Rollergirls in the hunt for boys

Posted on May 6, 2011 by Bill Carmichael

Roller Girls look for boys

The Sheffield Steel Rollergirls (SSRG) are opening recruitment for new members next week – and men are being invited to sign up too!

The all-girls competitive roller derby group has a separate men’s team – known as the Inhuman League – which is looking for new members alongside the women’s team.

Both women and men have been invited to a training session on May 10^th at 7pm at Skate Central on Queens Road.

An SSRG spokeswoman, who goes by the name Deadly Nightshade, said: “We will be going over basic skills, which will include stance, stride, falls and stops.

“You are welcome to come along to these sessions so we can get you started with stance, stride etc. but unfortunately at the moment we are not able to take any one on who has zero skating experience.

“One thing we suggest is getting in some practice in at public skating sessions to increase your confidence. There is usually one or two of our team there on a Thursday evening (they should be wearing an SSRG shirt) so if you see them, grab them and they will be able to give you pointers.”

The group has approximately 30 skaters who we are getting through their minimum skills.

If you already have a basic skating ability, then you can start to join in with drills in regular carbon – or beginners’ sessions straight away.

Sessions cost £5 and you can hire skates, elbow and knee pads, wrist guards and helmets. Skaters are required to wear full protection at every session.

You can find out more here.

And if you want to attend a session please email the rollergirls to let them know you are coming.

Harman congratulates Sheffield victors

Posted on May 6, 2011 by Bill Carmichael

Harriet Harman congratulates Labour’s Sheffield victors

Labour’s deputy leader Harriet Harman has arrived in Sheffield to congratulate the local Labour party on their victory in yesterday’s local council elections.

Listen to Harriet Harman, Labour

She is meeting the new council leader, Julie Dore, and other Labour Party workers in the city who are euphoric after regaining control of the council last night.

In a night of drama Labour inflicted a heavy defeat on their Lib Dem rivals, taking nine seats and sparking a crisis in the coalition government.

The significance of the result cannot be overestimated with Sheffield Hallam MP and deputy prime minister Nick Clegg coming under intense pressure after his party’s poor showing in the polls.

The fact that such a senior figure as Harman has chosen Sheffield for a high profile visit shows how much Labour values the Sheffield victory.

Blunkett hails end of ‘Cleggmania’

Posted on May 6, 2011 by Bill Carmichael

David Blunkett

Former Home Secretary David Blunkett laid into the Liberal Democrats today and fellow Sheffield MP Nick Clegg, hailing the end of “Cleggmania”.

The leading Labour figure and Sheffield Brightside MP made the reference to Mr Clegg’s spectacular increase in popularity a year ago in the run up to the general election.

But since Mr Clegg, who represents Sheffield Hallam, joined with the Conservatives as a junior partner in the coalition government, much of his shine has become tarnished.

U-turn

His U-turn over university tuition fees and support for the government’s austerity measures have proved unpopular.

Speaking to Jusnews reporters at the Sheffield count Mr Blunkett said: “We now have to take a very deep breath and be very grateful and pleased that this will be the end of Cleggmania.”

Mr Blunkett predicted that Labour would take at least six seats from the Lib Dems in Sheffield – enough to hand control of the city to Labour.

Early results showed a dramatic collapse in Lib Dem support.

The first result in Sheffield to be announced in Southey ward showed Lib Dem votes declining from more than 1300 last year to just 403 this year as Labour increased its majority.

Labour seizes control of Sheffield City Council

Posted on May 5, 2011 by Bill Carmichael

and Iulia Rosu, Yuya Shino, Shuo Cao

Labour claimed a landslide in the local elections in Sheffield early today taking control of the city council, as the Liberal Democrats paid a heavy price for their support for the coalition government.

Labour won in last night's election. Photo by Mike Taylor.

Across the city the Lib Dem vote collapsed with electors abandoning the party they had supported strongly only 12 months ago.

Labour gained nine seats and now has 49 seats in the 84-seat council chamber.

Analysts blamed the Lib Dem decision to join the coalition government as junior partners with the Conservatives and the personal unpopularity of Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg, the MP for Sheffield Hallam.

Former Labour Home Secretary and Sheffield Brightside MP David Blunkett hailed the end of what he called “Cleggmania” as he relished his party’s resurgence in what was once dubbed the Socialist Republic of South Yorkshire.

And Sheffield Central MP Paul Blomfield described Labour’s victory as a landslide.

Labour pointed to Clegg’s U-turn on tuition fees and support for the government’s austerity measures as the reason for his dramatic reversal of fortunes.

