[View the story "My naked run down Whitehall for Médecins Sans Frontières" on Storify]
Northumbrian Water have been carrying out renovation work on the Victorian Pipebridge over the Derwent River in Swalwell, which still carries 25 million litres of water a day. I was given access to the bridge recently to film and photograph it. Work is on-going to replace some of the pipe supports and brackets and some reinforcement work is taking place before the painting of the bridge is
Earlier tonight, I participated in a well-attended West End Community Council AGM at the Logie and St John's (Cross) Church Hall in Shaftesbury Terrace. In addition to a useful police update from PC Buchan, one of the local community police officers, there was a very interesting presentation from two representatives from Dundee University Students' Association - Leia Farnan, Deputy President and Omar Mostafa, Vice President of Engagement, who gave an overview of DUSA's many activities including charity work, housing accreditation scheme and work in the community. Andrew McBride was re-elected as Community Council Chair and reminded everyone about the upcoming ...
Last week I found myself discussing – indeed partially defending – economics in the face of somewhat indiscriminate accusations of "neoliberalism". I have no doubt that some economists – while rarely self-defining as "neoliberal" – find themselves in sympathy with the political project that is usually signified by that label. But that is a long way from saying that economics and economists are, by definition, the handmaidens of the currently hegemonic political paradigm. Some of them may serve as useful idiots for the cause. But that is a different matter. During the course of this discussion I argued something along ...
Tory Eurosceptics and UKIP politicians — backed by the more scurrilous parts of Britain's right-wing Press — love to go on about all the EU migrants who live and work in the UK, without acknowledging that an almost equal number of Brits have taken advantage of the single market's freedom of movement to go to [...]
Have you missed Tim Farron's regular #TimTalks videos from his leadership campaign? He did some crackers, on issues such as housing, foreign affairs and rebuilding the party Well, someone has put him in front of a video camera and he's been talking about the key issues in this week's news: Labour, the fiscal mandate and how Osborne's ruse is a trap that has well and truly snookered Corbyn's party, housing and the EU Referendum. He also mentioned the Liberal Democrats' audacious by-election win from the SNP in Aird and Loch Ness. Here it is in full: So what did you ...
Like the appearance of Jimi Hendrix at a 1967 rock festival held at the Tulip Bulb Auction Hall, Spalding, this is a story I wish I could share with Simon Titley, The Wild and the Willing was a 1962 film set at the fictional Kilminster University and filmed in Lincoln. The vice chancellor of the real University of Lincolnshire and Humberside (now the University of Lincoln) once suggested that by today's standards its students "appeared not at all wild, and only slightly willing". He was right. Though it was based on a novel from the Angry Young Men era, those ...
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) around 12 million people have been displaced by the fighting in Syria. Of these over 4 million have fled to surrounding countries and more than 7 1⁄2 million are displaced within Syria itself. With winter approaching stories of hardship and suffering are already on our TVs and newspapers. With winter approaching it can only get worse. Yate Town Council have come together with Yate Parish and Chipping Sodbury Rotary Club to support the initiative of two weeks of funding raising from Friday 16th October to Friday 30th October within the ...
Tue 13th
19:30
Shropshire Council gets its sums wrong on arts grants - they draw in ten times more money than it th...
A row blew up three weeks ago about Shropshire Council's decision to axe funding for arts organisations, venues and festivals through its Revenue Client Grant Scheme. Barely had the ink dried on my blog post, when the council did a partial u-turn and said it would look at the matter again. It turns out that [...]
It is often assumed that Britain acquired its love of tea from India. In fact, it was the other way round. Some stereotypes are true. Brits do indeed love tea. We drink three times as many cups of it as we do coffee. But even our enthusiasm for tea is outweighed by that of the [...]
Following a meeting of the City Council's Planning and Environmental Protection Committee, the decision has been made to grant the creation of an external sports pitch with "...perimeter ball-stop fencing, floodlights (artificial lighting), access and outdoor storage for maintenance equipment and onsite vehicular parking.." on a play field accessed via the Brookside cul-de-sac, off Fulbridge Road. The [...]
