I now have the ideal excuse for not tidying the house for the next six months. Tonight I was selected as prospective Parliamentary candidate for Blaydon. And with the election clock ticking, the battle will be getting underway immediately. Blaydon has no Conservative presence at all. They lost their last council seat here (to us) in 1988. UKIP have no active campaigning presence other than in
More about Stoicism from All in the Mind.
The ever-popular Chipping Sodbury Victorian Day is on Saturday 5 December, from 2.00 pm until 9.30 pm. And there will be lots of extra parking in the Bowling Hill area, at the Merlin Housing Association and Jelf car parks. It's a really fun, atmospheric event - well worth a visit!
From a New Statesman interview with the comedian by Rob Pollard: Jimmy Carr very kindly got me on 8 Out Of 10 Cats once and they were all making fun of Big Brother, and I said something like: "Isn't it funny how this programme and Big Brother are both made by the same company, Endemol". And it was as if Endemol creates a product which it knows is ridiculous and exploitative, but it also creates a programme which satirises it and it makes money out of both of them. And the people in the audience, started booing - I don't ...
Dawn http://on.fb.me/123PaifQuetta police arrest murderer of six-year-old Hazara girlSyed Ali ShahPublished about 6 hours agoO O [IMG: Photo from Nov 7, 2014 shows the parents of Saher Batool mourning while holding their late daughter's dress in Quetta.—AFP] Photo from Nov 7, 2014 shows the parents of Saher Batool mourning while holding their late daughter's dress in Quetta.—AFP [IMG: Photo from Nov 8, 2014 shows members of the ethnic Shia Hazara community protesting against the killing of Saher Batool in Quetta.—Syed Ali Shah] QUETTA: Police in Quetta claim to have arrested the killer of six-year-old Hazara girl Saher Batool, whose body ...
The issue of equality is certainly high on the political agenda here in Northern Ireland recently. Though scarily it seems that far too many with responsibility for legislation seem not to realise it or understand how to exercise it and show it to all. Last night there may well have been the calmest, non-shouting all party debate on BBC's The View I can recall for some time. But of course as ever there were issues in in and some of them I raised on Twitter and Facebook. Now when three of the panellists are known to you and haven't blocked ...
Yesterday I blogged about Simon Danczuk's naming of Sir Edward Garnier as the former minister who warned him against mentioning the name of Leon Brittan to the Commons home affairs select committee. In the course of an angry response to the Leicester Mercury, Sir Edward appears to have confirmed the truth of what Simon Danczuk said: Sir Edward, one of the country's leading defamation lawyers, and former solicitor general, told the Mercury: "Simon Danczuk's remarks are beneath contempt as he ought to know. "He describes an encounter. It was a conversation. I spoke to him and he knows why. "Anyone ...
"Justice for Sahar" - attempted rape and murder of 6-year old Hazara girl Sahar Batool in Quetta, Balochistan, and hundreds of other Shia victims of extremist terrorists across Pakistan
Bridlington Central & Old Town (East Yorkshire): UKIP GAIN from SDP. — Britain Elects (@britainelects) November 27, 2014 This result from a local by-election yesterday sounds impossible. It is explained by the fact that the SDP lingered on in Bridlington long after the party had officially expired. But then there was a Whig councillor elsewhere in Yorkshire until recently.
This year, in addition to the small grants scheme (click here for further details), the G8 grants programme will be focusing on the postal vote. Turnout of supporters who receive literature and are contacted during a campaign exceeds 80%, far higher than the turnout proportion of our polling day Shuttleworth. This underlines the importance of getting known [...]
Nick has visited Sacred Heart primary school in Hastings Old Town with local restaurateur Nick Hales (of St Clement's restaurant) to publicise National School Meals Week. Since September this year 1.8 million infants - defined as pupils in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 - have been entitled to a free hot meal at lunchtime. [...]
[IMG: hate] As part of my long-running scheme to become insanely rich while doing as little work as possible, I had another brilliant idea that will surely make me loads of money if someone else is willing to do all the work and then pay me for the inspiration. Watching the usual Thursday night flurry of indignant commentary on Twitter's #bbqt hashtag, it occurred to me that there exists a large group of people (sometimes including me) who appear to only watch some things on TV in order to mock it and argue about it on Twitter. There's very little ...
David Laws spoke on Thursday (27th), the focus of which was on the need for increased local authority involvement in education. The Guardian has a write-up of the speech here. ALDC members can download the full text of the speech here.
