Tonight was the annual US celeb-politico schmooze fest of the White House Correspondent's Dinner. Line of the night went to presenter Conan O'Brien, who compared the relationship between President Obama and Speaker Boehener to one between Anderson Cooper and Rachel Maddow: "In theory they understand each other's positions. But deep down you know nothing's ever ...
Welcome to Broxtowe Enews, brought to you by the Liberal Democrats and edited by David Watts, the leader of the Lib-Dems on Broxtowe Borough Council. 1. Beeston Traffic I've received a number of complaints this week from people about the problems with traffic in Beeston. I've made some enquiries and apparently a sewer collapsed under Queens Road, which necessitated emergency repairs. This couldn't have happened at a worse time, but it has now been fixed and hopefully things will be better next week. 2. HS2 A meeting took place on Friday between representatives from HS2 and Broxtowe councillors. I was ...
[IMG: Group Of People Lifting Weights In Gym] Last week The Independent published an article on an initiative by Yarlington Housing Group, down here in the South West. Yarlington have introduced Household Ambition Plans for their tenants. Such plans will not necessarily focus on ambitions related to housing, rather they could include losing weight or giving up smoking. And whether or not a households is offered another tenancy will depend on how well they meet their ambitions. This development has generated considerable debate in the housing world. My discussion of the issue roamed wide and long(ish) so I have put ...
Here it is in case we've missed you letter box of it got buried among the pizza menus. (or you live elsewhere but want to see what we're up to) this is the Focus we were delivering in February/March
and wait until you see who he has cast as 'Obama' (I love the White House Correspondents Dinner)
After seeing The Zombies play Market Harborough a couple of years ago I wrote: We discover popular music backwards as well as forwards ... I can remember my surprise at learning that Carlos Santana was not the writer of She's Not There. (I don't feel so bad after hearing Rod Argent telling the younger members of tonight's audience that his band recorded the original version of God Gave Rock and Roll to You.)Yesterday I made another discovery of this sort. I remember Harry Nilsson's recording of "Without You" topping the singles' chart in 1972 and had always assumed it was ...
Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 323rd 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 (21-27 April, 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. I think this ...
Artificial moons, 'geriatiric robots' designed to listen to old people, vats for growing chicken wings - all of these have been predicted in recent decades. None have happened quite like that. They rarely do. This is partly because many elements of the technological futures the big corporations want are actually highly unpleasant or ineffective for everyone else. And partly because, compared to a century ago - when motor cars, cinematography, submarines, planes were developing so fast - our own technology has actually slowed to a snail's pace. I've been travelling on jumbo jets now for 40 years. I know that ...
Later this afternoon, I was pleased to attend the Friends of Balgay's unveiling of a new plaque for the Rose Window in Balgay Park. The plaque (pictured right) is a welcome addition to the park. Here's the group of us who attended the unveiling today:
At lunchtime today, I had the pleasure of saying a few words of welcome and thank you to the huge turnout of parents and pupils of Balgay Hill Nursery School as they met up at Victoria Park to set off on their sponsored walk round Balgay Park and Hill to raise funds for outdoor play equipment at the school. It was great to see such a large group of children, mums, dads, other family members and friends take part and our thanks go to all and in particular to Sharon and her colleagues on the Parents' Group and to Mrs ...
Note from the District Council The posters currently up in the park are to inform people that contractors are on site and currently developing those 2 specific areas; the older children's activity area and the outdoor gym. Through the consultation there were a number of areas that were raised. With regards to the Children's Play Area there were a number of responses which talked about better maintenance, paint job and clean up as well as repair broken equipment. I will be meeting with our Ground Maintenance Contractors, who have responsibility for the day to day maintenance of equipment, along with ...
My main reason for standing to be a Liberal Youth Non Portfolio Officer is that I know I can be a great asset to the rest of the executive. I want to ensure that all members have a big say in the way Liberal Youth is run - something which the current executive have been particularly strong on over the past few months. As one of Liberal Youth's two Non Portfolio Officers, I want to help support the rest of the executive in all areas, but particularly with campaigns, communications and events. I am keen to help with the organisation ...
