21-Mar-10
Plans have been drawn up to increase the current £60 penalty to £100 in areas where parking is controlled by local authorities. This includes Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Dundee and Perth.
Council bosses claim the need the extra cash to offset soaring parking attendant salaries and to deter drivers from contravening regulations.
Holyrood ministers are backing the controversial idea and set out their support for the increase in a consultation document prepared by the Scottish Government's transport directorate. It states: 'The Scottish ministers' goal of local authorities operating self-financing parking operations is becoming less realistic as the cost of parking enforcement rises. Against that scenario ministers now propose issuing revised guidance allowing participating local authorities the option to introduce two higher rates of penalty charge notice - £80 (discounted to £40 if paid within 14 days) and £100 (discounted to £50 if paid within 14 days).
The consultation is due to close in June after which ministers will decide whether to rubber stamp the plan.
Motoring groups described the proposed fine increases out 'outrageous' and warned of a backlash from long-suffering drivers.
Under decriminalised parking law, introduced in Scotland in 1997, local authorities took over the administration of most parking regulations previously handled by police traffic wardens.
Income from fines is a significant source of revenue for councils. This year Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow expect to rake in at least £14.1 million from penalties.
The consultation document states 'Staff salaries have increased 50% since 2001'. A salary increase of 50% in 9 years? Don't anyone dare tell me that those working in the public sector aren't well paid. This will become law as the Scottish Government support the action. Just make sure that if you ever park in any of these council areas, your car is between parking lines and not on them. A friend recently was given a £60 penalty notice in Edinburgh because her back wheels were on the line not inside it.
Cllr Fraser Macpherson - LibDem Councillor for Dundee's West End - www.dundeewestend.com [ 21-Mar-10 11:16am ]
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A superb photograph of Perth Road at Mid Wynd and Ryehill Church (now flats) from Photopolis.
The Treasury are taking Liberal Democrat economic policy seriously. They have called in Vince Cable for detailed discussions with the permanent secretary Nicholas Macpherson about the Lib Dems will be demanding from both Labour and the Conservatives in the light of a coalition, and the possibility that neither George Osborne or Alistair Darling will be Chancellor but Vince.Of the meeting Vince has said:
"[Nicholas Macpherson] wanted to know what we attached priority to. He wanted to know what we felt strongly about."
He added that the Liberal Democrat ideas on tax and spending were well received and he wasn't told by the Permanent Secretary that he couldn't do that.
Vince had seen the issues with the banks that unraveled in 2008 a full 6 years earlier, and like a modern day John the Baptist was preaching from the wilderness that was the Lib Dem benches. Now he is being considered as a serious and credible candidate to get the economy out of this mess, not just by the Treasury but also by the Labour and Conservative parties.
I think it is a clear sign that a Lib Dem vote is not going to be wasted. If it returns more and retains all of my colleagues in the House, making the likelihood of a hung parliament more likely, we could well have the safest pair of hands on the tiller for economic recovery.
The above four MPs are standing down from Westminster at the general election, but the three former Cabinet Ministers, Geoff Hoon, Patricia Hewitt and Stephen Byers were all caught on camera discussing 'job offers' from a bogus form set up for a sting operation by Channel 4.
A fourth Labour MP, Margaret Moran, is thought to have offered to 'influence legislation'.
Stephen Byers (£3,000 to £5,000 a day), the former Transport Secretary, admitted yesterday that he had exaggerated his political influence during his interview.
Geoff Hoon's solicitor said, on Friday, that his comments had been misrepresented and he denied over offering to give confidential information.
Aides to Gordon Brown say they are most concerned by Ms Moran's interview in the Dispatches programme in which she can be heard promising to help modify laws on immigration in order to boost the business interests of the fake company. One senior Labour source said that Ms Moran was 'not very well' and anything she said should 'not be taken seriously ... the idea that she has the ability to influence anything is laughable'.
The idea that any of these people is in a position to make laws for this country isn't laughable, it's downright tragic for all of us. Mind you, they were taught well by their ex-boss.
The Dispatches programme can be seen on Channel 4 tomorrow (Monday).
20-Mar-10
The above is an artist's impression of the proposed Clyde Fastlink. This is a transport system which is said will provide an experience offering many of the benefits of a tram without the rails embedded in the ground. I ask myself why Edinburgh didn't think of such a system instead of insisting upon trams. Edinburgh city centre has been a disaster zone for the past couple of years and there's no sign of any tram as yet.
Planning permission was given to Glasgow City Council for the project in 2006 but funding from the Scottish government was rejected as part of the then government's Strategic Transport Projects Review, citing its lack of regional impact, it's failure to tackle congestion around Glasgow Central station and its lack of clear impact on emissions reductions.
However, it now appears that the Scottish government have agreed to fund the trams-on-wheels and it will be operational by 2014, according to the chairman of the company set up to deliver the scheme. The project will cost around £40 million.
The local authority and Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (yes them again) are now putting the final details to the business case which will be presented to the Government in the coming weeks.
Glasgow 'got it right' with their Metro system years ago and I'm hopeful this new public service will be as well received.
Cllr Fraser Macpherson - LibDem Councillor for Dundee's West End - www.dundeewestend.com [ 20-Mar-10 10:45pm ]
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Here's a video of Tavish Scott MSP, along with John Barnett, Liberal Democrat candidate for Dundee West, during Tavish's recent visit to Dundee. You can read other recent Tavish videos - including his visits to Edinburgh and Aberdeen - at http://www.scotlibdems.org.uk/videos.
Marvellous match. Well done Scotland. They did play fantastic rugby.
I daresay the SNP leader's speech will lack a certain something when merely read in black and white as opposed to received with the usual bombast and rhetorical style from Alex Salmond that we all know so well. I will certainly laugh for effect less while reading it than Salmond will have when delivering it.
The opening tribute to former party leader Billy Wolfe was appropriately placed at the top of the speech, though I'm not sure if "Billy Wolfe was a good man - too good to be a politician" will have gone down too well amongst the 59 PPCs in the audience aspiring to get into Westminster in May.
The section embodied by the line "The wrong cuts at the wrong time - that is their foolish agenda" doesn't sit too easily with me. We need to reduce spending, we need to cut the considerable flab from the public sector and it is in Scotland that that sector is at its most wobbly. Any leader who doesn't face up to these realities is surely at least partly guilty of a dereliction of duty.
As posturing for fiscal autonomy I have no doubt that fierce opposition to a reduction in Holyrood's block grant will be effective but it may not be enough to force Cameron's hand to act and that's when problems can begin.
If the Barnett formula is merely tinkered with rather than abolished then the SNP will have to change tack very quickly. Cuts, as the EU has pointed out clearly this past week, are already overdue. It would be foolish for Salmond to be seen to be last to face up to that reality.
But, despite all of that, there is little doubt it's a vote-winner in the short term. The SNP must surely be an attractive option if voting for them is believed equivalent to maximising our budget.
The speech moved on to Trident and I really can't tire of hearing Salmond saying the extent of the Labour, Tory and Lib Dem disagreement "is whether to have three new submarines or four". I'm very surprised that no other party has joined the SNP in its policy of no nuclear weapons. But their loss is our gain.
The theme of local champions was pushed next, hammered home even. The SNP not trying to win Labour or Tory seats but the people's seats. It's an appealing message and hopefully was well received by watching floating voters but at the end of the day the SNP are contesting constituencies in the same manner as other parties. Calling them the people's seats doesn't change much.
The policy meat of the speech is excellent news. The delivery of wind and wave power projects, quangos cut by 25%, Goverment marketing cut by half, the Council Tax freeze, saving £300m more than the estimated £500m and a hold on minister salaries. Common sense but still contrasts favourably to the UK Government.
The extra £15m for an extra 4,000 college places was the standout announcement. Good news of course but I daresay the problem of teenagers not getting to go with their first choice courses will continue largely unabated.
All in all, standard but welcome fare. Green, anti-nuclear and sensible.
More Nats Means Less Cuts though. I just wonder if I personally would have sat on my hands during the applause for that one.
Tony Blair's over-stepped the mark. He's upset the chair of the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments. The former Tory cabinet minister Ian Lang has finally lost patience with the former Prime Minister and decided to ignore his objections and publish Mr Blair's hidden deals.
The Advisory Committee had allowed Blair to keep details of the fact he's been secretly receiving cash from a South Korean energy company and from Kuwaiti royals - the South Korean UI Energy Corporation which has oil interests in the US and Iraq to be precise.
Blair has reportedly made some £20 million since leaving Downing Street in June 2007 and approximately £1 million sterling from the Kuwaiti government. It was disclosed he had been acting as a 'governance adviser' to the Kuwaiti government since June 2008.
The Committee website has now published a statement identifying Blair's job as "advice to a consortium of investors led by the UI Energy Corporation (publication delayed due to market sensitivities)."
After I'd written this I noticed Blair's War Profits. Worth a read.
The AfPak war is going well, from the western side, for a reason which has had virtually no coverage in our media.
This is a shame not just because it means we are, as normal, being kept in the dark by our media but also because we are seeing a major change in the nature of warfare, arguably as important as the invention of gunpowder.
The Americans are using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) not just as observers but to kill Taliban. There have been some amazing successes here, with many of the leaders dead. This is not nice because that is the nature of war. It is, in many ways, the high-tech equivalent of the Taliban's remotely operated booby trap bombs which have also been the major killers of western forces.
This is just the start. Technology makes things smaller & easier to control from a distance. If current UAVs are invisible to the locals because they fly at 20,000 feet future ones will be the size of medium sized birds & able to track individuals. This ability to hit and run before being seen was a large part of what made the 20thC the century of the guerrilla, most of the rest being their willingness to take casualties that conventional western forces hesitated to do. Casualties in UAVs are hardly a factor.
This is not a matter of approving this - reality doesn't stand aside if we refuse to see it. A world where the military advantage lies with the organised high tech state is not automatically better or worse than one where the balance lies with the guerrilla/terrorist/gangster but it is different.
"Americans are cowards," the 42-year-old said. "They are afraid of fighting man-to-man in a battlefield and that is why they hit from the sky and run away."What happens when it is possible to build UAVs the size of insects, because it will happen.
"Many people who did not support the Taliban previously support them now because the Americans are killing innocent people," Khan said by phone from South Waziristan, one of the restive tribal region's seven districts.
It was not clear whether the government of former US president George W Bush took these risks into account when it stepped up drone attacks in 2008.
But it had little choice after realizing that Pakistan was doing little to eliminate Taliban fighters attacking NATO forces in Afghanistan or al-Qaeda operatives planning attacks in the West.
The strategy paid off.
Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden remained untraceable, but the US drones killed several second-tier al-Qaeda operatives, including the mastermind of a 2006 trans-Atlantic aircraft terrorist plot, Rashid Rauf.
US President Barack Obama continued to use the drones as a critical tool in the revised policy on Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan, which also focuses on militant hideouts in neighbouring Pakistan.
A report by the New America Foundation, a conservative US think tank, said last month that there had been 45 drone attacks during Bush's two terms, compared with 51 during the first year of the Obama administration.
Altogether, the strikes have killed more than 1,200 people. more
Note also that to control such things without interference requires satellites in direct line of sight. In yet another way we see that space is becoming the dominant arena of human development. It is now virtually impossible to conceive of a major technological war being won by a nation that does not have free access to space, in the same way that in Renaissance Europe only armies big enough to afford their own artillery train could conquer - which meant the end of invulnerable castles & the feudal system.
This was a prediction Harvey Kurzweil had made for last year, discussed previously, which he claimed had come largely true.
By the bye the fact that these planes have found no trace of bin Laden supports the unreportable belief that the NATO countries favourite hobgoblin, Osama bin Laden is long dead, as I previously reported.
Marines Danny Bottomley (L) ad Iain Syme training at their Condor base
Little or nothing, until now, has been known about Harden Troop which is part of the Arbroath-based 45 Commando Group. Harden Troop is named in honour of Royal Army Medical Corps Lance Corporal Henry Harden who earned a posthumous VC when he was killed while serving with 45 Commando in Holland in 1945.
It was established four years ago - initially to help service personnel suffering from the usual incidents associated with the rough and tumble of day to day life in one of the world's most feared and respected fighting units. Although there is little distinguish the men of this unique sub-unit based at RM Condor, closer inspection reveals that the 30-odd members of Harden Troop are special.
