Ed Miliband meets Joey Essex. Yup...this really just happened.
Tomorrow's Daily Mail frontpage has emerged, and it has a story relating to the Mandela memorial service selfie on it: Yup. The Danish Prime Minister, a world leader, is "Cameron's flirty blonde".
It is pleasing to find a shop on the internet, travel there and find it is just as good as you hoped it would be. From the St Giles Cheese website: Hi, we are Steve & Caroline Ward and we opened St Giles Cheese in July 2010. On returning from France we became frustrated at just how poor the availability of good cheese (and bread, wine & pretty much everything else) was in the UK. So we set about jumping in headlong with very little research and no food retail experience!! Twelve weeks later the doors of our little emporium ...
Jason Brown is launching Politic360, a new social media platform for political discussion "As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1" - Godwin's lawRight now political discussion on the internet is broken. If you don't believe me head over to any of the top political blogs, be it left wing or right wing, and read some of the comments on some of the posts, it won't be long before you find slurs, insults and lies. Facebook and Twitter are no better, both act more like an echo chamber than a platform ...
So the survey is now closed, we have had over 200 responses and I've put together a document with details of the results and forwarded this on to the Parish Council (to be circulated to all Councillors prior to tomorrows meeting). After the meeting tomorrow I'll see if I can publish the document for everyone (it will almost certainly come out in the minutes, but why wait?). Suffice to say though I'd like to really thank everyone for taking the time to fill in the survey and particularly those that went out on cold nights and during wet days to ...
A few weeks ago, residents asked me to investigate land being fenced off and dug up off Longley Lane (just in front of Orchard Gardens). I got the Council's planning enforcement people to take a look, and they said no rules had been broken – the fence is a low one, the land is private, and you don't need planning permission just to dig up your own property. But when I went past yesterday, I noticed that a road looks to have been uncovered – a foot or more below the previous ground level. Why has the road been uncovered? ...
Cllr Catherine Smart Cambridge Lib Dems have proposed a major commitment to ease the city's housing shortage with an investment of £286 million over 30 years to build up to 2,000 new council homes. The project will vastly increase the number of homes for rent and be a real bonus for the thousands of people on the council's housing waiting list. It has been made possible by the coalition's reversal of the last Labour government's centralisation of council house rental income. For Cambridge this means keeping about £11m a year, enabling the council to invest in more homes. The investment ...
[IMG: image] I don't watch Made in Chelsea by choice. It's just on. Spencer is someone I have always disliked. But now I have good reason to laugh at him! Result! [IMG: Post to Twitter] Tweet This Post
Given the fact that the temperature seems to be dipping a bit at the moment it's a good time to consider making some small changes to your house to get the most out of the money you're spending on your central heating. Here's a link to the 10:10 website which has some really useful tips;
We've found out today that David Cameron has a 'Little Black Book' of Tory policies the Lib Dems have blocked. I'd like to know what he's written about. Employers firing at will? The security services snooping on your emails? Schools run for profit? Inheritance tax cuts for millionaires? We have our own version of the Tories' Little Black Book - policies we never want to see in action - and we need your help to stop them becoming a reality. Because the Lib Dems are in Government we've cut tax for ordinary workers, delivered free school meals and created over ...
On December the 10th between 08:00 and 18:00, there has been a burglary during daytime in Pheasant Rise, Bar Hill. Entry into the property was gained by smashing rear patio window, jewellery and ipad stolen, plus a key for vehicle has been taken. Please canvass members for information and advice to call Police 101. On December 7th between 05:50 and 15:35, a theft of high valued bicycle took place in Bar Hill. Bicycle was left locked and secured at cycle rack in front of Bar Hill Tesco, perpetrator/s have cut the lock and taken the bicycle. Bicycle described as: Gents ...
