A couple of weeks ago I found out just how out on a limb I am politically, as if I wasn't already pretty much aware. I was in an excruciating lecture - nothing to do with the lecturer, or the room, or, I suppose, the content in the sense that it was all pretty standard Political Science 101 stuff. But therein lies the problem: it may be mainstream, but fundamentally I find I disagree with almost all of it. We were learning about "the State": what it is, when it came into being, what its essential functions or institutions are, ...
When I was an undergraduate at York, the bus from the university into the city used to cross a bridge over an overgrown single-track railway. This was the Derwent Valley Light Railway, which in those days ran from Layerthorpe in the city for four miles out to Dunnington. When it opened in 1913 it had run almost to Selby: in 1981 it was to close altogether. One day I walked the line to Dunnington and back. Though it shows track that had long gone by then, the video above gives a good idea of the way the line looked in ...
[IMG: Velodrome] I had such a good day yesterday in the Velodrome watching the Track Cycling World Cup. We had applied for tickets for the cycling in the Olympics, but didn't get any, so jumped at the chance to see this test event at the venue. The building itself is stunning. The timber external facing echoes the steeply curved wooden track inside. In fact, seeing the whole Olympic Park for the first time was a bit of a revelation. All the main buildings are now ready, and they are working on the landscaping, including a bumpy BMX track next to ...
Some time ago I managed to get some planters donated to help brighten up the area near the Garston cenotaph. The planters were for Long Lane and they've sat empty for a while on the grassed area in the middle . Enterprise Liverpool, who let us have the planters, have now also let us have some soil. The planters will soon actually have plants in them (with help from the wonderful people at local charity Rotters). This should help this bit of our area look better and brighter. This work is part of a bigger initiative to improve the Cenotaph ...
Over the last few months in-between a full time job and looking after my 2 year old daughter I've been working on updating the look to LibDemVoice. Whilst the layout change isn't massive, we've worked on highlighting the authors more, bringing back the recent comments to the right hand-side and introducing the most requested feature: Verified Comments If you are a paid up party member and have signed up to our Forums, you can now use this username and password to sign in to leave a comment on the main site, you just need to sign in here Whilst we ...
This morning it was off to Camden for some doorstep surveying with GLA candidate Chris Richards and the team. One touch I really liked was the emphasis on asking people for their email address. In fact everyone I got into conversation with was happy to give me their email address. A good tip – and one that means the local team get much more long term value from the doorstep conversations as they can then easily, cheaply and quickly get in touch with these people in the future. Chris Richards and the team are also experimenting with putting QR codes ...
One of the things that frustrates me is that, whenever I say anything about the Welfare Reform Bill in the Lib Dems, I run smack bang into people who, for whatever reason, think I'm being disloyal, or that I'm exaggerating or that I don't know what I'm talking about. And the problem is that I've explained the issue so many times now that I get tired and snappy whenever I'm confronted with someone, out of ignorance, expressing an opinion that everything is fine with the result that I lose my temper. And that's really not good for trying to persuade ...
One of my campaign trips today was to Dollis Hill in Brent, where there is a council by-election coming up on Thursday 22 March following the sad death of Liberal Democrat Councillor Alec Castle. It was a good example of how to organise a canvass team so that the most is got out of everyone's time. One person running the board, a team of people shuttling between board and doorsteps and the best informed of us on local issues going up to join the conversation when we found someone in. Group canvassing like this keeps everyone moving – useful on ...
We are pleased to tell you about another Social Liberal Forum event happening in the South Central region - "The Health and Social Care Bill: is it now good enough?". The regional Liberal Democrat conference is taking place on Saturday 25th February in ... Continue reading →
Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 261st weekly round-up from the Lib Dem blogosphere ... Featuring the seven most popular stories beyond Lib Dem Voice according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (12-18 February, 2012), together with a hand-picked quintet, normally courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed. Don't forget: you can sign up to receive the Golden Dozen direct to your email inbox — just click here — ensuring you never miss out on the best of Lib Dem blogging. As ever, let's start with the most popular post, and work our way down: 1. Strong Lib Dem ...
