Treading in the footsteps of royalty, aka what happens after a Parliamentary by-electionThis morning it was off to south west London to join campaigners from around and outside London for some campaigning to follow up the Feltham & Heston by-election. Roger Crouch and his team did a great job holding on to third place and the deposit in the by-election. Now the election is over, the area is not being forgotten – particularly as parts of it may move into Vince Cable's constituency at the next general election. There are several similar moves around London where chunks of a borough in which the party is weak are being added in to the ... (more) |
LDV Caption Competition: Ed Davey "I've got Energy" EditionThere's no prize at stake - just the opportunity to prove you're wittier than any other LDV reader... (Picture from The Guardian.) Here's Nick Clegg welcoming new energy and climate change secretary Ed Davey to the cabinet — what do you think might be being said or thought by or about them? And the winner of our last caption comp is... Some fantastic entries for our most recent caption competition, Eds Balls and Miliband "The Early Years" Edition. The winner, according to The Voice's judging panel of one, was this one by Cheltenham robin, with a highly commended offerings by ... (more) |
Macroeconomics 1: Should I be good, or right?Tee, hee. We had our coursework assignment for Macroeconomics 1. I could have some fun with this... Individual Assignment Task: In 2011, Bank of England chose to maintain the Bank rate at its historic low even when the prevailing inflation rate was significantly higher than the targeted level. You are required to critically evaluate this particular policy decision of Bank of England. Using available information on the UK economy from 2000-2010: i. Outline the pattern of economic growth, inflation, and interest rate over the past 10 years. (This task requires that you find annual data on these economic variables over ... (more) |
Meeting Adonis'Everyone is born in a poetic state,' the Syrian-born writer and artist Adonis declared in an interview with Hans Ulrich Obrist at the Mosaic Rooms in Kensington this noon. But not everyone is destined to express themselves poetically. The sprightly octogenarian — who is viewed by many as the most significant Arab poet alive today ... (more) |
Did slavery really exist in Africa before the transatlantic slave 'trade'?The huge gulf between the kind of "slavery" than existed within Africa and the bloody horrors inflicted by Europeans is once again coming under the spotlight. Published – New Nation, 16th April 2007 Black historians believe there is simply no ... Continue reading → (more) |
Missy the CatI thought I'd not blog today, so instead here's some pictures of Missy the new family cat, admittedly there are plenty more serious subjects to choose from locally and the greater world, stuff like Sainsbury's proposed new supermarket, which if it goes ahead will make traveling out of Margate a mission, as of course will the wretched plan to allow Tesco, to occupy an incongruous location for massive supermarket on the front of Margate seafront and of course not forgetting the equally out of place "occupy protest" outside the Turner Gallery Still its the weekend and for once I'm not ... (more) |
America 2012, part 2: The Little GuysAmerican politics is a bottomless morass that will suck you in deeper the further you wade into it. Such has been my experience, and now one randomly-planned and hastily-written blogpost has become three. Ron Paul's day, as ever, is not ... Continue reading → (more) |
Headline of the DayToday's award goes to BBC News (Glasgow and West of Scotland) for: Ear bitten off in fast food queue (more) |
Fern BLOODY BrittonIt was a terrible night's sleep. The tinnitus was raging and piercing into my night-time soul and left me in a constant state of REM. The drifting dreams of the sub-conscious. Many of my dreams are surreal (are not all of ours?), from flying to underwater breathing, to many a sexual liaisons with.....well that would be saying. However, at my age I am well past the teenagers' wet dreams. Do dry dreams count? The most disturbing dream I had though was a 'Trumanesque' reality one. Every aspect of my life was being commentated on, analysed by and criticised by Fern ... (more) |
EXCLUSIVE: 72% of Lib Dem members backed reshuffle return for David Laws. (But it wasn't to be.)Earlier this week, LibDemVoice started asking party members signed up to our discussion forum a range of questions — the survey is still live, but one of the questions is already a little previous so we're reporting it early... We asked: Would you support or oppose David Laws making a return to government at the next reshuffle? Yes – to a cabinet post 58% Yes – but only to a non-cabinet post in government 14% No – he should not return to the government at the next reshuffle 21% Don't know / No opinion 7% In total, then, 72% of ... (more) |