[IMG: Nick Clegg and the Sun] I know I am coming late to this, having been out and about for most of the day. It's only a few minutes since I logged on to Facebook and saw a picture of the leader of my party holding up The Sun. It was not a good idea for him to do this, especially given the renewed pain that relatives of those who died at Hillsborough are going through with the new inquests taking place at the moment. Nick's picture can only be seen as a support for their unprecedented marketing initiative in ...
#90734921 / gettyimages.com Produced by the Great Western Railway and the London, Midland & Scottish Railway. The artist was Claude Buckle.
Independent seat. Resignation
Independent seat. Resignation There is no Liberal Democrat candidate.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-27822202 The BBC has the story although their photo of Joe is hardly a present day likeness! I predicted this while ago as Bootle Labour clearly had the knives out for one of the nicest people in Parliament. [IMG: 25807.jpg] Unlike the disingenuous Labour remarks on his 'retirement' I really do wish him well. He was the kind of person who should be an MP and frankly if I lived in Bootle I would have been proud to say he was my MP. You can just see how his replacement could easily be another party political robot controlled by Labour ...
Back to Brussels again, this time for an inquest into the European Parliament elections at an Extraordinary Council meeting of ALDE. Naturally, given the well nigh catastrophic performance of the Liberal Democrats - if Catherine Bearder hadn't survived, it certainly would have been catastrophic - our plucky delegation will be the recipients of a little sympathy, and quite a lot of regret. We have, rather too lasted, discovered just how punishing D'Hondt can be. There is some personal consolation, in that it does mean that I'm back in Brussels, enjoying some fine beer, with the opportunity to eat fine food ...
It is not that often that I get to go to the theatre - we're not exactly overwhelmed by such cultural outlets in Mid Suffolk, and London is just far enough away to make a day trip awkward.
Having a pretty rubbish day, so you just get links. Be grateful you even get that, swine. A nice piece on the 1909 hit song I Love, I Love, I Love My Wife, But Oh! You Kid! Wisse Words on Marion Zimmer Bradley and fandom's toleration of child abuse How the absurd single member plurality [...]
The new owners of the George & Dragon, Amber Taverns, have had their planning application to improve the pub granted by the Council. They've now applied for a variation on the existing premises licence – which defines what they can do and when. The proposed changes are: Application to Vary a Premises Licence Applicant: Amber Taverns Ltd Premises Address: George & Dragon, 1 High Street, Cheadle, SK8 1AX. Application date: 27/5/2014 Variation applied for: To alter the structure of the premises in accordance with plans submitted To remove conditions and replace with new operating schedule Films, live music, recorded music, ...
[IMG: rsz_southport_model_railway_village] www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5uQvab3Kk4 Sunny Southport was buzzing today in glorious sunshine. I found this very recent video of Southport Model Railway Village on youtube. If you are visiting Southport the Model Village is well worth a visit. The photo above is amongst my Flickr shots at:- www.flickr.com/photos/86659476@N07/
Thu 12th
17:08
Andrew George and Michael Moore take top two places in ballot for private members bills
The Parliament website has the results of today's ballot for private members bills. The top two places in the draw were taken by Liberal Democrat MPs: Andrew George was first and Michael Moore second. Altogether there were five Lib Dems among the twenty names drawn. Sarah Teather was at no. 7, John Hemming at 16 and Martin Horwood at 20. As the website says, the ballot presents an opportunity to be one of the first MPs to introduce a private members bill in this parliamentary session and may mean guaranteed debating time for the bill on a Friday sitting of ...
The first of our two Kickstart training weekends this year will be taking place on 5-7 September 2014. The content and the venue (Holiday Inn, Junction 7 of the M6, near Birmingham) is exactly the same as the regular November weekend. This new earlier date is simply here to help us double the number of [...]
Thu 12th
17:05
"The Lib Dems are setting out plans as if they may have to deliver them". Giles Wilkes on Clegg's ec...
[IMG: Tighten Your Belt - Austerity] Giles Wilkes was, until recently, special advisor to Lib Dem business secretary Vince Cable. He was the SpAd who famously slapped down News International's advances when they were looking to lobby in favour of their proposed takeover of BSkyB. Before that, he was the chief economist at liberal think-tank CenteForum, where he was author of the award-winning pamphlet, 'A balancing act: fair solutions to a modern debt crisis', about which he wrote on LDV. His Free-thinking Economist blog is a must-read, especially today as Giles covers the economics of Nick Clegg's Bloomburg speech. I ...
