[IMG: IMG_3771] The huge orchestra fills the stage [IMG: IMG_3776] Conductor Phil Shotton Maghull Wind Orchestra, now over 100 strong, played to a sell out crowd of 400 in Southport's Little Theatre tonight and a great concert it was too. What's more around £3,500 was raised from the event in aid of Queenscourt Hospice. Some great pieces were played but my favourite was The Irish Blessing by Joyce Ellers Bacak, arranged by Adam Dutch. What a beautiful piece. I think there were 3 Maghull councillors present i.e. Jen Robertson in the Orchestra playing the flute, me in the audience and ...
When I saw that the Raspberry Pi 2 had been launched earlier on this week, I immediately decided that I had to have one. My original Raspberry Pi had been slowly gathering dust on the study windowsill for a couple of years, largely because my initial enthusiasm for it had waned rather quickly. It was simply too slow and unresponsive for me to be able to do anything very interesting with it. However, my experience so far with the RPi 2 is making me wonder why I bothered to buy a new PC towards the end of last year. For ...
Every year I wrote a blog about the women of Take Me Out. It is a bit of fun that I do because it allows me to write a bit differently from my usual style. I like the show as it is a bit of Saturday night cheese. Tonight whilst watching I saw Jonathan get a blackout. All thirty women turned off their light and he got no date. There was nothing wrong with him at all. He seemed like a nice guy, not unattractive, but yet all the women decided that didn't want him. I planned on writing about ...
So says Sir Christopher Frayling in this short documentary.
My friend and fellow blogger Mark Pack has posted a post talking about his five favourite bridges so I thought I'd do the same. Normally on such a list I would include the Forth Bridge, but as Mark used there are another five. 1. Peace Bridge - Londonderry First up has got to be the Peace Bridge in Derry/Londonderry. Not only for the ascetics of the two sweeps do I select this pedestrian bridge over the River Foyle. But like the Hands Across the Divide statue not far from the western end of this bridge it actually is aiming to ...
Apropos of very little, I have been mossying around on YouTube. A BBC look-back at the studio invasion of the Six O'Clock News in 1988 whetted my apetitite. This video above is the gallery talk-back version of the incident. It shows how the staff did extremely well to keep the bulletin on the air in all the confusion and noise. Quite extraordinary. And Sue Lawley's cool composure is breathtaking. What a star she is! I think I have been a little in love with her since, in the 1960s, she opened the fete at Bude's Ebbingford Manor and said "Would ...
Anne Applebaum has a theory: "The real division in Europe is between what I would call established, integrationist politics and isolationist, nationalist politics." "Standards are also being undermined as top-down management enforcement, driven by (increasingly tainted) benchmark data, crowds out that sense of professional responsibility and autonomy that is at the root of creativity in research as well as teaching." Stop treating universities as if they were a football game, says Peter Scott. Ken Murray looks at the way doctors face death - and it's rather differently from rest of us. Adam Curtis' new film Bitter Lake contains plenty of ...
Sat 7th
19:32
Tory leader accused over "racist, sexist and pornographic" emails quits, faces explusion
The somewhat appropriately named Conservative council group leader in Hinckley and Bosworth, Peter Batty, has resigned from his post after being accused of sending a series of "racist, sexist and pornographic" emails. The local Conservatives are now looking at taking disciplinary action, as the local paper reports: Coun Batty denies sending some of the more extreme emails, sent in a dossier to the Mercury, but admits sending others including jokes about Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg and one with an image of a naked woman. He has apologised for any offence that was caused and resigned the leadership just before ...
Between Monday 9 February and Friday 13 February there will be both an Eastbound carriageway closure of the A14 between junctions 31 -32 and also a Westbound closure between junction 32 -36. These will be carried out overnight between the hours of 8pm and 6am. Clearly signed diversions will be in place during the periods of closure as follows: A14 Eastbound Diversion - M11, A505, A11A428 Eastbound Diversion - A1303, M11, A505, A11A14 Westbound Diversion - A11, A505, M11Two lanes will remain open in each direction throughout the day in order to support the busiest travel times. A traffic management ...
Between Jan the 20th and Feb the 3d, a dwelling burglary took place at The Spinney, Bar Hill. Perpetrator(s) gained entry in the property by forcing rear door to open. Nothing has been discovered as missing. Between Feb the 4th at 1600 and Feb the 5th at 1700hrs, a garage was broken into in Pheasant Rise, Bar Hill. Perpetrator(s) have cut off the lock and taken a number of power tools form the within the garage. On Feb the 6th between 2000 and 2245hrs a dwelling burglary took place in Hillcrest, Bar Hill. Perpetrator(s) have gained entry to the property ...
