The new issue of Liberator is on its way to subscribers, so it must be time for this blog to visit Bonkers Hall again.
Why do we have such a low opinion of politicians these days? Ballots and Bullets writes about a conference held by Nottingham’s Centre for British Politics in December 2009: "One of the most novel aspects of the conference was the participation of some writers of recent political dramas and comedies – and we transcribed their contributions."Someone who was glued to the box last Saturday was Paul Epworth, producer of Adele and Plan B. He was one of several pop figures to tweet their delight at the Moldovans' deranged genius.So here is another Zdob shi Zdub song, this one from 2001. I like to think the accompanying footage from the Soviet era is bitingly satirical, but my Moldovan is a little rusty.
"It was fantastic," he says. "It was like seeing a bizarre version of Devo in folk costumes. I just thought it was brilliant and absurd and so far removed from the slick operations of the western European entries, with all their money behind them. I loved the beautiful eccentricity of a small country like Moldova competing against the power of Russian money." He's referring to the fact that Russia's entry, Get You by Alexey Vorobyov, was written by RedOne, producer and writer for Lady Gaga.
From the newspaper's website:And finally, what is clear from the crimes of all these parliamentarians including Lord Bonkers is that they need a rigorous system to govern their expenses, and it needs to be run by people who take the job seriously.Lord Bonkers replies exculsively for Liberal England:
I am not sure whether this comment, which has been drawn to my attention, is by the rag or one of its readers. Be that as it may, I have placed the matter in the hands of my solicitors.
FYI BBC's Peter Henley was waiting for Huhne at the Eastleigh Civic Centre LD meeting.But that was not how Peter Henley saw it...
Was it a Liberal Democrat meeting? No, it was a meeting of the Eastleigh and the Bishopstoke, Fair Oak and Horton Heath Local Area Committees to which council officers and non-Liberal Democrat councillors were invited.And the most important item on the agenda was not Chris Huhne's expenses but a cycle path.
I am currently reading Edgelands by Paul Farley and Michael Symmons Roberts:Growing up on the edge of two cities - Liverpool and Manchester - in the early Seventies, it was easy enough to walk for a short while and soon find yourself lost in back lanes or waste ground, to follow the wooded perimeters of a golf course, an old path leading through scratchy shrubland, or the course of a drainage ditch. It was easy enough to find yourself on the edges of arable land, to follow the the track bed of a dismantled railway or descend into an abandoned quarry.Every town has its edgelands. Eighteen months ago the promised "Airfield Business Park" was very much part of Market Harborough's: the signs had gone up but the credit crunch meant that no work took place.
Guido has just heard they are holding an unscheduled meeting right now as we go to pixel. There is so much for Huhne’s local party to talk about this evening.At least one person had a wasted journey as a result, as this tweet from ITV journalist Chris Ship proves...
For a man with a sword of Damocles hanging over his head, Chris Huhne ... has been playing a blinder. Over the last two weeks, as the crisis he faces steadily deepened, he has been the driving force behind two of the most momentous decisions any administration has taken, ones that could shape Britain’s economic development for the rest of the century, and beyond.
Last week the government adopted the world-beating goal of cutting carbon emissions to half 1990 levels by 2025. No other country, as Nick Clegg put it, “has set legally-binding targets in this much detail, so far ahead”. And then yesterday it announced that it was setting up an effective, independent, statutorily-based, Green Investment Bank, the first of its kind anywhere in the world. Taken together, they seem set to make David Cameron’s pledge to run “the greenest government ever” – which was in danger of becoming a national joke – a sober reality.
Why is it OK for a surgeon to perform a sex-change operation, but not OK for a psychiatrist to try to 'turn' a consenting homosexual?When the inevitable row blew up Helmer replied: ""I am always surprised by the instant indignation of a strident minority."
The first is the classic “stranger-rape”, where a masked individual emerges from the bushes, hits his victim over the head with a blunt instrument, drags her into the undergrowth and rapes her, and the leaves her unconscious, careless whether she lives or dies.
