[IMG: Rubbish piled up on the corner of Upper Tollington and Stroud Green Road] I've had a pile of complaints about the state of Stroud Green Road recently and have been battling to get a number of issues sorted for residents – after their complaints were ignored by the Council. Dumped rubbish by the recycling banks on the corner with Upper Tollington Park: This has been occurring for years – and still isn't properly solved despite been raised at the most senior level in the Council (see picture with Ben Myring). The state of the service road in front of ...
Earlier this week I posted a newsreel film of Wicksteed Park in the 1950s. Here is a home movie of this Kettering amusement park from the same era.
Photo by Dave Bevis The treatment of Leicester City Council's sole Liberal Democrat member Nigel Porter by Labour members is no laughing matter, says its sole Conservative member Ross Grant. Headlines about Labour bullying will surprise no one at the moment given the national media obsession with Damian Macbride. What is worrying though is that the recent story in the Leicester Mercury is not about the Blair/Brown era of internal Labour, but how a large Labour group and elected mayor treat one of only two opposition councillors. This is no new phenomenon. As the Leicester Mercury also reported, the heckling ...
Early morning sees the Bonkers Hall Estate thronged with civil libertarians hunting for Clegg. Only a few hours later, they are joined by the students. I have to fire my twelve-bore when they threatened to walk on my cricket pitch, but otherwise I turn a blind eye to their depredations. Out for a walk this afternoon, I find that they have cornered the very same Well-Behaved Orphan who took Clegg his supper yesterday. Naturally, I move in to rescue the little fellow, who has something of the young Christopher Robin about him. "Now, my boy," I ask him, "do you ...
At least according to the Guardian's resident debunker of historically dodgy films, Alex von Tunzelmann, who compares Rush's version of events with the reality. Hunt meets Niki Lauda (Daniel Brühl) when they're both racing Formula Three. Hunt is all hunky blond entitlement, champagne-swigging and recklessness; Lauda is disciplined, obsessive and - as everyone keeps reminding [...]
I know, I know, it's been a week since the Glasgow conference and I still haven't got around to writing my usual round up post. You can put that down to there being a by-election in the offing in Dunfermline. I'll warn you that this post is quite long, but if you make it to the end, you will be rewarded. Click on the last link. Anyway, before it gets more than embarrassingly late to do this, here are my random thoughts: Nick got it right My heart sank in the run-up to Conference as I read countless newspaper articles ...
What a week it has been from arriving as a fresh faced first timer at Liberal Democrat Conference in Glasgow on Saturday after an epic 7 hour coach journey to finally being home and feeling a lot less sleep deprived. I'm in a relatively unique position having been able to attend and take part in two different party political conferences. For the last two years, I attended and spoke at Labour Conference. In May of this year, I joined the Liberal Democrats. You can read more about that here. I thought it might be interesting to talk about the main ...
The Belfast Telegraph has, happily, printed my response to their rather snarky coverage of the Party Conference and the CHAMP fringe event. It can be found at:
Someone in Banbridge came up with the good idea of holding an Oktoberfest in Solitude Park. It would have brought people to the County Down town to sample beers and hospitality in a controlled way before the winter rolls in. However, the puritans (AKA the Democratic and Ulster Unionist Parties) have stepped in to keep the temperance movement alive and well in the 21st Century and banned any temporary license to serve alcohol in the park for the weekend festival. Initially the DUP were against the whole event but Alliance, Sinn Féin the SDLP and two of the UUP group ...
I was agog at the 20 month energy price freeze Ed Milliband announced yesterday. He stated he will freeze energy prices from May 2015 to January 2017. There is no such thing as a free energy price freeze. Surely he can't have thought this through. Energy companies have little control on the prices of the raw materials they use while maintaining their legal responsibilities to shareholders - most shares being held by pension funds and insurance companies. They can't control their costs without incurring risks and extra costs. If they hedge costs by buying raw material options ahead of need, ...
Young people will be getting more of a say in the decisions being taken by Cornwall Council's Children and Young People Portfolio Advisory Committee in the future. The committee will now include as formal members Cornwall's three members of the youth parliament (MYPs) or their deputies. This represents a massive step forward in giving young people in Cornwall a real say in decision making at the Council. Organisations are often accused of speaking for young people rather than allowing them to speak for themselves. We wanted to change this and encourage them to work with us. Inviting the MYPs to ...
