One of the peculiarities of being me is that I need alone time. I need to know that I can have some time where nobody is going to make demands of me, and I can just read, or play on the Internet, or whatever, & it'll be fine and nobody is going to judge me. I need to know that I can just lie on the sofa and nobody is going to say "shouldn't you be doing the washing up" or "there's a bunch of laundry needs putting away" or whatever. I need to know that at some point it's ...
Today has been a day of mild confusion for me. I've read the link so kindly given to me by Medway Labour with Ed's announcement of the removal of jobs seeker's allowance for under 21s. It says a lot but also not much. I agree that the benefit system is bloated and needs redress. I know that the budget is shafted and there are cuts that have gone the wrong way such as the cuts to the Coastguard. I also agree that we need to get people out of the benefit trap. There is, however some serious issues with Labour's ...
Chains Don't Ever Change Goin' Back Halfway To Paradise I Don't Think You Know Me I Won't Be The Same Without Her I'll Be True To You I'm Into Something Good Is This What I Get For Loving You? Just Once In My Life Keep Your Hands Off My Baby The Loco Motion A Man [...]
This is St Nicholas, Marston Trussell. Royalist troops fleeing Naseby were massacred here, cut off (sources vary) because the Welland was in flood or because the road up to the church was in those days a dead end. The unusual porch is said to include the timbers from a Danish ship.
Read more about that classic of the cinema The Night of the Lepus. Incidentally, at dinner this evening Lord Bonkers suggested to me that Winterson may have been jealous of the rabbit's prose style.
Independent seat. Death Last time fought (2011): Con 745 (E) Ind 598 (E) Ind 590 (E) Con 578 Con 547 LD 397 Lab 335 LD 300
Conservative seat. Resignation Last time fought (2012) Con 757 Lab 579 LD 120
Phil Smith, author of On Walking... and Stalking Sebald, offers a guide to going beyond wandering around looking at stuff. In that time called 'leisure' where a walk is chosen, a phantom of work soon arrives. Many folk consult a manual. Under the guise of 'not getting lost' others take instructions from a map, follow signs and stick to footpaths. This is, for most people, the default of free walking. It penetrates even resistant walking. The ambulatory Sideways Festival (with its reference to the subtitle of my Mythogeography book and the idea of taking off at tangents) in Belgium was ...
[IMG: Hornsey-Depot-265x360] The controversial plans for Hornsey Depot have been challenged and halted - leaving Haringey Council with a £15m hole in their budget. It's another example of the Labour-run council failing to listen to residents and opposition councillors - with disastrous results. Along with many residents and the Haringey Lib Dems, I raised concerns that the Hornsey Depot application was deeply flawed. That's why so many residents objected, and that's why the Lib Dem opposition councillors voted against the application. But instead of listening to concerns, local Labour councillors ignored our pleas and ploughed on regardless. This has now ...
Well how much worse can it get for Southport Conservatives as another councillor walks over to join the Socialist Republic of Bootle for that is what Sefton Labour Party really is. Quite how someone can be a capitalist one day and a socialist the next I have never got my head around but Cllr. Tony Crabtree of Southport's Cambridge Ward is the second Southport Tory councillor to make the journey from Tory to Labour in recent times. [IMG: bigpic] The plight of Southport Tories reflects the problems of Maghull Labour who, like the Tories, can't keep hold of councillors who ...
Thu 19th
16:30
Lynne Featherstone on giving women "rights, voice, choice and control over their own lives"
[IMG: Lynne Feahterstone visiting a Haringey primary school. Some rights reserved. http://www.flickr.com/photos/lynnefeatherstone/3010645357/] It was International Development questions in the Commons yesterday. Lynne Featherstone was questioned about her work to end Female Genital Mutilation in a generation. She said that the subject should be a required subject on the school curriculum in areas of high prevalence. What I thought was most interesting was that in my young day, you didn't get Tory dames asking questions about gender equality as Dame Angela Watkinson did. I liked Lynne's choice of language in her answer. The whole segment is copied below from Hansard: Lynne ...