Each Marine has suffered and overcome terrible battlefield injuries and, showing the spirit for which their unit is famed, they are determined to regain as much of their fitness as they can. Most of them are pursuing the ultimate goal of resuming their place in one of 45 Commando's front line fighting rifle companies.
Harden Troop's strength is drawn from those who saw action with 45 Commando Group on their last operational tour of duty in Afghanistan's Helmand province in 2008/9 and who sustained injuries as a result of gunshots or IEDs. These injuries range from shattered limbs and soft tissue damage caused by bullet or bombs to those who have lost parts of limbs in explosions or through life-saving surgery.
Lt. Col. Oliver Lee, the commanding officer said : "Harden Troop has become one of the focuses for our men who have suffered profoundly serious injuries while serving with the commando.
"It brings together several aspects of their ongoing rehabilitation including physiotherapy, physical training, welfare, social work and medical treatment.
"Because of our relatively isolated geographical position compared to the other units of 3 Commando Brigade, it is of great benefit for the lads to receive this sort of treatment on base, where they can be closer to their families and to their comrades.
"The welfare of these men is something I care passionately about and, fro a moral and morale point of view, having them here optimises their recovery.
"As their commanding officer I have to say it is humbling to see the way these very brave men approach their recovery from very serious injuries."
I know the people of Arbroath greatly respect the 45 Commandos and their contribution to the local community and will also wish these lads every success in their aim to of returning to their posts.
1924 - 2010
Willie Wolfe was never an MP although he led the Scottish National Party from 1969 until 1979.
It was during his leadership that the party had its greatest electoral success winning 11 seats in the October 1974 general election. He was credited with doing much to develop the SNP as a clearly defined left-of-centre political party.
Hythlodaeus and Calum have already paid tribute to a man who tirelessly worked towards his dream of an independent Scotland.
RIP
Another Saturday and the last three matches of the 6 Nations. We have Wales v Italy at the Millenium Stadium (KO 2.30pm), Ireland v Scotland at Croke Park (KO 5pm) and France v England at the Stade de France (KO 7.45pm).
All matches will be broadcast on BBC TV, the Red Button and online.
Scotland meet second the top of the standings in Ireland and England meet the top in France. It should be an exciting afternoon's rugby.
Here's a wee rugby story from one of my loyal readers. Do hope you enjoy it.
I had a business friend from the Borders who was also very keen on Rugby. As he worked in the West Country, he went to an England v Ireland match in Bristol where he fell in with three Irishmen who were obviously fairly senior executive types.
Coming out of the ground, a policeman was waiting by their car which was parked on the apron in front of a fire station. He said that without a word being spoken, two of these Irishmen started to fight. The policeman came over to sort it out whilst the third man ran to the car and drove off. By the time the policeman arrived, the other two were already shaking hands!
We don't think like that on this side of the water, do we?
19-Mar-10
The UK's Only Independent Savings Bank (and it's Scottish) [ 19-Mar-10 8:36pm ]
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Some months ago I mentioned the Airdrie Savings Bank which is the UK's last independent savings bank.
It prides itself on traditional banking and a strong community ethos and is now to expand across Scotland, believing the public want a return to simpler ways.
ASB, which has 60,000 customers and just over 100 staff, has seven branches in and around Lanarkshire.
General Manager Jim Lindsay said: " We had been planning on expanding locally then other people expressed an interest and we began looking at wider locations.
"We're likely to look at initially opening branches in places like Perth, Dundee and Stirling and are putting plans in place to have something worked out as quickly as possible.
"We should keep it in perspective though. We're not going to be a huge bank in five years. We were doing what we felt was right all along, just straight-forward banking."
No wonder Mr Lindsay looks pleased with himself. Sounds like my kind of bank and run by my kind of general manager.
Airdrie Savings Bank opened its doors on January 21, 1835, as part of the general thrift movement of the time. It operated at first from a hat shop before moving to its own premises along the road. In the 1970s it made the decision not to join the amalgamated TSB and consequently became Britain's last independent savings bank.
Up in Aviemore, the SNP's champion PPCs and members are gathering this evening for the weekend Conference. Sadly I'm down in London and missing out this time but still looking forward to catching Salmond's speech on Sunday and keeping tabs on goings on via Twitter (at #snpconf).
One little tidbit of information that I've heard through the grapevine is that Labour and the Tories are pushing a line that the SNP high heid yins have cancelled the Bloggers Breakfast, presumably suggesting that recent 'Cybernat' stories in the press have caused the move (still don't know if it's a press release or just a rumour).
And, well, given that I organised last year's event ('event' being far too strong a word), I would like to think that I would have received an invite to this 'cancelled' one. Either I've fallen pretty far out the loop or the story is proper cobblers.
Anyway, that's just a bit of fun, hope the weekend's a cracker.
One little tidbit of information that I've heard through the grapevine is that Labour and the Tories are pushing a line that the SNP high heid yins have cancelled the Bloggers Breakfast, presumably suggesting that recent 'Cybernat' stories in the press have caused the move (still don't know if it's a press release or just a rumour).
And, well, given that I organised last year's event ('event' being far too strong a word), I would like to think that I would have received an invite to this 'cancelled' one. Either I've fallen pretty far out the loop or the story is proper cobblers.
Anyway, that's just a bit of fun, hope the weekend's a cracker.
When I first moved to West Lothian there were two names outwith my own party that the political activists held in awe. One result may have determined the paths of their political careers, but both were held high.
For Labour there was Tam Dalyell for the SNP there was Billy Wolfe. The two went head to head when this was just one West Lothian seat, before there was 'The Question', in the 1962 by election that was the start of the former Father of the House's career. The latter a former leader of the SNP has passed away aged 86 in the final weeks before the next General Election.
The Watsonian* was still held in high esteem with local SNP activists, even appearing on a recent leaflet from my opponent Tam Smith. That other West Lothian Nat Alex Salmond has paid tribute saying:
"Billy Wolfe blazed the trail in the professionalisation and organisation of the SNP, and he more than anyone transformed it into a modern political party."
It was in the year of my birth that Billy became leader of the SNP after 3 years from 1966 as Deputy leader and he stood down in 1980. He'd led the party to their largest Westminster tally in February 1974 and the first devolution referendum (which sparked 'The Question') in 1979.
Away from politics he ran an Chieftain Forge, a spade and shovel forge manufacturing agricultural machinery, which may well have been used on my family farm in Donegal. But when politics took over he closed the business.
He may have moved just over the boundary in South Lanarkshire but my thoughts go out to his widow Mary, his children David, Sheila, Ilene and Patrick, Tam Smith and all the SNP team in West Lothian.
Read Also: The First SNP blog to pass tribute is Calum Cashley's personal tribute.
*Former pupil of George Watson College, Edinburgh.
Fernando Lima (Brazil) and Cecilia Siqueira (Uruguay) play their 4-hands arrangement of Tico-Tico no Fuba.
This report, care of WattsUpWithThat & the Guardian of all places, finds that far from being nice altruistic people devoted to bettering mankind, they make "environmental sacrifices" simply as an excuse for being lying, thieving bastards in other things.
I have yet to hear a single member of the movement personally apologising to any of the people they have slandered. Clearly such behaviour is consistent only with the entire movement being not only corrupt liars but immoral, theiving liars. Of course i am willing to accept there are individuals in it who are not wholly dishonest scum - all they have to do is show they have publicly disociated themselves from the liars, thieves & parasites.
Even then Heinleins division of the human race into those who want to control others & those who have no such desire clealry puts the eco-fascists in the former category. Green activism, even in theory, involves controlling what people are allowed to do & in practice consists of little else., apart from the demand they get paid for doing so. That would make even honest & decent members of the Luddite movvement pretty nasty people, though far nicer than most Greens.
Because purchasing green products affirmsNot so surprising. Basically Greenism involves people saying that the taxpayer, ie other people, should provide vast amounts of money to satisfy their hobbies. Almost every Green I have met insists onn his right to such extortion/theft whereas the few rich people I have met have generally been courteous & thoughtful though tough minded. The lying to promote false scare stories has now been partially exposed & one result is that almost all "environmentalists" have, to a greater or leser extent justified the frauds. They have, of course, continued with purely ad hominum & dishonest attacks on decent sceptics.
individuals' values of social responsibility and ethical consciousness, we predict that purchasing green products will establish moral credentials, ironically licensing selfish and morally questionable behavior...
[part of the 3rd experiment] Ninety undergraduate students (56 female) from the University of Toronto volunteered for this experiment in exchange for five Canadian Dollars. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two conditions (store: conventional vs. green). Upon arrival they were seated at desks equipped with a computer and one envelope containing $5 in different denominations. Participants were informed that they were going to engage in a number of unrelated tasks. In the first task, they were randomly assigned to make purchases in either the
conventional or green product store as in Experiment 2. Afterwards, they engaged in an ostensibly unrelated visual perception task in which they saw a box divided by a diagonal line on the computer screen (Mazar & Ariely, 2009). Participants were told that on each trial they would see a pattern of 20 dots scattered inside the box. The pattern would stay on the screen for one second, and participants had to press a key to indicate whether there were more dots on the left or right side of the diagonal line. Participants were paid 0.5 cent for each trial identified as having more dots on the left and 5 cents for each trial identified as having more dots on the right.
The dots were always arranged such that one side clearly had more dots than the other side (15/14/13 vs. 5/6/7); thus it was fairly easy to identify the correct answer. We emphasized that it was important to be as accurate as possible because the results would help design future experiments...We found a significant difference in performance in the dots task, t (79) = 2.26, p = .027, prep = .913. Participants who had purchased in the conventional store identified 42.5% (SD = 2.9%) of trials as having more dots on the right side, which was not significantly different from
the actual 40% (t (37) = 1.66, p = .106, prep = .811). Participants who had purchased in the green store, however, identified 51.4% (SD = 2.67%) of trials as having more dots on the right side - suggesting they were lying to earn more money...
Together, our studies suggest that social and ethical acts may contribute to a more general sense of moral self than previously thought, licensing socially undesirable behaviors in distant domains
pdf in full
I have yet to hear a single member of the movement personally apologising to any of the people they have slandered. Clearly such behaviour is consistent only with the entire movement being not only corrupt liars but immoral, theiving liars. Of course i am willing to accept there are individuals in it who are not wholly dishonest scum - all they have to do is show they have publicly disociated themselves from the liars, thieves & parasites.
Even then Heinleins division of the human race into those who want to control others & those who have no such desire clealry puts the eco-fascists in the former category. Green activism, even in theory, involves controlling what people are allowed to do & in practice consists of little else., apart from the demand they get paid for doing so. That would make even honest & decent members of the Luddite movvement pretty nasty people, though far nicer than most Greens.
Further to my earlier post I think this is needed following the partisan line taken by others (named above)
In common with other commentators, we may in the past have given readers the impression that Conservative MPs were, in the area of Dolphin Square cash payments, paragons of virtue. We may have written sentences like "The Tories have escaped censure," and "The Tories have emerged from the scandal smelling like a baby's powdered arse, or "The Lib Dems gaze at then Tories and Labour benches (and indeed neighbouring flat occupiers) in bewilderment at the smell of Mr Sheen, who, like Tory MPs, shines everything clean." Headlines such as "Tories all square over Dolphin" and "Tories escape sleaze cash" may have reinforced the view that David Cameron and his band of merry men truly are the unsullied virgins of modern day politics.
We now realise there was not a jot or scintilla of truth in the above. We are happy to put on record that the Conservatives and indeed Labour are now exposed as not only similar offenders offenders but as those who cowered rather than asking for clarification. They should be classed as even lower that the brave Lib Dem politicians who though they transgressed House of Commons rules reported themselves to the Standards and Privileges Committee.
We would therefore like to take this opportunity to apologise unreservedly to our readers for deviating from our normal critical and non-partisan analysis of what goes on in our party and for believing that Conservative MPs at last had some light of hope to crow about. In future we will avoid phrases such as "we didn't get caught" and "what about you you did it too" when writing about the expenses of or donations to Conservative MPs. We thank you.
Sorry no offence Iain, you would.....err no....you have done the same.
The MOD today released the Operational Honours and Award List dated 19th March 2010. As it says 146 members of the Armed Forces and one civilian are to receive Honours and Awards. Sadly six of those to receive the Honours and Awards were Killed in Action.
Typical of the awards is this citation for the Military [...]
