The Surrey Comet reports that Richmond Park MP and Tory eco-poster boy has pleaded guilty to three counts of speeding (presumably in his faux-Green Toyota Prius). They also report he already has points from previous offences, meaning a driving ban would be expected - or at least it would be for someone without his very highly paid lawyers. So if he does get a ban - he'll find the Transport for London journey planner really useful. Unless he decides to employ a chauffeur...
I am delighted that the Picturehouse Cinema group have obtained planning permission to open a new cinema in East Dulwich at 116a Lordship Lane – the former St.Thomas Moore Church Hall. And hopefully by Christmas! Having a local cinema will make going to the cinema much easier. It will mean me and my family will go to the cinema much more often. This is fantastic news for East Dulwich. A few have expressed disquiet about this group not paying the London Living Wage. I agree they should pay this and moving towards doing that have made a large wage increase ...
Earlier this evening, I attended the July meeting of Community Spirit Action Group - the community group for the "north" part of West End Ward, covering Pentland, Tullideph, Ancrum and the Cleghorn area. We had an excellent update from Sharon Bain of Solar Cities Scotland on its work in the West End on both community carbon exchange and the sustainable energy promotion scheme - the latter looking at energy saving and insulation for local homes. There was a very useful discussion about progressing insulation initiatives in the local area. Sharon is kindly also taking part in a meeting I am ...
This umbrella group is effectively the national voice of Parish Councils across England and Wales. It has always struck me as being an organisation that struggles with its remit. I recall that Maghull Town Council withdrew from it for a number of years, when we Lib Dems ran the Council, in favour of another umbrella organisation called the Association of Larger Local Councils (ALLC). As its name suggests ALLC was aimed at helping the larger parish and town councils like Maghull. The reason for Maghull's departure was that, for the fees charged, NALC it seemed was ill equipped to assist ...
As part of Lord's Bicentenary celebrations, the MCC has digitised a number of archive films stretching back into cricket's past and put them on Youtube. A Bat, a Ball and a Boy features a young Richie Benaud talking to Ray Lindwall, Neil Harvey and Donald Bradman. Watch more Lord's videos.
Liberal Democrat seat. Death Edward Walker is the Liberal Democrat candidate. Contact: edd_walker@yahoo.co.uk Last time contested: LD 311 (E) Con 304 Lab 250 Ind 203 Ind 80
LD seat. Cause: Death Stephen Walpole is the Liberal Democrat candidate.
Liberal Democrat seat. Death Paul English is the Liberal Democrat candidate. Contact: englishpa@hotmail.com Last time contested (2013): LD 572 (E) Ind 471 Con 407 Green 312 Lab 234
The anti-social use of Quad Bikes has been a problem plaguing areas of Acocks Green, in particular the Gospel Estate, for some time. It causes significant distress and annoyance to a large number of local residents. A couple of weeks ago I met with PC Wallace and PCSO Coxhead for a discussion on how to tackle the problem. It was good to hear the determination of our local police team to get on top of the issue. They now some positive news to report. They ran a traffic operation on Sunday on the Gospel Estate. This involved two police off ...
We have a housing crisis. Things are so bad that we've recently had very high house price inflation. One cause has been suggested as the number of empty homes for than one year. But over the last four years the number of empty homes has fallen by one-third. In Southwark since I was first elected when we had 5,500 empty properties it halved. Partly this is the coalition government allowing councils to double council tax and partly because properties are so much more valuable now. This Southwark halving of empty properties has been repeated London wide and represent 0.64% of ...
Thursday From time to time I invite one of our Liberal Democrat ministers down to the Hall to hear how they are getting on and give them the benefit of my experience. My latest guest is Professor Steve Webb, whom all agree is Terribly Clever. He tells me all about his plans to reform the pension system so that a chap can get his hands on his nest egg and use it as he sees fit rather than be forced to buy an annuity from the insurance companies. "Of course," he goes on, "the important thing is how long someone ...
Wed 2nd
21:31
The "right to be forgotten" means the BBC is effectively being censored. Where's the outrage?
When the "right to be forgotten", which obliges Google to delete "inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant" data from its results when a member of the public requests it,was brought into being by the European courts I wrote: It is public figures who have the money to employ the sort of lawyers Google will take notice of. So it is public figures who are most likely to benefit from the "right to be forgotten".If you read Robert Peston on the BBC News Business pages today, you will see how right I was. It begins: This morning the BBC received the ...
