You opened your arms like a school door to summer days.
This evening's episode of Heartbeat featured an unscrupulous haulage contractor who demanded that his drivers drive dangerously fast.J. Arthur MacNumpty has further details and some reasoned comment.Newly elected Lib Dem leader Tavish Scott has announced a reshuffle of his backroom team.
Leadership rival Mike Rumbles has been appointed chief whip, having previously been rural affairs and environment spokesman. Ross Finnie, also a contender for the top job, remains party health spokesman.
Glasgow MSP Robert Brown becomes justice spokesman, taking over from Margaret Smith who moves to education. But former leader Nicol Stephen will not have any shadow brief in the new team.
Actually it was just on the Guardian website, but it is nice to know someone reads my stuff.Last month, one of the broadsheet newspapers ran an article about the controversial proposals for eco-town Pennbury. It waxed lyrical about the south-east Leicestershire countryside being on a par with the finest scenery in Dorset or Devon. And on a summer's evening drive out to The Bakers Arms in Thorpe Langton, it's easy to see why.
This is the kind of lush, gently rolling countryside that flies the flag for sentimental patriotism. It summons to mind a Vaughan Williams soundtrack, a game of cricket on the village green and a pint of foaming ale.
Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting will give you a taste of Buchanan's views.“Congratulations to John McCain for hearing and responding to conservatives. Conservatives, the base of the party, have been listless. But, now, nearly all will work enthusiastically for the McCain-Palin ticket. In fact, this is the most enthusiastic conservatives have been since the era for Ronald Reagan.”
He concluded: “This is a grand-slam home run. Conservatives’ feet haven’t touched the ground since this announcement.”
Heresy Corner's veiled reference to Dan Quayle's spelling problems led me to wonder what he is doing now.Since leaving public office, Dan Quayle has authored three books: Standing Firm, A Vice-Presidential Memoir which was on the New York Times bestseller list for 15 weeks; The American Family: Discovering the Values that Make Us Strong; and Worth Fighting For.
He established and sold an insurance business in Indiana . For two years he was a distinguished visiting professor of international studies at Thunderbird, The American Graduate School of International Management.
Currently, Dan Quayle is Chairman of Cerberus Global Investments, LLC (Cerberus), President of Quayle & Associates, and serves on the boards of directors of IAP Worldewide Services, Inc., K2, Inc and Aozora Bank, Ltd in Tokyo . He makes frequent public appearances and speeches, and writes a nationally syndicated weekly newspaper column.
Quayle considered but decided not to run for Governor of Indiana in 1994.
He pulled out of his bid for the 1996 Republican presidential nomination, citing health problems related to phlebitis.
In April 1999, he announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination for 2000, attacking George W. Bush by saying "we do not want another candidate who needs on-the-job training".
In the first contest among the Republican candidates, the Ames Straw Poll of August 1999, he finished eighth. Commentators said that while he had the most political experience among prospective candidates (over Bush and Elizabeth Dole) and potential grassroots support among conservatives, his campaign was hampered by the legacy of his vice-presidency.
She certainly looks to me like a woman who can spell "potato".
The whole post is worth reading.
Later. But read this too.
If you have heard Tony Benn interviewed recently you will know that he is fond of saying there are five questions we should ask of any politician:"What power have you got? Where did you get it from? In whose interests do you use it? To whom are you accountable? How do we get rid of you?'Except that, as Oliver Kamm points out, that is not precisely what he said to Saddam.
"I have 10 grandchildren and in my family there is English, Scottish, American, French, Irish, Jewish, Indian, Muslim blood, and for me politics is about their future, their survival. And I wonder whether you could say something yourself directly through this interview to the peace movement of the world that might help to advance the cause they have in mind?"
The members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization are Russia, China and four Central Asian states: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.Russian President Dmitry Medvedev had appealed to the Asian alliance, which is made up of China, Russia and four ex-Soviet Central Asian nations, for unanimous support of Moscow's response to Georgia's "aggression."