The Huffington Post wins Headline of the Day.
In my view the Fixed Term Parliament Act of 2011 is by far and away the greatest achievement of the Liberal Democrats in this coalition. I believe it ranks with the Secret Ballot Act of 1872, the extension of the franchise to women on equal terms with men in 1928, and the limitations to the powers of the House of Lords in 1911 and 1928, as a major step in Britain's slow progression to a fairer democracy The situation before 2011, when the existing prime minister could call an election when he (or for one period, she) thought he had ...
The GMB union has named and shamed ten councils in a bid to raise town hall pay. The union wants all councils to pay the Living Wage and four on the 2014 list - Harrow, West Lancashire, Waltham Forest and North East Derbyshire - have now signed up for it. The ten "worst" councils with proportion of jobs paying less than the living wage in 2014 are: West Somerset 42.9%; Harrow 41.1%; Torridge 38.6%; West Lancashire 38.3%; Waltham Forest 38.2%; Breckland 38.0%; West Devon 37.3%; North Norfolk 36.5%; North East Derbyshire 36.3%; and Woking 35.9%. The Daily Mirror covered this ...
Sat 7th
15:30
Gareth Epps to stand for Liberal Democrats against Community Pubs minister at the General Election
[IMG: Gareth Epps] Long standing Liberal Democrat, Glee Club MC, CAMRA member and anti-pubco campaigner Gareth Epps has been selected to fight the seat of Keighley in Yorkshire at May's General Election. Gareth has sought out this seat as the current incumbent is the community pubs minister Kris Hopkins. He highlighted all the reasons why he was, shall we say, dissatisfied with Hopkins' performance in a blog post n November: Mr Hopkins has been given evidence by among others CAMRA locally and nationally that the Article 4 system is not working. The farcical scenes at Wokingham Council where under legal ...
Here are the Liberal Democrat entries in the top 100 political blogs as ranked by Teads (previously Ebuzzing / Wikio). Farewell this month to But what does Richard Kemp think? and Alix Mortimer (The People's Republic of Mortimer) as Neil Monnery and James Baker join the list. 1 (4) Liberal Democrat Voice No change 2 (9) Mark Pack Up 4 3 (29) Stephen Tall Down 4 4 (35) Jennie Rigg Down 6 5 (36) Nick Tyrone Up 1 6 (39) Alex Marsh Down 1 7 (43) Caron Lindsay (Caron's Musings) Up 3 8 (49) Lynne Featherstone MP Up 8 9 ...
Adam Curtis' new film contains plenty of interesting material but is undermined by a compulsion toward epicness. "Increasingly we live in a world where nothing makes any sense, events come and go like waves of a fever, leaving us confused and uncertain. Those in power tell stories to help us make sense of the complexity [...]
[IMG: "I have a very particular set of dietary requirements."] "I have a very particular set of dietary requirements." The Pitch: Following a freak accident on a previous mission, inexplicably Irish-accented CIA agent Brendan McPuncherson must now eat a raw egg, crushed in his own hands, every thirty minutes or he will die a slow and agonising death. Now he's back on the job (and carrying a large amount of eggs in his car) when he discovers some disturbing news. The chief terrorist he thought he killed in his egg-related mission is still alive, and is now planning to kill ...
Six months ago Israel was engaged in action which Nick Clegg described as 'deliberately disproportionate', killing over 2000 Palestinians - many of them women and children - and the lives of 70 Israelis, most of them soldiers. During the war Nick said that nothing would be solved without talking. And now's a good time to remind Israel's PM Benyamin Netanyahu about that, especially given events since then. Like Britain, Israel will have elections, in March. The parties are trying to outdo each other on security. Recently the right-wing foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman said that "A fourth operation in the Gaza ...
Sat 7th
12:25Dear Tories, repetition doesn't make something true. Cutting income tax for lowest paid was a Lib De...
[IMG: lib dem manifesto tax cut] For some time now, the Conservative Party have been taking every opportunity to take credit for raising the tax threshold to £10,500 despite this being one great big fat distortion of the truth. Most recently, Surrey Liberal Democrat councillor was distinctly unamused to find an email from Tory Treasury Minister Priti Patel in her inbox. It said: Fiona, See how much our income tax cuts will save you – try our quick calculator today. The Conservatives believe in cutting taxes. If you're working hard to provide for your family, you should keep more of ...