I went to see Derby LIVE's production of the Taming of the Shrew last night. It was a great evening out and the Guardian's review makes nearly all of the points about it that I'd want to, except that they've been a little mean in the number of stars awarded – it was definitely worth 4, if not 5! It's on until the 25th February, so there's still just about time to catch it if you want to. And you really should. If you have any kind of decency in you, you'll feel very, very uncomfortable by the time the ...
Accepting Sexuality, a Methodist group, will be holding it's annual lecture Notes on the Margins of the Church at 8 pm on Friday 24 February in Grosvenor House, Glengall Street, Belfast. The lecture is held in association with Changing Attitude Ireland. Revd Dr Hugh Rayment-Pickard will be speaking about why the Church needs the people it has ...
This article from the Economist struck me like a bullet on reading it today. Not so much for the subject matter itself (US banking practices) but what the whole episode says about the modern world. We have never had more data readily available on people – but we seem less able than ever to take decisions on their individual merits. More data, less information. This problem is usually shrugged off y economists and reformers with a laugh; it shouldn't be. The story starts in the US property boom, when banks were falling over themselves to offer mortgages, based on the ...
Let's see how this works... [View the story "Demonising Atheists" on Storify]
On Friday I went to my first barcamp and, as per the rules, I'm meant to blog about the experience. So here goes. First of all, I should write about my expectations. In retrospect I think they were a little too high, like I had just got some kind of golden ticket into the inner sanctum of the social media world. Somehow I had it in my head that I was going to have some revelatory experience due to the format of the event itself. None of this is rational, but to hear some people talk about barcamps and unconferences, ...
Sun 19th
16:45
What I said on The Guardian's live-chat on 'The future of philanthropy in higher education'
As I flagged here, my Friday lunchtime was occupied as one of the panel members on The Guardian's #HElivechat on 'The future of philanthropy in higher education'. You can catch up on the discussion — all 137 comments — here. It was fun and furious (the latter evidenced by my increasingly egregious typos), and hopefully of both interest and use to colleagues fundraising for universities. One of the key issues discussed was the importance of university leaders committing to fundraising. Here are my thoughts on that topic from the chat: [It is] absolutely critical that [university leaders] get it! That ...
A copy of Ed Miliband's letter to members of the House of Lords has fallen into the hands of Liberal Democrat Voice. This is what he has to say... Dear Member of the House of Lords I am taking the unusual step of writing to you and all your fellow peers to share my very great fear for the future of the NHS. I know you are aware that the decisions you have to make over the next few weeks on the Health and Social Care Bill are of huge significance to the NHS and to the country. I can ...
Time to out myself. In the last year, three new Lib Dem groups have been launched to an unsuspecting world and to an often-suspicious Lib Dem blogosphere. In chronological order, they are: Social Liberal Forum (SLF), Liberal Left, and Liberal Reform. They will add to the already thriving discussion base within the party which exists online (here on LibDemVoice and at Liberal Vision), in print (at Liberator), and in any of the party's internal organisations. To take the new kids on the block in turn... Social Liberal Forum I have a lot of time for the SLF for three reasons. ...
I put a question down at Full Council last night on Birkdale High Scool. The answer to it raised further concerns about the Chair of Governors. it is reproduced below (my italics etc). Fuller details and a link to the report can be found here I have contacted our MP about this issue. Mine was the third question on the order paper. I shall comment further on this matter. Can any let me know if they have an example of a school going from Good to Special measures and the fate of the Chair of Governors and Headteacher? (3) Question ...
This morning I saw someone in a car with a cigarette hanging from their mouth. I thought this was quite a skill in itself even if the cigarette were not lit. Then I thought of the calls from the BMA a few months ago to ban cigarette smoking in cars. At that time I thought this was a step too far as it doesn't affect the health of others and would be hard to police. I was of the opinion (and still am) that those who smoke while the car is stationary are doing no harm to others but this ...
One of the big issues that is always on the mind of residents, politicos and environmentalists in the Medway towns and indeed into the villages and even across the estuary to Southend, is the construction of either Boris Island or the Foster design on the Isle of Grain. The story and the fear will not die down and the local paper, the Medway Messenger has recently unearthed a great story about Lord Foster and Boris Johnson meeting with George Osborne and the Treasury to discuss the scheme behind closed doors last August. Further to that is Medway Labour's online voice ...
