CAMPAIGN FOR GENDER BALANCE
Bringing Balance through Support
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CAMPAIGN FOR GENDER BALANCE Bringing Balance through Support |
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| CAMPAIGN FOR GENDER BALANCE | <info@genderbalance.org.uk> | 4th July 2008 |
Don't know what blogging is? Check out the BBC's webwise website. Campaign for Gender Balance Blog AwardsThe Campaign for Gender Balance has announced the shortlists for its Blog Awards, to be announced at the Liberal Democrat Spring Conference. The shortlists are as follows: 
Best Blog by a Woman Liberal DemocratThis shortlist will form the basis of two awards - the Judge's Choice and the Peoples' Choice. To vote in the People's Choice category, follow this link: http://cgbblog.notlong.com/ 
Best Blog Post by a Woman Liberal Democrat
Best Blog by a Woman Non-Liberal DemocratWe are sad to report that Rose Hacker died on 4 February, one month before her 102nd birthday. Her remaining columns are continuing to be published by the Camden New Journal. Congratulations to everyone who has been shortlisted and commiserations to everyone who was not. The final results will be announced at the Campaign for Gender Balance Blog Awards' Drinks Reception, taking place on Saturday 8th March 2008, between 8.00pm and 9.30pm, at Canada Suite, Crowne Plaza Hotel, Liverpool. The awards will be decided by a prestigious team of judges:
To read blogs by Liberal Democrats (women and men), see the Lib Dem Blogs website (http://www.libdemblogs.co.uk). Latest Lib Dem BlogsFri 4th Jul 2008: Labour and Tory vote collapse in Bexley. The result of the Bexley Christchurch by-election can be found here. Interesting is the change in the number of votes cast for the Conservatives, Lib Dems and Labour: Top candidates 2006 Con 2205 Lab 733 LD 513 Votes this time as %age of 2006 (excluding BNP, who didn't stand in 2006) Con 54.1% LD 89.5% Lab 56.1% M&S yesterday announced a 5.3% fall in sales over the last three months, prompting a 25% collapse in the company's share price and wiping £1.2 billion off the company's market value. Sir Stuart Rose, the company Chairman, pinned the blame on the credit crunch, calling it "the fastest and most severe slowdown since the early 1990's", although some analysts criticised M&S for focussing solely on expensive products. There is little doubt that the retailers at the higher end of the market are struggling as consumers look for cheaper alternatives - Aldi and Lidl are booming. There has been much media ... Thu 3rd Jul 2008: There were 2 meetings today, both of which were connected with our Town Centre in Stockton, where and how it can develop better to meet everyone's needs. I left the second meeting on a high for a change, as we talked about some good, interesting and challenging ideas with a real chance of everyone being on board. If you have ideas about positive ways forward (not what happened in the past!!)... In the week that the NHS celebrates its 60th birthday Eaglescliffe Health Centre bit the dust. The demolition squad moved in and the building is no more. Councillor Suzanne Fletcher took these photographs when out with her trusty camera looking for something else entirely. Residents haven't been deserted by the doctors, nurses, physiotherapist, health visitor and countless other professionals Ok, Bendy Buses: Dave Hill has got me excited on this in his Comment is Free piece this afternoon and I, and as on all things Londonian, have a very strong opinion on them. So, here goes: Firstly, if you looked at all the things that needed money spent on them in London today can we all really say, hand on heart, that buses, not having more of them but just changing the style of them, is the tip top priority for the whole of London? More important than housing, reducing crime, dragging the tube into the 21st century, ensuring ... A special message to David Clelland, Labour MP for Tyne Bridge and reader of this blog. Thank you for providing this week's entertainment. Most enjoyable. What are you going to do for an encore!? Whatever it is, stick with it! You may of course not be too worried by the furore over your comments to your constituent. Perhaps you feel that sticks and stones may break bones, but words will never Sedgley Children's Centre to Open. Prestwich's first "Children's Centre" opens officially on Thursday 10th July, at Sedgley Park Primary on Kings Road. The centre will be opened by a selection of children of different ages. The children will officially open the Children's Centre at 3:15pm. Following this you will get the chance to walk around the centre and chat to myself and staff from other agencies who will be working from the centre. Attractions on the opening day include: - Face painter / Story time - Arts and Crafts - Design a picture for the Children's Centre - Car boot / table top sale Everyone ... I would like to take this opportunity to thank the French President for introducing me to