On 7 March 2007 I blogged: Bloggerheads has turned the photo they tried to ban into a card game: Bullingdon Matching Pairs. Beware: it's addictive.The good news is that the game is still online.

Posted by Jonathan on Liberal England

I've been reading local political blogs recently, mainly on the "Boris Island" debate and as some of my regular readers will know - Its been really irking me. Not so much for the self aggrandisement, I mean all parties do that, its been for the down and out Spin and omission of facts. My father was a world class liar... I mean unmatched in his ability to tell falsehoods to anyone and at the drop of a hat. He even told me that he was dying from an inoperable tumour with only a year at most to live. That was ...

Posted by Chris Sams on The Ginger Liberal from Medway

Following my earlier post about my exciting broadcast on Voice of Russia, I know that many millions of you were gathered around your wireless sets waiting to hear it. The programme that I'd been told was on at nine turned out to be on at ten thirty, and just as it was about to begin on my digital radio, it switched to Radio Australia (Voice of Russia, it transpires, is broadcast in the UK on something called World Radio Network, currently airing a genuinely boring programme called Pacific Beat live from Melbourne). Does anything better sum up the glorious ...

Posted by Matthew Harris on Matthew Harris

The Liberal Democrats tried to change the City Council budget tonight. We were outvoted so our suggestion didn't go ahead. What we wanted to do was make three cuts. The first - to abolish a special fund that only the Council Leader gets to spend (three quarters of a million pounds) The second - to abolish City Magazine - a glossy publication that costs more than one hundred thousand pounds The third - to reduce the allowances paid to senior councillors. Taken together this would have found 1.1 million pounds a year over three years to spend on street cleansing ...

Posted by Paula Keaveney on Paula Keaveney - Lib Dem Campaigner

South West Conservative MEP Ashley Fox has this evening released his monthly newsletter recalling his activities in February. Always worthy of a few moments for a close read, my attention was immediately drawn to a particular part of the newsletter entitled "UKIP: All posture, no substance".Since I cannot agree more with what Mr Fox has written in this piece, I shall quote the passage in its

Posted by Andrew on La Treizième Étoile
Wed 7th
22:44

Please could you help?

This blogpost is me asking for help. The reason I'm asking for help is because I've failed. I've been unable to gather enough support to get an emergency motion on the Welfare Reform Bill (WRB) submitted to conference. This is entirely my fault - I should have started gathering support for the motion well before the crucial vote in the Commons on the Lords' amendments to the bill. But instead I was too optimistic and failed to start trying to gather support until all hope of parliament stopping it was gone. And that meant that there simply wasn't enough time ...

Posted by George W. Potter on The Potter Blogger

Residents on Holmefield Road, Aigburth Hall Avenue and nearby still report horrendous problems with the new Tesco store. Frankly its not good enough. Tesco say they want to be a good neighbour but I really don't know what they mean. As part of our work to deal with this, Richard and I and Tina Gould (councillor for the next door ward) are meeting traffic officers and police tomorrow. We are also highlighting this at next week's environment committee. Tina and I have written a formal motion on the situation. The motion, which is on the agenda for the committee meeting ...

Posted by Paula Keaveney on Paula Keaveney - Lib Dem Campaigner

... our main enemies are Armenians of the world and the hypocritical and corrupt politicians under their controlsaid the President of Azerbaijan, adopting the same tone as those who believe in a worldwide Jewish conspiracy. As a result of these words Armenia has withdrawn from the Eurovision Song Contest, which is being held in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, in May. There has long been tension between the two nations and, as BBC News reports: Azerbaijani and Armenian forces fought a war over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh in the 1990s which left at least 25,000 people dead.Nagorno-Karabakh is within ...

Posted by Jonathan on Liberal England

When I first saw this I had to check to see it wasn't a very glossy spoof. But it appears it is genuine. And I am speechless. As the Information Daily reports: The European Commission has withdrawn a video clip promoting EU enlargement policy following racist complaints. The clip, Growing Together, was uploaded on YouTube last week and shows three men from China, India and Brazil using martial arts skills to fight a woman of European descent. When she multiplies herself to encircle the men, they let go of their weapons and the woman changes into the 12 stars on ...

Posted by Jonathan on Liberal England

Remploy + Welfare reform = We are all in this together Remploy is a company that employs disabled people and they are proposing to close 36 of their factories which willl result in 1,700 jobs being lost. This is ok because the disabled people who lose their jobs will be able to fall back on our welfare system, right?

Posted by Maelo Manning on libdemchild, aged 11
YouGov

This evening, I attended the March meeting of Community Spirit - the community group for the "north" part of West End Ward, covering Tullideph, Ancrum, Pentland and the Cleghorn area. There was a presentation from Grant Simmons, Manager of the Dundee Food Train. Grant gave an update on progress with the Dundee Food Train since its recent launch. Providing an excellent shopping service for elderly people in Dundee, there are now over 40 users of the service and 35 volunteers. If you feel the service could benefit you or you would like to volunteer, here's the contact details: Email: dundee@thefoodtrain.co.uk ...

