environmental challenge and use all of our ingenuity and resourcefulness to meet it head-on. As the Secretary of State I'm determined to use all of my powers to make sure that Britain leads the way in sourcing ...
There was always likely to be a Twitter gaffe today, and you might have thought it would come form George Osborne's new account. There was even a question about Twitter in PMQs, warning the Chancellor of the perils of the social network. Perhaps those running the Sun's account should have listened. Here is a ...
The starting point for paying income tax will rise to £10,000 next year. This was the key manifesto commitment of the Liberal Democrats at the last election.
Here's today's hand-picked selection that caught my interest... Carl Minns – Thoughts from Hull: Name the odd one out – Press regulation edition. Lib Dem MPs vow of silence on free speech > Name the odd one out – Press regulation edition. http://bit.ly/10hgAfj via @CarlMinns Pupils to be given chess lessons in school standards drive – Telegraph 1 of 8 @EducEndowFoundn grants announced today: Pupils to be given chess lessons in school standards drive -Telegraph http://bit.ly/11dVkWv Ten Tragedies Caught on Film – British Pathé Put this in the category 'grisly but compelling' >> Ten Tragedies Caught on Film – British ...
A couple of days ago I saw some guy complaining on a friend of mine's latest Facebook status. He was moaning that she updated too much and that he 'got the message' that she was at university and happy with her man. It riled me up. I even went as far as to actually say my piece on the status: If you don't want to read someone's statuses then there is an easy way to stop it. I do get annoyed when people complain about 'how much someone else updates their Facebook/Twitter etc...' or complains about what they say. No-one ...
In a curious way, we seem to be back to normal: the so-called "popular press" may now concentrate their fire - and their investigative effort - entirely on the political class, with the occasional foray into "celebrity" territory, and leave "real people" in peace. While the newspapers chose politicians and self-appointed publicity-seekers as their targets for hacking phones, scrambling through dustbins and inventive gossip, readers didn't seem to mind what methods the papers used. Remember the Daily Telegraph on MPs' expenses and The Sunday Times on Peers' misbehaviour? There was manifestly a public interest at stake, so the illegal appropriation ...
George Osborne is about to get to his feet to deliver his Budget. [IMG: IF campaign Budget Dy] In Parliament Square this morning, Enough Food IF campaigners gathered to remind him to stick to the 0.7% overseas aid pledge. Join us for our budget live blog. "It was of course inevitable that debit reduction would impact on growth, but what the independent OBR figures show quite clearly is that other factors – namely the weak international picture and higher-than-expected inflation – have had a much greater impact on economic growth. Given the risks of not setting out a clear path ...
I had a call from a long distance sounding person this morning. He said he was from the Windows servicing company and he was going to sort out my computer problem. I don't have a computer, I said. Oh, I understand, maybe you have an Apple? Yes, and a banana or two in the fruit dish. Well, do not worry, we are the Apple servicing company. You said you were Windows. Make your mind up. We do it all Sir. What is the name of your company? Yes. We are technical company for Apple. Oh good, I said, because when ...
I'm a bit bleary eyed today. One conference is exhausting, two on successive weekends is positively foolhardy. Following that up with a trip to London for Federal Executive is craziness. I spent the weekend in Dundee where Scottish Liberal Democrats held their main Conference. Over three days, there were no fewer than twelve policy debates, some of them incredibly powerful or controversial. Here are my highlights. The Secret Courts debate Yes, I'm biased as I proposed the motion rejecting the Government's proposals, but the debate itself was very high quality. Liberal Youth co-chair Kavya Kaushik won the Russell Johnston award ...
A second tweet from Chancellor George Osborne Won't be tweeting while I'm speaking so follow the Budget measures live @hmtreasury and @torytreasury — George Osborne (@George_Osborne) March 20, 2013
Hopefully good news from today's budget. My two monkeys - Sophie & Ollie The Government are set to announce that working families, such as mine, will be able to claim money towards child care costs up to £1200 a year. This will be somewhat invaluable to those on low incomes. Taking my family as an example, in July we'll have both of our children in day care for three days a week allowing Sam to go back to work and add to our income and then split our days off so that one of us will look after the kids ...
