In which I look at Trial Of A Timelord, by way of Doctor In Distress. Review of last week's episode tomorrow.
Jones began his first answer by saying I agree with everything that the panel has said and disagree with everything too. Unsurprisingly his answer then went downhill from there. QT should stick to having a panel of politicians (surely a fundamental requirement of a political question and answer show?) and if it can't manage that it really shouldn't bother at all. It's typical of the BBC's mindset that it thinks mixing light entertainment with heavyweight political debate adds a new and vibrant dimension - when in reality all it does is distract from both and cheapens the debate on what ...
I've recently received a letter from Aviva about an endowment policy which is due to mature at the end of this month. It's performed appallingly over the 20 years that I've held it and because of their seeming inability to acknowledge this honestly and openly, I won't ever buy another product from them again if I can possibly avoid doing so. However, this phrase from their letter did make me smile: Please note if you receive a letter confirming that we have not heard from you – please ignore this letter as we have received your completed requirements. Say what, ...
I made some insubstantial comments about the blog of Tory Cllr Richard Stay, last week. He regularly writes about the Exclusive Brethren. Now it would appear that I have attracted the attention of disaffected sect followers who are now in-boxing me with their tales of woe, and fantastical lists of things that its members are, or were, forbidden to indulge in. Like, for example, not listen to Elton John because he's gay, and not read fiction. One nugget goes "one member had a garage at the bottom of his garden which was joined onto the neighbours, it was built of ...
From the Independent website this evening: Schoolchildren must have shorter holidays and spend more time each day in the classroom so Britain is not disadvantaged in the global economic race, Michael Gove demanded yesterday. The Education Secretary warned that the current school timetable is out of date and only fit for the agricultural economy of the 19th century - where children had to have long summer holidays to help in the fieldsI have more time for Gove than is usual in Liberal Democrat circles. I support the idea of allowing new providers to open state schools and the teaching unions' ...
I posted at the weekend my thoughts on the current Government consultation about the post-Leveson media regulation proposals — and specifically the legislative cock-up that may catch 'small-scale bloggers' in the net. As I've said many times before: I think the legislation is wrong in principle and wrong in practice. But MPs from all three parties cheerily voted through a measure which accidentally sought to regulate the internet with barely a murmur of dissent from the liberal/left blogosphere which seems more concerned with hating on the Daily Mail than sticking up for its own freedoms. The Department of Culture, Media ...
With David Miliband heading off to his new job with the International Rescue Committee in New York the constituency of South Shields needs a new member of Parliament. Last week this new MP was chosen. It is to be a local councillor and social worker Emma Lewell-Buck. What do you mean the by-election hasn't happened yet? I know that — but so what? There is a vote scheduled for the 2 May. There will be a campaign. Doors will be knocked on. Leaflets printed. Hustings held. The main parties, and some of the fringe parties, will put up candidates. Those ...
Every incarnation of Liberal Youth has had the exact same problems: egos, an unnatural obsession with constitutions and a party-within-a-party mentality. Members of the Liberal Democrats almost expect Liberal Youth to fail at some point, which isn't a healthy foundation for us to build upon. I believe these recurring problems are the result of a very easily fixable problem. There is a narrow pool of people interested in standing time after time: The Liberal Youth Clique. There are many people who want Liberal Youth to succeed and become a vital campaigning and recruitment force within the Liberal Democrats. I do ...
[IMG: ToryJoinerWatford] Watford Conservative councillor and former Mayoral Candidate Cllr Steve Johnson has joined the Liberal Democrats. Cllr Johnson, who represents Watford's Leggatts Ward, said: "I have found myself more and more in tune with the Lib Dem part of the coalition government. They are the ones who are clearly putting compassion and fairness alongside financial sense and a stronger economy." "It is clear to me that locally Mayor Dorothy Thornhill and the Lib Dems are doing a good job of running the council and making sure Watford continues to be a thriving and successful town. The other parties offer ...
From the Watford Observer: Watford's Conservative party has been extinguished at borough level after the last Tory councillor has defected to the ruling Liberal Democrat group. Steve Johnson, who had been the leader of the Conservatives on Watford Borough Council until recently, announced this morning he was crossing the floor due to the national Tory party's "right wing drift".