Bradford Liberal Democrats have selected Jeanette Sunderland to be their candidate in the Bradford West by-election on 29 March. The writ was moved yesterday for the by-election after Marsha Singh resigned, for health reasons. Born and bred in Bradford, Jeanette has been a local councillor for 16 years. In that time she has built up a reputation for being a strong voice for Bradford, and is currently leader of the Lib Dem group on Bradford Council. Following the announcement of her selection, Jeanette commented: I am delighted to have been selected by local party members to fight this by-election for ...

Posted by Helen Duffett on Liberal Democrat Voice

I've not had much energy for writing these last few days, and also have been distracted by various other projects (for example finishing up a book proposal that I've sent off to a publisher), hence me being behind on my various series of posts. New material will be posted soon. In the meantime, have some ...

Posted by Andrew Hickey on Sci-Ence! Justice Leak!

The Slovak Embassy in London inhabits remarkable and rather beautiful premises at the very top of Kensington Palace Gardens in Notting Hill Gate. They definitely got the better half of the bargain when the former Czechoslovak Embassy was divided following Bratislava and Prague's 'Velvet Divorce'. This evening the huge main space of the building was ...

Posted by jonathanfryer on Jonathan Fryer

Of all the arguments that are being used to 'Kill the Bill', one in particular needs to be exposed as nonsense. I'd hate the Lib Dem conference to come to the wrong conclusion because of it. No, I don't mean the stuff about frontline services already struggling. That may be so, but that is an argument about spending cuts, not about changing the law. I mean the one about the number of statutory organisations rising from 163 to 521. Those who believe that the NHS should be a great, centralised monolith - and that this is somehow more efficient - ...

Posted by Davidboyle on The Real Blog

A few days ago Michael Gove announced that he is to scrap the regulations for school homework that David Blunkett introduced in 1998. I happen to have in front of me a Liberal Democrat News piece that I wrote that year. It was published on 16 October 1998. This was a time when New Labour claimed to speak for the whole nation and accused anyone who disagreed with him of "cynicsm" - as though you could not have not have an honourable motive for disagreeing them. So David Blunkett had recently talked about a "miserable bunch of sneering cynics" who ...

Posted by Jonathan on Liberal England

I may have mentioned once or twice that I think James Goss is one of the best writers of Who spinoff literature currently in business. Almost Perfect appears to have been his first book, a 2008. Torchwood novel set between Season 2 and Children of Earth, and while I liked it a lot it doesn't quite reach the level of his later work. There is a sexy alien presence, which is classic Torchwood, and Ianto gets transformed into a beautiful woman for most of the novel, which is very entertaining; and there is a lot of really good writing about ...

The district council has received the following letter covering issues like car parking charges, accessibility and compensation: St Albans City District Council FCC Response

Posted by chriswhite on Chris White

Alistair Carmichael MP, Elspeth Attwooll and Robert Brown The problem with Conference fringe meetings is that there are usually several that you want to go to and they're all on at the same time. That was the case with the fringe run jointly by Liberal Futures and the Social Liberal Forum (Scotland) on Friday past at the Scottish Liberal Democrat Spring Conference in Inverness. The meeting attracted a respectable crowd but those who attended the Scottish Women's Liberal Democrats and Liberal International meetings missed a lively debate on Liberal Democrats and the Coalition. The speakers were Robert Brown, the ex-MSP ...

Posted by Norman Fraser on Liberal Democrat Voice
Wed 7th
19:50

New debates in Bath

D:BATE D:BATE is an new debating forum organising 4 events a year in Bath. The inaugural event is at the Pump Room, Bath on Monday March 19th at 8pm. The subject for debate is: 'Digital is killing the print industry. The presses will stop running in ten years.' Guest speakers will include: For the motion: Mike Goldsmith (Editor-in-Chief, Digital Editions, Future Publishing), Richard

Posted by Odddown on Odd Down
eUKhost

Park and ride Friday 9th March the service will be extended by 2 hours to tie in with the Bath Rugby LV= cup semi-final that kicks off at 7:30pm Sunday 11th March a special service will operate for the Bath Half Marathon. 8 buses per hour will operate from all sites before the race commences. Services at Newbridge and Odd Down are interrupted by the race, but 6 buses per hour will operate to

Posted by Odddown on Odd Down

This is an assault on the emotions, going from the elation of new parenthood to the harrowing story of how Joseph Kony has spent 26 years abducting children and forcing them to kill for his Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda. As the commentator says "Who am I to try to stop a war? Who am I not to? Joseph Kony needs to be brought to justice, no doubt about that. Watch this video to see why. You can find out more here. And please share this far and wide.

Posted by Caron on Caron's Musings
Wed 7th
19:24

Romney stumbles on...

When asked for a message for Mitt Romney yesterday (after Romney labelled the President "feckless" on foreign policy) Barack Obama said "Good luck" to Romney for the Super Tuesday pirmaries. When pressed he said "No really, good luck". One can understand that. Increasingly, Romney is looking like damaged goods. From Political Wire: First Read notes Mitt Romney's ratings in the latest NBC/WSJ poll have slid to 28% favorable to 39% unfavorable. "In fact, Romney's image right now is worse than almost all other recent candidates who went on to win their party's presidential nomination: Obama was 51%/28% and McCain was ...

