I have written before about the Woodhead route and also posted a video of its last days - the ones I remember. This film was made in the days when it represented the modern face of Britain's railways.
The membership of political parties declined markedly in recent days and so has the number of full-time agents. I have come across a rather sad website - Antiquated Agents - that reflects this decline. It aims to keep retired and former Conservative Party agents in touch. It carries a lot of obituaries. Their Brideshead, exclusion from which clearly still rankles for some, is "Swinton" - Swinton Conservative College, which closed in 1980.
I couldn't let this go without comment. The funniest, cleverest, and most humane of all the Golden Age SF greats died today, aged 93. He was still sharp, politically outspoken, and writing until a couple of days ago — you can see his blog, which was required reading, at http://www.thewaythefutureblogs.com/ I'd been almost sure he [...]
The second volume of my Beach Boys essays is now available in paperback, hardback, and all non-Kindle ebook formats. It will be available within a few hours on Amazon for the Kindle (US link, UK link). As always, with all my books, the ebooks are DRM-free. Also as always, the paper copies are priced so [...]
[IMG: Statuesque Obama] Obama is getting a lot of flak for asking Congress to approve or disapprove of military action. But using the democratic process is a sign of great strength on his part – an act of statesmanship. We had a gutful of gun-ho "God told me to do it" killing with George W Bush and his poodle, Blair. I hope Obama is setting a healthy precedent which other US Presidents will follow. It was only with Harry S Truman, after all, that Presidents started to take war making decisions on their own. He started the Korean War and ...
From The Scotsman today: Sir Malcolm Bruce, the Scottish Liberal Democrat president and one of Scotland's longest serving MPs, is to stand down at the next General Election. Sir Malcolm, who has been the MP for Gordon since 1983, was knighted in the Queen's Birthday Honours list in 2012. He announced today that he would be standing down at the next election "to make way for some younger people." Sir Malcolm said: "I have really done all the things I wanted to do and set out to do in Parliament. I have seen my Party come from being really a ...
[IMG: image] These two fellows (left) sum up the dedication of RNLI lifeguards. The photo was taken last Saturday. Sat on upturned plastic tubs at the end of Bude Bathing Pool (as it was called until someone decided to start calling it "Bude Sea Pool"), garbed up in wind cheaters and woolly hats against the coldish wind, their eyes were carefully checking each and every of the swimmers in front of them. [IMG: image] Bude RNLI joined up with the Amateur Swimming Association this year to give free 40 minute "Swimsafe" courses to holidaying kids. It was an excellent scheme ...
Saturday 14th September is the ideal day to find out more about Stockport's rich heritage and have a great time in the historic town too. [IMG: Stockport Heritage Open Day] [IMG: 20136a hod leaflet map]
On-call firefighters are being recruited in Cottenham. Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service is holding a recruitment evening at Cottenham Fire Station, High Street, Cottenham, on Monday, September 9, from 7pm until 9pm for people to pop in and find out more about becoming an on-call firefighter. Information will be available at the recruitment evening about being an on-call firefighter including requirements, assessments and the training candidates experience. Those interested can take a look at firefighting equipment and speak with current on-call firefighters based at the station about their experiences in the role. On-call firefighters are fully trained professionals who save ...
Eight Cambridgeshire residents have passed out as on-call firefighters. The new fully trained recruits are now delivering Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service's life-saving work as part of on-call crews in their villages and communities. The new recruits are as follows: Lee Russell, 23, ElyLee Wigmore, 23, Sawtry Steve Wilmore, 43, Yaxley Gary Rosser, 21, Sutton Matthew Cross, 34, Ramsey Peter Jarvis, 38, Sawston Kiel Porter, 28, Soham Tom King, 28, RamseyThe on-call firefighters are fully trained professionals who save lives in their communities alongside their day-to-day lives. They may be at home or work when they receive a pager alert ...
