We are all used to hearing about the anti-gay Christian protestors at the Belfast Pride parade. Faith and Pride is about showing you can be gay and Christian, so in conjunction with Accepting Sexuality and Changing Attitude Ireland, we are organising something different this year. We are going to get together a group of Christians ...
The former Lib Dem leader has an article in the Mail on Sunday today defending the Coalition's plans for reform of the House of Lords: The Cameron/Clegg reform Bill does not 'trash' the Lords, as some claim - it retains the best of what we have now and discards the worst. The more democratic 'new Lords' will remain different from the Commons - they will be more separated from the short-termism of a five-year electoral cycle and less likely to kowtow to the whips and the media. The Commons will remain more powerful and finally able to get its way ...
Last weekend, the BBC's new Shakespeare series The Hollow Crown was given a fanfare on the cover of the Radio Times. This weekend, it was given a raspberry as a Sixteenth Century fictionalisation of Fifteenth Century history was sabotaged by Twenty-first Century programming, weather and sport. When these days all you should need to record a TV show is to select its Electronic Programme Guide entry and let your digital device activate on broadcast, the BBC managed to mess up both broadcast and EPG, leaving recordings across the nation as less Henry IV, Part 1 than Henry IV, Part 0.5. ...
By 1982 the guitarist Captain Sensible (real name Raymond Burns) had parted from Rat Scabies (real name Christopher Millar) and the rest of The Damned and enjoyed an unlikely UK no. 1 with his version of 'Happy Talk' from South Pacific. This, his follow up, was released in the same year, owed nothing to Rodgers and Hammerstein and reached only no. 26. But it seems that 'Wot' was more popular elsewhere. Interviewed by Ink 19 in 2001, Sensible said: What do you think is the most controversial thing you've done in your career? Oh, dear. [Long pause] I remember when ...
Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 281st 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 (1-7 July, 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. Lib Dem Baroness ...
This should be a big day for Liberals. For generation we have promoted a vision of an an economy where businesses are owned by those who work in them, where as Richard Wainwright used to say 'labour hires capital'. Today we made a big stride in that direction, so why is it that Lib dem bloggers tell so little about the Nuttall report? In his new role Norman Lamb commissioned Graeme Nuttall to produce a review of employee ownership. Today Nick Clegg and Norman Lamb launched the report. Clegg's speech can be found in full here he told his audience ...
I love that title. It is going to weird out a fair few people before they actually get into the meat and drink of the piece. As a significant number of readers of this blog will have previously read I have blogged about the bizarre world of online dating. The first installment can be found here and the second can be found here. However I was always looking at from a male perspective – which might not exactly be surprising – but still there is another gender out there. Last night I was at my PC showing a female friend ...
Unaccountably, Ed and I left out from 101 Ways To Win An Election this technique for a candidate facing a tricky TV confrontation: (I'm very impressed with the bravery of the presenter who sticks his body into harm's way without hesitation.) Hat-tip: Jon Silk.
Sun 8th
17:20
Wrath of the Iceni, Energy of the Daleks, Trail of the White Worm/The Oseidon Adventure
Catching up here with several months' worth of the new Tom Baker / Louise Jameson audios, which are well worth investing in. Wrath of the Iceni, by John Dorney, is the only Fourth Doctor story I can think of which is a pure historical - no sfnal elements at all apart from the Doctor and Leela, turning up in first-century Norfolk to encounter Boudica in the battle against the Romans. The story is a particularly good one for Leela, who becomes fascinated with the warrior queen (once it's been done, you realise that Boudica is the most obvious historical character ...
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Members of the Electoral Reform Society have been getting a weighty mailing through the post, ahead of a special meeting on 14 July to accept or reject a thorough rewrite of the ERS's ruling documents such as its Memorandum and Articles of Association, Election Byelaws, Membership Byelaws and the Standing Orders for (Annual) General Meetings. As the mailing indicates, 13 of the 14 Council members back the change, with one dissenting. As a result, I've been taking a read through all the details to see which way to cast my vote. Overall an impressive job has been done collating numerous, ...
Below is a copy of an email I received showing the Liberal Democrats in Government delivering on our localism agenda. Dear Issan, I am delighted that today the government was able to announce an impressive range ... Continue reading →
... or to be more precise, emails sent at 0519 on a Sunday morning that are offering blog owners the prospect of some easy money. Like this one for example: Hi, I work for a UK based digital marketing consultancy. We represent clients interested in social media marketing on smaller sites with little or no existing advertising and we're currently looking for advertising partners. We will pay a fixed upfront fee which we will agree on with you. Once the ad/link is in place, payment will be made within approximately 48 hours. Would you be interested in placing a plain ...