Wed 20th
11:23URGENT: Less than 6 hours to respond to Scottish Government's Equal Marriage consultation
We need your help to deliver another Lib Dem win in the Scottish Parliament. We're on a tight deadline – we need you to act before 5 pm today. The Liberal Democrats were the first party to support gay rights in a General Election manifesto. For decades, we've always been there for equality. The Scottish Liberal Democrats led on equal marriage, before the Federal Party became the first major national party to support the policy. The Scottish Government are consulting on the details of implementing equal marriage, for a Bill later this year. You can help ensure that the Bill ...
An application's come in to the Council for a new phone mast and cabinets on Aigburth Road by the Cricket Club and corner of Beechwood Road It's not entirely a new thing as what's suggested is that the mast that's there at the moment gets replaced and two new cabinets are added. Looking at the plans though the new mast would be taller than the one that's there now and the two extra cabinets could be two extra sites for grafitti. If you want to have a look at the plans, and comment, you can do it at this link. ...
Huhne might be serving eight months in jail for perverting the course of justice, but there is something quite heart warming about this story from the Daily Mail: According to self-styled 'Lord' Eddie Davenport, who is serving nearly eight years for his part in a £4.5 million fraud, Huhne has been treated with considerable respect. ...
Chancellor George Osborne has used budget day to join Twitter. The Chancellor now tweets from the account @george_osborne, (@georgeosborne is occupied by a comedy account,) and has posted one Tweet so far. Today I'll present a Budget that tackles the economy's problems head on helping those who want to work hard & get on ...
If George Osborne really wants to find enough dosh to get Britain out of the mess he has created, our advice should be: Go after the tax-cheating multinational corporations. It is about time these cross-border pirates were put in their place. And one place to be urgently put is paying tax on the profits made from operating businesses in countries outside their home base. While no-one knows how exactly much money they are cheating us of, estimates vary from somewhere between £10bn and £20bn. Given that the Economist quotes a total worldwide figure of some $20 trillion lost in avoidance ...
According to today's papers George Osborne is going to use the budget to fulfil an important coalition pledge a year early. The Guardian says that the chancellor is expected to announce that moves towards a tax-free allowance of £10,000 will be brought forward a year to 2014. A planned rise in fuel duty, due to take place in September, may be delayed or even scrapped altogether. If that is the case then that is very good news. It means that people on low wages will be £700 better off from next year as a result of the changes driven forward ...
Every week, Liberal Democrat Secretary of State for Scotland, Michael Moore MP, writes a column for newspapers in his Borders Constituency. Here is the latest edition. Green Deal Despite the fact that we are now well into March, it seems that there is no let up in the cold snowy weather and I know that at this time energy bills remain a major concern to my constituents. To help people reduce these bills and cut down their energy use, the Government has taken action and introduced a scheme called the Green Deal. This enables people to improve the energy efficiency ...
[IMG: 179062_10151488760998270_824104640_n] Yesterday Nick Clegg announced that these families will soon be able to get up to £1200 off the cost of childcare for every child – needed relief for many in these difficult times. It will help parents make their own choices about how and when they return to work. Figures show that more than half of stay at home parents would rather work if good quality and affordable childcare was available. Many more would be able to increase the hours they work too. That's the kind of fairer society Liberal Democrats are fighting for in Government. The scheme ...
Samsung weird: how a phone launch went from Broadway glitz to sexist mess | The Verge (tags: ) Two girls from Steubenville are arrested for threatening the victim. Why do women blame rape victims? "With all this pressure for women to play along with rape culture, perhaps the bigger mystery is why so many women fight back anyway. The answer to that question could probably fill a book." (tags: ) The Job Creators Are Not Creating Jobs - Esquire (tags: ) Without real contrition, press piety leaves me cold This pretty much sums up how I feel about the whole ...
Counting down towards the fiftieth birthday of Doctor Who with Fifty great scenes... This one's from 2011 and the Twenty-Second Century, and it's one of my favourite moments for Matt Smith's Doctor - an almost perfectly formed cliffhanger. So expect rather large spoilers, deep themes, and the enemy within...? "This is insane. We're fighting ourselves." "Yes, it's insane, and it's about to get even more insanerer. Is that a word? Show yourself, right now!" "Doctor, we are trapped in here and Rory's out there with them. Hello? We can't get to the TARDIS and we can't even leave the island!" ...