South Cambs villages (mainly Girton) have experienced an increase on door step sales people in recent months. This week one of my crime prevention visits has been to see a resident who became a victim of theft in his own home. Having been visited by a door step sales person the resident let the male into his house to use the toilet. Sadly the male stole the residents wallet whilst in the house. Pedlars - Always check for a certificate; I've included a picture in this blog post of a sample licence. These looks slightly different depending on which Constabulary ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Liberal Democrat Leader, Nick Clegg will be in Cambridge today (Thursday, December 12) to lay the foundations for the City Deal and a massive £6 million cash injection next year for the new Science Park station. The news has been welcomed by Cambridge MP Julian Huppert and Cambridge City Council Leader, Tim Bick who have been working to secure the deal for the city and Greater Cambridge area. It will also bring more than £1 billion of investment through a gain sharing deal, whereby Greater Cambridge will get to keep some of the taxes it generates ...
If you subscribe to the party's in-house magazine AD LIB, you'll know that Abi Glidden, the current editor, is leaving. In her final editorial, she says that editing the magazine has been a pleasure and that subscriptions have risen by 16% since it was launched a year ago. We wish her well in her new endeavours. She announces also that her successor as editor of AD LIB is none other than DRUM ROLL The Divine Ms Duffett herself (pictured here with LDV Co-editor Stephen Tall) [IMG: Helen Duffett and Stephen Tall] Helen Duffett and Stephen Tall I caught up with ...
Yesterday, I had a useful site meeting with the West District Housing Manager and a senior housing officer regarding residents' concerns about the deteriorating state of some of the lock-ups for the Logie Estate that are situated in Glenagnes Street (see below). A number are unoccupied and in poor condition which is unfortunate in an otherwise well-maintained and popular area. I have impressed upon the Housing Department the necessity of improving the condition of the lock-ups and having a strategy of attracting new tenants for the unoccupied ones.Also yesterday, I participated in the first meeting of the group set up ...
[IMG: 3291457329_0b82b71fc4] Full version here on Imgur We didn't read half the papers we cite because they were behind a paywall This dye was selected because the bottle was within reach Sample size was smaller than planned because I had been in grad school for 10 years and my advisor wanted me to graduate ...and my favourite: We don't know how the results were obtained. The postdoc who did all the work has since left to start a bakery Photo: Some rights reserved by \!/_PeacePlusOne [IMG: Post to Twitter] Tweet This Post
The recent debate on energy prices was kicked off by Ed Miliband's declaration that a Labour government would freeze energy prices for a while. Understandably this is attractive to some who are struggling with household bills but the proposal will not in the long run benefit anyone (except perhaps the Labour party). Energy companies can only control the prices they charge to a very limited extent; they would put up their prices in anticipation of a price freeze then raise them again when the freeze is over. Labour are attempting to bribe the electorate with their own money. It now ...
What to do about the bus stop in St Just now that, once again, the glass has been broken. Each time this happens it costs about £600 to repair. It gets broken roughly twice each year. Many of us from Cornwall Council, St Just Town Council, the Police and Devon and Cornwall Housing put our heads together to consider better ways of dealing with the problem. Do email me if you have any thoughts. For the time being, the broken pane will be boarded up. Not nice but best while we think of something cheaper or better or hopefully both. ...
In a ruling that shall be repeated ad nauseum on Scientology videos, posters and websites, the Supreme Court has agreed that weddings can take place on the premises of Scientology Orgs, as they constitute a "place of meeting for religious worship" "Religion should not be confined to religions which recognise a supreme deity," said Lord Toulson as he made the judgement. Whilst this is clearly right morally and in terms of things we already accept as religions, this is going to cause a headache for a lot of people and not least the Charity Commission and the tax man. The ...
It appears Ed Balls is taking this whole Red Ed thing quite seriously post Autumn Statement... I hear @edballsmp ,doing turn as Santa for Commons kids Xmas party, just had to vote in full outfit on Banking Bill. Not sure which Claus(e) — Paul Waugh (@paulwaugh) December 11, 2013 Ed Balls is voting dressed as [...]
The extraordinary roller coaster of the past twenty-four hours in K'yiv has not finished yet. I have friends in the Maidan at the moment and it does appear that the riot police are withdrawing. Inevitably rumours are swirling, but after the failure to dislodge the protest either in the City Hall or in the Maidan itself suggests that Yanukovych is in real trouble. Three of the oligarchs are in the Maidan and it looks as though the rest are backing away from the regime. The presence of both Cathy Ashton and Victoria Nuland, the US Deputy Secretary of State seems ...
