Tuesday, October 25, 2005

Quote


I happen to be going through something yesterday and came across the quote below. Now I can't remember where I saw it or who it is from from.


“A vote is like a rifle – its usefulness depends upon the character of the user.”


If you have any idea please do not hesitate to email and let me know.
Consultations


As most Liberal Democrats will know the party is currently carrying out policy consultations on
Children and Families, Devolution and Local Governance and Tax which close on 31st October 2005.


So if you are interested in any of these issues or have expert knowledge on them please read the papers and let the party know your thoughts as soon as possible in order to help us have the best policy on the issues.

Monday, October 24, 2005

South Asia Relief Concert


The Brit-Asian Initiative has brought together eight high-profile artists from Pakistan to play at an amazing South Asia Relief Concert on Saturday 5 November at London's Wembley Pavilion.


All profits will go to fund Oxfam and Islamic Relief UK's work in the region.


When: Saturday 5 November, 6.00 pm to 10.30 pm
Where: London Wembley Pavilion
Who: Strings, Jawad Ahmad, Faakhir, Shiraz Uppal, Haroon, Humera Arshad, Jal, Rabi Pirzada
How much: from £15
More info: 0870 321 7600
Web: www.southasiarelief.org.uk


Extra info: you can claim a free mobile handset and donate at the same time. All handsets come with free connection, free minutes on Orange, and free line rental for 6 months. If you claim a free handset, you'll be making a donation to the South Asia Earthquake relief effort through Oxfam and Islamic Relief. Call the number above or log on to www.southasiarelief.org.uk for details.


http://www.oxfam.org.uk/generationwhy/whatson/events/south_asia_relief_05/

Sunday, October 23, 2005

Which West Wing character are you?


I think my answer proves how uncorrect this test is but it is great fun.


Quiet and dutiful, the President's "Body Man" takes on a lot for a 21 year old. He is responsible and bright, but is the target of hate groups because of his relationship with the President's daughter, Zoey. Oh, and Charlie is quite the pool shark.

:: Which West Wing character are you? ::



Thursday, October 20, 2005

Some Differences between Women and Men

NAMES:
If Laurie, Linda, Elizabeth and Barbara go out for lunch, they will call each other Laurie, Linda, Elizabeth and Barbara.
If Mark, Chris, Eric and Tom go out, they will affectionately refer to each other as Fat Boy, Godzilla, Peanut-Head and Scrappy.

EATING OUT:
When the bill arrives, Mark, Chris, Eric and Tom will each throw in a £20, even though it's only for £32.50. None of them will have anything smaller and none will actually admit they want the change back.
When the women get their bill, out come the pocket calculators.

MONEY:
A man will pay £2 for a £1 item he needs.
A woman will pay £1 for a £2 item that she doesn’t need but it's on sale.

BATHROOMS:
A man has five items in his bathroom: a toothbrush, shaving cream, razor, a bar of soap, and a towel from the Marriott.
The average number of items in the typical woman’s bathroom is 337.
A man would not be able to identify most of these items.

ARGUMENTS:
A woman has the last word in any argument.
Anything a man says after that is the beginning of a new argument.

CATS:
Women love cats.
Men say they love cats, but when women aren't looking, men kick cats.

FUTURE:
A woman worries about the future until she gets a husband.
A man never worries about the future until he gets a wife.

SUCCESS:
A successful man is one who makes more money than his wife can spend.
A successful woman is one who can find such a man.

MARRIAGE:
A woman marries a man expecting he will change, but he doesn't.
A man marries a woman expecting that she won't change and she does.

DRESSING UP:
A woman will dress up to go shopping, to water the plants, empty the rubbish, answer the phone, read a book, and read the mail.
A man will dress up for weddings and funerals.

NATURAL:
Men wake up as good-looking as they went to bed.
Women somehow deteriorate during the night.

OFFSPRING:
Ah, children. A woman knows all about her children. She knows about dentist appointments and romances, best friends, favourite foods, secret fears and hopes and dreams.
A man is vaguely aware of some short people living in the house

FINAL THOUGHT:
Any married man should forget his mistakes.
There's no use in two people remembering the same thing.

Tuesday, October 18, 2005

Just yesterday I ordered The West Wing - Seasons 1 To 6 - The Bartlet Years from Amazon.co.uk set me back a 140 big ones but I think its worth it since its list price is £199.99 and buying each season individually could have set me back something like £240.
Selected friends will be invited to borrow them from time to time.
I hope I have no deadlines around 14th November when I expect it to arrive.

Tuesday, October 11, 2005

Other Bloggers
I have been meaning to comment on this for sometime now but just don’t seem to get round to it. Dave Radcliffe a fellow Liberal Democrat from Birmingham who is councillor for Selly Oak ward has started a blog The 3P's: Politics, Photos & Football.
Jane Leaper is another Liberal Democrat with a blog she is also a campaigner on transport, road safety and environmental issues. She is currently Deputy Chair of the Staffordshire Campaign to Protect Rural England and a member of Liberty and Transport 2000.

