The following petition was sent to me from Change.org and I thought I'd circulate it. Please feel free to pass this on and encourage other people to sign; "For a period of almost two years, my 14-year-old daughter, Izzy, was bullied. She was tormented at school, in the local community and online via a website called Ask.fm. I was trying my best every day to help and support her through it. But on the evening of Tuesday 17th September last year, Izzy took her own life. Izzy had been having a hard time settling into her school, so I agreed ...
It feels like I have been bashing Ireland a lot these past few days, but then that's like blaming someone playing Whack-a-mole for battering the little blighters when they appear. The RTÉ News. As a further illustration of the endemic problems Ireland has, I now have to turn to the sorry tale of the charitable sector and the inflated pay of some of its senior executives. Ireland is
On 9 January I had the following column published in the Leicester Mercury. Run-of-the-mill stuff, you will say, but it appeared on the same spread as The Krankies. Multi-party politics here for the long haul I've got some bad news for people who don't like the Coalition: it's going to continue throughout 2014. And when I say "people who don't like the Coalition," I am thinking chiefly of Conservative activists and backbench MPs. Because ever since their party failed to win the 2010 general election those backbenchers and activists have taken out their anger, not on David Cameron, but on ...
[IMG: Lib Dems winning here] Here's the full list of selection contests in the coming month available for Lib Dems on the approved parliamentary candidates' list, together with the closing date for applications. They include one of the seats highest on the party's top target list, Camborne & Redruth. The following seats have selections in progress and are currently advertising for candidates: Middlesbrough, 27th January Middlesbrough South & East Cleveland, 27th January Camborne and Redruth, 31st January Hexham, 31st January Maidenhead, 3rd February Central Devon, 7th February Wallasey, 7th February Chorley, 11th February South Norfolk, 14th February Broadland, 17th February ...
In January 2010 David Jack was forced to resign as Liberal Democrat PPC for Stoke-on-Trent North after claims were made that he had sent racist emails. He was later exonerated by Bradford police after a 10-month investigation during which his computers were seized and his servers searched. (The investigation was carried out by Bradford police because the formal complaint against him was made from that city.) At the time David Jack was involved in exposing a number of dodgy finance companies who claimed to be able to get people's debts paid off by exploiting vaguely defined "loopholes" in credit law. ...
The rule at the moment is that the less time a cricketer has spent with the England coaches, the better he performs. So much so that Steve Finn has been sent somewhere thousands of miles from them in the hope that his game will recover. Another example of this phenomenon is the Sussex opening bowler Chris Jordan, who has been brought into the squad for the one-day internationals and performed well. Jordan has another claim to fame, as the Daily Mail explained: England certainly need to discover some star quality during the one-day series against Australia - although the nearest ...
A UKIP councillor attends an LGBT event, for no other reason than to express his disgust at the "moral decay" that marriage equality will inevitable cause to British society. Oddly enough, there have been no flood warnings in this area and it isn't even raining. He tells everyone present that he thinks their "alternative" lifestyles aren't natural, but admits there's also something unnatural about him - one of his eyes is false. He lost his right eye in a fight outside a pub, in an argument about how to differentiate Slovakians from Slovenians. The fake eye he has is so ...
[IMG: Gordon Brown] Talking at the Fabian Society's conference today, I pointed out that the past is not always a helpful guide to the political future. After all, Labour is wanting to return to power after spending just one term in opposition. It has done that before – and each time it has, it has done it by keeping the leader who lost the previous election. So there it is: history says ditch Ed Miliband, forget about the dysfunctional style that forced Tony Blair to kidnap a civil servant and bring back Gordon. However the past can at least make ...
Via Phil Sandifer, I've just become aware of Patreon, a crowdfunding site that is set up unlike Kickstarter in that it is designed for paying people to create regular, small pieces of content rather than large individual ones — it's for bloggers, webcomics people, that sort of thing. I'm wondering whether this would be something [...]
2014 is all about focusing on the positive, so here goes:Seeing the Boy after spending four nights way from him. It's amazing to have him in the same room as me again! A beautiful meal at Bistrot Pierre at Royal William Yard in Plymouth. RWY is beautiful, and it's crazy to think that just a few days ago it was an abandoned, ruined set of buildings on the waterfront. Spending the week with this gorgeous cat! I spent most of Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday at home bonding with my baby. Crazy cat lady? Yes. The unexpected opportunity to write up ...
Posted by Rebecca Louise Tidy on
Polichic
Grimston Road will be repaired on Sunday 9 February. This will lead to some traffic disruption.