But the alliance, which was created in 2001 to improve regional co-ordination on terrorism and border security, opted to take a neutral position and urged all sides to resolve the conflict through "peaceful dialogue."
"The participants ... underscore the need for respect of the historical and cultural traditions of each country and each people, and for efforts aimed at preserving the unity of the state and its territorial integrity," the alliance's statement said.
None of the other alliance members joined Russia in recognizing the independence claims of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
a dictators' club. Despite having several theoretical fields of activity, the main practical focus is entirely on security and, in the words of their declaration, combating "terrorism, separatism and extremism". That is code for repressing any moves to freedom in Central Asia.Even so, the Central Asian states may have reason to be less keen than some Western left-wingers are on the concept of a "former Soviet space" where Russia may do as it pleases.
I once asked Tony Blair how he found being Labour leader while in opposition compared with being in government. He remarked that he would wake up each morning in opposition and ask himself: "What do I have to say today?" In government, he awoke to the thought: "What do I have to do today?"
If you are a LibDem leader you arouse yourself with the frustration of wondering what you have to say, but equally then focusing on how you get anyone to report upon it and communicate it to a wider audience.
Methodius Isaac Bonkers is the pseudonym of Ben Hansen, a mild-mannered writer and storyteller who lives in Traverse City, Michigan. In psychological terms, Dr. Bonkers is Mr. Hansen's alter ego; i.e., the two men are actually the same person, though each posesses a distinct personality and character traitsI know just how he feels.
A map of Antarctica identified the point at which Ernest Shackleton's unsuccessful polar expedition of 1908-09 turned back as 97 miles south of the south pole. That should have been north of the south pole,
The herds of deer, about 340 in number at the last count, wander at will within the park - one of the finest herds of parkland deer in the country. Deer have been kept at Bradgate, in this fine example of ancient parkland, since the 13th century and to protect them from stress they have areas of the park reserved to them where they can escape from human presence when the park gets to busy.It is the sort of local amenity that you take for granted until you visit it. Then you are reminded what a miracle it is.
Bradgate Park contains nationally important geological exposures (some are over 700 million years old and rank as some of the oldest in England). It also contains some of the last important fragments of wet and grass heathland in Leicestershire, wonderful veteran trees and other special habitats, with a diverse range of flora and fauna including rare plant species and is also a valued site for a wide range of birds, vertebrates and invertebrates.
In addition it is home to moles, common shrews, pigmy shrews, bats, voles, mice, rabbits, foxes, adders, stoats, weasels and badgers. Throughout the estate there are 350 veteran trees - some over 500 years old and growing at the time of Lady Jane Grey and many others over 300 years old. Throughout the seasons, it is possible to find up to 106 species of bird, 20 species of mammal, 4 species of amphibians, 8 species of fish, a host of plant species, trees and shrubs as well as lichens, fungi and a host of invertebrate species with many of the flora and fauna regarded as locally rare.
Channel 4 is showing a Powell and Pressburger film every afternoon next week.The Liberal Democrat motion has been much commented on, possibly because it reads like the storyboard for “Apocalypse Now”, or perhaps even “Bleak House”. According to the motion, we are facing an “extreme bubble in the housing market” and the “risk of recession”, and we must “act to prevent mass home repossessions”.And Siôn Simon:
Presumably that is why the hon. Member for Taunton (Mr. Browne) got through his entire speech without mentioning any of those things until the last minute—they obviously keep him up late at night.
Fortunately for all of us, however, that colourful and lurid fiction has no real bearing on the macro-economic reality. In difficult economic times—here I find myself in agreement with the hon. Member for Fareham (Mr. Hoban)— [ Interruption. ] —at least in part; I do not want to get him into trouble. In difficult economic times, it generally pays to remain calm and to apply a cool, analytical mind to the situation. Hysterical over-reaction, as this motion demonstrates, might attract a few cheap headlines and some doom-laden Lib Dem press releases, and it might even frighten a few voters ahead of local elections, but it is not mature or responsible, as my hon. Friend the Member for Leeds, East (Mr. Mudie) took some time to point out.