This week news leaked out about the government's plans on how the long term sick and disabled should be "helped" back into work: Some long-term sick and disabled people face being forced to work unpaid for an unlimited amount of time or have their benefits cut under plans being drawn up by the Department for Work and Pensions.From the Guardian article which broke the story. It continues: The new policy, outlined by DWP officials in meetings with disabilities groups, is due to be announced after legal changes contained in clause 54 of the welfare reform bill have made their way ...
Ahead of this coming weeks Full Council Budget meeting on Wednesday 22nd February, members of the opposition groups involving Independent Forum, Labour and Liberal Democrats, have for the first time ever produced an ALTERNATIVE BUDGET PROPOSAL - the main points of which are as follows: * Proposed Council Tax freeze for 2012/2013 * Remove the funding to support the Olympic torch procession event to be run by private company Vivacity. * Reduce the Diamond Jubilee bid by 50% by attracting sponsorship for the event. * Make changes to the Special Responsibility Allowances (SRA) presently only received by Tory councillors, so ...
This was one of the first New Adventures that I read, back in 2006, but I'm glad that I stuck to my decision to include it as I read the series in order. It is slightly better than I remembered; possibly I enjoyed it more because I now see it in the context of the previous 27 novels in the series and also I have re-watched both State of Decay and The Five Doctors, on which it leans pretty heavily, a couple of times in the interim. It was interesting to read this so soon after Lavie Tidhar's Osama, which ...
Welcoming Ruth Davidson There are too few characters in politics nowadays, so I was delighted to see Ruth Davidson chosen by the Scottish Conservatives. She is the first lesbian kick-boxer to lead a British political party since Sir Alec Douglas-Home Lord Bonkers was Liberal MP for Rutland South-West 1906-10 Previously in Lord Bonkers' Diary... The fall of David Attenborough
After posting their seminal Jeremy Thorpe is Innocent the other day, I have become rather attached to The Surprises. There is an article about the band on Punk77 by its guitarist John Wormald: The band met in Moseley, Birmingham, all living within a stone's throw of one another. I suppose it was inevitable that we all bumped into one another at various pubs and parties. A combination of being students/on the dole etc...we had the time and the attitude. We started playing just sitting around in the flat next door with band members of Dangerous Girls, and did quite few ...
Latest of the Vimes sub-series of Discworld novels by Terry Pratchett; once again, as in Thud, he takes Vimes out of Ankh-Morpork and the story is the better for it. I really enjoyed the combination of toilet humour (because poo is always funny) with cold clinical rage against racial injustice; I got a little lost with some of the topography of the river, but then there are not a lot of authors who would simultaneously try and satirise both Jane Austen and Mark Twain. Vimes is great, though I wish we could get rid of the other Guards.
Nevil Shute weekend at White Waltham in May From the January 2012 Nevil Shute newsletter. (tags: sf ) Obama, Facebook and the power of friendship: the 2012 data election | World news | guardian.co.uk I wonder if this is replicable elsewhere? Probably too expensive for any campaign not in the US... (tags: facebook uspolitics ) The 'Undue Weight' of Truth on Wikipedia Yet another example of Wikipedia's obsession with process rather than actual accuracy of content. (tags: history wikipedia ) It's too late for Dave Winer and John Battelle to save the common web — Scobleizer Why the open web ...
Long plane flights and short stories often work quite well in combination for me, and I used the last week's travels, among other things, to read through the BSFA shortlist. I should say that I ranked my choices before then turning to Martin Lewis's discussion, which illustrates the point that chacun a son goût. 5) Afterbirth, by Kameron Hurley Martin Lewis asks if this would work for someone who hasn't read God's War buy the same author. I can only say that it didn't really work for me; I didn't quite get either the background to the story or why ...
20 tonnes of rubbish was collected as part of eight 'Weeks of Action' organised by the Derwent Valley Partnership. The Derwent Valley Area Action Partnership (AAP) funded the events last year to get the local community involved in cleaning up their area. Activities included community clean-ups, skips, educational sessions in schools, estate walkabouts, dog micro chipping, improvements to identified 'grot spots' and community information days. The events have resulted in cleaner, safer and greener neighbourhoods and a number of the activities developed as part of the Weeks of Action, an example being the Green Dog Walkers Scheme, will continue long ...
