Month: Jun 2013

(not satire – it’s the UKIP!)

Ho hum. Another week and yet another threat of being sued.

This time the threat’s from a UKIP activist – which is a bit strange for a so-called libertarian who’s supposed to be in favour of less state interference in people’s lives.

Well actually – on that theme – if there’s one thing annoys me more than anything else it’s a bunch of right-wing Thatcherite authoritarians trying to make out they’re libertarians. After all – I can’t think of anything less libertarian than wanting the government to decide who you can and can’t get married to – can you?

No – UKIP are about as libertarian as I’m a catwalk model.

This latest threat of libel comes from UKIP activist Marty Caine – who seems to be a bit upset about me pointing out that he labelled the family of Drummer Lee Rigby ‘idiots’…

Ben Bradshaw with Regen chief executive Merlin Hyman

Twenty-three MPs and Peers supported the development of a world-leading renewable energy industry in the south west of England today when they signed up to the UK’s first regional renewable energy manifesto at Westminster.

Signatory MPs include Liberal Democrat Sir Nick Harvey, Labour’s Ben Bradshaw and Conservative Charlotte Leslie.

Launched today at House of Commons by renewable energy not-for-profit organisation Regen SW, the manifesto sets out an ambitious target to deliver 34,000 high-value jobs in renewable energy this decade through eight specific commitments including supporting:

• a consistent regulatory framework to incentivise long-term investment in renewables
• investment in the national and local grid, and to roll out new ‘smart’ technology
• putting communities at the heart of new energy developments

Regen’s research shows a rapid growth in renewable energy generation over the past 12 months, and more than 10,000 jobs in the sector…

 

Even when stitched together, graphene remains the strongest known material.

I am a fan of the World at One news programme on BBC Radio 4, and listen to it with interest on holidays and on Saturdays. I’m one of those people who yells at the radio in disagreement, or applauds the speaker as the situation demands (and yes, I know the radio announcer can’t actually hear me!). And the fact is, I usually hear the name ‘Ed Balls’ and prepare to murmur agreement with the shrewd ideas of the Shadow Chancellor.

Unfortunately, I didn’t anticipate the panic that Labour’s slip in the polls has caused in the distant leadership of the my party. Now that a poll lead of 11 points has fallen to 7 points, in what was a temporary fluctuation, the two Eds are issuing a flurry of policy announcements, designed to prove One Nation Labour’s ‘responsibility’ on matters such as the budget deficit and the welfare state…

(satire – I think)

Speaking in House of Lords debate on happy marriage, Justin Welby says cheerful people who never bicker about anything will undermine miserable marriage as basis for rearing children.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has accused the government of attacking the institution of miserable heterosexual marriage in order to promote the rights of people with a happy disposition to get married.

As peers embarked on a two-day debate in the House of Lords, Welby said:

Allowing marriages to be gay, happy and jolly would cause deep divisions in society and goes against our Christian inheritance of having miserable marriages where we constantly fall out with each other over the slightest things.

Welby joined several other peers who criticised the government’s plans to allow happy marriages and protested that neither the Lib Dem nor Tory 2010 manifesto included a pledge to allow cheerful weddings in their manifestos.

In his speech, Welby said:

The ancient…

The launch of The Church pub and restaurant meant that I was back in my favourite part of Birmingham – the Jewellery Quarter. You’ll find my recommendations for bars, pub, cafés and restaurants in the Quarter in a new eating and drinking guide on the Destinations page.