In the Times Literary Supplement, Ferdinand Mount (a former policy adviser to Margaret Thatcher) reviews four recent biographies of Thatcher and ends up writing a short biography of his own. What emerges is that Thatcher's death has proved a catharsis for her closest allies, and they are the ones writing in far more forthright terms than her political opponents, who pulled their punches for fear of seeming disrespectful. And herein lies a clue to Thatcher's downfall. She treated her colleagues like shit and most of them ended up loathing her. She was consequently brought down by her own party and ...
This film was first broadcast in 1958, long before Harry bloody Potter was born.
With the release of Shane Meadow's Stone Roses reunion film - Made of Stone - it's appropriate to give Manchester's finest ever band an airing, so here they are with the much underrated 'Ten Story Love Song' from their second album
Ed Davey's annual fundraising dinner and auction was held last night in a Mayfair hotel. With the keynote speaker - one Nick Clegg. I suspect - given the number of corporate types there - a substantial five figure sum was raised. A far cry from the days of chicken stew and a raffle for a bottle of Lambrusco in a local scout hut...
[IMG: The crisis in part time higher education in the UK, June 2013] The crisis in part time higher education in the UK, June 2013
[IMG: Katherine and me in Finsbury Park] I'm sure the Stone Roses concerts tonight and tomorrow night are going to be brilliant for for those attending, but local residents need to be aware of what to do if there are any problems. The Council has increased the capacity of these events to 50,000 people a night so there is bound to be some disruption! I'm just emailing to alert you to the large music concerts that will be taking place in Finsbury Park on Friday 7th and Saturday 8th June. The Stone Roses concerts will have a capacity of 50,000 ...
Just a few quick ones. First, More Tales Of The City, the new City Of The Saved short story anthology, is out from Obverse Books (ebook, paperback). I'll have a review up in a few days — Obverse are putting out so much good stuff I barely have time to read it all, let alone [...]
"Was the Communications Data Bill just a cover for PRISM data?", asks Complicity. Writing on the Northampton Liberal Democrats site, Richard Church remembers Tony Rounthwaite, who died at the end of May: "Brian Markham, who was elected in 1985 to the County Council said 'If you have ever asked yourself why there have been Liberal and Liberal Democrat Councillors in Northampton for the last 30 years when they have been few and far between in say Wellingborough or Kettering, the answer very largely was Tony Rounthwaite'." Ferdinand Mount reviews four books about Margaret Thatcher for the TLS. The centenary of ...
Just to say that the SEO spammers datadial.net emailed me today, trying to bribe me to mention the site and link to the site supplemented.co.uk on my blog. So I'm doing that. Don't buy from these people, they pay SEO spammers. They did this, because "they saw I'd linked to a competitor site" — in [...]
Fri 7th
17:58
SMR Column: Let's work together for a 20mph limit across Manchester's residential streets.
Last week the Council's Executive met to finally sign off a plan that will take the first steps in making the default speed limit on residential streets 20mph. 20s plenty [...]
131058: Change of use from warehouse (B2) to training studio (D2), insertion of new windows and doors, Moorside. 131063: Single and two story extensions, Margaret Road. 131076: Advertisement consent for window unit, High Street. 131129: Change of use to create larger dance floor, St Botolph's Street. 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, ...
Fri 7th
17:22
What a carry on - The new Sefton Central Area (Farce) Committee met in Maghull last night
Well I said from day one that it would be more like a conference than what a truly local Area Committee should be and so it proved. Just look at how many people there were in that large room and they are not all on the photo! [IMG: rsz_area_farce_committee_06_06_13] Formby residents had to go all the way to Maghull to raise concerns about traffic regulation orders in their own patch which previously were dealt with in Formby. A Crosby traffic issue was dealt with in Maghull instead of in Crosby ..... I could go on but you get my drift! ...
It's Friday. It's five o'clock. Here's a fistful of lists that sum up the LDV week: 5 most-read stories on LDV this week The "affair" is none of our business - but how did it get in the papers anyway? (53 comments) by Caron Lindsay Mercer affair can only help Nick Clegg's quest for lobbying transparency and recalling MPs (9 comments) by The Voice Would PR spell the end of the Liberal Democrats? (32 comments) by The Voice Ed Balls shifts Labour's position closer to the Lib Dems: is this the start of a Lib-Lab realignment? (25 comments) by Stephen ...
