A discussion chaired by Mary Ann Sieghert with panelists Issan Ghazni (Liberal Democrats), Seema Malhotra (Lab) and Paul Uppal (Cons). The discussion is about asian voters and the recent Bradford by election.
A Newsnight special discussing elected mayors and the forthcoming referenda on May 3rd. This is a trimmed section of the programme showing the introduction and my contribution. The voices are slightly out of sync in parts.
News has just come in that the Herts County Council Executive Member with responsibility for highways has asked for an additional urgent item to be added to the agenda of the next Cabinet Meeting on Monday, 23rd April. The wording of the announcement on this urgent agenda item simply says: "there will be a report on the 'Moor End Bus Lane' (in Hemel Hempstead) regarding the implications of the recent adjudicator's decisions. Given the public concern, the Council wishes to resolve the issue as soon as possible so the report will be taken as urgent business." The report of the ...
This evening, I attended the latest Committee Meeting of the West End Sports and Heritage Association (WESHA) at the Vine in Magdalen Yard Road. As the Chair and Vice Chair were unable to attend, as Secretary, I (sort of!) chaired the meeting! WESHA is going from strength to strength in terms of moving forward sport in the West End. Our new website will be launched as part of "Big Sunday" at WestFest on 10th June when WESHA will be participating in what will be a great community event. And ... our new banners have arrived! See below.
UKIP finally polled above the Lib Dems in a YouGov poll, the UKIP crowd are going mental with delight. Lib Dems are despairing and wondering where it all went wrong. Just remember this, polls don't make votes, and mid term security is even less trustworthy. UKIP are a minor party, and their rise will only hurt the tories. Let us take this step by step as to why UKIP are a minor party. 0 seats in the house of commons, 2 defectors in the house of lords, 0.01% of council seats. I will give them their due that they do ...
I was pondering on a fun suggestion earlier today that Tim Farron's amazing ability to interact with members in Twitter conversations in which he features - and it IS amazing - might suggest he is in fact a Twitter-bot...for how else can he possibly find the time... ...and then I remembered someone sent me THIS earlier. You don't think Tim could be...oh my gosh...it would explain a lot...he does get a hell of a lot done if there was just the one of him..but what if there are several... :-)
Party President Tim Farron has e-mailed members tonight to ask them to respond positively to Lynne Featherstone's consultation on introducing equal civil marriage in England. As you'll no doubt remember, I spent much of the last 3 months of last year urging people to respond to the Scottish one. We've yet to find out whether the SNP will wimp out on this. I hope not and that they will allow civil marriage and religious marriage on a voluntary basis. The Equality Network up here managed to drum up 24000 supportive responses. The Churches are pretty effective at getting their people ...
Nature or nuture? When I consider that ever present question regarding my sexuality, I regard it with the same interest as that other important question: what colours were the dinosaurs? In other words I find the subject fascinating but essentially it has no bearing on how I live my life or how I view the struggle for LGBT rights. The reemergence of last year's "A stroke turned me gay" story, thanks to a documentary on BBC Three tonight, has spurred some debate. Thanks to such things as the recent "ads on a bus" scandal, the concept of one's sexuality being ...
Whether we are excited by the Olympics or hate the whole thing - we have all - as Londoners- paid for a great deal of it! Parts of London should benefit greatly but up here in this quiet corner of Camden - we will possibly hardly notice it apart from the 24/7 media coverage unless, of course you want to travel in and around London during the period of the Games. Earlier on we thought the cycle road race might come through Hampstead and Whitestone Ponds was tidied up in account of it (and very nice it looks too!) But ...
Dear friend, The local elections on May 3rd offer you the opportunity to make a real difference for your community. The Welsh Liberal Democrats have demonstrated that they can lead local councils to better public services, schools and value for money. Across Wales, in various local councils, the Welsh Liberal Democrats have delivered services for ...
The Derwent Valley Partnership team was awarded a "Gold Award" by the county council for its engagement work in setting up and running the "It's up 2 U" scheme last year. I'd have included a picture if my photography skills hadn't let me down! The scheme was a great success in many ways, but as the team know only too well we do need to iron out some wrinkles – and make sure that we have some way of ensuring that some of the smaller communities' groups are recognised and rewarded through the process. If you have a view there ...
The front page of yesterday's Metro made me laugh. "The richest pay how much tax?" screamed their headline. "Multi millionaires hand over less than cleaners."Their outrage at the relatively low rates of tax paid by the super rich continued for three columns on the front page and a continuation on page 5. I guess it's good that they're finally getting the message. But, might we have heard their millionaire and cleaner example somewhere before? Let's go back to January 2010 when I reported Nick Clegg's appearance on the Andrew Marr show.Also on tax, he talked about taking 4 million people ...