Sitting just by the Great Wall of Ramsgate having lunch in the adjacent cafe, as an Environment Agency van pulls up, out pops to a couple of people, one in what I take to be protective clothing. After five or so minutes they return I assume a sample is placed in the back of the van. The thought occurs is there anything Southern Water are keeping schtum about?
I had got hold of this book under the mistaken impression that it belonged on my list of science fiction and fantasy set in Ireland (which I need to update), but in fact there is no sfnal content at all, just a rather well-done story of three generations of women from an island off the Connemara coast; they go back and forth to America, the fall in love, they give birth to each other, one of them dies at the beginning of the book but we get flashbacks to her story throughout. Not what I expected, but not bad. (leedy, ...
Over the last two years, it has become clearer and more evident that our political landscape is a struggle between two coalitions. We have one coalition which is open, temporary, business-like and at times unsteady. And there is another which is very firm, strong and long-lasting, and possibly will out-live all of us. The first is the current Conservative-Liberal Democrats coalition ('Con-LD'). This currently runs the government and was the result of an indecisive general election. Its' main purpose is to secure a stable administration during difficult economic times and put into place a deficit reduction programme and other measures ...
They're coming on in the same old style... Large swathes of the Old guard, behind the Middle and Young guard marching with the deep pounding of the kettle drums. A vast sea of blue under the blue, white and red banners chanting the same drone over and over again... This is not, however, the French Imperial Guard coming up to Maitland's position at Waterloo, rather the Eurosceptic echelons of the Conservative party. Yet another blue storm is erupting over Europe with the Euro sceptic MPs writing to Mr Cameron and now Dr Fox is similiarly positioning himself in the same ...
Please consider supporting campaigns such as Out4Marriage and the Coalition for Equal Marriage. It was World Pride Day in London yesterday and I'm stuck in Yorkshire. So I thought I'd do a few posts over the following days about LGBT stuff. This is the first one. It's something I think I should've done a long time ago but I didn't have the words to explain it all. I still don't, really, but I'll try. Because, to me, it should be an absolute no-brainer that we expand marriage to same-gender couples. Hell, I'd say "to all consenting partnerships" — and yes, ...
Sun 8th
12:20
The word 'straight' isn't homophobic. Now can we get on to the stuff that matters, please?
Two significant events this week in the campaign for equal LGBT rights... First, as we reported this week, Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg asked that the 'Pride flag' be flown from Whitehall to symbolise Government support for Saturday's rally in London. As The Sun's political editor Tom Newton-Dunn tweeted: For the 1st time ever in Whitehall, Rainbow flag is being flown from the Cabinet Office today to mark gay pride; Clegg's order. Good. — Tom Newton Dunn (@tnewtondunn) July 6, 2012 (The picture show here was taken by Verity Lambert: you can follow her on Twitter here.) Secondly, Nick Clegg ...
Elspeth Reeve has a must-read article on Atlantic Wire: On July 4, The Wall Street Journal's editorial board complained that Romney is running on his biography, and that "candidates who live by biography typically lose by it. See President John Kerry." The Journal complained about this strategy back in January, too, as did The Weekly Standard's Fred Barnes, who wrote, "As things stand, [Romney's] overriding issue is himself. He'll revive the economy. Why? Because he says he will." The Journal blames Romney's "insular" staff. But it's likely that running on his biography is Romney's own idea. The Obama campaign are ...
Last month I blogged on the Government's proposed changes to the family migration rules. Tomorrow, campaigners will be descending on Westminster to lobby MPs and rally opposition to these proposed changes which will discriminate and separate families. I will be joining them. My post – at - got quite a response. While nobody dissented from my notion that this was Tory playing to the gallery, tacking to the extreme Right by pandering to xenophobia, there is a human element to this and I was particularly struck by the case of one correspondent, for whom these changes have wrecked his ...
A while back, within the context of another debate, I realised one of the reasons I am a liberal was the Criminal Justice Act. Mostly brought on by The Prodigy, which the eagle-eyed amongst you will notice is part of the reason for this blog's name - they were instrumental in opposing the Bill as it was then, and through my obsessional consumption of the NME at the time, it was brought to me in full technicolour that it was bad to stop people dancing, and to a very idealistic 15 year old in a newly minted Pearl Jam T-shirt*, ...
[IMG: Dr Bablin Molik selected for Cardiff South and Penarth] Cardiff South and Penarth Liberal Democrats have selected Dr Bablin Molik as their candidate for the Cardiff South and Penarth by-election at a hustings with local party members. Dr Bablin Molik, a researcher and mother of two, plays an active part in the community. She has helped set up a Saturday school in the area and she had worked with organisations helping women gain confidence and skills to be able to take an active role at every level in their communities. Bablin lives with her husband and two children in ...