Related posts:
- Roll of honour: British troop deaths in Afghanistan since 2002
- The list of awards and citations for 45 Commando
- WO1 Darren Chant, Sgt Matthew Telford, Guardsman James Major, Cpl Steven Boote and Cpl Nicholas Webster-Smith killed in Afghanistan
From the BBC:
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Four Lib Dem MPs will have been told to apologise and repay money after breaching Commons rules over payments relating to second homes allowances.
They accepted one-off cash payments from the owners of an apartment block close to Parliament in return for agreeing to pay higher rent levels.
Richard Younger-Ross John Barrett, Sandra Gidley and Paul Holmes will pay back about £16,500 in total before tax.
Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg praised the four for alerting the authorities.
It's quite incredible that Nick Clegg praises the offending four, one of which is the outgoing Edinburgh West MP John Barrett, just because they 'fessed up to this arrangement. While Clegg is correct that any MPs from any other parties should be scrutinised over such deals, I wouldn't be so quick to hand out slaps on the back. I know the Lib Dem leader wants to position himself as the white knight in this expenses scandal but sometimes you have to just take some bad news on the chin.
If you have a second home and you are offered upfront cash in exchange for higher rents, rents that are paid for by the public purse, then surely it's a no-brainer that you either refuse or pay the lump sum in full to the Treasury. You certainly don't pocket it.
John Barrett received a whopping £11,234 in this deal. What the heck is going on there? Was this money included in his income tax returns? If not, what was he planning on doing with it? If so, did he really see it as personal income?
The expenses scandal uncovered some really dodgy dealings and, for me, this one is right up there.
Guzzling cash through Barrett's homes? It all sounds a little Wimpy to me…
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Four Lib Dem MPs will have been told to apologise and repay money after breaching Commons rules over payments relating to second homes allowances.
They accepted one-off cash payments from the owners of an apartment block close to Parliament in return for agreeing to pay higher rent levels.
Richard Younger-Ross John Barrett, Sandra Gidley and Paul Holmes will pay back about £16,500 in total before tax.
Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg praised the four for alerting the authorities.
It's quite incredible that Nick Clegg praises the offending four, one of which is the outgoing Edinburgh West MP John Barrett, just because they 'fessed up to this arrangement. While Clegg is correct that any MPs from any other parties should be scrutinised over such deals, I wouldn't be so quick to hand out slaps on the back. I know the Lib Dem leader wants to position himself as the white knight in this expenses scandal but sometimes you have to just take some bad news on the chin.
If you have a second home and you are offered upfront cash in exchange for higher rents, rents that are paid for by the public purse, then surely it's a no-brainer that you either refuse or pay the lump sum in full to the Treasury. You certainly don't pocket it.
John Barrett received a whopping £11,234 in this deal. What the heck is going on there? Was this money included in his income tax returns? If not, what was he planning on doing with it? If so, did he really see it as personal income?
The expenses scandal uncovered some really dodgy dealings and, for me, this one is right up there.
Guzzling cash through Barrett's homes? It all sounds a little Wimpy to me…
I can remember where I was when I first heard of the Dolphin Square property situation, I was preparing Lib Dem posters ahead of last year's European election.It was at the height of the MPs expenses scandals that the Lib Dem MPs raised the issue with the Standards and Privileges Committee. The one reaction of those around me was "stupid".
The fact that the payment was made by the landlord in return for them agreeing to pay higher rates meant that the payment should have been made to the public purse rather than their own pockets. I think you will hear within hours that Richard Younger-Ross, John Barrett, Sandra Gidley and Paul Holmes will all be announcing that they plan to return that payment. After all they referred themselves to the committee for a ruling that has now duly been given.
However, I also know names of other MPs from the other parties who lived there and also accepted the payment. As Nick Clegg said:
"I am very pleased that Lib Dem MPs acted promptly and correctly in referring themselves and making clear they would comply with the recommendations of the committee."In stark contrast, nearly a year later, Labour and Conservative MPs who accepted the offer from the Dolphin Square landlord have neither referred themselves nor been referred by their parties."
So before anybody from the other parties gets to uppity about the named Liberal Democrats you have to ask why the members of other parties haven't come forward to the committee or their own parties. The Standards and Privileges Committee have said, while asking those known to apologise and repay, that they are aware of other MPs having accepted "cash windfalls", but said it had no information as these had not been referred to it or the subject of complaints. It currently is a case of those who have owned up are getting tarred with a brush that those who have taken no action are getting away with.
This post has been sent via email therefore spacing and fonts may not appear at my usual standard. Also there may be links to other relevant blog entries or other content added later today along with adding the correct tagging.
Denis Thatcher didn't have to put up with this nonsense [ 19-Mar-10 1:17pm ]
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The recent debate over the contribution from the partner of a party leader to a General Election campaign has been fascinating. I have to admit, I don't yet know which side of the debate I fall down on. There is something a bit low-brow and tabloid with the way certain partners have talked of their spouse's messiness or romance levels but at the same time a partner shouldn't have to just sit at home and twiddle their thumbs for four weeks while their other half is gallivanting from Weymouth to Wick.
Well, David Cameron won't make it beyond Carlisle but you get my point.
I have deliberately not specified genders in the above but, let's be honest, we're talking about wives here. We have to drop down to the Greens on the sliding scale of parties with political clout or go back to Margaret Thatcher before we have a female leader of a party. A corollary of their shared sex and unavoidable involvement with the election campaign is that Mrs Brown, Mrs Cameron and Mrs Clegg will have to run the often demeaning gauntlet of media scrutiny for the next seven weeks. This, of course, is not a new phenomenon but the phenomenon is undoubtedly evolving.
I bet Michelle Obama turned up to the cookie-baking contest amongst Presidential candidates' wives with teeth well and truly gritted behind that forced smile. Michelle will have known that she had to go along and play her part to aid her husband's electoral chances but at the same time grudgingly accepted that it was an arcane tradition that should be scrapped alongside Miss World contests. How has society contrived to force intelligent, successful women to operate in such narrow parameters?
In saying that, I've been impressed with Sarah Brown's relatively recent first steps into public life. There should be nothing fundamentally wrong with a Prime Minister's partner having an unofficial public role as long as (1) they genuinely want it and (2) they can actually make a significant contribution, two criteria that I get the impression Sarah meets with room to spare. You don't win the most followers on Twitter without going out and gunning for them.
Fundamentally however, I think it is dangerous for politicians' partners, particularly wives in these not-as-equal-as-we-all-should-be days, to be merely seen as part of the package, a bolt-on to the man who shapes the laws and wears the trousers. It was refreshing therefore to see Cherie Blair QC have her name in the paper on many occasions in business wholly unrelated to her husband's line of work. Not that making headlines is the be all and end all in terms of proving that you lead an independent life, but 'the Blairs' are perhaps the dividing line between how political marriages used to be and how they could and should be going forward.
Policies and the personalities of those who are actually standing for public office should always be paramount, but there's no reason why a positive public profile shouldn't be opt-in, or opt-out if so desired, for any party leader's wife or husband.
I think, after last year's stooshie, readers will know where I stand on All-Women Shortlists. I'm opposed to them, but one question that was posed to me (and I didn't answer at the time) was, what would I do?
Well, you know that I don't like centrally-planned lists. I think they defeat the purpose of a Parliamentary system where an individual is elected to represent constituents. I don't think that jamming a candidate down people's throats is necessarily the way forward. Similarly, planning doesn't work: the upcoming General Election isn't one poll, but 650 sub-polls. A party could draw up a list of 217 women candidates for various seats but there's no guarantee that they'll get in. That, incidentally, is why extrapolations of opinion polls aren't great: they give you the national picture, but don't tell you precisely what's happening in, say, Airdrie. Every election produces surprises that the polls and extrapolations weren't prepared for.
Now, the Indian solution would get round that: the plans are for the Lok Sabha to have a quota of women MPs (on third of members), and that each constituency will have a woman MP for at least one term over a three-term cycle. When it's a constituency's turn, it will only be able to elect a woman.
Except this is open to abuse: it would be easy for parties to bundle three constituencies together, and have the candidates rotate depending on who had to move and when (similarly, had this been in place at Westminster, the Wintertons could have switched back and forth between Macclesfield and Congleton for years). Further, I'm horrified at the thought of voters' potential choice of candidate being restricted by 50% simply because of whose turn it is. That defeats the object of liberation movements, surely?
So, that's what I don't want - what do I want?
Two words: electoral reform.
Think about it. You could very easily insert into the rules for electing MSPs a section specifying each gender must comprise at least one third of each regions' MSPs. So Highlands and Islands has 15 MSPs - that would be a minimum of five women. The others have either 16 or 17, and as you can have a third of a woman, that would be six women in each. A guaranteed minimum of 47 women every time.
And the legislation would effect only Regional MSPs, the only part of the current electoral process subverted would be the parties' list making process: it might be necessary, for example, to skip a few names and go straight from, for example, number three to number five to meet the quota. But as things stand, most of the Regions meet it already: Central Scotland has seven women MSPs (4 constituency, 3 list); Glasgow elected six and now has seven; Lothians elected seven and now has eight; Mid Scotland & Fife has six; and South of Scotland has six. Highlands & Islands woefully elected a sum total of no women Constituency MSPs and only two Regional, so three of the male Regional MSPs would have to be displaced (Dave Thompson would make way for Mhairi Will; David Stewart for Christine Conniff; and Jamie McGrigor for Helen Gardiner). And West of Scotland has only four, so would need to exchange Stuart McMillan for Fiona McLeod. In real terms, Bill Wilson would have to be replaced as well, but somehow, the SNP in the West of Scotland managed to select only one woman on a list of twelve (now, that is a problem), so instead, Jackson Carlaw would have to stand aside for Stephanie Fraser.
So no change to the result, only party organisations seeing their plans subverted, and a five extra female MSPs. If Westminster were to adopt AMS, they could write this in and it could work.
Similarly, you could insert a clause into legislation for STV stating that registered parties fielding candidates in a division had to field at least two: one of each gender. That might be a pain for smaller parties trying to conserve precious deposits, but the legislation could also provide for a discount for the second candidate (so, say, £500 for an independent, £800 for a party pair, £1,000 for a group of three). So whereas it takes 59 candidates (and £29,500) to cover Scotland in its entirety, it would take no more than 20 pairs (so 40 names and £16,000) to do the same.
If you were feeling particularly ambitious, legislation could also be written specifying that each division had to elect both genders (so a minimum of one of each gender). Now, again, this might mean that voters' higher preferences would have to be skipped over, but they would simply transfer to the next applicable ranking, so voters would have shown at least some level of support - a more open situation than now, where voters would be able to express a preference between different candidates of the same party, and it would guarantee somewhere between 25% and 33% representation for women. That may not be great, but it's a sight better than the status quo, and of course, there's nothing putting voters off from increasing that percentage without any further input.
So there you have it. An AMS system that preserves the freedom of constituencies to vote for whomever they wish of whichever gender they wish and promotes a closer gender balance, or an STV approach that ensures voters aren't forced to choose between gender and party, and can set up a guaranteed level of representation using voters' stated preferences rather than centrally planned lists or cycles.
We can achieve a modern-looking Parliament. But not by stapling rules onto an outdated electoral system.
Well, you know that I don't like centrally-planned lists. I think they defeat the purpose of a Parliamentary system where an individual is elected to represent constituents. I don't think that jamming a candidate down people's throats is necessarily the way forward. Similarly, planning doesn't work: the upcoming General Election isn't one poll, but 650 sub-polls. A party could draw up a list of 217 women candidates for various seats but there's no guarantee that they'll get in. That, incidentally, is why extrapolations of opinion polls aren't great: they give you the national picture, but don't tell you precisely what's happening in, say, Airdrie. Every election produces surprises that the polls and extrapolations weren't prepared for.
Now, the Indian solution would get round that: the plans are for the Lok Sabha to have a quota of women MPs (on third of members), and that each constituency will have a woman MP for at least one term over a three-term cycle. When it's a constituency's turn, it will only be able to elect a woman.
Except this is open to abuse: it would be easy for parties to bundle three constituencies together, and have the candidates rotate depending on who had to move and when (similarly, had this been in place at Westminster, the Wintertons could have switched back and forth between Macclesfield and Congleton for years). Further, I'm horrified at the thought of voters' potential choice of candidate being restricted by 50% simply because of whose turn it is. That defeats the object of liberation movements, surely?
So, that's what I don't want - what do I want?
Two words: electoral reform.
Think about it. You could very easily insert into the rules for electing MSPs a section specifying each gender must comprise at least one third of each regions' MSPs. So Highlands and Islands has 15 MSPs - that would be a minimum of five women. The others have either 16 or 17, and as you can have a third of a woman, that would be six women in each. A guaranteed minimum of 47 women every time.
