It was a correct decision to enter coalition with the Conservative party after the May 2010 general election result, and indeed we have got many of our policies into place. However, in that time, Liberal Democrats have also had to take a lot. For example: We have signed up to a deficit programme that we knew was wrong and would not work - as has proved to be the case. Not only is public spending still not reduced, but the country is in a double dip recession. We have had to let the Tories cut taxes for the wealthy and ...
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Congratulations to all involved in the various Chipping Sodbury Festival events. Here are a few photos from the Carnival this afternoon (click arrows for the two slideshows): Dodington Parish Band were playing Land of Hope and Glory... ... as the Spitfire flew over... ... and then the Carnival Procession came past
It was great to see Stockport Market packed out with stalls for National Market Day today. The market traders had worked with the Stockport Express to offer anyone who bought the paper a pound off their purchases at the market. All the stalls for the Saturday Market were there, and somehow space was found to pack in Food & Drink, Vintage stalls and the Teenage Market (in a pop-up shop). Stockport Heritage were out, with tours of the old dungeon for those who wanted. I spent a very enjoyable morning at the market with Stockport Council Leader Cllr Sue Derbyshire ...
Today I have been on a pilgrimage to Long Buckby to Northamptonshire to pay tribute to one of my comic heroes and to see if the story about the inscription on his gravestone is true. Happily, it is. Unwin moved to Long Buckby when he started working for the BBC at the nearby Daventry transmitting station in 1940 and lived there for the rest of his life. Although all his attempts to retire were thwarted because he was constantly being rediscovered by new generations of producers and directors, it is probably necessary now to tell my younger readers about him. ...
Seventeen blogs have recently joined my Liberal Democrat Blogs aggregator: Louise Shaw – http://jiltedgeneration.blogspot.com/ Alec Dauncey – http://alecdauncey.blogspot.com/ Simon Banks – http://sibathehat.blogspot.com/ Lester Holloway – http://cllrlesterholloway.wordpress.com/ Paul Haydon – http://paulhaydoneuro.wordpress.com/ Jason Mehmet – http://itsjustjason.tumblr.com/ Chris Smith – http://greenwichlib.wordpress.com/ Issan Ghazni – http://issanghazni.wordpress.com/ Christian DeFeo – http://www.whirledpeas.eu/ Pauline Pearce – http://paulinepearce.tumblr.com/ Tim Oliver – http://aremay.tumblr.com/ Akaash Maharaj – http://www.maharaj.org/blog.shtml Ali Hopkins – http://alisonhopkins.mycouncillor.org.uk/ Ian Wallace – http://thecuriousliberal.blogspot.co.uk/ Michael Shaw – http://michaelshawlyni.wordpress.com/ Liam Quinn – http://blueliberalism.wordpress.com/ The Libertine – http://lylibertine.wordpress.com/ Good luck to all the new bloggers, and why not take a moment to pop over to their blogs, take a read ...
By Dan Waterfield As is usual in Liberal and left-wing circles whenever Michael Gove deigns to think, he has been met with rancorous uproar, the latest cause? his recent plans to scrap GCSEs and reintroduce a system of O levels and CSEs. However, a natural inclination to be sceptical of Conservative education policy is blinding ...
They are beleaguered. They are embattled. And they are both from Leicestershire. Let's see how they are getting on. Robert Wann, says the Leicester Mercury, has spoken out after the finding against him by the city council's standards committee: "I believe it's a stitch-up and Peter Soulsby is behind it. This matter had been dealt with until he became elected mayor. "The whistleblower complained to the council. It was looked into and that was that. Nothing wrong. "Then the whistleblower took it to Sir Peter when he was an MP. "It was not until he became mayor he reported me ...
Keeping warm is not usually a major consideration at a midsummer Garden Party even in England, but conditions were distinctly chilly for once at Sutton Liberal Democrats' annual event this afternoon. As the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Ed Davey, spoke about insulation, lagging and other matters pertaining to energy conservation and ...
North East sculptor, Colin Rose, who has been appointed to create the artworks for Consett's three "gateway" roundabouts has been developing his thoughts and ideas for the project. On Friday he presented some of these ideas to a panel which comprised an officer from the County Arts team, a road traffic engineer, a Neighbourhood Services team leader, a police traffic expert, Groundwork, some members from the local partnership and myself. It was extremely interesting, exciting even. As we know, one man's meat is another man's poison, and that's never truer than when looking at works of art, but it's not ...