a new sensation, to paraphrase Edmund Blackadder. He has made me warm to Peter Mandelson and his crusade to cut some of the cancerous French-led subsidy disease which continues to rot the heart of Europe. Perhaps when Mr Sarkozy's country stops taking half of all EU revenue, primarily for its pampered farmers, he can afford to criticise others. BBC Question Time: open thread. Lib Dem MEP for the south-east of England Baroness Emma Nicholson is one of the panellists on tonight's Question Time (broadcast on BBC1 and online from 10.35 pm GMT). The panel will also include the Minister of State in the Scotland Office and Labour MP for Greenock and Inverclyde David Cairns; Conservative shadow health secretary Andrew [...] Concert for Cleveland Pools Walcot State Choir and Friends St Mary's Church, Bathwick 7.30pm Wednesday 9th July Keith Vaz's 'reward' - a room with a view! Well that's what's been reported in the Evening Standard and the Mail. With the dust barely settled on the whole 42 days episode and the subsequent rumours flying around as to how Keith Vaz had been promised a 'reward' - a gong we were told, for rolling over on 42 days. We learn today that he has moved into a splendid new office overlooking the Thames, previously occupied by Gwyneth Dunwoody. Mr Vaz laughs it all off as pure coincidence, and 'absolutely ridiculous' Apparently he put in a request for the late Dunwoodys office 2 days after she died! How ... The Reading Evening Post reports: it has come to our attention that Lib Dem leader Gareth Epps and his party colleague and partner, Daisy Benson, opted for a Radiohead gig on Tuesday rather than the full council meeting.I'm not a Reading voter, of course, but this seems a sensible decision to me. No one dies wishing he had spent more time in committee meetings. The Diary items also reveals who is behind the satirical site muckspReading. LinkSpam of DOOOOOM! *UPDATED*. They've found the deleted scenes from Metropolis! Sci-fi geeks rejoice! And pray Cthulhu we get a showing of it at the FFW next year... {[info]} matgb has a highly amusing post about the hypocrisy of the guy who sued the BBC for showing Jerry Springer: The Opera and upsetting his delicate religious sensibilities (related Facebook group). Don't watch anything on YouTube which isn't allowed to be there, else you'll get got. Creationism hits science classrooms in the UK. and we are funding it via the state school mechanism. *I* am paying for some poor kids to be taught complete bollocks ... Cameron dazzles us by opening his bare cupboard. The Times challenged David Cameron to set out his alternative plans for government. Today, Cameron has replied. He doesn't start in a promising way. The first 268 words of his 886 word article are expended in waffle and moaning about Brown. Then he tells us that it really is terrible that Labour are obsessed with measuring the NHS. So Cameron's Conservatives will.........er.........measure the Jeremy Thorpe calls for the assassination of Robert Mugabe. Or at least he does according to the The First Post: Jeremy Thorpe, the former leader of the Liberal Party, has called for the assassination of Robert Mugabe. Speaking to the Journal of Liberal History, he was asked his views on the Zimbabwean leader. Thorpe, now 79, began tamely enough, saying: 'I think he is a ghastly, wicked man', but when asked how he should be dealt with, he hardened his line: 'He should be assassinated.'I have been having similar thoughts recently, though there are doubts about how far Mugabe is really in charge any more. And I think people ... Haltemprice & Howden: Those nutters in full. The BBC has a guide to all 26 candidates in the by-election. David Davis refuses to debate civil liberties. David Davis, you will recall, resigned his Commons seat and resigned as shadow home secretary because he said he wanted to draw public attention to the threat that government poses to our liberties. According to one of his rival candidates. the by-election campaign is not working out like that. Shan Oakes, the Green Party candidate in Howden, has written this on her blog today: Civil liberties suddenly became an immediate issue in the constituency today! We were excluded from a meeting that David Cameron and David Davis had set up with members of the East Riding of Yorkshire Youth Assembly ... What other results will people want changed in the wake of the ICC's bizarre decision ? The ICC took the extremely odd and rather dubious decision today to change the result of a game which the Pakistan team lost because they refused to play on. Let me repeat this, the Pakistan team chose not to come out of the dressing room, which by anyone's understanding means they threw the game by default, thus giving England the win. Apparently though, the ICC decided today, in a vote that England were excluded from (but Pakistan wasn't), to change the result to a draw. This opens up a can of worms and now sets a precedent for any team ... Labour AM and Deputy