[Originally posted at The Conversation, 25/09/13] [IMG: Modern Housing] The commentariat has gone into overdrive in the wake of Ed Miliband's speech to the Labour party conference. Does it represent, at last, the shattering of the neoliberal consensus? Is it the articulation of a vision for a more inclusive and humane social democratic future? Or is it the sound of the clock being wound back to the bad old days of the 1970s, and a Labour leadership only marginally to the right of Fidel Castro? Miliband's speech roamed across relatively broad policy terrain, with the announcement of an energy price ...
Hat tip: Duncan Stott Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: economics, Housing, politics, UK
A huge advantage of being in government is that often, at conference, there is real good news to announce. So in a rather unscientific round up here's some of our campaigning highlights of Glasgow 2013. Free school meals The biggest campaigning issue was free school meals for the under 7's. This may have undercut Labour [...]
Wed 25th
15:45
Ed Miliband's speech: 5 thoughts on what it means for Labour, Tories, Lib Dems and the 2015 election
[IMG: Ed Miliband] I listened to, rather than watched, Ed Miliband's speech to the Labour party conference yesterday. On the up-side that meant I missed the three hammy mid-speech standing ovations (shades of IDS c.2003); on the down-side it accentuated the peculiar whooping of some of the more excitable delegates (calm down, it's just a politician talking). In its own terms — getting noticed for its content rather than simply as an impressive no-notes memory feat — it was an undoubted success. Matthew Parris in The Times rather brilliantly captures the flavour: Crikey — it was wild, it was weird, ...
It's no surprise to anyone who knows me and my more classical liberal politics that I'm not a fan of the Labour Party, but until recently I was always fairly convinced that the Lib Dems should keep an equidistant policy. ... Continue reading →
In the face of rapidly declining membership of political parties we – along with the other parties – face a challenge to survive. In the past we have prospered as a membership led organisation, supported by a national network of volunteers and activists. Our revenue is derived from a combination of membership fees, donations and small scale fundraising. Above all else we are members of a party that exists to promote and further our values by electing Liberal Democrats to all tiers of government – local and national. We are not a pressure group or a single issue party. In ...
Hot on the heels of the hugely successful beer festival in the town square, Joe and his team at Penpont Brewery (and the excellent Beer Cellar in town) are organising another event. This one will be a German style Oktoberfest with beer, sausages, beer, Oompah music, and, er, beer taking pace on 1st and 2nd of November. This event will be a two day one in co-operation with the local pubs. On the Friday night it will take place in a range of pubs with different beers in each pub. On the Saturday, events will move to the Ballroom of ...
Good news - if a little belated - that Launceston Hospital will be fully re-opening from 10th November. This has been a saga that has run for many months with between seven and ten beds closed for long periods and a temporary period of full closure. Cornwall councillors, as well as the town council and local residents, had been very concerned about the loss of these beds. Whilst we were assured by the company managing the hospital - Peninsula Community Health - that they had no intention of closing the hospital permanently, there was a concern that the number of ...
Tuesday: Just when you thought Hard Labour conference was going along nicely, copycatting all our Liberal Democrat policies - tax cuts for low-income workers, check; paid for by a mansion tax, check; more apprentices, check; more affordable and social houses, check; garden cities, check; votes at sixteen, check; net nannying, check (no, hang on, we voted to refer that back!) - when along comes Mr Milipede's leader's speech with a totally unexpected policy to freeze (for twenty months) the prices that companies can charge for energy. I don't know whether it's a work of genius or lunacy. It's clearly pitched ...
[IMG: VIDEO: Liberal Conference Conference Rally Autumn 2013 Glasgow thumbnail] There is an idiosyncratic book, both eccentric and revealing, to be written one day with a title such as "Pick your seat carefully: how the choice of furniture shapes politics". It could start with the British House of Commons, deliberately designed to seat a smaller number of people than are elected to serve in it, thanks to its nineteenth century origins from a time when even missing the biggest debates and closest votes was considered quite normal for large numbers of MPs. That legacy now means cramped conditions for PMQs ...
A few months ago we secured £300 from a variety of sources to upgrade Bruntwood Park's BMX track and construct new paths around the park. The work to put it all in place starts in October.
Get down to Abney Hall Park in Cheadle on Sunday 29th September for Bark in the Park. http://www.scribd.com/doc/170862515/Bark-in-the-Park
Ed Miliband's speech was rather good, I thought. The line about the rising tide only lifting yachts was a telling one - that is the weakness, not just of this recovery, but most UK recoveries in recent decades. That pinpoints precisely the main criticism that can be levelled at the man in the Treasury. The only thing that worries me about it is this. How will a party with Ed Balls as Shadow Chancellor generate the energy and will to shift the domination of the financial sector in Treasury thinking? How will they create the kind of revolution in enterprise ...