It's Friday, it's five o'clock and it's been a while since I did one of these but we have lost a variety of artistic people this week so it felt right. First on Thursday it was announced that novelist Tom Sharpe had died. He work black comedic novels such as Blott on the Landscape and Wilt. Both were adapted for TV the first as a series the second as a film. But another Sharpe adaptation was the one whose theme tune sprang to my mind when the news came to me that was Porterhouse Blue. Here is a brief glimpse ...
The Puddlers Corner roundabout (aka Morrisons Roundabout) will be closed from 7 p.m. till 6 a.m. for a minimum of two and maximum of four nights starting on June 24th. The biggest issue will be for traffic heading to and from Castleside and the A68 which will have a signposted diversion via Pemberton Road and Allensford. I have asked for signs to go up warning people of the event so they leave a bit of extra time.
As residents are aware, this has been Dundee's Festival of Volunteering Week and, in addition to the activities earlier this week I have taken part in across the West End and elsewhere, this morning, along with residents, University of Dundee volunteers, Scottish and Southern Energy volunteers and my ward colleague Cllr Richard McCready, I took part in a litter pick organised by the Bonnie Dundee team. See picture below:We spent a couple of hours litter picking in the University of Dundee Campus, Perth Road, Seabraes and along to Greenmarket and Nethergate. This afternoon, I popped by the Festival of Volunteering ...
It's been hard to miss the coverage of revelations that the US government has been scooping up data from tech giants such as Apple and Facebook – you've probably already seen newspaper reporting on the Prism project slides. What's surprising is that people think this is cause for renewed concern. Data in the cloud really should not be considered secure. The Americans have some sort of quasi-legel process for handling this, but I doubt other foreign intelligence is And if you are a big corporate, your data – blueprints, designs, release and pricing information – is probably of more interest ...
The Mirror reports: The pro-Europe Lib Dems are the hardest-working British party in Brussels — attending 87% of votes. The Greens come in next on 84.8%, Labour third on 82.7%, and the Tories second from bottom with an 80.4% attendance record. However, [IMG: Nigel Farage. Photo shared under Creative Commons, some rights reserved UKIP has been branded Europe's laziest party after figures revealed its MEPs top the skivers' league. Leader Nigel Farage has the fifth worst attendance record out of all 752 MEPs. His anti-European Union party sidekicks Godfrey Bloom and deputy leader Paul Nuttall, who each pocket more ...
Regular readers will be well aware of Sarah Teather's long record of campaigning for fairer, better treatment of asylum seekers. Earlier this year, she talked about a "deeply upsetting" report which told how pregnant asylum seekers did not receive the support that they need. In fact, one particularly distressing account told of a mother having to walk home in the snow carrying her newborn because she could not afford transport or a pram. Yesterday, she described the Home Office's announcement that asylum support rates will be frozen for the upcoming year as cowardly and politically motivated. The freeze comes despite ...
Today we bring you the 1956 Annual Report of Southport Women's Liberal Association. It is notable for several features. Firstly the context; the faltering Liberal revival had begun. Deep in the wretched winter of 1954 a by election was held in Inverness-shire on December 21st. In fact so poor was the weather the result did not reach the London Press till Christmas Eve. The Liberal candidate, John Bannerman, was a 'popular Gaelic speaking Highlander, sportsman, potato developer and broadcaster; he had played Rugby for Scotland on thirty seven occasions between 1921 and 1929'. He reduced the Tory Majority from 10,000 ...
Here's today's hand-picked selection that caught my interest... CentreForum Liberal Hero of the Week #38: Ed Balls. Our Liberal Villain is Lord Dear. | CentreForum Blog My @CentreForum Liberal Hero of the Week #38: @edballsmp. Our Liberal Villain is Lord Dear. Find out why here: http://bit.ly/17tghmM This slow march will get Miliband nowhere | The Times Good pt by Philip Collins: Brownism = Blairism "only extremely reluctant, highly anguished and very, very late" http://thetim.es/11lm7hC (£) What's happening to net migration? | Full Fact What the Tories' poster "What's happening to net migration?" should have said http://bit.ly/16NNQ3i How Ed Miliband avoided ...
Here is Tracey's comment on the Badger cull taken from here and the Parliamentary rolls. Previous blogpost on this subject here. When I spoke in a previous debate on this issue, I was one of few Conservative Members who stood up, spoke, and then voted against the culling of badgers. I was surrounded by colleagues who profoundly disagreed with me, some of whom have barely spoken to me since. It was one of the most daunting experiences in my short time here. Today feels like groundhog day, although this time it has come with added pressure for me to change ...
