I am talking about Gordon Tonkinson of Bridgnorth District Council, of course.
You really should read the Shropshire Star.
Monday, December 01, 2008
Purton Hulks
Paul Barnett, a guest blogger on Ruscombe Green, shares his enthusiasm for this ships' graveyard on the banks of the Severn estuary: it has been established that the site, which stretches 1.5km to the north of Sharpness New Dock entrance, is the final resting place of 81 vessels and encapsulate steel, timber and concrete constructions.
Amazingly, ongoing research has established that the site is now deemed to be the largest of its kind in the UK and is formed in distinct layers including mighty ocean going schooners, reliable Severn Trows, sturdy Wich Barges, revolutionary concrete lighters and extremely rare Stroudwater and Kennet barges.
Thanks to Britblog Roundup 198 and to Ruscombe Green for the photo.
Mr Speaker Martin's last chance
The current Speaker has once last chance not to go down in history as one of the most partisan and discredited figures to occupy the role.
Iain Dale reports that Harriet Harman's plans for a meeting to discuss the Speaker's statement on the arrest of Damian Green have been leaked to the Conservatives. It is clear from the memo that she is trying to tell him what he should say. And it is clear from the list of those invited that she is acting purely out of party interest.
As Iain says:
Sadly, I doubt that he has the courage, the independence or the intellect to do so.
Iain Dale reports that Harriet Harman's plans for a meeting to discuss the Speaker's statement on the arrest of Damian Green have been leaked to the Conservatives. It is clear from the memo that she is trying to tell him what he should say. And it is clear from the list of those invited that she is acting purely out of party interest.
As Iain says:
Invited to the meeting are Jacqui Smith and Jack Straw, as well as Cabinet Secretary Gus O'Donnell, Jill Pay, the Serjeant at Arms and the Parliamentary Clerk, Malcolm Jack and a representative from the Speaker's Office. Strangely the Tories and LibDems have not been invited.The Speaker should tell Harman that he will decide with whom he discuss his statement and he will decide what he will say.
Sadly, I doubt that he has the courage, the independence or the intellect to do so.
Gordon Brown is a hypocrite on leaks
Danny Finkelstein lists the many examples of Gordon Brown making use of leaked documents whilst in opposition.
Has the man no shame? (Brown, not Finkelstein, that is.)
Has the man no shame? (Brown, not Finkelstein, that is.)
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Harriet Harman breaks ranks on Damian Green arrest
The leader of the house has become the first cabinet minister to distance herself from the arrest of the Tory immigration spokesman. The BBC reports:
Harriet Harman has said she is "very concerned" by the arrest of Conservative immigration spokesman Damian Green.A sign of the way the wind is blowing?
Ms Harman also said she understood MPs' anger at the way police officers had raided Mr Green's Parliamentary and constituency bases.
And she said protection of MPs' offices from police raids must be reviewed.
Argent: Hold Your Head Up
Later. The original video has disappeared from Youtube, so I have had to replace it with one that makes nonsense of the comments below. But it is still a great song.
As John Denver kindly explains, this is the band that Rod Argent formed after the Zombies. You will see that Argent himself (on keyboards) has followed the change in fashion between the mid sixties and the early seventies assiduously.
It's a great record, even though I am not convinced anyone can play two guitars stuck together like that.
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Baby P: For legal reasons we can't know what the legal reasons are
There have been two developments in the case of Baby P - or Peter, to give him the dignity he was denied in life. Both involve excessive secrecy.
Lynne Featherstone has now read the Serious Case Review. You may recall that Ed Balls was at first unwilling to release it even to directly interested MPs and tried to hide behind the Information Commissioner.
Having read the report, Lynne writes:
There may be good reasons for this and for the anonymity of all involved in the case. but unless we are given some clue as to what these reasons are, it is hard to see why the public should have confidence that justice is being done.
Lynne Featherstone has now read the Serious Case Review. You may recall that Ed Balls was at first unwilling to release it even to directly interested MPs and tried to hide behind the Information Commissioner.
Having read the report, Lynne writes:
What I can say is that having read the document I am even more of the opinion that it would be in the public interest for it to be published - obviously with some parts anonymized and with a tiny - very tiny - bit of editing of any personal information around the family.The second point is that the sentencing of the three people convicted over the child's death has been postponed for at least three months. But we are not told why beyond the usual formulation of "legal reasons".
Otherwise - how will all those who have an interest or experience or knowledge or expertise be able to judge Ed Balls action when the investigative report comes in on Monday? That report he has said he will publish - but surely the wider audience can only benefit from understanding how resonant the original document is and was.
There may be good reasons for this and for the anonymity of all involved in the case. but unless we are given some clue as to what these reasons are, it is hard to see why the public should have confidence that justice is being done.