Did I like poetry when I was nine, I was asked yesterday? I was asked, in fact, by my nine-year-old son. I thought about it and could barely remember. Then suddenly, a painful vision of myself aged nine reciting a terrible poem about a camel, flashed into my mind. I was interested and pleased that the school is pushing poems at them, though my son is not. Why not? I asked What's wrong with them? Because they only give us poems by Michael Rosen, he said. Now there I could understand. Actually, I have huge respect for Michael Rosen as ...
One of the more disturbing things to come out of the Calderdale Council cabinet meeting on Monday night was that they are apprently planning to sell off the Pellon Network Centre. So while money can be found for pay rises for council officers, and for iPads for councillors, and for the long-debated Halifax library plans, there's no money left to keep open a much needed community resource in a deprived area of the borough. Now I could use this for political point-scoring. I could say "see, this is how Labour prioritise things! I bet they try to blame it on ...
As a teenager my first public political act were in opposition to apartheid. As Young Liberals back in the late 1960's were all deeply involved in the campaign against the all white South African cricket team and in protests against the visiting Springbok rugby side. I remember Rev David Sheppard, then Bishop of Woolwich, coming to Coventry to protest against the rugby match at the Coundan Rd ground. Peter Hain told the story in his book 'Don't Play with Apartheid'. No other issue galvanised young people in the way the anti apartheid movement did. In Britain at that time David ...
Some times doing what you believe is right does not make you popular. My, unscientific, analysis of Lab/ UKIP switchers suggestes that they are motivated as much by support for welfare reform as much as they are by immigration. Mind you when Labour fulfil their pledge to be tougher than the coalition on welfare they might come back, but first Labour locally will have to overcome the reticence and tell them their new policy which might in turn alienate their activists
It was nice to see a headline in today's Mail Online, "Lib Dems have held us back, says Cameron: PM says Britain deserves a 'more accountable' Government than the Coalition". So the Tories are saying that the Liberal Democrats are wielding power. Liberal Democrats are saying that too but it sounds so much better when it comes from the Prime Minister. It sounds so much better if Liberal Democrats have restricted the cuts to vital services and although the article emphasises that the Conservatives are the party to cut tax, the corollary is that Liberal Democrats support the social nature ...
So David Cameron's keeping a little black book of the things Lib Dems have stopped him doing in Government – things he wants to put in the next Tory manifesto. A copy has been found, and it's scary reading: Liberal Democrats think these policies are unfair. Do you want schools to be run for profit? Or a record of all your emails and texts to be kept? Or do you want your boss to be allowed to fire you at will? Click here to help us stop David Cameron's Little Black Book from becoming a reality!
Here's today's hand-picked selection that caught my interest... Lib Dems have held us back, says Cameron | Mail Online Daily Mail headline: "Lib Dems have held us back, says Cameron". You can't buy that kind of good publicity. http://dailym.ai/19gTHy0 Factcheck: Do Brits take home the most pay? | Full Fact "Do Brits take home the most pay?" | Full Fact http://bit.ly/18AMuba A: No, but shows stupidity of labelling us a "developing country". Margaret Thatcher Day Bill 2013-14 — UK Parliament Peter Bone still pursuing his help the LibDems mission > "Latest news on the Margaret Thatcher Day Bill 2013-14" http://bit.ly/1gmT61Q ...
Euro candidate Issan Ghazni made a rallying call to campaign for victory as the party fights two important by-elections in the East Midlands. Ghazni hit the streets of Gainsborough for a day of campaigning and praised the two local candidates, ... Continue reading →
Back in May I pointed out how May's local elections showed UKIP hitting Labour the most, contrary to the widespread conventional wisdom. Now new data from ComRes makes a similar point. First, that local election evidence: Look how the votes have changed this year compared to last (using the BBC's national equivalent vote share projections, i.e. this is comparing like with like as it adjusts for the different range of seats up for election): [IMG: Local elections graph - Labour are biggest losers] UPDATES: There's a good follow up piece by John Rentoul over on the Independent website. I thought ...
