We have held several meetings to consider this document and its implications for High Wycombe residents as well as the Bucks population as a whole. These meetings have been open to all Liberal Democrat Councillors and Liberal Democrat members. In addition as an active community organisation we have drawn on the experience of members, friends and relatives who have had recent experience of using NHS Health care services in Buckinghamshire. The Liberal Democrats have been represented on the local Save our Hospital Services Group and we have attended local meetings and read a wide variety of documents. We understand the ...

Sat 21st
23:06

The Pledge

Thursday saw me at yet another Hustings meeting. This time it was the Catholic Cathedral Justice and Peace Group. The theme was Social Justice so I spoke on issues relating to Health Inequalities, Homelessness and Social Care. Indeed I was the only person to raise those topics. The questions were largely on trams though. The experience was a little more nerve racking than usual as my nephew walked in at the beginning. I have never had to do a political speech, debate or interview in front of family before! A wee bit strange but still seemed to go off OK. ...

Posted by Paul Edie on Paul Edie's Blog

MESSAGE FROM KEVIN FRYETT OF REDCAR ATHLETIC FC: This season is drawing to a close and on the pitch the Club sits top of the Wearside League 3 points clear with 4 games to play so the Wearside League title is in our sights, this undoubtedly has been the most successful season in the clubs short history. Off the field the club has continued to develop its facilities at Green Lane and despite disappointing news that the ground failed to meet the Northern League ground criteria the installation of the floodlights has been a major step in the club's development ...

Posted by Chris Abbott on Chris Abbott

 

Posted by Jonathan on Liberal England

Yate.FM is a new community, semi-automated internet radio station, for Yate and Chipping Sodbury, which will be online 24 hours a day. The station plays a mixture of music with live and pre-recorded shows. The station is looking for local people, community and voluntary groups and those who work in the area to come forward with ideas for programmes, news, views, issues, events, music, poetry etc. The next meeting will be next Thursday 27 April at 7.00 pm at Waves night club in Yate Shopping Centre . It will last about an hour and will be your chance to meet ...

Posted by Paul Hulbert on Focus on Sodbury, Yate and Dodington

I thoroughly enjoyed attending last night's preview of the exhibition of paintings completed in 2012 by many of John Stoa's art class students - taking place at the Botanic Garden - see right. It was a well-attended event and an enjoyable evening. My council colleague and sister-in-law Cllr Helen Dick took part in the exhibition - Helen is pictured (below) alongside one of her paintings.

Conservatives spend a lot of time calling for things to be brought back - Matron, the birch, National Service. So it is no surprise to hear that David Cameron wants to return to the days when children stood up when a teacher entered the room. Before you mock, remember that the left is not much better. Its passion is keeping things as they are. The teachers' unions have opposed every initiative in education for as long as I can remember. And in all the debate over the Health & Social Care Bill, I cannot recall hearing someone who opposed it ...

Posted by Jonathan on Liberal England

I agree with the motion passed by conference [link] and feel that accreditation for Federal Conference is illiberal and unnecessary and should be rejected. As such I completely oppose its use in the future. All those entering conference already have to pass through security checks which would reveal any weapons or other harmful devices, and all successful terrorist attacks against conferences in recent history have not been ones that would have been prevented by accreditation. The Brighton bombing involved a bomb that was planted at a hotel months before the conference so, unless the FCC proposes to vet everyone staying ...

Posted by George W. Potter on The Potter Blogger

OAuth was designed to combat an anti-pattern. Typing your username and password into a third party site is bad idea. A really bad idea. I mean, you may think it's a bad idea to give your bank details to a Nigerian prince but that's just peanuts compared to giving away your password to an untrusted site! So, that's why we use OAuth. Rather than handing details to a random site, we authenticate against a trusted site which then redirects us back with an authentication token. That's all well and good on the web, but on mobile apps it becomes a ...

Posted by Terence Eden on Terence Eden has a Blog

Last Sunday, following an interview Nick Clegg gave to the Independent, I blogged about the increasingly collectivist turn that Lib Dem family policy appears to be taking. There was a point in that interview that I wanted to return to, but I have been too busy with work this week. That point is this: And he pledged to take on those with the "sepia-tinted 1950s" opinion that mothers should not work, after attacks on his City lawyer wife Miriam, claiming her critics are as "weird" as homophobes.Nick is right to be angry at attacks on his wife, but the rest ...