Six community groups in South Cambridgeshire are celebrating after sharing a cash injection of over £5,000 to support their projects. South Cambridgeshire District Council awarded £895 to Over Community Association for the purchase of a bouncy castle for use at local community events. Meanwhile the Shelford and Stapleford Youth Initiative received £800 for new equipment to support activities for young people during the school holidays. Dry Drayton Village Hall received £900 to replace its 20 year old gas boiler and Orwell Village Hall received £884 towards the cost of replacing its well used DVD projector. Charity Centre 33, who help ...
Jas Lally, head of refuse and environment, said: "The city council has not received information about anyone allegedly strangling pigeons although we are obviously aware of the media coverage. As we have said before, any reports of such activity should be passed to the police or the RSPCA. "We are not aware of wider issues with pigeons in the city but, if there was a problem, we would encourage an approach that includes using deterrents to perching such as spikes or wire systems, installation of artificial nesting sites and public information. "Pigeon overpopulation can be caused by large quantities of ...
Today I have been briefing fellow councillors and the authority's staff on the budget for the next financial year. Cornwall faces some pretty huge challenges. We have to make savings of £23.9 million next year in addition to those which were already agreed of £19 million. And we have to save approximately £196 million by the end of 2018/19 - four years away. (This number depends on various government decisions and so will vary a bit, but probably not massively). We can't pretend that we can make all those savings just by trimming services a bit. So called 'salami slicing' ...
I don't always agree with (Lord) David Owen, but he made a valid point in an op ed piece in today's London's Evening Standard when he suggested that the G20 Summit in St Petersburg later this week could offer an important opportunity for negotiations to find a way out of the Syria impasse. The host [...]
Mon 2nd
17:39
Nigel Kennedy's wife responds to his claim that he arranged for someone to illegally vote on her beh...
A follow-up to my weekend story about how Nigel Kennedy appeared to have admitted arranging for someone to break the law by voting in place of his wife. This is what his wife has now said: He is quite outrageous, but that's too far even for him. He wouldn't do anything like that. His sense of humour gets him in trouble sometimes. I haven't read the article, he could have been misquoted. The police are investigating.
I have been in Berlin for a few days, visiting the historical sites and apparently missing all the political action back home over Syria. I had wanted to visit Berlin ever since the Berlin Wall came down. The city has recovered from its disfigurement when the socialist government of East Germany turned the whole of their country into a giant prison in which every citizen was regarded as a
In a thoughtful piece on Business Green, editor James Murray asks: How hard are the Lib Dems willing to fight for their green reputation? [IMG: Lib Dem bird green 700] To paraphrase him, he says "move over Green Party": It is the Lib Dems that have repeatedly pioneered demanding yet largely realistic green policies. You might not have agreed with every green policy they proposed - for example, the party's long standing opposition to nuclear power continues to divide environmentalists - but for much of the past 20 years the Party has maintained an admirably distinctive green voice at Westminster. ...
Back in 2010 I posted the results of all the local elections for Stockport Borough from 1974 onwards (if you google "Stockport Election Results" followed by the year, you can find them). Now for real gluttons for punishment, and thanks to my friend John Swarbrick, I have all the results for Stockport from 1945-73. Note that this is before Stockport Borough, so covers the old Stockport Council and doesn't include Cheadle and Gatley UDC or other areas that fell outside Stockport in those days.
Sorry: been away and busy at work. But am now back,and what better way to say hello than this film showing what Julian Assange has been up to recently. Scroll to 3.44 on the off chance you can't be bothered to watch the whole thing. H/t to (have a sit down) @louisemensch
Mon 2nd
15:48
My posting on the Lib Dem Voice website: The whole country is talking about HS2, so why aren't we?
