Durham Schools outperform the national average. For some years Durham's schools have been outperforming the national average in terms of 5+GCSEs at A*-C, a figure which is not accepted as a sound judgement of quality in all quarters. So that made it good to hear at today's county council training session (rather thinly attended) that there's other supporting evidence that our schools are performing above national averages. The percentage of Durham secondary schools rated as good or outstanding by Ofsted is 78%, compared with a national average of 58%. At the primary level 72% are rated good or outstanding, nationally ...
Yesterday I reported that Norman Baker had visited Rutland to perform the official launch of the county's Shorelink bus service. Thanks to My Rutland site I can now bring you Norman's thoughts on the new service: "The Shorelink bus is a great example of an important connection being made in a small, rural county to help local residents, jobseekers and tourists get around. Running seven days a week, this is sure to be a popular service that will help people access jobs and key services, as well as letting visitors enjoy Rutland's many charms."
Michael Gove has told the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority to "stick" a planned £6,000 MPs' pay rise. He isn't on his own and many people think that MPs should not be receiving a 9.3% wage rise but Michael has managed to raise the insult bar by calling IPSA "silly". Parliament needs a spending watchdog. If we didn't have "silly" IPSA then we would need something very much like it - and that would be silly. The alternative is to allow MPs to decide their pay and conditions and I can think of a few stronger words than silly for that ...
I was all set to argue against the report of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa), which has today recommended MPs' salaries should increase to £74,000 by 2015 in return for cuts to perks and pensions. But then I thought: perhaps I should read it first. So I did. You can too: it's here. It's actually a pretty impressive piece of work. For a start, it dismisses pretty comprehensively a couple of arguments often used in favour of MPs getting higher salaries. Example one: it is argued an MP should be treated like a GP or a local authority chief ...
Should we be surprised. The Guardian reports that Microsoft has collaborated closely with US intelligence services to allow users' communications to be intercepted, including helping the National Security Agency to circumvent the company's own encryption: The files provided by Edward Snowden illustrate the scale of co-operation between Silicon Valley and the intelligence agencies over the last three years. They also shed new light on the workings of the top-secret Prism program, which was disclosed by the Guardian and the Washington Post last month. The documents show that: • Microsoft helped the NSA to circumvent its encryption to address concerns that ...
This is the Old Bakehouse in Church Street, Weedon Bec. Parts of it date back to the 16th century. The village church is hemmed in between canal and railway embankments and suffers from an unsympathetic modern extension, but the west tower in Norman and its doorway and window are striking. The body of the church was rebuilt from 1825 and manages to look more interesting in this photograph than it did in the flesh.
Writers are like meerkats; we live in holes to escape the heat of the world outside and to get on with our work, emerging occasionally to sniff at the big outdoors, standing on our hindlegs to savour what we find, before scurrying back to the security of our burrows and our research. So it is a good [...]
My Kickstarter project is now live. This is to see if there's interest in my carrying on doing music books. I've set the level for it to be funded at only £200 — the idea is that if I can get twenty people prepared to pay the cost of a paperback, that's enough of an [...]
Thu 11th
21:59
I'm sorry to see Richard Grayson resign, but I'm sticking with the party of liberalism thanks
I was sorry to see Richard Grayson has resigned from the Lib Dems. We've met only once. It was at the 2010 Brighton party conference when we were interviewed together for Radio 4′s The Westminster Hour. As I noted at the time: I felt almost sorry for Richard as we chatted beforehand, a loyal liberal and Lib Dem who finds it baffling to be almost a lone voice making the case against Coalition within the party. ... the Coalition — if not always the Coalition policies — is broadly popular across the membership, and across the different sections of the ...
Birkdale Library Flier 2
I've been moaning about marriage equality for just under 10 years. Over that time I've evolved from "grumpy with the halfway house solution of civil partnerships" through "passionate marriage equality evangelist" to "grumpy that Government proposals don't meet my rather extensive requirements". And the response I've got has moved with that. In the beginning I was mainly blocked on Twitter for calling out prominent people (mainly LGBT Labour members) who refused to even acknowledge the subject or insulted by (soon to be ex) followers who felt I was belittling their civil partnerships by arguing in favour of full equality. Sometimes ...
The lastest update I have received : Engineers and have confirmed that the problem is not caused by structural loads but by freeze thaw action of water in the hollow column centres. We have instructed contractors to commence work as soon as is possible to start to repair columns. When some are repaired in the cluster, we will be able to open the Pier to pedestrians. It will be a little longer, before all columns are repaired, before the tram can run again but we are going to ensure that we expedite works and get the Pier fully operational as ...
