Monthly Archives: June 2009

Tweets on 2009-06-30

  • Something has gone wrong with my sync regime – multiple copies of loads of things are starting to show up 😦 #
  • Re-using a padded envelope that, judging by the address, has been in my possession 10 years and 5 house moves. #
  • Arriving at the hotel in Harrogate. #
  • Rather nice hotel, but unfortch, the only internet appears to be dial-up access at £1.50 a minute. #
  • @adamrio I love Drawn Together. Are there new ones? #
  • Wandering around exhibition trying not to take mickey. "What if Northants wasn't there?" faster journey times to London? #
  • Omg, http://www.localgovernmentchannel.com ? Srsly? #
  • Later this week, we apparently get to hear Dr Vice Cable. #
  • Blogger clique muttering about no more Ros Scott blog. #
  • I am also twittering from the @libdemvoice account this week. #
  • Blogger clique muttering about no more Ros Scott blog. #
  • @rfenwick she pulled her blog when she got firestorm of critical comments during expenses row. #
  • Looking wistfully at what was the LDV office last time we where here. #
  • Omg. Tories! Faaasends of 'em. #

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Tweets on 2009-06-29

  • Pleased to see none of English Heritage's "at risk" sites are in the city of Nottingham http://tr.im/q3dK #
  • RT @scottm Iain Dale is one of the top gay men in the UK? The rest of us clearly need to buck our ideas up! #
  • P says 8 of the top 10 in the download album charts are Michael Jackson #
  • Eek. Have left it very late to join Inclosure Walk. So planning to go to end point and walk route in reverse. #
  • Standing at bus stop and already really regretting not having sunscreen. #
  • Bumped into a marshall. I haven't missed the main group yet. Some of the middle bits sound quite complicated and I'm missing all the talks. #
  • Have met t'group at foot of Robin Hood Chase having ice-cream – and I'm sneaking past unnoticed. #
  • Not entirely sure where to go now I've hit St Anns Well Rd #
  • Checking Twitter, I see my pics apparently not getting though so there will a flurry at some point. #
  • Lots of smartly dressed people leaving Arena, name badgers all say "keep on the watch" #
  • Popping into a hostelry to make use of the facilities. Specifically the beer pumps. #
  • Barkeep says the event was 28,000 Jehovah's Witnesses. Must have misheard – don't think arena is that big. #
  • Ok. Have had me pint. More walking or home? #
  • Oh, I didn't realise @maggiephilbin's #summertart comp was open to everyone. Next time! http://tr.im/q4h7 #
  • @chrishughes the whole point peggle mastery is that you choose different masters for different levels! #
  • OMG @maggiephilbin tweeted me! Cue lots of excited running up and down stairs. I would have made this: http://tr.im/q4kK – but away nx wk #
  • @willhowells you have spymaster invites…? #
  • This made oi laff http://tr.im/q4mE #
  • Is Costigan starting to help manage expectations re LD by-election performance? http://tr.im/q4ns #
  • Blog from @joemygod has 1969 article from NY Daily News re Stonewall riots http://tr.im/q4pi <- seems quite sedate! #
  • "Help – dog urine is seeping into my flat" – http://tr.im/q4rZ #
  • Belatedly setting off for Print Cave. Print Cave Owner wryly asking if this is what counts as "the morning" on planet Niles. #
  • @norwichnorthld you do know that weather forecast is for Norfolk, Virginia, United States, yeah? #
  • @kayray "Deputy sheriff said to me. Tell me what you come here for, boy" #
  • I was a bit obsessed with S&G as a teenager, @kayray, so I'm with you on the harmonies and lyrics, but have heard it a bit more recently. #
  • On a break from Print Cave, in garden. Swallows hurtling around head at alarming speed, nearly hitting house! #
  • Just popping downstairs to make a cuppa tea. When I get back, I might assassinate another ambassador. #
  • Received a #postcrossing postcard from U.S.A. – http://bit.ly/3RD5M #
  • Received a #postcrossing postcard from Finland – http://bit.ly/edp61 #
  • Just secured a safe house in Berlin, Germany. #spymaster http://bit.ly/playspy #
  • How to properly fold a cat for storage in a sweater drawer. http://tr.im/q6DK #
  • I just reached level 9. #spymaster http://bit.ly/playspy #
  • Warning Harrogate hotel I probably won't be checking in til gone midnight. #

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Tweets on 2009-06-27

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Tweets on 2009-06-25

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Local Solutions 2009 – Julia Goldsworthy and Paul Scriven

This is the fourth and final instalment of podcasts recorded at the Sheffield Local Solutions 2009 conference organised by ALDC. You can hear the earlier instalments here: Clegg and Scott; Scriven on Sheffield; Carbon Reduction Commitment.