Posted by Jonathan on Liberal England
YouGov

I've been catching up on Talk at the BBC on BBC Four. It's a collection of priceless clips from "arguably the golden age of conversation" of the 1950s to the 1970s. Many of the early 50s/60s clips feature interviewers with rather plummy accents who conduct somewhat stilted discussions. Despite that, some interviewees shine out as exceptional, for example Orson Welles and Bette Davis. But what is clear is what a great pioneer, what a blast of fresh air, was Michael Parkinson. His slightly embarrassed ear-tugging and nose-stroking can be rather tiresome. But his relaxed, down to earth, but probing style ...

Posted by Paul on Liberal Burblings

The BBC reports: [IMG: Wedding rings] A group of leading Anglicans says the Church of England has "nothing to fear" from the prospect of gay marriage and it is should be a cause for rejoicing. In a letter to The Times [£], prominent figures including five former bishops say statements by church leaders give a false impression of popular feeling. "We believe the Church has nothing to fear from... civil marriage for same-sex couples," it says. A consultation on equal marriage is currently being run by the government. Find out how to submit your views here.

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

There's a danger in looking back on your blog-posts from years gone by — that you remind yourself of your fallibility, a shocking misjudgement. And so it's with a modicum of distress I see that five years ago I backed Nikolas Sarkozy to become President of France. Yes, really. Here's what I wrote on 22 April, 2007: He is very far from ideal. He has shown a willingness to court Jean-Marie Le Pen's supporters, glorying in social authoritarianism, and displaying a nativism bordering on the unpleasant, including an unswerving opposition to Turkey's EU membership. There are two factors in Mr ...

Posted by Stephen Tall on StephenTall.org

Second in my features on The Voice UK's judges is the rather improbably named will.i.am. Star of the Black Eyed Peas and producer of everyone from Carlos Santana to Britany Spears, Rihanna to Mary J Blige, Ricky Martin to Mariah Carey, Kelis and Usher to, well, you get the idea. But which of his own tracks to choose? I was tempted to go back to 2003 and Where Is The Love? from the Black Eyed Peas - I hadn't listened to it for some years but it still stands up as a great track. Instead, though, I've chosen the much ...

Posted by Andrew Brown on the widow's world

Having been a little bit ahead of the curve after completing the week 5 homework and lab, I'm now somewhat further behind than I ought to be, mostly because I took the week after Easter off on holiday. The course definitely hasn't been plain sailing for the last couple of weeks. I wrote that I'd struggled to get the answer to the penultimate homework question in week 5 correct and in the end, I simply had to give up on it. Fortunately, I've found week 6 a little more straightforward, but I've been just as frustrated with the maths as ...

The Guardian reports: MEPs from the United Kingdom Independence party, whose organisation has railed against the European Union's "gravy train", have been found to have misused taxpayer-funded allowances following a crackdown byEurope's anti-fraud watchdog. Two of the party's senior members have repaid more than £37,000 meant for office staff after diverting it to party workers based in the UK. One MEP told the Guardian that he was asked to divert the funds by a senior adviser to the party.

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

There's no prize at stake - just the opportunity to prove you're wittier than any other LDV reader... Here is Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg cooking up a treat with Welsh Lib Dem leader Kirsty Williams. What do you think might be being said or thought by or about them? And the winners of our last caption comp is... Some fantastic entries for our most recent caption competition, Osborne, Clegg & Alexander "Three Musketeers" Edition. The winners, according to The Voice's judging panel of one, was this one by Lon Won: Clegg: Tous pour un! Alexander: Un pour tous! Osborne: ...

Posted by Stephen Tall on Liberal Democrat Voice

The video above leaked a while ago — a promo for the Beach Boys' new single (the first in twenty years), with the band being interviewed over the track. Thoughts: It's *deeply* unimpressive, at least at first listen. Not terrible, but there's no 'there' there. And hugely derivative — it's Keep An Eye On Your ...

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

Housing policy in England at the moment is a rapid succession of initiatives apparently designed primarily to catch the headlines. Some initiatives are sensible, if modest. Some might make some kind of short term sense but are clearly not a sustainable long term basis for policy. Others make little or no sense now, let alone in the future. And current housing initiatives are often in tension with developments occurring as part of welfare reform or broader economic policy. We sort of know this. There are colleagues in the academic, policy and practitioner communities doing valiant work tracking the short and ...