An impressive and diverse crowd gathered at S&B Cricket Club last night to hear John Pugh Southport's MP talk about the Coalition and to ask questions. It was good to see so many activists there but more impressive was the high number of non aligned folk from the town who just wanted to hear the discussion. On a personal note I was delighted to see Stephen Hesketh turn up-he made a very good contribution to a discussion thread online the other week. John was on fine form and deliciously off message. Indeed one of his targets was of 'media advisers'- ...
Lord Provost George Grubb and Robert Aldridge Friday saw the official opening of the new Drumbrae Library Hub.I promised to post some snaps and here are a couple. The Hub had been actively open for just a fortnight when they welcomed their 10 000th visitor proving if ever there was doubt that the Lib Dems had been right to campaign along side the Drumbrae Community for this marvellous facility. Reg Kingman speaking at the opening The opening speeches included obviously Lord Provost Grubb and Community Council Chair Reg Kingman. Reg has been a great servant to the Community and it ...
I was really saddened to be told that the council is reducing library opening hours and closing them earlier at Brandon, East Street, Nunhead and Grove Vale libraries. Libraries are a key resource not just for borrowing books, CD's, etc but also for those needing to study or search for work using all the local and national newspapers and computer resources. For local Grove Vale library the hours will reduce from 33 hours a week to 27. The headline is this is part of a £398,000 yearly saving. But they could achieve the cuts without reducing library hours. Instead of ...
Oneof the most famous and risible statements of the Vietnam War was "Inorder to save the village we had to destroy it". The origin of thephrase is unclear, but it is attested sufficiently often for it to behistorical and not just a figment of someone's imagination (Peter Arnett and Michael Miller). It became emblematic because it was how the US approached thewhole Vietnam debacle as recognised for instance by Vietnam Veterans Against the War "Somehow we had to destroy Vietnam in order to saveit". It is recognised today as the expression of a futile, purposeless. long drawn out and immensely ...
Sun 19th
09:55
"A shitty time to be a liberal": The Economist's must-read piece on the Clegg paradox (and 2 reasons...
There's a must-read column by The Economist's Bagehot this week focusing on the Lib Dems' dilemmas, titled The Clegg paradox. It's a serious and weighty analysis, which asks some uncomfortable questions of the party's strategy. Here's it's conclusion: At a recent meeting of the Lib Dem parliamentary party, Tim Farron, an ambitious left-winger and party president, reportedly cheered this anti-Tory success, but bemoaned the fact that unelected peers had led the charge against the NHS reforms and got the credit for it, rather than Lib Dem MPs who need votes. That drew a rebuke from Jeremy Browne, a foreign office ...
Glasgow City Council was one of the few places Labour retained a majority administration in the Scottish local elections of 2007. Those elections were the first run using the Single Transferable Vote system, introduced for local government during the second Labour/Liberal Democrat Scottish Executive coalition. If the truth be known, there was not much love for the move on the Labour benches, but they had very little choice after the 2003 Holyrood election where they lost 6 seats while the Liberal Democrats had maintained their position and therefore increased their strength within the Coalition. Today the Labour group in Glasgow ...
David Cameron's speech in Scotland this week has been described as a "political masterstroke". Well, I hope it is. The United Kingdom without Scotland would be a collection of spare parts, rather than a nation. But, as I've said before, if the Scots say "we're oooooout" then so be it. But, is it just me? Whenever Cameron makes any sort of statement on Scotland's status, it just seems embarrassing. This business of considering further powers for Scotland if the Scots vote "no" to independence just seems like a nasty bit of blackmail to me. He's making it up as he ...
The three Eastern Baltic countries, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are relatively new constructs. Their languages are among the most ancient spoken in Europe, but their national identity was only slowly constructed, culminating in the late nineteenth century. Their political identity might have remained bound up in the Russian Empire had not that entity collapsed into murderous barbarism under the hammer blows of the evil of Lenin and Stalin. As a result of the collapse and the simultaneous fall of the German Empire in 1918, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania together with Finland and Poland were able to construct independent states- in ...
