This weekend has certainly been interesting. For the record, I'm relatively pleased with the outcome of the votes at conference on the NHS bill this weekend. It is one of a whole range of possibilities about what might have happened, and we don't fully know what the fallout will be yet. No, technically, we have ...
This is my account of day 2 of conference: Waking up in somewhat of a better state than Friday morning was always a bonus, after breakfast in town, we made conference hall by about 11 to see Brian Paddick and Caroline Pidgeon speak. I've been somewhat interested in seeing what Brian Paddick is like, and this was a good speech which will hopefully set Brian off to a good start. This was followed up with about half an hour with the party president Tim Farron, who was as usual was interesting. I'll be writing to blogs that will appear over ...
The Liberal Democrat Spring Conference and the NHS Bill have become synonymous. I spoke against the bill, saying the concessions that we claim to have acheived are, at best, platitudinous. Mark Pack's round up of the debate can be found here and the Guardian Live Blog here.
Chipping Sodbury Festival 2012 will be held over 10 days between 15th June and 24th June. There are events for all ages - indoors, outdoors, daytime and evening. Acts performing during the festival include BAFTA-nominated singer guitarist Richard Digance. Chris Harris (Bath Theatre Royal's Pantomime Dame) will be performing one of his world famous one man shows 'Arris Music 'All introducing characters such as Dan Leno, Stanley Holloway and Max Miller. Mix in the Tesitoura's Marriage of Figaro, Music in the Street and the Street Fayre and Carnival and we're going to be in for classic Festival - all rounded ...
[IMG: Featured on Liberal Democrat Voice] Back in the early 70's Viv and I were both on the Party's Policy Committee-chaired by John Pardoe and then Richard Wainwright. A few of us who were travelling back north after the meetings (this was in the day when BR still ran a night sleeper service to Liverpool/Manchester) used to go out for a meal often to an Indian Restaurant near Warren Street tube called the Agra which had a particularly fiery lime pickle. When I was young and broke at Liberal Assemblies Viv often took me out for a meal. We kept ...
There is another spamming campaign going on whereby an organisation is spamming Lib Dem MPs from all sorts of addresses. This means hundreds and thousands of emails being sent essentially exactly the same.This means I have had to configure my spam filter to delete these without warning. Apologies if this means that anyone else's email is deleted without response.Actually I have found that it is
I feel a bit uneasy about the BSFA Award for Best Non-Fiction, which asks us to choose between two blogs as a whole, one blog entry, one dynamic and evolving website, a book of essays and an exhibition catalogue. This really is comparing apples to oranges to mangoes. I particularly regret that it's not explicit that only the 2011 entries for the two blogs and the website are in contention; it makes it feel as if an entire set of entries over the lifetime of the site are being weighed against Abigail's thoughts on Engh. In a sense, that makes ...
That was the NHS at its best; free-at-the-point-of-use, the best care being provided, yes, by a State-run service, where what's important is the care you receive, not your ability to pay.
Fraser Nelson writes: News that Nick Clegg has brilliantly outmanoeuvred Cameron over the British Bill of Rights will come as no surprise to CoffeeHousers — we told you so last March. The panel was stuffed full of ECHR enthusiasts, balanced by Tories most of whose competence lay in other legal areas. Perhaps Michael Pinto-Duschinsky, the most clued-up of the Tory appointees, didn't realise this when he joined the panel. He has twigged now, and has quit (or was eased out, depending on whose version of events you believe); observing that the 'Lib Dem tail is wagging the Conservative dog'. You ...
If you missed out on today's key NHS debate at the Lib Dems' spring conference, this BBC video featuring clips from a handful of the speakers who oppose the Coalition's NHS reforms gives you a flavour. You can also catch up with what happened via Mark Pack's live-blog of the debate here, and my round-up of the immediate reactions to the vote against the party leadership here. (Also available on the BBC website here.) * Stephen Tall is Co-Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice, and also writes at his own site, The Collected Stephen Tall.