Contractors working on behalf of United Utilities will be carrying out an open excavation to install services on High Street, Cheadle, adjacent to number 37 between the junctions of Mary Street and Massie Street. These works require the use of Stop and Go boards. The work is scheduled for Saturday 15th and Sunday 16th June 2013. It's been done over the weekend to minimise traffic problems, but expect delays and perhaps worth avoiding the village centre if you're just using it as a through route.
A recent letter to Prime Minister Cameron has a campaign group calling for scenes of simulated rape to be made a criminal offence. Not the act itself, not the film or photographer or actors, but if you download an image of adults engaged in such role-play, YOU are a criminal and could be prosecuted under law. I have a very liberal stance on pornography, but it's not a 100% society-must-stay-out-of-the-way approach. Yes, I agree that porn may well affect a person's outlook on sex and the objectification of people (there is a strange argument that porn only depicts women as ...
In what seems to be a recurring theme of delays and cancellations at the moment, the work planned to resurface the top of Shaftmoor Lane and the adjacent section of Olton Boulevard East (see my previous post) has been delayed. The letter going out to residents from Amey puts this down to "circumstances beyond our control" and promises that when a revised date has been arranged residents will be notified.
Ed Davey has been writing in the Guardian about grassroots energy projects. He tells us the Government has commissioned research to find out what encourages people to get involved in community energy projects in the hope of generating more across the UK. So, what are these projects? People across the country are coming together to change the way we think about our energy system and their relationship with it. From a community-run advice service in Hampshire that promotes energy efficiency to a community-owned windfarm just north of Swansea, to a renewable heat project in Herefordshire that replaces fossil fuels with ...
Click on photos for larger image of insects and creatures found on a garden safari ~ mason bee at work wasp beetle bluebottle fly greenbottle fly snail eating hosta leaf Young bush cricket fledgling woodpigeons in the garden
[IMG: Nick_Clegg_signature.png] Nick Clegg
The Independent reported this week that Cameron faces serious Cabinet split over arming Syrian rebels. Nick Clegg is said to have warned at a recent meeting of the National Security Council that supplying weapons to the Free Syrian Army might only escalate the conflict, killing many more people without any realistic prospect of decisive victory and that it could be "next to impossible" to ensure that British arms do not fall into the hands of Islamist militants. A Whitehall source said Mr Clegg did not believe "there was a military-only solution to Syria" and would not back any attempt to ...
It seems likely that the Labour Party is shifting its position and will adopt the budgets of the coalition. As a result there has been a flurry of debate - well, not quite that - about the funding of public services and the history of the Welfare State since Beveridge. The BBC's Nick Robinson was wheeled out to peer back into the past. Needless to say, this has caused disaffection on the left, and there is talk of yet another new party emerging, thanks to the inspiration from Ken Loach's passionate film Spirit of '45. Now, I've blogged about this ...
Over the next couple of weeks, I can promise you that there will be a lot of different things written about Stephen Fry and his disclosure that he'd attempted suicide last year. I realise that calling it a disclosure is the most horribly clunky language to use, but it's also right. It wasn't a confession, it wasn't a tell-all interview, he just told a room full of people. I haven't a doubt in my mind that given two weeks, Stephen Fry will have been called courageous and brave more times that you might care to remember. He'll be so safe ...
posted The Blood is The Life 06-06-2013 http://t.co/dPjkayB1zt on #dreamwidth (tags: (from twitter) dreamwidth ) 25 Reasons To Love Patrick Stewart There's 26 on the list, AND it's missing this: (tags: ) Survey Report - YG-Archive-Dr-Who-results-040613.pdf You Gov survey results as to what politicos think of Doctor Who makes mildly interesting reading, but sample of Lib Dems disappointingly small, and thus didn't pick up the vocal Lib Dem Colin Fan subgroup i.e. ME. (tags: ) G4S and the human rights problem | openDemocracy (tags: ) Government will help you to take over a community pub - or maybe ...
Here are the Liberal Democrat entries in the top 100 political blogs as ranked by EBuzzing (Wikio as was). Mark Thompson has seemingly inherited the Stephen Tall hokey cokey mantle, dropping out this month after entering the lists last month, after previously dropping out... The number of Lib Dems in the top 100 stays the same, however, thanks to the new entrance this month – Haringey Liberal Democrats. 1 (5) Liberal Democrat Voice Up 1 2 (10) Mark Pack Up 2 3 (24) Stephen Tall No change 4 (39) Jennie Rigg Up 2 5 (46) Lynne Featherstone MP Up 7 ...