Posted by admin on Alex's Archives

Given the two weeks or so of very poor service from Enterprise, in their non collection of household waste and recyclables, many residents have asked about their garden waste. Sadly the Council is charging for this type of collection when in the financially approved Liberal Democrat budget, residents would not have had to pay extra. We believe recycling should be free - anything else and we are going to reduce participation and increase the chance of fly-tipping. In particular they have asked whether theirs will be collected even if they haven't paid or are still waiting for their garden waste ...

Posted by Gary Malcolm on Councillor Gary Malcolm
eUKhost

I was speaking to the local Southfield Safer Neighbourhood Police team and they spoke of a bank card fraud affecting residents of Chiswick and Ealing. Operation Sterling with its partners at the Dedicated Cheque and Plastic Crime Unit is warning the public of a new fraud. Elderly members of the public have been receiving unsolicited telephone calls from individuals purporting to be from the police or their bank. These individuals obtain the card details from their victims and inform them that their card needs to be collected by a courier. The bank cards are then used fraudulently without the victim's ...

Posted by Gary Malcolm on Councillor Gary Malcolm

I have just spent three nights at the Hotel Russell on Russell Square in Bloomsbury. It is a striking building by Charles Fitzroy Doll, clad in thé-au-lait terracotta and completed in 1898. Doll also worked on the Titanic, and it is said that his dining room on the ship was an almost exact copy of the one he designed for the Hotel Russell. But there used to be an even more remarkable Charles Fitzroy Doll hotel on the east side of Russell Square. The Imperial Hotel. It opened in 1911 and was designed in a style Pevsner described as a ...

Posted by Jonathan on Liberal England

Occasionally, Ros gets e-mails that she reads and thinks, "Mark will find this interesting..." before forwarding them on. And one from the Equality and Human Rights Commission fell into that category.On Thursday, it published a research report on the European Court of Human Rights and the UK to coincide with the meeting of the forty-seven member nations of the Council of Europe in Brighton to discuss the UK government proposals for reform of the court. It seems that just a tiny minority of rulings by the Strasbourg Court are against the UK government. In fact, of the nearly 12,000 applications ...

Posted by Mark Valladares on The view from Creeting St Peter

I am not sure the revelation that David Cameron's father used offshore funds to increase his wealth is quite worth the splash that this morning's Guardian gave it. But I was amused to learn that Cameron père once ran a company called Blairmore.

Posted by Jonathan on Liberal England

Earlier I blogged about The Voice UK and promised a series of 4 posts (two today, two tomorrow) showcasing each of the judges. I'm starting, as one should, with Sir Tom Jones - a man who needs little or no introduction. Suffice to say, every time will.i.am name drops about working with Michael Jackson, Tom Jones can mention Elvis or Aretha Franklin... (If you do need an introduction to a man who has been in the recording industry for over 5 decades, I'd recommend you listen to his Desert Island Discs appearance.) So, what to choose? Well, I was going ...

Posted by Andrew Brown on the widow's world
Sat 21st
13:55

Friends of Preston Park

The Friends of Preston Park grew out of the protest movement against the proposal to build Egglescliffe School in the park. Having stopped that suggestion from the Ingleby Barwick Independents and the Labour MP people rightly wanted to make sure that the park was safe for the future. Over the last 18 months a small committee has worked to ensure that a constitution was drawn up, that the group

Posted by Maureen Rigg on Maureen Rigg's Blog

My Letter to the Federal Conference Committee, in response to the consultation on accreditation for Brighton: Dear Andrew and Members of the Federal Conference Committee, I imagine you have had a lot of responses to your consultation on the Sussex Police's request that all members wanting to attend Autumn Conference in Brighton, over and above the many comments made on the Lib Dem Voice article seeking views and those on the Lib Dem Blogosphere - including my own here - so I shall therefore keep this brief. I am intending to attend conference for the first time. As a White, ...

Posted by Andrew Brown on the widow's world

A serious work related health problem that blights the country, especially the older generations is the Mesothelioma from exposure to Asbestos dust. Those of you, like me, who work in old buildings will know of the lengthy procedures to verify the presence of of the substance and then an even lengthier procedure to remove it by experts in protective clothing. Also, as I work in a Museum filled with World War Two equipment we have on site staff who specialise in safety checks. Unfortunately the effect of Asbestos dust on workers was not known at the time and the substance ...

