The war of slander waged by The Daily Mail against Ed Miliband's father, Ralph Miliband, has become a pivotal moment for the future of young people who write and work in politics. There is something about the whole ongoing episode that has crossed over from 'dirty politics' into 'dirty nationalism politics' and it is for this reason that I worry about what the repercussions could be for young people. Ed is basically being persecuted for not having a British father who fulfils the stereotypical image of being British. The Daily Mail, in effect, offers the British test of having a ...
In view of Labour's outrage (which I share) at the Daily Mail's attack on Ralph Miliband, let me remind you of what Gordon Brown said about him. This is taken from Nick Davies' excellent Flat Earth News: Politicians works hard socially as well as politically to make the Mail their friend. Gordon Brown caught the tone in a videoed message for Paul Dacre's tenth anniversary as editor:"Paul Dacre has devised and delivered one of the great newspaper success stories. He also shows great personal warmth and kindness as well as great journalistic skill."
Earlier tonight, I attended the October meeting of Community Spirit Action Group, the residents' group for the 'north' of the West End Ward, covering areas like Cleghorn, Pentland, Ancrum, Tullideph and Milnbank/Forest Park. Tonight's guest speaker was Gill Bain, who gave an interesting update on the new West End timebank. Gill advised that, after consultation with the steering group I am participating in, the West End timebank will be called Time2Give. There is real progress and momentum behind this excellent community initiative. Back in July, I raised residents' concerns about the poor timetabling of the new 9, 10, 11 & ...
Well, the autumn 2013 party conferences have now come to an end, and below are the three main party leader speeches, by tag cloud. Note that all three have had the word "People" removed, as that was skewing all three speeches. Hover over for which party each cloud belongs to. [IMG: Labour] [IMG: Liberal Democrats] [IMG: Conservatives]
Ok. Ok. I'm ending my run of Jehovah's Witnesses books on this one (I've moved on to Christopher Hitchens' The Missionary Position). Can Jehovah's Witnesses SURVIVE? is a very decent guide to the beliefs, practices and errors of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society. It is truly disturbing that such a malignant religion has grown so common place. Lots of us know where the nearest Kingdom Hall is. Many of us share the same "Oh God, the Jehovah's are at the door HIDE!" experience. They are not your tiny band of Scientologists or your less harmful group of Latter-day ...
As Lord Alderdice meets the head of Hamas on his Middle East trip, an interesting view from an uncompromising Palestinian commentator: Our process may be in an avoidable, over-hyped "crisis" but it still offers hope to those involved in ... Continue reading →
[IMG: OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA] It is a classic journalist's trap. David Cameron was challenged on LBC Radio. "How much does a value loaf cost?" His guess was "way north of a pound." "Caught you", the presenter almost said. A value loaf, in London at least, costs 47p. Now, I simply did not believe this. To my certain knowledge - until this afternoon - an 800g white loaf costs a full £1. Of course, I was wrong. I live in a classic rural market town of around 10,000 people, three supermarkets, four convenience stores, a great market, local butchers and bakers, ...
[IMG: David Cameron - head in hands] I missed David Cameron's speech to the Conservative party conference today. Or, rather, I didn't see or hear it, which isn't quite the same thing as missing it. Meh But it sounds like, by missing it, I didn't miss much. There were no dramatic announcements, no new initiatives. Yes, there was talk of the need to "nag and push and guide" young people to either "earn or learn" – the Department of Work and Pensions reports over a million people between the ages of 16 and 24 are not in work, education or ...
Tom McNally has today written to Dick Newby (Lib Dem Deputy Chief Whip) to say that he intends to stand down as Leader of the Lib Dem group in the House of Lords. Lord McNally's letter is as follows: 1 October 2013 Dear Dick, I will shortly be coming to the end of my ninth year as Leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords. Before that I served as deputy to Shirley Williams for three years. It seems to me that now would be an ideal time for the Group to select a new leader to serve ...
So David Cameron wants to ban anyone under 25 for claiming JSA or housing benefit. Well Dave, not every young person is in a benefited position where both their parents are still alive and that work is always going to be available to them, these are red lines over which I will not allow the Conservatives to cross. When I graduated it was in the middle of the last recession. Banks had been laying off economics graduates who had experience, so how was I along with other economics graduates going to find work immediately. For five months I would have ...
This article by Nicholas Watt appeared on the Guardian website this afternoon: A former member of Margaret Thatcher's cabinet has accused the Daily Mail of "telling lies" about Ralph Miliband after the newspaper claimed that the Marxist writings of the late father of the Labour party meant that he hated Britain. In the biggest blow to the Mail editor Paul Dacre, who has launched a strong defence of his paper's decision to claim that Ralph Miliband had left an "evil legacy", Lord Moore of Lower Marsh said his former tutor was a good man who never had a bad word ...