Old McDonnell had a farce E-I-E-I-O And in his farce he had a firm policy? E-I-E-I-O With supporting a Tory deficit policy here And a left deficit denial policy there Here a right, there a left Everywhere a shambles Old McDonnell had a farce E-I-E-I-O Old McDonnell had a farce E-I-E-I-O And in his farce he had internal opposition E-I-E-I-O With a deficit of Labour MP's support here And a desperate need to do a u-turn there Here a policy panic, there an about-turn Everywhere a shambles Old McDonnell had a farce E-I-E-I-O Old McDonnell had a farce E-I-E-I-O And ...
This afternoon Stephen Tall ran down Whitehall naked (or very nearly). He is pictured here with an impressively large rosette. He was doing it for charity, and you can still donate to Médecins Sans Frontières (UK) via his JustGiving page. Commendable though his charitable efforts are, there is a little more to it than that. Appearing on the Daily Politics in 2013, Stephen announced airily that he would "run naked down Whitehall" if the Liberal Democrats won as few as 24 seats at the general election. As it turned out, we won a lot fewer than that. The Daily Politics ...
[IMG: Fiscal Charter] Tomorrow Parliament debates the Fiscal Charter, this debate being a political wheeze designed to test and expose Labour's position on public borrowing, that appears to be working beyond George Osborne's wildest reasonable expectations. The charter demands 3.2 In normal times, once a headline surplus has been achieved, the Treasury's mandate for fiscal policy is: a target for a surplus on public sector net borrowing in each subsequent year. 3.3 For the period outside normal times from 2015-16, the Treasury's mandate for fiscal policy is: a target for a surplus on public sector net borrowing by the end ...
Back in the news again recently has been Japan's plans to have driverless cars providing a taxi service at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Plans which are progressing well so far: Dozens of people in Japan will be whisked to the local shops in driverless taxis from next year in an experiment with robot technology that could be fully commercial by the time Tokyo hosts the Olympics in 2020. From March 2016, the taxis will take about 50 residents of Fujisawa, a large coastal town near Tokyo, from their homes to supermarkets along the city's main roads in journeys of about ...
The latest of Sandifer's collected essays from his blog, published only last month so it's hot off the presses. There is a lot less to say about this less popular era of Doctor Who - his previous two books covered the seven Tom Baker years, this one book covers five years and two Doctors. There's not a lot of people who pick this as their favourite era of the show. But Sandifer does his best to find redemptive readings - "it is preferable, given the choice among reasonable arguments, to like a piece of art rather than to dislike it" ...
Stephen Tall, formerly of this parish, has honoured the pledge he made to run naked down Whitehall if the Liberal Democrats were reduced to 24 seats. This is what happens, kids, if you make a daft pledge on TV. You've been warned. http://t.co/r5SWfRmCCT pic.twitter.com/LYn5ob33St — Stephen Tall (@stephentall) October 13, 2015 In doing so he has raised, at the time of writing, £7,200 for Medecins sans Frontieres. If you haven't donated already, please do, it is a very good cause, and would show your appreciation for Stephen's barefaced cheek(s). Think @stephentall deserves a #DannysWalks and £££ to charity for honouring ...
Our Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, is to introduce his (revised?) Charter of Fiscal Responsibility into parliament tomorrow. As I understand it the charter is to require every government, in normal times, to be running a budget surplus within three years of taking office. Even if it made economic sense, such a charter would be nonsense. Under the British Constitution no parliament can bind a future parliament, or even future decisions of the same parliament, so any government with a parliamentary majority which wanted to repeal the charter could do so. And of course, the definition of "normal times" ...
[IMG: Ford Escort MkI 1100 1972] Tim Farron has spoken to the author of the Car Torque column of the Northern Echo; not so much on transport policy. The closest we get to a revelation is that I had never once been to Scotland until I was 21 and got lost driving the Newcastle University Students Union minibus in Northumberland and ended up over the border in Coldstream by mistake. I have been to Scotland many times since on purpose. We don't learn how much torque the Escort, Micra or Volvo had, but as Tim can talk the hind leg ...
Given the hole that the Labour Party is digging itself into at the moment it is surprising that the latest opinion polls show them still gaining on the Conservatives. Either voters think that the turmoil and internal rows within Labour are irrelevant process issues that have no impact on their concerns over the health service and the economy, or there is a time lag which means that public opinion has not yet caught up with the party's problems. The latest U-turn on whether the party will support George Osborne's "fiscal charter", is a case in point. In fact, the big ...
