The awe with which the London rugby union press regards Danny Cipriani has long puzzled me. Today's example comes from Richard Williams in the Guardian: The perception here is that Cipriani has what it would take to bring Twickenham to its feet next month, particularly in a squad that looks not so much undercooked as still in the freezer. Now he won't get the chance. No head coach has made a more soul-deadening decision since Clive Woodward kept Gavin Henson out of his Lions side for the first Test in New Zealand a decade ago.England do have a tendency to ...
Earlier today, a court in Egypt sentenced three journalists from Al Jazeera TV to three years in prison on the trumped-up charges of aiding a terrorist organisation (the Muslim Brotherhood) and producing false news in order to defame the name of the country. But it is this verdict which has sullied Egypt's reputation. It is [...]
The CIPD reports that more than half our graduates are working in non graduate jobs. Employers are beginning to use a high qualification bar for recruitment in order to sift applicants more cost effectively; and recruits are finding that they have skills which are not being used. (The report makes a genuflection in the direction of general under use of skills, but needs to make more of the fact that many non graduate employees are not being stretched to their full capacity either - and never have been.) Reporting of this report is varied. The Guardian says, "Britain's failure to ...
Sat 29th
15:56
Walter James, last surviving Liberal Party candidate from the 1945 General Election, dies aged 103
The Times (£) has reported the death of Walter James, who was the Liberal Party candidate for Bury in the 1945 General Election. As such, he is thought to be the last Liberal candidate from 1945 to pass on, leaving, it is believed, just two candidates surviving from that election, both of them from the Labour party: Denis Healey and Jeremy Hutchinson, now Baron Hutchinson of Lullington. A journalist, Walter James was on the editorial staff of the Guardian in Manchester from 1937 until 1946. He was a highly distinguished editor of The Times Educational Supplement from 1952 to 1969, ...
Three weeks away from home, without the never-ending cheerfulness that is the British media, has ended, and a conveniently timed Bank Holiday weekend allows me to catch up on all of those things that pile up in one's absence. E-mail, post, laundry and party-related tasks, for example. So, I've written a report to my Local Party's Executive Committee for the upcoming meeting in my capacity as Treasurer (we have money - I'm terribly excited!), ordered some books of tickets for the Liberal Democrat Christmas Draw (I won two years ago, so it was well worth it), opened up a bunch ...
I've been away on holiday for the past couple of weeks so have only a vague impression as to what's been going on, but here are a few things I've noticed: The Labour Leadership Contest Jeremy Corbyn has announced that, if he is elected "Labour will apologise for the Iraq War." I think this is a mistake. These "apologies" (for slavery, for the misdeeds of empires etc) are largely cosmetic PR stunts. Corbyn should be above gesture politics. His opposition to the war, at the time and since, is well known, and there is no need to antagonise those Labour ...
The following are the meetings scheduled for September Unless stated otherwise, meetings start at 6:30 pm at Arms Evertyne House Tuesday 1st September Staff Committee * * This will be predominantly a Part II meeting, Thursday 3rd September Finance Committee Tuesday 8th September Planning and Development Committee Thursday 10th September Events Committee Thursday 17th September Full Council Thursday 24th September Planning and Development Committee Tuesday 29th September Events Committee As ever, these are subject to change
A grim but very effectively told tale, of being an ethnic minority (in this case, German speakers) in a totalitarian Nationalist state (in this case, Ceaușescu's Ronmania) told in a bleak style of low-level horror. Our unnamed protagonist sees one close friend driven to suicide, and tries to form a nucleus of friendship with some other ethnic Germans in their regional capital, where they are kept under constant intrusive surveillance by the Securitate. Very vivid and ends unhappily. This book won the 1998 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and helped its writer win the 2009 Novel Prize for Literature.
More comedy genius from Australia's Clarke and Dawe:
Just to let people know what's going on. I now have ten days off work. I intend to use four of them — Monday through Thursday next week — to get the final touches done to the book, after taking a couple of days' break from everything today and tomorrow. With luck, I'll get the [...]
I am rather embarrassed when I see members of my own gender rushing into comments threads about women's rights/safety with "This is sexist against men"/"What about men/everybody"-type comments. A) It's boring. B) It's embarrassing. Do they not realise how stupid they look? Men have enormous privileges in life. So much so that we walk tall through life without actually realising how privileged we are as a gender. Is it not appropriate that we occasionally shut the hell up and listen to the experiences of others who do not have such a privileged lot in life (generally)? There has been a ...
I am rather embarrassed when I see members of my own gender rushing into comments threads about women's rights/safety with "This is sexist against men"/"What about men/everybody"-type comments. A) It's boring. B) It's embarrassing. Do they not realise how stupid they look? Men have enormous privileges in life. So much so that we walk tall through life without actually realising how privileged we are as a gender. Is it not appropriate that we occasionally shut the hell up and listen to the experiences of others who do not have such a privileged lot in life (generally)? There has been a ...
Sat 29th
10:25
Apply now to help make party policy on social security, privacy and security, and sex work
[IMG: Security sign on a computer - CC0 Public Domain] This email went out to party members yesterday: The Federal Policy Committee is setting up a number of policy working groups designed to develop our Party's policies for the 2015-2020 Parliament. The Committee would like to invite any member to apply for the following groups: Social security - The group will look at what effects changes to the welfare state announced by the Conservative Government are likely to have, including on poverty and inequality. It will consider what a Liberal Democrat vision for social security policy should be. Security and ...
BBC News wins Headline of the Day.