When you get your vote for the Liberal Youth elections, please use it wisely, don't just vote for friends. Liberal Youth in the past few months has taken some real strides forward. If we want a strong vibrant and attractive youth wing, then there are clear choices. One of those is voting #1 Andrew Emmerson for Non-Portfolio Officer. For many years I have sat on the side-lines being vaguely critical of Liberal Youth, but not done a whole lot about it. Now is time to change that. I am the candidate in these elections whose experience is varied and wide. ...
I am a caring, thoughtful teenager who has fought against unfairness, bullying and for those who have lacked the confidence to speak up for themselves. This is one of my strengths according to my form teacher. I am currently on a recruitment drive in Darlington to increase the number of youth members. This will greatly reduce the average age for members in Darlington and hopefully increase the number of active members. This will also give the youth of Darlington a voice that can be heard. In 2013 I plan to set up the first Lib Dem Youth group in Darlington ...
So remember the Coalition for Marriage? They are still campaigning away. @ukip what are your views oncampaigns like this from The Coalition of Marriage? Do we not live in 21st century? twitter.com/RealCarlPage/s... — CarlJamesPage (@RealCarlPage) April 28, 2013 Without any hard facts they have now resorted to speculation in their leaflets, all maybes and coulds and very little "This is absolutely the case". Why? Because they know that they can't back up the facts. Let us break down their points. Education: We're still on the "Oh my God, children might be taught about same-sex marriage!" Last I checked school was ...
As news filters through that Miss Sarah Harding, lately of this parish, is emerging as the front runner in the election to chair Liberal Youth my attention has been drawn to an editorial in the Southport Guardian that concludes: So the Liberal Part both nationally and locally is acting wisely by paying attention to young politicians. "The hope of the Liberal Party "says one writer, "is its youth" and with "youth at the prow, discretion at the helm" there is no sea in which the ship of Liberalism cannot weather; there is no port we cannot make. Now a Young ...
The 2013 White House Correspondents' Dinner, the annual event which disproves any notion the Americans can't do irony... (Watch it on YouTube here.) And here's the full 20 minute Obama routine: (Watch it on YouTube here.) * Stephen Tall is Co-Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice, a Research Associate for the liberal think-tank CentreForum, and also writes at his own site, The Collected Stephen Tall.
Newcastle councillor Elizabeth Shenton, Lib Dem candidate in the 2008 Crew and Nantwich by-election, has left the party to join Labour. Local paper The Sentinel reports: A senior Lib Dem councillor and former parliamentary candidate has defected to Labour. Elizabeth Shenton said she had left the Liberal Democrats due to the coalition Government's 'damaging policies'. She has now joined the ruling Labour group on Newcastle Borough Council. Mrs Shenton, below, who was the Lib Dem candidate in the Crewe and Nantwich by-election in 2008, had been member of the party for 10 years. Mrs Shenton, who has also served as ...
Local Liberal Democrat Group Leader Geoff Juby's recent column in the Medway Messenger: Love her or hate her, I think the rumblings over Lady Thatcher's funeral will resound for some time. As someone who was very badly affected by her policies in the 80s I had very little time for the lady. Like many others who are now feeling the pinch right now, I also take a jaundiced view of the suggestion that the costs to the nation probably totalled about £10 million However, someone is involved in politics at a national level pointed out that it was a golden ...
So why vote Libdem in the local elections this week? Well, Nick Clegg would and has argued this... 1. We have cancelled plans for a law which would have kept records of all the websites you visit and all the people you communicate with on social media sites - the so-called snooper's charter. The proposals were an infringement of our privacy that wouldn't have worked to make us safer, so we said no. 2. This week's GDP figures showed the economy is starting, slowly, to get stronger, as we steadily bring borrowing under control and build confidence in Britain again. ...
