Firstly, my apologies for my lack of recent posts. Since this time last month I've attended Lib Dem conference, been laid low with pneumonia for two weeks, moved house, and proofread a five-hundred page book for Andrew Rilstone (and I'm still in the process of formatting his ebook, which I'm behind schedule with — if [...]
One of the joys of be a European politician — at least, from my point of view — is that almost daily one is confronted with an issue that deserves careful study and sometimes a practical or even legislative response. So I was particularly pleased this evening to take part in a dinner briefing and [...]
Is this what the end of history looks like? Francis Fukuyama's "The End of History", which was developed at the end of the Cold War, represented the triumph of free market western democracy over communism, fascism and feudalism. Three decades after the free market revolution of Margaret Thatcher, our political system in Britain has been transformed. For domestic British politics, the end of history seems to have embodied the triumph of neoliberalism over democratic socialism, social democracy, social liberalism and one nation conservatism. The democratic battle between the Keynesianism of the left and the free market of the right seems ...
It is intriguing sometimes to see how the reporting of a story relates to the facts. Unfortunately, unless you are the subject of the story, or are part of it, you don't get to see how the facts and the reporting diverge. This week, however, I've had a ringside seat for a developing news story - the publication of a House of Lords report on food waste. It's been interesting, if not a little disheartening... For example, much of the reporting, including Liberal Democrat Voice, claims that the report calls for BOGOFs to be banned, which is funny, because it ...
Down a side street just across the road from The Union you will find this terrific ghost sign. A letter to a family genealogy website tells the story of these stables: If I remember correctly the horses from the Glenfield Road Co op Dairy were stabled in Battenberg Road or a neighbouring road. The milkmen walked the unharnessed horses from the Glenfield Road Dairy along Henley Road across Fosse Road North and into Battenberg Road. They could be seen walking the horses back to the stables shortly after lunch when their shift ended. Perhaps some of your other contributors may ...
To celebrate Sir Terry Pratchett as LBF Author of the Day and to mark his phenomenal international publishing success the International Authors Forum has designated Tuesday 8 April International Sir Terry Pratchett Day. They're asking International Authors Forum members, attendees at LBF and any fans of Sir Terry to vote for their favourite character from choosing from a list of his Official Top 10 Favourites. Everyone who votes gets the chance to enter a prize draw to win a signed copy of one of Sir Terry's own books, you can enter your choice here; http://www.londonbookfair.co.uk/sirtpday
In recent days I have seen Liberal Democrat MPs tweeting in favour of Cinderella's Law - a proposed new law that would make the 'emotional abuse' of children a criminal offence. Frank Furedi spelt out some of the problems with such a law in the Independent: The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children offers a definition of emotional abuse that includes some very real and unambiguous acts of harm, such as "conveying to a child that they are worthless or unloved, inadequate", but it also includes forms of behaviour that, depending on the context, may or may ...
Asked, in his second debate with Nigel Farage, what the European Union would look like in 10 years' time, Nick Clegg's instinctive response was to say it would look "quite similar to what it is now". The next morning, bowled a juicy half volley on his LBC phone-in by Caron Lindsay, he named the three things he most wanted to change about the European Union as: More trade;Scrap the expensive monthly trek to Strasbourg;Less red tape for small businesses.Those are all sensible reforms, but isn't there a bit of vision lacking in the answer to these two questions? They were ...
Yesterday saw the publication of a House of Lords report on food waste, an event which might not usually be the cause of great excitement. However, this report was the result of six months of work by the Lords EU Sub-Committee D, chaired by Ros, and given the importance of the subject, there was some media interest. So, late last week, Ros had done some pre-recorded interviews for the BBC and Sky News, and been interviewed for a lengthy piece in the Independent on Sunday - all good stuff. And what are the findings?At least 90 million tonnes of food ...
Yate Railway Station was one of the first in the country to reopen after the Beeching closures of the 1960s. This year is the 25th anniversary of the station's reopening in 1989 after a major campaign by local people. On May 18th 2014 from 12.00 noon till 3.00 pm there will be a special celebration event organised by the Friends of Yate Station. It will feature stalls, a brass band, afternoon tea, vintage and railway display, a heritage tent to share artefacts and memories and a visit by Baroness Susan Kramer, Minister of State for Transport. See Yate Town Council's ...