[IMG: hs2] In recent weeks the national media has been full of HS2. A number of prominent politicians have expressed opposition to the scheme, others like George Osborne have rushed to support it, the Institute of Directors members said it should be scrapped, etc etc. For those of us who have been "in the firing line" of this massive project for over three years already, this national media attention is overdue but very welcome. For far too long, any opposition to HS2 has been brushed off as "nimbyism", with media images of posh people in grand houses being inconvenienced by ...
Episode 74 of the House of Comments podcast "Syria" is out. This week myself and Emma Burnell were joined by James Hallwood of the Constitution Society to discuss the political and constitutional implications of the recent government defeat on potential action in Syria. You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes here. Other podcasting software e.g. for Android can be pointed here to subscribe. You can download the mp3 for the latest episode directly from here. Or you can listen to the embedded episode below here: listen to 'Episode 74 - Syria' on Audioboo Any feedback welcomed in the comments ...
I wanted to take the opportunity to talk about the important events and votes in Parliament last week concerning Syria. I want to assure you that I did not vote [...]
[2013] EWHC 2671 (Admin) is an interesting case where the Administrative Court has refused extradition on Article 8 grounds. Basically they refused to extradite someone essentially because the UK courts would not have imprisoned him whilst the USA system was going to lock him up and that this would have harmed people dependent upon him. I don't know if this has happened before (the refusal of
In recent weeks the national media has been full of HS2. A number of prominent politicians have expressed opposition to the scheme, others like George Osborne have rushed to support it, the Institute of Directors members said it should be scrapped, etc etc. For those of us who have been "in the firing line" of this massive project for over three years already, this national media attention is overdue but very welcome. For far too long, any opposition to HS2 has been brushed off as "nimbyism", with media images of posh people in grand houses being inconvenienced by a project ...
Here's today's hand-picked selection that caught my interest... Sir Malcolm Bruce MP to stand down in 2015 Understandable decision after 30 yrs, but makes retaining seat trickier > Sir Malcolm Bruce MP to stand down in 2015 http://bit.ly/1dzRBvw Top of the Blogs: The Lib Dem Golden Dozen #341 Top of the Blogs: Lib Dem Golden Dozen #341 by @caronmlindsay | http://bit.ly/1e6iy8T German election diary: Mutti puts the lad in his place | The Economist Germany's Merkel/Steinbruck debate: no gamechanger. Here's Economist's view: "Mutti puts the lad in his place" http://econ.st/172q5S5 RIP David Frost. Here's the TW3 sketch I'll remember him ...
There was one moment on last night's BBC London radio debate on leadership that led to startled looks in the studio. It came when David Cameron's advisor, Shaun Bailey, admitted that the Prime Minister looks at [...]
The old church, which was run by Glo Family for a while, is to be home to a nursery – Nursery Rhymes Nursery and there's an open day on Saturday 7th September from 10am to 2pm. As Marketing Stockport reports: A new family run children's day nursery is opening in Cheadle Stockport, promising quality childcare and stimulating learning experiences in a magnificent spacious building. Nursery Rhymes Nursery is due to open in early September, it is located on Stockport Road in Cheadle, in a beautiful building which used to be a Unitarian Church but was more recently home to Glo-Family, ...
The Guardian's political editor is the brother of..... ....the editor of Vogue and reputed inspiration for Meryl Streep's character in the Devil Wears Prada. Their father, Charles Wintour, was editor of the Evening Standard. So the two siblings rise to prominence in the media is less surprising. However, the divergence in the roots they took [...]
If there is one thing we can all agree on it is that government bureaucracy uses too much paper and can be more efficient. However, surely we have to treat with some scepticism this report in the Independent that civil servants could cut the cost of government by £70bn in seven years just by making more use of computer technology. That is because the other constant in the universe is that government computer projects always overrun, cost more than originally envisaged and fail to achieve most of the objectives set for them. This could be because those responsible for commissioning ...