Krugman has a bit of a go at what he calls "neo monetarists" - largely on the basis of a presumed lack of political realism. And he may be right: within Market Monetarism, the positive vibes towards what money can do is only matched by a strong dislike for going near fiscal policy. That plays [...]
The tragic news that the body of a Palestinian teenager has been found near to Jerusalem is deeply saddening, following on so soon from the finding of the bodies of three Israeli teenagers. One can only begin to imagine the deep sadness of the families and friends of all four of these young people. Given that all four appear to have been murdered, I want to see the people responsible brought to justice as swiftly as possible.
[IMG: Glasgow's "Squinty bridge" by Paul Walter] Secretary of State for Scotland Alistair Carmichael has made a lovely little video to promote this year's Autumn Conference. We're returning to Glasgow. I will not mention the delicious irony that Alistair is actually sitting in Party HQ in Edinburgh. After all, it's not as if there's any rivalry between the two cities, or anything. I'll also not mention the taxi driver who told me, without any rancour, that he couldn't wait for the Liberal Democrats to be wiped out. Seriously, though, Glasgow is brilliant both as a place and a Conference venue ...
Susan Gaszczak and her family have quit the party over the handling of the Rennard allegations. Earlier this afternoon, Susan tweeted this, including her open resignation letter: You can read my open letter of resignation from the @LibDems here pic.twitter.com/L32zaS409t — Susan Gaszczak (@SusanGaszczak) July 2, 2014 Update at 19:21 2/7/14 A Liberal Democrat Spokesperson said: "We are saddened that Susan Gaszczak has made this decision which was clearly very difficult for her. She has been a devoted and passionate campaigner for the Liberal Democrat cause over many years and will be sorely missed by many in the party. "Earlier ...
Two more pictures from Sandgate High Street this morning, demonstrating why Sandgate needs Shepway Council to follow others in using seagull proof bags for waste collections for those without wheelie bins. It's not hygenic, looks terrible and costs to clear up every week. A trial of the bags could even save them money, but no response from them to date... [IMG: Waste from bin bags ripped apart by seagulls on street] [IMG: Waste from bin bags ripped apart by seagulls on street] Published and promoted by Tim Prater, 98a Sandgate High Street, Folkestone, CT20 3BYPrinted (hosted) by Prater Raines Ltd, ...
Spoiler: I like it It's a cliché that the futures envisaged in science fiction really reflect present day concerns. Edge of Tomorrow, however, breaks that pattern. It seems permeated by the imagery and ideas of last century's World Wars. It follows a senior military PR man played by Tom Cruise who is able to persuade [...]
We have added more materials to the ALDC Summer Survey (see our original article on this with links to the artwork and guidance here) We now have three additional elements: Welsh and Scottish versions. A draft street letter following up on pothole issues and tying in with recent national funding announcements. A "Form" in Connect [...]
[IMG: Carol Howard] For once the BBC News's editorial priority seemed to be spot on. Top story on the 7am Radio 4 news was an astonishing case of discrimination involving a black police officer, Carol Howard. Amongst other things, it showed that the Metropolitan Police were systematically manipulating evidence. Alas by 1pm the story had dropped right out of the bulletin. Instead the channel carried a story about a potential paedophilia scandal in the 1980s, based on some very thin evidence. But this story should not be allowed to drop from our attention. Indeed it raises many questions that should ...
I am mightily unimpressed by the consensus on Northern devolution that is emerging in London. We will face new challenges post the Scottish referendum whether it results in 'Independence' or Devo Max. None of the 'lite' proposals emanating from the SE-whether from Heseltine, Osborne, Clegg or the Labour Party -adequately take account of the new challenges we face. Let us compare and contrast the proposals. The Scottish Challenge The Scottish Parliament already has significant powers and now even the Tories are proposing to give them more. Win or loose the referendum the Hollywood Parliament is going to have tax raising ...
[IMG: EU Flag at the European Parliament at Strasbourg. Photo credit: Some rights reserved by European Parliament] Today's Guardian reports that Nick Clegg has won the backing of MPs over whether to support a change in the party's policy on an EU referendum: The deputy prime minister, who has faced direct calls from ministers for a change of stance on the EU, won the agreement of the Lib Dem parliamentary party to stand by the current policy. This is to hold a referendum only if UK sovereignty is passed to the EU. The Tories would go further by guaranteeing an ...