I have always felt that there is a role for government in redistributing wealth. There is a huge social aspect to government. It has many other roles but I place the social role fairly high up. Having said that, I went to see Alexei Sayle on Monday who was reading from his books. He still has political 'rage' but he saves most of it for his stand-up shows. Alexei's parents were members of the Communist Party and so was he. He still holds strong political views and as you would expect he is anti-Tory. So why is he more anti-Labour? ...
If you've followed Scottish politics over the last few years, one theme will be very clear. The SNP Government will centralise anything that sits still for more than 5 minutes. Nowhere is this more true than in the centralisation of the Police and fire services. When Scotland's eight Police services were merged into one, we were assured that local policing autonomy would be protected. After all, you wouldn't use the same tactics in Avoch as you would in Aberdeen or Glasgow. Earlier this year we saw heavy handed raids on saunas in Edinburgh, which had previously been treated with a ...
Sadiq Khan has played a blinder in Brighton and is surely now leading the batting to become Labour's candidate for London mayor. The shadow justice secretary is a serious politician with progressive beliefs no doubt [...]
Here's today's hand-picked selection that caught my interest... David Blunkett and the Nazi propaganda | What You Can Get Away With – Nick Barlow's blog Super takedown by @nickjbarlow > David Blunkett and the Nazi propaganda http://bit.ly/1fkP5eo Behold, Ed Miliband's new populism of the left | Jonathan Freedland | Comment is free | The Guardian Jonathan Freedland insightful on Mili attempt to redefine debate > Behold, Ed Miliband's new populism of the left http://bit.ly/1gZ9dhC Sketch: Ed Miliband's repeat prescription – Telegraph Just brilliant from @MichaelPDeacon » Sketch: Ed Miliband's repeat prescription http://bit.ly/19D8Yor Tim Harford — Article — Ten email commandments ...
I have been advised by Scottish water's Regional Community Manager that households in DD2 affected by water loss today have now had their supplies restored. Scottish Water advised: "I can confirm that supplies have been restored. Storage tanks in higher parts of the zone may take a little more time to replenish, but repairs have been carried out and supplies restored." I am grateful to Scottish Water for its prompt response to this matter.
Lynne Featherstone, in New York for the UN General Assembly, has written for the Huffington Post about what the UK is doing to help those with disabilities in developing countries. First she outlined why this is necessary: More than one billion people worldwide live with disability and suffer huge discrimination as a result. They face unequal access to education, employment, healthcare, social support and the justice system. Consequently, they are disproportionately some of the poorest and most marginalised people in the world – part of an unseen great neglect. The internationally agreed Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have done a great ...
Many local pubs today are reducing their prices by 7.5% to highlight just one of the unfair conditions they operate under compared to supermarkets. They are calling for a reduced rate of VAT for the hospitality industry in order to help them comptete with the big supermarkets. The BBC report has more. It is clear many local pubs are operating under extremly unfavourable conditions - particularly those who are being forced to finance the over-leveraging by the big pubco's management. I can't see the VAT cut getting Treasury support - even if their estimated cost of introducing the measure of ...
ALDC's Mike Bell discusses a useful way for finding inspiration for your MyCouncillor site stories and local campaigning. One of the many great advantages of being a member of ALDC is the free MyCouncillor website platform. Hundreds of councillors and campaigners around the country are already using a MyCouncillor website to engage with the community [...]
One of the great campaigning issues to come of out of Glasgow conference was Free School Meals "Nick Clegg announced that every child in infant school in England will receive a free school lunch. The Coalition will fund schools in England to provide free meals for all children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 [...]
[IMG: con home cartoon] My seventh column for ConservativeHome — The Other Side — ran yesterday. You can read it here, as well as the always interesting comments below-the-line (which I try and respond to). My thanks to the site's editors, Paul Goodman and Mark Wallace, for giving a Lib Dem space to provoke ... constructively, I hope. At first glance, Angela Merkel's victory in the German elections is good news for the Conservatives. At second and third glances, not so much. Take all these glances together and I'm left with only one logical conclusion: that I should, for the ...
Germany is another country. I am a great sceptic about those who want to extrapolate from history or other cultures obvious messages. How many mistakes have been made in foreign policy because foreign secretaries believe they are at...Read more ›
[IMG: Sign of the Times by Peter Brookes] Sign of the Times is a new collection of acerbic, witty and moving cartoons from The Times's political cartoonist Peter Brookes. Produced to the sorts of high standards that bring the best out of Brookes's cartoons, the book is very simple – a one page introduction from the cartoonist followed by 108 of his cartoons in full cover, each with a brief reminder of the events that triggered them. They are often funny, though for me the best are the powerfully, even slightly distastefully, moving such as the one of a pregnant ...