"The Lib Dems have held us back, says Cameron" screams today's Daily Mail headline. Yes, it's the Prime Minister showing that he can play the differentiation game too. If there's one thing that David Cameron and Nick Clegg can agree on, it's that the Liberal Democrats and the Tories have divergent views on many issues. Both will take every opportunity to point that out to anyone who will listen. The Daily Mail quotes Cameron's interview with the Spectator in which he says that Nick Clegg has stopped him doing all sorts of things he would love to do. None of ...
In the prestigious annual Welsh Political Awards hosted by ITV in Cardiff City Hall yesterday, South Wales West Assembly Member, Liberal Democrat Peter Black was announced as AM of the year. The judges highlighted his achievement in being the first backbencher to pilot an Act of the Assembly into law. Peter's Mobile Homes (Wales) Act introduces a licensing requirement for site owners and a requirement for all site owners to pass a 'fit and proper persons' test through the licensing procedure.
St Albans District Council is providing an additional taxi rank in the City centre for people to use on weekend nights. Taxis are now available between 1am and 4am on Saturday and Sunday in St Peter's Street on the opposite side of the road to the existing rank.
[IMG: Income Tax square on Monopoly board. Photo courtesy of Images of Money on Flickr. Some rights reserved] 1. Income inequality in the UK is at its lowest since 1986 (source). 2. Wealth is distributed more equally in the UK than in Germany, Norway, Sweden or Holland (source). 3. The proportion of pensioners in poverty is at its lowest for almost thirty years (source). 4. The proportion of our income that goes in direct or indirect taxes in the last four years has been lower than at any time since the way the figures are counted changed in the mid-1970s ...
The Big Lottery Fund has recently announced the launch of 'Power to Change'. This is a community enterprise scheme, aimed at supporting local people to come together and improve their neighbourhoods. From 2014, the £150 million fund will be invested in community enterprises to help them grow their membership and increase their range of activities. This fund is available to all community groups, from pop-up shops to local run sports teams, and is designed to make sure they have the funds to start up, and the support to thrive. These enterprises will have a business plan, and must be inclusive ...
Last night I gave a report to the town council about the failure of the TRAC project which was intended to construct a multi-use trail between Polson and Egloskerry via Newport. Just for clarification, we have tended to use the name TRAC for the whole project. In fact, it was split into TRAC (to the west of Newport) and CYCLE (to the east of Newport). There were also works in Bude and on Caradon Hill within the TRAC project. In short, it is now certain that the TRAC/CYCLE project in Launceston will fail to deliver any tangible benefits other than ...
This weekend in Launceston is quite rightly being dubbed 'Magic Weekend' with a huge amount to see and do. Obviously it is the penultimate shopping weekend before Christmas and therefore time for most people to be finishing off their present buying. (Not me, obviously. I'll be leaving mine til the very last second.) And so the weekend starts off with Late Night Shopping this Friday. Our special guest is Titan the Robot and I hear that Santa has recruited a very special team of reindeer this year from the Young Farmers. There will be load of street stalls, music and ...
Wed 11th
10:15
"Osborne's waving an enormous red flag" - Social Liberal Forum's warning to Lib Dems over Autumn Sta...
Prateek Buch, director of the Social Liberal Forum, has an article in today's Independent – The Lib Dems should not sign up to Osborne's austerity straitjacket – issuing a stark warning to his fellow Lib Dems to take note of the "enormous red flag" he says was waved by George Osborne in last week's Autumn Statement. That flag was the Chancellor's pledge for the economy to move into surplus by 2018/19, within the course of the next parliament. To achieve that – what, in effect, was the original Alistair Darling plan to eliminate the deficit over two parliaments – will ...
David Heath is to demand new laws to make sure Britain's spying agencies can never intercept calls or email data without a specific warrant: Post by Liberal Democrats for Civil Liberties.
The European elections are a huge opportunity for the party. Talk to your region about what is planned in your area. An Agent and some key contacts have been appointed for each Region and a list of the key contacts (with email addresses) is below. Each Local Party, constituency or council area should have a [...]
Tim Farron has been writing in the Huffington Post about a crucial vote in the EU to reform the way in which fish are caught. This might seem tedious to many of us, but this has positive, practical implications for anyone who catches fish and anyone who likes to eat it. Tim first set out the issues with the current situation: The situation right now is drastic. Job losses within the UK fishing sector continue to rise as fish stocks fall, and it tends to be the small-scale fishermen who are hardest hit. The total amount of fish caught in ...
