There's no place like homeIts been almost a week since i moved into the new place and already it feels like home in a way that my old house didn't. The removal men were two of the maddest machines I have ever come across ... Continue reading → (more) |
Blair admits overspending from 2005The link is to the BBC story which includes the text:The UK should have addressed its public deficit back in 2005, former Prime Minister Tony Blair has told the BBC.Speaking to Andrew Marr, Mr Blair said: "We should probably have taken a tougher fiscal position than we did."He said that this was also about the time when disagreement between himself and Gordon Brown "started to spill over into (more) |
Cornwall Council to co-ordinate road cleaning betterCornwall Council officers have promised to co-ordinate their road cleaning works better in future after residents complained to me that the Council was clearing road gullies only to sweep rubbish straight back into them. The particular problem arose in Dutson Road where residents found that their drains and gullies were being cleared but that the street sweepers would come along two days later. I've talked to the Council and the two departments concerned have promised to co-ordinate better in future so that the gulley and drain clearing takes place just after street sweeping rather than just before. (more) |
Solution Focused EducationThe application of the solution focused approach has been wide and it is always interesting to see how it is implemented in practice and the results. Some of the techniques and methods are very simple to implement and so have been taken up enthusiastically by those working with people. I have already looked at a ... (more) |
Traffic calming in Town MillsI've been talking to residents in Town Mills about problems with cars speeding round the tight bends from Under Lane. Drivers who don't know the area often are not aware that they are entering the built-up area of the town and the corners are much tighter than they might expect. As a result, we get cars traveling too fast and sometimes out of control as they go round the bends. I'm delighted that Cornwall Council has agreed to put some new road markings down to warn drivers that they are approaching a built-up area with tight corners and telling them ... (more) |
An Englishman, An Irishman, A Scotsman, An American, A Brizilian and A Ukrainian go to watch FootballOne of the experiences that I was really looking forward to was going to watch a football game in the Ukraine. Having seen several games at different grounds around England I was really hoping to find out the similarities and difference between the culture. Would they have more vocal home support (let's be honest it can't be too hard), would I get to see a flare go off, would the Ultra's try and (more) |
The verdict from history: bring back Gordon BrownThe lovely phrase "spray on evidence" was coined in the late 1990s in frustration at the attitude towards evidence shown by many in the Labour government. Though officially the government was determinedly set on a course of evidence-based policy, many of those involved in policy making felt that evidence was being applied as a bit of glitter to justify policies rather than really shaping them. Spray on history now seems to be the order of the day in much political punditry with the futures of the coalition, Liberal Democrats and Labour often talked about with several nods towards the past. ... (more) |
Darwin award nomineesNot sure why , but the latest crop of headlines gave me a very extreme attack of the giggles: Firstly, a dullard school student who electrocuted himself by connecting his nipples to mains electricity is trying to sue the teacher at the school where this took place, because he should have warned him that this was dangerous. Frankly the idea that this guy could still contribute to the gene pool is a fairly scary prospect. The second story, sadly shows that the gene pool does indeed remain contaminated by spectacular stupidity: a father seeking to drive a spider from behind ... (more) |
Big boys' fantasies and the land of make-believeI am more than a little underwhelmed about the fuss surrounding the identification of the Stig. I'm quite cross that the BBC seem to have wasted some of the licence fee pursuing this through the courts, but I can't really see the fundamental problem. Now I admit that I don't watch either Top Gear or Dr. ... (more) |
Looking to the past in SomalilandSomalia is one of the most benighted places on the planet. Staggeringly violent, desperately poor, it regularly comes last in any ranking of the nations of the Earth. Since the collapse of the Somali state, nearly twenty years ago, the country has become a extremely dangerous anarchy. The capital Mogadishu, once known as the Pearl of the Indian Ocean, now stands in ruins. Somalia is the number one example of a failed state. It has no government. In the face of this breakdown, it is worth considering that the state of Somalia, created in 1960, rests on two historic foundations: ... (more) |