What can a 1989 Indian film about biomedicine, plumbing and the freedom of the press tell us about the IPCC report? Want to see a film about evidence based policy and plumbing? Londoners who do are in luck, because Satyajit Ray's 1989 film Ganashatru is currently playing at the BFI in London, and a version of the play it is based on - Ibsen's En Folkefiende, or An Enemy of the People - is also showing at the Albany in Depford. The script makes for a good read on its own though, and there are several translations to choose from. ...
Phew, NSA Is Just Collecting Metadata. (You Should Still Worry) http://t.co/mMfTUcSpzO via Wired (tags: (from twitter) ) http://twitpic.com/deqjf7 TODAY: No reading, no tweeting, no linking, no outrage... let's have a nicer day. #dontreadthedailymail http://t.co/9V68GCyXV3 via @TwitPic (tags: (from twitter) dontreadthedailymail ) Bloody hell. Ordnance Survey, the UK's mapping authority, have ported Great Britain into Minecraft: http://t.co/LuuuFbVAQx (tags: (from twitter) ) http://t.co/BwmWpGqRln Nasty authoritarian right-wingers want to make the military a protected class shocker. (tags: (from twitter) ) http://m.techcrunch.com/2012/03/27/unfollowbug/ The twitter unfollow bug is on the rampage again. http://t.co/fDl8DAaJ9i Just discovered I'm not following @ladylugosi tho I thought ...
Last night, I had the pleasure of attending Skill Share Dundee's well-attended Volunteer Open Evening. Skill Share Dundee is a community-led project helping to inspire, empower and connect members of the student and residential community by sharing practical skills and crafts. The project aims to bring generations together, maintain skills and crafts that might otherwise be lost and reduce waste through reuse and repair. It was great to see many of the projects that are underway and the enthusiasm of the Skill Share Dundee team. If you are interested in finding out more, you can contact the team on 07450 ...
Also yesterday, I had a very useful meeting with Mark Munsie, Director of the Dundee Heritage Trust, regarding the High Mill Open Gallery Project. Having visited the High Mill last year and seen the deteriorated state of the mill (apart from the renovated Verdant Works), it was great to be updated on the success thus far of the Trust's fundraising to have the High Mill fully restored and opened as a tourist attraction to complement the existing excellent Verdant Works museum. The High Mill will be given a complete refurbishment which, while retaining all of its historic features will also ...
Ed Miliband announced in his keynote speech to Labour Party conference that, if elected, he would force energy companies to freeze energy bills for 20 months. Now obviously, from an economic liberal perspective, this makes no sense. Freezing energy costs is precisely the wrong way to go about dealing with the cost of living problem in this country. By freezing income while costs rise in the global upturn & the population expands to require greater supply, Miliband is depriving the energy companies of the capital they need to invest in the expansion of the system. This will inevitably drive the ...
What is it? A two-series, 21-episode long CBBC comedy-drama about the exploits of a teenage Leonardo da Vinci, living in Florence with his friends Lorenzo de' Medici, Niccolo Machiavelli, and Lisa Gherardhini. What is it about? Leonardo da Vinci is an apprentice artist in the Verrochio's workshop in 15th century Florence, where he is working hard to become an artist, except when he's inventing flying machines, bicycles, Iron Man armour and the electric keyboard pianoforte, or when he's getting into exploits with Lorenzo, the son of the most powerful man in Florence; Mac, the leader of a gang of plucky ...
Earlier this week, the Department for Communities and Local Government issues a press release detailing a £6 million programme for Welsh local authorities to create and develop new ways of heating homes from sustainable energy sources. This is a great issue for ALDC members in Wales to challenge their councils to take advantage of. Not [...]
Jericho House At lunchtime yesterday, I attended the latest meeting of the Jericho House support group, a regular meeting at which a number of us discuss fundraising and other projects to support this important facility in the West End Ward, that assists those recovering from alcoholism. We had a good discussion about forthcoming activities by the folk at Jericho House which will include their participation in the Community Fayre as part of this year's West End Christmas Fortnight and also carol singing in Perth Road during the West End Christmas Fortnight activities.
The quintessential hard boiled detective was the creation of Raymond Chandler. Despite being born in Nebraska, Chandler was educated at Dulwich College and was a civil servant before he started writing noir stories. When he had to choose a name for what would become his most famous creation, he opted for the name of one [...]