To add to Lib Dem woes, opinion polls suggest their cherished hope for reform of the voting system looked set to be heavily defeated in a national referendum. Results will be announced tonight.

Nationally, Labour inflicted a heavy defeat over the Lib Dems across northern England taking seats in Manchester, Liverpool and Hull.

But in Scotland the SNP secured an unprecedented victory by taking a majority of seats in the Scottish Parliament election.

Alex Salmond’s party passed the half-way point by taking its 65th seat in a historic win at Kirkcaldy, the first time gains on this scale have been achieved since the Parliament was established in 1999..

Locally Labour gained nine council seats from the Lib Dems in Gleadless Valley, Nether Edge, Crookes and Stockbridge and Upper Don, Broomhill and West Ecclesfield, East Ecclesfield, Hillsborough and Walkley giving it overall control of the City Council from a minority Lib Dem administration.

The Lib Dems held onto to six seats, and the Greens to one.

The composition of the council is now Labour 49, Lib Dems 32, Greens 2, Independent 1.

Local turnout was just under 42%.

View Sheffield Election Ward in a larger map

Slideshow by Angelina Wenjuan HE

Harman congratulates Sheffield victors

LIVE: Election ’11 results

Live Blog: The 2011 council election and referendum

Students produce Sheffield election map

Posted on May 4, 2011 by Bill Carmichael

2011 Sheffield Ward

Journalism students at the University of Sheffield have created an electoral map of the city in preparation for the local council vote on Thursday.

The colour-coded map gives an at-a-glance indication of the political make up of Sheffield’s 28 local council wards.

The map will be updated tomorrow as the results come in.

Journalism students will also be providing a live overnight results service on the Jusnews website from 10pm when the polls close.

Most results are expected to be declared between 11pm and 3am on Friday.

Student Yuya Shino from Japan led the team producing the map.

More than 80 post-graduate journalism students are involved in a live news day – forming one of the biggest news gathering and publishing operations in northern England.

In addition to the website students are also creating TV and radio bulletins, two newspapers and a magazine.

A beginners’ guide to the Alternative Vote (AV)

Posted on May 4, 2011 by Bill Carmichael

Do you know what the Alternative Vote (AV) is ?

So…What is it?

Alternative Voting (AV) is a system of voting to elect Members of Parliament to the House of Commons.

Like First-Past-the-Post (FPTP), it is used to elect representatives for single-member constituencies. But it is not new. The Australians have been using it since 1918, almost 80 years ago.

This will be only the second time a referendum has been held throughout the whole of the United Kingdom in British history; the first occasion was the United Kingdom European Communities membership referendum in 1975.

What are the differences between AV and FPTP?

For MPs: Ideally it ensures they have a real mandate while delivering greater choice and eliminating the need for tactical voting.

For voters: Instead of putting an ‘X’ on the ballot paper (FPTP), voters can rank the candidates on the offer.

How can voters use AV to vote?

On the ballot paper, the voters can put a ‘1’ for their most-preferred candidate, and can continue if they wish, to put a ‘2’ for their secondary-preferred candidate, and so on.

It does not matter if the voters have ranked all the candidates because it is not compulsory. And the voters can rank as many candidates can they want, as long as they are on the list.

Video by WhatsThisAVNonsense

What is the process?

If the candidate receives more than half of the votes (more people give him a ‘1’ than all the rest combined), he wins the election.

If no candidates gain more than half of the votes, then the votes of the least-voted candidate will be distributed by the sequence of preference. And he will be removed from the contest.

The process goes on till one candidate wins over 50 per cent of the votes.

How do parties stand for AV?

Conservative:

Most Tory MPs, including Prime Minister David Cameron, are campaigning against AV. There are 3 reasons for thes: AV, which is not one person one vote, is ‘too complicated and unfair’, whereas the FPTP is already good enough; it may lead to harm to the government and a hung parliament; it costs a lot to purchase machines that read the ballots; ‘most importantly’–Nick Clegg is in favour of AV.

LibDem:

Definitely support AV. AV makes your MPs work harder to gain your support.

Labour:

Ed Miliband supports AV. He thinks it is fairer than FPTP and good for democracy and accountability. But more than 100 Labour MPs say they oppose it.

Green:

Although AV is not their preferred system, they will support it.

To know how people think, see Reaction to AV system on social media

Boston Castle to be restored

Posted on March 28, 2011 by Bill Carmichael

Boston Castle, Rotherham is in a poor state of repair

Rotherham council has announced that the £1.2m plan to repair the derelict Boston Castle will start later this year after the Heritage Lottery Fund approved a £590,000 grant.

The scheme has been scaled down from the original £1.7m project that was put on ice by councilors last August because of money shortages.