In the final session of the day, the Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government Julia Goldsworthy MP joined Cllr Paul Scriven, the leader of Sheffield Council, to reflect on the day and discuss current state of play for local government.

Both talk about the Sustainable Communities Act, its potential and their disappointment in Labour’s implementation of it so far; of Labour’s crazy ideas for local government in the future, including an eye watering 18 pages of legislation on what to do with petitions – issued, ironically, by a body that cannot be petitioned.

Apologies that this session began before I realised it, so the sound starts rather abruptly at the beginning, and we miss the introduction and Julia’s first few words.

Sheffield Local Solutions 2009

You can listen to the sound file right here on the web, or you can download it for use with your MP3 player. Why not listen to the conference next time you’re out delivering leaflets? If you use iTunes you can search the podcast directory for Lib Dem Voice; for other podcast software, you can use this RSS feed of LDV’s audio content.

ALDC’s next major event is Kickstart, their annual autumn training weekend for groups of campaigners facing Council elections the following Spring. As Kath Pinnock pointed out at the end of the session, all of the county council campaign teams who attended last year’s Kickstart went on to make gains this year.

Daily View 2×2: 25 June 2009

How fitting that while Ricky Gervais and Phil Jupitus share a birthday with Michel Tremblay, a Canadian writer I studied as part of my degree, the US should be celebrating National Catfish Day.

Two big stories

Another climbdown for Brown as the Government backs off plans to bolster MPs’ pensions. Just hours after Clegg took Brown to task at PMQs for being wrong about Gurkhas, wrong about expenses and the Iraq enquiry. Now he’s admitted to being wrong about MPs’ pensions too. A planned increase had been accepted by all parties in March but the government now says it will accept a Lib Dem plan to freeze the amount from public funds. The proposal would have seen MPs’ own contributions rise by £60 a month, but the Lib Dems said taxpayers would have paid £750,000 more than last year.

And a curious story from the Guardian: Tory plans for emergency cuts cabinet – one of those headlines you have to look at backwards for a few minutes to work out the sense. Is it a Tory, planning for an emergency, deciding to cut cabinet? Ah, no, as we read the story, it is about an emergency cuts cabinet the Tories are planning. Scant seconds after wresting the reins of power from the disgraced Labour party, it seems the Tories would be careering the sleigh into the Forest of Slash and Burn, at least as far as the Guardian is concerned. So is this a real story? the scant attribution makes one wonder, but it is too detailed to be more Labour spin, so presumably Tories must have been briefing journalists at some point. And there’s the small matter of Dave winning an election first before George ever gets any opportunity to haul cabinet ministers over the coals for their spending plans.

2 must read blog posts

Stop the world, Andrew Reeves wants to get off. Or at least stop the madness that is 4 year olds having their own mobile phone. Fair enough, say I.

And the newly co-opted Cllr Lady Mark is getting to grips with his new representative role by looking into the vexed question of bus stops in Creeting St Peter. For the uninitiated, Lady Mark’s title is a protest at inequity: he’s married to Baroness Ros Scott, the fair president of this good party. Whilst female spouses of male peers get the courtesy title “lady”, male spouses of female peers and civil partners of peers do not have the courtesy extended to them.

Local Solutions 2009 – Carbon Reduction Commitment for councils

The third of our instalments from ALDC’s local government conference Local Solutions takes the Government’s energy policy for local authorities as its topic.

You can still hear the first two instalments: Nick Clegg and Ros Scott, and Paul Scriven on Sheffield.

Today’s instalment is an excellent presentation from Mo Baines, from the Association for Public Service Excellence, talking about how councils will shortly be required to monitor closely just how much energy they are using and reduce it year on year.

Sheffield Local Solutions 2009

You can listen to the sound file right here on the web, or you can download it for use with your MP3 player. Why not listen to the conference next time you’re out delivering leaflets? If you use iTunes you can search the podcast directory for Lib Dem Voice; for other podcast software, you can use this RSS feed of LDV’s audio content.

Our final instalment tomorrow is the final session of the conference with Julia Goldsworthy MP and Cllr Paul Scriven.