After the commercial and critical failure of LA (Light Album), CBS insisted that the next Beach Boys album have a reasonable amount of actual Brian Wilson involvement. Unfortunately, Brian Wilson wasn't in any state to do anything much. The group went into the studio with Chuck Britz, the engineer who had worked with Brian on [...]
I seem to remember posting something similar as a title in 2009/10 when David Tennent announced that he was stepping out of the Tardis. I was also one of those who having watched Party Animals when the answer was finally revealed knew that Matt Smith knew that the new choice then would be a good addition to the eclectic fusion of the 10 previous TV incarnations of the Doctor. So the question is who next? Could it be a Ginger Actor? After all there have been post regeneration comments about 'still not ginger' in the rebooted franchise. So maybe a ...
[IMG: Danny Bonnett] Danny Bonnett Following the sad death of John Lythgoe of Hall Park, Berkhamsted,the former Liberal Democrat Town Councillor, a By Election is to be held on Thursday June 13th to fill the vacancy in the Berkhamsted East Ward of the Berkhamsted Town Council. The Liberal Democrat candidate is local resident Danny Bonnett. Danny graduated in engineering at Cambridge University and, now a Chartered Engineer, worked for Arup, the well-known engineering design consultancy for several years before joining RES in Kings Langley some 10 years ago. RES will be familiar to most people locally from their demonstration wind ...
"In London, every bit of public ground is monitored all the time... every single street. Besides the government, all the different companies and landowners have their own CCTV cameras, so every spot is watched by everybody. In the most monitored city in the world there is one camera for every 14 people. But does this intense surveillance keep Londoners safe?" More at Journeyman Pictures.
The International Business Times wins my Headline of the Day Award.
Since the Love Launceston loyalty card was set up a year ago, cardholders have saved over £50,000 in shops and businesses in Launceston. And more than 100 businesses in the town have seen increased footfall and sales which has helped them survive the tough economic conditions. So shoppers at HBH Woolacotts have saved more than £6000. Customers at Hazard Clothing have saved more than £1500 and customers at Castle Pet Supplies have saved more than £1200. And at shops like Castle Jewellers, more than 50% of customers use their loyalty card when they make a purchase. To celebrate the anniversary, ...
Today, I have had the pleasure in taking part in the first day of the Dundee Festival of Volunteering - and it has proved to be a hugely enjoyable day, helped, I suspect, by lovely weather! Here's a few photos from today: This morning, a group of us helped the Bonnie Dundee Group with planting in Union Street Planting at Union Street taking shape The Festival of Volunteering Launch at Dundee High School this morning Celebrating Dundee's biggest asset - its people A group of the folk who attended the Riverside Nature Park events this afternoon - I took part ...
So, the BBC chose the middle of a Summer afternoon to sneak out the news that four of their Strictly Come Dancing professionals won't be returning for the new series, at least not with celebrity partners. I am a bit gutted to see that Erin Boag is leaving. She's been in from the beginning and her departure leaves only Anton and Brendan from the original cast left. She earned the nickname "Miss Whiplash" for her strictness in the training room. A couple of her highlights: That Samba with Julian Clary from way back in 2004: And something altogether more sophisticated ...
It is one thing to hold noble principles regarding race equality, or even to formulate policies that aim to tackle disadvantage and discrimination. But it quite another to have to deliver a fairer society and equal opportunities — especially when one is a Liberal Democrat Minister in a Coalition government numerically dominated by the Conservatives. [...]
Across the town the stock of Southport College is rising. I read on the Southport FC website that they have agreed a partnership deal with the Club: It is exciting times for elite youth development at Haig Ave. Southport Football Club in partnership with Southport College will be running an elite Conference Youth squad commencing this summer. Southport Football Club are seeking applications from sixteen year old school leavers who have been released from north west Premier League or Football League Clubs. The club are seeking sponsorship to support this fantastic football development for talented teenagers with a shirt sponsor, ...
The Liberal Democrats' official monthly magazine Ad Lib recently invited me to write a short article making the case against anonymity on political blogs. The magazine has now been published. The original text of the article is reproduced below (although I haven't yet seen the published version, which Ad Lib's editors may in their wisdom have altered): Liberator's blog (liberator-magazine.blogspot.co.uk) does not allow anonymous comments, whether pseudonymous or completely anonymous. If you are familiar with political or media blogs, you will understand why. Behind the shield of anonymity, a small but vociferous band of infantile trolls and obsessive bores can ...
Sat 1st
15:19
Moral of the Patrick Mercer story: perhaps it is the lobbyists who should be regulating MPs...