Posted by Paul on Liberal Burblings

Later this week , at spring conference in Gateshead, the Liberal Democrats will have the opportunity to debate issues and define party policy. Now, more than ever, this internal democratic process has the opportunity to actually influence what the government does. The NHS is likely to be on most people's minds, and possibly on the agenda as an emergency motion. I'm a member of the Liberal Democrats, but as a doctor, I'm also a member of a number of other organisations too. I've become acutely aware of the very different ways that these organisations have responded to the health and ...

Posted by Felix Greaves on Liberal Democrat Voice

Planning applications often cause a rumpus. Supermarkets, football stadiums, blocks of flats or even replacing windows in a listed building have all been examples of controversial applications in my almost 20 years as an MP and councillor. Local residents and indeed their elected representatives often get mightily cheesed off by the opaque formal planning procedures ...

Posted by stephenwilliamsmp on Stephen Williams' Blog

One would have thought that the case of Ryan Giggs would have dissuaded anyone from seeking an injunction to prevent publication of private matters. The man appears to have spent a fortune on lawyers, with the result that his private affairs have become vastly more public than they would have been, had he just stayed schtum and allowed the story or stories to blow themselves out. 'Footballer has affair with girl' last about 12 hours in the national consciousness. 'Footballer deploys half the British legal profession to try to shut away private affairs' lasts years in the national consciousness. The ...

Posted by Paul on Liberal Burblings

Tomorrow is International Women's Day. An event often not truly celebrated by our party because nobody has thought to do anything about it. Until now. I was jumping around my kitchen in delight at receiving an e-mail from our Equalities Minister Lynne Featherstone which highlights all the things the Government, led by Liberal Democrat initiatives, are doing which benefit women. If you read the Guardian, you'll get the impression that we are anti-feminist spawn of the devil who take away women's jobs and benefits. Certainly there are some very worrying trends in terms of women's unemployment and some of the ...

Posted by Caron on Caron's Musings

Morrissey has waded into controversy again, this time telling an Argentinian audience that "everyone knows" the "Malvinas Islands" (known to most Britons as the Falkland Islands) belong to Argentina which strikes me as a rather miserable lie. I certainly don't know that. It seems rather odd to me that someone who's got everything now feels able to advocate deracinating over 3,000 British citizens. You might ask what difference does it make? Well I wonder if despite his regular intemperate outbursts he is not still quite widely listened to. The report linked to above rather paints a vulgar picture of an ...

Posted by Mark Thompson on Mark Thompson

So there are now fears that Rangers will not come out of administration and could end up in liquidation. In a statement today director Dave King says that no matter where Rangers finish in the SPL they will be taking part in Europe next year as they will not be able to met UEFA's financial requirements by their deadline of 31 March. The bigger question though is what would happen should the 'mighty' Rangers go into liquidation. Paul Murray a fellow director who has sought approval from the SFA to be a 'fit and proper' person to be in charge ...

Posted by Stephen Glenn on Stephen's Liberal Journal

As we celebrate International Women's Day tomorrow, I'm proud to represent Liberal Democrats in the Coalition Government. I know that our involvement has made a positive impact on the lives of thousands of women in a range of ways. We've got lots to shout about, so please spread the word: blog and tweet about it and forward this to your friends. Here's how we're delivering for women - When it comes to shielding women in need from the brunt of the economic squeeze, our policy to free the lowest paid from income tax has played a key role in protecting ...

Posted by Lynne Featherstone MP on Liberal Democrat Voice

I hadn't heard of Maria De Villota until moments ago but now she will become a very interesting name to watch after she was signed to the Marussia F1 team as their test driver for the 2012 season. The 32 year-old Spaniard who has drove in several formulae first drove an F1 car last year at Paul Ricard and has now graduated to official test driver. This is a very interesting move for the sport as we have seen the effect that Danica Patrick has had over in the States. Her move to NASCAR has made the big sports bulletins ...

Posted by neilmonnery on The Rambles of Neil Monnery

If you are on my email newsletter list, earlier today you'll have received a conference preview including a specially commissioned infographic setting out the Liberal Democrat achievements in government. If you missed out, you can see the infographic here – and to make sure you don't miss out on future email newsletters, sign up here. The next one will be a post-conference special with news and analysis of Nick Clegg's conference speech. Conservative blogger Tim Montgomerie has an interesting take on the infograhic, which you can read here. My infograhpic is, however, not quite so good as THE BEST INFOGRAPHIC ...

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

What new bin collection arrangements do I hear you saying? They start on 1st April. But nobody seems to know about them – or if they do they are confused as to the details. Hopefully BBC Radio Berks has helped to spread the word a bit this morning by featuring the changes on the Andrew Peach show. The thing is once people DO find out what's going on, almost to a man and a woman they are not very happy about it. So what are the changes? Let's start with the easy bit, describing what's going to happen. First, your ...

Posted by pruebray on Prue Bray

The Daily Fail's Important Feminist Issues Quiz! Can you vajazzle and be a feminist? Yes. The same as you can dance the hula or drink coffee or fart in tunes and be a feminist. Feminism means belief in equality, not any particular attitude to bodily adornment. Is it sexist to call a woman "love" or "dear"? To paraphrase the NRA: words aren't sexist, people are. It's not about the word, it's about the use to which a word is put, and the intention behind using that word. Depending on inflection "I love you" can mean "I love you" or it ...