The Gatley Festival is underway – see all the info here. The following roads in Gatley will be closed to traffic; for the Gatley Festival taking place on Sunday 6th July 2014. · Silverdale Road; from St Ann's Road North to Foxland Road · Foxland Road; from Silverdale Road to Springfield Road · Springfield Road; with Foxland Road to Gatley Road · Gatley Road; with Springfield Road to Church Road · Church Road; from Gatley Road to Styal Road A rolling closure will be in place between 11:30am and 12:45pm; as per the attached route plan. Pedestrian access will be ...
I uploaded my spreadsheet of Have I Got News For You guests broken down by gender after the last series, then today realised I'd forgotten to upload the new version. So, that's now uploaded – and here it is. I guess if you're looking for a key statistic from it, it's the number 33.3 – one third of the guests and one third of the hosts were women in the last series, which was the first since the BBC introduced their 'no all male panel shows' policy. HIGNFY has stuck with that policy, but has done the bare minimum to ...
Kickstart is the party's most established and most popular campaign training event, and has been organised by ALDC for over 25 years. This year we are running two weekends (5 – 7 September and 28 – 30 November) to give more people an opportunity to attend. Both of our Kickstart residential training weekends are held [...]
Contrary to the fears I expressed yesterday, the BBC has confirmed that when Sherlock returns it not will not just be for a one-off special. Rather it will be for a special and a 3 episode series. That's obviously encouraging though it's also been confirmed that we will be waiting till next near for the [...]
Should we be suspicious that Osborne and Adonis seem to be of one mind when it comes to devolving economic power to the cities? There is a faint worry in the back of my mind that, when things are bad enough for both the two biggest parties to agree, then probably the world has moved on and it is too late. That certainly seems to be Simon Jenkins' view this morning. But don't let's be too hasty. There is no doubt that there is a head of steam behind the basic idea that cities should be encouraged to be creative, ...
During the last few weeks I've run two LaunchPad training days and did some training at the Local Government Conference. Each session has included some work on Membership Recruitment, and it has been really useful to hear about how people are doing in their local parties. Since the party launched the new highly incentives membership [...]
[IMG: UW-Madison Teaching Learning Symposium] It's good to see a commitment from Justice Minister Chris Grayling to do something to tackle the appalling practice of revenge pornography, where somebody posts a private intimate photograph on a public website as a means of causing distress to a former partner. As we've written many times recently, there is currently very little that the victim can do about it. Julian Huppert was the first to raise the issue in the House of Commons last month, and he wrote that he favoured a change in the law here. As Liberal Democrats, we believe in ...
Read "Joint statement of intent on productivity, prices and incomes", which I have found on page 316 of Samuel Brittan's book "Steering the economy". It is the most extraordinary thing I've read this week. Signed in December 1964 by George Brown, Jim Callaghan, the TUC, the Chambers of Commerce, the Federation of British Industries and [...]
Wed 2nd
13:15
The Independent View: Ending female genital mutilation and early marriage will also help tackle HIV
[IMG: Youth group, SRH, Bangladesh] The leadership shown by the UK government - and in particular the Liberal Democrats and Lynne Featherstone MP - on ending female genital cutting or mutilation (FGC/M) in a generation has been ground breaking and inspiring. The upcoming Girl Summit is a timely opportunity, hot on the heels of the recent Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict, to promote girls' and women's rights to live free from violence and discrimination and achieve their potential. There's no doubt that ending child, early and forced marriage and female genital cutting/mutilation for all girls will contribute ...
In a move designed to cauise major problems for Ed Miliband, a senior Unite official has claimed that trade unions are demanding a dedicated seat at the Cabinet table under a Labour government. The Telegraph reports that Steve Turner, the assistant general secretary of Unite, has been recorded saying the appointment of a Secretary of State heading a new Ministry for Labour was a "fundamental element" of any "new deal" with the Labour Party: Unite has donated £12 million to Labour since Ed Miliband became leader, making it the biggest single donor. The Tories claim the funding gives trade unions ...
The key conclusion from the Electoral Commission's investigation into why the last Tower Hamlets election count took so long to finish: Underlying both of these main factors were plans for the management of the verification and count on Friday 23 May which proved inadequate for the number of ballot papers to be counted and the intense focus of candidates and agents on the count process. Given the context for the elections, summarised in this report, the Returning Officer should have anticipated many of the factors which appeared to have contributed to the length of the count. Note also the widespread ...
