[IMG: Clagett Farm CSA 2008 Week 5] The New York Times reports that there is a growing movement amongst Republicans to impeach President Obama. – Just for the hell of it, by the look of it. It proves finally that Jeremy Clarkson was right when he said, after being chased out of Seminole, Alabama by locals outraged at Richard Hammond's "Man love is best" and "Vote Hillary" vehicle signage: I honestly believe that in some parts of America they've actually started mating with vegetables. David Axelrod comments on the development: I think there are a lot of challenges ahead but ...
I am wearing these babies to work on Tuesday. I'm canvassing, and delivering all day. They'll look perfect with my black Vans, and purple dress...
Campaigners have launched a new petition urging London Mayor Boris Johnson to abandon plans to bulldoze an area of outstanding natural beauty. Locals have also launched a website to save Scrubs Wood (pictured ), a [...]
1. I've been working on my MP's summer tour for nearly a month, and as a result have been non-stop, crazy busy. Therefore, I was excited to start the Bank Holiday Weekend by going out to breakfast with the Boy this morning. Everyone had told us about the "all-you-can-eat" breakfast at Toby Carvery, which costs £3.99, with bottom-less tea for £1.99. I nervously ventured along, as I wasn't sure if I would like the place, and we really enjoyed it! The Boy loved the sausages, and bacon, whilst I was more obsessed with the Marmite, and toast! 2. I have ...
On Thursday, I donned Basque, Suspenders and Heels and ventured out to Bristol Hippodrome to see the Rocky Horror Show on it's 40th Anniversary Tour. Aside from the people behind who talked through much of the second half, it was a fantastic evening. Most of the audience had made an effort with the costumes too: including a lovely older couple dressed as RiffRaff and Magenta from the end of the show when their true identities are revealed... It had been 10 years since I had seen a full scale production of the show... it won't be so long next time! ...
Jo Swinson was featured widely in the media yesterday talking about her plan to tackle employers who fail to pay the National Minimum Wage. The BIS website outlines the plan: Employment Relations Minister Jo Swinson said: Paying less than the minimum wage is illegal. If employers break this law they need to know that we will take tough action. This is why I'm making changes so it is easier to name and shame employers who break the law. This gives a clear warning to rogue employers who ignore the rules, that they will face reputational consequences as well as a ...
I have been visiting Bishop's Castle in Shropshire for almost 25 years, but it has rarely made the national newspapers. Today's Daily Mail, however, has picked up the story of Bishop's Castle Town Hall clock: A hotelier has demanded an ancient clock stop chiming every 15 because it is keeping his customers awake. The town hall clock in Bishops Castle in Shropshire which has rung every 15 minutes since the 18th century is now causing a storm on Facebook after one hotelier complained about the noise. The small market town in Shropshire attracts thousands of tourists every year, but Henry ...
In the past two weeks, I've read at least three articles in the London commuter papers with headlines like 'Buying in a Bubble' or 'How to beat the Bubble.' House prices are picking up and that's not a good thing. Interests rates are artificially low and when they rise many on George Osbourne's 'Help to Buy' scheme may well be caught out (unless they factored this inevitable rise into their financial plans). Low interest rates mean more [less responsible] borrowing which pushes house prices artificially high – it also means that saving for a deposit is significantly harder unless you're ...
Apparently not. North Wales has lost out yet again after a £36 million rail scheme for North East Wales was delayed indefinitely. It begs the question do we have a Welsh Government for the whole of Wales? North Wales has...Read more ›
Despite a slow start Southwark Council Housing plans to try accelerating the council program of making all council properties dry, warm and safe. It is a very basic standard – but even thinly applied jam is still jam. This is partly made possible by a large government grant. Instead of the following properties in small East Dulwch blocks being improved 2015/2016 they will now be improved 2014/2015: - Crawthew Road - Crystal Palace Road - Friern Estate - Halliwell Estate Also those street council properties – often victorian properties purchased just after WWII – proposed to be improved are being ...
The Halifax Courier wins our Headline of the Day Award with: Charity shop terror pensioner, Jeanne Wilding, jailed Thanks to Jennie Rigg.
[IMG: ldv coalition lessons] LibDemVoice is running a daily feature, 'Lessons of Coalition', to assess the major do's and don'ts learned from our experience of the first 3 years in government. Reader contributions are welcome, either as comments or posts. The word limit is no more than 450 words, and please focus on just one lesson you think the party needs to learn. Simply email your submission to voice@libdemvoice.org. Today Alan Craw shares his thoughts. Coalition government was never going to be easy, and so it proved, but the one general lesson we as Liberal Democrats need to learn is ...
Is Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh which has 100,000 residents per square mile. In practice that means having a city with approximately the same area as Bradford and packing it with the population of LA or Moscow. Population density is generally a good thing. It boosts economic productivity by bringing consumers and producers closer together [...]
This case is an interesting one that I know well. I know it well because I drafted some of the paperwork for the successful appeal earlier this year. A number of adoptive parents have contacted me about their concerns with the way the system works. I believe it is right that they should be allowed to warn people of how badly the system can go wrong. However, the judiciary have been resisting
One of the enduring problems of running a website or blog is the curse of link rot. Whenever I write articles I always try to find (non-wikipedia if possible) sources to back up my arguments. However, as these sources are obviously outside of my control, they may disappear as time passes. One method I use to try to mitigate the effects of link rot is the WordPress broken link checker plugin. However, I've been a bit lax over the last few months acting on its advice and so I appear to have 16 broken links to fix or remove as ...