Lucky old you. My talk to the UCL Economics and Finance Society on the future of the Lib Dems and the like has been re arranged for Thursday 22nd March, 7pm, UCL main building. It looks like I am speaking jointly with Luke Johnson. I have no idea how this will work - the only thing I think we have in common is that our first jobs were (at different times) Graduate Trainees at the same company. Still, I'm looking forward to hearing Luke. I'm sure he is saying the same about me. :-) Do come along if you're free. ...

Posted by Richard Morris on A VIEW FROM HAM COMMON
Wed 7th
16:00

11,598 failures

Southwark Council have announced with a self satisfied smile that they've repaired 11,598 potholes in the last year between APril'11 and end of March'12 ie. 10 months. Potholes are defined as any hole in the highway 40mm or great deep by 300mm across. That's a lot of big holes 11,598. Potholes are formed when roads are not properly maintained. Well maintained roads don't have potholes. On a business trip to Shetland Islands last Spring I asked a local government official where all the potholes were – I didn't see any during a 100miles of driving. He said "we don't allow ...

Posted by James Barber on James Barber

Scottish Liberal Democrats met in Inverness last weekend for a lively 3 day Conference. Here are my top ten highlights. Leader Willie Rennie's first ever Spring Conference speech, delivered with sincerity and passion. He implored the First Minister to make as much time for the dispossessed, as he does for billionaires such as Murdoch and Donald Trump. He spoke of the Liberal Democrats' long record of fighting for home rule for Scotland which made us the true guarantors of change. He told of his desire to work constructively with others wherever possible, but how we would stand firm on liberal ...

Posted by Caron Lindsay on Liberal Democrat Voice

It's been a week in which prominent people have been eager to outdo each other in saying stupid things. First, there was the "most senior Scottish Catholic", Cardinal O'Brien - oddly enough not the inspiration for Orwell's character of the same name who takes pleasure from "curing" others' "insanity"- who foolishly weighed into the marriage equality debate, branding same-sex marriages as "grotesque" and "madness". As if that outburst wasn't sufficient demonstration of his intolerance and inflexible mindset, O'Brien has today gone further - writing a letter to all Catholics in which the most sensible thing he argues is that "changing ...

Posted by Andrew on A Scottish Liberal

I just came out of recording a discussion programme for a radio station called Voice of Russia (http://english.ruvr.ru/), discussing Israel, Iran, AIPAC and the Palestinians, and then who should walk past me in the street on a sunny St James's Square? None other than BBC Middle East Editor Jeremy Bowen. Anyway, it goes out at nine o'clock tonight (Wednesday 7 March 2012) and the website (http://english.ruvr.ru/) says that it can be found on UK digital radio on DAB, 23/7. It is broadcast through their website as well, although I'm not sure whether that includes the variant of the station that ...

Posted by Matthew Harris on Matthew Harris

Whatever your views on the abusive husband comments in Joan McAlpine's comments in yesterday's Daily Record lets us bear in mind she also said using the analogy of Westminster as the husband and Scotland as the wife: But the husband complains she can't be trusted to manage her own money. and We could do much better with power over the economy, taxes and benefits. Scotland is as capable of running her own finances as England. Let us not forget something. In 1998 in the referendum for devolution there was a second question about varying tax raising powers, the people of ...

Posted by Stephen Glenn on Stephen's Liberal Journal

The Catholic Church's untenable stand on gay marriage undermines its entire corpus of moral teaching. So what are we to make of Cardinal Keith O'Brien's outburst, We cannot afford to indulge this madness, in the Telegraph over the weekend against the government's proposals to open civil marriage to gay couples? After the outrage has subsided I am left with a feeling of plain bafflement. The implication of the Cardinal's words is that traditional values in British society are Christian ones, and that it is the duty of Christians to defend them against more modern modern attitudes. One of the early ...

Posted by Matthew on thinking liberal

I am a consultant paediatrician* (I am writing under a pseudonym to protect family, colleagues and patients) with over 20 years experience. I work with parents, many of whom have problems with mental health, substance misuse or learning difficulties. My job is to help protect their children and prevent them from following a similar life path. I know what the effects of the Health and Social Care Bill will be because I can see it happening already. Looking after vulnerable children who are at risk of harm is becoming much more difficult because of the needless reconfiguration of services, whilst ...

Posted by Dr Thomas Jones on Liberal Democrat Voice

Robert Brown is, as you know, along with Shirley Williams, Doctor Who, the Pandas at Edinburgh Zoo and Michael Schumacher, one of this blog's heroes. His sound liberal values, his intrinsic sense of justice and his general all round wisdom snd fierce intelligence make him worth listening to.It actually pained me to speak against him during the debate on the Coalition at the weekend.Some said he called me an unbalanced monster in his reply, but I can confirm that this was not the case, even if you believe that I am.I also ditched Robert for Nick Clegg and Willie Rennie ...

Posted by Caron on Caron's Musings

Welsh Liberal Democrat Assembly Member for South Wales West, Peter Black, has condemned the proposed closure of Remploy factories as ill-advised and inappropriate. Mr. Black has met with campaigners against closures recently and is working closely with them to fight cuts to the subsidy that has led to this closure announcement. "This is not the first time that Remploy factories locally have faced this threat," said Mr. Black. "The previous Labour Government put forward similar proposals in 2007 and of course closed the Ystradgynlais factory some years before that. They were wrong then and the Government is wrong now. "It ...