[IMG: 20120417-180456.jpg] All, Just a quick report on some bits from last nights Town Council meeting. As always, these reports are very selective, and are mainly about the things I've been involved with. More independent reports are available in Forum or over at shipstononline. Housing needs survey A couple of months ago District Councillor Richard Cheney suggested at a Town Council meeting that Shipston could do with a housing needs survey. This survey would help the Town Council understand what kind of housing people in the town were looking for when future developments came up. It would particularly look at ...
In a liberal democracy you'd think we'd need certain checks and balances to keep politician on the right track and residents happy. Well along comes the mayoral bandwagon started by Lord Adonis, the one time Labour transport supremo and now in full throttle by Eric Pickles. Important facts are surfacing about what the mayor would cost. The No campaigns website cites DCLG data: election costs £173k or £608k; additional salary costs of elected mayor £378k; salary costs of mayor's assistant £184k and additional overhead costs £449k. In this life you dont get something for nothing. The costs won't come from ...
Just found this on the ITV Twitter feed. Will blog properly later....but honestly, who do they think they are?
With public consultation on proposals to introduce an equal right to marriage for all, Tim Farron has, this evening, urged Party members to take part. "We have always stood for individual liberty and the right to choose how we lead our lives. This is why I am member of our party and why I am so proud to be your President. It's why we came into being in the 19th century to protect the rights of religious minorities. It's why we led the support for equality for women and why we decided before any other major party that civil marriage ...
It was only a matter of time, but rats have been spotted in the piles of rubbish building up on the Ridgegrove Estate in Launceston. Perhaps this isn't surprising as the bins themselves became full last Saturday and, since then, residents have been forced to leave black sacks on the ground in the communal waste areas. Cornwall Council's own website says: It is important to remove rubbish and disused fixtures or equipment that may provide harbourage. Vegetation should be controlled around buildings and materials should not be allowed to accumulate in these areas.They also say: The Council does have a ...
The front page of yesterday's Metro made me laugh. "The richest pay how much tax?" screamed their headline. "Multi millionaires hand over less than cleaners." Their outrage at the relatively low rates of tax paid by the super rich continued for three columns on the front page and a continuation on page 5. I guess it's good that they're finally getting the message. But, might we have heard their millionaire and cleaner example somewhere before? Let's go back to January 2010 when I reported Nick Clegg's appearance on the Andrew Marr show. Also on tax, he talked about taking 4 ...
On Friday evening between 7:30 and 9:30 the Westborough Ward Hustings will be taking place at the Royal British Legion on Northview Drive. With six candidates for the ward – and as far as I know all are expected to be there – it could be an interesting evening. If you want to go and ask a question then you need to submit it before hand to ensure no overlap etc... but the most interesting bit is that if you aren't a member of the new Westborough Community Association then it'll cost you £2 to enter. Really? I mean really? ...
The usually very sane Philip Stephens Aunt Sallies forth in today's Financial Times to argue that Philanthropy is no alternative to paying tax as he sticks up for the Coalition's Charity Tax. It rests on two false assumptions. First: Faced with the need for swingeing spending cuts and tax increases to reduce the deficit, [George Osborne] thinks the wealthiest in society should contribute. Sounds reasonable, yes? But there's a big gaping hole in this line of argument: donations to charities are entirely voluntary, transfers to the Exchequer are not. A wealthy person who doesn't want to be taxed more to ...
Under the slogan 'Wales CAN do better', Kirsty Williams, leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats, launched the campaign for the 2012 local government elections in Cardiff yesterday. I am extremely proud of our record in local councils all across Wales. When you vote for a Welsh Liberal Democrat councillor on May 3rd, you will be voting for a councillor who will work hard for you and your community and a councillor that will go that extra mile. When people in a local authority put their trust in Welsh Liberal Democrat councillors, what you get is prosperity and jobs like what ...
Other news for West End Lane The face lift to West Hampstead Library has now been completed and most people are very happy with it. But as its completion more or less coincided with the cut in our local opening hours, some have suggested the money could have been better spent on retaining our lost hours. The answer to this is that the exterior improvements were agreed and funded by the capital "spending pot" from the old Area Forum back in 2010 whereas opening hours are funded by the Council's revenue spending which is a completely separate lot of money. ...
Thank you for inviting comments on this controversial issue. I am against accreditation at Conference and wish the FCC to decline Sussex Police's kind invitation to adopt it. You will have no doubt been inundated with the arguments against, so I will not waste your time reiterating them (although excellent summaries of all the reasons why it is a bad thing can be found at Caron Lindsay's blogpost, 'Conference Accreditation rears its unacceptable, illiberal and not very pretty head' , amongst numerous others). I would also suggest FCC members spend a little time at the comments section of the LDV ...