As polling day for the local elections approaches, the volume of leaflets is increasing. If you live in a marginal ward, you may be getting several bits of paper shoved through your letterbox each day. Before you put them in the recycling bin, scan (or photograph) each one and send it to ElectionLeaflets.org. (The process is very simple; just upload jpeg files to the website). ElectionLeaflets.org is a real-time archive of election leaflets - new content is available online immediately it is uploaded. But this archive relies on volunteers throughout the country to gather material; if there are no leaflets ...
It was Suffolk Conservatives who placed the County's library service under threat, and I admire their audacity in claiming to have protected them. But the brutal fact is that they only did so when it became apparent that closures were incredibly unpopular, and their cynicism in announcing that they would be saving them just before key local elections shouldn't be forgotten. Safety for our Library service, including mobile libraries Under the Tories the situation of Suffolk Libraries has been perilous. Liberal Democrats will:support ALL our libraries to meet current needs and satisfy foreseeable trendsenable mobile libraries to continue to provide ...
Last Wednesday our parliament spent over seven hours praising Thatcher (at our expense). Bercow had initially refused Cameron's request, saying we can do it next Monday when we meet anyway. Miliband backed Cameron and Bercow gave way. Yesterday, the New Zealand parliament voted on the definition of marriage. See what happened when marriage between same sex partners was approved. The
The Guardian reports comments from Lib Dem business secretary Vince Cable, following evidence that the proportion of female appointments to FTSE 100 and 250 companies has reduced: The Liberal Democrat business secretary and former chief economist at Shell is also clear that slow progress isn't an indication of disregard for the agenda, instead he explains that the overall trend shows culture and practices are changing. Earlier this year however, Boardwatch, part of the Professional Boards Forum, found that while female appointments to non-executive director roles are increasing, executive board promotions remain low. Cable admits this is a major issue and ...
Thu 18th
14:02
This 'mummy tax' and lumping it in with a 'tax cut for millionaires' - you what Labour?
Tax. We don't like tax. We do like public services. The two of them go hand-in-hand so to get public services we pay tax. That is just the way of the world. Most of us have reconciled with that but then of course the debate is about who pays what and what do they pay for? Well today the following image show up in my Facebook feed... [IMG: mummy tax] 'Mummy Tax?' '340,000 New mums to lose £180 thanks to David Cameron's Mummy Tax' Mummy Tax. Are you (expletive) kidding me? Just calling anything that just screams political spin of ...
Here's today's hand-picked selection that caught my interest... The lost tribes of British politics - day 4: the high liberals and the libertariansThe Deep End It'd be a start... "What the high liberals would really like is a Conservative Party without any conservatives in it" http://bit.ly/YwHo7X Thatcher funeral address prompts Tory praise for bishop of London | Politics | The Guardian Guardian's passive-aggressive approach to Thatcher funeral so tiresome. This Patrick Wintour article case in point http://bit.ly/YwFdkO The date George Osborne's vultures are circling over » Spectator Blogs .@IsabelHardman previews next week's GDP figures > The date George Osborne's vultures ...
I've just finished listening to a phone-in discussing the issue of drug consumption rooms on BBC Radio 5 live. It was all a bit depressing, and only partially for the fact that every second caller was hysterically describing the concept as an outrage. What is really depressing is that we've already moved beyond drug consumption rooms in the UK. We already have three centres where heroin is being provided for addicts in secure, medically supervised environments. Discussing drug consumption rooms instead moves the debate back a step from the cutting edge of good practice. My disappointment stems from the comparative ...
... the actions of economists today bear on the life chances of the world's population far more substantially than do the actions of the members of most other professions. George DeMartino [IMG: Reinhart Rogoff Cover] Replication is an activity that doesn't attract enough attention, enough credit, or enough effort in the social sciences. But it is an activity that is getting a lot of attention at this precise moment. This has come courtesy of the exposure of both flaws and contestable methodological choices in Reinhart and Rogoff's landmark study of public debt and economic growth. The economic blogosphere has exploded ...
[IMG: Joint-Strike-Fighter-006] Those of us interested in politics and current affairs generally have particularly policy areas to which we pay closer attention and therefore develop greater knowledge of. One of the vitally important areas of government policy which I don't know enough about is defence. I read the Strategic Defence and Security Review when it was published, but its aim is not to act as a primer for the uninitiated, and it doesn't do so. Wishing to gain some knowledge (not least because the Lib Dems will shortly be voting on our future defence policies), therefore, I asked the BBC's ...