Plans for a learning centre and café contained in the original scheme have now been dropped.

Boston Castle was built as a shooting lodge by Thomas, 3rd Earl of Effingham, in 1775.

It sits on a 23-acre site, known as Boston Park, which overlooks the town of Rotherham.

Man questioned after body found at flats

Posted on March 28, 2011 by Bill Carmichael

Fortway Road, Rotherham

The victim was named by police as David Wilks, 39, whose body was discovered near his home in Fortway Road, Brinsworth, Rotherham.

Officers arrested a 20-year-old man and continue to question him.

Mr Wilks was unemployed and had lived with his partner, Angela, at the flat for about five years. He is believed to have one child who did not live with him.

His body was discovered on the landing outside the flat by a 73-year-old woman who has not been named.

A South Yorkshire Police spokesman said: “We have a suspect in custody who has been arrested on suspicion of murder over an incident which happened on Saturday morning.

Head injuries

“The deceased, Mr Wilks, was found just after 9am with serious head injuries.

“An ambulance and police were called to the scene and paramedics worked on Mr Wilks to try in vain to save his life, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.

“A post mortem examination has been carried out and his family has been informed.”

The spokesman said no weapon is believed to have been involved in the incident.

Police were conducting forensic examinations at the block of flats today.

Brown fights to hold on to power

Posted on May 7, 2010 by Bill Carmichael

Cameron says Labour has lost mandate to govern

Prime Minister Gordon Brown was fighting to hold onto to power today by tempting the Liberal Democrats into a coalition government.

The general election failed to achieve a decisive result and Britain now has its first hung parliament since 1974.

Conservative leader David Cameron insisted Labour had “lost its mandate to govern our country”, as his party raced ahead in terms of seats won in the new parliament.

But he looked set to fall just short of the 326 seats he needs for an overall majority in the Commons.

A BBC/ITV News/Sky News survey forecast the Conservatives would win 305 seats with Labour on 255 and the Lib Dems on 61.

And forecasts based on actual results predicted a similar outcome.

With 155 seats still to declare, the Conservatives had won 241, Labour 189 and the Lib Dems just 39.

The lacklustre Lib Dem showing – the party had 63 seats when the campaign began – meant Mr Brown could probably not rely on Nick Clegg’s party alone to form a stable administration.

But the premier insisted: “My duty in all of this is that there be a stable, strong and principled government and to play my part in making that possible.

“I think it is too early to say what the verdict of the people is but it is pretty clear that what the people will want at the end of this election is a government that is strong, stable and principled.”

He told reporters travelling to London with him from his count in Kirkcaldy: “I am the leader of the Labour Party but I’ve also got a duty to the country.”

He added: “The economy is incredibly important to our future and we must be sending out the right message to the world.”

Sources indicated he was ready to embark on days of talks aimed at piecing together a coalition.

Mr Cameron told supporters at his count in Witney: “I believe it’s already clear that the Labour government has lost its mandate to govern our country.

“I can see also that the Conservative Party is on target to win more seats at this election than we have done at any election in perhaps as long as 80 years.”

He added: “What’s clear from these results is that the country, our country, wants change. That change is going to require new leadership and we will stand ready to do all we can to help bring that leadership.”

Mr Clegg said it had been a “disappointing night” for the Liberal Democrats, adding: “We simply haven’t achieved what we had hoped.”

Exit polls point towards hung parliament

Posted on May 6, 2010 by Bill Carmichael

Britain heading for hung parliament?

The first exit polls have pointed towards a hung parliament, with Conservatives the largest party.

If the national swing shown by the poll was repeated across all constituencies, the Conservatives would have 305 seats, Labour 255 seats, Liberal Democrats 61 and other parties on 29. The Liberal Democrats are, despite the apparent increase in support in, minus a seat according to the poll. Labour would loose 94 seats and the Conservatives gain 97.

If this poll translated into seats, Labour and the Liberal Democrats in coalition would still be 10 seats short of an overall majority. The Conservatives would remain 21 below the key number of 326 seats needed for a workable majority.

2010 Election Exit Poll:

Conservatives: 305

Labour: 255

Liberal Democrats: 61

Others:29

Turnout is thought to be greater than previous years. The 2005 election saw 61% of voters casting their ballots, a slight rise on the 2001 turnout of 59%.

18,000 people were interviewed for the poll across 130 polling stations for the poll.

Some constituencies and wards have been added this year to take account of the rise in support for the Liberal Democrats. However the exit polls do not take account of the estimated 25% of voters who have used postal votes.

This is the only set of exit polls this year, the result of a joint effort between Sky, ITV and BBC.