Its been a busy month or so since we last posted - things are happening rapidly in NW6 - so there's lots to report on. We're just about to publish a new Spotlight but because there are so many stories in it, some of them are a bit brief and we've had to leave lots out - so this is an update for all our readers. Planning is always a local issue, though more in West Hampstead Ward not so much in Fortune Green at present: * Mill Lane - the new block "Mill Apartments" is nearly finished with prices ...
One of my all time favourite Movies of all time is Das Boot. It is truly an epic view of the effects of war and stress on the human condition. One such scene involves the U-96 laying on a sand bank off Gibraltar with no engines, no power... dead. Which brings me handily to this. Councillor Osborne's latest post featuring predictions of Labour's ultimate victory in 2015 and 2019 has the following sentence, as well as a descriptive paragraph to back up his claim; Let's be generous; The 'Medway' Lib Dems are the equivalent of a quivering corpse. - Just ...
I am genuinely pleased to see UKIP doing well in recent polls, polling at as much as 9%. That might seem like an odd thing for a Lib Dem to say given that ideologically I am quite far away from their views and also they are currently close to potentially pushing my party into fourth place. Allow me to explain. As I have bored people to tears with on here for years, one of my major preoccupations is with electoral reform. We lost the AV referendum last year and the consensus at the moment is that any further talk of ...
Every nation dates the beginning of its welfare system from a different date. In Britain, we usually date it to 1909 and also 1942 - because that was the date that Sir William Beveridge published his famous report. It's the only government report in history to have reached bestseller status. British soldiers went into action against the Nazis with it in their pocket. It provided hope, but it also set out the blueprint for the future, caring world. But there was a problem there, in retrospect, that goes to the heart of why public services remain such fraught political footballs. ...
Through the letter-box comes London Elects' booklet on the Mayor of London & London Assembly Elections, written in commendably plain English and very well-presented. It lists all the candidates, including many Constituency London Assembly Member Candidates who are listed as standing for "Fresh Choice For London". That is actually UKIP in disguise. Should political parties be allowed to fly under a flag of convenience in this way? I thought the same when the SWP first donned its new costume as Respect (it was a pantomime horse costume, of which SWP activists provided the back end). Might some voters vote for ...
Tim Farron MP, President of the Liberal Democrats, is leading the fight to scrap VAT paid by air ambulances. He wants the service put on the same footing as the RNLI and mountain rescue teams. Tim is MP for Westmoreland and Lonsdale in the North West. Their air ambulance service currently pays about £24,000 per year in VAT - enough for an extra 10 missions. As Tim told the local newspaper, it is quite right that the RNLI and mountain rescue services are exempt from VAT, but it is time that air ambulance services were given the same dispensation. The ...
Today the Guardian reported that Lady Warsi had commented on the coalition and lamented the lack of a clear, collective narrative emanating from the government. Instead she infers that the 'immature' coalition partners, ie, the Liberal Democrats were responsible for this. Not only does this comment do little justice to explaining the situation, it is ... Read more
The new waste and recycling contract is still causing a huge number of problems across Launceston (and Cornwall). It seems that litter bins haven't been emptied for some time. I have reported the one on the corner of St Johns Road and Western Road. If you know of others, please get in touch. As colleagues across Cornwall have found, the new contractor appears to be ignoring dog waste bins completely. The picture shows the one on Moorland Road outside the police station. Again, if you know of others, please get in touch. I've been told of one street where the ...
Welcome to another experiment. Due to a late substitution amongst the LDV Editorial team, combined with a lack of material (you're all out campaigning, as you should be, I presume), welcome to our first attempt to preview forthcoming events in the European Parliament. Let us know what you think or, if you fancy doing it yourself, get in touch. Well, I say Brussels, but this week sees the European Parliamentary roadshow hit Strasbourg to waste a chunk of money to placate the French for April's plenary session. So, what's on the agenda? Today sees a report on the EU's policy ...
This morning's press was full of encouraging news about a new treatment for Prostate Cancer, with some of the side effect connected to other treatment, like impotency and bladder control problems. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-17726979 A detailed analysis is here on the lancet web ... Continue reading →
Its been quite a couple of weeks so far. I wrote a blog post at the back end of last week giving a simplified timeline of Olly Cromwell's court case and posted it after a few people complained they didn't know the facts of the case. I spent half a day collating all the sources ...