[IMG: ACG8a] What is it? A 39 issue digital-first comics series (the issues are shorter than standard comic issues and sell for 99c each) published by DC comics and based on a series of statuettes produced by the company over the last few years. What is it about? Set in a world firmly outside main comics contuinity, Ame-Comi Girls describes a world in which all superheroes and villains are female, from Kara Jor-El, aka Power Girl, whose spaceship crashed in Kansas when she was a baby, to Duela Dent, the insane murderer out to get revenge for her dead father ...
Oh I did enjoy this. Alastair Campbell gives the Deputy Editor of the Daily Mail a good going over on Newsnight regarding the Ralph Miliband piece. [IMG: Post to Twitter] Tweet This Post
[IMG: Road repair equipment sits idle on Nelson Road after council blunder] On Monday and Tuesday the Council's roadworks contractor was due to resurface large parts Nelson Road in the Hornsey Vale area. Councillors and residents have long pushed for action as the crumbling road surface is full of potholes thanks to Haringey's neglect. All the equipment and workers turned up on Monday morning – but sadly not enough signs had been put up and not enough notice given to residents and the road was still full of cars. In the end the contractors had to give up and go ...
[IMG: police] In 2011, the SNP decided to merge Scotland's 8 police forces into a single organisation. Truth be told, that's not quite what they'd put in their manifesto, but with an overall majority they were in a position to do what they wanted. Liberal Democrats were vociferous in warning about the dangers of how the merger would affect rural policing. We were told we were scare-mongering and it would all be fine. Barely six months on from the merger, it's been announced that 65 rural police stations might close or have their opening hours cut. Even in a large ...
1. Friday 11th October 2013 Early Bird Discount Ends for the Kickstart ALDC's signature training event, Kickstart 2014 (22-24 November) remains the premier training opportunity for local councillors and campaigners. Kickstart combines almost 40 hours of module-based training options with our distinctive mentoring system - each group is assigned an experienced mentor to help create [...]
Labour and the Unions have enjoyed themselves challenging the coalition's job creation figures arguing that many of the new jobs on Zero Hour contracts. Typically Labour have used it in drop in articles claiming "Abour 1 million people are believed to be working with this type of contract" The office of national statistics disagrees with [...]
It was with enormous sadness that I learned earlier this week that Joan Coleman had died. She had been in a nursing home for some while. Joan, a Scot, was a stalwart of Southport Liberals and later Lib Dems. In her own right she was a formidable politician but her contribution extended far beyond party politics; she was a charity worker, a senior magistrate, real ale advocate and a family women. In 1965 she was in the small market town (was it at Hawick ?) in the Scottish borders when the declaration of the Roxburgh, Selkirk and Peebles by-election- which ...
Here's a draft press release, that would also make a good MyCouncillor story. Localise it with examples of rail delays caused by cable theft for instance. PRESS RELEASE: NEW LICENSING RULES FOR SCRAP METAL DEALERS COME INTO FORCE Local Lib Dems have welcomed a new law giving councils greater powers to combat the blight of [...]
David Cameron reporedly told journalists that the Silk Commission review of the way that the Welsh Government is funded is an obsession of the Cardiff Bay bubble and has no relevance to ordinary people who are more concerned with jobs and public services. The Welsh Conservative leader, Andrew R.T. Davies jokingly referred to silk as the material used to make underwear. That tells us a great deal about his kind of Conservative, possibly too much. Nevertheless, credit where credit is due. Today, Mr. Davies stepped in and told the UK Government to hurry up and make a decision on implementing ...
An email has just gone round to Lib Dem members, criticising David Cameron's married tax break, and asking them to sign a petition. The email, signed by Party President Tim Farron says: As you know, Nick Clegg decided to spend £600million on delivering free school meals for 5-7year olds. Studies have shown that this will [...]
Musicians and bands can get stale, no matter how successful they are. When that happens they need to Renew their career which is what the final stage of the Artist Development process is all about. Video Highlights: 0:07 – Renewing your music career 0:30 – Taking risks with your music 0:50 – Reinvention 1:00 – Reconnecting with your audience 1:27 – Rediscovering your love of music 2:00 – Building new audiences 2:25 – Case Study 3:06 – Bringing it all together The sixth stage is all about renewing your music. It's about renewing your brand, renewing your music, renewing your ...
Once a music artist or band reaches a certain level of success in their career then they need to look to maximizing potential revenues. This is what the 'Maximize Stage' of Artist Development is all about. Video Highlights: 0:10 – The Maximize Stage (difficult second albums!) 0:28 – Sponsorship and Endorsement deals for musicians 0:46 – Consolidating your live music career 1:01 – Musicians and bands as 'Cash Cows' Transcript You got to the fifth stage in the sequence, this idea of Maximizing. This is the typical difficult second album stage if you are a recording artist. What you find ...
