Archive for the 'General' Category
The great knife debate
May 30th, 2008More coverage of the unlawful use of knives in our society has resulted in yet another public safety proposal, namely a change in the design of everyday kitchen knives to blunt their ends. Apart from causing me great problems when cutting tomatoes, removing the shartp pointed end from kitchen knives misses the real point about […]
In Deep Porridge
January 30th, 2008As the weeks pass by, more and more evidence is emerging about the scale of the disaster facing the Prison Service. I mean no irony whatsoever when I blame the Government, because just about everyone who knows anything about the penal system agrees. First take a Chancellor (Mr. Brown) who had a populist-based […]
Christmas Wishes
December 24th, 2007It is early on Christmas Eve, so I am taking a few moments to reflect upon recent events locally and nationally. Last week, a delegation of members of the Swindon SEN Network had a two hour meeting at the Civic Offices with a group of Councillors who were reviewing Special Needs provision in the […]
Pack Up All Your Cares and Woe…
December 20th, 2007Since my last posting, we have been busy writing and preparing letters about the post office closure proposals that have been distributed to thousands of local residents in and around the affected post offices. The response we are receiving is excellent, and we shall take the matter forward as part of the consultation process […]
Between Castle and Cathedral
November 19th, 2007It was with some trepidation that I returned last weekend to Durham, after a gap of nearly ten years. A group of seven of us who had been together at Hatfield College from 1987 to 1990 met up in the shadow of the greatest cathedral in the world on Friday evening. Frankly, the […]
A different means of communication
November 9th, 2007For most of my life, I have taken the power of speech and language entirely for granted. It has been the basis of my career in the law, and the cornerstone of my political progress. As a result of what is happening with my daughter, these assumptions have been entirely overturned.
Words are only one way […]
Holidays loom
August 16th, 2007Just a quick note to say that I am about to go off on my holidays, returning in early September. I expect all the leaves to have fallen off the trees by the time I return, bearing in mind the premature onset of autumn that seems to have hit us. I was visiting […]
Barriers to the Bar
August 2nd, 2007I have been busy of late, and have failed to update this blog with work I have been doing with The Willows High School which is in the Tremorfa area of Cardiff. In June, I met a GCSE Law student who was completing a Work Placement with staff at Cardiff Crown Court. He was bright, […]
A little inaccuracy…
July 11th, 2007Have just finished Andrew Marr’s “History of Modern Britain”, having failed to see much of the TV series. If you like Marr’s journalistic and presentational style, then you will find this to be an engaging account that brings together many of the threads of British life that were difficult to make sense of at the […]
A charitable trio
June 18th, 2007Local elections and life has got in the way, but I promised to mention a very worthwhile HIV/Aids charity set up by Jeremy Hunt, MP for South-West Surrey. Jeremy visited North Swindon Library at the end of February and spoke about the work of the Hotcourses Foundation, which helps to fund education courses for […]