There have been a lot of problems with vehicles parking inconsiderately in these roads, and blocking access for refuse lorries, emergency vehicles and deliveries. Yes, the developers should have thought of that... South Glos Council is consulting on proposed waiting restrictions - in essence, a lot of double yellow lines within the development. The consultation is open until 4 December. You can: Respond to the on-line questionnaireEmail: transportservices@southglos.gov.ukWrite to: FREEPOST RTCT-JXLE-EET, South Gloucestershire Council, Elswick Park waiting restrictions, Design & Operations team, Civic Centre, High Street, Kingswood, BRISTOL, BS15 9TR
The following poem was read to Norman Baker at the annual Lewes Liberal Democrat dinner on Nov 26th 2014. Notes at the end will help with appreciation of the poem's finer points. May and Baker - A Tale of Drugs and Crime at Bonfire TimeIn olden days did May & Baker help the needy sick to take a draught to treat that desperate fear: Bismuth Salt for diarrhoea! Chloroform & Anaesthetic, Calomel (a diuretic), drugs for all by M & B, made in perfect harmony. But now - a sorry tale to tell- 'twixt M & B all is not ...
[IMG: Anthony Price. Photo Copyright © 2011 Rachel Day. - via Author Anthony Price. At first glance, the names of the three authors Eugene Burdick, FWS Craig and Anthony Price have very little in common, save that none of them are well known today. At second glance too they have little in common for their writing – American political thrillers, compilation of electoral facts and British espionage novels – were not all in the same field. So other than all featuring in multiple places on my bookshelves at home, what brings the three of them together? It's the way ...
The FA Cup 2nd round match between the minnows of Hartlepool United and the mighty Blyth Spartans [/irony] will be shown live on BBC2 next Friday (5th December) A possible tie with a Premiership giant ( snigger ) awaits the winners The programme starts at 7:30 with kick off being 7:55
December is always a quiet month for meetings, and this year is no exception. I only know of three meetings that are scheduled:- Assets Committee, Tuesday December 2nd Planning & Development Committee, Thursday December 4th ( although it may have been re-arranged to December 11th ; the BTC website still has it listed as 4th December ) Events Committee, Tuesday December 9th All meetings are scheduled for a 6:30 start, at Arms Evertyne House
[IMG: David Cameron - head in hands] If Mr Cameron becomes Prime Minister again after May, he is likely to be the Prime Minister who will lead the UK out of the European Union. From time to time Mr Cameron has expressed enthusiasm for Britain being at the heart of the EU. In his Bloomberg speech in January last year, he declared: "I believe something very deeply, that Britain's national interest is best served in a flexible, adaptable and open European Union and that such a Union is best with Britain in it....There is no doubt that we are more ...
There will be a Christmas Event at Abbotswood this Saturday (29 Novermber) from 4.30 pm onwards. The Christmas Tree will be switched on, Father Christmas will appear, and a choir from Abbotswood Primary School will be performing. This event is largely being organised by Jacobs Well along with a working group from the Abbotswood Action Group. Donations of a tree plus lights have been made by local residents and the group has funded the installation of an electricity point for use on occasions such as this. Dodington Parish Council has awarded grants towards the event along with a very generous ...
Why the prophet of a more compassionate Christianity leaves me feeling decidedly uncharitable. Rob Bell is a guy I really ought to be more impressed by than I am. He's pretty much single-handedly made it respectable for evangelicals to believe in universal salvation, an idea which is central to my understanding of Christianity. Yet I've [...]
Fri 28th
15:07
Meet the Czech migrants who wouldn't qualify for in-work benefits under Cameron's plans
These Czechs "worked" in the #UK for less than four years. No benefits for them? #CameronOnMigration pic.twitter.com/hBAW4b0Xwd — Tomas Prouza (@CZSecStateEU) November 28, 2014
.@MMT39 MEPs get around same as MPs (£60k). It's not always justified, here's UKIP hard at work this week! #AskAnMEP pic.twitter.com/Q1vE0St2Ii — Catherine Bearder (@catherinemep) November 28, 2014
Have you seen the scenes of chaos and near riots in department stores today as crowds battle for special offers? Awful! This is not a good advert for consumerism. Thank goodness I abandoned commercial consumerism 5 years ago when I gave up paid work in favour of becoming self-sufficient. So, today, instead of fighting my way with debit card to the tills and elbowing my way back to the shopping
[IMG: Vince Cable and Father Christmas] The Liberal Democrat Christmas Draw is a much-loved and lucrative fund-raising institution for the party. From their organising nexus in Surrey, the Christmas Draw elves work hard all year to round up great prizes and send out ticket books by the sleigh load. The top prize this year is a holiday voucher for £2000! There are 39 other wonderful prizes, such as half a case of champagne, which the elves will endeavour to get to winners before Christmas. No less a stellar Lib Dem cabinet minister than our much-loved Vince Cable will be drawing ...
Fri 28th
13:17
Why focusing on benefit tourism will actually reduce public faith in the immigration system
Left Foot Forward has an insightful review of David Cameron's speech on migration. It highlights that many of the proposed measures such as stopping people claiming child benefits for children living outside the UK. But there's a fundamental mismatch between the limited scale of benefit tourism and what Cameron claims to be able to achieve by tackling [...]