Ladies and Jellyspoons. I give you the strategic messaging genius that is Ed Milliband! Last years Ed Milliband. " I'm the only one to stand up to Murdoch" Last months Milliband. "I don't read British papers" Today's Milliband
[IMG: Parliament Acts] Yesterday, I spoke in the House of Lords debate on the Queen's Speech. There has been much made of how 'light' the legislative programme is, even if it still contains more than one bill a month for the coming session and carries over five (including the gargantuan HS2 Bill) from the last session. However, I challenged colleagues to consider - if we really are so short of work to do - which Bills from early in this Parliament we might usefully subject to "post-legislative scrutiny": a review of intentions and consequences. I singled out the Academies Act ...
There are no Committee Meetings at Blyth Town Council next week, but there is one meeting of the Policy Working Group , on Thursday 19th June at 6:30 pm The public are not usually admitted to the working group meetings.
A sharper-eyed correspondent has pointed out to me that Nick Clegg slightly caveated the Golden Rule by saying he would run a surplus "excluding capital spending that enhances economic growth or financial stability". I will await his no doubt excellent analysis to work out what this means. Clearly, it will mean running a tighter spending [...]
[IMG: Care in the home Some rights reserved by British Red Cross] Norman Lamb has been writing for the Eastern Daily Press about the importance of volunteering. He looks at the sorts of things people can do and the difference it makes. He sees spending time with others as a very important part of keeping people healthy. Last Friday I set off from my constituency office in North Walsham to visit an elderly lady I met through a local volunteering scheme. My job is to take her books from the library and collect the last lot. Each time I stay ...
[IMG: JUMP 4 JOY] That got your attention, didn't it? Actually, it wasn't so much a ballot but a great big raffle. This morning the annual draw took place to select twenty MPs to select Private Members' Bills. Five Liberal Democrats were allotted slots, with the top two places going to Andrew George and Michael Moore. John Hemming, Sarah Teather and Martin Horwood complete our quintet. We've contacted them all to ask what their Bills will be. We'd be very surprised if John Hemming didn't do something on family courts, or Sarah Teather on helping asylum seekers or immigration. We ...
There's an interesting article in the Atlantic by a Venezuelan academic who has studied constitutional 'rights to rebel.' I had never heard of these before but according to Daniel Lansberg-Rodriguez they are actually pretty common. According to a study of which he is an author 37 countries, which between them have a fifth of the [...]
Yesterday, am outpatient consultation with Professor M, a week after being discharges from a 3-week stay in King's College Hospital with pneumonia, including 16 days in intensive care. As a result of the blood transfusions I had in intensive care, Hb was satisfactory at 10.5, but platelets were raised at 550. Hydroxycarbamide is reintroduced 5 times a week. Amlodipine is reduced from 2 to 1 x 5 mg because Professor M says it could have an effect on fluid retention, still a problem although GP doubled Furosamide last Monday. Its a bit of a juggling act, and I have another ...
[IMG: cllr-barry-aspinell-4] Brentwood Council has a new Liberal Democrat leader and Mayor after all the opposition parties formed an accord to remove the Tories from power. From the Brentwood Gazette: Barry Aspinell and William Lloyd became leader and deputy leader of Brentwood Borough Council tonight at a packed council meeting, signalling the start of a four-party accord. The annual council meeting saw the 19 of the 37 councillors present vote for the pair, who are members of the Liberal Democrats and Brentwood First respectively. They form one half of the parties in "Brentwood Accord", also formed of independent Roger Keeble ...
The discipline of economics pervades all reflection on public policy. This is only right, as it is this discipline that tries to reconcile supply and demand for resources, and present a rational framework for choices. But it can be pernicious. It can frame the policy debate in the wrong way. As we refresh liberal policy ideas so as to put sustainability and human needs at the heart of public affairs, this is becoming a major problem. Liberals must challenge many tenets of conventional thinking. First of all, let me say what I'm not going to talk about. There has been ...