Posted by Chris Sams on The Ginger Liberal from Medway

Over on his work blog, Lib Dem Voice's Mark Pack has been looking at the manifesto mailing for the London Mayor elections: For all the value of the detail of the booklet, the reality is that most voters only glance briefly through such a publication. The initial, quick impression each candidate gives matters far more than the detail of what they say in third paragraph, fourth sentence. Those sentences only make it into wider prominence if an embarrassing typo makes them into diary column fodder or if policy naivety means a small detail can be turned into a tabloid front ...

Posted by NewsHound on Liberal Democrat Voice
Sat 21st
11:49

The Voice UK

People who know me (or follow my Twitter stream) will be aware that I get sucked into watching various talent shows. Last year, despite my protestations that I really didn't want to commit to 3 months worth of The X Factor, I ended up following it all the way through - and was a particular champion of Misha B. But The X Factor is a circus with a variety of acts, some of which are designed merely to amuse, some of which are cruelly taunted. For every Misha B, there's a Jedward or Ceri Reeves*. As TV singing contests go, ...

Posted by Andrew Brown on the widow's world

Former Lib Dem chief secretary to the treasury David Laws was asked about his future career prospects on the BBC's Daily Politics this week. Here's what he said: When LibDemVoice asked party members in February if they wanted to see David return to a government post at the next re-shuffle, 72% were in favour. * Stephen Tall is Co-Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice, and also writes at his own site, The Collected Stephen Tall.

Posted by Stephen Tall on Liberal Democrat Voice
Sat 21st
11:33

Who stole our goalposts?

I live very close to Buile Hill Park in Salford and use the park every day (to walk Dexter, my dog). It's a beautiful park and I consider myself extremely lucky to live near such a great open space (in fact, luck had little to do with it, I specifically moved here because of the proximity to the park). Over the last few weeks, without any consultation or notice to Buile Hill Park's regular users, work began to tear up a large section of the grass seen in the picture below to install a cricket pitch. A 20m long section ...

Posted by Steve Middleton on Steve Middleton

Who's Afraid of Greater Luxembourg? - NYTimes.com Not many people, I suspect. (tags: maps eu ) The Western Sahara: forgotten first source of the Arab Spring | Carne Ross | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk (tags: westernsahara ) How "breaking news" has been broken. The Internet dunnit. (tags: internet ) Pioneer Anomaly Solved! - The Planetary Society Blog Interesting account of retrieving ancient (1970s/80s) spacecraft data. (tags: space ) Why is the "missionary position" called that? With a note on "retrocopulate". (tags: sexandgenderandsexuality ) On Point: The Proust of Pencil Sharpeners Please can I have this book for my birthday? ...

From this morning's Independent: Liberal Democrat MPs are prepared to sabotage a key plank of the Coalition agreement unless rebellious Conservative backbenchers back down and support a fully elected House of Lord's, the party's president suggested yesterday. Tim Farron told The Independent that the Liberal Democrats would find it impossible to back Tory proposals to reduce the number of MPs is the House of Commons unless Conservative MPs backed his party's plan for a fully elected second chamber. The full story is here. * Newshound sets the agenda, as you would expect from a Red Setter

Posted by NewsHound on Liberal Democrat Voice
Sat 21st
10:26

Right on, Tim Farron!

From PoliticsHome: Lib Dem MPs will withdraw their support for proposed boundary review changes unless the Conservatives back reform of the House of Lords, party president Tim Farron has warned. Speaking to the Independent, Mr Farron said Lib Dems were ready to sabotage a key part of the Coalition Agreement unless rebellious Tory backbenchers kept "their part of the bargain" and supported an elected upper chamber. David Cameron has been accused of encouraging the rebels, reports The Times, after the Prime Minister told Tory MPs in February that he would rather not enact the reform in this Parliament because of ...

Posted by Paul on Liberal Burblings

Here's your starter for ten in our weekend slot where we throw up an idea or thought for debate... Two questions for you to ponder: Should the Formula 1 Grand Prix go ahead? Do you think the drivers should take personal responsibility for their decisions on whether to drive or not, or is that a decision for someone else and they should do whatever is decided? Over to you... * Mark Pack is Co-Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and writes a monthly newsletter about the Liberal Democrats.