Now that we have had “Apocalypse Now” and “Bleak House”, I am going to talk about “An Inconvenient Truth”, which is that the economy is strong and stable.”
It is alarming me to discover that people as esteemed as the Liberals think that we are in the grip of an “extreme bubble”. If we are in an “extreme bubble” now, could she tell us what sort of bubble we were in during the early 1990s when people’s homes really were being repossessed by the hundreds of thousands?You can find the whole debate in Hansard for 2 April 2008.
The Daily Telegraph reports that last two summers, which have been wet, have been bad for butterflies:Garden species such as small tortoiseshell, peacock and red admiral seem to have been among the worst hit.
Butterfly Conservation, which conducts an annual survey through volunteer spotters, says an accurate picture won't emerge until early next year when all the data has been analysed.
Chief executive Dr Martin Warren said: "There is no doubt that it has been dire for most species and unfortunately it follows an already bad run of summers.
"We are really concerned about the small tortoiseshell which has been in long-term decline and which seems to have reached a trough and stayed there."
My son Harry had briefly taken up autograph-hunting and he worked the room, clocking up the white-faced Whitelaw and Parkinson for starters. Then Harry moved on to get a signature from Denis Thatcher. Would it be all right to ask Mark Thatcher for an autograph, too?Mark's twin is no more complimentary about him.
“I wouldn’t bother if I was you,” said Denis: “the boy can scarcely write his own name” – which Harry thought the funniest thing he had ever heard.
Liberal Democrat Voice records the good news that the statistics for fatalities in road traffic accidents continue to show a steady drop. It quotes the following figures:1994-8 - 3,578 (average)Incredibly, there were far more fatalities than this each year back in the 1930s.
1999 - 3,423
2000 - 3,409
2001 - 3,450
2002 - 3,431
2003 - 3,508
2004 - 3,221
2005 - 3,201
2006 - 3,172
2007 - 2,946
Few now appreciate the carnage that reigned in the early years of motoring. Hore-Belisha himself, as a former journalist with an eye for a headline, referred to it as “mass murder”. In 1934, the year he took office, 7,343 people were killed on the roads.
As I struggle to get my head round collateralised debt obligations, peak oil theory and the real, effective dollar exchange rate, it is an occasional relief to be summoned from my work to admire the bull's testicles...
I am probably the last person entitled to complain, but I can't help noticing that Nick Clegg is given to drawing badly outdated comic parallels."Charlie Chaplin could do a better job running the Home Office than this Labour Government."And on Saturday it was:
"Frankly the Keystone Cops would do a better job running the Home Office and keeping our data safe than this government, and if this government cannot keep the data of thousands of guilty people safe, why on earth should we give them the data of millions of innocent people in an ID card database?"At least "frankly" is of more recent vintage. It was Paddy Ashdown's catchphrase in the 1990s.
The opening of this Youtube video by the German band Faust features what must be a scene from the Children's Film Foundation production Five Clues to Fortune.
So, far from being an exercise in the slovenly, "I was, like ...", I am now persuaded, is a demonstration of rigour. What the speaker who uses this formula is essentially saying is: "I cannot vouchsafe beyond peradventure that the information with which I am about to present you is truly authentic; but here at least is the essence of what I believe I averred at the time."
What a shame that it is now too late to acquaint Lord Macaulay with this valuable usage. It might have transformed his historiography. It would certainly have radically altered his epic poetry.
He may have been safe enough in asserting that Lars Porsena of Clusium swore by the nine gods that the great house of Tarquin should suffer wrong no more. But soon he goes on to claim: "Then out spake brave Horatius, / The Captain of the gate: / "To every man upon this earth / Death cometh soon or late. / And how can man die better / Than facing fearful odds, / For the ashes of his father / And the temples of his gods?".