Cheadle Area Committee was on Tuesday 24th September 2013. This monthly meeting, open to all members of the public, is where the nine councillors for Cheadle & Gatley, Cheadle Hulme North and Heald Green take many of the decisions affecting the local area. Meetings are currently held at Bolshaw Primary School, Cross Road, Heald Green. Here's the action from the latest meeting: Planning application 52823 (new house behind 103 Gatley Road) was refused by councillors, although officers had recommended grant. We felt that the house was too close to the retirement flats, breaching the Council's planning policy. Planning application 52858 ...
Work on the Cheadle village improvements we consulted on over the last year kicks off on 30th September at the Gatley end of the village centre – it's happening! During the week, work will be kept outside rush-hour to minimise disruption. There will be some periods where Stop/Go boards are needed. Here are the details
Liberal Democrat Secretary of State for Scotland, Michael Moore MP, writes a regular column for newspapers in his Borders Constituency. Here is the latest edition. A Year to Go These are exciting times to live in Scotland. In less than a year's time, people the length and breadth of Scotland will make a choice that will affect our nation's future forever. This is an absolutely defining moment and a once-in-a-lifetime choice. That's why I hope people will think carefully as they prepare for the vote. I firmly believe that Scotland will be stronger, more secure and more prosperous if we ...
For Want of a Nail For want of a nail the shoe was lost. For want of a shoe the horse was lost. For want of a horse the rider was lost. For want of a rider the message was lost. For want of a message the battle was lost. For want of a battle the kingdom was lost. And all for the want of a horseshoe nail. But how shall we rewrite this little rhyme? How about: For the lack of LibDem dissenters votes the vote was lost For the lack of the vote Britain didn't join the bombing ...
As a member of the Assembly's Finance Committee I will be involved in scrutinising a new Government Bill that will change the requirement on health boards to break even each year and instead insist that they must balance the books over a three year period. Government Ministers, and to be fair some Assembly Committees have argued that this will help long-term planning and enable the building up of reserves within that accounting period. On the downside, there is the danger that the annual crisis that beset all health boards with instead become a triannual and because it is spread over ...
These are today's figures for SSE. Note the overall profit of 62.31p per share in a turnover of 2935.07 per share. This is a profit of just over 2% of turnover. The problem is the underlying price of energy. That, however, is set by the global markets and we are energy importers. If you have a retail price freeze and an increase in the underlying price of energy then there is only a 2%
Britain's Export Credit Guarantees Department (ECGD) has long been notorious for underwriting loans to some of the dodgiest regimes in the world to enable them to buy our arms and thus keep our highly subsidised arms industry in business. Even when the regimes which bought the arms are overthrown their long suffering public are still lumbered with paying off the loans clocked up by their governments in order to to repress them. The Jubilee Debt Campaign, of which I am an enthusiastic member, points out that Liberal Democrat policy in 2010 was "to conduct our own audit of all existing ...
... and nothing to do with Ed Miliband either. A quick bit of searching shows that Npower have a fixed rate deal available for gas and electricity until March 2017 and Scottish Power have a similar deal available until January 2017. But of course, not all consumers can benefit from these deals, particularly those in the worst fuel poverty using pay as you go meters. Ed's real problem with his announcement yesterday is that it now gives the energy companies a couple of year's notice where they can plan for the freeze – most likely by raising prices in the ...
When it comes to the elusive and confusing notions of 'science' and 'technology', Harold Wilson's speech shows that intelligent people then spoke much the same nonsense as they do today In his "white heat" speech Harold Wilson claimed that "the essence of modern automation is that it replaces the hitherto unique human functions of memory and of judgment"; computers now commanded "facilities of memory and of judgment far beyond the capacity of any human being or groups of human beings who have ever lived". As a result, the "programme-controlled machine tool line" could "without the intervention of any human agency" ...
Details of the forthcoming lecture 'Modern Masters in Print: Drawing with New Tools' is below. Tickets are free but it is advisable to book via: events@dundee.ac.uk andwww.dundee.ac.uk/tickets in person from Tower Building Reception at the University of Dundee
The Welsh Liberal Democrats are this week calling on the Welsh Labour Government to do more to help poorer pupils in Wales. In their debate taking place today, the party will be highlighting the need for the Pupil Deprivation Grant to be significantly increased. The Pupil Deprivation Grant provides schools with extra money to help children from disadvantaged backgrounds. In Wales it is currently £450 per eligible pupil. The Welsh Liberal Democrats agreed to support the Welsh Labour Government's 2012-2013 Budget on the basis of securing £32.04 million for the grant. The Pupil Deprivation Grant was a key commitment in ...