And the legislation would effect only Regional MSPs, the only part of the current electoral process subverted would be the parties' list making process: it might be necessary, for example, to skip a few names and go straight from, for example, number three to number five to meet the quota. But as things stand, most of the Regions meet it already: Central Scotland has seven women MSPs (4 constituency, 3 list); Glasgow elected six and now has seven; Lothians elected seven and now has eight; Mid Scotland & Fife has six; and South of Scotland has six. Highlands & Islands woefully elected a sum total of no women Constituency MSPs and only two Regional, so three of the male Regional MSPs would have to be displaced (Dave Thompson would make way for Mhairi Will; David Stewart for Christine Conniff; and Jamie McGrigor for Helen Gardiner). And West of Scotland has only four, so would need to exchange Stuart McMillan for Fiona McLeod. In real terms, Bill Wilson would have to be replaced as well, but somehow, the SNP in the West of Scotland managed to select only one woman on a list of twelve (now, that is a problem), so instead, Jackson Carlaw would have to stand aside for Stephanie Fraser.
So no change to the result, only party organisations seeing their plans subverted, and a five extra female MSPs. If Westminster were to adopt AMS, they could write this in and it could work.
Similarly, you could insert a clause into legislation for STV stating that registered parties fielding candidates in a division had to field at least two: one of each gender. That might be a pain for smaller parties trying to conserve precious deposits, but the legislation could also provide for a discount for the second candidate (so, say, £500 for an independent, £800 for a party pair, £1,000 for a group of three). So whereas it takes 59 candidates (and £29,500) to cover Scotland in its entirety, it would take no more than 20 pairs (so 40 names and £16,000) to do the same.
If you were feeling particularly ambitious, legislation could also be written specifying that each division had to elect both genders (so a minimum of one of each gender). Now, again, this might mean that voters' higher preferences would have to be skipped over, but they would simply transfer to the next applicable ranking, so voters would have shown at least some level of support - a more open situation than now, where voters would be able to express a preference between different candidates of the same party, and it would guarantee somewhere between 25% and 33% representation for women. That may not be great, but it's a sight better than the status quo, and of course, there's nothing putting voters off from increasing that percentage without any further input.
So there you have it. An AMS system that preserves the freedom of constituencies to vote for whomever they wish of whichever gender they wish and promotes a closer gender balance, or an STV approach that ensures voters aren't forced to choose between gender and party, and can set up a guaranteed level of representation using voters' stated preferences rather than centrally planned lists or cycles.
We can achieve a modern-looking Parliament. But not by stapling rules onto an outdated electoral system.
Cllr Fraser Macpherson - LibDem Councillor for Dundee's West End - www.dundeewestend.com [ 19-Mar-10 12:16pm ]
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At the request of the University of Dundee's here's details of their new video competition!
"The University of Dundee is currently running a video competition, asking entrants to create a short video detailing the discoveries they have made in the city. If you would be able to mention this on your blog, we would be very grateful, as hopefully it would be of interest to your readers and would encourage more entries.
We're looking for videos covering any aspect of life in Dundee where there is a discovery worth sharing. This doesn't have to be anything groundbreaking, but something a prospective student might be interested in (and of course, we have prospective students of all ages and nationalities, so this can be interpreted in many different ways).
Anyone can enter (you don't need to be a student). We're happy to accept:
* Film
* Animation
* Photo montage
The only condition is that it must be short - we're looking for videos no more than 90 seconds long.
There are lots of prizes to be won, including cash prizes of up to £300, and the closing date is 30 April.
Please see our website: www.dundee.ac.uk/videocompetition for further details."
"The University of Dundee is currently running a video competition, asking entrants to create a short video detailing the discoveries they have made in the city. If you would be able to mention this on your blog, we would be very grateful, as hopefully it would be of interest to your readers and would encourage more entries.
We're looking for videos covering any aspect of life in Dundee where there is a discovery worth sharing. This doesn't have to be anything groundbreaking, but something a prospective student might be interested in (and of course, we have prospective students of all ages and nationalities, so this can be interpreted in many different ways).
Anyone can enter (you don't need to be a student). We're happy to accept:
* Film
* Animation
* Photo montage
The only condition is that it must be short - we're looking for videos no more than 90 seconds long.
There are lots of prizes to be won, including cash prizes of up to £300, and the closing date is 30 April.
Please see our website: www.dundee.ac.uk/videocompetition for further details."
Cllr Fraser Macpherson - LibDem Councillor for Dundee's West End - www.dundeewestend.com [ 19-Mar-10 10:47am ]
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Arising out of the recent Tayside Police Community Surgeries, including one at Blackness Library, the local Police are now introducing Community Letter Boxes to allow the public to raise non-emergency issues and any suggestions they may have. The library is the location for the one in the West End, although I have suggested to the Police that another at the Mitchell Street Centre would be a good additional location for the north of the West End Ward.
The Dundee West Transition Town Group and people and planet are hosting a free film screening of "The Power of Community - How Cuba Survived Peak Oil" on Thursday 25th March at 6.30pm in the University of Dundee's Dalhousie Building, Room 2G14.It will be followed by a discussion on how we can create a more resilient local economy and sustainable future in the face of climate change and depletion of fossil fuel resources. Starting at 18:30 Watch the trailer of this inspiring film:
www.powerofcommunity.org
We all know that Labour thought it was a smart idea to allow every car over 10 years old to be part of their scrappage scheme, despite the fact that some of those cars probably weren't that great a pollutant to the environment.
However, yesterday as part of Labour's call for better buses in Scotland at Holyrood Liberal democrat transport spokeswoman Alison McInnes call for that scheme to be transferred to buses.
"The bus industry is critical for vast areas of Scotland, especially areas without good train links. Scotland deserves bus services fit for the 21st century.
"We need measures to support the industry through the recession. Greener buses would help achieve Scotland's ambitious carbon targets."
So while Labour were calling for a £3 million fund of grants, the Liberal Democrats were taking Labour's own policy to its natural conclusion. As Alison pointed out there is potential for 200 new jobs in Scotland in manufacturing of green hybrid buses, just the sort of fillip that would help Alex Salmond answer Tavish Scott's question in First Minister Questions yesterday about what he is doing about Scottish unemployment.
This post has been sent via email therefore spacing and fonts may not appear at my usual standard. Also there may be links to other relevant blog entries or other content added later today along with adding the correct tagging.
The General Election looks unlikely to deliver the result of one party winning an outright majority and, for all that the Lib Dems are rebuffing Tory overtures right now, a blue and orange coalition looks the most likely result come May 6th.
I use the term 'coalition' in its loosest sense as any such deal could be anything from a case by case discussion as the parliamentary term progresses to a formal shoulder to shoulder agreement through thick and thin.
A considerable slice of that sliding scale could involve Cabinet positions and I noted with wallet-loosening interest recently that Ladbrokes had Nick Clegg for next Home Secretary at 20\1. Is Chris Grayling really that much of a shoo-in?
The other Cabinet seat that I could envisage the Lib Dems keen to take would be Secretary of State for Scotland. 11 of their MPs hail from north of the border and, despite falling poll ratings, it's not inconceivable that 11 shall remain after the election. At least.
Will Cameron decide it is best to share the problem of constitutional wrangling? He certainly won't have a more able person for the job than Charlie Kennedy or Michael Moore would represent. David Mundell is widely suggested to not even be in the running, any new Scottish MPs would be too inexperienced and the rather fanciful notion of Lord McLetchie taking the role smacks of desperation.
For David Cameron and his SNP headache, perhaps a problem shared is a problem solved.
I use the term 'coalition' in its loosest sense as any such deal could be anything from a case by case discussion as the parliamentary term progresses to a formal shoulder to shoulder agreement through thick and thin.
A considerable slice of that sliding scale could involve Cabinet positions and I noted with wallet-loosening interest recently that Ladbrokes had Nick Clegg for next Home Secretary at 20\1. Is Chris Grayling really that much of a shoo-in?
The other Cabinet seat that I could envisage the Lib Dems keen to take would be Secretary of State for Scotland. 11 of their MPs hail from north of the border and, despite falling poll ratings, it's not inconceivable that 11 shall remain after the election. At least.
Will Cameron decide it is best to share the problem of constitutional wrangling? He certainly won't have a more able person for the job than Charlie Kennedy or Michael Moore would represent. David Mundell is widely suggested to not even be in the running, any new Scottish MPs would be too inexperienced and the rather fanciful notion of Lord McLetchie taking the role smacks of desperation.
For David Cameron and his SNP headache, perhaps a problem shared is a problem solved.
This is the new Nissan electric car. It's been named the Leaf and hopefully it's not because it wilts and drops once a year.
It is a five-seater electric car and will be built in Sunderland from 2013 on the back of a £420 million investment from Nissan.
More than half of the investment will come from the state, with the Department of Business granting £20.7 million towards the project and the European Investment Bank loaning £197.3 million.
About 50,00 Leafs (or Leaves) will be built a year Nissan say. The car has a range of 100 miles and can travel at a top speed of more than 90 mpg. A hundred miles is useless for me. To journey to any city, with the exception of Dundee or Perth, would require me to recharge the battery and I believe a recharge takes some hours.
I'll be Leaf-ing it alone because I'm happy with my present car, although I can see the benefits of such a vehicle if you live in a city and public transport is unsuitable.
Well yesterday was the first full 24 hour period of being selected as the prospective parliamentary candidate for Linlithgow and East Falkirk. So while I wasn't blogging I was busy with other stuff online which may to a casual observer seem trivial are none the less vitally important.
For example no longer am I merely a politico who blogs, I am a parliamentary candidate that blogs so certain subtle changes to my online presences had to be made to keep everything open, honest and legal.
One of the highlights for me in the first 24 hours was after letting the wider world know that I had been selected once again to contest this seat for the Scottish Liberal Democrats to find that when I went to Wikipedia to edit the constituency page that somebody had already beaten me to it. That is something that hadn't happened 5 years ago, much of the online presence outwith the party websites was promoted by myself.
There are, if we are facing a May 6th election only 48 days (and as I type at the Deer Park roundabout 10 minutes) until the polls open. Of course it is not that I haven't been doing nothing in the last 5 years. I have been attending public meetings, knocking on doors and talking to local people about local issues in the constituency, then taking these up with the relevant representative. Anyone who lives in the constituency and wants to ask me a question can either email me at stephen4linlithgow at gmail dot com [correct the anti spamming yourself] or as some did last night ask me a question through my Twitter ID either a DM or an @stephenpglenn.
This is one election where no party is able to take the people for granted. Many of our politicians made sure of that over the revelations of recent months. The Liberal Democrats had campaigned for openness in Government and in the summer of 2008 had voted for changes to the expenses system ahead of the mess that unravelled last summer. If elected I will continue to make sure that our politics at Westminster are properly cleaned up, not the half hearted efforts of Labour and the Conservatives when they were caught out, but giving real power back to the people.
For example no longer am I merely a politico who blogs, I am a parliamentary candidate that blogs so certain subtle changes to my online presences had to be made to keep everything open, honest and legal.
One of the highlights for me in the first 24 hours was after letting the wider world know that I had been selected once again to contest this seat for the Scottish Liberal Democrats to find that when I went to Wikipedia to edit the constituency page that somebody had already beaten me to it. That is something that hadn't happened 5 years ago, much of the online presence outwith the party websites was promoted by myself.
There are, if we are facing a May 6th election only 48 days (and as I type at the Deer Park roundabout 10 minutes) until the polls open. Of course it is not that I haven't been doing nothing in the last 5 years. I have been attending public meetings, knocking on doors and talking to local people about local issues in the constituency, then taking these up with the relevant representative. Anyone who lives in the constituency and wants to ask me a question can either email me at stephen4linlithgow at gmail dot com [correct the anti spamming yourself] or as some did last night ask me a question through my Twitter ID either a DM or an @stephenpglenn.
This is one election where no party is able to take the people for granted. Many of our politicians made sure of that over the revelations of recent months. The Liberal Democrats had campaigned for openness in Government and in the summer of 2008 had voted for changes to the expenses system ahead of the mess that unravelled last summer. If elected I will continue to make sure that our politics at Westminster are properly cleaned up, not the half hearted efforts of Labour and the Conservatives when they were caught out, but giving real power back to the people.