Yet these noble sentiments are unlikely to have been noted down by some passing reporter. "Then brave Horatius was, like ..." would surely have served posterity better.
The Olympics minister, Tessa Jowell, today criticised the British media for running too many negative stories about China that failed to recognise the progress the country had made.The paper's website has a video of her saying it.
"You can get big headlines back home for slating the repressive regime - and there are some aspects that that are profoundly repressive - but there is a great risk of going too far," she warned in an interview with the Guardian.
a picture is emerging from various sources of Tibet as a country in lockdown. The Free Tibet campaign has provided a briefing detailing huge military build-ups in many areas of Tibet, with checkpoints on almost every corner and early evening curfews imposed. Undercover Channel 4 footage has shown snipers positioned on rooftops in Lhasa.
Respected China analyst Willy Lam today suggests the Chinese regime's pre-Olympics security build-up has been planned to enable a major crackdown on dissent after the games are over.
In my experience second preferences rarely make such a difference, particularly in elections with so few stages. But let's go on with the gossip:Insiders say it is unlikely any of the candidates will get the 50 per cent of votes needed to win on the first count, which means the person with the fewest votes will drop out and his supporters' second preferences will prove crucial. The Finnie and Rumbles camps say there is still the possibility of a surprise outcome.
One source says: "If it had just been Mike against Tavish, it would have been the same result as last time – but Ross entering the race turned it into a real three-way competition."
Oh yes, and Ross Finnie is known as "Captain Mainwaring" because of his resemblance to the Dad's Army character.Sources say Mr Scott was less than pleased when he discovered Mr Finnie was standing against him. Mr Finnie is the Lib Dems' most senior ex-minister, having served in Cabinet for the full eight years of the Labour-Lib Dem coalition, and in the same post, where he won praise for his handling of Scotland's foot-and-mouth outbreak.
Mr Finnie's campaign theme has been the importance of traditional Liberal values of individual freedom and civil liberties.
There is no charge but - not unreasonably - you have to be a Lib Dem member.Who’s Who in the Lib Dems is not just for Parliamentarians and the great and the good, they are already covered in the Lib Dems website (and even better on the new Lib Dem website that will be coming soon and I’ve had a sneak preview of). No, Who’s Who in the Lib Dems is also for the rest of us, who whilst happy to do our bit and deliver focuses, would like the rest of the party to know that we can do more than that and our experience, skills and knowledge outside the party may be of use, if only somebody would listen!
Well, here at Who’s Who in the Lib Dems online, we’re listening. So please, add an entry, whether you’re a parliamentarian, a member of staff, a councillor, a party office, a blogger, an activist or a member who wants to stand up and be counted.
Saentcat Anselm was liek Iz gotsa ideah of dis gr8test catbeing. Mai ideah of Ceiling Cat tis in mai miend. Ceiling Cat can bea realz. Srsly. Buttz ifs Ceiling Catz oenly plaeyin in mah hed and maibemietof existead den Ceiling Cat miet has bean moar pwnzor den he rlly is!! Oh noes!! Cuz den Ceiling Catz bigger in mah head den Ceiling Cat is fer realz! Airgoe, dis Ceiling Cat is moar grater den dat Ceiling Cat. Butz den, Saentcat Anselm was liek: "haha, I pwnzor uz catz wifout daeiteyz wif mah reduktshio add ubserdom!" Ceiling Cat can noe be bigger den anything else! Therefoars Ceiling Cat is in mah head ans in teh reelallities! Srsly!
"If someone had said to me a spacecraft had landed on the meadows last night I would have said 'well I heard it'."More on the BBC Suffolk pages.
In the past I have reported two stories about the Snailbeach District Railways. The first said that there were plans to reopen the line. The second said that two of the scheme's prime movers had died in a car crash in Switzerland.The newspaper goes on to say:Scottish Liberal Democrats have been warned by their auditors that they may be forced out of business if they do not tackle their financial debts.