There were two news items this week that involved the shooting of geese. In Darwen six ducks and a goose were shot dead in a park. The main response was one of outrage. Well it is a contemptible action. One councillor comments "I can't believe the mentality of people who would do a thing like that...Why has he (the culprit appears to be male) gone out to do a thing like that? His IQ must be zilch" The second item in the news was about the culling of Canada geese on Windermere. I watched the local TV report and the ...
Before we even start, just so you don't get the wrong idea, Nick Clegg is, for me, a great leader who's led us into Government and who's making huge chunks of Lib Dem policy a helpful reality. I believe in this guy as much as I did 13 years ago when I did a sponsored labour to get him elected as the East Midlands' first Lib Dem parliamentarian in 70 years. I think he and his team have mucked up big time this weekend, though, and he has to learn from it. Anyone outside the Westminster Bubble with half an ...
Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 264th 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 (4-10 March, 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. 26 comments on ...
The Liberal Democrat Conference has voted by a narrow majority not to mandate our peers to vote for the Health & Social Care Bill as it currently stands. But does the Lib Dem Conference mandate the party's elected and unelected representatives how to vote on individual pieces of legislation while the are passing through Westminster anyway? It makes party policy, of course, but that is rather a different thing. So I found it hard to be as moved by events in Gateshead earlier today as the people who were there - and are still shouting about it on Twitter as ...
Over the weekend, at Conference in Gateshead, Liberal Democrats voted first against a motion considering whether the NHS bill should be dropped, secondly against instructing our Peers to support the Bill in the Lords' and thirdly in favour of the remainder of the motion supporting Shirley Williams' amendments to the Health Care Bill. These three rather bizarrely connected votes reveal a nuanced and rational look at the NHS from Lib Dems. What Conference effectively voted to do was to say that the Bill with Shirley's amendments is better than the original Bill but we are still not prepared to support ...
The Telegraph's headline screams "Christians have no right to wear cross at work, says Government"! Personally, I think it's good that the Government is standing up for secular values. I also like the cognitive dissonance which this case must be causing the right-wing as it seems to be about the religious right using the much derided "Human Rights!" Act. Whoever wins, they lose. What struck me was this statement from Andrea Williams, the director of the bullies at the Christian Legal Centre. "What next? Will our courts overrule the Ten Commandments?" I struggle to sink down to the depths of ...
Prince Harry's visit to the Caribbean and south America is a Buckingham Palace PR triumph par excellence. But as with all PR we must look beyond the advert to scrutinise the product being flogged, and it is a product well past ... Continue reading →
Hibs have been having a dismal season. Floating just above the drop zone -thank god for Dunfermline - there have been periods when it really looked like we were going to be relegated. We are far from our of danger but our new manager seems to have instilled a bit of get up and go into the boys and made a few key signings. Interestingly we are still in the cup and having dispatched Ayr Utd yesterday have been given a relativity favourable draw (avoiding Hearts, Celtic and St Mirren) by getting Aberdeen. I do not dare to hope but ...
The Gateshead episode of the NHS bill saga finishes and time to put the kettle on until the next episode in this drama. I have to admit that I was out delivering leaflets in Greenwich while this was going on with only one leaflet chucked back at me and 2 bonkers weapon dogs – fairly ...
I spoke on the Wave 102 News today about Dundee City Council's commitment to the Armed Forces Community Covenant. The Community Covenant is a voluntary statement of mutual support between a civilian community and its local Armed Forces Community and it is good news that our city is giving its support. Click 'play' below to listen:
FROM: Calandra Larkins, Spatial Diversification Officer (Upper) TO: Reema Narlikar, Hilary Hannah, Rob Methuen, Alex Knollys, Tom Kydd, Chris Marlowe, Anne Hathaway, Frances Hogg, Oliver Oldknoll, Samantha Macgillivray, Chris Van Hummel Colleagues: I thought that was a fantastic meeting yesterday! I hope you felt the same. The first analyses of energy use across County Hall will be e-mailed to all employees next week, so please look out for them and in particular any hot-spots which show particular offices or work-stations have items such as printers or monitors left on overnight. The word is diplomacy, though. Fights are energy-intensive. Sorry this ...
