[IMG: case in collina] #housingday will be marked for the second time on 12th November 2014. It is an opportunity for people in the UK to make the case for housing, and for social housing in particular. Social housing organisations and tenants will be sharing experiences and stories of the difference housing makes. You can find out more here. My blogposts only rarely deal with housing at the frontline. The focus is more often on policy, politics and principles than on the detail of the difference good housing makes to people's lives. Nonetheless, #housingday feels like a good opportunity to ...
The detailed design for repair has progressed and is being reviewed with a view to going out to tender on 14th November. The tender period, evaluation together with award of contract should take four to five weeks. The county council is therefore provisionally programming to start on site on 25th January 2015.
#85034974 / gettyimages.com One of the great bands of the era, photographed in March 1967. Built as the training halls for Leicester's Army recruits during World War I, Granby Halls is no longer standing. I do not know if that is entirely The Who's fault.
[IMG: Kirsty Williams] BBC part 1: Voters should have the right to throw out their local Assembly Member if they behave improperly, says Welsh Liberal Democrat leader Kirsty Williams. Ms Williams wants to see a so-called "right of recall" introduced so AMs can be removed between elections. BBC part 2: Sixteen-year-olds could be given the vote in a referendum on whether to give Welsh ministers tax-varying powers. The Welsh government will be given the right to decide the age at which people can vote in such a poll, Wales Office Minister Baroness Randerson [Lib Dem] said.
Developing Countries: Health ServicesQuestionsAsked by Lord AveburyTo ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they plan to take to promote integrated healthcare structures and policy in the United Nations post-2015 development agenda.[HL2444]The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for International Development (Baroness Northover) (LD):The UK government supports the inclusion of integrated approaches to healthcare in a post 2015 agenda, as shown through the emphasis on Universal Health Coverage in the Report of the High-Level Panel, chaired by the Prime Minister, and its inclusion as a target in the proposal of the Open Working Group for Sustainable Development Goals.Asked by Lord AveburyTo ask ...
I've had complaints that the 553 is not currently going along Gibbet Street due to road works. This has resulted in several elderly residents who live in or around the nursing home there becoming effectively stranded in their homes. We understand that road works have to happen, but there should be something to help make sure folk don't get stranded when routes change with little notice. I've contacted the relevant Council officer who is liaising now with Metro as this route is operated under contract.
I've been dealing with more complaints of speeding along Roils Head Road & Paddock Lane. It's frustrating that there are still speeding problems on Paddock Lane as this is now already part of a 20mph zone. It's really clear though there are a minority of drivers who simply ignore the speed limit, and know they are very unlikely to get caught by the Police which seem unable to tackle the problem. Perhaps it would make sense to change the law so local Council enforcement officers could enforce traffic speeding. After all it can't be too complicated pointing a radar gun ...
[IMG: Header_Addy] The Addy Community group which I am involved in was setup to improve the Pellon area, and to take over the running the of the Pellon Network Centre on Rye Lane. The centre is already used by and art club, and a silver surfers computer club and the group is trying to bring the centre back into a lot more community uses. Anyone who lives in the local area can apply to be a member, at the moment there is no membership fee. We have a vision of doing up the garden, hosting regular coffee mornings and events ...
Once again Headline of the Day goes to the Shropshire Star.
Labour's moment of Mili-madness is over: Ed will lead his party into the next election. Alan Johnson's re-re-re-confirmation that he has no appetite for the job has thwarted any chances that he might be drafted into the post as caretaker leader to see his party through the remainder of the season. It was a plan borne of desperation. Alan Johnson is admirable in many ways — he's had a life before politics, he speaks human — but he has ruled himself out too often, too categorically, to be a credible potential Prime Minister. His is not the modest, aw-shucks-if-I-must reluctance ...
Peter Wanless review of the missing Home Office documentation on child abuse, as quoted by the BBC, is convolutedly anxious not to claim too much: "It is, therefore, not possible to say whether files were ever removed or destroyed to cover up or hide allegations of organised or systematic child abuse by particular individuals because of the systems then in place. ..."It follows that we cannot say that no file was removed or destroyed for that reason. By making those observations they should not be misinterpreted. "We do not conclude that there is any basis for thinking that anything happened ...