One of the "perks" of running a moderately popular blog is that sometimes people send you stuff. I've been sent wine, phones, apps, and all sorts to review - usually by PR people who realise that engagement with bloggers is a little different that their regular way of doing business. Yesterday, I received this delightful email from the publishers Simon and Schuster. NEW book by the "Prophet of Silicon Valley", Jaron Lanier, available for your review! Dear Mr. Vogels, I'm writing today to let you know of a new book from Simon & Schuster that I think your readers will ...
[IMG: Britton] Councillors have again blasted the district council over its failure to make progress on yellow lines on Britton Avenue. Lib Dem County Councillor for St Peter's Ward, Chris White, and District Council colleague Michael Green, have both made strong representations to the district council about excessive delays in getting action. County Councillor Chris White said: 'It's two years now that we and local residents pointed out that allowing parking on Britton Avenue on a Sunday was a serious traffic hazard. 'I had a near miss here only last week. 'The council really does need to act faster when ...
Here is ALDC's list of the councils, and the number and affiliation of councillors, facing election in May 2013. Councillor figures are always subject to change, and these figures reflect the best knowledge of ALDC at the time of publication. There is a chance that some minor changes (defections, by-election 'churn', etc.) to council and group figures have not yet been reflected in the numbers below. For any questions, clarification or corrections of numbers, please contact craig.whittall@aldc.org  
In Liberal Youth world, #LYElects has started, hopefully full of debate and ideas. However in the real world, a battle is ongoing. Liberal Democrat councillors up and down the country and battling day in, day out, right now to make sure their local community is properly represented. Candidates are giving up their time, money and feet ...
This week my constituency office has been in contact with Robin Bryan, BCC's Constituency Parks & Customer Liaison Manager for the Department of Parks & Nature Conservation. Works which were undertaken on 5 oak trees included; 2 x storm damaged, and pollarded to seek regeneration 2 x dead wood removal, and; 1 x felled due to level of decay and consequential risk The two trees that have been
Thu 18th
10:49
Watford's last Conservative Councillor moves to Liberal Democrats because of Conservatives' "right w...
From the Watford Observer: Watford's Conservative party has been extinguished at borough level after the last Tory councillor has defected to the ruling Liberal Democrat group. Steve Johnson, who had been the leader of the Conservatives onWatford Borough Council until recently, announced this morning he was crossing the floor due to the national Tory party's "right wing drift". In a statement the Leggatts representative said: "I have become increasingly disappointed by the right-wing drift of Conservative party rhetoric, particularly its attitude to welfare issues. I feel my views are more in tune with the Liberal Democrat part of the coalition, ...
Alec Dauncey, Welsh Liberal Democrat European candidate, has spoken of his dismay that Conservative and UKIP MEPs united by voting against proposals that would have stopped industry putting huge amounts of carbon into the atmosphere. The vote was only lost by 19 votes, which means that if the Conservatives had voted differently, then the proposals would have passed. The vote looked to clarify provisions on the timing of auctions of greenhouse gas allowances. Alec Dauncey commented: "This vote highlights once again that Tory MEPs cannot be trusted on the environment. This vote was critical in the fight against climate change ...
The Welsh Labour Government's failure to get its NewBuy scheme off the ground has left many first time buyers with nowhere to turn. Many can afford a mortgage but not the 25% deposit that mortgage companies require. I have copied below an e-mail sent to Housing Minister, Carl Sargeant by one such person. I have had permission to reproduce it: Dear Mr Sargeant, As a 27 year old professional struggling to afford to save for a house deposit, I was extremely disappointed to read that the NewBuy Cymru Scheme has been scrapped. At present I am spending £675 a month ...
Just when the Labour leader thought that things might be settling down in his party after unsolicited advice from Tony Blair, another MP puts his head above the parapet and suggests that he is getting it wrong. The Telegraph reports that Ed Miliband has been accused by a senior party figure of "resting of his laurels" and placing the Labour Party in a "stupid place" over welfare reform: Mr Miliband is facing growing anger from colleagues who are warning that he risks turning Labour into a party of protest. The Labour leader has called for public loyalty from his MPs ...
Hopefully all of you have had the chance to have a play with the new AD LIB interactive digital edition which was launched this month. If not, why not have a play now? Remember, this issue is free to all party members. As well as all the good stuff you get with the paper copy, the digital edition has a number of interactive elements. If you want to listen to Paddy's conference speech while reading his cover interview, you can. If you're intrigued about Eluned Parrott's 'On the Record' music choices, you can click straight to the music videos. And ...