This is my speech at the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy's Freedom of Expression Conference:There were a number of interesting other speeches and when I get the time I will listen to some of the others. The full play list is here:Full playlist for conferenceI have just started listening to Craig Murray's SpeechHe raises some interesting questions as to how the BBC has a formal system of banning
Sun 11th
17:15
In other news... Vince, Telegraph inaccuracy, Lembit, Eastleigh, Boundary Commission, site news
Here's a round-up of stories we haven't had time to cover on the site this past week... Vince Cable on that leaked letter to No. 10 (and other matters (The Guardian) "We're no longer arguing about fiscal policy - monetary policy's now taking on most of the heavy lifting anyway," he says as he notes that Labour has now accepted the need for fiscal discipline. "So the argument has shifted into a debate around how active government should be in promoting the recovery. Is it getting out of the way or is government being proactive and positive? That was the ...
The final part of my round up of Liberal Democrat achievements in government looks at local services and, in particular, post offices. Post office branches are at the heart of many local communities. Across the UK, the lst Labour government closed more than 7000. And before that the Tory government of Margaret Thatcher and John Major closed more than 5000. Thanks to Lib Dem minister Ed Davey, every single post office branch has been safeguarded for the next 10 years at least. Tweet
The big surprise with today's vote – even with the payroll vote to support the leadership on Andrew Lansley's NHS Bill – was how close it was. A margin of barely 5% was not reflected in the overwhelmingly anti-Bill speeches, themselves reflecting the balance of opinion among those wanting to speak. Even the instincts of some to support the party establishment, come what may, doesn't explain the closeness. Maybe the appeals of Andy Burnham and David Owen (with friends like those, does the NHS need enemies?) do. The use of Shirley Williams as a human shield was beyond distasteful: it ...
I've not been in Gateshead this weekend so maybe that's part of the problem but I am struggling to understand the actions of my party in the last couple of days. As I posted yesterday I fear that the NHS bill could be highly damaging, politically for the Lib Dems and I had hoped that the party voting reps were going to vote to drop the bill. Instead what happened is that the reps voted by a small margin to debate the "Shirley Williams" amended bill and vote on that this morning. The result has been a somewhat muddled outcome ...
Every one knows Woolly Bully by Sam the Sham... Mind you, I work these days with people who have never used a telephone dial, so I had better that everyone of a certain age knows Woolly Bully by Sam the Sham. But who is Sam the Sham and what is the song about? The classicbands page for Sam the Sham and the Pharoahs tells all. Domingo Samudio was born near Dallas Texas to a Spanish speaking couple of Mexican decent. After a varied early career he found himself the front man for a band: "By that time, everyone was calling ...
Last Autumn Mark Cavendish became the second Brit after Tom Simpson to pull on the Rainbow Jersey on the road. Today his 'new' teammate Bradley Wiggins did the same in Paris-Nice. The Paris-Nice stage race is often seen as an early season warm up to the Tour de France and Team Sky can be proud of their performance this week. Wiggins came second in the opening Time Trail but took the lead at the end of stage two and has never been beaten. On stage 2 in the win Wiggins found himself on the right side of a crash and ...
That's what you can find in my Liberal Democrat email newsletter. If you're not one of the thousands signed up already, you can read the Nick Clegg speech newsletter here – and sign up for future editions of the usually monthly newsletter here.
I haven't read it and I'm not going to.
As everyone heads home from Gateshead, I thought I'd just share with you a few more snippets of gossip from the weekend. A certain parliamentarian jumped past everyone in the security queue with a definite air of superiority. They can't have been in that much of a hurry, because they were able to find time to spend 10 minutes chatting at the entrance. When Nick Clegg paid tribute to Chris Huhne during his speech, the hall erupted in applause – and none other than his former wife Vicky Pryce was seen joining in. And, finally, we are glad to bring ...