The second is “date rape”. Imagine that a woman voluntarily goes to her boyfriend’s apartment, voluntarily goes into the bedroom, voluntarily undresses and gets into bed, perhaps anticipating sex, or naïvely expecting merely a cuddle. But at the last minute she gets cold feet and says “Stop!”. The young man, in the heat of the moment, is unable to restrain himself and carries on.
Let me make another point which will certainly get me vilified, but which I think is important to make: while in the first case, the blame is squarely on the perpetrator and does not attach to the victim, in the second case the victim surely shares a part of the responsibility, if only for establishing reasonable expectations in her boyfriend’s mind.So women are sometimes partly to blame for being raped? This is an outrage.
"Mr Helmer's intention was to make clear that all instances of rape are a violent crime which should be punishable to the fullest extent of the law. In no way did he want to blame the victim."How could we ever have thought that Helmer wanted to blame the victim?
Can secret justice be justice? asks Manchester councillor Jackie Pearcey: "Occasionally, there is a very good reason for short period of secrecy ... but indefinite injunctions can only do harm."
The brick side with the three arched windows belongs to that date.The gross and townish front of 1864 is by E.F. Law."Gross and townish" is just right, and it is an extraordinary building to find in what is still a small village. Finding it is even more of a surprise than discovering that Clipston still has two pubs.
Meeting for Prayer was the cause of this revival more than preaching, Preaching however has led many to inquire about the way of salvation. The youth Invited others to church meetings and many who came were deeply touched. In tears and weeping they have sought the way to Zion.And that new church must have been substantial, even before the intrusion of the gross and townish front later in the century.
This work has effected a change among the youth in Clipston. Their behaviour is now mild and gentle. The streets during summer evenings were thronged with misbehaving idle youth, now they are silent and still. They walk together in groups praying and talking about religion.
The effect is mainly among the youth.
The Clipston congregation experienced considerable growth averaging 700 - 800 people in a service.
In 1803 a new church building was commissioned.
Putting your money where your mouth is a good way to persuade others you are serious. And today, by setting up a serious green investment bank (GIB), the UK government has gone some way to persuading investors that they believe their own rhetoric on the urgent need to develop a green economy.And it goes on:
The coalition has sunk £3bn of taxpayers money into a bank that will run independently of government and will, eventually, be able to borrow as well as lend.
On all the significant details of the GIB bar one or two, the government backed the green option, dispelling much of the GIB gloom that followed chancellor George Osborne's budget speech.You still look a funny colour. Green, rather ironically.
It will be independent and established in law. My Guardian colleague Fiona Harvey asked will it be able to borrow from the capital markets? Yes, said deputy prime minister Nick Clegg, who made the GIB announcement. Furthermore, the £3bn seed money no longer depends on asset sales: the Treasury has underwritten the sum. The reaction from business, campaigners and engineers has been among the most positive I can recall for a green announcement: campaigners always ask for more than they think they will get, but there was little they didn't get here.And Carrington makes observations on the politics of the announcement that will cheer Liberal Democrat readers:
Clegg's speech was full of rousing words and ambition, but he also made some political comments that are not in the official transcript.I have in the past suggested that it is possible to overestimate the extent to which we are seeing Liberal Democrat policies implemented by the Coalition government, but this strikes me as an unalloyed triumph.
Clegg said: "The LibDems have long been the greenest of the main three parties - the difference now is that it is not just a green party but a green party of government." That is clearly part of the stronger LibDem voice promised after their recent electoral drubbings and a reminder to LibDem voters that they are getting some return on their vote.
"The art gallery was my idea, along with a few others.I have a lot of sympathy for the view that the city's cultural policy has concentrated too much on buildings and not enough on individual artists. But the current pressures on council budgets render this debate rather redundant.
"It would create jobs – building the gallery, running it, running the shop – which would help local people.
"There is nowhere in the city to see modern art, which is just disappointing. I know that it would be unrealistic to start building it tomorrow, but I had hoped it was still on the cards for some time soon."
In this new age of heightened media speculation, the Liberal Democrats must be whiter than white. While Labour and the Tories can survive petty scandals and find safety in numbers, we must be even more squeaky clean to pass the test.I think this is wrong for two reasons.