The party has been told it may be deemed, in accounting terms, to be no longer a going concern, after nearly a tenth of its expenditure last year was not met by income.
But, as the Herald points out, other Scottish parties are equally precariously placed but have not received such warnings:In the Scottish LibDem case, expenditure reached £766,000, and the deficit ran to nearly £75,000. Liabilities exceeded assets by £22,131.
The auditor, PFF (UK), concluded that it could sign off last year's accounts as a true and fair view of the Scottish LibDem finances, but warned that the deficit conditions "indicate the existence of a material unceratinty which may cast significant doubt about the party's ability to continue as a going concern".
One is reminded of the work of the poet Ewan McTeagle:At the end of last year the SNP assets outstripped its liabilities by £585,000, and after raising more than £2.5m to run the party and its election campaigns, its overspend on the year was £241,000.
Scottish Labour's finances are closely tied up with Labour in London, which pays almost all the Scottish salary bill. While the Glasgow office ran a small surplus, London headquarters has debts of £18.9m - down from £25m the previous year.
Oh gie me a shillin' for some fags
and I'll pay yer back on Thursday,
but if you wait till Saturday
I'm expecting a divvy from the Harpenden Building Society
I love it when British sports teams do well. We all love it when British teams do well. But it does not change society.It comes from an article in the Guardian by Jackie Ashley: "The Olympian feats can inspire our obese nation."The Olympics ... provoke children, and adults, into running, swimming, cycling, jumping and rowing. They give the ordinary heroes, and draw us a little way after them. They remind us what hard work, dedication and skill can do. They provide stories about heartache and bravery - Paula Radcliffe - and giving something back - Kelly Holmes. And by doing that, they change millions of people's lives far away from grand stadiums.
Take, for instance, the ludicrous and offensive suggestion that overweight children should be taken into care because obesity is a form of "child abuse". (If it is, then removing children from their parents is a worse one.) The real way to fight child obesity is through food education, yes, but also sport.
Looking around at all the lean kids in coloured shirts, even I can see that Manchester United or Liverpool do more to stop British boys being too fat than any government programme.
What the glamour of football does for millions of boys needs to be matched for other boys, and for girls.
I have always suspected that John Major will be treated more generously by posterity than he has been by his contemporaries. And I am pleased to see him receiving his share of the credit for Britain's improved performance in the Olympics today.As John Major pricelessly commented, as Kinnock didn't know what he was saying, he never knew when he had finished saying it.Oh yes.
He returned to the same theme today in a BBC report on parents chasing university places through the clearing system on behalf of their children:In 1997, I completed my book The Culture of Fear. Most of the comments my copy editor made about the manuscript were routine questions about grammar, incoherent formulations and inconsistencies. But one of the comments stood out as an explicit challenge to the authenticity of the text. The contentious passage informed the reader of a relatively new development - the arrival of parents on campus. To illustrate the changing character of university life, I pointed to what was then a relatively novel phenomenon: students arriving on campus for their interviews, accompanied by their parents. "This cannot be true," exclaimed my editor.
At first, I was taken aback by her implicit challenge to my integrity. But after we had discussed this issue, I was able to understand where she was coming from. As someone who was an undergraduate in the 1970s, she could not reconcile her experience of a parent-free university with the subsequent changes.
It is worth pausing for a moment to reflect on just what a change in this. When I went to university in 1978 - and even during the interviews over the year before that - the whole point of the exercise was to strike out on your own and escape the influence of parents and schools. The change that has taken place makes me deeply sceptical when I am informed that young people grow up much faster these days.Frank Furedi, social commentator and professor of sociology at the University of Kent, says that controlling parents are "destroying the distinction between school and higher education".
"All universities now have to take the parent factor into account. On university open days you can see more parents attending than children," says Professor Furedi.
He says there have been cases of parents who arrive expecting to attend their children's university interviews.