Speaker Martin: "He's Spartacus"
Speaker Lenthall, 1642
Incidentally, one of the five members Lenthall was protecting was Arthur Haselrig. At the height of the Lib Dem hegemony in Market Harborough, the Tories had to bring in two members of the Hazelrigg (as it is now spelt) family from distant Noseley Hall to fight and lose town seats.
It is sad to see a good radical family fallen so low.
"May it please your Majesty, I have neither eyes to see nor tongue to speak in this place but as this House is pleased to direct me, whose servant I am here; and humbly beg your Majesty's pardon that I cannot give any other answer than this to what your Majesty is pleased to demand of me".Speaker Martin, 2008
"Help yourself, his office is down the corridor."People used to behave that, true to his earlier working life, Michael Martin used to behave more like a shop steward for MPs than a Speaker. They won't be saying that any more.
Incidentally, one of the five members Lenthall was protecting was Arthur Haselrig. At the height of the Lib Dem hegemony in Market Harborough, the Tories had to bring in two members of the Hazelrigg (as it is now spelt) family from distant Noseley Hall to fight and lose town seats.
It is sad to see a good radical family fallen so low.
Brownies are a fire hazard - Official
From the Hemel Hempstead Gazette:Apart from marking another step in the decline and fall of Western civilisation, this story caught my attention because it quotes the Guides' division commissioner, Gill Oxtoby.Carol singing brownies have been banned from a Hemel Hempstead shopping centre because they are considered a health and safety risk.
Little girls from the West Herts guides have sung for pensioners at a special late night Christmas shopping event in Marlowes for more than a decade.
But the centre's managers decided they would not be invited to this year's event because they would obstruct fire escape routes.
When I attended the long-demolished Fields End Primary School in Hemel Hempstead in the 1960s, its headmaster was a Mr Oxtoby. I wonder if by any chance they are related?
Mitre tip: Archbishop Cranmer.
Friday, November 28, 2008
House Points: The future of fishing
My House Points column from today's Liberal Democrat News.
Kettles of fish
MPs assembled the other day for a great Commons occasion. Not the pre-budget report but the annual debate on fisheries. It featured a figure that this column has become obsessed with over the years: the Minister for Fish. Last Thursday there was a new one in plaice: Huw Irranca-Davies.
Hansard calls him the "Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs," but we know what that really means.
It is always an important debate for members with fishing interests in their constituencies, and many of them are Liberal Democrats. Alan Beith, Alan Reid, Andrew George and Alistair Carmichael all took part. Even Ming Campbell lowered his sights from the finer points of international diplomacy to plead for the lobster fishermen of Pittenweem.
The history of the fishing industry is a tragedy. The apparently endless bounty of the oceans has been all but exhausted by overfishing. This has inevitably led to regulation, but the absurdities of centrally imposed rules lead to fish being thrown back dead because it is illegal to land them.
Most MPs called for more local regulation of fishing. Though some may dream of a return to a free-for-all, for most this was just a wish for more sensible regulation.
Others will point out that fishing is now regulated by the EU via its Common Fisheries Policy and wonder if their industry was uppermost in Edward Heath’s mind when he negotiated Britain’s entry. It is easy to imagine an allegorical painting entitled The Sacrifice of Poseidon to Europa. In it Heath lies chubbily naked on a bed of haddock with his arm around the neck of a bull… Just me, then.
Perhaps there is a parallel with the pre-budget report after all. The seemingly bottomless sea of credit has also been fished out. Individual voters now realise they will have to pay back every penny they have borrowed, and their debts are no longer being made to look insignificant by rising house prices.
In this light Alistair Darling’s cut in the rate of VAT looks very like a red herring. And soon we will have to find the money to pay for it too.
No cormorants were harmed in the writing of this column.
Kettles of fish
MPs assembled the other day for a great Commons occasion. Not the pre-budget report but the annual debate on fisheries. It featured a figure that this column has become obsessed with over the years: the Minister for Fish. Last Thursday there was a new one in plaice: Huw Irranca-Davies.
Hansard calls him the "Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs," but we know what that really means.
It is always an important debate for members with fishing interests in their constituencies, and many of them are Liberal Democrats. Alan Beith, Alan Reid, Andrew George and Alistair Carmichael all took part. Even Ming Campbell lowered his sights from the finer points of international diplomacy to plead for the lobster fishermen of Pittenweem.
The history of the fishing industry is a tragedy. The apparently endless bounty of the oceans has been all but exhausted by overfishing. This has inevitably led to regulation, but the absurdities of centrally imposed rules lead to fish being thrown back dead because it is illegal to land them.