Sat 23rd
16:28
Yodel - A joke of a delivery company - where has my parcel *actually* been delivered to?
I've been waiting. Waiting for a parcel. In fact I have been waiting for several parcels recently and the delivery has been sluggish at best. One parcel went missing but the replacement came through but one parcel that was apparently being delivered by Yodel has yet to appear but the 'funny' think is apparently got delivered yesterday at 14:59 according to their tracking service. Now I work from home as most of you know so taking in parcels isn't exactly a huge deal. In fact several of my neighbours routinely get deliveries sent to my address knowing that I'll in ...
Ed Balls today re-posted on twitter via youtube an exchange between himself and Michael Gove from the House of Commons in 2009 when Ed Balls was Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families. Now, rather than showing Michael Gove to be an idiot, he showed himself up as an idiot and unfit to be ...
There's no prize at stake - just the opportunity to prove you're wittier than any other LDV reader... Here's Lib Dem defence minister Nick Harvey ensuring British troops are tooled-up. What do you think might be being said or thought by or about him? And the winner of our last caption comp is... Some fantastic entries for our most recent caption competition, Clegg at Leveson "Through the glasses darkly" Edition. The winner, according to The Voice's judging panel of one, was this one by FedUpofCeredigion: "Latest Lib Dem polling figures? I need my magnifying lenses to see them." with an ...
Opponents to marriage equality from both the LGBT community and the anti-LGBT groupings often complain that LGBT folk don't need marriage because they already have civil partnerships which gives them all the rights they need. If we ignore the obvious argument that this isn't quite true, we must face the fact that civil partnerships (as a separate institution) allow politicians to far more easily undermine those rights at any time. This week this is exactly what has happened in Queensland, Australia. Unlike with marriage where LGBT folk are either "allowed" access to this institution or forbidden it (and sometime forbidden ...
Extraordinary circumstance require extraordinary reactions. John Dodd approached me a while back to discuss how best to take things forward on the 'Scandal hit' Merseystravel. Labour's record at the transport authority is an embarrassment to almost everyone. Some credit does rebound to the Labour rebels who finally took on Mark Dowd but we must ask; what took you so long? Loyalty to the Labour Party or sheer funk stayed their hand for too many years at great loss to the tax payers and to the reputation of local government. Next time there is a proposal to give extra powers to ...
It has been fascinating to follow Gladstone's Library (St Deniol's) as it seeks to redefine Liberalism. Little snippets have been leaked from their sojourn at the Hay Festival where hundreds of people filled in their 'liberalism' voting cards'. I guess a summary will appear shortly on their blog devoted to the project .http://redefiningliberalism.blogspot.co.uk/ The contribution from pollster Peter Kellner -who was a 'don't know' seemed to think we were useful people to have around ...................
Two pieces of good economic news as the UK carries on making slow but steady economic progress. The formation of the Coalition to give our country a stable government has clearly been a significant factor in maintaining confidence in the UK in the international financial markets. It is essential that the interest rate the government has to pay on its continued borrowings are kept low. These figures will make that more likely. Inflation Falls Figures released on 19th June by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) show that in May the UK rate of inflation fell to a two-and-a-half year ...
Lib Dem chief secretary to the treasury Danny Alexander wrote a powerful article — Rich tax dodgers are as bad as dole cheats — for this week's Sun newspaper. His condemnation of those, such as Jimmy Carr, who legally avoid paying their taxes couldn't have been stronger: ... to most people it's outrageous that a few of the very richest and their expensive financial advisers are devising ever more obscure and underhand ways of not paying their tax. When it comes to paying their fair share, some of the people who can afford it most think they can get away ...
Ever since my trip to Strasbourg I've been fortunate enough to be signed up to the mailing list of press releases from Lib Dem MEPs. The press releases make for very interesting reading and if you want to receive them then you just need to contact Angelika, the press officer, via the Lib Dem MEPs website, and she'll be happy to add you to the list of press release recipients. If you're a blogger then you might find it a very useful source of material to blog about. But the press release I received yesterday was quite momentous. The EU-US ...
Chequered internet history? With the Home office proposals to keep tabs on the emails we send and receive as well as our Internet providers keeping a record of what websites we visit one is forced to ask; Why? Also more pointedly; To what end? I know that the Police etc could keep an eye out for would be terrorists, paedophiles and hackers but lets be honest how many actually indulge in this? I know the tired old argument that if I'm not up to mischief then what am I afraid of but... What I do in my free time is ...