Thursday, October 06, 2005

Stop Climate Chaos believe that civil society organisations - environmentand development groups, faith groups, humanitarian organisations, women’s groups, trade unions and many others - are in a unique position to mobilise public concern, and through this the necessary political action, to stop climate chaos. By working together in a diverse, broad-based coalition Stop Climate Chaos believe they can deliver results that none can achieve alone. Nothing on this scale has been attempted before on climate change, butanything less is unlikely to be successful.
I am in the top 13.68% richest people in the world.
There are 5,179,133,247 people poorer than me.
Great chance for members of the Liberal Democrats to help the party byadding to their credit cards, changing their phone company, electricitysupplier, insurance company, car cover provider, by buying recycled paper,when purchasing from Amazon or by buying from the Lib Dem bookshop.
Members can also help by buying clipboards, banners, car stickers, rosettes,stickers, badges, teller pads, shuttleworths, balloons, recruitment pads,headed paper etc.
www.learntosign.org.uk is a website run by the British Deaf Association(BDA) who hope that it will encourage people to learn British Sign Language(BSL), and give people some ideas about how they can start.
Mass Lobby for Trade Justice – Wednesday 2 November
Preparations are really gearing up for the only mass mobilisation organisedfor MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY and trade justice campaigners in the second half of the year, with just over a month to go until the Mass Lobby for Trade Justice on Wednesday 2 November.
Publicity materials (A5 flyers and A3 and A4 posters) for the event are nowavailable; if you would like to distribute these to your supporters, pleaseemail Vicky Tongue, TJM Campaign Assistant at vicky@tjm.org.uk. Allparticipants are asked to register their attendance in advance, and to ordera lobby pack, which will shortly be available to download fromwww.tjm.org.uk, or in print form by emailing vicky@tjm.org.uk. There is anonline registration form on the TJM and MPH websites athttp://www.makepovertyhistory.org/mph/campaign.do?code=lob - please linkthrough to this from your website as it is important we get a good idea ofhow many people will be attending in advance of the day. The transportnoticeboard for coaches to the lobby is now live on the TJM website atwww.tjm.org.uk/transport.
There is a need for a significant number of staff and stewards to help out on the day. It would be a huge help if all organisations could find as many volunteers as possible from their staff and supporters. Duties include outdoor stewarding, giving information, helping with managing the queue or assistingMPs, and will be in two 4-hour shifts. Please email Sirius Gibson at Oxfam(sgibson@oxfam.org.uk) with any questions and to register as a steward.
Parliamentary work ahead of the lobby is also in full swing - there willshortly be a mailing encouraging all MPs to take action on our demands andget involved in the mass lobby (to be followed by a briefing meeting in lateOctober). An Early Day Motion will also be tabled on 10 October for MPs to sign.
A friend of mine has bought tickets for seven/eight of us to go and see MarkThomas and Robert Newman on Monday 12th December at Warwick Arts Centre,University of Warwick.
I saw some of Mark Thomas work when I was doing my Global World module lastyear at University so I look foward to see what his new material is like. Ididnt agree with everything I have heard him say but thats what makes someof it great fun.

Wednesday, October 05, 2005

Back to Uni
The academic year has started again (should allow me more opportunities to blog) and it was great to be back at the University of Wolverhampton. This week is the first week for lectures and seminars for returning students (freshers week was last week). I have spent most of this week meeting old friends to see if we would be in the same lectures and seminars and to see if our timetables would allow for us to get together for lunch on certain days.
This year I have moved on to Level 2 of my Politics and Social Policy Degree and am also serving as a Non-portfolio officer of the University of Wolverhampton Students Union. Freshers week and this week also gave me a great chance to meet my fellow executive officers to see what they have been up to over the summer. The sabbatical officers have already done so much I can’t wait to get going and start delivering on my manifesto.
As a level 2 politics student my modules for semester 1 are Contemporary Britain and Political Sociology: power, participation and protest and for semester 2 Europe United and World Politics. I had my first lecture for Contemporary Britain today. Contemporary Britain is a social, cultural and political history of Britain. Today’s lecture by Professor John Callaghan looked at what Orwell described as characteristics of the English in 1943 and how they differ from the characteristics of the English described by Jeremy Paxman in a book he wrote in 1998. I am looking forward to the remainder of this module as I did a lot of similar work for my A Level History this will be a perfect opportunity to build on the knowledge and experiences gained then. My first Political Sociology: power, participation and protest lecture is tomorrow. Political Sociology: power, participation and protest looks at the theories of and debates around citizenship participation and representations. I am really looking forward to this module as the Module Leader is Doctor Michael Cunningham who was my lecturer for Introduction to British Politics and Political Analysis and while I disagreed with Doctor Cunningham on certain issues I really enjoyed his style of teaching and his participation in debates during seminars.
Semester 2 seems like along long away but I am looking forward to Europe United and World Politics as an internationalist I like learning about international politics and like participating in debates and discussions as happens in seminars with regard to Britain’s place in Europe and the World as well as discussions about the good, the bad and ugly effects of globalisation. The module leader for Europe United is Doctor Martin Dangerfield who I have never come across during my time at University and for World Politics its Doctor Eamonn O’Kane who is my personal tutor but I have only met three times (induction, 1 lecture and when picking level 2 modules). I enjoyed Doctor O’Kane lecture regarding the media during A Global World at Level 1.
For Social Policy in this semester I am taking Approaches to Poverty & Social Exclusion and European Social Policy in Semester 1 along with Housing, Health & Social Care and Research for Applied Social Sciences in semester 2. My first Approaches to Poverty & Social Exclusion lecture was yesterday and it was great to meet my friends from last year again. Approaches to Poverty & Social Exclusion examine contemporary policy responses and debates relating to poverty & social exclusion. I’m looking forward to this module as I have a genuine interest in tackling poverty and social exclusion across the world. I am looking forward to European Social Policy so that I can develop an understanding of social policies across the European Union. I am also looking forward to Housing, Health & Social Care which involves exploring the economic and fiscal base for social policies.
The down side of picking all these interesting modules is that in Semester 1 I will have to complete six essays, a presentation and a report. In Semester 2 I will have to complete an essay, three exams, two presentations, a research plan and a review. All this along with student union commitments should make me a fairly busy student.