Before I talk a little about my experience of this year's course conference, here's my recommendation to future students: If you're able to attend, then do so! It was a very interesting and useful two and a half days. This year the event was held in Stamford Court at the university and included a talk from a former student, interactive workshops on leadership selection and ergonomics, advice on the dissertation process, help with quantitative and qualitative research methods and a presentation on chartership. The chance to meet 1:1 with your personal tutor or dissertation supervisor was also offered. Just over ...
This is post number 1000 on my little blog - which is just over 3 years old now. In that time I have had 212486 page views (and counting) so each post gathers around 200 reads. So thanks to everyone who has come visit. My top five posts have been... 1. The Lib Dems shift left could be more dangerous for the Tories than Labour from November 2013 2. The funniest Michael Gove cartoon you'll read this year... from January 2013 3. Exclusive: Tim Farron's speech to conference: the story everyone missed from September 2013 4. The final reckoning from ...
Here's my latest Muswell Flyer article, also available here. When I'm out on the doorsteps or at my local constituency surgery - I often hear awful stories from people who have been victims of burglary or fraud, for instance. Crime does unfortunately affect the vast majority of people at some point in life. On the whole, crime is currently falling - but we must remain vigilant. Figures recently revealed the Muswell Hill area to be in the top 10 UK 'burglary hotspots' - and other types of crime in the Wood Green area remain a concern to local residents. But ...
I have, for more than a year now, been in training for my new role, the one I can't talk about here. It has been surprisingly stressful, with four sets of examinations to pass, a library of reading material to absorb and more homework exercises than I can remember. However, it is now pretty much over, as I received the news that I had passed the final set of exams on Friday. It is a strange feeling having survived, having lived with the unnerving knowledge that, if any exam is failed twice, your promotion is withdrawn and you are returned ...
The Highways Agency is starting pre-application statutory public consultation on the A14 Cambridge to Huntington Scheme on Monday, 7 April, for 10 weeks until 15 June 2014. The public consultation is in advance of the preferred route announcement (summer 2014) and the application to the Planning Inspectorate (autumn 2014) for consent to build the scheme. The details of all the exhibitions planned during this period can be found on the Highways Agency website, with the first one being in Tesco Extra, Bar Hill, 8 April 2014. A further exhibition is in the Church on 11th April between 2pm and 8pm. ...
[IMG: Day 46: Generation Gap] The generation gap used to refer to the differing attitudes of young people and their elders to sex, drugs and rock and roll. For young people today, it has come to mean what the American author of the article linked below describes as "the economic hellhole our parents have handed us." Earlier this year, Rolling Stone magazine published an article under the title Five economic reforms millennials should be fighting for. At first sight it appears a youthful utopian dream written in the rhetorical style of a radical revolutionary or 'Liberal Commie' as they might ...
A neat idea: get people to tweet #BringDownTheKing by connecting up a machine that will topple a statue of the King if enough tweets are sent. The end result: The people have spoken, the king has fallen! #bringdowntheking @SKYNZ pic.twitter.com/sBT7Ir15SB — DDB NewZealand (@DDBNewZealand) April 7, 2014
April's Cheadle Area Committee starts at 6pm on Tuesday 15th April at Bolshaw Primary School, Cross Road, Heald Green. All welcome. We've no planning applications to consider this month, an update on the pond at Abney Hall Park and some additional lining in Heald Green and East Cheadle.
Lib Dem HQ will be hosting a series of webinar training events for activists to optimise their use of Connect with "Get Out The Vote" activities in the run-up to May's elections. Here's the LDHQ message, with links for party members to register for the courses and find further training: Polling day 2014 is now [...]
From the people who brought you that innovative roundabout and the unusual approach to health and safety, not to say the imaginative approach to road painting and the curious approach to picking the right person for the job, comes this cycle lane on Lordship Lane: [IMG: Lordship Lane cycle lane - Haringey Council] The bike lane looks even odder in context, as Google Maps shows: [IMG: Haringey cycle lane - Lordship Lane] Another triumph from #WorstCouncil. Spotted a worse one? Do share it in the comments... Photo credit: Tony McLoughlin for the top photo. UPDATE: Here's my favourite example shared ...