I am acutely conscious that normal service has been lacking lately, and I will seek to rectify this in coming days. Meanwhile, here's a You Tube video I came across which teaches an essential life skill. Don't say this blog isn't educational.... Andrew
A few years ago I wrote a feature for the London Evening Standard about replica guns and the dangers they pose. It's regrettable that despite considerable public debate about the issue people still sell these items openly. Replicas fall into various categories. ... Continue reading →
(Apologies to those who follow doonesburyc.)
Steven Gauge, Author of My Life as a Hooker The latest figures from the Sport England Active People Survey are out and we are still officially a nation of couch potatoes. When surveyed most adults in England cannot think of a single occasion in the last month when they have managed 30 minutes of moderate sporting activity. 57.3% of adults in England do no exercise deemed worth recording by the Sport England statisticians from one month to the next. To be fair though we are getting marginally better. That figure is down from 58.8% when Sport England started measuring these ...
Caroline John ("Liz" in Doctor Who) Interview 1999 - YouTube The actress reminisces about her career. (tags: doctorwho ) Caroline John interview Summary of the Youtube interview. (tags: doctorwho ) Dick Bruna: Miffy and me - audio slideshow Awww! (tags: writing ) sir_guinglain | Caroline John 1940-2012 (tags: doctorwho )
Continuing this week's mini-housing theme, here are the latest changes in house prices published this week by the Office of National Statistics: Graph reproduced courtesy of the Open Government Licence. * Mark Pack has written 101 Ways To Win An Election and produces a monthly newsletter about the Liberal Democrats.
Julian Huppert MP writes... Libel reform is an admirable prize for Liberal Democrats (tags: ) BBC News - Blade Runner: Which predictions have come true? (tags: ) Cinema-style age ratings for sex education videos | News | The Christian Institute (tags: ) Neilsen poll for DC comics Do you read DC comics? Here's your chance to influence them. The trick book this time is "Orange Ivy"— make sure you say you haven't heard of it to increase your chances of being asked to complete the survey! (tags: ) [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
I have written in the past that the main reason why referendums are held is to resolve inter-party squabbles on key issues, normally constitutional matters. That is why we are often required to vote on entirely esoteric matters as we did in March 2011 on Welsh Assembly powers, whilst important, economy-changing decisions such as our continued membership of an enlarged and entirely changed European Union or whether we should adopt the Euro are left to be decided by policy inertia. After all we live in a representative democracy and elect MPs, AMs etc to make these decisions on the basis ...
Here's your starter for ten in our weekend slot where we throw up an idea or thought for debate... With the Olympics approaching and not all the details of staff conditions on London's public transport settled, talk of how easy or not it should be to call a strike is often popping up in political debates. The answer from many Conservatives is to make strikes harder by demanding a minimum turnout threshold for strikes. That idea often runs into criticism and the one time I've sent a tweet which trended on the front page of Twitter's website in its old ...
From the detailed interview with Simon Hughes in The House magazine: [IMG: Simon Hughes] [Simon Hughes] insists that there has not been "anything that is even as formal as an informal discussion" with Labour, even if there "are always conversations between us and colleagues in all parties", but he has welcomed less hostile relations with Labour. "The reality is, I think, Ed [Miliband] has softened a bit. He must know two things: a) He must know that the next election will absolutely not be a shoo-in for Labour under any circumstances and b) he must know that if, by any ...
Todays' announcement (leak, whatever), that Nick has persuaded David Cameron that it really isn't worth spending £100m on a referendum on Lords Reform when it appeared in all 3 main parties manifestos, is drawing a typical response. Here's Roger Helmer this morning... And while Helmer is no longer a Tory (having jumped ship to UKIP earlier this year) we all know there are many in the Tory party who feel like this (hence this rather excellent piece in The Telegraph, pointing out to many of them that they need to remember, they didn't win...) And so Cameron does have a ...
A few days ago I blogged some thoughts on Seeking the limits of the market, having just read Michael Sandel's recent book What money can't buy. One of Sandel's key points is that the logic of the market is slowly and insidiously colonising more and more areas of social life. His central concern is to problematize this process. He argues that it justifies close scrutiny rather than quiet capitulation. He notes that in some circumstances marketization may be unexceptional and carry no broader concerns. Yet, in other cases introducing market mechanisms will fundamentally alter or degrade important aspects of a ...
A high quality PDF version of this poster can be downloaded by clicking here.