[IMG: Patrick Mercer] A group of journalists go out to run a sting operation. They approach a public affairs firm (Insight Public Affairs) who turn them down as they viewed what they were asked to do as unethical. They also approach an MP, Partick Mercer, who by contrast said, 'with pleasure'. Perhaps the moral of the story is that we could do with public affairs firms regulating MPs... [IMG: :)] More seriously, it does make a point about the problem of unregulated lobbyists. Once again, the problem hasn't been with a firm signed up to the industry's self-regulation system, but ...
[IMG: Lobby the Lords Equal Marriage Vigil] The House of Lords debates the Same Sex Marriage bill on Monday 3 June. They will address the general principles of the Bill before voting on a Second Reading. When the matter was debated in the Commons two weeks ago, I was saddened to see that so many of my friends were upset by a protest against the Bill. Think about how it feels to be lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender and to see people demonstrating outside Parliament to exclude you. They tell you that they think that your relationships are somehow less ...
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An exciting couple days for all us liberals out there. Not one, but two hat tips: First, the good news that "we are not alone". Liberalism is not just alive in the UK, it is positively thriving. A major feature in the Economist, of all places, states "Britain's youth are not just more liberal than their elders. They are also more liberal than any previous generation". Young Britons, it turns out, are classical liberals. The Economist reports: "...as well as prizing social freedom, they believe in low taxes, limited welfare and personal responsibility. In America they would be called libertarians." ...
I was just drifting off to sleep last night when my bedroom was filled with flashing lights and the sound of engines. Opening the curtains, I saw there was a fire tender in the road outside. Not only that: there were flames leaping up spectacularly from somewhere across the road. Soon a second tender turned up and I went for a walk to see exactly where the flames were coming from. It turned out to be the allotments between the houses across the road and Little Bowden rec and by the time I got home the flames had been doused. ...
After a night spent listening to an enormous thunderstorm and torrential rain, I wasn't sure how much of the Chelsea Show Gardens there would be left to see last Saturday but shivering on a train platform in the early hours to arrive at the showground by 9.00 am was worth it to beat the crowds. The show gardens had stood up well to the rain, only the peonies looking somewhat beaten by the weather. A cold winter and spring had done little to dampen the beautiful green elegance on display and there's nothing like a pot of strawberries and cream ...
I turned up a little early to help set up the Corstorphine Youth Centres Fun day. This is the snap of the Old Parish Church whose yard is cohosting the event. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Tweets about "#ldraceconf"
We saw Defence Secretary Philip Hammond give Nick Clegg a hard time on the Snoopers' Charter the other day. Now our own Danny Alexander has given Hammond and Michael Gove something to think about by trashing their view on leaving the EU. It is a measure of how much the media have got used to Coalition that this isn't being played up as a huge split. It's accepted that there are radical differences in approach between the two parties on certain issues. It would be nice to think that this would lead to more intelligent public debate between members of ...
Whipped: From the desk of the Junior Whip The Chief Whip has been in the papers. Not because of a scandal, but because of his friendship with the drummer from Keane. In the feature Richard Hughes spoke of their shared opposition to the death penalty and described the Chief Whip "an easygoing, funny guy". (I bought two copies to check this quote.) I'm not sure this appearance was a good idea. There's nothing wrong with being associated with Keane - ever since Tony Blair politicians have had to pretend they like rock and I am sure the Chief Whip really ...
Sir Menzies Campbell, Liberal Democrat MP for North East Fife and respected foreign policy expert talked to the Today programme yesterday about the situation in Syria. Last week he said that he didn't think the EU arms embargo should be lifted. Now that it has been, he is now calling for a moratorium on arms exports to Syria so that a Conference can take place to try and get a peace process under way. He told the Today programme yesterday: I was one of those who expressed grave reservations about the idea of the EU embargo coming to an end ...
posted The Blood is The Life 31-05-2013 http://t.co/XWD291ps1e on #dreamwidth (tags: (from twitter) dreamwidth ) Another Day, Another (three) UKIP councillor(s) in trouble. (tags: ) 6 Women Scientists Who Were Snubbed Due to Sexism I had heard of four of these. Thanks, Dad. (tags: ) Felicia Day » Blog Archive » Star Trek Musings ETC AND SPOILERS SO NO COMPLAINTS This sort of think makes admiral Janeway sad. (tags: ) Star Trek Into Darkness: Where Did All The Strong Starfleet Women Go? | triona guidry: fantasyworld "This is not a Starfleet that will develop a Borg Queen-defeating Janeway. She'll ...
[IMG: Brains and Bullets - How psychology wins wars by Leo Murray] A crucial curio of warfare is that whilst huge numbers of people get killed in military conflicts, it takes huge numbers of troops and ammunition to kill even a single enemy soldier because very often soldiers hold back, with a mixture of factors such as fear, self-preservation, aversion to killing and confusion making them do something other than shoot, and even when they do shoot they often shoot wide. One of the striking conclusions from the evidence gathered in Leo Murray's work is that across different armies, different ...