MPs' pay Jim from Tunbridge Wells, a public sector worker was none too impressed with the idea of MPs getting a whacking pay rise. Nick agrees: We're trying to keep everybody together if you like and I just don't think it helps at all in doing that by taking one very, very small but very prominent part of the public, people on the public sector payroll, MPs, and say, look you're going to be treated completely differently to nurses, doctors, fireman, firewomen, everybody working in the public sector. I really do think if we're going to have an approach towards ...
A few years ago on a very cold winter day, we had a stall at the first ever Kids Car Boot and Swap Shop at Kingsway School (Broadway). It's gone from strength to strength and runs on the first Sunday of every month. Have a stall and, if you don't want to take your unsold things home again, donate them to Barnardos.
A communication* has been issued from Thanet's revolutionary forces "The Peoples Assembly" centred in the hotbed of discontent and revolution Broadstairs, it seems that the fight back against responsible government has begun with a mishmash of the usual suspects having gathered in the town, no doubt to wallow in misery of the delusional mindset of those who believe in entitlement. Entitlement being that irrational idea shared by large herds of the public sector employees and benefit claimants who feel that they have a god given right to a comfortable life style irrespective of economic reality, this being evidenced in the ...
Colchester MP Sir Bob Russell has become the latest Lib Dem MP to be utterly offensive over Israel and the Holocaust. Unsurprisingly, Michael Gove gave Russell short shrift with his answer, before the Speaker pointedly reminded him about a Holocaust Educational Trust event that he hosted. Bob Russell (Colchester, Liberal Democrat):The Secretary of State referred ...
From Sky News: More than 100 companies and projects in England are to receive cash from a £506m Government pot to boost jobs and fuel business expansion. Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said the successful Regional Growth Fund (RGF) bids would help secure £2.8bn of private sector investment and create or safeguard 77,000 jobs. It is the latest round of awards made under the £2.6bn scheme designed to create sustainable employment and rebalance the economy. And you can see where the 102 areas are on this handy map created by the party's A Million Jobs campaign which shows the new ...
[IMG: Router and cables. Photo courtesy of Cylonka. Some rights reserved http://www.sxc.hu/photo/869240] One of the arguments deployed to keep details secret of how the government snoops on our digital lives is that if details were public, then this would help terrorists. We have seen the argument over Prism, and personally I've seen it with the Home Office's extended arguments about how revealing how much was spent on implementing part of RIPA a decade ago would help terrorists here and now. Which makes the views of Richard A. Clarke, former top US anti-terrorism official under Presidents George HW Bush, Bill Clinton ...
Scotland's Better Together campaign has for the first time allowed humble bloggers like me to talk to its Leader, former Chancellor Alistair Darling. He held a conference call with us to discuss his lecture at Glasgow University this morning in which he presented a case for staying in the union designed to appeal to both head and heart. He told his audience of 300 that there were two sides to the pro-union argument. One was very factual, a hard headed calculation of the benefits of the economic union, the UK single market. The second was about he social and political ...
In nineteenth century Russia a perennial theme of commentators was "What is to be done?". In pamphlets, articles and even novels, the question "What is to be done?" is endlessly repeated- notably by Lenin. The crisis of Czarism was obvious, and yet the solutions were not so clear, and in the end the breakdown of Czarist autocracy led to the totalitarianism of Stalin and the murder of millions on a scale that would have been beyond the comprehension of even the most absolute of the Czars. Now in Russia the question "What is to be done?" is being asked again. ...
Double Rating in Sefton - Lydiate Parish Council's response to Sefton MBC's proposal to stop repaying the affected Parish Councils Dear Sefton Council, In Lydiate, Maghull and Aintree Village (and to a lesser extent in Melling Parish - see note below) all of the parks are looked after by the Town or Parish Councils and these Councils charge residents for the cost of doing this, via the Council Tax - the separate 'parish precept'. Sefton Council also charges for looking after parks in Lydiate, Maghull and Aintree Village even though it does not deliver any such service in those three ...