[IMG: Smog from Primrose Hill London] We have suffered poor air quality across south east England for days. The authorities warned older people and people with cardiovascular problems to stay indoors. Ambulance call-outs in London rose by 14%, and David Cameron abandoned his usual morning jog, describing conditions as, "Unpleasant, but it's a naturally occurring weather phenomenon." Although worse in urban centres, poor air quality has been a concern for years in some villages on major roads in West Sussex; air pollution is widespread. 400,000 people across the EU die each year because of air pollution, including 29,000 in the ...
Yesterday's appearance by local Councillor and Parliamentary Candidate for Chatham & Aylesford Tristan Osborne on a local BBC politics programme caused a stir on Twitter for all the wrong reasons. Although I agree with the sentiment that the housing ladder is impossible to get onto for the majority of people of mine and Tristan's generation ( I think I'm 3 years older) and many of my friends who I went to Uni with have struggled and even had to get 90% mortgages with their parents acting as guarantors. I was lucky - I guess - we are a small family ...
[IMG: Nick Clegg York Q&A Some rights reserved by Liberal Democrats] 13 hours after leaving the debate stage last Wednesday night, Nick Clegg was back on his regular Call Clegg radio show. The show had been nominated twice in the Radio Academy Awards to be presented next month. The first caller, Caron from West Lothian, (who might she be, I wonder?) made the point that she was highly amused by David Cameron trying to pretend that he was the voice of reason on Europe when his plan was to sell all our employment rights down the river and then give ...
The banks, quite rightly, are reaping much of the opprobrium for our enduring economic difficulties, but it is becoming increasingly clear the lots of other financial institutions (OFIs in the jargon) share much of the responsibility. A couple of weeks ago the much mocked Revd. Paul Flowers, former chairman of the Co-op Bank, pointed out in an interview on Newsnight that the bank's takeover of the Britannia Buildings Society, a major source of the bank's difficulties, had been give the OK by three separate accountancy firms, including the Co-op's own, which I think he said was KPMG. Are these independent ...
A national campaign to encourage young people to vote has been backed by Cambridge MP Julian Huppert. The My Voice, My Vote campaign supports young voters to take part in their communities as a way to encourage their involvement in the democratic process. It has been launched by the charity, UpRising and will train young people in leadership skills and campaigning techniques such as digital storytelling and they will be supported to take part in social action within their communities. With a link to elected representatives, business and civic leaders, young people will be encouraged to recognise that their right ...
Continuing the theme of cute things made to look like Batman villains, here's a cat impersonating Bane: Filed under: Uncategorized
The Welsh Liberal Democrats Conference took place in Newport and was a great success. From my perspective though it offered an opportunity to take up a local issue directly with a UK Government Minister. The UK Business Secretary, Vince Cable held a question and answer session so I was able to raise with him his department's plans to privatise the Land Registry, who currently employ 430 people in the Swansea area. The Department of Business Innovation and Skills, which Vince Cable heads, is currently asking people to comment on whether the Land Registry should deliver its services at arms-length from ...
As some of you may know, I'm writing a series of short stories to help young people learn how to code. One of the things I wanted to do was introduce the concept of using RESTful APIs. It's so powerful to show people that they can retrieve information from the Internet and then manipulate it in software. Originally, I had wanted to use Twitter and Flickr as examples - they're both fairly well known and have interesting content. The only problem is that both require authentication. I'm an adult with two decades of programming experience and I still find OAuth-dances ...
Mon 7th
11:57
Baroness Sal Brinton writes...Disabled rail travel: We're not just treated like second class citizen...
[IMG: Link is Very Friendly to Wheelchairs] When people in wheelchairs meet one another, disabled travel experiences are a frequent topic of conversation. Rail, buses or taxi we have often encountered brilliant helpful staff, but frankly, sometimes appalling service. My train commuter run to Parliament from Watford Junction to Euston is usually very smooth, with unfailingly helpful London Midland and National Rail assistance staff, but both stations are staffed for as long as trains are running. Unstaffed stations can be really patchy. I tend to find that problems tend to arise with the lack of safe systems to prevent individual ...
[IMG: Food waste 2] 15 million tonnes of food wasted in the UK each year. 122 million tonnes wasted in the industrialised world (which makes the British contribution of an eye-wateringly high proportion). The latter figure is equal to the entire food production of sub-Saharan Africa. It's a far cry from the days when we were growing up. Any waste at all horrified my Granny. She went to the shops every day and bought what she needed for that day and no more. Most of what she bought was relatively locally produced, unprocessed and fresh. Now, we have this massive ...
