Sunday, January 29, 2012

You know something, I'm not going to go gently into that dark night...

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I have, I must confess, been confronted with signs of my mortality of late. No, I'm not dying, I'm not even ill. it's just that...
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Lobbying Reform: sorry Eirian, but sorry doesn't cut it...

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Today, it emerges that Eirian Walsh Atkins has resigned. For those of you who don't know her, until Friday, she was the head of constit...
Thursday, January 26, 2012

I can count, I can...

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I am, somewhat unexpectedly, being educated again. Well, I say educated, in that I am part of an HM Revenue & Customs pilot study, testi...
1 comment:
Monday, January 23, 2012

Eric Pickles redefines 'moral duty'

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Not only has Eric Pickles failed to extend his largesse to Parish Councils, but he now accuses me of failing in my moral duty by increasing...

For the benefit of Iain Duncan-Smith: a definition of homelessness

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This morning, on BBC's Breakfast Show, Iain Duncan-Smith was talking about the impact of his proposals on a benefit cap. He suggested t...

A benefit cap: victimising people at taxpayers' expense?

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I freely admit that I haven't given an awful lot of attention to the Welfare Reform debate. Odd really, because Ros cast her first ever...
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Sunday, January 22, 2012

Even a bribe from Eric Pickles wouldn't help me this time...

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Last year, I was rather pleased that I had managed to freeze the Parish Council precept by cutting a swathe of utterly superfluous proposed...
Tuesday, January 17, 2012

I do wonder how these people do it...

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It is said that getting involved in Liberal Democrat Voice is a certain route to blogging damnation. With the 'curse of the BOTYs', ...
1 comment:
Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Don't you just hate it when an accountant spams you?

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There are few things that genuinely annoy me - I'm a fairly placid soul at heart. But one thing that really does irritate me is commerci...
1 comment:
Saturday, January 07, 2012

No more unlikely than a chartered accountant doing standup...

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One of the things about visiting family is that I am simultaneously inside, and outside, of my comfort zone. Inside, because I am with my fa...
Saturday, December 31, 2011

Hello from 2012! You guys, you're so last year...

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So, Ros and I have seen in the New Year, to the sound of bhangra (you have no idea...). I have my flashing light stick as a souvenir, and Ro...

Arise Sir Bob, the Voice of Colchester

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Long term readers of this blog will know that I am a bit of a fan of Bob Russell, our nearest Liberal Democrat MP. And the talk here in M...

2011 in review: a tale of what wasn't to be... and where we were going to be...

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Released from the role of First Husband, things were going to be a bit quieter, yes? Well, no, not really. Freed from her Presidential respo...
Tuesday, December 20, 2011

A new way of keeping busy... but how can I match the glamour that is Stephen Tall?

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Having wound down my political activity in recent months, I do need something to keep me busy. And, on the apparent basis that the Devil mak...
Sunday, December 18, 2011

No hard feelings, I trust, Lord North?

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Our recent trip to Stratford was made even more interesting by our accommodation for the night, Wroxton Abbey, just outside Banbury. Th...
1 comment:

The blunders of the human spine

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"Good grief," you're thinking, "what's he on about this time?. Is this an obscure attempt at humour by using metapho...

Cameron offers up his Parliamentary Party as a hostage to the Media

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Those of us who have, I put it politely, been about for a while, will remember the carnage that followed John Major's 'Back to Basi...
Thursday, December 15, 2011

Measure for (somewhat sado-masochistic) Measure

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It's been a day of surprises here on Planet Bureaucrat, none of which, I am delighted to say are work, or even politics, related. R...
Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Is it REALLY necessary to be that aggressive?

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Perhaps I'm getting old, or perhaps I'm just becoming a better politician, but one of the things that bothers me is the tendency of...
Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Another day, another lesson in Indian bureaucracy

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Another day in London, dealing with my Indian visa application, having lunch with the woman I love, meeting my brother for a drink and doing...