There are many aspects of modern business management which bother me. More than anything though, is the relentless invasion of idiotic myths which seems to pass for "inspirational leadership". I've sat in many classrooms - with many different employers - and I keep seeing the same lies being told to students. HR and training teams seem to incessantly buy into the slick and convincing pre-packaged nonsense of "gurus". I want to make this abundantly clear - there is a difference between facts and opinions. There is a difference between science and superstition. There is a difference between truth and lies. ...
When money is tight, where a party chooses to spend says something important about that party's values. So today is an important day for Liberal Democrats - as Nick Clegg launches our £760m investment to provide a free early years education for every disadvantaged two year old. From today, for the first time ever, 130,000 two year olds from the poorest homes become eligible for a free place with a nursery or childminder. And we have announced that, from next year, this same offer will be extended to families earning less than £16,000, adopted children and those with special educational ...
I took part in a fascinating live debate on last nights' Dotun Adebayo BBC London show on the subject of leadership. I was joined by Runnymede Trust's Dr Rob Berkeley, Labour councillor Claudia Webbe and Simon [...]
Richard and I have news. We've had several long talks; knees, nervousness and champagne were involved. And we're both delighted to announce that each of us has agreed to make the other very happy, and that we'll be getting married next year. Richard gave me a ring on our fifth anniversary*, and now that (in the nicest possible way) the law has finally caught up with us, we're going to do it properly. We've chosen the date: October 26th, 2014 will be our twentieth anniversary. As it's not us but Britain that's taken so long to make up its mind, ...
Monday: an elephant is announced Might want to keep 26th October 2014 free. Just sayin'... Cheers! (More from Daddy Alex here!)
[IMG: Malcolm announcement cropped] Sir Malcolm Bruce, speaking exclusively to the local newspaper in his Gordon constituency, has announced that he will be stepping down as MP for he seat he has represented for 30 years at the next General Election. He told the Press and Journal: I'd rather go when I'm fit, active, effective and, I hope, still enjoying it. I think I'm going to feel quite liberated but I want people to know that I'm not retiring right now, I'm just announcing that I'm not going to stand at the next election. I'll be as busy as ever ...
Are there such things as 'public banking campaigners' in this country, as there are in the USA? I'm not sure. There is Move Your Money. There are the redoubtable people who are actually trying to start local banks. But not quite what they have over there. I mention this because the campaigners at the PublicBanking Institute based in California have been searching the website of the Federal deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and were unnerved to find a agreement there with our very own Bank of England, which seemed to imply that fiuture US bank bail-outs would involve losses for investors ...
This is the update for the month of August 2013 for Cheriton, Sandgate and the surrounding areas. During a routine patrol of Tesco Stores in Cheriton High Street, Officers Mark Ball and Laura Zazo were alerted by staff of 2 dogs which had been left in a parked vehicle during which was a day where the temperature was in the mid-twenties. Officers quickly identified and found the vehicle owner, who was given words of warning regarding their conduct. PCSO's Laura Zazo and Mark Ball attended Sandgate beach in relation to a report of a nuisance dog. Officers attended with the ...
Today, the free paper Metro handed out to commuters who are too tired to say "no thanks" published an interview with Star Trek actress Eve Alice, which included the following two gems of questions: Did you consider yourself a geek before you landed Star Trek? This has become a bugbear of mine: the difference between geek and nerd. The derivation of geek from the ancient Greek is people who would do weird things to their faces. It's sort of an external expression of internal angst. A nerd is something really not good. Simon Pegg told me the etymology the other ...
Nestling near the top of the second page of the Federal Executive's consultation paper about how the party's new members of the House of Lords are appointed (pdf) is a little three letter word which is central to the issue. It talks about the party's current Interim Peers Panel system, whereby conference representatives elect a group of names - of which I was one last time round - and to which are added a group of people by dint of previous offices they have held, such as former MPs. That little word is "can", as in this is a list ...