I have to say that Jennie puts the urgency of action well while everyone's favourite Elephant sums up the Lib Dem debate from Sunday (plus other stuff) well. I just want to emphasise the need for you to write to your MP about this, the danger is that the already authoritarian Labour party are going to attempt to rush this draconian bill through the House without proper scrutiny, consultation or debate.
If the internet literate in the Liberal Democrats had to call their own representatives to task over their illiberialism in trying to cut the illiberial nature of this bill how much less can we trust Labour or the Tories to see the light unless you tell them, no not tell them shout at them.
You can if you wise use this 38 degrees webform or if you are local to me write a personal email or visit them at their surgeries. Here are some helpful links to get in touch with the West Lothian and Falkirk representatives.
Linlithgow and East Falkirk: Michael Connarty email connartym@parliament.uk
5 Kerse Road
Grangemouth FK3 8HQ
Telephone: (01324) 474832
Fax: (01324) 666811
Or
62 Hopetoun Street
Bathgate
EH48 4PD
Telephone: (01506) 676711
Fax: (01506) 676722
Falkirk: Eric Joyce email joycee@parliament.uk Twitter id @ericjoyce
Next surgeries:
Michael Connarty
Friday 19th Newton Community Centre 17:00-18:00
Saturday 20th Bathgate Constituency Office 10:30-11:30
Any details of Eric or Jim please let me know in the comments.
If the internet literate in the Liberal Democrats had to call their own representatives to task over their illiberialism in trying to cut the illiberial nature of this bill how much less can we trust Labour or the Tories to see the light unless you tell them, no not tell them shout at them.
You can if you wise use this 38 degrees webform or if you are local to me write a personal email or visit them at their surgeries. Here are some helpful links to get in touch with the West Lothian and Falkirk representatives.
Linlithgow and East Falkirk: Michael Connarty email connartym@parliament.uk
5 Kerse Road
Grangemouth FK3 8HQ
Telephone: (01324) 474832
Fax: (01324) 666811
Or
62 Hopetoun Street
Bathgate
EH48 4PD
Telephone: (01506) 676711
Fax: (01506) 676722
Falkirk: Eric Joyce email joycee@parliament.uk Twitter id @ericjoyce
The Studio, Burnfoot Lane
Falkirk FK1 5BH
01324 679449
Or
37 Church Walk
Denny FK6 6DF
01324 823200
Livingston: Jim Devine email devinej@parliament.uk
4 Newyearfield Farm,
Livingston
01506 497961
Next surgeries:
Michael Connarty
Friday 19th Newton Community Centre 17:00-18:00
Saturday 20th Bathgate Constituency Office 10:30-11:30
Any details of Eric or Jim please let me know in the comments.
Cllr Fraser Macpherson - LibDem Councillor for Dundee's West End - www.dundeewestend.com [ 19-Mar-10 1:46am ]
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Following complaints from residents about vandalism to fencing at the west end of Pentland Avenue, I have had the following feedback from the City Council's Housing Department:
"Dear Councillor Macpherson
"Dear Councillor Macpherson
The metal railings at this location are to be inspected for the necessary repair as they are on the Housing Department account."
The LibDem team was again campaigning in the West End today. Here's John Barnett, parliamentary candidate, in Rockfield Crescent.Liberal Democrats - working all year round for the West End.
18-Mar-10
Unite receive £18 million in 'money-laundering' deal with Labour [ 18-Mar-10 10:35pm ]
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So now see how Labour get their money by Money-Laundering our money via Unite. Staggering and yet the BBC drones on about Ashcroft. The only people who care about Ashcroft, who donates less than 1% of Conservative money, is the BBC and Guardian readers, strange conincidence that.
The Telegraph has this.
The union behind the British Airways [...]
Related posts:
- Brown P*wned by Unite
- Audit Commission loses 10 Million in Iceland Crash
- Forces of Hell Member still United with Brown
Below is a speech by Jim Mulva Chairman and CEO of ConocoPhillips one of the top five Gas and Oil companies in the world. It's theme is how we can use Natural Gas to bridge the gap between renewables that cannot currently take the place of Carbon based fuels. The speech was given at the [...]
Related posts:
Climate Change IV - A THUMB (OR TWO) IN THE SCALES?
I was sent away to learn the corn trade to a firm called Lamprey & Son in Banbury. The old office and shop building still stands next to the town hall and looks much the same today although it has long been converted to other uses.
One day the boss showed me a really beautifully made, brass, Victorian pocket balance that fitted into a polished wooden case which would slip into your pocket. On one end of the beam was a small pot about as big as a good-sized egg cup. The other side of the beam was milled with serations and graduated with a sliding weight which moved along it. If you filled the pot up with a sample of grain and struck it off level, you could slide the weight along until it balanced with the contents of the pot and read off the bushel weight of the grain from the scale.
Bushel weight is a good indicator of quality. Plump, full grains weigh heavier than thin ones. A bushel of reasonable quality barley would weigh 4 stones (56 lb or half a hundredweight) and a bushel of good wheat 5 stones (70lb). So the little pot contained a very small part of a bushel. The sample might represent a parcel of grain which could be anything from 5 or 6 tonnes up to over 100.
The boss let me try this out and in two or three goes I was getting a very consistent reading. He then did the same with the same sample and got a considerably heavier bushel weight. Eventually he showed me the trick. The strike or straight edge, which was used to level off the contents of the pot, had two sides. One was like a ruler and the other had a piece of dowel along it. If you used the dowel side, it pressed a few more corns into the pot than the straight edge. With the effect of scale, this made the sample look considerably heavier and better quality. Even with a correctly drawn sample, a small change in procedure or instrumentation could significantly bias the result. "That's how they did it in the old days days, boy" he said with a wink "buying or selling, you see, boy". I should add that this was shown to me as an antique curiosity and was not any part of the trading practices of the firm in my day!
The kit which is used to "sample" the temperature of the climate is remarkably unchanged and about the same vintage as that rather splendid little balance. It is called a Stevenson Screen and was actually designed by the father of Robert Louis Stevenson, the author of "Treasure Island". It is a standard sized wooden box with louvred sides to allow free circulation of the air around the instruments and keep them out of direct sunlight. Hence the expression "in the shade" when referring to temperature. The thermometer might be a traditional mercury maximum/minimum type or more modern sensors. Stevenson Screens were traditionally painted with whitewash.
It is doubtful whether a character like ANTHONY WATTS could exist in state-controlled Britain. He is an American meteorologist and weather forecaster for commercial TV and radio stations. For his living he depends upon his customers' satisfaction with the accuracy of his forecasts. He also supplies custom-built weather stations, TV graphics systems and video equipment to broadcasters all over the world. So he is an expert who makes his living from weather but is neither a civil servant (who can be made to toe an official line) nor dependent on tax-funded grants (which require applicants to be politically correct). So he has a certain independence of mind and demonstrates that rugged individualism and tenacity of purpose which used to be the stuff of all-American heroes in many films of my youth.
He noticed that the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Weather Service (NOAA/NWS - roughly equivalent to the UK Meteorological Office) had made a small change to its Stevenson Screens. He wondered whether this change would affect the temperatures recorded. Back in 1979 the NWS had stopped using whitewash and started painting the Stevenson Screens with white, semi gloss, latex paint. Whitewash essentially gave a coating of calcium carbonate whilst latex paint used the pigment titanium dioxide which has significantly different infra-red properties.
In 2007, having a little time on his hands, he set up a trial to see what the differences might be. He used three Stevenson Screens - one unpainted, one painted with the latex semi gloss used by the NWS and one painted with historically correct whitewash. He also used a modern stacked plate aspirated thermometer as an additional control. His results showed that the latex paint raised the maximum recorded temperature within the screen by 0.3 degrees Fahrenheit and the minimum recorded temperature by 0.8 degrees Fahrenheit when compared with the whitewashed Stevenson Screen. So that is an average upward bias of 0.55 degrees Fahrenheit. Not very much, you might think but the whole scare about global warming is based on a claimed, observed temperature rise of only 1.2 degrees Fahrenheit in a century.
Anthony Watts then decided to have a look at the NWS's Stevenson Screens in his locality to see if they were being painted to the official specification. What he found was disquieting. In one case, heat-generating radio equipment had been installed inside the screen, near to the temperature sensors. In other cases the weather stations were near to the outlet vents of air conditioning systems or close to other heat sources - all of which would tend to bias the recorded temperatures upwards.
So he conducted further investigations, eventually recruiting a team of volunteers to observe and photograph as many of the 1221 weather stations as possible all over the United States. 865 of them were visited. NEARLY NINE OUT OF TEN WEATHER STATIONS PROVED TO BE OUTSIDE THE SPECIFICATIONS LAID DOWN BY THE U.S. AUTHORTIES THEMSELVES.
They were near to artificial heat sources, on top of concrete or tarmac surfaces, close to buildings, in the steamy warmth of sewage farms and so on. ALL OF THE OBSERVED FAULTS WOULD TEND TO RAISE THE RECORDED TEMPERATURES. It is a fascinating story of one man's determination to get at the truth and can be read in full at SurfaceStations.org . Anthony Watts also has a regularly updated blog wattsupwiththat.com which is one of the most widely read, independent sources of climate information. I particularly like the fact that contrary views are welcomed. Whilst they are vigorously debated, they are treated with respect and normal courtesy - unlike some blogs pushing the official line.
To return to my analogy of that corn merchant's balance - the few cubic feet of air inside a Stevenson Screen stand proxy for a huge amount of the earth's atmosphere. Weather stations are often hundreds of miles apart. So th
Cliched I know but what else are you going to listen to on hearing the news that Alex Chilton has died at the criminally young age of 59?
One of the most beautiful songs ever written.
Nice post in the Guardian from Michael Hann, remembering Chilton and his impact on modern music.
Apologies for the lateness this week. It was one of those mornings and I'm still catching up.
The economy and jobs were the main feature today along with the announcement Scotland is to have a Bank Holiday on 5 June 2014 to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.
Iain Gray (Labour) concentrated on erm... lots really. Apprenticeships, unemployment, Garl were included in his questions. The FM was delighted Mr Gray welcomed the 19,991 modern apprenticeships this financial years and also asked the parliament to note that the new apprenticeship grant scheme for 4,000 young people, opened on 11 January with £4 million, was fully subscribed by 4 February.
Although Mr Salmond was asked to take responsibility for the rise in unemployment figures he refused and reeled off statistics: As per ILO figures unemployment in Scotland is 7.6%, the EU 9%, the UK 7.8% and the US 10%. The FM laid the lack of recovery firmly at the door of Alistair Darling because he refuses to consider a fiscal stimulus package and he's cutting Scotland's budget by £500m (well he did have to get that in didn't he?)
Annabelle Goldie's question centred on the proposed civil service union strike planned for next Wednesday. She tried hard to pin down the FM with regard to ordering MSPs to attend parliament for a normal business day. The FM said the matter had to be handled sensitively and he would do everything to ensure the government operated as usual and further issues were outwith his remit. Very carefully worded by the FM that answer.
Tavish Scott also went along with the economy and reiterated that the whole of the UK was doing worse than all of Europe other than Greece. Tavish was in campaign mode or at least practicing his campaigning. One point of interest which arose from the FM's reply was that for the first time there was a reduction in the claimant count in February. Could it be that many jobseekers are just giving up looking for a job when all they're offered is a few weeks' training in something which holds no interest for them? Who am I to say.
Here are the links for this week's half hour: HolyroodLive and the BBC iPlayer.
RADIATION - HORMESIS OR L.N.T. - EXPERIMENTAL ANIMAL & PLANT EVIDENCE [ 18-Mar-10 6:47pm ]
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The supporters of the LNT theory, that radiation, even at low doses, is dangerous admit there is no evidence for it but that they might as well go for it anyway because there is no evidence, or at least not enough evidence to convince them that the opposite theory, hormesis, is true.
If one takes a very high standard of counter evidence, stronger than the level of evidence needed to convince that smoking killed, then that may be true - for human beings. After all mass experimentation on human beings to see if they die is not well thought of so all evidence on humans is going to be merely statistical measurement.
However if hormesis hasn't been absolutely proven on humans it has been on animals & plants.
This leaves the LNTers saying that, though there is no evidence they are interested in either way human beings must be completely different from all other animal, vegetable & microbial life in suffering from low level radioactivity.