A blast from the past with one of the 1988 local election broadcasts from the Social and Liberal Democrats (then in its brief post-merger phrase of trying to go by the short name of The Democrats). Presenter Michael Barratt was one of the country's leading TV presenters, having fronted Nationwide for eight years through to the late 70s. The style of the broadcast – imitating a normal TV programme – is one that used to be popular but has since fallen out of favour. In part that's due to the shortened length of party political broadcasts (or more accurately during ...
[IMG: Boundary - Some rights reserved by ank0ku] In those heady 5 Days in May back in 2010, our negotiators agreed with the Conservative Party that there should be "fewer, more equal" constituencies returning MPs to the House of Commons. It formed part of a package, coupled with the referendum on Alternative Vote, and placed alongside fixed-term Parliaments (delivered), greater localism (partially delivered), and House of Lords reform (not delivered). Whatever your views on whether there should be fewer MPs, more, or just the same as now, the principle that parliamentary constituencies should contain roughly the same number of electors ...
The Post Office have confirmed to us that the proposal to move Gatley Post Office from its current location next door into the Newsagents will be going ahead. The old Post Office will close at 5.30pm on Thursday 11th September 2014, with the new one opening at 1pm on Friday 12th September. The Newsagents will have a refit and internal redesign as part of the move. Access will be provided for disabled customers (a portable ramp along with a bell on the outside of the shop). The opening hours of the new Post Office branch will be: Monday – Saturday ...
In the May local elections in Gateshead, Labour's campaign was little short of a car crash. At council meetings earlier this year, Labour had publicly promised to reduce our numbers on Gateshead. The election results wiped the smug grins off their self-righteous faces. Labour went down to defeat in the three seats they thought they could win from us. (We were defending 4 - my ward of Whickham
[IMG: flexible-working blog2] From this week, every employee will gain the right to request flexible working, which is expected to benefit more than 20 million employees. Flexible working helps people to balance their work with responsibilities. Up until now, the right was only available for carers, or people who look after children. The scheme was introduced by Liberal Democrats in Government in order to help older workers and to keep people in long-term employment. It is expected to be of particular interest to young people who want to take up additional learning while they work. Nick Clegg said: "Modern businesses ...
A quick one. I promise. Bond Vigilantes, who are always worth reading, have a post titled "Stamping down on foreign flows into UK property could be sterling suicide". Feels like an odd concern on the day that the pound's strength has hit the front page of the FT. * Their post has an interesting claim [...]
[IMG: pensions] One of the now regular flow of "policy announcements" from the leadership calls for the 2010 'triple lock' to be enshrined in law. Passing for a moment over the fact that these "announcements" are of course nothing of the sort and discourteous to Conference which passes policy, (though, to be fair, as Mark Pack and others have pointed out, Steve Webb has been careful to avoid language some others have used that suggests these policies have been agreed without the party having a say), I think it's the wrong idea. Why? Because, simply put, we can't afford it. ...
21 home truths only girls with big boobs will understand -- I disagree with some of these O:-) (tags: ) [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
South Glos Council currently has three community composting sites, partly run by volunteers. The sites are running at an appreciable loss, and Shire Way in particular has been suffering from dumping of inappropriate material. South Glos is running a consultation about the future of the sites. The consultation runs until 1 August 2014 and you can have your say online here.
[IMG: Verdun graves from the First World War. Photo courtesy of http://www.freeimages.com/photo/546150 - some rights reserved] It's no surprise that in this social media saturated world, the First World War is being marked by various 'live' tweets, such as those from Sky, reenacting events as they happened 100 years ago. If other similar such efforts are anything to go by, I'll enjoy reading them from time to time. But that's very different from learning about the First World War. The problem with that lies with the inevitable over-emphasis on what foreign journalists often call the 'kinetic stuff'. As I wrote ...
[IMG: Manchester Town Hall Clock] Change is in the air, or that is the implication of the strange alignment of George Osborne for the Conservatives and Andrew Adonis for Labour, whose new report on re-balancing the economy - not that he used those terms - was published on Monday. If you add Michael Heseltine's 2012 review into the mix - published with a full-page portrait of the great Liberal reformist Joseph Chamberlain (yes, I know he became something else) - then the shift towards serious devolution of economic power seems unstoppable. Why has it taken so long? Because this is ...