130954: Listed building consent for replacement and renewal works, Maidenburgh Street. 130997: Installation of new ATM, Culver Street West 130998: Advertisement consent for 130997 131023: Listed building consent for 131020 (Jumbo) You can make a statement in favour or against any of these applications on the Council website, or if you want to discuss it further with one of your councillors then please contact me or my ward colleagues Bill Frame and Jo Hayes. I'm no longer a member of the Planning Committee next year, so I am now free to comment on applications. Related PostsCastle Ward planning applications, up ...
The thrust of capitalism, so we are told, is that it needs almost continual growth to be successful; the alternative is virtually no growth or worse, recession, where we have been stuck for quite some time. I raise this because it is fundamentally linked to why Green Belt, green spaces and high grade agricultural land are under attack from concrete, bricks and tarmac. Also, locally here in Sefton, despite the Borough's population falling by 26,800 between 1981 and 2011 14,004 additional homes were built during that period. The seeming conflict between economic growth and a declining population will, in the ...
Nick Clegg recently made it clear that it was the Conservatives that were blocking the proper regulation of lobyists at Westminster so in a way, it is poetic justice that it is one of their own who has been caught in the latest sting. The Telegraph say that the revelation that Patrick Mercer offered a bogus lobbyist a security card giving them unfettered access to the Houses of Parliament is likely to prompt a review of the system of granting passes to lobbyists. And so it should. But that does not go far enough. The influence exercised by these lobbyists ...
The energy regulator Ofgem should take immediate action to prevent energy companies from recalculating customers' monthly direct debits upwards after the expensive winter months. This is in response to the news that one of the Big Six energy suppliers has recently started contacting customers on monthly direct debit who are in arrears after the winter months demanding they either increase their monthly payments, or pay off the winter arrears as a lump sum. This cynical attempt to squeeze a bit more profit out of us over the summer destroys the whole point of customers using monthly direct debits to even ...
Sat 1st
08:51
Mercer affair can only help Nick Clegg's quest for lobbying transparency and recalling MPs
As more embarrassing revelations come out about Newark MP Patrick Mercer's conduct, momentum is bound to build behind Nick Clegg's quest to introduce both a register of lobbyists and a right of recall so that constituents can get rid of an MP accused of serious wrongdoing. He has talked about both issues recently. Firstly, on recall, reported in the Guardian: The proposals included in the coalition agreement appeared to have been stalled partly because there was disagreement on what behaviour by an MP could trigger a constituent's right to petition for a byelection. Clegg is proposing there has to be ...
[IMG: Farnborough #9] I only ask after reading this comment from Vince Cable: I think probably where there is some scope for taking action is getting the companies that host these sites, Google and the rest of it, to be more proactive in policing what is there. "host"? Does he know what he is talking about? I think we should be told. The full Guardian article is here. photo by: bisgovuk [IMG: Post to Twitter] Tweet This Post
This story in the Daily Mail is surreal. I have followed this particular case for some time and spoke about it in parliament in 2009. I fail to see where the public interest is in imprisoning someone for saying happy birthday to the adult son that lives with them on facebook. It is completely nuts.
The likeness is incredible. Christine Jardine is proving to be a fabulous candidate, showing how the SNP is neglecting Aberdeen in favour of shoring up its more fragile power base in the Central Belt and calling on the Labour Council to stop dithering and build the third Don crossing. There was a stormy hustings yesterday, on Brian Taylor's Big Debate where the Labour and SNP candidates seemed to be more interested in kicking lumps out of each other than anything else. They made a lot of noise but Christine made sure she got in there and made her very reasonable, ...
Some weeks ago, I asked Community Payback if the rather dilapidated seating at the Sinderins junction could be restored. The four benches have now been well-restored - see below - and I'm most grateful to Community Payback for taking on this project:
Last night's Evening Telegraph highlighted the salaries and allowances claimed by Dundee City Councillors in 2012/13. Of the councillors who served in the whole financial year (some members were first elected during the year, at the May 2012 elections) my claim remained the lowest across the City Council. This is due to the fact that I refused the councillor salary increase in 2009 and have maintained this stance every year thereafter. In addition, I never claim expenses - and have not done so throughout my 12 years as a member of Dundee City Council. I will continue throughout the council ...
A snap I took last night outside Lloyds TSB in Newbury. [IMG: bike newbury] [IMG: Post to Twitter] Tweet This Post
It is with some rejoicing that we now welcome June (and, yes, I know that my title is arguably incorrect because the "May" referred to in that 18th century saying is said, by some, to be the May flower or hawthorn, rather than the month). The last day of May was beautiful here in Newbury. We can but live in hope for June. Keep positive. Anyway, here's my photo of the dawn of a new month here in Newbury, taken this morning at 04:55hrs. [IMG: dawn 1st june] [IMG: Post to Twitter] Tweet This Post