Posted by Aberavon & Neath Liberal Democrats on Aberavon & Neath Liberal Democrats

Regular readers of the blog know my view of the conflict in Syria. I submitted EDM 2729, which has now by signed by fellow Manchester MP Graham Stringer, which calls for the expulsion of the Syrian ambassador http://www.parliament.uk/edm/2010-12/2729 I sincerely hope ... Continue reading →

Posted by John Leech MP on John Leech MP

Nearly a quarter of a million pounds has been promised by Norman Lamb, Lib Dem Parliamentary Under Secretary for the Department for Transport, to improve local cycle paths. The actual improvements are worth £225,000 of which £202,500 will come from central government, and the package is described as follows: This scheme will build on the already popular traffic-free path through numerous improvements along its length, the creation of additional links and the addition and improvement of access points. The work will be carried out by Sustrans who did such a great job in securing footpaths and cycleways for us many ...

Posted by Owen Temple on Owen Temple

Tuesday: It was a GOOD day to be the President*... of the Board of Trade. A welcome announcement of much-needed new jobs and investment always puts a spring in the stride of the Business Secretary. Add to that a subtle hint that we Liberal Democrats might trade off the 50p tax rate that raises millions for a proper wealth tax that raises billions. And then SOMEONE leaked a letter showing our Vince is the "Man of Vision", with a policy for social market intervention that will make George Osborne's head explode. (And it's usually Fantastic Doctor Fox who does that!) ...

Reports suggest that Steve Hilton's departure from Downing Street will leave the Conservatives desperately short of ideas. This seems astonishing: Liberal Democrats surely don't need to turn to expensive advisers for creative ideas, new initiatives and the odd quirky example of tangerine sky thinking! Party members present and debate ideas at conference, and the party does not usually suffer from a shortage of novel suggestions. But these debates also produce serious policies, something which was perhaps beneath Steve Hilton's pay grade. These differences in how the two coalition parties handle policy making have a direct impact on the workings of ...

Posted by Maria Pretzler on Liberal Democrat Voice

The Labour Government promised Lords reform. They delivered a House of Cronies stuffed with Labour appointments, and ignored House of Commons votes to set up a fully elected Upper Chamber. Labour got rid of most of the peers who held seats by hereditary inheritance (by an amazing coincidence, overwhelmingly Tory) but only replaced them with swathes of new Life Peers holding seats by time-serving political inheritance (by an amazing coincidence, overwhelmingly Labour). So they replaced no democracy with no democracy, and rewards for favours to kings centuries ago with rewards for favours to Tony Blair and Gordon Brown in office. ...

Posted by Alex Wilcock on Love and Liberty

I am somewhat baffled by recent assertions that objecting to people saying "trans men and women" is somehow erasing the identities of non-binary folk. The logic, as best I can figure out, seems to be that if you dare to mention that some people do not fit on the binary then it weakens your own identity by association. Or perhaps you are entirely one extreme of the wibbly wobbly blob that is sex and gender and gender roles and identity... but you're feeling a little uncertain, perched out there on the edge. If you have insecurities about your identity, please ...

Posted by Zoe O'Connell on Complicity
Wed 7th
13:26

Blog: Greek Tragedy

When Theodoros Skylakakis talks to the ALDE (Liberal Democrat) Group about the state of his country his fellow MEPs pay attention. Theo is our only Greek representative, an MEP from the newly formed (and tiny) Liberal party that wants to ... Continue reading →

Posted by admin on Chris Davies MEP

As reported in yesterday's Evening Telegraph, today's Courier and on Wave 102 news, there has been concern about the latest injury of a football player, who was injured by falling due to exposed stones on a pitch at Riverside recently. This has occurred before - back in December 2011 - so I was very concerned to learn of this further injury. I contacted the City Council's Environment Department seeking an assurance that the stones problem on the pitch area will be fully resolved urgently. I have now received feedback from the City Council Environment Department as follows : "The pitches ...

Thanks to Mark Pack for this useful infographic showing some of the achievements of the Lib Dems in Government.

Posted by Iain Roberts on Keith Holloway, Iain Roberts & Pam King

As one of the Liberal Democrat peers engaged in the debate on the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill as well as the recent Welfare Reform Bill debates, I am pushing today for a vital amendment which I hope will mitigate the worst aspects of cuts facing the legal aid system- something that is proving to be a controversial issue for the Party. The coalition agreement committed to reforming legal aid to reduce its costs to the public purse; it did not commit to abolishing it for whole categories of law. Chief amongst these excluded categories in Legal ...

Posted by Dee Doocey on Liberal Democrat Voice

From those who remember me, from my early contributions on Liberal Democrat Voice, I once refereed to as myself as a 'independent liberal'; a liberal, but not a member of the Liberal Democrats. Had major reservations, mainly the adequate support/defence towards genuine liberal reforms and policies. The election of Clegg, however, started to reduce my ...

Posted by danielfurr on Too lib·er·al [adj.]
Wed 7th
12:35

MITx i18n fails

One of my 'pet' topics over more than 20 years has been how to Internationalise (i18n) web sites and services; how it isn't just the spoken language which changes, but also many of the basic assumptions which authors — and readers — make. I have made presentations on the subject to organisations large, small, and multinational. But failure to do this properly has just reared itself on the 6.002x course I am taking at MITx. Today's messages to students include some responses to feedback about error messages, once of which MITx have responded: this occurs if you submit non-numeric answers ...