This is a cross-post of a piece I have up over on Lib Dem Voice. One of the things that seems to characterise tory ministers in this government is a remarkable attraction to putting ideology and an assumption that they know best ahead of little details like "facts" and "evidence based policy". A good example of this comes in the form of Michael Gove's education reforms which have been characterised by a breathtaking disregard for decades of research into what works and an aversion to listening to anything or anyone who disagrees with the reforms. Nevertheless, I'd like to highlight ...
One of the things that seems to characterise Tory ministers in this government is a remarkable attraction to putting ideology and an assumption that they know best ahead of little details like "facts" and "evidence based policy". A good example of this comes in the form of Michael Gove's education reforms which have been characterised by a breathtaking disregard for decades of research into what works and an aversion to listening to anything or anyone who disagrees with the reforms. Nevertheless, I'd like to highlight the following facts about education. It would be nice if he paid attention: Starting maths ...
Wed 20th
08:10On Budget day: What Lib Dem members think of the Coalition's economic policy and ring-fencing of spe...
Lib Dem Voice polled our members-only forum recently to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. Some 650 party members have responded, and we're publishing the full results. [IMG: George Osborne with Red Box, Budget 2012] Just 26% of Lib Dem members support Osborne's 'Plan A' Thinking of the current state of the economy and the Coalition's approach, which of the following statements is closest to your own view? 20% – Cutting the deficit isn't enough: alongside public spending cuts, the Coalition should be aiming to stimulate growth ...
Name the odd one out Liberal Democrat MPs The open rights group Index on censorship Organisation for security and co-operation in Europe (click through for stories) The answer, of course, is the first one. Liberal Democrat MPs. The other three are all raising concerns about press and internet regulation in the UK whilst there is a deathly silence of critical questions from all Lib Dem MPs. Maybe the other guys are Murdoch loving right wing organisations who want to persecute people too? That will explain their concerns, right guys? I remember a time Lib Dem Parliamentarians (and Lib Dems in ...
This week's act have charted 8 times - but with just 5 songs. Indeed, in terms of the Top 40, they have charted 5 times with 3 songs! This, their second (and fifth) Top 40 hit, has a wonderfully infectious, catchy chorus - Train with Hey, Soul Sister: Andrew
Yesterday, I had the pleasure of being speaker at the AGM of the Pennycook and Sinderins Courts Residents' Association AGM, taking place at Sinderins Court in Hawkhill. Despite a very snowy morning, there was an excellent turnout of residents and I updated them on current West End matters. We had a very positive report from Marion Adams, Association Chair, about activities over the past year, and a new committee with continuing and new members was elected.
Isn't Norman Baker MP rather superb in this ...
I have discovered another security flaw in Samsung Android phones. It is possible to completely disable the lock screen and get access to any app - even when the phone is "securely" locked with a pattern, PIN, password, or face detection. Unlike another recently released flaw, this doesn't rely quite so heavily on ultra-precise timing. Video. Of course, if you are unable to download a screen unlocker, this security vulnerability still allows you to dial any phone number and run any app! HOWTO From the lock screen, hit the emergency call button. Dial a non-existent emergency services number - e.g. ...
Further to my update on Friday about the first day at the Scottish Liberal Democrat Conference at the West Park Centre, and with thanks to Dundee College, here's a photo of Nick Clegg MP, Liam McArthur MSP and myself with some of the team at Dundee College, during Nick's visit:
The Welsh Labour Government has spent too long sitting back and allowing Wales' education system to fall further behind the rest of the UK. The latest Estyn report shows that 54% of secondary schools and 48% of primary schools have been identified for follow up visits, which is an increase on last year. The Estyn Report was of course disappointing, but what's more depressing is that it was just so predictable. We have reached a stage where we are always expecting bad news with regards to Wales' education system. The lack of ambition shown over the years by Welsh Labour ...