All the newspaper this morning are running this photo of Neil Kinnock's daughter-in-law and Danish Prime Minister, Helle Thorning-Schmitt taking a selfie with David Cameron and Barrack Obama at the Nelson Mandela Commemorative event at the FNB football stadium in Johannesburg. In my view it was disrespectful, even if it does show that our World Statesmen are just as starstruck on each other as everybody else. For me though the picture that really mattered was the one of Obama shaking the hand of the Cuban President, Raul Castro. If that is the start of a thaw in relations between the ...
Housing double whammy: A whole generation 'won't be able to buy or rent a home' - Home News - UK - The Independent (tags: ) Are you a fan of The Lesbian Rule? (tags: ) Nobel winner declares boycott of top science journals (tags: ) Hope remains for the Save Elland Baths campaign after asset transfer 'rejection' report - Huddersfield Examiner (tags: ) BBC disciplines Graham Norton for wearing AIDS awareness ribbon on chat show · PinkNews.co.uk I can see both sides of this - but I think if the beeb are going to make an exception for the poppy ...
New outdoor gym equipment has arrived at Carr Lane Rec. Some little while ago the old play equipment had to be removed as it had become dangerous. When I went to look at the four pieces of apparatus this evening I was delighted to see a family from Ranleigh Drive using it. The Mum was most impressed and her daughter energetically tried out a particularly demanding exercise routine. An independent evaluation by Liverpool John Moores University is now completed. In summary the results are positive and suggest that "providing outdoor gym equipment is a promising approach to increasing physical activity ...
There's not much to be said in favour of Newt Gingrich. He's the man who justified his numerous ethics violations by saying: There's no question at times of my life, partially driven by how passionately I felt about this country, that I worked far too hard and things happened in my life that were not [...]
From the Curator of Museum Services at the University of Dundee: We're doing our bit for the 50th anniversary Doctor Who celebrations with our new exhibition, Adventures in Space & Time, featuring original science-fiction comics art. Among the highlights on show are several pages of artwork from Doctor Who Magazine by Dundee-based comics artist Dan McDaid featuring the Eleventh Doctor (or should that now be 12th?). Also included is some stunning Star Wars art by Cam Kennedy; 2000AD art by Duncan of Jordanstone College graduate Colin MacNeil and original pieces from DC Thomson's classic SF comic Starblazer. The exhibition will ...
The Work for an MP website has an interesting job opportunity found via Twitter, for those with a Labour inclination: Outbound Communications Agents (x 7)Working For:Labour PartyLocation:NewcastleSalary:£7.65 per hourJob Details:The Labour Party is looking to recruit a number of Outbound Communications Agents to work in the Head Office based in Newcastle (part-time, 12 hours per week - evening work). Applicants should thrive in a targeted and fast-paced environment, have the ability to adapt to new projects and have excellent interpersonal and communication skills. Please note this is a fixed term contract until one day after the next General Election. In ...
Aled Roberts, Welsh Liberal Democrats Shadow Education Minister, has today launched the Welsh Liberal Democrat higher education policy for the 2016 Assembly elections. The policy, voted for by members of the party, will shift the focus of government assistance for Welsh students from tuition fee debt to maintenance support while at university. The Welsh Liberal Democrats would: • Introduce a Student Living Support Grant for all Welsh-domiciled students registered for a first undergraduate degree at a UK university, including part-time students, payable on top of the existing means-tested Assembly Learning Grant. This will be funded by withdrawing the Tuition Fee Grant. ...
Who Killed Apartheid? As a follow up to the post on Mandela, my friend Mike Levine shared this fascinating interview with me on Facebook. It raises some interesting questions. I have no doubt in my own mind that with the end of the Cold War the external and internal pressure on South Africa to democratise would have become irresistible, so that by the mid-90s, white minority rule would have
By happy coincidence this year is both the centenary of the birth of Benjamin Britten and the 40th anniversary of the UK joining the European Economic Community, now the European Union. So it was an inspired choice of the European Commission's London representation to merge their traditional Christmas party with a concert featuring music by [...]