Luisa Zissman, star of The Apprentice was on Breakfast TV this morning because she has 'ditched the apostrophe'. She asked on Twitter "Is it Bakers Toolkit or Baker's Toolkit with an apostrophe?", ignored the correct answer and decided to run with the former because she liked the look of it. The apostrophe is important because it helps us communicate. However I don't mind Waterstones or Boots losing their apostrophe. That's up to them and if it helps their marketing then I can see why they do it. However the important moment in the interview for me was when Luisa told ...
I have just taken two very long train journeys, one to Devon and one to Edinburgh, and it has given me an unprecedented chance to listen in to middle class conversations with their children. It has convinced me that I was right in my book Broke: Who Killed the Middle Classes? I suggested that - far from the heady days of Mr Curry and Hyacinth Bucket, and the curtain-twitching disapproval of suburban life - the middle classes have been the driving force behind the unprecedented tolerance of UK society. I know this isn't a popular point of view, but as ...
In view of the speculation in one or two places about the future of St Albans hospital, the local NHS has produced this document, because they feel there has been some misrepresentation. For the full text, see here.
You can't accuse Nick Clegg of hiding away. Now that he's returned from holiday, his first direct public comment on the Miranda detention and Guardian files controversy comes in a column in that paper. First, where the Liberal Democrats are coming from: Liberal Democrats believe government must tread the fine line between liberty and security very carefully, and are not easily persuaded by a government minister asserting: "Just trust me." So now that we are in government, we have been vigilant in ensuring the right decisions are made: scrutinising and challenging the assumptions of security experts, even as we give ...
Further to my article last month about the proposal to have a timebanking initiative in the West End, I was pleased to attend the first planning meeting yesterday. There was great enthusiasm from the attendees to move forward with a West End Timebank resource and we will now be setting up a small committee to take this further. If you would like more information about timebanking in the West End, please contact: GillBain@number10.org or BarryThomson@number10.org
I used to teach economics and in my retirement I have had the opportunity to follow closely the macro events of the last five years. The overwhelming weight of evidence is that the Osborne Plan A (expansionary fiscal consolidation) has been a disaster. Any objective analysis leads to this compelling conclusion - and Liberal Democrats should give up being "uberloyal" to the leadership and act in a dispassionate and evidence-informed manner. You don't have to take just my word for it. I can highly recommend Paul Krugman's book End This Depression Now! and Mark Blyth's recent publication Austerity - the ...
posted The Blood is The Life 23-08-2013 http://t.co/RD7kexDmTH on #dreamwidth (tags: (from twitter) dreamwidth ) posted State of the SB Update http://t.co/KnvwNfTpr1 on #dreamwidth (tags: (from twitter) dreamwidth ) [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
As if we did not have enough to worry about the Telegraph produces an article on problems besetting those of us who are privileged enough to live in what is known on Twitter as the First World, somewhere not racked with the war, famine, human rights abuses and disease that much of the rest of the World has to put up with. A sense of perspective is needed to those complaining about Pimms not being sufficiently chilled, the cleaner taking a day off and the glare of the sun affecting the screen of our laptops, phones or tablets. But then ...
The Western Mail reports that concerns have been raised about the impact of forthcoming EU rules that would see the NHS having to pay for patients' treatment abroad if they face "undue delay" in Wales: The directive on cross-border care, which is set to come in on October 25, is designed to clarify and strengthen patients' rights to be treated in other EU states. Under the directive, patients who face 'undue delay' in receiving their treatment at home could receive care in nations such as the Republic of Ireland, Germany or Spain, with the NHS footing the bill. The definition ...
[IMG: Tom Brake MP] I'm sure some Liberal Democrat members and readers of Liberal Democrat Voice will have recently received a rather alarmist email from 38 Degrees claiming that the Government, through the Transparency of Lobbying, Non-Party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Bill, is attempting to stop charities and campaign groups criticising government policy. I would like to reassure Liberal Democrat Voice readers that 38 Degrees have rather regrettably misrepresented and exaggerated the effect and intent of the bill. We are doing nothing of the sort. What the relevant section of the bill is designed to do is stop our ...
This year's Heritage Open Days are over the period 12th to 15th September. There are a lot of buildings in Northumberland that are open to the public over the period, and the Blyth locations are:- Church of St Mary the Virgin, Horton Royal Northumberland Yacht Club and (former) Lightship Blyth Battery St Cuthbert's Church and lighting the gospels A coffee morning at Blyth Community College This year there are no events at the Masonic Hall, (former) Harbour Commissioners Offices, or at many of the other buildings of historic interest. My suggestion earlier this year that Blyth Town Council should display ...
[IMG: image] We never tire of relating the story in our family. My darling wife attended the first Reading Festival in 1971. She went with some Christians from Twyford and Woodley, which made the spectacle of Arthur Brown (famous for his number one "Fire") tying himself to a wooden cross on stage and then apparently setting light to himself, all the more bizarre. Acts also included Wishbone Ash, Medicine Head, Sha Na Na, Lindisfarne and Rory Gallagher. Entrance was £2 and (and for some reason I can hear Alan Whicker saying this) it rained all weekend. There is a fabulous ...
I have received complaints from residents that the pathway from Rosefield Place to Bankmill Road is badly overgrown and I have been given assurances by the Housing Department that action is being taken to have this attended to. The car park/roadway area to the immediate south on Rosefield Place itself is also overgrown (see right) and I have been in touch with the City Council's Road Maintenance Partnership to ascertain who is responsible for tidying this up.