This could just about be defended if the mechanism supposed to be causing this effect did so in a unique or almost unique way with human beings. Psychology is not controlled, though it is affected, by animal experiments because only human being s have human sized brains & that is what psychology is about. However for alleged radiation damage the process claimed to cause it is radiation particles (or gamma rays which are completely different) hitting ordinary living cells. The living cells of a human being, a monkey, an elephant or a mouse are, at the molecular level, constructed the same. Even the cells of plants & algae aren't much different.
To claim that humans react entirely differently from the rest of lifekind is similar to a creationist saying, as some do, that evolution may have created the algae, insects, dinosaurs, mice, anchovies, orangutans & chimpanzees but God uniquely created humans. If anything the creationist case is much more credible because the visible differences between us & chimpanzees is greater than the difference between our meat cells.
For a theory to be accepted as scientific it has to be testable. I have previously said that I think most "untestable" theories aren't actually untestable it is just that their proponents refuse to look at contrary evidence. Nothing could prove this more completely than the LNT/hormesis theory since hormesis researchers have repeatedly done such research & it has indeed proven, to them, that the theory is sound. The LNTers simply refuse to accept it while proposing no evidence of their own. One is the method of science - the other of quackery.
The undisputed animal evidence makes it worse. If there were no evidence it would be impossible to claim either theory correct & more research would have to be done. Where there is evidence that hormesis applies in closely related fields Occam's Razor or the Principle of Parsimony absolutely requires that the default position of anybody doing science must be that hormesis applies to human cells as it does to animal ones.
We can therefore say without any question that anybody claiming that the LNT theory is in any way valid is not a scientist & any politician who, in opposing nuclear plants, claims as fact that low level radiation is dangerous is wholly & completely corrupt & dishonest.
Occam's Razor applied to them says we can't trust them if they give their word they aren't lairs, thieves & murdering, parasitic, child raping, Nazi war criminals too (though it is possible further evidence might, at least partially exonerate some Green activists of being child rapists).
If one takes a very high standard of counter evidence, stronger than the level of evidence needed to convince that smoking killed, then that may be true - for human beings. After all mass experimentation on human beings to see if they die is not well thought of so all evidence on humans is going to be merely statistical measurement.
However if hormesis hasn't been absolutely proven on humans it has been on animals & plants.
One of the first studies in radiobiology (1898) found that X-irradiated algae grew faster than unirradiated control groups. Stimulated growth was noted in trees (1908) and increased life span in invertebrates (1918) and insects (1919). X-Rays stimulated seedlings (1927), plant growth (1937), along with guinea pigs, rabbits and mice (1940's). Increased life span was the rule in low dose irradiated rats, dogs, and even house flies (1950's). In a 1981 monograph (CRC Press), T. Luckey revived the term "hormesis," but this time with ionizing radiation and backed it up with a review of over 1250 articles from 85 years of experimental biology.These are all classic & repeatable experiments & nobody seems to dispute that they have repeatedly proven true.
This leaves the LNTers saying that, though there is no evidence they are interested in either way human beings must be completely different from all other animal, vegetable & microbial life in suffering from low level radioactivity.
This could just about be defended if the mechanism supposed to be causing this effect did so in a unique or almost unique way with human beings. Psychology is not controlled, though it is affected, by animal experiments because only human being s have human sized brains & that is what psychology is about. However for alleged radiation damage the process claimed to cause it is radiation particles (or gamma rays which are completely different) hitting ordinary living cells. The living cells of a human being, a monkey, an elephant or a mouse are, at the molecular level, constructed the same. Even the cells of plants & algae aren't much different.
To claim that humans react entirely differently from the rest of lifekind is similar to a creationist saying, as some do, that evolution may have created the algae, insects, dinosaurs, mice, anchovies, orangutans & chimpanzees but God uniquely created humans. If anything the creationist case is much more credible because the visible differences between us & chimpanzees is greater than the difference between our meat cells.
For a theory to be accepted as scientific it has to be testable. I have previously said that I think most "untestable" theories aren't actually untestable it is just that their proponents refuse to look at contrary evidence. Nothing could prove this more completely than the LNT/hormesis theory since hormesis researchers have repeatedly done such research & it has indeed proven, to them, that the theory is sound. The LNTers simply refuse to accept it while proposing no evidence of their own. One is the method of science - the other of quackery.
The undisputed animal evidence makes it worse. If there were no evidence it would be impossible to claim either theory correct & more research would have to be done. Where there is evidence that hormesis applies in closely related fields Occam's Razor or the Principle of Parsimony absolutely requires that the default position of anybody doing science must be that hormesis applies to human cells as it does to animal ones.
We can therefore say without any question that anybody claiming that the LNT theory is in any way valid is not a scientist & any politician who, in opposing nuclear plants, claims as fact that low level radiation is dangerous is wholly & completely corrupt & dishonest.
Occam's Razor applied to them says we can't trust them if they give their word they aren't lairs, thieves & murdering, parasitic, child raping, Nazi war criminals too (though it is possible further evidence might, at least partially exonerate some Green activists of being child rapists).
Warrior
The Westminster are proposing to annouce that the army's new light tanks will not be built in the UK.
The government had been told the 30 year old Scimitar tanks presently in service needed to be replaced and had recommended that the CV90 armoured reconnaissance tank be built by BAE Systems in Newcastle and Telford.
Our 'listening' Prime Minister seems to have dismissed the army's preferences and gave the £1 billion contract to the US arms manufacturer General Dynamics.
Initial BAE plans to cut 500 jobs in Britain and for the manufacture in Sweden of most of the parts for a sophisticated vehicle offering greater firepower than the current generation of Scouts in Afghanistan, have been quickly ditched. BAE is now promising to create or sustain 800 jobs in Britain, 500 of them in Newcastle, the home of Britain's last tank-making facility.
The Scout order is part of a bigger armoured vehicle replacement programme that also involves the Warrior. The Warrior upgrade has been delayed because of spending constraints and uncertainty about its firepower but ministers say there is no intention of cancelling the contract for a frontline armoured vehicle.
Our country is at war. Why can't decisions be taken swiftly? There are plenty extremely knowledgeable people in the Army who know the detail of tank requirements. Get the tanks built and out to our troops. It's appalling they're operating with 30-year-old equipment. Dare I suggest the money is taken out of the climate change propaganda fund.
The Lord Ashcroft affair is rumbling on (what do you mean quite nicely?) as the election date draws nearer.
It strikes me that both the Tories and Labour have a funding-related crisis on their hands with Unite for the former and the non-dom Lord for the latter.
For Labour, it is largely an internal party issue. There is nothing illegal about being funded by unions after all. However, the public can't help but be affected by the increasingly possible scenario that many members of the Unite union do not want their own party to win the next election and are staffing up the safe seats with many of their own in time for a lurch to the left in Opposition. A price worth paying to get rid of Gordon Brown perhaps.
For the Tories, the questions over Ashcroft drag on and currently dominate the BBC News website with William Hague under the spotlight. We already know that Hague was aware of Ashcroft's non-dom tax status months before this whole issue broke a few weeks ago but there is now a suggestion that the Shadow Foreign Secretary knew more than he is currently letting on far earlier. Per The Guardian:
The papers published today suggest that Hague - at that time Tory leader - was kept informed about the negotiations in 2000 over Ashcroft's tax status, though he insisted today that he had not been asked about the tax element "as far as anyone involved can recollect".
If William Hague knew that Lord Ashcroft was a non-dom after having brokered, or even while brokering, the deal that clearly stated that Ashcroft must be a full UK resident in exchange for entry into the House of Lords, and has kept that knowledge with him the whole time, then he should resign. It doesn't matter how genial the man is or how effective he would be as a Cabinet Minister, this is a question of integrity that, if found wanting, is too fundamental to sweep under the carpet.
Hague has tried to divert attention away from the key question by apologising for the non-issue of his saying that Ashcroft would pay tens of millions because the amount may only be millions. It's not the size of the tax receipts that are in question but the timing of them.
Hague to go? It'd be a sad sight to see but if this issue unfolds as I reckon it will, Hague's position will be untenable.
It strikes me that both the Tories and Labour have a funding-related crisis on their hands with Unite for the former and the non-dom Lord for the latter.
For Labour, it is largely an internal party issue. There is nothing illegal about being funded by unions after all. However, the public can't help but be affected by the increasingly possible scenario that many members of the Unite union do not want their own party to win the next election and are staffing up the safe seats with many of their own in time for a lurch to the left in Opposition. A price worth paying to get rid of Gordon Brown perhaps.
For the Tories, the questions over Ashcroft drag on and currently dominate the BBC News website with William Hague under the spotlight. We already know that Hague was aware of Ashcroft's non-dom tax status months before this whole issue broke a few weeks ago but there is now a suggestion that the Shadow Foreign Secretary knew more than he is currently letting on far earlier. Per The Guardian:
The papers published today suggest that Hague - at that time Tory leader - was kept informed about the negotiations in 2000 over Ashcroft's tax status, though he insisted today that he had not been asked about the tax element "as far as anyone involved can recollect".
If William Hague knew that Lord Ashcroft was a non-dom after having brokered, or even while brokering, the deal that clearly stated that Ashcroft must be a full UK resident in exchange for entry into the House of Lords, and has kept that knowledge with him the whole time, then he should resign. It doesn't matter how genial the man is or how effective he would be as a Cabinet Minister, this is a question of integrity that, if found wanting, is too fundamental to sweep under the carpet.
Hague has tried to divert attention away from the key question by apologising for the non-issue of his saying that Ashcroft would pay tens of millions because the amount may only be millions. It's not the size of the tax receipts that are in question but the timing of them.
Hague to go? It'd be a sad sight to see but if this issue unfolds as I reckon it will, Hague's position will be untenable.
Over a year ago I posted about polygamy within the UK's Muslim community. Having listened to this piece from the Today programme, it seems it's on the increase, especially among young Muslims.
Is it time to enforce British law to protect women in such situations?
With thanks to ScunnertNation
With chants of 'Sean Connery, Sean Connery' childishly, parochially and bizarrely ringing in his ears, Angus Robertson rose at PMQs yesterday to ask his question. The query of whether one of Downing St's staffers "took part in a conference call in July 2008 to discuss the suitability of Steven Purcell?" was met with a reply of 'I'll look into it from the PM'.
Now the really big question - Does anyone really care?
If some Labour colleagues knew of Purcell's woes back then, is it a cover up or merely a show of support that they didn't act on it? Is that even the angle Angus is aiming for?
Maybe it's my short attention span, maybe it's my strong compassionate streak or maybe I'm old-fashioned and just like elections to be about policies, but my level of interest in this red thread is all but extinguished and just think Steven Purcell should be allowed to bow out as gracefully as he can on a personal level.
So I would kindly suggest that the SNP group heed Tom Harris' warning and really soul-search to decide if they are "exploiting a tragic case" as the Glasgow South MP put it in The Herald. I don't think they are, but they'd pay a painful price if the public decided otherwise.
At a council level, the calls from John Mason for an investigation is firmer territory. Yousuf suggested recently that we shouldn't have an investigation because we don't know what the answers are yet. That's not generally the order in which these things happen. Answers follow investigations, not precede them.
There are enough allegations to justify some sort of review at least but until the authorities or auditors pick up the ball that the SNP is clearly desperate to hand off, the risks of this story continually being in the press sit more with the SNP than with Labour.
Now the really big question - Does anyone really care?
If some Labour colleagues knew of Purcell's woes back then, is it a cover up or merely a show of support that they didn't act on it? Is that even the angle Angus is aiming for?
Maybe it's my short attention span, maybe it's my strong compassionate streak or maybe I'm old-fashioned and just like elections to be about policies, but my level of interest in this red thread is all but extinguished and just think Steven Purcell should be allowed to bow out as gracefully as he can on a personal level.
So I would kindly suggest that the SNP group heed Tom Harris' warning and really soul-search to decide if they are "exploiting a tragic case" as the Glasgow South MP put it in The Herald. I don't think they are, but they'd pay a painful price if the public decided otherwise.
At a council level, the calls from John Mason for an investigation is firmer territory. Yousuf suggested recently that we shouldn't have an investigation because we don't know what the answers are yet. That's not generally the order in which these things happen. Answers follow investigations, not precede them.
There are enough allegations to justify some sort of review at least but until the authorities or auditors pick up the ball that the SNP is clearly desperate to hand off, the risks of this story continually being in the press sit more with the SNP than with Labour.
Video courtesy of Moridura
During the rabble called PMQs yesterday, Angus Robertson the SNP MP, asked a question about Stephen Purcell.