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This is Tur Langton village hall. It's not a thing of beauty, but in an age when there are so few facilities in most villages beyond private housing for the affluent, it is important to the community. According to a report in the Leicester Mercury, the land the hall occupies may soon be redeveloped for housing by its landlord Merton College, Oxford. (Those who watched Michael Wood's The Story of England will know that the college is a major landowner in nearby Kibworth Harcourt.) The position is a little complicated, but the Mercury quotes on of the village campaigners against ...
I am pleased to see the Lib Dem Spring Conference has voted to oppose the givernments prosed changes to the NHS (BBC News today). As one of the delegates at last year's conference who called on the govenrment to think again on its proposals I fully support this decision. Despite many Lib Dem successes in rewriting this flawed plan the Tories have still to erove they really understand what the NHS is for and what the vast majority of people in this country expect ofr it and of them. For a full analysis of how the bill has changed see ...
[IMG: I did it!] Have raised £800 so far and donations are still coming in. I'm dead chuffed today. And a bit tired :) [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
There's been no shortage of reaction to the vote by the Lib Dem conference this morning to vote by 317-270 to approve an amendment which implicitly calls on the party leadership to drop its support for the NHS Bill. I say "implicitly" because the motion as passed — pasted at the foot of this post — does not call on Lib Dems to 'Kill the Bill'. However, conference did vote (albeit narrowly) to remove the call for Lib Dem peers to support the Bill. This follows yesterday's pre-debate conference vote (again narrowly) to choose not to debate the motion which ...
Massive hats off to the 314 Conference Reps who voted for the Evan Harris amendment on the NHS debate today. While it's disappointing that within minutes of the vote, Paul Burstow was telling the media he would ignore the vote and the 'real' will of conference was demonstrated on Saturday with the decision not to debate the #dropthebill motion - at least a majority of the grass roots have now shown the world that we don't think this bill is right - and needs a lot more work. Do write to Members of the House of Lords to encourage them ...
From daweaver in the comments to this post by Jennie Rigg The whole NHS changes kerfuffle reminds me of the Twilight series. It's badly written, lots of people get very het up and shout over the minutest detail while others wonder what the fuss is about, and there's a huge wall of impenetrable and badly-written ...
The Conservative Home website has laid into Lance Kennedy (and others) decrying the lack of action in their campaign to become police commissioners. "Cllr Simon Spencer, the Deputy Leader of Derbyshire County Council, is seeking nomination. But where is his website? Ditto Cllr Lance Kennedy in Devon and Cornwall. Ditto Cllr George Beckett for Hampshire. Ditto Cllr Stephen Bett for Norfolk. Ditto, for that matter, Colonel Tim Collins in Kent. None off them seem to have taken this most basic step in their campaigns.They need to stop dithering." Tweet
Layout is still screwed for some people, some of the time, in some browsers. I am aware of this, but am unable to replicate it on my machine, which makes it hard to fix. For now, a workaround you can use if this problem is affecting you, is to put "?style=mine" at the end of all the urls. Additional to this, I am not getting comment notifications for all comments. For instance, last night's rather bad-tempered post has (currently) 19 comments on it. I got notified of one; so if you don't get a reply to your comment, it's (probably) ...
Great drama on British streets as people react to the news that a bunch of Lib Dem activists have voted against something. Cars screeched to a halt. People who were outside ran indoors. People who were indoors ran outside. Fights are breaking out in pubs, and television sets that were showing some sort of important Rugby Football match have been switched off in anger. I am confused - they (we, although I'm not there) voted to reject the changes to the bill that the Lib Dems had secured (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/mobile/uk-politics-17330939); I thought the changes were the bits that we actually liked? ...