Minister, Leighton Andrews has been a busy politician this week, popping up all over Wales and making headlines. Having been in Wrexham today I was unable to get the Western Mail* so had to settle for the Daily Post. There on page two, accompanied by a photograph of Leighton that made him look like he was auditioning to be one of the Blues Brothers, was this report on a speech he gave to Trade Unionists in Colwyn Bay last night. Leighton told his audience that Labour can only regain crucial seats like Clwyd West by "being ... Summer Holiday Activities for Children. The family Information Service have released details of a range of childrens' activities for the Summer holidays. There are five booklets available in the North East Lincolnshire area and they include activities for children and young people. Each booklet is tailored to local community activities in a specific area. The booklets are being distributed to all children and young people through schools. To find out more about the activities and events that are taking place in your area over the Summer Holidays 2008 for children, young people and families you can download a copy of the book for your area ... I suspect these alcohol prices are misleading. Don't you? The announcement earlier this year of a Spanish Cabinet that is majority women should cause everyone involved in British politics to stop and wonder why we're doing so badly. We know that the under-representation of women in politics is a bad thing - and that this applies to the Liberal Democrats as much as anyone else, [...] Coppetts Wood Hospital development. Following my post earlier in the week about the planned housing for the site of the Coppetts Wood Hospital in my ward, here is the link to the planning application which has now been made. You can read the detail of the proposals there and look through all the different architects' plans that have been submitted with it. If you are a local resident with concerns (or wanting to support the application) then you can also submit your comments online, through the same link. It would be very helpful to me, as the local ward councillor, if you could also ... Have YOU visited the Sea Stores exhibition yet? Yate Town Councillor Chris Willmore (centre) points out some of details to Cllrs Sue Hope (South Glos Council) and Paul Hulbert (Dodington Parish Council) Please don't forget to visit the Sea Stores housing exhibition at Poole Court - it's open until Saturday. The exhibition shows the developers' ideas for the site, and you can also find out about and comment on Yate Town Council's ideas for the section of the land set aside for community purposes. The exhibition is open until 9 pm tonight (Thursday), then 9.00 am - 9.00 pm tomorrow, and 9.00 am - 5.30 pm on Saturday. ... To read the utterances of fools and bigots. Click here. An interesting fixation on imperial measurements, for some reason... Last month, I was able to attend a briefing in London by the Palestinian journalist and blogger Mohammed Omer, who had been awarded the 2008 Martha Gelthorn Prize for Journalism. In the citation for his prize, Mohammed was hailed as the 'voice of the voiceless' and praised for his 'humane record of the injustice imposed [...] one christmas I asked the obscure question is there politics of christmas. now its the opposite end of the year can we ask are there politics in summer. obscure maybe but lets think... 1. Global warming - without that ozone layer we will feel the effects of a gently simmering Earth. 2. Fuel prices - it effects us in summer (air conditioning) aswell as winter (heating). 3. Holidays - more travel and a greater carbon footprint. Unless you camp in the back garden. 4. Health - slip slap slop. Or else there are risks to skin. Well a bit of ... Liberal Democrats should spare a thought this week for Lyn Allison, Natasha Stott Despoja, Andrew Bartlett and Andrew Murray. Who? These four were, until Monday, the last senators for the Australian Democrats. The Senate is elected by the single transferable vote (STV), on a state by state, territory by territory basis. Allison (the party leader) and Bartlett were defeated at last year's general election. Murray and Stott Despoja did not stand again and the Democrats failed to hold their seats. All of their terms expired on 30 June. The only remaining Democrat parliamentarian sits in the upper house of the ... As oil prices hit yet another record of over $146 per barrel the good folks at The Oil Drum blog have published a timely update of the Wikipedia Oil Project Database. It makes frightening reading. What they do is compile stats on all the oil megaprojects in the pipeline to estimate when and how much additional oil will come to market. The big dark blue area is production already established before the project started. The coloured stripes represent the contribution from fields brought into production since then, organized by year of first oil while the small red diamonds represent actual ... Top Mayor aide investigated over sexual misconduct allegations. London Mayor Boris Johnson held a press conference this afternoon, announcing that he is to hold an inquiry into his newly appointed Deputy Mayor, Ray Lewis, over allegations of sexual misconduct. The BBC takes up the story: BBC London learned Mr Lewis, who has responsibility for youth, was barred from working in the Church of England after [...] Just three and a half weeks after moving to Edinburgh to take up my new post as Deputy Director of Campaigns for Scotland, I find myself involved in another major election campaign! We have selected born and bred Glaswegian Ian Robertson as our candidate to fight the by-election, and although the media are saying it is [...] The Lib Dem Candidate for Glasgow East has been selected, local teacher Ian Robertson will contest the seat vacated by Labour's David Marshall. Speaking of the forthcoming election and the choices people face on June 24th he said: 'Local people are feeling let down by Gordon Brown's Labour Government that is out of touch and has forgotten the East End. Gordon Brown's Government simply doesn't Ian Robertson selected for Glasgow East. Glasgow Liberal Democrats have chosen local teacher Ian Robertson to be the party's candidate in the parliamentary by-election on July 24th. The full press release is on the Glasgow East Liberal Democrats website. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7487908.stm Miss Great Britain is a challenger and one of the 26 Candidates in the Election that has been triggered by David Davies resigning and wanting to fight a by election for civil liberties. The big question is can she put the glamour into politics or will politics work its magic on her and make her into a serious candidate for the future? Recently i have put a tracker on my blog to try to find out where my hits are coming from and from where in the Country. I have had a lot of visits from the Liberal Democrats at London which i thank everyone who visits my blog and ask them to keep visiting. I have had a lot of hits and like to thank people for visiting my blog. But recently i have started getting hits from within the Houses of Parliament. I would like to know which MP is visiting me from within the Houses of Parliament. So can ... Why are the Daily Mail trying to rip off schools ? The Daily Mail owns the rights to the British Pathe News archive, which is an archive of old British Pathe News films which was actually created using public money. Since the archive was created by puclic money (government funding), schools across the UK were allowed to use the British Pathe site for a nomical fee (about £40,000). However, now the license is up for renewal, The Daily Mail are trying to charge a fee of in excess of half a million pounds for the license to use the site, which i repeat again, was set up using public money. The ... I've just heard Shadow Chancellor, George Osbourne, claiming on Radio 4's The World at One" that Britain now has the longest tax code in the developed world - a claim that I've no reason to doubt. In a sense this merely serves to confirm what we already knew - that Brown is a 'fiddler' whose vision (although this is hardly the right word) is to sneak in a little stealth tax here or tweak some tax incentive there, all as part of his plan to work towards his socialist nirvana where everything is 'controlled' and everything is 'fair'. There's just ... On April 18th, Boris Johnson urged people 'to take a risk' and tackle trouble-making thugs. He claimed the chances of being stabbed in retaliation for challenging a thug were 'microscopic'. 75 days later on July 2nd, Boris Johnson urged teenagers to 'walk away' from trouble to help reduce knife crime. This wouldn't, par chance, be a case of saying one thing to get elected and then another once Clegg and localism: early thoughts. I've just trawled through Nick Clegg's speech on localism to the LGA today. A few thoughts: 1. He lets the Tories off too easily (unintentionally I'm sure). He is of course perfectly right to give them a hard time for refusing to even contemplate devolving spending, but the truth is it's far, far worse than that. To quote Gideon Osborne's interview in Prospect this month: But surely this devolution process just means the health and education services are captured once more by the professionals? Not at all, says Osborne. "Accountability will come through payment by results." This, he says, is ... Manchester Labour councillors plan secret underground car park "in the interest of democracy". The Manchester Evening News reports: PRO-CONGESTION charge councillors are planning to build themselves a private underground car park in the city centre. Senior Labour councillors - who are backing the toll in exchange for a massive expansion of public transport - want to tunnel next to the town hall to provide spaces for the 96 elected [...] Nick Clegg on local democracy: we should try it for a change. Nick Clegg