The one great principle of the English law is to make business for itself. There is no other principle distinctly, certainly, and consistently maintained through all its narrow turnings. Viewed by this light it becomes a coherent scheme and not the monstrous maze the laity are apt to think it. Let them but once clearly perceive that its grand principle is to make business for itself at their expense, and surely they will cease to grumble.
In an e-mail to other councillors seen by the Mercury, Councillor Rob Wann said the magazine could be used to help publicise the party. ...To his credit the newly elected Labour Mayor, Sir Peter Soulsby, has stamped on the idea. But this affair does emphasise the problem I wrote about the other day: Leicester has a Labour Mayor being watched over by an almost wholly Labour council.
In the e-mail, Coun Wann said: "We have the Link magazine, which I think we can push a more Labour message through and ensure it gets to every household.
"Who cares if we are challenged for using it for political purposes? We have 52 councillors so why not?"
Link is published 10 times a year and delivered to residents across the city. It costs £346,000 to produce.
Originally the centre had the headmaster's lodging on the ground floor, the school-room on the first, and the hospital, which was for twelve men, occupied the two wings.He also says that the frontage is in its original state, but the interior and back were completely remodelled in 1926.
Lord Judge called on society to bring "under control" those "who in effect peddle lies about others" online.Whatever the rights and wrongs of the current dispute, it is a fact that people are using the net to tell the truth about others. What the Lord Chief Justice (Judge Judge, as he used - gloriously - to be called) is demanding is that the law should prevent them from doing so.
In parliament, Bob did not mince his words. He denounced Michael Howard, Conservative employment secretary from 1990 to 1992: "The right honourable and learned gentleman is Dr Goebbels incarnate. This is a squalid statement by a squalid minister."So two anecdotes, both of which make Litherland look silly and one of which is intended to make us marvel at Kaufman's sagacity.
He supported Michael Foot as Labour leader in the period up to the 1983 election. At the traditional rally at Trafford Park, he asked me: "Do you believe the opinion polls?" Those polls were terrible, and my one-word answer, "Yes", left him crestfallen.
My review from today's Liberal Democrat News.They are taking part in the insane challenge from Nevill Holt to Brancaster Staithe on the Norfolk coast ... along with four other runners in a bid to raise cash for four charities.Nevill Holt, as you may recall, is widely believed to be the model for Bonkers Hall.
Some words of wisdom of Kenneth Clarke's travails from Welcome to Spiderplant Land.
Work has ceased on the new day case unit at the St Luke's Hospital site in Market Harborough and NHS Leicestershire County and Rutland is suing the contactors over the delays with the project."This is deeply concerning. This whole project has lumbered and lurched from one problem to another. This will lead to a considerable delays."
It was clearly set out in the Coalition agreement. Now clear off down the garden and leave our dustbins alone.
Simon Beard is a philosophy student at the LSE and blogs regularly for ResPublica.The village of Barwell near Leicester, was showered in thousands of pieces of what became known as the Christmas meteorite.At least the meteorite turned out to be something of a goldmine for the village:
From fragments to large chunks Barwell became the target, yet amazingly no-one was injured.
Had the meteorite landed elsewhere, it could easily have been a different story as another Barwell local, Roger Platts explains.
"If it had hit a few seconds later and gone into Leicester at 4.15pm Christmas eve, it would have been a disaster."
As soon as the news broke, Barwell was inundated with meteorite hunters from around the world.You can see part of the meteorite that fell on Barwell in the video above. Lembit Opik is 46.
With museums offering money for every piece, the search was on - although not everyone was cashing in.
"Huge sums of money were being paid for fragments of this meteorite," remembers Annie Platts.
"Had we realised we could have been very rich people because we were stumbling around it all on our carol singing trip."
Annie wasn't the only one refraining exchanging meteorite for money.
Astronomer Patrick Moore arrived in Barwell as soon as he heard the news and on finding a lump of the meteorite took it promptly to the local museum.