Posted by Mark Pack on Liberal Democrat Voice
Sat 21st
09:05

Following Me On Race Day

(Apologies for the radio silence - I didn't bring my computer, so it's been hard to update the blog, but here's the e-mail that I've just sent out via e-mail...if you need my phone number, get in touch.) Dear Friends, First of all, let me say a huge, huge thank you to so many of you for sponsoring me and donating in support of Cancer Research UK. It means so much to me and I've been completely blown away by your support, both financial and emotional! All of the times here are UK time, so for the East Coast, subtract ...

Posted by Joyce on Joyce Goes for a Run

Liberal Democrats, and before them Social Democrats and Liberals too, are well used to a surge in poll figures seeing them overtake another party and so generate a flurry of excited predictions about the future of British politics. Yet more often that they would wish, such surges have often subsequently largely or completely receded. So it is no surprise that Liberal Democrat insiders have been reacting with calm analysis to the smattering of polls showing UKIP overtaking the Liberal Democrats in national voting intention polls. The over-taking has, so far, been symbolic rather than real - even the best polls ...

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

Thousands of households across Cambridge and the East of England are set to benefit from lower energy bills, new jobs and the basis of a green recovery. Liberal Democrat Leader and Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, has announced a landmark deal with the major energy suppliers. From now on, energy suppliers will have to inform their customer if they are paying too much, and help move them on to a cheaper tariff. In addition, over 3,300 homes in Cambridge have benefitted from home insulation, with plans for much more. From autumn this year the Government's Green Deal, headed by Ed ...

Posted by Andy Pellew on Focus on Bar Hill

June this year sees another lot of hearings into the whole issue of the waste site near Cressington Heath. The City Council designated this site (Stalbridge Dock) as the official sub regional site for Liverpool for a waste plant of some sort. This was as part of a wider Merseyside Plan. (Anyone who knows the area will know that this designation was in the face of opposition from people who actually lived in the area) The wider Merseyside Plan, including all the various choices of site, now goes to a hearing with an Inspector from the Planning Inspectorate to check ...

Posted by Paula Keaveney on Paula Keaveney - Lib Dem Campaigner

Thousands of households across Cambridge and the East of England are set to benefit from lower energy bills, new jobs and the basis of a green recovery. Liberal Democrat Leader and Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, has announced a landmark deal with the major energy suppliers. From now on, energy suppliers will have to inform their customer if they are paying too much, and help move them on to a cheaper tariff. In addition, over 3,300 homes in Cambridge have benefitted from home insulation, with plans for much more. From autumn this year the Government's Green Deal, headed by Ed ...

Posted by Andy Pellew on Focus on King's Hedges
Sat 21st
06:00

Candidate is a dummy

As a candidate I have been called many things, but at least I am in a position to answer back. That is not the case for Helena Torry who has just been disqualified from standing in the upcoming council elections in the Hazlehead, Ashley and Queens Cross ward in Aberdeen.Ms. Torrey is a dummy. To be precise she is mannequin. Her agent, 63-year-old Renee Slater has been charged by Grampian Police under the Section 65 part 2A of 1983 Representation of the People Act, concerned with forging ballot papers, and is scheduled to appear in court in the near future. ...

Posted by Peter Black on Peter Black

The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society is the album that is nearly universally acknowledged as The Kinks' masterpiece, having a thematic and musical coherence greater than any of their earlier albums, while having stronger songs than any of the later ones. It's all the more surprising, then, that such a coherent album had ...

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

Does London have too many local councils? That was the question floated by Labour's candidate for mayor, Ken Livingstone, at a business forum in February. Livingstone said the 33 authorities should be merged into five super-councils giving them "real powers". ... Continue reading →

Posted by Lester Holloway on cllrlesterholloway

The March unemployment figures brought further encouraging news for Acocks Green and Birmingham as a whole. While unemployment remains far too high, it is starting to move in the right direction. Acocks Green's unemployment fell by 36, to make a two month fall of 69, over 5%, leaving unemployment here at 1,198. Across Birmingham as a whole unemployment fell by 450 in March, to 51,685. This is both an absolute and relative improvement, compared to other major UK cities, with Nottingham and Manchester now experiencing higher unemployment rates. Nationally, unemployment fell 35,000 in the three months to February, leading to ...

Posted by rogerharmer on Roger Harmer