This afternoon I addressed a boisterous but very good-natured, mainly young crowd of Egyptians rallying outside their London Embassy in Mayfair, in commemoration of the 25 January 2011 Revolution. As I said in my short speech, on that day — and for many days afterwards — I sat glued to Al Jazeera watching with emotion [...]
So, Ed Balls has been laying out his vision for the economy. A surplus by 2020? Really? From Labour? They seem to be trying to make out that they can be trusted with our purse strings after all, despite all the evidence to the contrary that we've seen any time they've been in government in my lifetime. The measure getting all the headlines is the fact that they are going to restore the 50p tax rate that was in place for all of a month of their 13 year term in office. It's worth remembering that their top rate of ...
Because where would we be without interesting sandwich ingredient combinations from Germany? [IMG: German sandwich label - Tuna fish, cheese and turkey] It did taste rather better than it might sound.
Earlier on today I was in London on business. After my meetings had finished I made my way back to St. Pancras Station using the underground. Just as the train was about to leave, a man, dressed for the cold and brandishing a dirty paper cup, squeezed through the doors. He then told the half-dozen people in the carriage a little about the difficulties he'd been facing and asked if we had any food we could spare – or if we had any change that we could give to him to help him get by. [IMG: St Pancras Station] The ...
The news that Ed Balls is promising that, if elected next year, Labour will achieve a budget surplus within their first term is interesting. That isn't to say that I particularly disapprove of the notion - it is sort of laudable to have such an aim. The catch, however, is how one achieves it from where we are now, and what impact it will have on those most affected by the measures deemed necessary. The total lack of clarity on whether this means higher taxes or further spending cuts makes any judgement on the credibility of the promise quite difficult. ...
Yesterday I put up a post refuting claims that Chorlton is the UK's Burglary capital. This article appeared in today's Manchester Evening News in response to yesterday's media reports:
Hastings and Rye Liberal Democrat Campaigners are demanding urgent action from the County Council to get rainwater gullies across Hastings and St Leonards unblocked. The Lib Dems are concerned at the hazards to pedestrians and vehicles from drains overflowing into local roads – especially in current stormy conditions. Local residents, for example in Wellington Road, [...]
I thought, it appears foolishly, that consent was a simple thing. If you wish to physically interact with another person, you get their informed enthusiastic consent before doing so. This did not seem to me to be controversial. After the news stories and the reactions thereto of the last couple of weeks, I'm not so sure. So here is a very basic primer on consent for the hard-of-thinking.If you wish to interact physically with another person, ask them first. Ask as specifically as possible, so there are no misunderstandings about what is (or is not) being consented to. Consent does ...
Lib Dem peer Lord (John) Shipley, the former Leader of Newcastle City Council, is to join forces with Lord (Michael) Heseltine in supporting negotiations for Local Growth Deals with Local Enterprise Partnerships. The announcement was made by Nick Clegg – here's the press release with further detail: The government has committed to negotiating deals with all 39 Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) in England, devolving power and accountability to local areas to drive economic growth, and providing opportunities for local business and civic leaders to set out their priorities for growth in their areas. Under the deals, LEPs will be integral ...
Interesting news came out of the debacle that was Thursday night's full council meeting with yesterday's announcement. From this day forth there shall be a row of seats saved for "Citizen Journalists" at every Full Council meeting. The Conservative overlords have recognised that there is a hard-core group of tweeters and bloggers who attend these meetings and publish what is said or happens for good/ill. It also means that should there be a repeat of Thursday night then, unless they cause a similar disturbance, they will not be ejected and can continue scrutinising and reporting. This is good news for ...
Syria has once again returned to the headlines this week, with the warring parties in the country's civil war beginning formal peace talks in Geneva amid allegations that the Assad regime has systematically tortured and executed about 11,000 detainees since the start of the uprising. Nick Clegg has, The Guardian reported, been making the case for the UK to take its international responsibilities seriously and join a UN scheme to take a limited number of refugees from Syria: A source close to the deputy PM said: "Nick Clegg has been arguing for weeks in government that Britain should consider joining ...
Updates below from Céline Moyes of Solar Cities Scotland who will be carrying out a free thermal imaging campaign in the West End in early February. She is now inviting applications from local householders who would like to benefit from this exercise. This is a fantastic opportunity for householders as the cost of an individual thermal imaging survey could be as much as £350 per property:
The BBC reports that nearly 400 extra civil servants were hired by the Welsh government in the last two years while the number employed across the UK fell. They add that From December 2011 to December 2013 Welsh government permanent and temporary staff rose by 391 to 5,777: Between March 2012 and March 2013, UK civil servant numbers fell by 3%, and by 7% the year before. Welsh ministers said staff numbers had fallen by 1,100 in the previous two years, between 2009 and 2011. A statement added that there had been a slight increase since 2011 as the Welsh ...