St Leonard's (medieval but practically rebuilt in the 19th century) is placed in something close to a cathedral close. Thomas Telford's St Mary Magdalene closes off a fine Georgian street - and was aligned North-South to achieve this.I found the other day that I have had an old children's book set in the town sitting unread on my shelves all this time. Jacob's Ladder by Sheena Porter is set in "Castlebridge" but the town it is based upon is unmistakable:
They came to the bottom of the Cartway and turned towards the long flight of steps which led up again to High Town, but Nicola pulled out her purse with a flourish and turned back towards the cliff railway, where a thick cable on a wheel hauled one car up the track as the other car went down.Jacob's Ladder was published in 1963 and one point of interest is that it was illustrated by Victor Ambrus, who today makes the drawings for Channel 4's Time Team.
"I'll give you a special Sunday treat," she said grandly, and bought two tickets at the tiny booking office.
The empty car bounced and swayed a little as they stepped into it, and the attendant reluctantly closed the door after waiting hopefully for a little while for more passengers. they slid into movement and the second car detached itself from the station at the top of the cable and came to meet them. When they passed, the saw that it was empty. Business was bad on wintry Sundays.
Government ministers and civil servants have been concerned by the possible effect a mass sell-off of the state's shares would have on the overall market and in particular on the banks in question.
The last time there was a significant children's rights movement in Britain was during the late 1960s and 1970s, when polical radicalism was in the air more generally. That movement was largely run by children and teenagers themselves and has as its targets abuses like corporal punishment, petty uniform regulations and the keeping of secret records by schools. The youngsters taking part were clear that their rights were to be asserted against the state and the schools that it ran.All of which explains why I was pleased to see Chris Whitehead's protest. His understanding of children's rights is clearly of the 1960s' variety, even if in those days 12-year-olds would probably have been demanding the right not to wear shorts.
In today's children's rights movement, there is no place for children themselves and no challenging schools - indeed the keeping of confidential records is central to the movement. Instead it is parents who are seen as the threat to children's rights and the state as the body that upholds them.
This odd view explains how a commitment to those rights can coexist comfortably with the remarkably restrictive policies with which we now surround children - curfews, ASBOs and the like. If the 1960s movement was an attempt at Kids' Liberation (as it would undoubtedly have been called in those days), the our present-day version has more in common with the child-saving efforts of the nineteenth century.
Last January Lord Bonkers remarked upon his fondness for Eastleigh:So when the town’s MP, our own Chris Huhne, invited me to tour his constituency I was happy to accept.Now I think we know who was on the other end of the phone call.
As we drive through the Hampshire countryside this morning he is full of the virtues of his Toyata Prius (apparently no polar bears are harmed in its manufacture), but as we near a crossroads he begins to panic: “It’s the brakes, your lordship, they just aren’t...”
At this point I am obliged to lean across and take command of the steering. As I explain after I have brought us to a halt by using a ploughed field with an appreciable slope, it is a peculiarity of the Rutland Highway Code that the landowner has right of way at any junction. Thus I am well used to driving without brakes.
A New Zealand man who claimed he was raped by a wombat and that the experience left him speaking with an Australian accent has been found guilty of wasting police time.
"Vince Cable, it seems, has notched his Tory-baiting down from 11 to about 8." |Pete Hoskin describes the Busincess Secretary's appearance at a Fabian meeting today on the Spectator's Coffee House blog.
Last Thursday Sir Peter Soulsby, the Labour Party candidate, was elected as Leicester's first executive mayor. At the the same time Labour won 52 of the 54 seats on the city council, which is the body charged with scrutinising his running of the city.leading GLC councillors were public figures whose reputations reached far beyond London. So much so that councillor-spotting became a popular hobby with schoolboys. They thronged the approaches to County Hall with their notebooks, squealing with excitement when a Tony Banks or a Dave Wetzel came into view.And having a Labour Mayor and a near one-party council accentuates these difficulties.
You won’t find them at the new City Hall. London politics has not produced a figure of substance for years. Some people mention Nicky Gavron, but I never worked out who he or she was.
We all know that Albert Einstein said: "God does not play dice with the universe." What is not so widely known is that he said it in a letter to his fellow physicist Max Born and that Born was Olivia Newton-John's grandfather.Brin’s German was so perfect that the Royal Air Force put him as a fake-German among the Germans in prisoner-of-war camps to gather intelligence: this was clearly a dangerous job, but fortunately he was never found out.