Turnbull's gay marriage swipe Fabulous, fabulous aussie. (tags: ) Protesters take 16-metre wind turbine blade to Tate Modern (tags: ) [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
It was a double dose of campaigning inbetween the rain yesterday, in Dulwich and in Fulham. First off it was out canvassing in East Dulwich with one of my favourite London bloggers, Cllr James Barber. A quartet of helpers – myself, his ward colleague Jonathan Mitchell, fellow Southwark councillor Wilma Nelson and fellow travelling helper Richard Davis – went out knocking on doors about the big local issue, the planned closure of East Dulwich police station. Closure plans which are all rather different from what Boris Johnson was saying just a few weeks ago during the Mayor of London contest ...
So the first mountain day and British riders ended up in two of the prestigious jerseys of the Tour. With Chris Froome taking his first Tour stage win came the 20 points and lead in the King of the Mountains competition. Two seconds back where the two big favourites Cadel Evans and the man who would slip into the Maillot Jaune Bradley Wiggins. Wiggins 10 second prologue advantage all that splits the two. There may have been a breakaway of seven riders up the road at one point, but when it came to the slopes of La Planche des Belles ...
Why not join hundreds of other Lib Dem Voice readers in getting our latest headlines by email? Some people like regularly visiting a site to see if there's new stories of interest. Some people like subscribing to its news feed (RSS) and checking that way. But if you prefer email, you can instead sign up to get a daily early morning email with a summary of the previous day's posts from Lib Dem Voice, complete with a note of how many comments each post has got and convenient links to click on if any take your fancy and you want ...
For those of us who've been watching other stage racing this season, yesterday's tactics weren't a surprise. While Sky know that Bradley Wiggins has a fantastic engine and can deliver huge amounts of power for a long time, he doesn't have a strong acceleration on climbs, and copes best when the pace starts high and remains high. It's a tactic others have used before, but it's tricky to execute as you need the riders to make it happen, who are capable of setting and keeping a pace high enough to push everyone else into the red zone. When it works, ...
Since the outline application was submitted, B&NES council has agreed to provide a long term loan for the capital construction costs and has purchased the land required for construction of the sixth form centre. However, the funding available is not sufficient to construct the sixth form centre and associated external works as set out in the approved scheme. This still involves the stopping of
James Barber (from Southwark Liberal Democrats) has helped develop a test for Parkinson's disease. On his blog he tells you how you can help the clinical trials by 'donating' to the clinical trials by a voice recording down the line. It doesn't take long – and imagine – in a couple of years there could be a reliable test. I did it – and it only took a couple of minutes and involved saying a few sentences. Just telephone 01865 521168 and follow the instructions.
Here's my piece from The New Statesman on Thursday, published during the debate on whether to have a Judicial or a Parliamentary inquiry into the banking scandal. Sadly, our MPs didn't agree... One of the delights of Twitter is that you get to ask the great and the good what the hell they are talking about - and they occasionally answer. So when I asked Bernard Jenkin MP (C, Harwich and North Essex and according to Wikipedia, Parliament's most famous nudist) why he thought it would be "absolutely bonkers" to hold a Leveson-style inquiry into the banks, he was good ...
It is not a pick-and-mix constitutional agenda where you can say you don't like that bit of it. Both parties are signed up to all of it. This is a very significant moment for the Government. We have given blood, sweat and tears for the Coalition and supported things we did not like, such as NHS reform. Now Tory MPs should do the same. - "Senior Clegg aide" [IMG: Post to Twitter] Tweet This Post
From Democratic Audit's latest, er..., democratic audit: * Mark Pack has written 101 Ways To Win An Election and produces a monthly newsletter about the Liberal Democrats.
Ah the old chestnut of All-Women Shortlists. It is a fun one. I posted the following over on SpeakersChair yesterday. I am posting this and then I plan to hide under the duvet for the rest of the day (well I don't as the Grand Prix and Wimbledon are on and the big HD TV is not in my bedroom) but still you get what I mean. Saying you aren't in favour of AWS generally doesn't go down well but I think I have pointed out the reasons relatively fairly. Oh well as Kel would say 'awh here's goes...' Around ...
Last month, I highlighted the serious issue about medical records dumped in bins in West Port and that I had raised constituents' concerns regarding this with the Chief Executive of NHS Tayside. I have now received his response and I reproduce this below:
The US Presidency race starts to heat up
Just a quick one tonight. I'm hoping to have the next Kinks post up tomorrow, and the next League post will be up on Monday. As part of the reading round I've been doing for League (and for a future piece of writing I'm doing about Alan Moore), I discovered that Bob Shea's novel All ...
Art and Anarchy have provided one of the themes of this year's East End Film Festival (EEFF) that has been running all week at various venues in East London, so it was highly appropriate that Richard England's feature-length documentary on the punk rock band Cockney Rejects should be shown at the Genesis Cinema in Stepney this ...