[IMG: Algeria01_2959245b] So the second round of the World Cup has concluded. This officially ends the "shitloads of matches on all the time" portion of the programme; there are only seven games left in the entire tournament, eight if you include the third place match. I suppose they theoretically increase in quality from here - although this is not always the case. This "best ever World Cup" needs a decent ending, so let us live in hope. My impression of the France v Nigeria match was that it was unfeasibly brutal. This was at least partly because I was busy ...
A new report from RIBA [Royal Institute of British Architects] has called for MPs to relax laws protecting green belt land. Parts of the green belt are of "negligible environmental value", it says, arguing that space for housing is both of significant value and urgently needed. "In these parts of the country the green belt no longer serves its purpose and isn't appreciated by the local community; this land could be much better used to provide new housing, parks and space for communities to grow and prosper," it elaborates. The Times today, Page: 16 I despair, is it that we ...
Seeing UKIP's MEPs literally turning their backs when Beethoven's Ode to Joy was played at the inaugural session of the new European Parliament yesterday really made me ashamed to be British. Such behaviour is not only childish but also deeply insulting, both to others present and to the memory of the founding fathers of the [...]
Wed 2nd
08:55LibLink: Danny Alexander: A like-for-like Trident replacement isn't justifiable in terms of security...
[IMG: 110301-N-7237C-009] Danny Alexander has written for the Guardian in response to yesterday's Trident Commission report. He continues to make the case that the policy passed at Liberal Democrat Conference last September, which cut the number of submarines was the right one for two reasons. First of all, we don't need continuous at sea deterrence because the nature of the world has changed: During the cold war, there was a credible threat of a surprise massive attack against this country or Nato allies. Our nuclear forces needed to be available within minutes in order to give credibility to our policy ...
It must be a good couple of days since I linked to an interview with Jonathan Meades, so here is one from Scrawl: "I hate the word 'broadcaster'... I am a... writer and... er... writer. I write books, I write journalism, I write films. I appear in those films but I wouldn't call myself a 'broadcaster' - it's a deathly sounding word, some terrible fool waving his arms around and speaking a script that's been written by someone else.More importantly, the great man says: "I love Shropshire."
I've highlighted in past years the superb job the City Council made of Seabraes planting in the Spring. And 2014 is no exception - see below - a real credit to the Environment Department:
Lydiate is blessed with having the Leeds Liverpool Canal flowing through it as indeed are the other Sefton Borough communities of Melling, Maghull, Aintree Village, Netherton, Litherland and Bootle. Lydiate is also the home, as I have posted before, of the Mersey Motor Boat Club. A walk along the length of the canal through Lydiate can bring forth all kinds of sights and sounds of canal boating. Narrow boats, barges, maintenance boats, cruisers etc. All these shots were taken on the same day in May 2014:- A canal barge – wide in comparison with a narrow boat:- [IMG: rsz_canal_barge] Narrow ...
[IMG: Navia Shuttle - a driverless car] I've commented before on how slow moving the transport policy sector is often in embracing the impact that driverless cars will have on transport. People love talking about transport infrastructure plans decades in the future, for example, but before the first piece of turf is cut on many of those future plans, the speed with which driverless cars are coming will have greatly changed the transport scene. And if transport policymakers don't grasp that change and help shape it in the right directions, then the change will be shaped simply by profit, random ...
Yesterday I voiced my disappointment that the Welsh Labour Government are not going far enough to support women who suffer from violence and domestic abuse in the Bill introduced in plenary today: Gender-based Violence, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence (Wales) Bill. The Local Government Minister has confirmed that the Bill will focus on prevention, protection of victims and support for those affected. The Bill aims to reduce the incidents of gender-based violence, domestic abuse and sexual violence and improve the public sector response. However, I have to question why the Bill fails to address issues such as education and perpetrator ...
Lewisham Council have admitted they miscounted local election votes in Forest Hill in May, resulting in 1708 votes being counted twice and the wrong results being officially recorded. The blunder became clear when the results were published and the number of votes cast came to more than three times the number of ballot papers issued, when [...]
This is something I've talked about here before, but only in comments, and it's a subject that keeps coming up, so I thought I'd better make it a main post. My single biggest political issue, the one I care about more than any other, is making Britain's democracy something closer to functional. If we could [...]