Across the UK housing waiting lists have been growing. Here in Cornwall, despite the claims by the council to have plans to have built new houses, the housing waiting list grew by 2000 names in just two months and now stands at more than 23,000 families. Since the general election, the Government has prioritised new affordable homes to rent and to buy. With the Liberal Democrats in government we have seen more than 150,000 affordable homes built across the UK. At the same time as Cornwall Council's commitment to affordable housing seems to be slipping, the government is turning up ...
The Houghton Regis Chalk Quarry had a clean up day yesterday. I was so pleased a lot of volunteers came out to help. Before.... After .... Lots more to do ... More pictures shared here: http://www.liveshare.com/#&id=1970842 I wrote the story here:
This year will show the best of Britain. The Olympics and the Diamond Jubilee, a nation proud of our past, but with our face to the future. A nation that treasures liberty, honours hard work and values fair play and fair chances. That is the character of our country: strong, confident, united. And our character as a nation is being tested, because even in this year of celebration families are under pressure, worrying about paying their bills, about keeping their jobs, about the future. The road to full recovery for our economy will be long, and it will be hard. ...
Sun 11th
12:40
"A more liberal Britain with every passing year" - Nick Clegg's speech to Lib Dem Spring Conference ...
[IMG: Nick Clegg at NewcastleGateshead conference 2012] Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg used his speech to the Party's Spring conference in NewcastleGateshead to call for the forthcoming budget to be a "budget for fairness" and pledged that it would help working familes. The Deputy Prime Minister pledged that by 2015 Britain would have seen an end to control orders, the first gay marriages and the first elections to the House of Lords. Nick Clegg's conference speech in full: This year will show the best of Britain. The Olympics and the Diamond Jubilee, a nation proud of our past, but with ...
Sun 11th
12:40
"A more liberal Britain with every passing year" - Nick Clegg's speech to Lib Dem Spring Conference ...
[IMG: Nick Clegg at NewcastleGateshead conference 2012] Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg used his speech to the Party's Spring conference in NewcastleGateshead to call for the forthcoming budget to be a "budget for fairness" and pledged that it would help working familes. The Deputy Prime Minister pledged that by 2015 Britain would have seen an end to control orders, the first gay marriages and the first elections to the House of Lords. Nick Clegg's conference speech in full: This year will show the best of Britain. The Olympics and the Diamond Jubilee, a nation proud of our past, but with ...
This year will show the best of Britain. The Olympics and the Diamond Jubilee, a nation proud of our past, but with our face to the future. A nation that treasures liberty, honours hard work and values fair play and fair chances. That is the character of our country: strong, confident, united. And our character as a nation is being tested, because even in this year of celebration families are under pressure, worrying about paying their bills, about keeping their jobs, about the future. The road to full recovery for our economy will be long, and it will be hard. ...
If we believe that humans are created equal, and that they have equal rights to freedom; be that freedom of expression or freedom from oppression or persecution based on race, gender, sexuality, or religion, then we cannot accept a two tier system of marriage. To do so automatically implies that homosexual couples do not deserve ...
Maria Eagle MP It has been some 71 years and seven months Tuesday (13th March) since Eagleday saw airfields attacked across Kent and the South east for the first time yet last week the proposed Grain/Boris Island airport was struck again by an Eagle in the form of Maria Eagle. The Labour Shadow minister of transport came to Grain to meet local Councillors (pictured with the Labour Councillors in the Medway Messenger 9th March p.10), environmentalists, residents of Grain village which may cease to exist if Grain airport gets the green light. According to Alan McGuinness' report (Labour Transport Chief: ...
I was delighted this morning to be the support act to the NHS debate this morning at Liberal Democrat Conference (about which more later). I got Conference's support for a call for our colleagues in Government to pull back on the Pandora's box served up by the Labour Government back in 2002 in David Blunkett's Police Reform Act. (Update: the Pete Ruhemann award for Lying Labour Liar is yet again awarded to Tony Page: see That legislation allowed just about anything, apart from the power of arrest, to be handed to the private sector. Foot patrols by Serco? Detention ...