It was known, even before 'Yes Minister' that it is not the politicians who run this country, it is the senior civil servants. Even when a politicians puts up resistance to an idea or policy, it keeps resurfacing in one form or another until opposition amongst government ministers is ground down. That certainly appears to be the story around the latest revived plan to have details of every phone call and text message, email traffic and websites visited online stored in a series of vast databases on the pretext that it is necessary to counter terrorism. Isn't the whole point ...
"Rosie the Riveter" is not the same as "We can do it!" ... she's even more awesome! Lookit her TOOOLS! (via a comment in sevenhelz's DW) (tags: feminism ) BBC News - Councils win prayer 'rights' as Localism Act powers fast tracked, ministers say Oh for fuck's sake. I want someone, ANYONE to explain to me why forcing someone who does not believe in God to pretend to pray has ANY fucking point in formal council business? (tags: bloodytories ) Christian councillors win back religious freedom to tell people what to think A slightly more measured response to this news ...
It's a funny old world - two weeks ago on The Jonathan Ross there were three interview including Jesse J who was there to promote and sing her current single. Last week, the musical guest wasn't interviewed as Mr Ross had three other interviewees, each promoting a film. Now, it may be that the week before someone had dropped out and Jesse J had to fulfil both roles. Perhaps last week was a particularly busy week for actors promoting films. It could be that the various interviewees were considered to be more relevant to the show's audience. Any or all ...
Glasgow City Council was one of the few places Labour retained a majority administration in the Scottish local elections of 2007. Those elections were the first run using the Single Transferable Vote system, introduced for local government during the second Labour/Liberal Democrat Scottish Executive coalition. If the truth be known, there was not much love for the move on the Labour benches, but they had very little choice after the 2003 Holyrood election where they lost 6 seats while the Liberal Democrats had maintained their position and therefore increased their strength within the Coalition. Today the Labour group in Glasgow ...
Since I'm on a bit of a wonder through Thatcherism at the moment. One of the commonest bits of praise you hear about her; well from those who like her, growing up in South Wales I've met a fair few people who don't have a great opinion of her for reasons you can probably guess (hint: the whole mine closing thing didn't go down well). Anyway she's credited with being the first to have the testicular fortitude to really take on the unions. Which is a bloody odd idea if you even take half a glance at the situation before ...
Verdant Works - until Sunday 22nd April - with free admission. A special exhibition of around 50 ink and colour wash art works by illustrator Keith Walker. Featuring images of familiar landmarks and locations; some still existing, others gone but within living memory and others much further back in time such as ancient drover's roads which Keith has recreated. All the pictures are based on meticulous research from old maps, photographs and street directories undertaken in the libraries and archives of Dundee. Places on show include Roseangle, Balgay, Magdalen Yard, Blackness House, Guthrie Street, Hawkhill, Sinderins, the 'Blue Mountains' and ...
I am in Scotland. On Friday evening, my host and I were visited by two policemen enquiring about an incident that had happened the night before, involving a woman falling from a third floor window of a nearby building. Honestly, I would have been quite happy to settle for Irn Bru consumption to create the full Glaswegian experience. [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
Welcome to Broxtowe Enews, brought to you by the Liberal Democrats and edited by David Watts, the leader of the Lib-Dems on Broxtowe Borough Council. May I give a special welcome to the new readers that we have this week. 1. Toton and Chilwell By Elections Nominations are now closed for the by elections in Toton and Chilwell, for the Borough and County Councils. The full list of nominations will be published on Tuesday, but I know that we and the Conservatives are fighting both seats, as are UKIP. I haven't heard about the Greens yet, but the big news ...
Baroness Warsi has again spoken about something which has not been spoken about in the public sphere. The issue of faith in the public arena and where policy making and policy shaping may be involved with faith. For those who will feel that faith and politics / public policy should not mix, I am afraid to say that historically they have mixed and will always mix to lesser or greater degrees depending on the personal and political motivations and drives of politicians. Let us also not forget that organised religion still wields wealth and power, from the Vatican to the ...