The first hit album, the sell-out tour, the explosive growth of your fan base. These indicators all point to you arriving at what we call the 'Supercharge Stage' of your music career. In the fourth installment of the 'Artist Development Stages' video series we cover what the 'Supercharge Stage' means and common pitfalls. Video Highlights: 0:06 – Stepping on the gas 0:29 – Massive fan growth 0:46 – Your first hit album 1:40 – Achieving sell-out tours 2:03 - Growing your team (techs, tour managers, merch person) 3:00 – Common issues 3:48 – Pitfalls Transcript The Supercharge Stage is all ...
Here's today's hand-picked selection that caught my interest... David Cameron's speech at the Conservative conference: Politics live blog | Politics | theguardian.com The #cpc13 instalment of @AndrewSparrow's essential list > "10 things we've learnt from the Conservative conference" http://bit.ly/1dVQMuA Stephan Shakespeare: We already know the outcome of the next election | Conservative Home Savvy stuff from @StephanShaxper > We already know the outcome of the next election http://bit.ly/1dVvcq8 via @ConHome The Poorest Fifth | John Rentoul | Independent Eagle Eye Blogs (That last tweet refers to this article by @johnrentoul > The Poorest Fifth http://ind.pn/16F9441 < showing inequality falling.) Income ...
Wed 2nd
13:28
Opinion: I need the Liberal Democrats to stand up for me when Conservative ministers denigrate me
I want to share with you how I feel when Conservative government ministers talk about welfare claimants in disparaging terms. I hope that I can bring a bit of understanding about the problems people like me face. Before I begin, I should give a trigger warning for rape, self harm and sexual abuse. The details are upsetting but I feel you need to know the whole story. I was raped and abused as a child every single week for 12 years. On numerous occasions I would wake to find myself being raped and suffocated by my abuser, who was later ...
Nine months ago if I had said IR Cymru to you, I am 100% sure most of you would have quizzically responded: 'come-again? Not today. In the last 9 months Liberal Youth Wales have gone from strength to strength. IR Cymru now has 7 branches in every corner of Wales, and we've almost trebled our [...]
Some of you will know that I work shifts in London at an asylum - I mean museum. Half of this shifts start at A combination of wanting to spend time with my family, house work and a mild Skyrim addiction means that I often try to top up my sleep on the train. This has lead to some problems... Yesterday, whilst passed out and blissfully unaware what was going on a signal broke down at Swanscombe. I woke briefly in Dartford to see the station sign and then dozed off again. I awoke sometime later on a packed train, ...
It's been standard advice for many years now that the most effective campaigns are those that have a small number of clear and simple messages and that repeat them endlessly. At this year's conference in Glasgow there were a number of training and Activists' Network sessions that looked in a bit more detail at how [...]
Sheffield's Labour council have been criticised by Nick Clegg over their decision to close the Don Valley Stadium where Olympic heptathlete Jessica Ennis-Hill trained. From the Sheffield Star: I'm hugely disappointed that Labour councillors have decided Don Valley Stadium is not an asset of community value. This short-sighted decision has denied the Save Don Valley Stadium group access to central Government grants, which would have helped them develop a business plan and move closer to their vision of running the venue at no cost to the public. Instead of working with the community to protect facilities, we have a council ...
[IMG: Lynne Featherstone on the doorstep] Want to know how to win election campaigns? You can learn from the very best of international experience with a free 10-week email course from myself and Ed Maxfield. Sign up at www.CampaignMasterclass.com and each week you'll receive one lesson by email, helping you become a top election winning campaigner or candidate yourself. It's a great way to make sure you don't fall foul of mistakes such as Five of the most common mistakes that Lib Dem campaigners make. We've helped, advised and run election campaigns across Europe and even further afield - and ...
New plans are being promoted for a rail station to serve Manston Airport , with BBC radio Kent reporting the issue, this breakfast. Surprisingly or maybe not for once, our leader of the council Cllr Clive Hart was not being interviewed, at least not at the time I was listening. I just wonder whether this was a journalistic decision, or maybe given Labours previous u-turn perhaps Clive was unavailable, still even the No to night flights campaign viewed the suggested of a new rail station as a positive. Earlier in the year Clive refused to get caught up in promoting ...
Liberal Youth are seeking to c0-0pt two new members of their Executive, a non-portfolio officer and a vice chair. Any member of the party under 26 or any member of Liberal Youth is eligible to stand. The non-portfolio officers of Liberal Youth assist the other executive members on any matter needed, and are not confined to any one area.They pick up tasks, or whole projects where necessary, and contribute on a variety of levels to ensure the smooth running of the organisation. The Vice Chair's role is to act as temporary Chair should the Chair become vacant,co-ordinate internal communications for ...