On Carers Rights Day more needs to be done to support the 8302 carers in South Manchester who are the unsung heroes of the system. New research by Carers UK shows there are 2720 people who begin caring annually in South Manchester. Carers save the state tens of billions of pounds a year and the Liberal Democrats have created a package of measures to support carers as part of our pre-manifesto. The package includes raising the amount carers can earn before losing their allowance. It also contains measures for more flexible working hours, support in returning to the jobs market ...
I'm not surprised by the attitudes and actions of Labour party toffs, the apparent contempt for working people exposed by the "White van man" tweet of demised shadow attorney general Emily Thornberry or leader Ed Milliband's inability to eat a sandwich as in the now famous "sandwich photos" in which he looks like a man being forced to eat raw kangaroo testicles. Leaders of labour are remote and clearly out of tune with working people who as we all know generally only come out of at the election time. I was emailed, earlier in the week by former local councillor ...
I was recently invited to attend a coffee morning of residents who own flats in this development in Maghull Town Centre together with Labour Councillor Steve Kermode. The residents had a number of issues they wanted Steve and I to address not least the state of the road surface outside of their homes i.e. Stafford Moreton Way. Here is a photo I took whilst reviewing this matter with Steve and the House Manager of Beechcroft. [IMG: rsz_stafford_moreton_way_3] The road surface is very uneven and this leads to the ponding of water which it this time of year can lead to ...
The problem with elected Mayors, Commissioners etc. is that they turn the job into a personality contest. That is particularly the case with the London Mayor and that trend does not look like changing with all the parties seeking big personalities to represent them at the next election for that role. In that regard this Times story that Jeremy Paxman was asked to see David Cameron about becoming the Tory candidate for mayor of London is not really surprising. Nor is Paxman's response: However, the former Newsnight anchorman said in response to the story in today's Times that he had ...
This year the G8* grants scheme is aimed solely at smaller local parties and groups of campaigners to help get their campaign up and running or to help it grow. G8 is also being used to subsidise postal voter recruitment mailings (more details shortly) and attendance at the Kickstart residential training weekends, both of which [...]
#174604225 / gettyimages.com Melding 21st and 15th century technologies by collecting up blog posts in book form rarely ends in great triumph (including, ahem, this). [IMG: Omirambles by Damian McBride - book cover] Collections of newspaper columns from a particular pundit often used to make for moderately successful books, but that was back in the days when, aside from the dedicated archives user, newspaper columns pretty much disappeared the day after they appeared. With blog posts hanging around online for repeated reading months if not years after their appearance, why pay money for a book version of them? Disgraced Labour ...
Washington DC based think tank, The Marshall Fund, which promotes understanding between North America and Europe, has produced a new research paper: "The Unstoppable Far Right?" that looks at UKIP in Britain and similar parties in Germany (Afd) and the Netherlands (PVV). The paper compares "euro-sceptical right-populist" parties in these countries and concludes that what mainstream political parties say and do has a big impact on whether people vote for these parties. The "rise" of these parties is by no means inevitable: the PVV went significantly backwards at the 2014 European elections. Two components of these parties appeal are identified: ...
Ros does not lodge many amendments to legislation as it makes its way through the Lords but, last Tuesday in Grand Committee, the Deregulation Bill offered her an opportunity to introduce a change which would be cheap and popular... Amendment 87B 87B: After Clause 78, insert the following new Clause— "Births, marriages and death registration: historical searches (none) After section 34 of the Births and Deaths Registration Act 1953, insert— "34A Historical searches (1) The Registrar General may provide a copy of an historical record held by him, which need not be a certified copy, to any person who makes ...
This is a post that I've been meaning to write for quite a while, but was reminded when Caron Lindsay posted a link to this piece on Facebook. In it, we hear that Deputy Leader of the Conservatives in Scotland referred to our Leader as 'little Willie Rennie'. GEDDIT?! It's a dick joke! I always think; no better way to serve your constituents and the party you're proud of than standing up on a national platform and making penis jokes, right? Right. Well, it's not the first time this kind of thing has happened, and it's not the first time ...
Fri 28th
09:43
Republicans consider not inviting President Obama to give the state of the union speech
#465686033 / gettyimages.com This is a laugh. Because they control congress, the US Republicans actually invite the President to give the state of the union address. That's the keynote speech of the President each year. But, in a remarkable act of anally retentive insanity, the Republicans are actually seriously considering not inviting President Obama to give the speech this year. As Taegan Goddard wryly observes: Perhaps Republicans could have Mitt Romney give the speech and pretend Barack Obama isn't even president.