In Response To & Commenting on Making Progress on Mental Health by Norman Lamb on Manifesto 2015 - I have just re-read my comment and I failed to address the basic premise to which Norman has outlined. I was a teacher for 10 years until a breakdown, I am very aware of the anxieties, the emotionally fragility and the stress that kids can and some do endure. I have two comments to add: 1) If we are to tackle this issue, there needs to be a better and more effective point of call in schools. Early recognition of problems can ...
[IMG: cycle0] When I was working on the new multi-storey car park by Stockport Station, I looked at cycle provision. Not something you usually see in NCP car parks, but I knew high quality, secure cycle parking was something we needed more of in Stockport and saw the opportunity. Working with local cycling groups who had much the same idea, we agreed the design for the cycle parking and I'm pleased to say it's now open for business. I've now signed up as a member as it's very handy for when I use Stockport Station and a lot cheaper than ...
When I'm not doing politics, I work in IT as a systems and network administrator. This involves dealing with the Internet Protocol (IP) a lot. This is basically the thing that makes the Internet (and hence the Web, which is a subset of the Internet) work. Trouble is, it's based on an assumption that everything [...]
[IMG: Tim Farron MP speaks at the rally] Nick Clegg has been saying a lot recently that it's coalition or nothing – the Liberal Democrats aren't interested in propping up a minority Government because we'd get all the blame and none of the chance to do any actual good. I can see the logic to that point of view, certainly. However, Tim Farron, in an interview with the New Statesman has directly contradicted Nick, saying that we shouldn't rule anything out: When you go into negotiations with another party you have to believe, and let the other party believe, that ...
UKIP seat. Resignation. John Ault is the Liberal Democrat candidate. Contact: JohnAult1@aol.com Last time contested (2013): UKIP 469 (E) Con 391 LD 388 Ind 91
So, as a supporter of the coalition government and a member of the Liberal Democrats, I have endured four years of abuse from Labour members about the need to reform welfare payments, on an agenda that they started and where we have moderated and blocked more extreme proposals from the Tories. And then along comes Ed Miliband and announces that he is going to do the same after all. The Guardian reports that the Labour leader's first plans for cuts to the welfare system will involve ending out-of-work benefits for roughly 100,000 18-to-21-year-olds and replacing them with a less costly ...
Thu 19th
13:26
My column for ConHome: Nick Clegg's future - Why I think he should go. And why neither Nick nor his ...
[IMG: con home cartoon] Here's my latest The Other Side column for ConservativeHome, published here on Tuesday. I re-visited my reasons for thinking Nick Clegg should quit as party leader (while remaining as Deputy Prime Minister). But also tried to understand why he's decided not to – and, perhaps more surprisingly, why Lib Dem MPs (whose jobs, after all, are on the line) have backed Nick up. My thanks as ever to the site's editors, Paul Goodman and Mark Wallace, for giving a Lib Dem space to provoke – constructively, I hope. "Et tu, Stephen?" That was the message I ...
So Ed Miliband has just announced some more policy, this time related to young people and benefits. You can read about it at BBC News and the Guardian. [IMG: ed-miliband-stern] Short summary: if you're between 18 & 21 years old, you won't get Jobseekers' Allowance unless you are in training for or have a Level 3 qualification (A Level equivalent), but then if you meet those conditions, you'll be on a new Youth Allowance, which is means tested on parental income. According to IPPR, it will save about £65 million a year. It's all a bit complicated, isn't it? And ...
I spoke on the same bill as the comedian and fridge-carrier Tony Hawks last night, at a Bristol rally called Make Billionaires History. Hawks is very jovial about it all, but he has a plan: an agreed maximum wage, above which very high earners will be expected to give the rest away to charity. It sounds unworldly, especially as the tax system is an increasingly voluntary business for the ultra-rich. But it seems to me that our morality is turning against greed in a fascinating new way. And, assuming the Hawks plan is enforced by moral sanction alone, I have ...
Thu 19th
12:45Ashcroft battlegrounds poll: both Tories and Lib Dems down on 2010, but it's the Tories who'd make g...