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Nick Clegg is currently speaking to the Lib Dems' spring conference at NewcastleGateshead — here's the text of his speech: This year will show the best of Britain. The Olympics and the Diamond Jubilee, a nation proud of our past, but with our face to the future. A nation that treasures liberty, honours hard work and values fair play and fair chances. That is the character of our country: strong, confident, united. And our character as a nation is being tested, because even in this year of celebration families are under pressure, worrying about paying their bills, about keeping their ...
As far as I am aware there are two meetings at Blyth Town Council next week Assets Committee, Tuesday 13th March 6:30 pm pm at Ebor House Full Council, Thursday 15th March , 6:30 pm at the Isabella Centre, Ogle Drive, Blyth This will be followed by Public Question Time The Full Council meeting includes a presentation on the development of the former Wensleydale School site.
Reacting to the Liberal Democrat conference to remove support for the NHS Bill from the 'Shirley Williams' motion, Martin Tod, who spoke against the Bill, said: Whatever the leadership of the Liberal Democrats decide, the core issue remains: despite all the improvements made, they can't even sell the bill to their own members, let alone the professions and the wider public. They should drop the bill, go back to the coalition agreement and work with health professionals to come back with a bill that deserves support.
Photograph taken during trackside fag break Yes we've lost an iconic landmark, a reminder that men once grafted, not too long ago, underground in East Kent, to provide fuel for Richborough, tossed aside and dumped by a conservative goverment along with thousands in the coal industry. The towers a loss for most of us, the knowledge, that once sighted, we're a few minutes from a cuppa, meal and relaxing in our favourite chair bathed in the glow of a warm telly. I've got this weekend off and frankly couldn't motivate myself to see the towers come down, still, thankfully thanks ...
Responding to the vote (by 314 to 270) of the Liberal Democrat Conference to reject a call from Shirley Williams to support the Health and Social Care , Dr Evan Harris - who proposed the deletion of the lines which ... Continue reading →
This morning's debate saw a close vote (314-270*) to delete part of a motion that called on Liberal Democrat peers to support the Third Reading of the Health and Social Care Bill. The rest of the motion, with that part removed, was then easily passed. Other parts of the motion "supports the Liberal Democrat team in the House of Lords" in pushing for further itemised amendments to the Bill next week. It then ends up silent on what Parliamentarians should do (or are being asked to do, as conference motions can't mandate Lib Dem MPs or peers over how to ...
The LibDem conference voted to not ask our MPs and peers to support the bill. The conference did not ask our MPs and peers to not support the bill. That is quite different. Clear? BBC sort yourself out. LibDem members did NOT "oppose NHS reforms in conference vote" you total clods! As usual, the LibDem conference acts very sensibly and with great wisdom. ...A totally understandable finessing of the motion for people like me who are somewhat used to this sort of stuff. But, for the rest of the world, it's all totally impenetrable and a total political disaster! Plus ...
Joseph Kony and Crowdsourced Intervention | Kings of War (tags: ) Invisible Children's Military Disconnect | Kings of War (tags: ) Ugandan Rebel, Kony, Soars to Topic No. 1 in Online Video - NYTimes.com (tags: ) ...My heart's in Accra » Unpacking Kony 2012 (tags: kony ) ...My heart's in Accra » Teju Cole on American sentimentality towards Africa (tags: ) Solving War Crimes With Wristbands: The Arrogance of 'Kony 2012' - Kate Cronin-Furman & Amanda Taub - International - The Atlantic (tags: kony ) The Soft Bigotry of Kony 2012 - Max Fisher - International - The Atlantic (tags: ...