Creating Restorative Justice in Cornwall is the title of an event being put on during International Justice Week. I find the use of the word 'creating' slightly strange, as if it is only just being invented, as I was involved in getting offenders to make amends and apologise for the wrong they had done back in the 80's! That was with young people and I suppose it has never made it main stream because people don't think it is 'tough' enough. Me, well I know it is tough because I have seen young lads cry on having to face up ...
You can tell when political leaders are feeling the heat as they will claim just about anything to keep their heads above water. What with the Tories, and indeed Labour, having their heads pushed under water by UKIP's mixture of popularism, racism, socialism, nationalism and just about any other negative 'ism' you can think of the Tory leadership is desperately claiming black is white over the EU invoice that the UK is being told to pay. Labour on the other hand is trying to keep UKIP leaning supporters on side by agreeing with UKIP over this bill that has presented ...
Victory in Europe – What Cameron and Osborne actually negotiated and agreed over the UK's contribution to the EU. Leadership in question – Good piece by Chris Dillow on how the search for strong leaders is a search for a false god. The one thing rarer than talent is the ability to spot talent." A Few Questions About the Culture: An Interview with Iain Banks – What it says on the title, really: talking in depth with Iain Banks about how the idea of the Culture developed in his work. How to waste a staggering £15bn – David Boyle has ...
I was interested by this report in this week's Sunday Times (£) concerning John Hemming, a long-standing campaigner against overbearing child protection policies and practices and secretive family courts. I've seen enough instances in my time where social workers have made serious errors, causing horrendous distress, to make me glad that he's on their case. He's tabled a Parliamentary Question asking the Government for guidance on the age at which a child can be left at home alone after being approached by a mother who was given a police caution some years ago for leaving her then 6 year old ...
Russell Brand has been everywhere trying to kickstart his revolution, and has been roundly derided in response. It's a shame. He was actually revolutionary when he stuck to the comedy. Every television chat show, lefty protest, book review section, and radio programme seems to have featured Russell Brand in the last couple of weeks. Tomorrow he is [...]
Cornwall Council has published their final report and evaluation of the TRAC and CYCLE projects in and around Launceston, Bude and Caradon Hill. The project failed to deliver many of its objectives. There will be a meeting at 6pm next Tuesday to discuss the project and report. I'm grateful to council officers Peter Marsh and Steve Wood for coming to make a presentation and answer questions. The meeting is open to the public and will be at the Town Hall - Otho Peter Room - at 6pm. As promised some time ago, the report is available here or you can ...
The links above, both to National Museums Liverpool, give some background reading. Our family visited the ship recently on a pre-booked tour; you can't just walk onto this ship that is in dry dock next to Merseyside Maritime Museum and near the Museum of Liverpool. In it's new temporary guise as a wartime Dazzle ship, or at least one artists interpretation of a Dazzle Ship, it is now very striking indeed! Just compare the before and after paint jobs on the two links above. Here is a link to my Flickr page where there more pictures of the ...
Neath Liberal Democrats have selected Clare Bentley as their prospective candidate for the UK general election in May 2015. Clare is an administrator, who will shortly be moving from Swansea to Coed Darcy.
This afternoon, with the full support of all the main parties in the Welsh Assembly, the House of Lords will debate cross-party amendments to the Wales Bill, designed to radically improve voter engagement in Wales. The UK Government will instruct Coalition Peers to vote against them. How can we arrive at such a situation? There is a crisis of democracy in Wales which the UK Government and The Electoral Commission have stubbornly, and repeatedly, refused to acknowledge. Despite the sterling efforts of some Electoral Registration Officers (EROs), only 51% of our youngest citizens are registered to vote. And, in 2011, ...
I was shocked to read the Southwark Council report about the Labour Councillors discretionary spending choices this year. He plans to spend £30,000 on surveys about reopening Camberwell Station. Camberwell Station was closed along with Walworth Road and Borough Road stations during WWI. BUT they were doomed with the coming of the tram network which skimmed sufficient custom to ensure these stations were uneconomic. When the trams closed in the early 1950′s actual construction work had started to extend the Bakerloo line to Camberwell. But it soon stopped leaving a public transport void. So choosing now, while purporting to campaign ...
Tue 11th
14:54
LibLink: Julian Huppert: Politicians can't afford to look tough any more. We need to embrace drugs r...