I wrote a book a decade or so ago called Authenticity which made me pretty sceptical about the whole idea of 'brands'. Despite the rhetoric from marketing gurus, most people hate the brands they use and are endlessly frustrated and disappointed by them - yes, I know, there are exceptions. The aggressive apotheosis of branding as the key to success really is a lot of old twaddle. So when a friend of mine alerted me to their new local Tesco, which is doing all it can to hide the fact that it is a Tesco at all, I suddenly got ...
As part of the budget deal negotiated by the Welsh Liberal Democrats in the 2011 budget the Welsh Labour Government agreed to a scheme to help first time buyers enter the property market. NewBuy would have enabled buyers to have high loan-to-value mortgages and supported the building of 3,000 homes. Carl Sargeant had previously said: "We ...
Tavish Scott, Liberal Democrat MSP for Shetland, writes in today's Scotsman contrasting the battle over gun control in the US to the consultation in Scotland over licensing of airguns. Of the situation in the States in the wake of the awful Sandy Hook shootings last Christmas, Tavish writes: But Obama senses a moment. The Connecticut shooting was so awful that pressure on Washington lawmakers is now intense. Last week, the president met Sandy Hook families who lost children and then flew them in Air Force 1 to Washington DC. These parents then met lawmakers on Capitol Hill. They asked for ...
Calls for greater openness in scientific advice have become commonplace. But openness should go beyond transparency, towards new forms of public dialogue Before I leave for the launch of the Future Directions for Scientific Advice collection (which is now available to download in full), here's an abridged version of the piece that Simon Burall and I contributed. The government's Civil Service Reform Plan sets out an aspiration to "Establish a clear model of open policy making." A renewed appreciation of the limits of government in defining, framing and shaping policy is an invitation to a new model of open policy-making, ...
Stockport Funding News April 2013
On Tuesday evening the Lib Dem team were out on the Oak Road estate, knocking on doors and asking people to complete our residents survey. This is part of our Project 6000 – to knock on all 6,000 doors across Cheadle and Gatley ward over the next few months. The survey not only gives people a chance to let us know about the issues they think need tackling the most, but also gives them the opportunity to sign up to Stockport's Ringmaster scheme, which gives free information about crime and safety. If you've got a particular issue you're concerned about, ...
The blocked grids at the end of Oakwood Avenue and under the railway bridge in Gatley are to be cleared out after the Lib Dem team requested that the Council get the work done. We're also very pleased that the long-standing problem of the uneven road surface at the end of Oakwood Avenue is to be finally sorted with a resurface of that section over the next few months. Because it makes a large section of the road lower that the grids, we get large puddles whenever it rains.
[IMG: rsz_john_lennon_peace_memorial] A very Liverpool theme to this shot from photographer Keith Page of Lydiate. It is located opposite the Echo Arena on Liverpool's famous waterfront http://www.flickr.com/keith_page/
Yesterday I went out talking to residents and campaigning in Pilgrims Way and River Way. It was good to hear positive views from them about how they are working together to improve their local environment. It's also encouraging to see the hard work put in by their borough councillors Nigel Long and Katherine Bird is having a real impact on these estates. What was disappointing was to hear that residents are not always getting the support and help needed from their councils and housing associations to sort real and immediate problems. More work is needed to deal with the state ...
As Dundee City Council publishes its report on residents' parking in the West End and announces that it will not progress a residents' parking scheme in the area of the West End that was subject to the parking consultation in autumn 2012, I have made clear that I am unsurprised by the outcome of the consultation as the council had proposed an unworkable scheme that was dead in the water from day one. You can read the council's report on the consultation outcomes here. The parking scheme proposed by the council was never likely to command support. It is an ...
Further to my recent update about Balgay Bowling Club, here's their new poster/leaflet, currently being delivered to around 1500 homes near to the club in Melville Terrace:You can download a higher quality PDF of this poster here.
Saturday: At last Mark Gatiss delivers on years of promise, turning in his best Doctor Who story since the glorious early New Adventure "Nightshade". Perhaps not quite as rich in character as the ripe and fruity Dickens of "The Unquiet Dead", but without the unfortunate accidental "bogus asylum seekers". And, in the setting of a Cold War warship, who's going to notice the (companion aside) complete absence of roles for women. There's actually much less plot, much less creativity to explore, than in "The Rings of Akhaten", but - hooray! - we get to run up and down some corridors! ...