Sunday: Just back from the NHS debate and we've succeed in voting for EVERYONE! We agreed with Ms Dame Shirl the Girl that the amended bill was now better, and we agreed with Mr Dr Evan that the Lords can still vote to nuke it anyway! Many good points were made, about the complexity of the new arrangements and that there is more centralisation going on under cover of devolving some other powers. And of course that none of the doctors, nurses, midwives, surgeons or psi-judges who have looked at the bill actually want it. BUT, Dame Shirl made the ...
Sort of. Liberal Democrats at the party's spring conference in Gateshead have just supported the motion put forward by Shirley Williams by 314 votes to 270. Whilst the motion was passed, the following lines were deleted from the bill: Calls on Liberal Democrat peers to support the Third Reading of the Bill provided such further amendments are ...
[IMG: 20120311-102803.jpg] All, The Telegraph Street car park is being resurfaced on Tuesday 13th and Wednesday 14th March (this week) – so expect a bit of disruption of you normally park there. I'm pleased to see this going ahead, I know that there have been lots of complaints about the state of the surface recently and that District Councillor Richard Cheney has been pushing for this to happen. Philip
I have a really busy day today so I will not have the time to blog properly. However, I would draw your attention to this article by Matt Withers in the Wales on Sunday, which sums up the rather transparent and unsubtle tactics currently being employed by the Welsh Labour Government to blame everything on Westminister: "Yesterday, it was Remploy, today it's the Green Investment Bank," briefed a Welsh Government source. "What have the Tories and Lib Dems got against Wales?" This is the narrative which Labour wish to imprint on people's minds over the coming weeks, months and years. ...
"If the French nobility had been capable of playing cricket with their peasants," the British historian G.M. Trevelyan once wrote, "their chateaux would never have been burnt." Judging by a report in today's Mail on Sunday, the French have finally woken up to this: Cricket is being introduced into the national curriculum for French primary schools, and enthusiasts hope the move will lead to cricket becoming a part of French culture. "We have far more open spaces here, so beautiful pitches will not be a problem and the French are certainly clever enough to understand the complicated rules," says Gilles ...
I somehow don't think I'll be playing this bass line the next time we play this in Sunday worship. Though as I am down there now for practise who knows.
Today at conference is one of the most important days in this party's political history. It is the day when we can save the NHS from the clutches of the Tories and ourselves from political oblivion at the same time. Yesterday was a sad day. The motion to drop the bill was defeated by just a ...
Welcome to our live blog. Updates added at the foot. No, the packed hall isn't here to see my questions to the reports of the Parliamentary Parties (shocking, I know). It's people filling up the hall early ahead of the big debate of conference: the NHS. First up, moving the motion is Judith Jolly: "No one thinks this bill is perfect ... but it is a hugely better, safer bill because of Lib Dems". Shirley Williams is presumably waiting in the wings to make the last speech of the debate. She goes on to detail many of the doors opened ...
djm4 reacts to Nick Clegg's Conference speech metaphor exactly how I did (except somewhat more eloquently and with less swearwords) (tags: libdemmery ) Cuddly Cthulhu: how HP Lovecraft's dark materials turned soft "It's great stuff, well illustrated - and shows that it's never too early to expose your children to the crushing certainty that the universe is full of malicious entities who want to eat us all." - unusually for the Graun, the comments are worth reading too. (tags: cthulhu ) Keep calm and spy on - a genderbent Tinker Tailor (tags: awesome ) if you don't feel that International ...
A Liberal Democrat passion has always been for the freedom of the individual and for civil liberties. The last Labour government restricted our freedoms more than any government in history, I would argue. The coalition has taken massive steps to right those wrongs including abandoning the illiberal and expensive moves to introduce ID cards. Tweet
It is good to see the conference daily on the web these days. You can see here today's agenda including Shirley William's NHS motion which will be debated at 9.30 until 10.00. Here it is in full also: 09.30 Emergency motion F19 Protecting our NHS: the Shirley Williams Motion 15 conference representatives Mover: Baroness Jolly (Co-Chair, Parliamentary Party Committee on Health) Summation: Baroness Williams of Crosby Conference notes: A. 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 ...