[IMG: hs2] Introduction This response to the HS2 Draft Environmental Statement is made in a personal capacity. I do not require the response to be treated as confidential. I have been consulted on, and support fully, the comprehensive response issued by Warwickshire County Council. As the elected member for the Kenilworth Abbey division of Warwickshire County Council, I wish to focus on three key issues in my personal response: The devastating impact of the current HS2 proposals on the village of Burton Green, especially during the construction phase of the project. HS2's failure to understand the local and regional importance ...
Here's today's hand-picked selection that caught my interest... The Real Blog: Why Richard Grayson got it wrong Typically thoughtful riposte @DavidBoyle1958: Why Richard Grayson got it wrong [in resigning from the LibDems http://bit.ly/12sV58p PMQs: #Huppertwatch - Telegraph Blogs Good on Julian Huppert. Standing up to bullying is the only language bills understand » PMQs: #Huppertwatch http://bit.ly/12ZSebr How does Ed deliver his vision for union link reform? Step one, call Clegg « Labour Uncut "How does Ed deliver his vision for union link reform? Step one, call Clegg" says @AtulH » http://bit.ly/1boVfpt UK Polling Report Anthony Wells' take on that Ipsos-MORI ...
On Saturday I shall be attending a meeting of the Social Liberal Forum in Manchester and, as a blogger, have been given the opportunity to take part in a lunchtime question and answer session with Steve Webb, Minister of State for Pensions in the coalition. My question, if I get the chance to ask it, will concern the way that the rich are enabled to build up huge pension pots with tax-free contributions. I have chuntered about this in previous posts but, to prepare myself, have now looked into the details. These are even more astonishing than I'd suspected. At ...
Writing blog posts based on the tail end of a radio interview you have caught is fraught with danger. However, I want to take issue with something Scottish Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said. She had been asked about today's Guardian story which suggests that the Trident base at Faslane could be designated UK territory in a way similar to the sovereign military bases in Cyprus for a temporary period post independence. She said that if the UK Government wanted to keep weapons of mass destruction, it could do so, but Scotland would just have voted against Trident, for independence. ...
My name is Naomi Adedokun and I am doing work experience with Mr John Leech MP for this week. One of my projects was to create a blog on [...]
[IMG: Cats in a car. Photo courtesy of Krappweis. Some rights reserved http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1408246] The news that Volvo is upping the ante in the race to be the first to bring driverless cars to the mass market, including systems allowing cars to exchange data with each other, means that security problems with the data links into and out of cars being compromised won't be that far behind. That's no criticism of any individual car marker. It's just the continuing fact of networked life. The only fully secure device is one that is disconnected, turned off and locked away. And smashed to ...
I only got a relatively fleeting look at the smooth-coated otters at Otter Creek, as time was short, and they can't entirely be trusted with non-keepers, playful little scamps that they are, but there was time to find out a bit about them. I got rather more time with the red river hogs though. They have the misfortune to be at a relatively remote corner of the zoo, and don't get as many visitors as, say, the meerkats. I like them though, and got to get fairly close to them. Not happy, not happy at all... My job was to ...
Lots of discussion on the TV last night and the radio this morning about Ed Milliband's suggestion of primaries for Labour Westminster constituency selections. I'm all for primary selections and I don't much understand why anybody would be against them; after all, it is the whole constituency that you are going to be representing not just the 30 or so activist that can be bothered to vote. But I think there are so many more benefits to politics that the obvious democratic one above. For a start I think, despite being a vastly larger selectorate, I think it will make ...
"All in it together? MPs WILL get a payrise worth up to 12%" thunders this morning's Independent newspaper. While I'm not a big fan of our MPs, this headline has persuaded me that they deserve the payrise that apparently will be proposed by the independent body given the task of setting their pay. If even a supposedly more mature and considered newspaper like the Independent indulges in this kind of vindictive, misleading headlining, then something is clearly wrong. This headline is revealing about how information is communicated in our society. First of all, no formal announcement has actually been made. ...
According to our friends at ALDC, there are four council by-elections taking place today. Sadly, in only two of them, in Brighton's Hanover and Elm Grove (lovely name for a ward) and Mid Sussex's Lucastes and Bolnore (ditto) are the Liberal Democrats even fielding a candidate. I am of the view that we need to at least be on the ballot paper in every single public election to give people the chance to vote Liberal Democrat. I know that in Scotland we have missed opportunities recently, so we're not perfect either. This, for all the doom-mongers around you, is not ...