Posted by Alison Wheeler on AlisonW - caveat lector

Rather against my better judgement, I wrote a blog on Lib Dem Voice asking why so many of my colleagues were in such a hurry to dump the NHS Bill. Responses seem to be divided on the issue so far, but the basic issue seems to me to be: We would be insane to leave the NHS as it was bequeathed to us by Blair and Brown, and we have the opportunity - thanks to the Lib Dem Lords - to shift the balance towards solving the real problems of the NHS, not the ones that McKinsey would like is ...

Posted by Davidboyle on The Real Blog

Richard and I have a motion to the City Council about the junction at Whitehedge Road, Brodie Avenue, Long Lane and Greenhill Road . There've been quite a few accidents at this junction (residents report two in the last few days plus a near miss this morning) When I was calling on people in Whitehedge Road recently some felt the junction design was causing the problem. People also felt that speeding was an issue. Anyway, Richard and I are keen to get this looked into - hence the motion. It won't be debated (the Council rules only really allow seven ...

Posted by Paula Keaveney on Paula Keaveney - Lib Dem Campaigner

[IMG: 20120307-113036.jpg] All, Just a quick update on the planned referendum in Shipston. As things stand it may go ahead on March 26th, although this date is yet to be confirmed. The referendum was called by 19 residents (at a public meeting attended by over 40) to call on the Town Council to hold a public meeting into its purchase of the police station. I know there's a certain irony in wasting £1800 of your money by calling for a public meeting AT a public meeting – but you'd need to discuss that with the organiser! As the referendum will ...

Posted by Philip Vial on Philip Vial

Ok, not really But I do worry that the effectiveness of the Twitter campaign against the NHS Bill is being somewhat undermined by the multitude of hashtags being used. So far I have seen: #killthebill #savethenhs #dropthebill #saveournhs #nhsbill #nhssavedmylife Happy to hear others. Now obviously there are bigger issues to debate. But with so much concern on Twitter, it's a shame there isn't more consistency. There was just the one #horsegate tag and that seemed rather effective. As @markpack pointed out to me - that's the trouble with the NHS campaign - it needs a top down reorganisation of ...

Posted by Richard Morris on A VIEW FROM HAM COMMON

In a superb article on Lib Dem Voice, David Boyle (a former editor of Liberal News), outlines why liberals should support the Health and Social Care Bill. The fundamental problem with much of the party's thinking over the last 20 years has been a kneejerk support for producer interests and a failure to accept the state can be just as venal and incompetent as the private sector. Sadly it's the thinking that drives Liberal Left and much of the Social Liberal Forum's policy making. What matters to liberals surely is the quality, efficiency and costs of public services - not ...

Posted by Dan Falchikov on Living on words alone

As Nick Clegg has recently noted, there needs to be a 'gear shift' in infrastructure spending. Whilst George Osborne dots the i's and crosses the t's on his third budget, it is worth considering how such a 'gear shift' may be enacted. Localis has undertaken just such an analysis, and this week launched Credit Where Credit's Due - produced in partnership with Lloyds Banking Group – that illustrates how local government can help deliver a step-change of this type from the bottom-up. Though our report alights on many policy areas, from increasing the powers of LEPs to astute asset management ...

Posted by Richard Carr on Liberal Democrat Voice
Wed 7th
11:20

Diplomacy

There is a story about a man receiving a visit from the Special Branch (for non-Brits - this is the nearest thing we have to secret police - a police section dealing with spying, subversion and extremism) after a communication to him from abroad was intercepted. It said, "The Russian bear is preparing to infiltrate Liverpool". Presumably the man showed the officers his Diplomacy board, pointed out the supply centre of Liverpool and demonstrated how a Russian fleet might reach it. Maybe that story is apocryphal, but I've been chatting on a train and noticed people beginning to listen in ...

Posted by SibatheHat on Siba The Hat

Why the European Parliament should not be abolished Simon Hix (contra Jack Straw) (tags: ukpolitics eu ) In Chechnya, 107% Turnout — for Putin Vlad wins by 1,482 to 1, of 1,389 registered voters. (tags: elections russia ) There has to be a better way - and maybe there is. « Francesca Elston (tags: politics psychology ) ladybusiness: Coverage of Women on SF/F Blogs (tags: internet sf sexandgenderandsexuality ) The self-epublishing bubble | Ewan Morrison | Books | guardian.co.uk (tags: ebooks ) An Existential Threat Within Israel Endangers Its Democracy : The New Yorker (tags: middleeast )

In the last few days... Stephen Tall of Lib Dem Voice has given advice to the Conservative party... Tim Montgomerie has returned the favour and provide words of wisdom to the Lib Dems... Lembit Opik has co-written a book with Eric Joyce which also provides advice to the junior partner in the coalition... Paul Goodman has argued that it is time for the Tory party to end their war on multiculturalism... ...And finally, the EU issued and then withdrew a video that some have described as racist...