There were many things that disappointed me about the Tory party conference. Ordering four new trident nuclear submarines, Theresa May's horrendous language about working migrants, and the first building block arguments for blunt military intervention in Syria - to name a few.
I have to be honest, I found yesterday's launch of the Britain Stronger in Europe campaign deeply uninspiring. They seem to have learned none of the lessons from the Scottish Referendum. It's not enough to win the vote. You have to win the campaign, too. Setting out a long retail list of facts and figures is not going to cut the mustard. Of course it's important to know that our bank balances and jobs benefit from being in the EU. Of course it's important to have former top police officers tell us that the European Arrest Warrant keeps us safer. ...
The party conference season in the UK has finally ground to a halt, and all parties have grounds for both hope and despair. Even Labour, beset by fears over their new hard-left leader seem to have found a few crumbs of comfort, and the opinion polls show that the British public are prepared to give Jeremy Corbyn the benefit of the doubt. Personally I find this a little strange, because the behaviour and the language of Labour activists is generally quite intolerant. I hold no brief for Conservative policies, but I am absolutely prepared to believe that Conservatives are just ...
The Liverpool Echo has the story – see link above. Oh dear, how can anyone treat the most vulnerable in our society so poorly?
I have been following, as readers of this blog site will know, the dilemma of Labour MP's after the election of Jeremy Corbyn as their Leader. It is all too obvious that the vast majority of Labour MP's did not want him as their Leader and they still don't want him. Yesterday of course the Labour Leadership via Shadow chancellor John McDonnell did a huge U turn and decided not to support the Tories financial planning for the public deficit, a plan they said they were going to support only a few days ago! Also, have you noticed that Labour ...
Tue 13th
11:55
William Wallace writes...Liberal Democrats will fight for votes at 16 and balanced EU referendum rul...
The EU Referendum, Sir William Cash declared during the passage of the Bill providing for it through the Commons, is of fundamental importance to the future of this country over the next generation and more.That is why Liberal Democrats have been arguing, regardless of the broader issue of lowering the voting age, that on this occasion 16- and 17-year-olds should be allowed to vote. We agree with Eurosceptics like Bill Cash that this is a vital, long-term decision; so those that have the longest stake in the future of this country should not be denied a say. The Bill has ...
The party is setting up an expert panel to look at the case for legalisation of cannabis. I am pleased to be serving on this exciting new venture – Liberal Dems set up expert panel on cannabis legalisation http://t.co/yioIw2Pb3V — David Nutt (@ProfDavidNutt) October 12, 2015 Norman Lamb was on Newsnight last night (4 minutes 30 seconds in, following a report at 1m50s) explaining the idea. The Guardian reports The review panel members will include Prof David Nutt, the founder of DrugScience and a former chairman of the government's advisory committee on the misuse of drugs, Tom Lloyd a former ...
Peter Oborne is one of the most thoughtful commentators on the centre right. I see his comments pre-Corbyn are being circulated around Corbynista circles (thank you, Barbara), where he says: "No one who is loathed by the bankers, the BBC and Tony Blair all at once can be that bad." I can relate to that. The establishment hates change and, since the Blair-Brown nexus seemed to be a about avoiding change as much as possible, it isn't surprising that those who manage the nation yearn for a different, duller Labour leadership. That doesn't make Corbyn right on many other things, ...
[IMG: Lead not leave - the right way to approach the EU]
After diverting my readers with the fringe entertainment of the Labour Party, and the even more eccentric fringe of the Liberal Democrats, it's time to look at the politics that really matters: Britain's Conservative Party. They had their annual conference last week, and this gives us some idea of what to expect in the next five years. The speed with which the Tories, led by David Cameron, have assumed the ascendency in British politics is astonishing. Not six months ago I, along with many others, thought that they would be unable to win the General Election in May, and that ...
I've mentioned the upcoming Canadian election here before, and as the campaign there enters its final week, it seems a good time to return for another look. Unlike in our election, the polling there has been quite volatile, with individual polls giving a wide spread of results at any one time, though the overall trend has become quite clear. At first, the three-way tie appeared to be resolving with the New Democratic Party moving ahead of the other two, but after hitting their zenith, the NDP began falling back, first to level pegging with the Conservatives and Liberals, then dropping ...