Writing in the Independent, Julian Huppert makes the case for drugs reform in the wake of the Parliamentary debate brought by he and Caroline Lucas. They were debating the Home Office report instigated by Liberal Democrat ministers which provided evidence that the prohibitionist approach simply doesn't work. Unsurprisingly, the Tories did everything they could to suppress it. Julian writes about the debate and the Liberal Democrat perspective: My party, the Liberal Democrats, having been pushing for reform for a long time – as have a small handful of others, such as the veteran Labour MP Paul Flynn. We want to ...
So today out of curiosity I decided to take the Humanmetrics Jung Typology Test that was laid out by Carl G. Jung's theory of psychological types. It came out that I was a type INTJ personality. So I toddled off to read up all about it and boy, you know what, it isn't inaccurate in many, many ways. An introduction to this personality type is below: It's lonely at the top, and being one of the rarest and most strategically capable personality types, INTJs know this all too well. INTJs form just two percent of the population, and women of ...
Opposition to the extension of the M4 around Newport remains very strong within the Welsh Assembly, so much so that it is unlikely that the Labour Government would be able to get a majority to approve the £1 billion scheme. Plaid Cymru feel so strongly about it that they pulled out of the budget negotiations with the Welsh Government leaving a clear field for the Welsh Lib Dems to get a much better deal for children and young people. Plaid Cymru must be feeling fairly embarrassed this morning therefore as a result of this story on the BBC. The BBC ...
I was delighted that Simon Hughes MP and the charity Sustrans announced an architectural competition for the new pedestrian and cycling bridge connecting Rotherhithe with Canary Wharf. I was first involved proposing this in 1996 when heavily volunteering with Southwark Cyclists. For several years we made this bridge a key request from the group. But the Olympics got in the way, then a focus on rides for novice cyclists and then the 2008 great recession. But behind the scenes Simon Hughes has started to make this happen. Why? Apart from being a direct link for people walking and cycling it ...
The Pocket Places people are going to be in St Mary's Road planting some bulbs on the bit of empty ground by James Street. They'll be there this Friday (14th) between 10 and 2 and would welcome any company or help.
[IMG: RosieCowRoastFloodBlog] This week, Liberal Democrat Flooding Minister, Dan Rogerson gave a keynote speech to the East of England LGA. "Last winter saw record levels of rainfall and the stormiest period we have experienced for at least 20 years. "Record river flows, sea levels, wave heights and groundwater levels were recorded in many locations across the country. "This led to the flooding of around 8,300 properties nationally and caused damage and disruption to businesses, infrastructure, transport and utilities. My sympathies go to all those who were affected. "Many organisations were involved in responding to the exceptional weather, including Government and ...
I've been reflecting on some recent decisions within the Liberal Democrats internal procedures and trying to unpick them from a perspective of "how did we end up here?" Take the Regional Parties Committee decision on disciplinary matters. Putting aside whether you think it was the correct decision or not, it's very difficult to understand who is on the Regional Parties Committee, what it's remit is, how powers are devolved to it and how decision-making is done. At best it looks muddled, at worst it looks murky. If you don't like any of those structures within the party, and wish to ...
Tue 11th
12:55New report highlights need for action against homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying.
If I saw a transgender person, I'd kill them. That happened. A young transgender person heard that fall casually from the lips of a classmate one day in class. The classmate didn't know they were talking about someone not three feet away from them, but that's not the point. Even though my young acquaintance knew that they weren't in the wrong, it was still a huge dent to their confidence. A blatant attack on your right to exist is never going to be easy to deal with. All school pupils, staff and parents should know that homophobic, transphobic or biphobic ...
Independent seat, resignation Candidates TBC
Tue 11th
11:56
Sandgate Library Closure and Change of Venue of November Sandgate Parish Council Meeting
Due to further ingress of water through the ceiling, Sandgate Library is temporarily closed again. We hope that this matter will be resolved speedily. When it is known the date the Library will re-open, I will inform you. Regarding tonight's main Sandgate Parish Council meeting, the venue will be Reading Room, upstairs at the Old Fire Station (next the the Provindence Inn). It will commence as usual at 7pm. Published and promoted by Tim Prater, 98a Sandgate High Street, Folkestone, CT20 3BYPrinted (hosted) by Prater Raines Ltd, 98 Sandgate High Street, Folkestone CT20 3BY
St Austell and Newquay Liberal Democrat MP Stephen Gilbert will introduce a Ten Minute Rule Bill into the House of Commons today, Armistice Day. He seeks to shame the Government into awarding a National Defence Medal to all veterans of the Armed Forces who served for more than two years whether they saw armed conflict or not. He talked to the Sunday Telegraph about why he thinks this is important: Stephen Gilbert, the MP for St Austell and Newquay, told The Sunday Telegraph: "I am presenting it in Parliament on Armistice Day and as much as anything I want to ...