Professor Furedi says that he tells parents that they have to leave, but there are other academics who "accept that this will be a family discussion".
"There is a powerful sense of infantilism, where parents can't let go."
This extends to universities having to handle complaints from parents over grades awarded to students, he says, and a constant over-involvement during term time.
"We have to remind parents that there is a professional relationship between academics and students," he says.
Professor Furedi expects this parental pressure to grow - with the risk of turning universities into "schools for biologically mature children".
The government’s eco-towns plans continue to be blighted by set-backs and protests, according to some reports.
Not only is the promised shortlist of towns now going to be released in 2009 rather than this October – because ministers say they need more time to look at revised applications – but it may be much shorter than originally planned, for a variety of reasons.
The list began with 16 towns but is now said to be down to 10 and could reduce further still. The plans could also be affected by an unexpectedly high level of hostility to the plans from the public and the possibility of legal challenges following accusations that eco-towns bypass traditional planning procedures.For arguments against development of the Pennbury site in Leicestershire, see my recent article for Comment is Free.
This blog supports Ros Scott. Goodnight.Lembit Opik, Liberal Democrat MP and official boyfriend to the stars, is campaigning to be party president. Simon Hughes gives up the job later this year and the former lover of one or other of the Cheeky Girls has declared his interest.
He could face stiff competition. There has been talk in Lib Dem circles that Charles Kennedy, former party leader, might run for the job. Now it’s even being whispered that Kennedy’s predecessor, Lord Ashdown, will make a comeback.
Could this be an “Anyone but Lembit” campaign? “I couldn’t possibly comment,” says a senior Lib Dem MP (although not Lembit, obviously).
There is a good article on Comment is Free about the situation in Georgia. It is written by Alan Johnson.The hard power comes in the form of tanks and Russia's control of other countries' energy supply.Finlandisation is back. During the cold war the term described those states which had a formal independence but existed in barely disguised servitude to Moscow. Finland, Jean-Francois Revel noted in his 1983 book. How Democracies Perish, "preserved the inviolability of its territory, what was left of it, and the right to live privately in a non-totalitarian society" but was forbidden to accept Marshall Plan aid, join the EEC or sign trade agreements with Europe. It took its orders from Moscow in foreign policy.
This is the fate Putin (and some in the west) now seek to impose on Georgia. And now, as then, Russia hopes to impose Finlandisation by a mix of hard and soft power.
The trouble is that elements of the left in Britain are so consumed with the Bush administration that they will support anyone who opposes it. Even a hard-line Russian government intent on holding its 19th century empire together.The conflict in Georgia "is not a story of Russian aggression, but of US imperial expansion". Georgia is no fledgling democracy to be defended but a "fully-fledged US satellite". Its government came to power in a "western-backed coup" don't you know, and western support for Georgia meant "conflict was only a matter of time". And after all, "'unipolar domination of the world has squeezed the space for genuine self-determination and the return of some counterweight has to be welcome".
Milne here manages something quite extraordinary: he "forgets" the mass escape from the prison house of nations that was only made possible by the collapse of Communism, while supporting the resurgence of an authoritarian Russia as the very means to open up "genuine space for self-determination". Astonishing.
While Russian tanks rolled into Georgian territory on August 8, a simultaneous 'cyber-attack' was turning Georgia's government web pages into a tangle of broken links.
Malicious technological mischief is something of a feature of Eastern European diplomatic relations. But the scale and, particularly, the timing of this cyber-attack, and the existence of a mysterious 'practice attack' a month earlier, pose important questions about the lead-up to the Russia-Georgian conflict.
At the time I wrote this I felt rather daring, but I did say:One side says they are examinations are getting easier: the other says that students are working harder than ever before.
I have come to the conclusion that both sides are right.