Posted by Simon Goldie on Simon Goldie

Two months on, it's time to update my post about the trends in local government by-elections. Week by week local by-election results can fluctuate greatly as the luck of the draw over which seats are up adds to the variations in local circumstances to produce a large spread of results. However, aggregated over longer periods the pattern of local by-elections does say something about the state of the parties, which is why I've been looking at the trend in Liberal Democrat performances since May 2011. This following graphs show the change in the Liberal Democrat vote share in by-elections, measured ...

Posted by Mark Pack on Liberal Democrat Voice

The committee then moved onto consider the first of two planning applications involving Bidston & St. James ward. The first involved the demolition of a number of vacant community buildings in Laird Street, along with a number of properties on Park Road North and Bray Street. The officer said the planning application was for demolition ...

Wed 7th
09:57

Conference Democrat

Conference Democrat No 2 Mar 12This is the newsletter I produce for people who have used my photo and video services at previous Lib Dem conferences. This edition looks at the main conference motions, contains information about forthcoming photo ops for campaigners and has a bit of info about places of interest near The Sage, the venue for Conference, which can be visited whilst in Gateshead and

Posted by Jonathan Wallace on Jonathan Wallace

Really? Well maybe councillors are somehow different, anyhow I personally think we should all try and maintain a bit of dignity in our lives. I've got say I'm a bit jaded and looking around the local blogosphere, it seems that there is a general malaise, perhaps it's the realisation that none of us, are as smart or important, as we would like to think that we are, local councillors seem particularly tetchy. The last Thanet council meeting I attended, seemed to have a hightened sense of frustration, tinged with some bitterness, in fact I thought some of the Labour bods, ...

Posted by tony flaig bignews on BIGNEWS MARGATE

I must admit I've been wondering a little at being so contrarian. My mobile phone address book and filofax (yes, I'm a certain age) is full of people who say they are too busy to talk to me this week because they are working hard to kill the NHS Bill. I am not. What's the matter with me? I'm going the right way to being thrown out of the lunatic fringe. So please, if you read this blog. Have a heart. Tell me where I'm going wrong. Here's my problem. I cannot see why we should be striving to maintain ...

Posted by David Boyle on Liberal Democrat Voice

Planning Committee meeting of 6th March 2012 to decide on APP/11/01520 involving Redwood, 18 Farr Hall Drive, Heswall, CH60 4SH.

There are few things in life that I'm angrier about than the SNP Government's shameful treatment of women in prison which I've written about several times. The issue of reducing crime through effective rehabilitation was debated at Conference. When the original motion, submitted by the then virtually all male Policy Committee was published, there was no specific mention of the needs of women in prison. That's the problem when we don't have proper gender balance. The Policy Committee even now is 82% male and while I might well catch such things in the future, it's something we need to address. ...

Posted by Caron on Caron's Musings

Regular readers will be aware that I had a love/hate relationship with National Express East Anglia when they held the East Anglia rail franchise. Well, I say love/hate, in that I hated the way they ran the franchise into the ground, and loved to criticise them for doing so. So, you can imagine my joy when it was announced that the franchise would be taken from them. Actually, you probably can't, so pleased was I. And, whilst my dream scenario of the franchise being awarded to Deutsche Bahn did not come to pass (on time trains, beer, wurst and pretzels), ...

Posted by Mark Valladares on The view from Creeting St Peter

The link is to a comment by the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe in which he says, inter alia, "Persons with intellectual and psycho-social disabilities are today routinely placed under a guardianship regime in several European countries - they are deprived of their "legal capacity". In the eyes of the law they are seen as non-persons and their decisions have no legal

Posted by john on John Hemming's Web Log

Interesting analysis of voting patterns This post applies to Canada, but seems eminently translatable to the UK to me. (tags: politics ) Archie gay marriage comic sells out in face of boycott call | Books | guardian.co.uk How to explain gay marriage to children is a topic that confuses me, mainly because I've never had to explain homosexuality to Holly. She just gets that some people love each other and want to get married, some people love each other and want to live together, and some people love each other but need their own space. The idea of imposing limits ...

Jo Swinson did Channel 4's political slot the other night. Here it is, for posterity.

Posted by Caron on Caron's Musings

In the debates over public sector pensions, it has been very common to have figures quoted that are supposed to show how low public sector pensions are on average. In better coverage this sometimes results in some juggling about of means and medians so that the 'average' quoted is more meaningful. What is usually lacking, however, is the answer to the obvious question: how many years work has someone put in to get that apparently low average pension? Talking about how much pension someone gets without talking about how many years they work is odd, to put it mildly. For ...

Posted by Mark Pack on Liberal Democrat Voice

For the party to be strong, we need to be a broad church, and not just in our political views. This is why I think the most important fringe meeting at the coming Spring Conference is the first joint fringe meeting of the Liberal Democrat Christian Forum and the Humanist and Secularist Liberal Democrats. This is a chance for us to demonstrate that, even where we fundamentally disagree, Liberal Democrats can debate with mutual respect. These last two weekends, I have seen concrete examples of the way Christians and atheists can work together: at the two most recent Regional Action ...

Posted by George Kendall on Liberal Democrat Voice

North East Fife MP Sir Menzies Campbell has added his support to 'The Big Switch' campaign which seeks to get a better deal for consumers by bargaining with the energy companies as a group. People can register their interest in taking part in the Big Switch. Expert negotiators from Which? will then bargain with the energy companies using a 'reverse auction'. Companies will compete to provide the cheapest electricity and gas. Those who have signed up to the campaign can then choose whether or not to accept it. Commenting, Sir Menzies said: "There are so many energy providers offering so ...