I am British and this is a fact causes great confusion whenever I go travelling. People from outside the UK seem much more comfortable with the idea that this overly polite stranger from Oxford who uses very long vowel sounds is English. The notion of I might insist on being British seems rather a mystery [...]
almostwitty | Everything* wrong with modern businesses in one moment Well, Tesco's at least (tags: ) How to be miserable in ten easy steps (tags: ) The penis size study: How do British men fare? *snerk* (tags: ) A Post About Butts | Whovian Feminism (tags: ) Schneier on Security: Google Knows Every Wi-Fi Password in the World (tags: ) 3D printed toothbrush massively expensive and looks terrifying but intriguing (tags: ) [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
[IMG: image] I wrote to the 3rd Viscount Harmsworth some years ago. I told him my family had bought the Daily Mail for five decades but I was stopping buying it. I explained this was because I was fed up with its continual right wing bias. Articles starting with words like "Last night the Labour party was reeling after...." were driving me mad and finally my anger was outweighing my love for Fred Bassett. I was off. The reply from the Viscount spoke volumes. It gave me the impression that he was intellectually challenged. He said that the paper had ...
On one of the hottest afternoons of the summer, the comedy writer Jane Bussmann came down to the allotments that encircle my home in Crystal Palace to talk about authenticity. The resulting radio programme struggles with the idea and it is rather good. My only mild complaint is that the way it was cut made it sound as if the Canadian writer Andrew Potter was calling me a purveyor of "dopey nostalgia". But then again, maybe he was. Because actually, the authenticity debate - if there is one - is not really about a face-off between nostalgic romantics and hard-headed, ...
Last week's news that the Stowmarket Shuttle, or bus route 87 as it is more prosaically described, is to cease operating in November, is bad news for the residents of Stowupland in particular. It was bad enough when the through service to Needham Market and Ipswich was lost, even though the timetable did theoretically allow for a connection in Stowmarket to route 88, newly extended to Ipswich Hospital, but this does come as a blow. An 87 bus in Stowupland, soon to be history? Whilst campaigning in the village two years ago as part of my candidacy for the District ...
Wed 2nd
08:51Liz Barker is up for a Pink News award for Parliamentary speech of the year - vote today!
In June, we brought you Liz Barker's moving speech on the Same Sex Marriage Bill. Liz started by talking about her own relationship which is as long as mine, yet she hasn't been able to get married to her partner in the same way as I did to mine 25 years ago. Her speech very carefully and without rancour demolished the usual arguments against. She said: Some noble Lords say that allowing gay people to get married is unfair as it leaves other sorts of relationships, such as those of siblings, without the same legal rights as those who choose ...
The police are somewhat belatedly investigating an incident on Saturday where members of the armed forces joined in with fans of the Rangers in singing sectarian songs before their routine victory over Stenhousemuir. The troops were there to celebrate armed forces day pre-match. Singing sectarian songs as this YouTube video shows is an offence under the Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications (Scotland) Act 2012 - an act inspired by the late Donald Gorrie who championed anti-sectarianism as a Lib Dem MSP. Fans of the Rangers (and their predecessor club Rangers) have sung these songs with impunity for years ...
The Labour party's been enjoying a post-conference bump in the polls on the back of Ed Miliband's bit of unexpected populism of promising a 20-month energy price freeze. At the weekend, Labour opened up an 11-point lead over the Tories, hitting 42%, its highest level since June. Of course party conferences frequently distort the polls. We'll see if the Tories also get a boost from their week's exposure (or whether the row between the Daily Mail and Ed Miliband has overshadowed it). And then we'll see if any of these spikes have any kind of long-lasting effect, or — as ...
A number of constituents have contacted me following the recent publication of a report by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, which indicated that Dundee has the biggest carbon footprint of any area in Scotland. I raised this matter with the City Council's Environment Director, who has updated me as follows: "We have had an initial look at the Potsdam report and I guess the first thing to note is that this is a theoretical assessment of Dundee's carbon footprint as a city and is not a reflection of Dundee City Council's carbon footprint. This assessment is based upon ...
The First Minister has been accused of taking the easy way out after he refused to look into the merits of introducing free school meals for all infant children in Wales. During First Minister's Questions yesterday, Kirsty Williams, leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats, called on the Welsh Labour Government to consider introducing free school meals for all year one and year two primary pupils as has been announced in England by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg. The First Minister, however, refused to do so, instead indicating that free school breakfasts was enough. However, recent figures have shown that take-up ...