[IMG: Charles Kennedy] Many people, particularly those who weren't able to make it to the Glasgow University event earlier in the summer, have expressed an interest in paying their respects to Charles if a London based event were also to be held. This has now been arranged and the details are: 3.30pm, Tuesday November 3rd, St George's Cathedral, Lambeth Road, London, SE1 6HR The event is open to all although, as seating may be limited, attendees are asked to confirm in advance by applying at:kennedymemorial@mail.com * James Gurling is a member of the Lib Dems' Federal Executive committee.
[IMG: Civil Comments screenshots] What happens if you ask people to rate their own comments for how rude they are before they can post them? The answer, Civil Comments hopes, is that people will be rather more polite, helping rescue comment threads from the snake pit they often are and raising them towards the exchange of feedback and ideas that internet visionaries used to hope for. Civil Comments is building a plugin which can be added to websites, and requires people to rate two other comments for civility versus rudeness and for great versus poor quality before they can write ...
As reported in last night's "Evening Telegraph", I have raised numerous residents' complaints over the summer about the smell problem caused at time by the composting operation at the Riverside Civic Amenity site adjacent to Riverside Nature Park. The problem appears to be particularly noticeable when windrows and turned as part of the composting operation and the wind changes direction. Staff attempt to ensure the operation happens only when the wind is to the south, away from the residential housing along the western part of Perth Road and in adjacent streets like Riverside Place, Millbay Terrace & Gardens, Clovis Duveau ...
Tue 13th
08:33
I'm starting to think the new shadow cabinet resembles the old one - but on amphetamines
John McDonnell has now decided, rather infamously, that Osborne's fiscal charter isn't kosher after all. At Labour conference, the shadow chancellor said he would commit Labour to vote for the government's fiscal rules. He fudged things a lot, saying that while Labour would go along with the chancellor's basic idea of balancing the books, that would exclude "capital projects" from the equation, which in McDonnell's reasoning would comprise almost anything you could spend money on in the known universe. But I guess that wasn't enough, because after other left of centre parties attacked Labour for this, McDonnell caved and did ...
Taking place at the University of Dundee Tower Building tomorrow - Wednesday 14th October from 2.15pm to 4pm, the Friends of the University of Dundee Botanic Garden is holding another Dundee Afternoon Lecture. This takes the form of a fascinating talk by Dr Rebecca Wade of Abertay University. Rebecca works across various disciplines to investigate how we can get multiple benefits from urban green spaces. Admission £2.00 (payable at the door).
The vast majority of residents will see their current bin collection rota continue unchanged as the new calendars some out, but some houses in Gatley are seeing their bin collections change from Thursday to Wednesday. To make sure there's no long gap an extra blue bin collection is being added for 4th November. The houses affected are on the South Park Road Estate, Gatley Road, Foxland/Springfield/Delamere/Torkington and roads off, the village centre and the Gatley side of Kingsway. [IMG: Selection_184] The Council is writing to everyone affected, saying: You will shortly receive a new calendar which shows your new refuse ...
Graphing the distribution of English letters towards the beginning, middle or end of words Glorious! (tags: english ) A Very Revealing Conversation With Rihanna The interviewer is seduced. (tags: music ) Canada's election: a dead cat and niqabs @padams29 explains. (tags: canada )
I love that my friends feed me interesting or amusing beard news. This one came via @stealthmunchkin Spies and internet giants are in the same business: surveillance. But we can stop them Daily Mail's tax-dodge hypocricy over Facebook How Well Do You Speak Scots Twitter - I got 9/12 & never want to see a picture of a munchiebox again Facebook paid £4,327 corporation tax in 2014 - that's less than I will pay in income tax this year Video: Victim's sister: The DWP know they are killing people 7 Things White People Definitely Didn't Discover But Get Credit for ...
Councillors from Cheshire East, Stockport and Manchester had an update briefing on progress with the A6 to Manchester Airport Relief Road yesterday. The project is on schedule to complete in 2017. As you'd expect in any large project of this sort, some elements are taking a little longer than planned for, others a little less time, but overall it's on track. Work is continuing to move great crested newts and badgers, with over 30km of newt fencing put up. There have been some archaeological finds (no major hoards of Roman gold, I'm afraid). The archaeologists are coming in and doing ...