[IMG: Vernon Coaker and a Labour campaign team. Photo courtesy of https://www.flickr.com/photos/uklabour/4504557335/ - some rights reserved] Labour's current campaign organisation is far from a happy ship, with paranoia at the top and promised revolutions in technique being abandoned. Keen no doubt to try to correct things, the Fabian Society has a new pamphlet out, edited by the always interesting Marcus Roberts, called Organise! Labour's campaigning revolution. Any public document about campaign tactics this close to a general election necessarily has some positive gloss for the party it favours, so don't take too seriously some of the blurb such as: Where ...
Supermarkets urged by @baronessros to end BOGOF to curb food waste (tags: ) Amber Heard and Johnny Depp Are Officially Engaged But We Need To Talk About Bisexuality (tags: ) Science! Where's the worst place on the body to have a bee sting? Penis comes in 3rd, apparently This guy is a fucking hero (tags: ) Is it Homophobic to oppose Same Sex Marriage? (tags: ) Mark Thompson: I blame the voters (tags: ) Eric Pickles Says Britain Is A 'Christian Nation' And Militant Atheists Should 'Get Over It' *sigh* (tags: ) Anyone surprised that Blair & Straw are alleged ...
Some time ago I blogged about the Council's announcement that half the community libraries in Liverpool may have to close. Obviously many communities love and value their local libraries and want to keep them. In Garston we've set up a Save Garston Library Facebook group so that interested people can keep in touch, and we've done some preparations in case we have a fight on our hand. We have a Friends of Garston Library group so we do have a structure if we need to take any action. The Council isn't announcing which libraries it's targeting yet. In fact this ...
Mon 7th
09:45The Nigel Farage Paradox: the higher his public profile, the lower is public support to leave the EU
[IMG: Nigel Farage] Here is the Nigel Farage paradox: the more that Ukip's media profile, poll rating and party membership has grown over the last two years, the more that support for the party's core mission - that Britain should leave the European Union - seems to have shrunk. Sunder Katwala, director of British Future (New Statesman, 3 April 2014) And here are two YouGov graphs that illustrate the Nigel Farage Paradox... As Ukip poll ratings rise, disapproval of UK's membership of EU falls [IMG: ukip europe support] As Ukip poll ratings rise, importance of EU as issue for British ...
I was on Wave 102 News yesterday about the need to persuade Royal Bank of Scotland to review its decision to close their Perth Road Branch. You can listen to the interview by clicking 'play' below. You can sign the petition to keep the branch open here or by going to www.tiny.cc/perthroad.
Balgay Parish Church is hosting a Crafts Coffee Afternoon this Wednesday afternoon, 9th April. Taking place between 2pm and 4pm, tickets are £1.50 - but only 50p for children. Stalls include craft, cake and candy, tombola and raffle. It takes place in the church hall - enter by Tullideph Road.
It is a worrying fact, for those of us who would prefer to stay the age we are, that The Orange Book is now ten years old. Centre Forum is organising an essay competition to celebrate - and the opportunity has been grasped by some academics to draw some rather strange conclusions. One of these is Peter Sloman, who has written an interesting piece on the LSE politics blog (thank you, Simon). It is interesting enough to be half right - but falls a bit flat with this wholly unsupported assumption: "That the party has moved rightward in the decade ...
Mon 7th
08:00The Independent View: Without thriving city economies, there can be no sustained national recovery
[IMG: New Skyscraper Under Construction] This year, George Osborne delivered his Budget against a backdrop of better than expected growth, higher than expected employment, and a deficit reduction plan that exceeded previous OBR forecasts. His speech, unsurprisingly, made much of the success of the "long-term economic plan delivered by a coalition Government and a Conservative Chancellor". Yet the fact that our cities still lack the powers they need to fulfil their economic potential, and drive growth locally, will constrain future growth for large parts of the UK economy. Without thriving city economies, there can be no sustained national recovery. Between ...
In her keynote speech at the Welsh Liberal Democrat Spring Conference in Newport, Kirsty Williams, leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats will said: UK media attention For years the Welsh Labour Government has enjoyed minimal UK media coverage, but Conference, things have changed. The chickens have come home to roost, and Welsh Labour doesn't like it. Barely a day goes by when we don't see another exposé on Wales' public services. For me, it feels really quite strange. I have an immediate reflex to jump to the defence of my country, no matter what. It's just so sad. We are ...
