An ex-Conservative mayor has admitted attacking a woman as she filmed him parking illegally on a street where he had helped introduce unpopular charges.
Brian Coleman, a Barnet councillor, admitted a charge of common assault by beating at Uxbridge Magistrates’ Court.
The 51-year-old was arrested in September after assaulting cafe owner Helen Michael in Finchley High Road.
His lawyer said he had been trying to stop her filming him on a mobile phone as he parked in a loading bay. Read more »
Hekia Parata is away on holiday working like a navvy in Europe at an Education Conference that conveniently happens to be in Amsterdam, followed by a little side trip to Paris, taking along union bosses for a little sharing of the trough in a bid to try to tame them.
Here is her week in review, she started in London:
London today with Sir Michael Wilshaw, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills. twitter.com/hekiaparata/st…
Attended the Commonwealth Day reception at Marlborough House in London. Great to catch up with Sir Anand Satyanand. twitter.com/hekiaparata/st… — Hekia Parata MP (@hekiaparata) March 12, 2013
Then she and “her team” whizzed off to Amsterdam:
Just arrived in Amsterdam with the NZ Union & Teacher Leader delegation to attend the 2013 International Summit on the Teaching Profession. — Hekia Parata MP (@hekiaparata) March 12, 2013
Eco-friendly electric race cars could compete on the streets of London next year after the capital was included on a provisional calendar for the inaugural Formula E season.
Sanctioned by the FIA, the Formula E series is designed to showcase advances in eco-friendly high-performance cars. Ten hosts cities have today been named by the FIA, with London being joined by Rome, Los Angeles, Miami, Beijing, Putrajaya, Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro.
Mayor of London Boris Johnson said: “Zero emission world-class motor racing is a scintillating concept and I am hugely keen that London be involved in the birth of Formula E.
“It has the potential to highlight the impressive strides being made in the manufacture of electric vehicles and hosting a street race could also be of considerable benefit to our city.”
Formula E also revealed that it has received interest in hosting street races from 23 cities in total. It is hoping to add two more rounds to the 2014 schedule ahead of having to submit a final calendar to the FIA for approval at the World Motor Sport Council in September.
Alejandro Agag, CEO of promoter Formula E Holdings said: “We are thankful to all the cities that have expressed their willingness to host our races.
Snowfall will cause disruption across the country, the Met Office has warned, with freezing temperatures expected to last through the half term into March.
Up to four inches of snow is expected across the UK overnight on Sunday as a band of rain turns to snow.
Forecasters warned that the Midlands, East Anglia and parts of Wales will be worst affected, with the possibility of snowfall and icy roads in London as rush hour hits.
Thousands of gritters have been sent out and Network Rail is preparing trains for ice and snow. Sleet and snowfall around Heathrow and other major airports may cause disruption. Read more »
A young woman was facially disfigured and almost lost her eyesight in a horrific unprovoked acid attack on the streets of London.
Naomi Oni, 20, was on her way home from work when an unknown attacker dressed in a niqab threw a chemical substance at her leaving the retail assistant with severe burns on her head, neck, arms, legs and body. Read more »
As debate in New Zealand moves onto affordable housing we should look at what Len Brown, Labour and the Green taliban are actually proposing…building up not out…and how that has worked out around the world…like in the UK:
The Policy Exchange report – Create Streets by Alex Morton and Nicholas Boys Smith – details how terrible tower blocks are for urban living. As well as ruining our city horizons, they encourage crime and social alienation. Residents of high-rise blocks are more liable to stress, mental health difficulties, and marriage breakdowns. Children living in tower blocks suffer from increased hyperactivity, hostility and juvenile delinquency – even when you adjust for socio-economic status.
Tower blocks are lethal, too: last week, an inquest opened into the 2009 fire in Lakanal House, in Camberwell, south London, which killed six people. With only one stairwell, it was hard for people to get out, and falling debris from the first fire set off many more fires. The tower was due to be demolished but Southwark Council had decided to refurbish it instead. And still the towers go on being built: between 2003 and 2007, there was a seven-fold increase in high-rise building. Read more »
The leftwing pommy rag can be funny sometimes…like this headline about Ann Romney’s horse:
Short of mocking Shetland ponies over their lack of stature or laying into zebras for their failure to make a significant contribution to the world of equine culture, Ann Romney’s horse Rafalca was always going to struggle to match the sheer incredulity that her husband managed to provoke on his recent overseas trip.
And in the event – the event in question being the individual dressage – the 15-year-old bay Oldenburg mare acquitted herself rather well. True, she and her rider, Jan Ebeling, may have been left well behind by Britain’s Carl Hester, Germany’s Dorothee Schneider and Denmark’s Anna Kasprzak but, by Romney standards, her performance was a positive triumph.
Never for a second during her seven-minute performance did a hoof stray dangerously mouthwards, nor did she do anything at all to offend or upset the host nation. From the moment she entered the Greenwich Park equestrian arena at 12.15 on Thursday afternoon, the most famous political horse since Caligula toyed with making a consul of Incitatus seemed in her element.