My impression is that, while for years liberals and the left have hotly denied that exams have been getting easier, it will soon be widely accepted that they are. (It is remarkably how quickly the unthinkable can become the new conventional wisdom.)It seems I was right. This morning's Guardian has a question and answer piece on the A level results by Polly Curtis which takes just this line. It begins:
You would not have found that in the Guardian even a year ago.Have A-levels got easier?
Research by Durham University suggests that most subjects have got two grades easier over the past two decades - this means an A is the new C grade. The same research revealed marked differences between subjects.
"From the point of view of pupils the exams are harder because they are more competitive. It's not enough to get a pass or a C. You need an A or three As to get into the top university."Francis Gilbert's piece on his experience of teaching English is also worth reading:
In my quest for good exam grades I encourage pupils to slap down the material that will enable them to meet the assessment objective rather than painstakingly help them craft essays – like I used to.
Since teachers are now judged solely on results by their students, parents and line managers, and their pay is dependent upon this, they would be foolish to teach like they used to.
The net result is that exam grades have risen, but standards have declined.
I expect Sky think this is the Georgian national anthem.Comprehensive coverage of the crisis developing in the South Ossetia province of Georgia on Sky News - it's just unfortunate that the breaking news service seems to think the war is raging in the US rather than eastern Europe.
"Georgia is a state in the southern United States," reads the ever-so helpful "Background on the Region" section of its "Georgia In Depth" pages. "Georgia was one of the Thirteen Colonies that revolted against British rule in the American Revolution ...
More news of the climate campaigners who were asked to leave a Telford park after dressing as penguins and handing out leaflets.How ridiculous! when people have been mugged in Hollinswood and Wellington……… that’s what we need to be monitoring, not innocent people in penguin suits .Today the Shropshire Star reports:
Thanks to the Star for the photograph too.Environmental campaigners who had dressed as penguins today defied a ban on handing out leaflets without permission in Telford Town Park.
Rachel Whittaker, of Wellington, was thrown out of the park last week after being told she needed permission, a criminal records bureau check and a risk assessment, before she would be allowed to distribute her leaflets on climate change.
But today she risked being ejected again, after deciding to finish giving out the 200 leaflets she has had printed. Joined by campaigner Graham Bunn, of Madeley, the pair vowed to stay until the job was done.
The 34-year-old once again donned a penguin beak and yellow flippers to highlight the plight of penguins and how they are affected by climate change.
When I was at school with the then Allison Lobbett, she never had any such problems. During mock O levels and then the real thing, if I held up my hand to ask for more paper before she did I knew I was doing really well.Miramax Film Corp filed its suit for breach of contract against Pearson on Friday in Manhattan Federal Court, according to Reuters, saying that although Pearson accepted $700,000 in August 2003 under a two-year contract, she has still not delivered the novel.
Miramax also said that Pearson has ignored its requests for information about the book's whereabouts since 2006.
And I said more pithily on the New Statesman site:Dominic Grieve, who has taken Davis's job in the Tory shadow cabinet, has an honourable record of fighting for liberty in the Commons. Yet you sense he is a good lawyer who has done the best he can with the brief he has been given. If the balance of power in that shadow cabinet changes or David Cameron changes his mind about where advantage lies, Grieve will argue against liberty just as effectively.
And, of course, Davis's absence from the shadow cabinet makes it more likely that the balance of power will change and that the likes of Liam Fox and Michael Gove, who would feel happier attacking the government for not being Neo Con enough, will be the decisive influences on Cameron.
It is now clear that Davis's political suicide bombing damaged his career and - far more important - has made it easier for the enemies of liberty in the Conservative Party (a club with a large and thriving membership) to prevail.And what has David Davis achieved by his resignation? If you care about liberty, then shadow home secretary looks quite a useful job to have.
His action looks more and more like an outbreak of the male menopause. He should have bought himself a sports car instead.