[IMG: lib tory] Lord Aschroft, the Tory peer and pollster, has published the results of a large survey of 17 Lib Dem / Conservative battleground seats. Six are Tory-held seats where the Lib Dems were runners-up in 2010; 11 are Lib Dem-held seats where the Tories were runners-up. Across those seats the voting intention (compared with the 2010 general election) is: Con 33% (-8%), Lib Dem 28% (-15%), Labour 14% (+5%), Ukip 18% (+14%). However, that conceals a lot of individual seat-by-seat variation. Here's the constituency overview. The headlines are that: all six Tory-held seats would remain Tory – Camborne ...
You know that scene in virtually every thriller where someone is tied up with duct tape over their mouth? Well it turns out that duct tape doesn't really work as a gag! Hat Tip: the Smithsonian MagazineFiled under: Uncategorized
There are two meetings at Blyth Town Council next week Events Committee , Tuesday 24th June , 6:30 at Arms Evertyne House Staff Committee, Thursday 26th June, 6:30 at Arms Evertyne House Because of the nature of the Agenda items, the Staff Committee will be held under Part II ( ie with the public excluded due to the personal nature of the items being discussed )
Thu 19th
11:45Lord Robin Teverson writes...Infrastructure Bill delivers a cluster of Liberal Democrat priorities
[IMG: House of Lords. Photo: Parliamentary copyright images are reproduced with the permission of Parliament] A very Liberal Democrat bill got its second reading in the Lords yesterday – the Infrastructure Bill. Lib Dems have already driven through this Parliament an Energy Act which will not just make sure that when it comes to energy infrastructure the lights stay one but that we decarbonise our energy supply. We've been rolling out super fast broadband across the British countryside. Often forgotten we also have a £35 billion railway investment programme over the next five years – and that doesn't include HS2. ...
[IMG: Nick Clegg LBC square] Today's Call Clegg saw Nick questioned on Iraq, knife crime, poverty, web snooping, longer school days and, inevitably, Mike Hancock. He was very clear on Hancock – he should have apologised sooner and he should now resign from the party. Here's my Storify of mine and others' tweets from the programme: [View the story "Call Clegg: 19 June 2014" on Storify] * Caron Lindsay is Co-Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings
[IMG: older_worker blog] At the launch of a new action plan this week, Liberal Democrat Pensions Minister Steve Webb stressed that British businesses must realise the potential of older workers and help people to stay in the workplace. Supporting older people in employment is part of new measures set out by Liberal Democrats in Government to strengthen the economy whilst ensuring fairness in the workplace. Findings in the plan reveal that the UK economy could have been boosted by £18bn in 2013 if the employment gap between people in their 40s and those aged 50 to State Pension Age was ...
MP Andrew George asks voters to help choose bill (tags: ) Tony Blair airbrushing role in creating Isis in Iraq, Nick Clegg says (tags: ) 'No more boob jobs on the NHS': Breast enlargements, tummy tucks and nose jobs won't be available, says Jeremy Hunt What's the betting this will be used to deny trans folk surgery? (tags: ) Ever fancied giving the Royal Institution Christmas Lecture? Now's your chance (tags: ) Cheap Samsung Galaxy S4 knock-off ships with spyware sending data back to China (tags: ) David Cameron Tells MPs That Christianity Can Make Politicians Good Oh FUCK OFF ...
[IMG: nhs-sign-lrg] I am always suspicious when key elements of the Left and the Right come to the same conclusion. Sometimes of course, this is simply because an idea has "come of age" and is so obvious it gets embraced across the political spectrum. But more times than not, it is because the Left has been slightly led down a blind alley by elements of the Right, not realising that what they have found themselves proposing would ultimately work against their agenda and their politics. A case in point is the proposed "Health Tax", the essence of which is to ...
Tuesday's appalling news about my good friend and Liberator colleague Simon Titley has spurred me to make renewed efforts to blog. Simon founded the Liberator blog as a spontaneous outlet for his creativity, fierce intellect, uncompromising Liberalism and his great sense of fun. This morning we were all treated to the sound of Labour's shadow DWP Secretary promoting a policy almost identical to the one which six months ago she said was not, and would never be Labour policy. In a moment in which The Thick of It again emulated real life, she said it was now called the 'Compulsory ...