[IMG: Nigel Farage with Thatcher mug] At 2:02 PM this Tuesday just gone, UKIP's South Thanet branch tweeted: "Perfect place to hold vote in front of a mosque in London. The BBC's random means selective". This was in response to the Daily Politics having conducted a survey as to whether or not Nigel Farage would make a good Prime Minister. They had staged this little event outside of Westminster Cathedral, a place of Catholic worship. So not a mosque, really, at all, despite the confusion from South Thanet's UKIPiest. This communiqué begged a fair few questions. Such as, who cares ...
Here's some of the articles that have caught my attention this week... The immigration speech David Cameron should be giving | Jonathan Portes | Comment is free | The Guardian The immigration speech Jonathan Portes would write for David Cameron http://bit.ly/1HJEEg7 (It's v good tho wd only really work if JP = PM) Do the media fear their grip on mass communications is failing? | LabourList This from Labour MP Jon Trickett is actually pretty funny. Not sure intentionally so, but never mind. http://bit.ly/15ydB8Y John Lewis' 2014 Christmas ad campaign is the full Monty This is why John Lewis invests ...
In which Andrew Hickey is right. Again. This time about immigration. (tags: ) Ok, I really want the UKIP cookbook (tags: ) Happy Hogswatch: Good Omens to be on Radio 4 over Christmas Now with clips :) (tags: ) Grauniad round up of #ThingsThatAreNotMosques (tags: ) Single parents forced to cut food spending as welfare punishments bite (tags: ) A More Accurate History of Clothing Colour and Gender In The West (tags: ) If the LDs hold on to as many seats as the latest polling suggests then Clegg should thank NO2AV OfC LDs with sense knew we would probably ...
Tim Farron writing at politics.co.uk is calling for 300,000 homes a year to be built to end the housing crisis in contrast to some of the less ambitious policies around. The key issue in housing isn't that first-time buyers can't get on the ladder, nor that rents are too high. 'Help to Buy' isn't the cure-all to our ills and whilst a rent cap might help renters in the short run, in the long run it will only disappoint. The politicians who propose these short-term measures will also disappoint, unless they have a more thorough approach. Unless we aim to ...
Time2Give, the West End's Timebank, has recently published its Autumn Newsletter - you can download it here. And don't forget next Monday's Time2Give Social Event as part of West End Christmas Fortnight :
[IMG: keep clear gatley road] Residents asked the Lib Dem team to get a Keep Clear box painted at the junction of Church Road and Gatley Road in Gatley so we were very pleased to see this week that the lines have been painted. The new Keep Clear markings will help people turning out from Church Road to get onto Gatley Road safely.
On Thursday evening Stockport became the first of the ten Greater Manchester councils to fully debate Devo Manc. It was a good debate with lots of contributions and took a little under two hours. The overwhelming view across all the political parties was in favour of new powers coming down from Westminster and Whitehall with spending to be decided at a Greater Manchester level. The plans would devolve nearly £2 billion of spending including transport, health and social care, housing, business support and a lot more. There was a good debate on the Mayor for Greater Manchester, and on whether ...
Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. 747 party members responded – thank you – and we're publishing the full results. Members back Coalition with Conservatives by 79% to 18% Do you support or oppose the Lib Dems being in the Coalition Government with the Conservatives? (Changes since last time question asked, September 2014). 79% (-1%) – Support 18% (+1%) – Oppose 3% (n/c) – Don't know / No opinion No matter what the travails of the Coalition — ...
It has been worrying over the last couple of years to hear so many concerns and fears about migration into the UK that felt really OTT. This has been used as the main part of the argument against remaining part of the European Union (EU). So how bad is it – migration of EU citizens into the UK? Lib Dem Lord Oakeshott has asked a formal questions about this. British figures indicate 2.3 million EU citizens living in the UK. This figure is pretty reliable because without a National Insurance number people are outside of reciving NHS treatment, being employed ...
The Telegraph recently reported that motorists who allow rubbish to be thrown from their cars could be prosecuted as part of an attempt by ministers to make dropping rubbish as "socially unacceptable as drink driving". The Government is looking at making it easier for councils to fine those who throw litter from cars, cutting down on roadside rubbish which costs millions of pounds to clean up. The plans are part of a push to clean up Britain's streets and achieve a "cultural change" towards littering. This has to be good news as this anti-social habit seems to be on the ...
The Welsh Government to do more to support NHS staff after figures published this week show the sickness absence rate has increased compared to the same time last year. Of the 7 Local Health Boards and 3 NHS Trusts, the Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust had the highest sickness absence rate (7.8 per cent). For the quarter ending June 2014, the sickness absence rate was 5.2 per cent, an increase from 5.1 per cent for the same period in 2013. I cannot claim to be surprised by the fact that ambulance staff have the highest rate of sickness absence. Paramedics ...