It is a relief sometimes to find the government has done something that is, not just unexpected, but overwhelmingly and unexpectedly right. There I was staggered that Vince Cable is prepared to countenance plans to privatise the Royal Mail, a step which not even its most enthusiastic proponents would claim will improve the service - and will therefore introduce a whole range of externalities and costs for other people - with not a shred of mutualism to be seen. And suddenly, the government wins a high court action against the big fishing companies, which had tried to prevent them re-allocating ...
OMG - email received this morning from Robert Bliss, Leader of Shepway Council. Hello This message is coming to you with great depression due to my state of discomfort. I came down here to Philippines with my family for a short vacation but unfortunately, we were mugged and robbed at the park of the hotel where we stayed. All cash, credit cards and cell phones were stolen off us but we still have our lives and passports. We've been to the embassy and the police here and they have done the best they can. Our flight leaves in less than ...
Might have to have a trip to Ossett soon (tags: ) posted The Blood is The Life 10-07-2013 http://t.co/HmFLCZGAKP on #dreamwidth (tags: (from twitter) dreamwidth ) The coalition's dramatic retreat over Universal Credit On the one hand, slow roll-out and making sure something works is a good thing. On the other... looks like UC is going to go for a slow undignified death... (tags: ) How the Miliband reforms may give even more power to the unions | Westminster blog (tags: ) [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
Last night was the regular meeting of Bury Council's Cabinet. This is the important decision making meeting for the Council which I get to attend as an opposition leader. Three main issues: Libraries As previously report the meeting considered a recommendation from the Labour Group to abandon their previous plans for an investment in 'community hubs' to provide a long term future for Libraries, and instead proceed with reducing the staff in libraries by around 21 'whole time equivalent posts' – about 1/3 of the staff library staff outside of the main Bury Library (which has already had its review). ...
I strongly dissent from the opinions recently expressed about the Holocaust and Israel/Palestine by the Liberal Democrat MP Sir Bob Russell. Questioning Education Secretary Michael Gove about the national curriculum, Sir Bob asked: "On the assumption that the 20th century will include the Holocaust, will he give me an assurance that the life of Palestinians since 1948 will be given equal attention?" The Holocaust was the deliberate, state-sponsored murder of millions of Jews and other people, in an attempt to wipe out every person who had any Jewish ancestry, based on the racist belief that Jews were sub-human and evil. ...
As a young councillor in Manchester in 1999, I was often suspicious of a postal vote system that allowed people, who couldn't make it to the ballot box to be able to vote by post. It's not that I wanted to curtail anyone's democratic rights – it was just that I wanted to ensure the system was safe from electoral fraud. Since 2001, here in the UK – you can vote by post without giving a reason. 'Bringing the ballot box to your doorstep', argued some, 'Putting the convenience back into politics', said others. Now, I've no problem with the ...
This is a reminder that I welcome guest posts on Liberal England. So far 33 have appeared. And as you can see from the list of the 10 most recent guest posts below, I am happy to consider a wide range of subjects. If you would like to write a guest post for Liberal England yourself, please send me an email so we can discuss your idea. Spelling out the reason to vote Liberal Democrat - Andrew BrownTommie Smith - The man behind the image - Matt RoebuckDon't make the dull middle class go to university - Dr AnonymousHouse of ...
I am only aware of one meeting next week Thursday 18th July , 6:30 , Full Council , at Arms Evertyne House There will be a Public Question Time and a presentation by the Alzheimer's Society at the beginning of the meeting
Across the Borough of Sefton weekly newspapers have been hitting the door mat of thousands of residents telling them, via wrap around advertising pages, that the Council is 'all ears'. But is it? Certainly the Green Belt campaigners who are fighting to stop the Labour run Council from allowing the concreting over of it don't think so. Indeed, they tell me it is like talking to a brick wall especially when they try to point out to the Council that the stats it is using for population growth are, putting it at its simplest, WRONG. The importance of the stats ...
I have previously said (actually on Radio WM) that I would not accept the IPSA proposed pay increase. I think IPSA are wrong about this. My own view is that they should concentrate on ensuring that MPs do not have to subsidise the operation of their offices. I believe that around 92% of MPs are having to do this now. That is the sort of issue that causes problems for people of ordinary means
I've always thought that it's worthwhile periodically reviewing your beliefs, in the same way that some people periodically review their life and career plans (which, of course, I've decided not to bother with anymore). So as it's 25 years since the Liberal Democrats were formed, it seemed like an appropriate time to review why I've remained a member for the last quarter of a century. Since the coalition was formed it's often seemed like hard work justifying my continued membership. At times, I've felt a bit like The Collector in J.G. Farrell's fabulous novel The Siege of Krishnapur: From the ...