[IMG: libdemmanifesto 2010 wordle] Getting this right is probably the foremost challenge the Party faces. Earlier year the Social Liberal Forum conducted an online survey, including open comments, over the contents of the Party's pre-manifesto themes document and consultation. Although the response rates were low and mostly SLF members, it gives an interesting insight into what some party think of the work done on manifesto thinking to date. The "Stronger economy, fairer society" theme 77% supported the slogan, 23% did not, but the majority of comments including from those who said "yes" thought it a bit bland and might make ...
Thu 19th
08:30
Sunday 22nd June's Band Concert on Magdalen Green - and an update about last Sunday's event
This Sunday's band concert on Magdalen Green features Dundee Instrumental Band. It starts at 2pm on Sunday 22nd June at the bandstand. Further details available here. A number of residents complained about the situation that arose at last Sunday's concert where the council inadvertently failed to provide the seating for both the Tayport Instrumental Band and the public - and left the bandstand locked. All credit to the band who went ahead with the concert and also the residents who kindly brought out some seating from their homes for some of the older band members! The Head of Environment Management ...
We hear a lot about evidence-based policy in education, but somehow it always seems to involve the same narrow agenda. So let's look at evidence in support of a very different view of education. The Benefits of Lifelong Learning (BeLL) study, which was funded by the European Commission, investigated the individual and social benefits perceived by adult learners who participated in liberal adult education courses. The study's website reports its findings: The data showed that adult learners experience numerous benefits from liberal adult education. They feel healthier and seem to lead healthier lifestyles; they build new social networks and experience ...
I was unable to keep awake long enough to see Jeremy Paxman's final exit from Newsnight last night but I shed no tears at his departure. He has made his reputation as an extremely well prepared and thorough interviewer, but is in fact a bully. He knows that he can be as rude as he likes, both verbally and with exaggerated facial expressions (sneers, eyes rolled up to the ceiling), knowing full well that the interviewees, some would say victims, are unable to answer in kind. Hitting those who are unable to hit back is the tactic of the bully ...
Follow the link above to Jen's posting – Isambard Kingdom Brunel's SS Great Eastern was, in her day, the largest ship ever built. A truly ambitious project from one of the most famous names in engineering history................
The Nuffield Trust Report: 'A decade of Austerity in Wales?' calling it a "wake up call for Wales". The report, commissioned by the Welsh Government, found that "growing pressures on the NHS in Wales means it could face an unprecedented funding gap of £2.5bn by 2025." It went on to say that "to close the gap without additional funding, the Welsh NHS would have to improve productivity at a record rate and sustain this for a period not seen in history of the NHS or other countries health systems." This report should be a real wake up call for managers ...
This recovery would not be happening without the Liberal Democrats. Our economy is growing because of the hard work of people and businesses throughout Britain. The Coalition's economic plan is the rock on which our recovery is being built. Four years in, and the Coalition's priority is still the same: fixing the economy and cleaning up the mess Labour left behind. That task has never been simply about balancing the books. We inherited an economy that had become profoundly unbalanced. Growth was driven almost entirely by one industry: financial services. Almost exclusively from one city: London. And behind the boom ...
I promised to talk about the "sad puppy slate" for the Hugos, because I think this is something that a lot of people who aren't reading my Hugo posts might find interesting. So let's talk about the origins of science fiction, for a bit. I've seen science fiction described (in an article that led me [...]
Blog Categories: Education My Degree Personal Vote: 0 votes + Vote up! - Vote down! So the results are in, and I just managed to haul my average over 70% to get a First Class Honours classification in my degree. And many people have been asking me "what next?" Well I'd kind of like to work out just what I now have a degree in. Not least because the research for my soon-to-be-published dissertation made me think more about what a degree is about in contemporary higher education. Ostensibly, of course, my subject was "Economics, Politics and International Relations" and ...