These were words to gladden the heart. "Wealth is about so much more than pounds or euros or dollars can ever measure. It's time we admitted that there's more to life than money. It's time we focused not just on GDP, but on GWB - general well being." This was David Cameron, 2006 vintage. His speech to the Google Zeitgeist conference suggested a new set of political and economic priorities. He spoke of a "passionate desire for capitalism with commitment". He noted that many companies and ordinary people "are expressing a profound dissatisfaction with rootless, rampaging globalisation".Developments today have shown how right Kampfner's analysis is.
Fast-forward two years, to the verge of a recession and the fears of knife crime, and what do we hear? Society is broken; more prisons should be built; more people should be denied bail. While the Tories are nowhere near the point of Michael Howard's dog-whistle anti-immigrant pitch of 2005, they are slipping back into their political comfort zone. That is a shame for the country, and a lost opportunity for them.
And Simon Milton has defended the actions of councils who use the act to spy on people. He says:amend the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act so that police no longer need to secure authorisation to conduct surveillance on those suspected of non-terrorist offences.
The changes would mean that the police would automatically be able to:
- Use covert video or listening devices in premises or vehicles.
- Watch premises to identify or arrest suspects.
- Conduct visual surveillance of public locations.
- Patrol, in uniform or plain clothes.
- Use thermal imaging and X-ray technology.
- Conduct surveillance using visible CCTV cameras.
"Generally [the powers] are being used to respond to residents' complaints about fly tippers, rogue traders and those defrauding the council tax or housing benefit system.Milton is the person who was put into City Hall by the Tories to act as Boris Johnson's representative on Earth.
"Time and again, these are just the type of crimes that residents tell us that they want to see tackled.
"Without these powers, councils would not be able to provide the level of reassurance and protection local people demand and deserve."
It's clear that no one understands the scoring, not even the people doing it. A dive by the German pair gets four and a half out of 10 for execution from one judge, and nine out of 10 from another. And none of the numbers corresponds with what the commentators have just said about the dive. It's basically the Eurovision Song Contest, in Speedos.
Or on game shooting at least.Nor even does pheasant shooting, where each man arrives with a small army of loaders, valets and cartridge boys, appeal to me.
No, give me the Rutland partridge: shoot at this fellow and he will take cover and fire back. That’s what I call good sport.
And those examples are:Good for Nudge. But there is a cautionary tale here, and one to which all aspirant salesmen of ideas should pay heed.
Wonkish books occasionally hit the big time but their shelf life is often fitfully brief. How much influence can the authors of Nudge expect to wield in five years' time? Go to any second-hand bookshop and bear humbled witness to the debris of big ideas past, books which merited only a flicker on the attention span of the intelligentsia on their way to the bargain bin.
Take these five examples.
Photo by Sabine J HutchinsonI am pleased to hear it, but he is wrong on two counts.I am as captivated by the abandoned cottages and workings of the 18th-century barytes miners beside the Shropshire Stiperstones as I am by the 2,000-year-old white tombs of Turkish Lycia.
I was a newly elected Liberal Alliance councillor back in 1986 when the Thatcher government began consulting over the introduction of the poll tax.Conservative members didn't want it phased in over 10 years: they wanted it at once. You could see the pound signs in their eyes as they calculated how much they and their neighbours would save.
As a dutiful Liberal – it was party policy even then – I moved an amendment calling on my council to support a local income tax in its reply to the consultation. After it was voted down, one of the county ladies on the Tory benches came over and asked: "Do you realise why the rates are unpopular? It's because you can't hire a sharp accountant to get you out of them, the way you can with income tax."
She was right, and I have had a soft spot for property taxes ever since.
Creswell Crags is a limestone gorge honeycombed with caves and smaller fissures. Stone tools and remains of animals found in the caves by archaeologists provide evidence for a fascinating story of life during the last Ice Age between 50,000 and 10,000 years ago.
Further evidence came to light in 2003 with the discovery of Britain's only known Ice Age rock art. Creswell Crags was among the most northerly places on earth to have been visited by our ancient ancestors, a story that is unique on a European and World scale.