The Western Mail reports on the shocking case of SSE, which is the parent company of Welsh firm Swalec, and who have announced that they are course to pump up profits to £1.54bn just two months after hiking customer tariffs by 8.8%. They say that bills will be cut by 3.5% for all of the group's nine million residential customers from March 24 after the group passed on savings from the Government's green levy shake-up, but it still means an overall above-inflation rise for households. Figures revealed this week also showed energy bills have spiked by 47% in just six ...
As part of our look at Pentecostalism, we examine how South Korean Pentecostals took the Yoido Full Gospel Church from a shed to the centre of life in their country. And along the way built up a congregation of almost a million. Yesterday on Matter of Facts, we looked at the extraordinary rise of the [...]
[IMG: image] There are 13 days left to watch Series 5 Episode 13 of Great British Railway Journeys on BBC iPlayer, when Michael Portillo goes from Wokingham to Bradford-on-Avon, via Newbury. Wearing his mauve corduroy jacket, Michael Portillo talks to local historian, David Peacock about Jack O'Newbury, amid extensive nice shots of Newbury. He then repairs to the Hare and Hounds at Speen for a nightcap of West Berkshire Ale. [IMG: Post to Twitter] Tweet This Post
With just four months to go until the European elections, the announcement by Nigel Farage that he is, seemingly unilaterally, junking the entire policy portfolio of his party is, I admit, intriguing. Describing the 2010 manifesto as "486 pages of drivel... a complete nonsense." does at least have the virtue of honesty, but does rather beg the question, "is UKIP a political party or the Nigel Farage Fan Club?". In fairness, I don't suppose that it mattered that much in 2010 - they weren't terribly significant in terms of being likely winners anywhere - but, now at least, it does ...
Between Cheltenham and Wolverhampton he changed from his pink one to this dashing mauve one. [IMG: image] [IMG: Post to Twitter] Tweet This Post
The Ludlow Lib Dem group is hosting an open meeting on the bus crisis. It's a non-political meeting and Shropshire Council has been invited. The meeting will be at 2pm, Saturday 1 February at the Women's Centre in Ludlow (behind the big green door beside the Rose and Crown). This meeting is open to all. [...]
[IMG: image] After many months of x-rays and waiting, yesterday I finally had one of my back molars extracted by a very nice man from Portsmouth hospital. "Only eat or drink cold and soft things for the rest of today" he advised. After a google, this justified a full-on shopping expedition to Sainsburys. In the end, I concocted a very nice meal for myself. Potato, carrot and swede mash, mixed up with smoked salmon trimmings and cut up ocean sticks. French mustard and mayonaise added. Served with egg mayonaise deli filler. For afters, ripe mango with sliced banana with custard ...
In just the last week, we've knocked on hundreds of doors across Cheadle and Gatley with our residents' survey – part of "Project 6000", aiming to call on all the 6,000-odd homes across the ward before May. We've been to Baxter Park, Cambridge Road and Leyland Avenue in Gatley and Oak, Acorn and Ash Avenues plus Whitegates Road in Cheadle. Of course, you don't need to wait for us to call before you get in touch about a problem – just email or phone Pam, Keith or myself.
On Friday morning I attended a meeting of Rail North in Manchester on behalf of the Leader of Stockport Council. There were Council leaders and representatives from across the north of England, plus people from organisations like Transport for Greater Manchester. Patrick McLoughlin, Secretary of State for Transport spoke and answered questions. The idea of Rail North is to get more of the decisions about our railways taken locally, and fewer in Whitehall. In particular, Rail North is looking at the long-term rail strategy (over the next 20 years) including the electrification of many of the lines currently still served ...
St David's Church, Tay Street, was originally a "Tabernacle" church built by the Haldane Brothers in 1800. It was purchased by the Town Council in the early 19th century. Large scale alterations followed. The church was occupied until May 1947. It was purchased by J. M. Wallace who transformed it into a popular dance hall, the J M Ballroom, which first opened in 1954. It continued under various names until it burned down in October 1994.
Lib Dem Voice reports the news that Portsmouth Lib Dems are continuing to offer their full support to their colleague, city MP and councillor Mike Hancock, who faces accusations of sexual assault. A QC's report commissioned by the Council to investigate the allegations – leaked online this week – found that "No-one in public life should allow themselves to act in such an irresponsible and damaging way." Mike Hancock continues to protest his innocence. He has every right to do so, of course. The case will be decided by a forthcoming civil court case being brought against the MP by ...