Over £900 million is being invested in Stockport Borough, and as part of that, Iain launched Stockport's very own pop-up park in Mersey Square. [IMG: Big deckchair, or very small councillor?] Big deckchair, or very small councillor? Over the next five years, the ambitious programme of projects will include: Redrock Stockport, a new cinema, cafes and restaurants; Stockport Exchange, a new office quarter by the station; Stockport Interchange, creating a new bus station; new homes at Covent Garden Village, rejuvenation of the Market Place and Underbanks; and major improvements to the ways people get into and around the town centre, ...
My survey of bloggers called two out of four fiction categories correctly, the No Awards for Best Novella aand Best Short Story, with two near misses; The Three-Body Problem was essentially level-pegging with The Goblin Emperor in my survey, as in real life, and No Award, which was the winner in my survey, actually got most first preference votes in the count though was overtaken on transfers by the winner. (Actually my first survey at the start of July had Three-Body Problem ahead, and No Award with less of a lead in the Novelette category. I have sometimes found in ...
Has the penny finally dropped for senior Labour MPs? It certainly looks that way with Yvette Cooper admitting that the previous Labour government did not do enough to keep the state's surveillance powers in check. The Guardian says that the shadow home secretary has criticised the governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown for being "too reluctant to introduce checks and balances as strong as new terrorism powers". She added that Both the Labour and Conservative parties also ignored the inadequacy of laws governing interception of communications, the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (Ripa), for too long. Cooper told the ...
I didn't actually get to see a news bulletin until 10pm last night and when I did, I was livid. Language matters. The 59 men, 8 women and 4 children who suffocated in that lorry were human beings and yet they were being described as "migrants" not people. Had those people been British, there would have been wall to wall news coverage of the tragedy for days. Already it's slipping down the pecking order in the news bulletins along with the news of the drowning of another 200 people in the Mediterranean. Calling these people "migrants" is both inaccurate and ...
The BBC has the story on its web site – see link above
An excellent talk from my former Blue Rubicon colleague Craig Elder on how digital campaigning helped the Conservatives win in May 2015:
The Southport Visiter has the story – see link above So Labour MP Bill Esterson seems again to be at odds with his fellow Labour Councillors who run Sefton Council; there is a pattern developing here! Library closures – Bill opposed them but his Labour councillors ignored him and closed them. Building on the Green Belt and high grade agricultural land – Bill opposed it but his Labour councillors ignored him and voted to build on it. Parking charges in Formby – ? I do wish Bill had been motivated to oppose the Tories Welfare Bill recently, like Lib ...
I recall being at a party organised by one of the main spokespeople for the Yes to AV campaign a couple of months after the referendum had taken place. One guy who was a friend of the host told me that in the end, he'd voted No. The reason he gave was this: "I'd like to see a change in this country. But not change as big as you guys wanted. Not a revolutionary thing like you guys were campaigning for." The reason this moment sticks in my head is simple: it contains within it not only all the reasons ...
The City Council's Housing Committee approved the council's participation in the Mortgage to Rent scheme on 8th June 2015. The council has now provided helpful additional information on how the scheme will operate : Eligibility : To be considered for the Home Owners' Support Fund Scheme owners experiencing mortgage difficulties must have failed to reach agreement on arrears with their lender, obtained independent financial advice from CAB or local authority money advice centre and the value of their home must be no more than maximum levels set for Dundee. For 2015/16 the values are: 1 bedroom - £70,0002 bedroom - ...
College student would be sole voter in sales tax decision When gerrymandering backfires. (tags: uspolitics elections ) The Research Is Clear: Long Hours Backfire for People and for Companies So why do we do it? (tags: lifehacking ) The World Happiness Report 2015 Swiss top, Irish 18th, Belg 19th, UK 21st, Togo last. (tags: politics economics ) One Final Thought on the Hugos The wider context. (tags: sf sadpuppies )
LGBT+ Lib Dems congratulates equality champions among new Liberal Democrat Peers, esp @lfeatherstone The Gospel According to Cat, a Red Dwarf Podfic which I cowrote and recorded James helped me with a couple of the voices. His Scouse was better than mine. When gerrymandering goes wrong, via @nwbrux Thousands have died after being found fit for work, DWP figures show [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
Another discovery via Spotify. This is such a lovely, happy, joyous, relaxed track. Toots and the Maytals and "It must be true love":
Sat 29th
05:47
Conference Countdown 2015: Human Rights motion - we need to be careful not to throw the baby out wit...
As many will know, there is an excellent motion on Human Rights to be debated at the Bournemouth conference. I have set out the motion below this post. I have one query which readers may be to help me with. It pertains to this section of the motion: Conference resolves to: ...C. Retain the Human Rights Act unless it is replaced with a Bill of Rights which incorporates and builds on those rights set out in the ECHR and oppose any attempts by Conservatives to introduce a British Bill of Rights which does not achieve this. Where it says "Retain ...
It was bad enough watching Ed Miliband rather out of his depth as leader of the Labour party. He seemed to sit back in his study quite a lot, talking with his inner circle. He did quite well at PMQs sometimes. But you got the impression that he wasn't really fully in charge. This was made worse by unfortunate (and somewhat irrelevant) incidents such as the bacon sandwich episode. I don't for a moment wish to patronize Labour supporters and members who are supporting Jeremy Corbyn. I also realize that I should be knocking the Tories – not Labour. But ...
Sat 29th
05:44Disgraceful attitude to mental health disguised by the warm words of Iain Duncan-Smith
Listening to Iain Duncan-Smith can be enough to send anyone to sleep. He drones on and one can be lulled into thinking he is being quite reasonable. However, behind his warm words, there is a chilling attitude to disabilities and particularly to mental illness. He seems to be saying: There must be something you can do if you are suffering from depression. And: If we start cutting your benefits, that'll act as a little nudge to push you gently into work. Blimey. What planet does he live on? Having had a little experience of mental illness and those suffering from ...
[IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
