St Albans

Entries Tagged as 'St Albans'

The budget is a dish best observed cold

March 22nd, 2012 · 4 Comments · Sandy's blog

Once upon a time a Chancellor of the Exchequer would have been forced to resign for as much as breathing a word about what was going to be in the Budget before he (it’s never been a “she”) stood up in the House of Commons.
By contrast, this must have been the most leaked budget in [...]

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Tags:budget commentary·St Albans

“When the well is dry, we know the worth of water”

March 13th, 2012 · 2 Comments · Sandy's blog

Benjamin Franklin wrote the above in 1746 and it looks increasingly like we are going to be destruction testing his observation.
Yesterday’s announcement of an imminent hosepipe ban for St Albans beginning April 5th is a symptom not a solution.
Every day coming into St Albans, I come to the Jolly Sailor junction of Sandpit Lane with [...]

Credit Unions and the Post Office should make a perfect mutual marriage

March 9th, 2012 · 2 Comments · Sandy's blog

It often comes as a shock to members of the Labour and Conservative Parties that the Liberal Democrat Party is democratic. Members make policy. One of the ways that this is done is to have a consultative session on a particular topic at one conference so as to get input from grassroots members. These thoughts [...]

Two wheels good – lets just make them safer

March 6th, 2012 · 4 Comments · Sandy's blog

I have blogged previously about St Albans Cycle Campaign. Their member mailings are always interesting. The current one highlights the recent debate in parliament on cycle safety initiated by my friend Julian Huppert, the Liberal Democrat MP for Cambridge.
STACC has circulated the parliamentary briefing note prepared for the debate. It has a fund of useful [...]

How synthetic is the row about the Work Programme?

February 24th, 2012 · No Comments · Sandy's blog

It seems insulting to ethnicities with a history of slavery and to those who are genuinely enslaved currently when people receiving jobseekers allowance and then required to do work experience with expenses in a high street store are desribed as “slaves” – however mundane the experience might be.
Unless we are very lucky, we almost all [...]

What the Dickens?

February 7th, 2012 · No Comments · Sandy's blog

It’s Dickens’s bicentennial. While Bill Sykes lurked in Hatfield, following the brutal murder of Nancy, Bleak House is firmly in St Albans, standing behind its pineapple-topped gateposts at the corner of Normandy Road and Catherine Street. (How many Albanians still pronounce Catherine with a long ‘i’ I wonder.)
BH is now a chi-chi interior designer’s office. [...]

High noon for Park Street – official

February 3rd, 2012 · No Comments · Sandy's blog

The Secretary of State has considered carefully all the representations before him. On the basis of the submissions received, he is of the view that there are no substantive issues which require the Inquiry to be re-opened and he has therefore decided that he is in a position to re-determine the appeal on the basis [...]

From The Book of Hawking to the book of Hawking

January 31st, 2012 · 4 Comments · Sandy's blog

Last week I attended the presidential lecture by Donald Munro at the Arc and Arc (the St Albans and Hertfordshire Architectural and Archaeological Society). All newly elected presidents give a lecture. Donald chose as his topic the history of printing and publishing in St Albans up to the end of the nineteenth century.
Not many people [...]

Nick Clegg’s dogged insistence on better resources for mental health treatment

January 19th, 2012 · No Comments · Sandy's blog

In 2008 Nick Clegg came to the Sopwell House Hotel in St Albans to make one of his first speeches as newly elected Liberal Democrat leader. The occasion was the annual Guardian Public Services Summit.
He chose to concentrate on the inadequacies of service provision for the mentally ill. It was not an obvious crowd-puller for [...]

“Curryoke” – mixing curry with karaoke for a unique night out

January 8th, 2012 · 1 Comment · Sandy's blog

St Albans saw a world first on Friday with the inaugural “curryoke”, courtesy of St Albans District Liberal Youth. The venue was Fleetville Community Centre. The delicious curry came from Halema Takeaway on Hatfield Road. There was some extraordinary (in every sense of the word) musical talent on display.
The Fleetville Community Centre didn’t know what [...]

Sandy 4 St Albans

Sandy Walkington campaigns with the Liberal Democrats across St Albans