Most MPs called for more local regulation of fishing. Though some may dream of a return to a free-for-all, for most this was just a wish for more sensible regulation.
Others will point out that fishing is now regulated by the EU via its Common Fisheries Policy and wonder if their industry was uppermost in Edward Heath’s mind when he negotiated Britain’s entry. It is easy to imagine an allegorical painting entitled The Sacrifice of Poseidon to Europa. In it Heath lies chubbily naked on a bed of haddock with his arm around the neck of a bull… Just me, then.
Perhaps there is a parallel with the pre-budget report after all. The seemingly bottomless sea of credit has also been fished out. Individual voters now realise they will have to pay back every penny they have borrowed, and their debts are no longer being made to look insignificant by rising house prices.
In this light Alistair Darling’s cut in the rate of VAT looks very like a red herring. And soon we will have to find the money to pay for it too.
No cormorants were harmed in the writing of this column.
Gordon Brown and the X Factor
File under "Ludicrous Populism".
From The Times:
Now Gordon Brown has caught the bug. The PM has been bombarding contestants on The X Factor with missives urging them to rebel against Simon Cowell’s strictures.
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Arrest of Damian Green by counter-terrorism police is an outrage
The arrest of a shadow cabinet minister under anti-terrorism powers can only have taken place with sanction from the highest level. And, if the Daily Telegraph is correct, then it is clear that Green's offence is embarrassing the government:
Hello, my name is Jacqui Smith.
It is understood that the inquiry is focusing on four Home Office documents allegedly obtained by the Conservatives. Last November, documents from the private office of Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, were leaked to the opposition.Moreover, by acting in this way the government will only strengthen the public perception that it has something to hide on immigration. You would have to be quite extraordinarily stupid to think anthing else. In fact, it hard to think of anyone who who could be so mind-numbingly stupid as to approve this action.
They showed that ministers had known for four months that thousands of illegal immigrants had been cleared to work as security guards but had not told Parliament.
Other documents included information about an illegal immigrant working at House of Commons and a list of Labour MPs preparing to vote against the Government's anti-terrorism measures.
Hello, my name is Jacqui Smith.
Cleggarella
Last night's 15 Minute Musical on BBC Radio 4 dealt with the travails of the Liberal Democrat leader:
I would kill myself, but I can see the headlines now: "Boss of Cheeky Girl's ex-fiancé dies alone and friendless."But it has a happy ending of sorts.
In which I win a cup
I am clearly fated never to win Lib Dem Blog of the Year, but I did win the Non-Fiction Award at the Annual Dinner of the Leicester Writers Club this evening.
It's the first time I have had custody of a silver cup since I gave up chess.
It's the first time I have had custody of a silver cup since I gave up chess.
Dumbing down in British universities
Yesterday I questioned Phil Willis's attitude towards those who suggest there may have been some dumbing down of standards in universities.
Laurie Taylor's satirical column about the University of Poppleton, written for the Times Higher Education Supplement, is a lot nearer the mark:
Dumbing down
Janet Fluellen, our Director of Curriculum Development, has enthusiastically welcomed the news that a cross-party panel of MPs has asked academics to submit evidence of dumbing down in universities.
"We are so committed to this exercise," she told The Poppletonian, "that we have constituted a high-powered dumbing-down committee (myself and the vice-chancellor). Any Poppleton academic with evidence of slipping or falling standards should submit their claim to this committee together with their name, age, departmental affiliation, number of years in service, a recent passport-size photograph, a P45 and a small DNA sample."
An interview with the curator of the Giles cartoon exhibition
Following yesterday's posting about the National Cartoon Archive, a correspondent writes to tell me of an interview with Nick Hiley on The Bloghorn - the diary of the Professional Cartoonists' Organisation.
Nick is the curator of the exhibition Giles: One of the Family, which is now on at the Cartoon Museum in London.
Nick is the curator of the exhibition Giles: One of the Family, which is now on at the Cartoon Museum in London.
Melanie Phillips dissected
rhetorically speaking... has a nice posting on the unique logic used by the Daily Mail columnist:
Unlike lesser practitioners of the art, Phillips doesn't ignore contradictory or inconvenient evidence. Rather, she incorporates such material as the central proof of whatever she's arguing.As an example of this the blog quotes yesterday's piece for the Spectator website:
For sure, [Obama] has made some solid and reassuring appointments, such as his Treasury team. But did anyone really believe that a radical president would appoint obvious radicals to key roles in his administration? Maybe he really was a centrist all along. But if not, the one thing Obama is not going to do is torpedo his presidency at the very start by displaying a radical bent.In other words, "Obama's failure to behave like a crazy radical is in fact proof that he is a crazy radical."
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
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