[IMG: Green Party logo] Nigel Farage is certainly the protest vote leader of choice at the moment. It's not a surprise that there should be such a person, nor even that it's not the Leader of Her Majesty's Opposition. After all Lib Dem leaders have often had that role in the past. But that it's UKIP highlights the failures of two other parties – the BNP and the Greens. During part of the last Labour government, the BNP started to make serious inroads in some areas where it managed to expand beyond its extremist racist core into a wider anti-politics ...
Paying down the national debt: it's always been a controversial issue. Here's a Liberal poster (from the 1886 general election?) attacking the Tories for their failure to clear our debts: [IMG: liberal tory national debt 1885] For balance, here's a Tory poster (from the same year?) accusing the Liberals of being high-spenders: [IMG: tory liberal national spend 1886] The nature of the debate doesn't change much, but I think it's fair to say they knew how to design political posters in those days. And in some ways we're going back to the future as political parties make greater use of ...
UKIP is currently very concerned about the LibLabCon conspiracy against them which is smearing them relentlessly. Not only are UKIP candidates tweets and Facebook posts being reviewed but also their "anti-Zionist" rants on forums and, heaven forbid, their leaflets are being published. This sort of smearing is also known as "letting voters know what other candidates actually think". Oh how far our democracy has fallen when opponents actually quote things a candidate has said. UKIP yearns for the days of the dodgy Lib Dem bar graph, obviously. From this blog's point of view, one of the most interesting smears has ...
I suspect there is bias in this article. It's still worth reading (tags: ) you've got to believe it'll be all right in the end (tags: ) [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
[IMG: rsz_winfarm_lyd_04_13_1] Sheila and I attended one of the exhibitions put on by the companies proposing to build the wind farm to the west of Lydiate yesterday. It was in Lydiate Village Hall (not to be confused with the new Lydiate Village Centre) and whilst we were there it was very well attended indeed. Here are a couple of snaps I took of the event. Lydiate Parish Councillor Edie Pope was there as was Mrs Dixon and her daughter who are raising the petition against the wind farm which I mentioned in a posting a few days ago. [IMG: rsz_windfarm_lyd_04_13_2] ...
Yay! "The Trip" is coming back for another series! Coogan and Brydon at their absolute best: The hidden dangers of legal highs | Society | The Guardian Transform Drug Policy Foundation Blog: Academic refutes 'soft on cannabis' media claims Paul Tyma: Why We'll Never Meet Aliens Wonder if Nick Clegg would like to justify use of secret courts in the case of this man arrested during Atos assessment Clegg threat to block any further welfare cuts unless Cameron agrees to tax wealthy pensioners' benefits Sounds to me like Nigel Farage is just being honest. All parties will have a few ...
As reported in yesterday's Courier and on Wave 102 News, I have expressed great concern about the appalling state the Riverside Business Park site has been left in as the travellers moved on from there. A City Council officer advised me on Friday: "The travellers have now moved from Riverside Avenue next to the airport. Unfortunately they have left the site in an appalling condition. The Environment Department will be on-site this afternoon (Friday) to remove the loose rubbish & gas cylinders which are the main concerns for the airport. They will be back on Monday with heavy lifting machinery ...
Five good reasons to get out and campaign for the Liberal Democrats this weekend, and support us in Thursday's local elections. 1. We have cancelled plans for a law which would have kept records of all the websites you visit and all the people you communicate with on social media sites – the so-called snooper's charter. The proposals were an infringement of our privacy that wouldn't have worked to make us safer, so we said no. 2. This week's GDP figures showed the economy is starting, slowly, to get stronger, as we steadily bring borrowing under control and build confidence ...
Following on from yesterday's post about the idiosyncrasies of various UKIP candidates, the Guardian underlines one of the reasons why those representing the party have such diverse views. It seems that UKIP cannot get agreement on a policy platform to present to the electorate. The paper says that a series of leaked emails between key figures in Ukip reveals growing chaos at the heart of the party. They add that in one email, a senior party figure claims that leading the anti-EU party is like "herding cats". Ukip leader Nigel Farage is warned that his party is facing a decade ...