[IMG: NickClegg speak] Nick Clegg has set out his vision for a distinctly liberal future for the United Kingdom. In his speech, Nick outlined how Liberal Democrats see the world differently to other political parties, by focussing on building a stronger economy and a fairer society, and creating opportunities for everyone. He highlighted key Liberal Democrat achievements in government including reducing the national deficit, cutting income tax, the triple lock pension promise and introducing same sex marriage. Nick also explained how in keeping with the party's liberal belief in creating opportunities for future generations, Liberal Democrats will abide by a ...
I don't know why the Council has press-released these figures. The summary follows. Just email me if you want the full report: The main findings from this month's official figures are as follows: 3.1% of the working age population, (10,265 people), in the County are currently claiming JSA, (North East 3.9%, England & Wales 2.6%). This is a monthly decrease of 6.0% and annual decrease of 30.7%,(North East 4.8% decreaseand 26.9% decrease, England & Wales 4.8% decreaseand 28.0% decreaserespectively). The number of people claiming out of work benefits in the county has fallen to 13.9%, of the working age population, ...
This road will be closed today for repairs after a large hole opened up.
[IMG: Home Screen] The following is the relevant code to get Tasker, AutoLocation, Zooper and Forecast.io to display the one line weather summary on your phone. It's possible to not need AutoLocation and use the Tasker lat/lng but I was after testing the application, and you could use a different widget tool like Minimalistic Text, or even just a notification in the status bar. Step 1: Sign up to the API at Forecast.io https://developer.forecast.io/register You don't need to provide card details as the you get 1000 calls per day, and you shouldn't get close to using them all (my peak ...
"Does pattern have to be superficial and imitative or can it capture a fleeting moment, the fingerprint of a place or even the spirit of a person?" That's the question posed in the Dora pattern blog (full transparency: she's my wife) - and the question behind it: is it possible to create a pattern with soul? The result of her experiments go on show at the Chelsea College of Art Degree Show at the end of this week: five garments with patterns made for specific people in the huge Spa Hill allotments near Crystal Palace. The allotment movement has been ...
Chris Grayling blasted over plans for 'Victorian-style' corporal punishment on young offenders (tags: ) More MEPs but less power for UKIP: the irony of Europarl groupings. (tags: ) Tweetdeck XSS flaw leaves users vulnerable to account hijacking Apparently one version of this changed the font on Tweetdeck itself to Comic Sans. That's just CRUEL. (tags: ) We need to read all your emails because TERRORISTS AND PAEDOPHILES!!! says May *headdesk headdesk headdesk* (tags: ) East Midlands MEP Roger Helmer replaces Nigel Farage as UKIP leader in Europe As Stackee said on Twitter, UKIP are just trolling the rest of us ...
[IMG: Calling Inspector Marotta - DVD cover] Calling Inspector Marotta: St Peter's Treasure is a long (over 3 hours) subtitled Italian movie set in the 1920s which has secured more attention that you might expect with that combination thanks to the staring role for Luca Zingaretti, who also stars as Inspector Montalbano in the eponymous TV series. This film is a detective thriller featuring the mob, a jewellery heist and a marriage in trouble – the sort of plot that features in oh so many American films, but this time it's not modern New York but Rome and the 1920s. ...
[IMG: GCHQ Building at Cheltenham, Gloucestershire] Last weekend the Don't Spy On Us coalition (a grouping comprising the Open Rights Group, Big Brother Watch, English PEN, Liberty, Article 19 and Privacy International) held a day of action seeking to lay practical groundwork for a stronger international movement to protect digital civil liberties. Jenny Woods, one of our party's most active campaigners in this area, and I attended the afternoon, which had some important take-away messages for the Lib Dems. The event kicked off, appropriately, with a tightly packed crowd of delegates crammed into the hall watching a video message from ...
Thu 12th
08:45
My cast iron, bet-your-house-on-it, World Cup 2014 prediction (please don't actually bet your house)
[IMG: 130814173746-rio-de-janeiro-aerial-story-top] There's a great Simpsons sketch that brilliantly illustrates the American viewpoint on association football. We are presented with the concept of a "World Series of Soccer" in which Mexico and Portugal are pitted against each other for world supremacy. The Americans, of course, cannot fathom any sport in which they don't come out as World Champions, so that's part of it. The other is seeing all these nations that they feel inherently superior to beating them at sport. Like when Iran defeated them in the World Cup a few tournaments back. The Persians winning that match probably did ...