The Office of National Statistics brought out a report this week that makes interesting reading. Thanks to the Lib Dems cutting income tax for the lower paid and raising taxes for the richest, the gap between rich and poor is at its lowest level since 1986. [IMG: Gap between rich and poor lowest since 1986 thanks to Lib Dems in Government] Gap between rich and poor lowest since 1986 thanks to Lib Dems in Government
A lot of ink has been spilled over the sudden and unwelcome removal of useful features from the new Google Maps. The lack of easy offline support, and the brutal removal of Latitude are deeply annoying. Worryingly, I think there has been a substantial change which is potentially very dangerous for drivers relying on Google Maps for navigation. One of the core principles of usability is that in high stress situations, information should be available at a glance. When the user only has a fraction of a second to glance at the display - the most relevant information must be ...
Tomorrow sees the start of an exhibition of paintings and drawings, taking place at the Botanic Garden's gallery. It features works by artists from the Scottish Society of Architect Artists and the exhibition runs until 23rd July. The Botanic Garden has a great new website you can access at www.dundee.ac.uk/botanic.
Janet and I are just back from our holiday in the Eastern Mediterranean. We had a brilliant time (apologies in advance about the annual holiday snaps below!) and what was good was to fly back from a beautifully hot Rome to find that the weather in Glasgow was almost as warm! Athens The bazaar at Kusadasi, Turkey Chania in Crete Messina, Sicily On board!
DUDE! I had an AMAZING progressive tempo run tonight!!! The theory (courtesy of Mr. Higdon), is to gradually build up to 10K pace throughout the course of the run, starting slowly and then working back down to super easy pace (like a pyramid). So, my goal was: 5 minutes at 10:45, 5 minutes at 10:15, 2.5 minutes at 10:00, 5 minutes at 9:30, 2.5 minutes at 10:00, 5 minutes at 10:15, 5 minutes at 10:45. And, I was kind of hitting that, but it felt SO much harder than I thought those paces should! As it turns out, Mr. Garmin ...
The Welsh Labour Government must act now to ensure that Wales does not have its own Mid-Staffordshire scandal. We have called on the Welsh Labour Government to implement a series of measures that will seek to improve patient safety in the NHS and avoid a Mid Staffordshire scandal in Wales. These should include: • Making immediate improvements and addressing the backlog in the system of clinical coding of patients. • Establishing a mechanism for investigation when an NHS organisation consistently exceeds a specific death rate threshold over a period of time. • Introducing legislation to set a minimum staffing level for nurses in ...
Well, another week and another depressing insight in to the minds of my fellow country men and women. The recent ruling by the European Court of Human Rights that prisoners cannot be detained for life without any chance whatsoever of release is against their human rights, has been met with the predictable, but depressing reaction by certain sections of the political classes and press. Calls for us to remove ourselves from the ECHR and 'be in control of our own laws' is par for the course whenever anyone dares criticise how we treat those who live within our borders. Ironically ...
Every now and again, it happens. You'll hear about it, because it's the thing that gets the headlines. First you'll hear the rumours, that they're about to go, then maybe something on Twitter, and then, shortly after, a blog post about the turmoil, and the difficulty and the stress - and the decision. Leaving the Liberal Democrats has become such an event, I'm surprised that Elton John isn't throwing an after party and we aren't all getting giftbags. I write about it with humour, but I need to be honest, I don't find the whole shtick funny. It makes me ...
I approach this response from the point of view of a casual cyclist seeing continuous improvement in cycling friendly infrastructure. We should encourage people to cycle to work and cycle for shopping. Although the residents call Wendover a village it is a market town and this should be correctly described in section 2.1.3. A guiding principle (9.2.1) should be that when possible, land should be put to use to the benefit of the public. For example the roof of the tunnel next to Wendover (2.2.9) could be used as a park or for allotments. In both cases provision should be ...
Lib Dem Voice (and other Lib Dem bloggers) have rightly highlighted the Office of National Statistics report that shows income inequality is now lower than at any time since the mid 80s. And it is partly down to the Lib Dem policy of taking low paid people out of income tax altogether. But buried in the report (on page 7) is the following table showing the effective rates of tax for each quintile of the population: What it basically shows is that each section of the population pays about 35% of their income in tax - effectively a flat tax. ...