Tue 11th
11:17
The big problem for the main parties is that big tents are quickly becoming a thing of the past
[IMG: tent] One of the interesting aspects of the faceless "rebellion" against Ed Miliband's leadership of the Labour Party this past week or so has been that the whole thing stands as the ultimate rebuff of the "35% strategy". Proof that the idea Labour can sit back, do and say as little as possible during this parliament, and hope the centre holds is a nonsense. Or not the centre, dependent on your politics. Tony Blair had his own big tent strategy, in many respects the opposite one to Miliband's. Labour has a core vote that can be taken for granted, ...
[IMG: Remembrance] We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved, and now we lie In Flanders fields. from "In Flanders fields" by John McCrae, 1915.
Notice from the county council TEMPORARY CLOSING OF various roads in St Albans during the 'st albans christmas mini festival', NOTICE is given that the Hertfordshire County Council intend to make an Order under Section 16(A) of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984, to prohibit all traffic from using the following lengths of roads:- that [...]
[IMG: rally kirsty williams 1] What happens when Parliamentarians misbehave? Not a lot unless they are sent to prison for over a year, apparently. The clamour for a right of recall, to make errant parliamentarians face their electorate if found to have been involved in serious wrongdoing, has been growing since the MPs' expenses scandal five years ago. Last year the case of Bill Walker, the MSP convicted of violent assaults on three wives, showed why such a law was necessary. Now Welsh Liberal Democrat leader Kirsty Williams has called for a right of recall for AMs. WalesOnline has the ...
The Chipping Sodbury Community Speedwatch team are seeking further members to assist their activities on Kennedy Way and Cotswold Road. This would boost their ability to monitor speeds now that the statutory limit has dropped to 40mph (but is still often being ignored). Speedwatch training by the Police is a very simple operation. If you're interested, please phone the local organiser John Pearce on 01454 778418.
Tue 11th
09:55
A great way of boosting WiFi networks at home (or in other buildings): BT Wi-Fi Home Hotspot 500 Kit
[IMG: BT WiFi Home Hotspot] When I first heard that there were devices you can plug into your power sockets which boost a WiFi network by sending the signals via your electricity mains, I was a bit sceptical. It sounded all rather too much like woo woo rather than real technology. But my scepticism was misplaced. The science is solid and the practical impact impressive and reliable. You plug one unit in near your router and connect it up to that with an ethernet cable. You then plug in the other unit wherever your WiFi signal is weak and, bingo, ...
Yesterday's debate demonstrated the relatively counterintuitive nature of parliamentary procedure. We had the movement of the "previous question". This did happen in the last parliament. Once. It wasn't very clever to do this as it merely had the effect of truncating debate. If it gets moved too often we will find that the rules are changed to prevent this. The most important point is that
Because taking the piss or of the Daily Fail is a national pastime (tags: ) CBI conference: Increase free childcare, business leaders urge - BBC News (tags: ) On So Called Plus Sized Models (tags: ) Common Mythconceptions - the World's Most Contagious Falsehoods (tags: ) 'An interesting minister': Withering attack on Grayling over charity paranoia (tags: ) Joan Clarke, woman who cracked Enigma with Alan Turing (tags: ) The awkward jigsaw of England's boundaries - this is why we will end up with EVEL :( (tags: ) BPS Research Digest: When we lie to children, are we teaching them ...
The Association were in trouble. Their second album had not done well on the charts, and the two singles from it, Pandora's Golden Heebie-Jeebies and No Fair At All, had not repeated the success of Cherish or Along Comes Mary. To make matters worse, Jules Alexander had left the band to go to India to [...]
I see that Boris Johnson has said, on his monthly AskBoris slot on Twitter, that the animal he would most like to be is a walrus, a notion that he and I share. Apparently, Boris likes it that they lie on rocks and belch. This is, of course, true. Personally, I prefer their winning smile, their magnificent tusks and their charming ability to regurgitate fish. Walruses are also rather well-padded, somewhat ungainly out of water and possess magnificent whiskers. Ah well, Boris, two out of three ain't bad...