Yesterday I was taken on a behind the scenes tour of a large estate in Lincolnshire. Discipline is enforced through a rigid hierarchy, with: A strict dress code being implemented. Men and women being required to perform their work in separate rooms. Men and women having to use different routes around the establishment to ensure that social contact between the sexes is minimised. Enforcement of religious worship, away from the public gaze, with individuals being segregated by gender and class. This shocking place, operating in clear conflict with British values, was Belton House, just over a century ago. The 'downstairs' ...
This Sunday's band concert on Magdalen Green features the Forfar Instrumental Band. It starts at 2pm on Sunday 15th June at the bandstand. Further details available here.
Thu 12th
08:26
Rev Stu said he couldn't find any abuse of Clare Lally - he should look at the comments on his own w...
The "Rev Stuart Campbell"' author of the Wings over Scotland website took to any broadcasting outlet that would listen yesterday to say that the debate around Clare Lally, the Better Together activist villified by Yes supporters, was, basically, a big ... Continue reading →
A sense of proportion means not only understanding how small something is; it also means understanding how large some things are. I do, therefore, appreciate the enormity of what I have read in this week's media accounts of Ofsted's reports on some schools attended by Muslims in Birmingham. I have blogged previously here about the need to tackle extremism of this sort and I get entirely that we are talking about an extremist political ideology (radical islamism (http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22640614), that is - not the great faith of Islam itself) that has inspired disgusting acts of violence, terrorism and intolerance in ...
Here are 3 photos; do you have any idea where they were taken? [IMG: rsz_1photo0766] [IMG: rsz_photo0765] [IMG: rsz_idilic_canal_scene_in_bootle] The first two are of the same place, just differing angles – It's The Dell in Maghull at the busy junction of Liverpool Road North and Westway across the road from the Hare and Hounds Pub. If you were there at this time of year, when the trees are in full leaf, it would only be the drone of the traffic that would give away the fact that this is not in the middle of the countryside. Maghull in Bloom volunteers ...
Transport for London has decided to stop installing Puffin crossings. Horray! The UK is the only western country to have such a signalled crossing design un the Puffin crossing where crossing pedestrians have no indication or display to give them confidence of their status while crossing the road. Attitudinal research over the last decade has shown that Puffin crossings are unpopular with the public. I can absolutely see why. Puffin crossing also preclude pedestrian countdown displays being installed which the public do find helpful. To know how long you've got to cross after the green man has gone is really ...
I have been asked by a couple of people what I think of Nick Clegg's recent Bloomberg speech covering fiscal policy. This is a big topic, so consider this a holding reply. Over the last few years the entire fiscal debate has veered all over the place, in particular about whether it damaged growth and how much [...]
Earlier this week the First Minister announced that there will be an investigation into whether Wales' environment minister Alun Davies broke government rules. The First Minister previously confirmed to me that whenever a Minister might face a potential conflict of interest, then that Minister should refer themselves to the First Minister's office. The First Minister confirmed in the chamber today that this did not happen. Already that is a serious problem. When discussing constituency matters, the Ministerial Code makes clear that Ministers should take particular care in such cases to represent the views of their electorate rather than express a ...
The decision by Boris Johnson to order water cannons for London puts crowd control in this country into a whole new playing field. That David Cameron appears to have backed him in this, despite reservations on behalf of the Home Secretary, appears to me to be somewhat rash. The Telegraph reports that Theresa May thinks that there are safety concerns associated with these devices. She insists that she will take the final decision on this matter, setting up an interesting conflict that deserves watching. Characteristically, Boris Johnson has said that he is prepared to stand in front of a water ...
I've been thinking a bit since Nick Clegg's big speech on Monday. It was a speech intended primarily for the party faithful, rather than the broader public. Some of the shifts in position it signalled were only really going to be detected by those with well-tuned antennae. Some of Clegg's speech on Monday was a toe-curling as usual. It repeated some tired Coalition tropes. Some passages captured that air of vacuous profundity that you expect from these types of political speeches. But then again I thought some of the substance wasn't so bad. By that I mean he seems to ...