The 2012 Arthur C. Clarke Shortlist, Part 1, reviewed by @arrroberts Kinder than me to Bear and Mieville. (Agree on Magary.) (tags: sf ) Afghanistan: an illusion exposed | Carne Ross #fb "We entered Afghanistan and tried to make it comply with our fantasy, ignorant of its already complex realities." (tags: waronterror )
Doctors just can't help trying to save people, it seems. The Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, which brings together the presidents of the Medical Royal Colleges and Faculties and so purports to represent nearly every doctor in the UK, is to lead a campaign to tackle rising levels of obesity. One's initial reaction might be to welcome a medical intervention aimed at combating something that kills as many as 30,000 people each year. But unfortunately, it is not a medical intervention that these doctors have planned. My latest article on the IEA blog explains that the medical elite, having identified ...
Charlie Brooker: Some people are gay in space. Get over it | Comment is free | The Guardian (tags: ) Mr Clegg: Who are you making policy for, exactly? « Solution Focused Politics Brilliant analysis of why things keep going wrong for the Lib Dem leadership (tags: ) Now people don't even want to stand for the Lib Dems in elections! What we need to do to reverse this worrying trend « Solution Focused Politics (tags: ) Marc Spindelman, "Gay Men and Sex Equality" | | Feminist Law ProfessorsFeminist Law Professors Normally I find Feminist Law Professors to be very ...
Together with Lib Dem colleagues, I have submitted a motion on the proposed pasty tax to go to the next Cornwall Council meeting on May 15th. The aim is to get formal council support for the campaign and to write to the Chancellor urging him to reconsider the move which will cost local jobs. The full text of the motion reads: Cornwall Council notes the announcement by George Osborne in his recent budget of plans to impose VAT at 20% on the sale of pasties sold hot from the oven as well as other savoury snacks. Cornwall Council notes that ...
Mark Pack's question on the future of Lib Dem education policy in light of Free Schools is very timely. We should rightly be proud of the implementation of the pupil premium; a distinctively liberal policy that will go some way to correcting the inequities of the education system. Our education manifesto for 2015 can't rely just on advocating a bigger and better pupil premium. In the medium term it seems likely that free schools and academies will be here to stay; abolishing them in 2015 would entail unnecessary and counterproductive upheaval. Plenty of the criticisms directed at free schools; lack ...
Tue 17th
09:29
Nadine Dorries has a story to tell me involving a bedroom, a deck chair, role playing and a hasty ex...
It's pretty standard Twitter urban myth that Nadine Dorries once tried to get selected as a Lib Dem PPC (Prospective Parliamentary Candidate to me and you) seeing this brought up earlier in the day, I simply suggested that somebody ask Nadine, nobody was keen, so in my politest manner I did. The response may surprise some of you: @AAEmmerson Not quite, bt I can tell you a v funny story about a bedroom,a deck chair,role playing and a hasty exit if you want to email me! — Nadine Dorries MP (@NadineDorriesMP) April 16, 2012 @violacadan @AAEmmerson Mustblog it. SO funny. ...
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The second leaflet against a directly elected mayor in Birmingham has just been launched and will be distributed over the next few weeks. Here are links to both leaflets.
One of the things that has puzzled me most about two years of the Coalition is the very differing approaches to being in power between the two partners, both in the way they look at the world, and in the way that the world looks back. In many ways, the Conservatives have it far easier. The vast leviathan which is the deficit provides ample justification for doing what Conservatives are expected to do - cut government spending - although it has made cutting taxes for their client base rather more difficult. And, for that proportion of the population who vote ...
I am sorry if you are all Titaniced out - and I have not listened to all of this yet - but the opening interview with Charles Lightoller is spellbinding. And I think that is because of, not in spite of, his understatement. Lightoller was the most senior officer to survive the sinking of the Titanic and is the character played by Kenneth More in the film A Night to Remember. Matthew Sweet once said: "You almost get the feeling watching A Night To Remember that the ship goes down simply to wipe the smug grin off of Kenneth More's ...
All the media are reporting this morning that Government Ministers are to give the green light to further drilling for natural shale gas using the controversial fracking method despite identifying specific risks associated with the procedure. The Telegraph tells us that a report by an independent panel commissioned by the government confirmed that an operation by Cuadrilla, an energy company, was responsible for two tremors last spring. It backed up an inquiry by Cuadrilla late last year, after which the company admitted culpability for the small earthquakes near Blackpool, which measured 2.3 and 1.5 on the "local magnitude" system under ...
Some of the pavements are in an appalling state. Herts Highways has assured Chris that they will start work on these, starting at the Sandpit Lane end. They won't be able to do the whole lot, but at least it is a start.
So, apparently Andrew Hickey and Andrew Rilstone might be the same person. Even more confusingly, Andrew Ducker might also be the same person. All this is achieved by cunning addition and subtraction of beards and hairpieces, I am told. And miraculous nil-time travel between Manchester, Bristol, and Scotland. Which one of them is the real Andrew? And... are ALL Andrews one Andrew? If so, this leads to a disturbing thought. My DAD is called Andrew... O_o [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