Posted by Ming Campbell MP on Ming Campbell

Collaboration between public bodies is a good thing and can often improve services, but are expectations so high that it will ultimately fail to deliver? Sitting in the Assembly chamber week in, week out one could be forgiven for thinking that collaboration was the answer to all our financial problems. However, the value of working together and delivering services jointly does not necessarily lie in cost but in quality and the elimination of duplication. That is illustrated very well by this story on the BBC website. They say that Whitehall departments have been criticised for overspending by £500m on schemes ...

Posted by Peter Black on Peter Black

"The mystifying assumption that, by improving Britain's education and training record, somehow unemployment will disappear is not just debatable; it is misleading at best, and at worst it is utter nonsense... The emphasis on formal qualifications alone without incorporating labour demand may thus lead to a bizarre situation where – like Germany – one ends up with probably the best qualified unemployed workforce in Europe... [G]overnment has been too concerned to raise numbers entering higher education at the expense of its quality, and with no real economic argument to back this expansion..." Thomas Lange, Professor of Economics and Director of ...

Posted by Tom Papworth on Liberal Vision

The link below is the document provided to County Councillors with the list of all vacancies for Local Authority Governors in Primary and Secondary Schools across Cambridgeshire. February 2012 Governor Vacancies Governor Vacancies are advertised quite widely and if you're interested in becoming a Governor of a School please visit Cambridgeshire Governors website; And complete the "Register an Interest" form and send it off. There is also lots of other information related to being a School Governor on the website which is well worth a read if you have time!

Posted by Andy Pellew on Focus on King's Hedges

Here is nick's Shirley's emergency motion, as it is being put to the Lib Dem Conference Committee. Please excuse formatting. Comment away! Conference notes: · That during the Lords Report Stage of the Health and Social Care Bill in February and March 2012 Liberal Democrats, in conjunction with peers from other benches, have achieved significant changes to the Conservative Health Secretary's original Health and Social Care Bill; · Taking the lead from the motion passed at Spring Conference 2011 Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords have worked successfully to: o guarantee the Secretary of State's responsibility for a comprehensive ...

Posted by Gareth Epps on Gareth Epps

Important Message from Metrolink We are currently undertaking improvement works on the Metrolink stops on the Bury line. We will need to carry out stop improvement work at Heaton Park Metrolink stop outside our normal hours of construction. For safety reasons, this work can only be done while the tram line is closed. Work will take place between 7am and 7pm on Sunday 11th March, Saturday 17th March and Sunday 18th March, 2012. On these dates no trams will run between Bury and Victoria Station. Replacement buses will run from Bury to Piccadilly calling at all stops. All other lines ...

Posted by timpickstone on Tim Pickstone
Wed 7th
07:11

Death and Syria

Until yesterday the acme of success in my clipped and limited life was to get a letter published in the Guardian. This I achieved last week for about the fifth time, a modest record compared with the likes of Keith Flett et al, but satisfying all the same.However, a friend who reads The Weekly (The best of the British and Foreign media) showed my yesterday that my letter was reproduced there on their "Pick of the week's correspondence" page. Fame indeed. What joy. As the Guardian's editing had, in my view, lost some of the letter's punch, I produce it ...

Posted by Peter Wrigley on Keynesian Liberal

We're celebrating an amazing one million trees planted in February. We set ourselves an amazing challenge to kick start our year of tree planting for the Jubilee Woods project - to plant one million trees in February. And the great news is that we have achieved this in fantastic style with Dermot O'Leary planting a tree as a final celebration of this incredible feat. We are not taking all the glory though. Luckily we've had a few supporters to help us on the way. We were honoured to have Her Majesty The Queen and Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal ...

Posted by Andy Pellew on Focus on Bar Hill

And so we did! His name is Rusifee (yes, I think it's dumb, but it's what the mice in Cinderella call the cat because they can't pronounce Lucifer) and we're actually just his foster mamas. We're official Seattle Humane Society foster parents and he's our first foster kitty. While Roommate was desperately hoping for kittens (KITTENS!), it turns out that I'm very happy with this large fluffy grey kitty who loves to cuddle. In fact, that's what he's doing right now: sitting on my lap while I type. He's a bit grope-y with his happy kneading and kind likes to ...

Posted by Joyce on Joyce Goes for a Run
Wed 7th
00:32

Joseph Kony

 

Posted by Jeremy Rowe on Jeremy Rowe

A huge round of applause to the idiots in the parking dept. You have taken out a huge swathe of resident bays in Church Street area for various road and building works – all at the same time. So where in hell do you expect us to park? Tonight, 20 minutes driving around and around ...

Posted by Chris Hall on Chris and Eddie in London NW1

Meols Ward Lib Dem Councillors John Dodd, David Rimmer andNigel Ashton are holding their next monthly advice centre on Saturday 10th March,from 11 am to 12 noon at St John's Primary School, Rufford Road, Crossens. We will be there to meet you and discuss any Councilproblems you may have. No appointment necessary. Just pop in. We hold our advice centre every month (except August) on thesecond Saturday of the month at St John's School.

Posted by Nigel Ashton on Meols Lib Dems