It didn't take me long to figure out that what I had on my hands was not exactly Brazil, 1970 vintage. "Come on, boys," I said, trying to get into the swing of the whole football captaincy thing and doing an admittedly lame job of it. "If we beat these fuckers we can all go home, yeah?" I'd awoken at around five AM (my room had been supplied with a digital clock radio during my chat with the Mullah as I discovered upon my return. Sadly, we were out of range of any possible station so all I received through ...
Sat 7th
10:55Nick Harvey: 'If you think we are going to spend another five years being shafted (this time) by Lab...
The Liberal Democrat coalition negotiation team leave Cowley Street HQ for the fourth day of discussions with the Conservatives May 10th 2010. Earlier this week we highlighted Nick Harvey MP's report "Beyond the Rose Garden". In it, he recommends a range of changes in arrangements for any future coalition governments. In the wake of his report's publication, Nick has now given an extensive interview with Huffington Post in which he gives some frank and fascinating views on potential outcomes after the May election. It really is a "must-read". Here are some juicy morsels, from the interview, to whet your appetite: ...
Sat 7th
10:46No need to wait until polling day: we'll know in April whether there will be two general elections i...
[IMG: Houses of Parliament. Photo courtesy of http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1260013 - some rights reserved] With talk of hung Parliaments and slim majorities in the air (and filling up social media feeds), there's also speculation about whether there'll be not one, but two general elections as whoever is Prime Minister after May then seeks a snap election and more seats later in the year. Some of the speculation is made by people who appear to have been asleep for the last five years and so missed the introduction of the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011, which took away the ability of a Prime Minister ...
Here's a cheery email I received this week in response to my latest column at Total Politics, 'We Lib Dems are stuck between being ignored and unpopular' — a title which I'd have thought suggested realism but which my correspondent thinks suggests otherwise... (Click on the image to enlarge.) [IMG: total politics comment] Here, for the record, is my reply. I kept it brief... [IMG: total politics comment - reply]
'Revolution devours its children' – sings Gerard, a former servant, now a celebrated citizen amidst a new era during the French revolution. There are no happy endings, apart from death in unity and death for love and ideas. This opera by Umberto Giordano is as fast-paced, feverish and incendiary as the times of the French [...]
Dog one is how politicians wish the public reacted to their speeches. Dog two is the reality. Of course, cats know a thing or two about politics too.
[IMG: last-leg204] The guest list for The Last Leg's episodes is here on Wikipedia. True to my "I heart spreadsheets" mug, I have done a spreadsheet for the guests. Counting repeat guests, in the six series so far of The Last Leg there have been 23 female guests and 47 male guests. I make that a 33% female guest rate. Sorted by female, then male, here are the guests from the programme, including repeat guests, with the series they appeared in on the left. You will notice that there was a higher proportion of female guests in the earlier series: ...
Sat 7th
09:25Baroness Sally Hamwee writes..."Pesky Lib Dem" Lords win crucial civil liberties changes to Counter ...
[IMG: David Pickett photo Scooby Doo gang PEsky LIbDems lego] They call it the heavy lifting, or – less physical, more forensic - using a fine-tooth comb. The second chamber is where detailed and precise scrutiny of legislation occurs. For Bills which raise vital questions about civil liberties, such as the Counter-Terrorism and Security Bill this is all the more important. It was therefore to the surprise of Lib Dems in the Lords that it was, aside from a misplaced attempt to reintroduce the so-called "Snooper's Charter", almost exclusively Lib Dem peers doing the heavy lifting . At one point ...
The Independent reports on the outcome of research by scientists that seems so obvious that I am surprised that they got funding for it. They have 'discovered' that there are two broad reasons why cats crave their own little cardboard castles. They say that the primary reasons are that boxes provide shelter from stress, and that they keep cats warm: According to a study conducted at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, boxes make cats less stressed because they are less likely to be pestered when hiding in them. In this wild these small hiding places would have been a place ...
[IMG: cf hero daniel hannan] Daniel Hannan Conservative MEP for South East England Reason: for his support of localism. Former Labour Lord Chancellor once pithily said of the "West Lothian Question" — Tam Dalyell's famous formulation that it cannot be right for a Scottish MP to be able to vote on England-only matters, but not for an English MP to vote on matters affecting Scotland — that the best way of dealing with was not to ask it. As an answer, though, it takes the pith. David Cameron was, therefore, right to say immediately after the result of the Scottish ...