So, the Scottish Tories are meeting in Stirling this weekend for two days of torrid whispering in corners about Ruth Davidson's leadership and not discussing more powers for the Scottish Parliament. The event will also feature a Better Together reception as Labour and Liberal Democrat conferences have done. Alistair Darling in his role as chair of Better Together will be speaking. Typically, the SNP, including people who should know better, have been chuntering about this. Rather than discuss the nitty gritty of independence, because their plans are constantly being shown to be a bit lacking in either logic,detail or accuracy, ...
SAP has built a business upon complex software tools and services, it's impossible to deny that SAP has had immense success. But nothing lasts forever. Once you've reached the top of the technology tree, it's a matter of time before your business is under siege. Gartner recently revealed that SAP had lost its leadership position in the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system market. SAP is rightly proud of its long software heritage, but perhaps it is a testament to a new digital economy that an enterprise with 40 years of history, deep funding pockets, and a team of capable and ...
In an increasingly globalised world, our individual and collective identities are inevitably complex. As I said in a speech at the Global Citizenship Forum at University College London last night, nonetheless we can live comfortably with layered identities. Though not born in London, I feel strongly that I am a Londoner and my passport tells [...]
There will be a meeting of the Liberal Democrat's English Council on Saturday 15th June at University College London. The English Council is the governing body of the Liberal Democrats in England. It meets twice a year to consider matters of importance to the English Party. Alongside the usual reports from officers and representatives of the English Party on other party bodies, the main business of the meeting will be to discuss the results of the recent local elections and think ahead to next year's European election. There will also be a number of minor constitutional amendments to be approved. ...
Fri 7th
08:55
Liberal Democrat McInnes' loses bid to secure prisoners a vote in the independence referendum
Scotland's referendum on independence next year is, we hope, a once in a lifetime event. If Scotland votes for independence, there is no going back. It's a huge decision. We know from Alex Salmond's tussle with some UK Supreme Court judges a couple of years ago that the SNP don't care much for human rights of prisoners. Rather than being mortified at being found in breach, they decided to pick a fight with London because that's what they do. To a liberal mind, prison is about rehabilitation, about getting the inmates' life in order, adding to their skills so that ...
Let's return to that sad affair of Labour closing many of Sefton's libraries. The only hope for those libraries earmarked for closure under Labour's plan would be the local campaign groups battling away to save 5 of the 7 libraries i.e. Aintree, Ainsdale, Birkdale, College Road and Churchtown. Now, only weeks ago at Sefton Council's budget meeting an amendment was proposed by the Conservative Group on the Council which we Lib Dems supported. The amendment was to use £150,000, of a £1m fund (which Sefton Council had set aside to help with services that had been cut back) to support ...
Like many others this week I have been watching the two Eds begin the process of falling out of love with their activists as they position themselves for the General Election through a number of announcements, including embracing welfare reform and a general acceptance of Coalition Government spending plans. It is as if their criticisms of the last three years had been all part of a dream and like Bobby Ewing, Ed Miliband and Ed Balls had woken up in the shower to a new reality. Now, it seems that all their rhetoric about tax avoidance has been a sham ...
I watched Panorama last night with interest. Indeed, I am afraid to say that I hugely enjoyed it. Is that wrong? We must say that Patrick Mercer vehemently denies any wrong-doing. What was remarkable is that Patrick Mercer went on about the rules so much but then appeared, allegedly, to bend them. And it is quite extraordinary that a "fellow MP" apparently warned Mercer about the "lobbying firm". Mercer even said: Who are you? -to the undercover journalist, saying that there was no trace of him on the internet. But still he apparently and allegedly went on with the relationship. ...
Eighteen months after the launch of Enterprise Zones in Wales, the First minister cannot say when Cardiff's Financial Services Zone will create a single new job. Challenged by me to name the day when the first permanent private sector job will be created in Cardiff's Enterprise Zone, Labour's First Minister was unable to provide an answer. The Cardiff Enterprise Zone was announced in a wave of publicity by the Economy Minister in September 2011 but so far not a single brick has been laid, no planning applications have been received and not a single job can be shown to have ...
Further to my update last month about the improvements at the Riverside Pavilion, on behalf of the West End Community and Sports Hub (WECSH), can we pass on our thanks and appreciation to Tayside Contracts who have, at my request, laid new bottoming and rolled it across the car park. The car park is now far better for access - see above right - the bad potholes have gone! Longer term, WECSH hopes to obtain funding for a fully surfaced car park but meantime the car park is a whole lot more usable, so thank you Tayside Contracts!