The Independent on Sunday headline on 9 November suggested that Jewish donors were deserting Labour because Miliband and Alexander have been so forthright in their criticism of Israel over the Gaza invasion this summer and their strong support for recognition of the state of Palestine. A day earlier Jewish News published the results of a poll carried out within the Jewish Community. The headline was that Jewish voters were 30% less likely to vote Labour because of its leadership's stance. What was much more interesting was that 19% say they would vote Labour compared with 15% who actually voted Labour ...
Yesterday, I also had the pleasure of touring the Harris Academy site with the Project Manager of Robertson Construction Tayside. Progress on-site is very impressive and the project is well on track. Here are some photographs of the building progress : New school frontage is starting to take shape Internal walls and corridors beginning to take shape The south of the building - the building design will ensure maximum exposure to the great views to the Tay Structure looking west
Last week I signed up to a new deal for Greater Manchester, giving us control of nearly £2 billion currently spent down in Whitehall, along with new powers to improve transport, skills, business, housing, planning and more. As part of that, we're getting a mayor for Greater Manchester – appointed at first (since they need to change the law to allow an election), then elected from 2017. But we're not getting another Boris. Our mayor is Made in Greater Manchester – not a single person with all the power, sitting above the councils but the leader of the Combined Authority, ...
Janet and I are just back from a great - but all too short - holiday and, as per tradition, I bore you with a few photographs below! I was back in time to cover my ward surgeries yesterday at the West Park Centre and the Mitchell Street Centre. Many thanks to colleagues who covered my surgeries when I was away. Please note that there is no weekly surgery this Thursday at Blackness Primary School as the school is closed due to it being an in-service day. I also attended last night's City Council committee meetings at which I queried ...
[IMG: Liberal Democrat HQ - Great George Street - preamble to party constitution] Here are the candidate manifestos for the 2014 Liberal Democrat federal committee elections: Download this file Download this file Download this file Download this file Download this file
Liberal Democrat Care and Support Minister, Norman Lamb [IMG: normanlamb] has announced that £1.2m will be invested in projects to support adults with autism. 42 pioneering projects across the country will benefit from their share of the funding, as part of the government's drive to improve care for people with autism. The schemes will test new ways of supporting people with autism including crisis prevention work and employment help. The projects will then be evaluated next summer. Liberal Democrat Care Minister Norman Lamb said: "I am delighted that we have been able to contribute funding for the excellent work that ...
This week, Mariana Mazzucato will give the inaugural New Statesman/SPERI prize lecture for political economy. Her 2013 book, The Entrepreneurial State, has provoked widespread debate about the role of government in innovation. But do her arguments stack up as a guide to policy? Nestas Stian Westlake has some doubts. Its rare for a book about innovation policy to break out of the technocratic ghetto and make it into the political mainstream. It happens perhaps once every decade. Michael Porters Competitive Advantage of Nations (1990) sold the world on clusters. Richard Floridas Rise of the Creative Class (2002) launched a thousand ...
The Lib Dem team attended the local Remembrance Sunday services to pay our respects and lay wreaths, and in both Cheadle and Gatley we were very heartened to see so many people attending such well-run events. [IMG: remembrance day] We would like to thank everyone involved in organising the services, all who took part and every person to took the time out to come along and pay their respects to those who died in wars so we could live in peace.
[IMG: Iain Roberts at the M60 J3 slip road] The Kingsway/Gatley Road junction is probably the biggest single issue in Cheadle & Gatley – it's the one people mention most often on the doorstep when we call round. We'd love to have an easy fix! If we could find a way to get a right filter, or improve the whole junction, that would work then we'd have done it years ago. Unfortunately, it's turned out not to be that easy. We know a right-filter isn't on the cards – even a few seconds would make other queues a good deal ...
Martin Mogridge was a transport economist. He was originally a physicist who wore long hair and leather trousers, and a cultivated air of exoticism. His interests included science fiction and Victorian eroticism, and just before his untimely death in 1999 at the age of only 59, he began studying Hebrew. Over the previous three decades, while the major cities of the world enthusiastically demolished their slums and built massive urban highways, transport experts had been puzzling over the phenomenon of how new roads - even widened roads - seemed to increase traffic. Economists had noticed that, if there is more ...
