The list of the 20 successful backbench MPs who have an opportunity to bring forward a private members bill was published last week. In view of the fact that this will be a short session, few are likely to get their bills completed. In a normal session 13 Fridays are set aside for consideration of Private Members Bills. A Factsheet on the success of 'PMBs' can be found here . We should know shortly...
Here we present a 10 minute video of our 2009 Thanksgiving Feast. * If you are reading this blog on a mobile device or Kindle, you may need to visit the site directly to watch the video. Alternately you can access it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzqQjPCNbF4
A handful of Labour MPs turned up on the day after the Queen's speech. And most of them could scarcely be bothered to stand up and ask a question. Nobody believes in this thing. It's not worth the parchment it's written on. David Heath, for the Lib Dems, called it an abracadabra Queen's speech. "Shazam! The deficit halved at a stroke. Shazam! Poverty abolished around the world. This is fantasy...
Living in Frome, Somerset it upsets me that not only do we have a Liberal Democrat as our MP (David Heath) but the so called ‘FREE Press’, isn’t. Several times I have had letters rebuffed by the local press and the latest was just a few days ago. I also sent the letter to the Daily [...]
It's 2003. Parliament is debating foreign surveillance. The then Home Secretary, David Blunkett, is debating a point with Liberal Democrat MP David Heath. Blunket makes a one word interjection. The word? Chocolate. Obvious, really. It sets off a whole debate about how a hypothetical case of Belgians smuggling chocolate into the UK might be handled as you [...]
• [Nov 04] Mr. David Heath (Somerton and Frome) (LD): I AM clear: Sir Christopher Kelly's proposals should be implemented in full without equivocation. In the light of her widely reported comments over the weekend, can she say the same, or is she trying, for whatever reason, to be on both sides?
A British man sued his employers for religious discrimination, claiming he was dismissed because of his environmental views. A British court has ruled that his suit has standing, allowing his environmental beliefs to be defined as a religion for the purposes of enforcing the nation’s anti-discrimination laws . In a landmark ruling, Mr Justice Michael Burton said that “a belief in man-made...
Regular readers of these pages know my little "pet name" for the leadership of the global warming hoaxers is "The Holy Church of Global Warming Moonbats" There is a Judge in the UK who believes just as I do, except he is serious. In a landmark ruling, Mr Justice Michael Burton said that "a belief in man-made climate change ... is capable, if genuinely held, of being a philosophical...
Firstly - isn't it great to see young people in the chamber? Secondly isn't it refreshing to see some colour rather than the grey suited monochromistic mush? Thirdly - interesting and well argued debate (on tution fees at the mo). OK, so there are issues about just how representative UK Youth Parliament is - however, this opening up of the chamber is long overdue. Last week I was with the Youth MPs...
Pressed by both David Heath for the Liberal Democrats, the Conservatives' Sir George Young and even one of her own back-benchers, Andrew Miller, the Leader of the House today brushed off requests for a debate on data assurance. She refused to see a connection between the collection of vast amounts of personal data by the Home Office and yet another failure of security of government-collected data,...
Light Heavyweight Champion Lyoto ‘the Dragon’ Machida 15-0 vs Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua 18-3 The Dragon, Machida is a double BJJ black belt and 3rd Dan Shotokan Karate black belt. A Black House fighter, training with the likes of Spider Silva, and the Nog brothers, Machida has also trained and competed in sumo and has shown to be difficult to take down as he is very good at keeping...
News from Nick Clegg 10:10 Campaign & Motion Posted: 21 Oct 2009 04:14 AM PDT Nick Clegg & the Liberal Democrats Put 10:10 Motion Before Parliament 21st October 2009 Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats have placed the party at the forefront of the debate on climate change by putting the most ambitious policy motion to date before the House of Commons. Nick Clegg yesterday spoke on the urgency...
The first House Points of the new parliamentary season. My copy of Liberal Democrat News has not arrived yet, but I believe the editor dropped an alleged in here somewhere. "Wilkes and Liberty" It has been a quiet week at Westminster. MPs arrived back to find the rooftops occupied by activists protesting about global warming. The demonstrators didn’t stay up there long – these...
That story in the Guardian about the researchers who persuaded tabloid papers to run fake stories about celebrities struck a chord with me. But, I wondered, why did they think it was so new? It's been going on here at the Commons for ages. For example, somebody rang the papers to say that Gordon Brown was going to crack down on the banks, to make them stop paying ridiculous bonuses and start lending...
A gag on the Guardian reporting an MP's question in parliament was lifted yesterday after an extraordinary explosion of activity on the internet. Alan Rusbridger , the editor of the Guardian, explains how it happened. Among the MPs who tried to get an emergency debate on the injunction was David Heath , the Liberal Democrats' parliamentary spokesman. He explains why the justice secretary, Jack Straw,...
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