Sun 11th
08:00
Now let's get this straight...the mainstream media are reporting on a LibDem Spring conference emerg...
Many moons ago I actually put forward an emergency motion for the ballot at our annual conference at Bournemouth. It was about Fiji and the awful abeyance of democracy there. I well remember standing at the entrance giving out leaflets prepared by own fair hand saying: "Vote for Emergency Motion 3 on Fiji". And Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP, bless her heart, stopped to talk to me to say she fully supported my motion. She was, at the time, making sure the EU was making condemnatory moves against the coup. These conference Emergency Motion Ballots don't usually need the local police ...
Just a quick reminder that today is the Cambridge half-marathon and so a number of roads in the area will be closed or have restricted access until the afternoon. You can also get more details from the organisers' web site, the map below shows details of the route. Cambridge Half-Marathon Map
If you're missing out on the thrills and spills of the Lib Dems' spring conference in NewcastleGateshead, hopefully these videos will offer you some flavour of proceedings... Nick Clegg to tell Lib Dems: Stop lamenting, start celebrating The BBC's summary of the party conference Simon Hughes: the Lib Dems have created a fairer Britain than if we'd left it to the Tories * Stephen Tall is Co-Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice, and also writes at his own site, The Collected Stephen Tall.
Just a quick reminder that today is the Cambridge half-marathon and so a number of roads in the area will be closed or have restricted access until the afternoon. You can also get more details from the organisers' web site, the map below shows details of the route. Cambridge Half-Marathon Map
As you likely know, Liberal Democrats at Conference narrowly voted yesterday to reject the emergency motion on whether the party should continue to support the NHS reforms, notably supported by Evan Harris and the SLF, in preference for a motion supporting Shirley Williams' amendments to the bill which are already in place. Be under no illusion, this is just a facade of a motion engineered to prevent any chance of conference voting to withdraw support of the Bill. The amendments enjoy near-universal support and it is really a non-issue. SLF are asking delegates to vote against the motion to protest ...
Yeah, OK, there are lots of things Liberals don't respond well to. But really, Cleggy? REALLY? If I don't agree with every word of Shirley Williams' motion I am on the side of Andy Burnham? Well, I guess I'm on the side of Andy Burnham, then. OR NOT. What is WITH YOU? Do you think that sort of wankery is going to make me, and others who don't appreciate what you're doing IN OUR NAME less annoyed with you? Really? Are you THAT stupid? See, this is the thing. I don't think you ARE that stupid. I think you are ...
Is that it then? Has the single transferable vote system allowed the Liberal Democrat leadership to breathe a huge sigh of relief? The motion to drop the Health and Social Care Bill won the first round of the ballot to select an emergency motion to debate on Sunday morning. But once the second preferences had been allocated it was beaten by what was labelled, and will be forever known as, the "Shirley Williams" motion. Even though it seems quite widely accepted around the conference venue that it was actually written by Nick Clegg's office. If that is the case then ...
No time to backread right now because BEER FESTIVAL ARGH BUSY BUSY BUSY but am going to do a quick meme. Incidentally, if anyone fancies BEER festival goes on till closing time tomorrow, so perhaps Lib Dems on their way home from conference could nip in for a couple? Anyway, meme. 1, Sherlock or Doctor Who? Doctor Who just edges if it we're talking about the entirety of Holmes fiction, but if just the 20XX BBC Sherlock, then Who by a Country mile. 2, Moriarty or the Master? Stealing James's answer for this one: The Master, cos all you have ...
Why do governing parties (in particular) lose elections? Is it because they make unpopular decisions, fail to listen enough or simply lose control of events? If you read some of the most popular Lib Dem bloggers - here and here - they seem to suggest the fate of the Lib Dems is entirely down to a vote of a few hundred members in a conference hall in Gateshead on whether they pass or reject a motion on the minutiae of the changes to the NHS proposed in the current bill. The facts are that if the bill is passed by ...
