I'm In Seventh HeavenIt is indeed that time of year again. Total politics are currently in the middle of announcing the list of the Top Political Blogs for 2010. Today it was the turn of one of the categories for which I am eligible that of the Top Scottish blog. For the past two years I have actually finished in eleventh place in Scotland on both occasions. This year however I am into the top ten at number 7, the spot held last year by my dear friend Caron, she has climbed to number 4. My spot for the last 2 years was ... (more) |
Warning this post may contain traces of Kids and TeenagersI had been meaning to write a post reporting on the Dnipro football game that I experienced recently. However due to technical difficulties (read camera) I am delaying this. Much more importantly I taught my first classes today! The first was "Kids level 2" and the second was Pre-Intermediate teenagers (12-16). The first class was certainly an experience, being my first monolingual class (where (more) |
"Illegal" file sharing?Something interesting landed in my E-Mail today: a complaint about illegal file sharing via Bittorrent. In itself, that's hardly remarkable. We get over a hundred most months and because we go so many, most are just automatically forwarded on to the customer without any comment or action. Most are one-offs but I've previously estimated about 34,000 people could be affected by the Digital Economy Act because of repeated allegations. This one wasn't well formatted though, so needed a human to look at it. It's regarding, from what I can tell, some sort of specialist computer aided design package. I'm really ... (more) |
Nick Clegg deserves 'LibDem members give poll boost to Clegg'It's good to see that headline, even cloistered, as it is, in the august environs of the FT, behind a free registration wall. Cleggie deserves a boost. He's doing a good job. And it's good to see such prominence being given to a humble LibDem Voice forum survey, in which I took part. But our national poll rating has halved, so why are members not up in arms? Well, firstly, I think there is a masochistic strand within the DNA of LibDems. We enjoy the occasional purging which comes with low poll ratings. We all thoroughly enjoy remembering when we ... (more) |
Letter from Chief Executive NHS DirectDear Colleague, I expect that you will have read or seen the media coverage over the Bank holiday weekend about NHS Direct. I wanted to write promptly to you to correct any misleading impression that this may have created that NHS Direct as an organisation is being closed down. This is not what the Government has said, nor is it their intention. The Government has confirmed that the 0845 46 47 (more) |
Moorland Road ShopsJoined with a group of residents on Moorland Road on Bank Holiday Monday to protest about the latest planning application to turn a shop into an office. Moorland Road already has too many estate agents and offices. It needs to keep to its retail classification. (more) |
Do. Not. Understand. (anti-AV arguments)I remain bewildered by the Right's conviction that AV will make it more difficult to remove a government and that this somehow counts against AV. The comments on this IEA piece are rather indicative. I suspect that this is going to be the main thrust of the No2AV campaign; not least the statements from the ... (more) |
Blair's 'Journey'So Tony Blair's book has finally been published. I have very much enjoyed reading the tweets about the book and as far as I can tell so far, there is too much information about him and Cherie, he doesn't think too much of Gordon (shocker), and he feels for those who fought for Iraq. I am holding off reading it for a while because even looking at pictures of him still makes me angry, and suspect that I may have a few issues with what he has written. I shall just make a donation directly to the British Legion and ... (more) |
Ian Swales gets on his bikeThe Member of Parliament for Redcar, Ian Swales, will be joining a fundraising bike ride on Saturday 4th September. The event is one of around 50 'Fresh Air Miles' events taking place across the country to celebrate 15 years of the National Cycle Network. The event is being hosted by leading UK charity Sustrans who help people to make smarter, healthier, cleaner and cheaper travel choices.Sustrans work with families, communities and partner organisations so that people really do have options. Ian Swales will be joining Philip Chisholm who is Sustrans' volunteer liaison ranger in Redcar on the bike ride.It will ... (more) |
I prefer Steve and GlennOn the day that Mister Tony's Erinnerungen finally hits the bookshops, as we've been constantly reminded on the news all day, it's depressing yet altogether unsurprising to see that the Mirror, which still carries some clout among traditional Labour voters, has decided to endorse the deeply uninspiring David Miliband as the new Labour/New Labour leader. Is it too much to ask that they pick someone who might just offer a glimmer of hope that they won't be in hock to the military-industrial complex, the corporations, and the banks? I thought the clue might have been in the party's name, but ... (more) |