today delivered a major speech to the Local Government Association outlining the ways Liberal Democrats intend to give real power back to local people and communities. It's well worth reading in full - which you can do here - but for those who want the skinny, here's a few snippets... On the principle of [...] Worried about economic downturn? Here's the adult answer. The US fiscal stimulus, which gives Americans a $600 dollar cheque to boost aggregate demand, has yielded some surprising results. One sector of the economy has seen a large increase in demand and an up tick in sales. Guess which sector? Mortgages? Savings? Consumer Durables? Precious Metals? No. No. No. And No. Its the adult sector. Yes, that's right porn. According to the Adult Internet Research Company many porn sites have experienced a 20-30% increase in sales since the fiscal stimulus cheques started arriving in May. Coincidence? They think not. The summer is apparently a usually flaccid (sorry couldn't help ... Many of us will have been alerted by a nice email from that Chris Rennard chap about the fact that Nick Clegg has been making a speech about 'decentralization' to the Local Government Association. That's nice. There's a section, as you would expect, on financing local government and, unusually over recent months it explicitly speaks of 'local income tax' rather than just 'on the ability to pay'. However it's the last sentence of this section I would like to see us explore more: Liberal Democrats : Councils must be set free - Clegg Speaking about radically reforming how local government ... Nick Clegg has just finished speaking to the LGA conference. Chris Rennard has emailed members about the contents of the speech but it set out a major vision of what devolution and decentralisation really means for our party. Nick attacked the failure of Labour to deliver on promised devolution and the Tories for not really understanding what it means (at least in terms of not having any concrete policies to put their words into action). He reiterated support for fairer local taxation - local income tax - for proper decentralisation and for reviewing how services such as the police can ... Surbiton Clock Tower gets royal windup. There is a rather splendid clock tower in Surbiton, at one end of Claremont Gardens, near Waitrose. Today Prince Edward joined local children (and a few grey heads) to celebrate its centenary and restoration. Why was Prince Edward asked? Well the clock was commissioned to commemorate the coronation of his namesake and great great (have I got that right?)... David Cameron took his turn in front of the councillors at the LGA conference this morning. His speech was well received but he then faced problems during questions when he disagreed with Boris Johnson over the merits of regional assemblies (one likes them if they are elected, the other hates them in all events). He also managed annoy some audience members by dismissing one question out of hand claiming it was being asked purely for press release purposes. Nick Clegg is on in a bit. As I alluded to earlier I had no qualms in supporting and voting for Nicol Stephen as party leader back in 2005. I've notices that some of my fellow Lib Dems in Scotland and further afield have given their view on him and their opinions and memories of his leadership. So now I've had a little more time to cogitate I'd thought I'd write up some of my personal memories of the man. The first time Selly Oak Ward Committee - 10 July 2008. The next meeting of the Selly Oak Ward Committee will be held at: 7pm, Thursday 10 July 2008 Dining Hall, Selly Park Technology College for Girls, Pershore Road entrance, Selly Park. Items on the agenda include: a presentation by South Birmingham Primary Care Trust (PCT) on the consultation for a new GP led health centre and a new GP practice in South Birmingham (the full consultation document Cutting crime and cleaning up. Just back from a really worthwhile workshop/away day on issues of crime and environment in South Liverpool. It was a mix of partners (police, fire, housing associations etc), Council officers and Councillors. I am taking over as Chair of our district working group on this issue and the morning certainly threw up lots of food for thought - as well as a maassive 'to do' list of things to follow up. Hopefully we will be able to have some really productive meetings based on the thoughts and ideas we have had so far. Art volunteers needed in Garston. I've pasted below a short request from the Garston Cultural Village people - who are looking for people to help run or help with workshops this summer. Volunteer Artists/Creatives July - August Community Art and Craft Workshops In The Garston Embassy Calling all Graduates/Students/Artists/Crafts Persons Garston Cultural Village would love to work with you Contact Mavis or Alex On 0151 427 9995 Earlier Stories Complete archive on the official site.
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