Parliament ducked the chance to protect innocent civilians from being gassed by a dictator because of Labour leaders past and present. You could almost feel the presence of Tony Blair in every recent discussion around Syria last week. The day of the Parliamentary vote started with John Humphries calling Assad Saddam by mistake and then [...]
posted The Blood is The Life 01-09-2013 http://t.co/e2UWLjPpQj on #dreamwidth (tags: (from twitter) dreamwidth ) want to see sth terrifying? Cashcroft has polled the public on immigration http://t.co/AvlseVxEl7 it's the attitude to facts... *shudder* (tags: (from twitter) ) RT @sturdyAlex: UK granted export licenses for sale of the very chemicals to #Syria, 10 months into the conflict. http://t.co/HGlCrlWQZF (tags: (from twitter) syria ) Men fighting The Patriarchy (tags: ) http://ind.pn/18uK5uE Making friends with a paedophile: 'We can't kill him, so we help him not to do it again' http://t.co/p9hvnp1p3L (tags: (from twitter) ) UK government is ...
[IMG: Tardis. Photo courtesy of Zir. Some rights reserved http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:TARDIS2.jpg] Back for its fifth year is my conference fringe meeting league table, showing how many fringes each MP will be speaking at. As ever, this is based on the information from the official listings. Vince Cable easily wins not only top spot in the league table but also the coveted Simon Hughes Memorial Prize for Multiple Simultaneous Fringe Bookings as he shuttles at high speed along corridors, round corners and not quite into people in order to appear at different meetings all at the same time. In a particularly impressive ...
One of the 'facts' about the 'bedroom tax' which is becoming increasing accepted is that 9 out of 10 disabled people affected by the 'bedroom tax' and refused a discretionary payment are going without food. There is a rather good graphic, much shared, on Facebook illustrating this and it has been added to the Labour rhetoric of the all round wickedness of the Coalition. There seemed something rather 'too bad to be true' about this figure to me so I asked the Papworth Trust, the organiser of the survey, how they arrived at this much quoted statistic. I assumed that ...
Here's my latest Ham and High column, about some of the organisations I have caught up with over summer recess. You can also read it here. Haringey is full of wonderful, vibrant and successful voluntary and charitable organisations. They benefit our local area and add such value to our community. I've been lucky, as the local MP, to have visited the vast majority of them! During parliamentary summer recess, I have even more time to revisit these organisations, catch up with them and hear about their plans - and to offer any advice or support. It started with a visit ...
Menzies Campbell has signed EDM319. Motion reads: "That this House notes with concern the interruption of new mothers in NHS maternity wards by sales representatives; expresses concern that these representatives pass on advertising material during this time, that, more worringly, they extract data from these new mothers in order to sell it on to third parties and that sales representatives' motivation is unclear, with many new mothers believing they are giving their details to an official from the NHS; further notes that this confusion is compounded by the fact that HM Revenue and Customs pays Bounty "
I have today criticised the City Council administration's complete lack of momentum towards the provision of Demand Responsive Transport, to fill gaps in bus service provision across Dundee. A year ago on this blog, I pointed out that, back in 2008, as the then Planning & Transport Convener of the City Council, I had discussed with the then Dundee Accessible Transport Action Group (DATAG) bringing in pilots of Demand Responsive Transport to improve public transport both in Dundee and across Tayside/Stirling for those with accessibility problems in terms of existing provision. As the then Chair of TACTRAN, the Regional Transport ...
The City Council's latest Adult Learning newsletter is now out and it gives details of learning opportunities across the city. You can download the full newsletter here. West End opportunities are listed below:
The Welsh Government has commissioned 9 reports into the overall poor performance of the ambulance service in Wales which has by far the worst record in mainland UK. But the overall figures hide large variations which suggest that some parts of North Wales are much better organized than others. Wrexham comes out top not just in the North but throughout Wales with a figure of 73.7% for emergency calls attended within the target time of 8 minutes during July. However, the figure for Anglesey is 48.9% which is by far the lowest in North Wales followed by Flintshire on 56.8% ...