During the rabble called PMQs yesterday, Angus Robertson the SNP MP, asked a question about Stephen Purcell.
"...Will he confirm that a Downing Street staffer took part in a conference call in 2008 which discussed the suitability of Stephen Purcell?"
Watch the video and see how the BBC commentator over-talks the PM's response which was exceptionally brief but inaudible.
The Speaker allowed this juvenile behaviour yet when the PM was talking he enjoyed the sound of his own voice shouting, "Order, order."
Once again reaffirmation that Westminster cares not a jot for Scotland.
Oh, MekQuarrie and myself think it was the libdems doing the 'Sean Connery' heckling. What's your opinion?
Cllr Fraser Macpherson - LibDem Councillor for Dundee's West End - www.dundeewestend.com [ 18-Mar-10 12:17am ]
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Got bored of the telly tonight and reduced to 'Magic' on Sky - but good to hear this 1989 hit by Sonia! Happy days!
No Jeff has been worried that his crystal ball has been a bit wonky of late. Well I thin that on this St Patrick's night this Irishman will be able to partly put his mind to rest.
Almost 18 months ago, conveniently on my birthday so I could remember the date, he blogged:
Because until tonight the good Liberal Democrat party in West Lothian hadn't selected their candidates for the General Election. However, they did prove Jeff right in deciding that there wasn't "a Lib Dem better credentialed than [my] good self" in given me another turn as the candidate for Linlithgow and East Falkirk. Jeff wasn't alone both Michael Connarty and Tam Smith have asked me am I the candidate, I've had to say only that my name would be in the hat before tonight.
The West Lothian have also kept up the continuity from 2005 by selection Fauldhouse's own Charles Dundas once again as the candidate for Livingston.
You may notice one or two changes around the blog to indicate this event, one of which much as a regret doing is putting comments unto pre-moderation. The main reason for this is that I cannot be always available to check comments that go up. In light of recent events on other blogs this an action I feel I have no alternative with my current position but to face. I apologise for the inconvenience.
Almost 18 months ago, conveniently on my birthday so I could remember the date, he blogged:
"Stephen Glenn is expected to stand in Linlithgow and Falkirk East for the Liberal Democrats. A very tough contest indeed for the genial Ulsterman."My response to him at the time was:
"But I'm expected to stand then am I? You know the result of the selection process before I do, do you? ;)"
Because until tonight the good Liberal Democrat party in West Lothian hadn't selected their candidates for the General Election. However, they did prove Jeff right in deciding that there wasn't "a Lib Dem better credentialed than [my] good self" in given me another turn as the candidate for Linlithgow and East Falkirk. Jeff wasn't alone both Michael Connarty and Tam Smith have asked me am I the candidate, I've had to say only that my name would be in the hat before tonight.
The West Lothian have also kept up the continuity from 2005 by selection Fauldhouse's own Charles Dundas once again as the candidate for Livingston.
You may notice one or two changes around the blog to indicate this event, one of which much as a regret doing is putting comments unto pre-moderation. The main reason for this is that I cannot be always available to check comments that go up. In light of recent events on other blogs this an action I feel I have no alternative with my current position but to face. I apologise for the inconvenience.
17-Mar-10
Cllr Fraser Macpherson - LibDem Councillor for Dundee's West End - www.dundeewestend.com [ 17-Mar-10 10:47pm ]
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With thanks to Sheena Wellington, here's the latest update from Friends of Wighton :On Saturday 20th March, the Friends of Wighton are presenting a Cappuccino Concert in Dundee, performed by the well-known entertainer Tich Frier, from Edinburgh.
Held in the atmospheric Wighton Centre, upstairs in Dundee Central Library, the event starts at 10.30am with coffee and newspapers. The music will be start at 11 am and run for about an hour. Admission is £5.
Tich has been singing folk songs for over 40 years, and has shared stages with some of the greats of folk music and taken his passion for folksong half way round the world and back.
Known for his great voice, driving guitar and uncontrollable sense of humour, his repertoire is taken from the tradition as well as from some of the finest writers around, and is continually nourished by new songs from his own pen and often from sources not obviously "folkie".
His performances also feature his unique brand of frequently surreal tall stories.
His most recent CD, "Shanghaied", was released in 2007.
For more information please visit www.tichfrier.co.uk or www.friendsofwighton.com.
Admission £5, includes coffee and newspapers served from 10.30am.
Tickets available on the door, or in advance from Rainbow Music, 35 Cowgate, Dundee - 01382 698397.
Held in the atmospheric Wighton Centre, upstairs in Dundee Central Library, the event starts at 10.30am with coffee and newspapers. The music will be start at 11 am and run for about an hour. Admission is £5.
Tich has been singing folk songs for over 40 years, and has shared stages with some of the greats of folk music and taken his passion for folksong half way round the world and back.
Known for his great voice, driving guitar and uncontrollable sense of humour, his repertoire is taken from the tradition as well as from some of the finest writers around, and is continually nourished by new songs from his own pen and often from sources not obviously "folkie".
His performances also feature his unique brand of frequently surreal tall stories.
His most recent CD, "Shanghaied", was released in 2007.
For more information please visit www.tichfrier.co.uk or www.friendsofwighton.com.
Admission £5, includes coffee and newspapers served from 10.30am.
Tickets available on the door, or in advance from Rainbow Music, 35 Cowgate, Dundee - 01382 698397.
I recently mentioned that Stagecoach Strathtay was giving consideration to my request, on behalf of residents, to extend the 69 bus service to cover Richmond Terrace and Richmond Court (see above). This morning, I took part in a site visit with the bus company and a City Council officer to ascertain if the bus can safely turn to allow it to cover the area. Conclusion - no problem - it can.
The next step is to see how the additional 4 minutes needed in the timetable can be achieved. Stagecoach Strathtay will investigate this and I will update residents when I hear further.
I also participated in today's City Council Scrutiny Committee, at which Care Commission and HMIE inspection reports on educational establishments in the city were discussed.
This evening, I attended the latest meeting of the West End anti-graffiti group, where we progressed our graffiti removal initiative, planned for the last weekend of May. A really positive and productive meeting.
Lastly, it was with great sadness that I learned earlier today of the death of Ann Caird of Thomson Street. A former community councillor and active member of the West End community, Ann will be sadly missed.
One thing I've discovered in very recent years is that the Righteous don't have a sense of humour. Their lives are spend finding fault with those of us who support the 'live and let live' adage.
A fine example of the Righteous at work is this:
A charge nurse, 33, who had four years' unblemished service, said "It's months since I have been in this position," as she straddled a patient while helping her colleagues control him. She was dismissed for gross misconduct from her £25,000-a-year post at London's Central Middlesex Hospital.
Laura Bowater was on her way home from a shift in July 2006 when she stopped to help staff restrain the 'extremely strong' 31 year old patient whose trousers had been removed so doctors could inject his buttock. She sat on his ankles to control his flailing legs, but the patient span onto his back, exposing himself and kicking her forward. It was then she made the 'humorous' comment which senior staff investigated six weeks later.
An employment tribunal initially agreed she had been unfairly dismissed but the decision was overturned on appeal because, although the comment was heard only by other medics, it was made in a public A & E department.
The NHS has lost an efficient member of staff. The Righteous have gained another scalp.
I really don't want to live in a country which is fast becoming a place where common sense no longer prevails do you?
Jowell, Byrne, Hain and Harman look on as Cameron takes another swing at Brown
Overall, it was fairly boring this week. Only two Conservative backbenchers stood out: Redwood and Howarth, and the Brown/Cameron exchange and the Brown/Clegg exchange are worth watching in the vids. Gwyn Prosser, Labour MP for Dover asked again about the forced sale of the Port of Dover.
Brown was flanked by Harman and Hain, who's face was a picture of sunny adoration as he gazed up at our own Dear DH. All in all it began rather subdued and resembled a Still Life tableau. Not for long though.
Brown paid tribute to Ashok Kumar, the Labour MP who died suddenly this week and to the three soldiers kia in Afghanistan though I wasn't clear whether he accounted for the two soldiers reported killed this morning. "1st Battalion Royal Angligan [sic]Regiment attached to the Household Cavalry Regiment battlegroup..."
Baldry, (Con, Banbury) asked re Chilcot and discrepancies between accounts in defence expenditure. "Will the PM now set the record straight and will he write to Chilcot to ensure their record is also corrected?"
Brown: "Yes Mr Speaker and I am already writing to Lord Sir John Chilcock [sic] about this issue... Defence spending rose from £21bn to this year around £40bn from 1997 to this day... " This was not greeted well by Cons b/benchers. "..but I do accept that in some years defence expenditure did not rise in real terms." Amazing, that must be a first for Brown to actually admit something.
Plaskitt (Lab, Warwick & Leamington) was on his feet next asking a question about Surestart and no one was taking any bets that Brown would use it to accuse the Conservatives of wanting to cut it. True to form he bemoaned the lack of "all party consensus" and attacked the Cons for a policy which they do not actually hold. The Conservatives, however, didn't take it lying down, which amused Jack Straw no end. I wish someone would move the microphone further away from Brown's stabbing fingers - bang, bang, bang on the dispatch box.
After acknowledging and associating himself with the tributes paid Cameron went on to thank Brown for answering Baldry's question about defence expenditure: "In three years of asking the PM questions I don't think I've ever heard him make a correction or a retraction ... there have been years when there have been real terms cuts and at last the PM has admitted it." Cue Brown smirk.
Cameron moved on to the BA strike. Brown's thoughts are"with the customers of BA and my thoughts also are with those who depend for their jobs on the success of BA... I don't think an industrial relations dispute should be brought into the House of Commons in this way." Called for a consensual resol-yewshun.
Cameron accused him of being weak. Would Brown join him in"urging Unite members to join them by crossing the picket line, going to work and getting the business moving."
Brown accused him of being partisan. Cameron said it was back to the 1970s. Hand-wringing from a weak PM while companies go down. Brown read from an old Daily Telegraph article and said the Cons were opportunistic. Cameron said the response was 'pathetic' (which Brown seemed to like judging by the smile on his face) .. and the question was batted back and forth. Brown didn't answer, preferring instead to practice his electioneering soundbites and accuse Cameron of not calling for management and unions to sit down and talk. Cameron accused Brown of acting in the union interest, not the national interest - he's also picked up Brown's nasty habit of stabbing the despatch box. Good performance from Cameron this week.
Clegg was also good again this week. He asked about CharlieWhelan and Lord Ashcroft - both exactly the same - "one is the Baron of the Unions and the other is the Baron of Belize..."
Brown replied that Labour and the LibDems had agreed changes to political party funding a year ago but the Conservatives rejected the deal. Clegg corrected Brown and accused him of re-writing history - a short but strong exchange worth watching. Ashcroft pays UK taxes on UK income so Brown's statement that he doesn't pay tax in Britain is very misleading - as it's designed to be.
Of the backbenchers Redwood had a short and sweet question about Royal Bank of Scotland: "Taxpayer-owned RBS has £700bn less today in loans and other assets than a year ago. Where has the £700bn gone?" I couldn't detect anything that could be construed as an answer from Brown.
Prosser ( Lab, Dover) "Does my Rt Hon Friend agree with me that to sell the Port of Dover would be the wrong thing. (I don't expect he'll agree with that)..."
Brown: "There'll be no forced privatisation under Labour ...but we must look for new options...and necessary investment for Dover's regeneration..."
Howarth (Con, Aldershot) raised the matter of "Charlie Whelan who was copied into all the smeargate emails and was, apparently, part of the 'forces of hell' of which the Chancellor spoke. Can the PM explain why he's now back in No.10 advising the PM or has his moral compass suffered the same fate as the telephone and other items beaten up in the bunker?"
Brown gave almost exactly the same answer he gave to a Conservative b/bencher last week. "He has a chance to ask a question about his constituency. He has a chance to speak up for the people of Britain. Once again the Conservatives are trying to turn an industrial relations dispute into a political football; they should be ashamed of themselves."
Winterton, ( Con, Macclesfield) asked about manufacturing in the area and the impact of regulation, particularly from Europe, which it needed "like a hole in the head."
Twigg (Lab, Halton) - public sector investment.
Robertson (SNP Westminster Leader) asked a question about Stephen Purcell which could barely be heard against the backdrop of Labour thugees disgracefully chanting, "Sean Connery". Doesn't it make you proud? Brown said he knew nothing about it - par for the course.
Gilroy (Lab, Plymouth Sutton) - marine renewables and low-carbon jobs for the future.