5 Bad American Habits I Kicked in Finland - fascinating insight into both cultures (tags: ) 30,000 reasons why Mike Hancock may not yet have made up his mind about re-standing as an MP God that's depressing (tags: ) Puntastic eBay shop of the day - Aire Guitars :) (tags: ) Intelligence sharing between UK and USA was unlawful, Tribunal rules (tags: ) Woman landed with £1,200 phone bill after using emojis in text messages It's the final line of that report that makes it LOL (tags: ) Farage forced to abandon Rotherham event amid protests (tags: ) More beards ...
I was delighted to hear that the ARK Globe Academy has won a £5,000 qualifying away in the annual Pupil Premium Awards – WELL DONE. I hope they do really well in the next stage where schools can win £250,000 for showing exemplary leadership in using their Pupil Premium funding. Nick Clegg visit ARK Globe Academy: [IMG: Nick Clegg visit]
[IMG: rsz_liverpools_last_tram] From an original postcard that I purchased recently. Memories of what Liverpool and indeed many other cities lost when they ditched trams in favour of buses. Of course many cities are reversing the trend (not least because of diesel pollution from buses) and rebuilding their tram network – Manchester, Sheffield, Nottingham, Edinburgh etc. Liverpool's attempt to jump on this tram band wagon sadly failed spectacularly of course! A previous posting of mine refers:- The photo is amongst my Flickr shots at:- www.flickr.com/photos/86659476@N07/
I am deeply concerned at the revelation made by Culture Secretary Fiona Hyslop that the Scottish Government had been informed by Dundee City Council as long ago as April 2014 that "the initial estimate of the (V&A) price would not be met" - months before City Councillors were asked in September 2014 to approve BAM Construction Limited as the preferred contractor, without the councillors being told anything about the budget problems. It is nothing short of downright disgraceful that an agenda note was allowed to go forward to the Policy and Resources Committee on 8th September 2014 asking councillors to ...
Congratulations to George Murray, whose Marauding Fullbacks continue to lead the LibDemVoice Fantasy Football League after Week 23, just ahead of Jon Featonby and Sam Bowman. But let's also hear it for two players outside the top 10: William Jones's MyBigFatBlueMOON had the best week's performance, with 93 points. And an honourable mention goes to Nick Davies, whose Wenger's 2nd XI scored 91 points. [IMG: LDV FANTASY FOOTBALL_23] There are 159 players in total and you can still join the league by clicking here.
Congratulations to George Murray, whose Marauding Fullbacks continue to lead the LibDemVoice Fantasy Football League after Week 23, just ahead of Jon Featonby and Sam Bowman. But let's also hear it for two players outside the top 10: William Jones's MyBigFatBlueMOON had the best week's performance, with 93 points. And an honourable mention goes to Nick Davies, whose Wenger's 2nd XI scored 91 points. [IMG: LDV FANTASY FOOTBALL_23] There are 159 players in total and you can still join the league by clicking here. * Stephen was Editor (and Co-Editor) of Liberal Democrat Voice from May 2007 to Jan 2015, ...
'When I was a County Councillor, I was very concerned by the low level of funding for Cambridgeshire schools - until recently the lowest in the country,' says Fiona. Since the 1980s, Cambridgeshire schools have been underfunded. They currently get £600 per pupil per year less than the English average - the lowest in the whole country. Julian Huppert, Lib Dem MP for Cambridge, has made fairer school funding a top priority since being elected in 2010, raising it repeatedly in Parliament, and this year presented a petition to Lib Dem Schools Minister David Laws signed by over 2,000 local ...
A new planning application has been received in Holyrood Ward as below: Application NumbeApplication Number: 58392 Registration Date: 02/02/2015 Location: 42 Ludlow Avenue, Whitefield, Manchester, M45 6TD Proposal: Single storey rear extension Please do not hesitate to get in touch if you require further information or help with this. The details will be on the Council's website here. Tim
A new planning application has been received in Holyrood Ward as below: Application Number: 58368 Registration Date: 20/01/2015 Location: 261 Heywood Old Road, Rochdale, Manchester, M24 4QR Proposal: Two storey/single storey extensions to side and rear: Juliet balcony to rear; 2 no. velux rooflights to side elevation and conversions of loft and garage Please do not hesitate to get in touch if you require further information or help with this. The details will be on the Council's website here. Tim