Steen (Con, Totness) (he of the very large house that resembles Balmoral) asked a long rambling question about a human trafficking campaign which made me lose the will to live.
Hoyle (Lab, Chorley) Jessica campaign to stop scamming of 'vulnerable people'.
Hughes (LibDem, Southwark N & Bermondsey) re index-linked pensions
Ruane (Lab, Vale of Clwd) - another angry display by an ignorant b@st@rd - interest rates.
Swinson (LibDem, Dunbartonshire East) re Tesco - too much power over communities?
Clapham (Lab, Barnsley) - asbestos-related diseases.
And that's about it for this week. I'm going for a well-deserved cup of tea and then I'll be back to post the videos.
The videos of the half hour can be seen at Calling England who kindly cross-posts this every week.
Newsnight - Sangin tour takes its toll on Green Howards and families [ 17-Mar-10 4:14pm ]
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Watch the full film on how the Green Howards and their families are coping with a challenging tour in the most dangerous part of Afghanistan on Newsnight on Wednesday 17 March at 10.30pm on BBC Two, then afterwards on the BBC iPlayer and Newsnight website.
via BBC News – Newsnight – Sangin tour takes its toll [...]
Related posts:
- US toll in Afghanistan war reaches 1,000
- Cocktail of ingredients making Sangin so lethal
- Quote of the Day – Michael Crick on Bully Brown – Newsnight
As an Irishman you'd expect me to be celebrating St. Patrick's day this evening. Well I may have a dram of Whiskey (note the spelling) later to celebrate but there is a local party meeting this evening first.
Of course that doesn't stop my blog from celebrating without me.
As a Northern Irishman it is over to the Muppets to sing the song of our country.
As a Rugby fan I'm still on a high from the events around the time of the last St. Patrick's day. Ok there was a bit of disappointment on St. Valentine's day but our hearts were soon put back after being broken at Twickenham.
Mind you to celebrate the 250th Anniversary of one of Ireland's most famous exports this was the advert.
Sláinte mhaith.
Of course that doesn't stop my blog from celebrating without me.
As a Northern Irishman it is over to the Muppets to sing the song of our country.
As a Rugby fan I'm still on a high from the events around the time of the last St. Patrick's day. Ok there was a bit of disappointment on St. Valentine's day but our hearts were soon put back after being broken at Twickenham.
Mind you to celebrate the 250th Anniversary of one of Ireland's most famous exports this was the advert.
Sláinte mhaith.
This morning in the Independent we learnt that the the Youth Justice Board are not publishing their figures on youth crime as scheduled but in 6 months time. An official at the government agency has said that the reason for this is official "purdah" period. The former Civil Servant in me is screaming Gordon hasn't gone to the Palace yet he can't be suppressing reports under the election "purdah" period, that is unless the politico in me has missed the actually calling of the General Election (and I know that hasn't happened).
We also have Helen Goodman Labour MP for Bishop Auckland crying out:
"The police have talked to me about [methedrone] and have really made the case for a legal ban on it.
She said it should for two reasons: "One is that it would send out a clear message to young people about how very dangerous it is.
"Secondly, it would mean that the police have more powers for dealing with it.
"The police have told me that there are people standing outside the primary school in one of the villages in my constituency trying to push that to people under the age of 12.
"We need to educate young people in the dangers and risks of taking drugs, but I also think we need to have a proper legal framework.
"Ideally, as well as looking at this one particular drug we'd have a new legal framework that would ensure you couldn't just go away, tweak it, and come back and sell something that's incredibly close."
On point one tobacco can be dangerous, alcohol can dangerous, indeed any alien item in the human body can be dangerous. Heck tasers can be dangerous, on people with minor heart conditions could be fatal.....oh hang on the police want to use them not ban them. I don't hear Labour MPs crying out for a complete ban on any of these to send out a clear message to young people, and the police, how very dangerous these are.
Also this is the same police force that have called out for ID cards, random stop and search, rights to detain for 90 days without charge, rights for fully exposing search at airports all of which, and more, have been pandered to by authoritarian Labour, without consideration of civil liberty considerations.
But then it all comes back to information, or more to the point Labour's control of information should I say. Just like we have a Youth Justice Board providing information to the Government about youth crime (even though the rest of us won't get that info for six months) how about a similar body for drug usage. Let's see let us call it the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD), that'll work says exactly what is says on the tin. Lets appoint some experts in that field to that panel and let them look into things such as new drugs on the scene, just like methedrone. They could advise government based on scientific evidence just how dangerous the various drugs in our culture are.
Guess what? The ACMD does exist.
Guess what? The ACMD had a sub-committee looking into legal highs.
Guess what? Labour didn't like what the Chief expert Dr David Nutt had to say about cannabis in October so the Home Secretary sacked him.Other members of the panel also resigned.
As a result of losing the six experts Home Secretary Alan Johnson has said he would not pre-judge decisions on drug classification ahead of the committee issuing advice. However, we have Labour and Conservative members of the house now wishing to jump just such a gun before scientific opinions are made.
As Chris Huhne Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary points out
"If the Home Secretary hadn't meddled in the work of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs we would already have had their advice and the Government would be able to act," said the Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary."The failure to classify methedrone is a direct consequence of the Government's interference in the independent advice of its scientific advisers.
"If the Home Secretary hadn't meddled in the work of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs we would already have had their advice and the Government would be able to act."
So it is all very well Mandelson saying a review into methedrone should be "speedily, carefully" carried out. Thing is that process was stalled by Labour own stubbornness to accept scientific fact. They'll happily accept scientific 'fact' when it suits them, weapons on mass destruction in Iraq springs readily to mind, but not when it goes against what they have already said.
This post has been sent via email therefore spacing and fonts may not appear at my usual standard. Also there may be links to other relevant blog entries or other content added later today along with adding the correct tagging.
The Future Under Trade Union Dominance?
As the trade union misogynists scream of their longed for war against what may be a democratically elected Conservative Government, ergo, the Nation and democracy, we can only imagine how their attitude to non-members would play out. When you consider the brutishness of ill educated, chip on the shoulder socialists and their union pay masters then you can see how easily their retribution can become a replica of the scene above. Make no mistake, this is how dreadful such people are. Whelan, Peter Pederast even that son of the snotty manse himself, regard the ends justify the means as a viable way to hold power. 59 Labour PPCs from Unite, more from the GmBH. Dromey handed a seat on a platter by his bloody awful wife. One thing is for certain, none of them care one jot about you and I or even their compliant and equally stupid members. God help us all under a trade union dictatorship. The cat is well and truly out of the bag. 1970s will seem utopia in comparison.
Weekly Bulletin of The Socialist Party of Great Britain 142
Dear Friends,
Welcome to the 142nd of our weekly bulletins to keep you informed of changes at Socialist Party of Great Britain @ MySpace.
We now have 1564 friends!
Recent blogs:
Tony Blair and the Chilcot inquiry What is Real Democracy and How Do We Get It? What's Wrong with Using Parliament?
Quote for the week:
"Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people." Oscar Wilde (attributed)
Continuing luck with your MySpace adventures!
Robert and Piers
When Brown and Darling are preparng their budget, they should pay heed to this document and note well what it says. Some choice advice and quotes for them to ponder. For the rest of us read it and weep at the state these utter f*ckwits have manged to get our country into.
First a quick review [...]
Related posts:
- Gordon Brown knows best and Ignores his own Advice
- Darling scraps Brown's Golden Rules
- Some Light Reading from David Cameron at the Guardian
Ha Ha. Do I need to say more:
Gordon Brown has been forced to admit he misled the House of Commons over defence spending, after an investigation by Channel 4 News FactCheck.
Continues on their blog.
The FactCheck Blog – Brown admits he got his defence sums wrong.
Related posts:Brown is Fiscally Illiterate – Fact Checked
Another Brownie at [...]
Related posts:
- Brown is Fiscally Illiterate – Fact Checked
- Another Brownie at PMQ's – Now Brown Foxed
- Brownie at PMQ's – Gordon Brown economical with Truth shock
With the election coming up the government has said that they are going to build a high speed train from London to Scotland. Well actually they have said that starting in 2016 they, well actually the government after next, will start on the bit between London & Birmingham.
Although Scottish big statist politicos are keen to inform us that "the economic & environmental benefits speak for themselves" this is complete nonsense.
So at a cost of £34 bn (maybe) with a 10% return on investment & say an extra 50% for actually running the trains we get [34bn X 10% x 1.5 / 43.7 million } £117 per singkle ticket> £234 return. That is best possible in all cases. Nobody really believes the price won't go up, the carriage of 120,000 a day, 5,000 an hour, each & every hour, looks optimistic to say the least. Yet it still comes out far more expensive than the plane. Of course if you price it that high people use the alternatives & the price has to go up higher for the remaining passengers - or else we just keep subsidising till doomsday.
John Redwood has blogged on why it was far easier to go to Manchester by plane than train (basically the train depends on making a whole range of connections, any of which can be late & lots of inconvenient waiting. I commented:
Although Scottish big statist politicos are keen to inform us that "the economic & environmental benefits speak for themselves" this is complete nonsense.
Network Rail (who support it, at least as long as they aren't asked to raise the capital to get them build it) based its decision on a 12-month study involving 20,000 hours of work and more than 1,500 pages of analysis.
The firm said that the line would account for 43.7 million journeys per year by 2030, which would result in 3.8 million fewer vehicle journeys and fewer carbon dioxide emissions.
"If, as research suggests, up to three times as many passengers will be travelling on our railways by 2020, then it is important that we move quickly in planning today for the rail network of tomorrow," said Scotland's Transport Minister Stewart Stevenson. ctd
So at a cost of £34 bn (maybe) with a 10% return on investment & say an extra 50% for actually running the trains we get [34bn X 10% x 1.5 / 43.7 million } £117 per singkle ticket> £234 return. That is best possible in all cases. Nobody really believes the price won't go up, the carriage of 120,000 a day, 5,000 an hour, each & every hour, looks optimistic to say the least. Yet it still comes out far more expensive than the plane. Of course if you price it that high people use the alternatives & the price has to go up higher for the remaining passengers - or else we just keep subsidising till doomsday.
John Redwood has blogged on why it was far easier to go to Manchester by plane than train (basically the train depends on making a whole range of connections, any of which can be late & lots of inconvenient waiting. I commented:
This exactly explains why a fully automated rail service would work. With driverless single carriage units leaving main stations every few minutes rather than 6 carriage units every half hour, waiting time is drastically cut & the risk of missing a link removed.A High Speed Train may take a short time of the actual travel time but it is the waiting for connections that wastes it. An automated system, because there are carriages leaving every couple of minutes ends that waste (& the worry about missing a connection). By going for a faster conventional train rather than an updated process we are making the same mistake government made over Concorde, when the future was in the cheap mass transit 747. Going for the fastest/biggest conventional process rather than real process innovation is one of the regular failings of government since it is politically more defensible to be certainly wrong in a conventional way than possibly not fully right in an unconventional one.
We could have tickets printed out at the monorail stop (like a bus stop but overhead so no congestion) for your destination in Manchester - the monorail takes you to your the Underground; hence to Euston: a carriage takes you to Manchester; a monorail takes you to within 1 bus stop of your destination. None of this is complicated compared to the computer systems that run a Wii. It is just that (A) we have so many in government able to stop anything being done & (B) rail drivers unions (I am convinced B is much less powerful).
Two more British soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan.
They belonged to the 1st Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment, part of the Household Cavalry Regiment Battle Group and were killed yesterday, Tuesday 16 March.
The soldiers were killed as a result of an explosion which occurred in an area approximately 20km north of Musa Qal'ah district dcentre, Helmand province, yesterday afternoon.
Lieutenant Colonel David Wakefield said :
"It is with deep sadness I must inform you that a single IED explosion yesterday afternoon killed two British soldiers, both from 1st Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment, serving as part of the Household Cavalry Regiment Battle Group."
More deaths from IEDs and may have been caused by a lack of equipment. We have now lost 275 of our military in this war.
My sympathy to the family and friends of the fallen.
They even have a minder in his office to ensure that he toes their line.
The Standard has this:
One of Gordon Brown's senior officials at No 10 is entirely paid by the Unite trade union, the Standard reveals today.
Clare Moody, a national officer for the trade union behind the BA cabin crew strike [...]
Related posts:
- Charlie Whelan ex Brown Spin Doctor accused of Bullying
- Unfit for Office – Gordon Brown
- Forces of Hell Member still United with Brown
