Reblogged from Andrew McFarland Campbell: Sooner or later every openly gay Christian hears an argument that goes something like this: You offer no Scriptural evidence to justify same-sex relationships in the eyes of God. Or perhaps: Unless you show that same-sex relationships are acceptable to God, they are wrong. Now, that's a dangerous style of ...
Once I had worked out that my time as a student in York neatly marks the halfway point between the present day and World War II, I decided that there was not a lot of point in continually exclaiming over how much things have changed. Mind you, they have changed and probably far more than I realise. Take a look at this 1980 photograph of Fossgate, a street that formed part of my walk from the university campus into the city. It seemed perfectly modern to me then, but now looks remarkably old fashioned. In those days York had two ...
A recommendation to leave the speed humps in Crossens unchanged has been strongly attacked by Liberal Democrat councillor John Dodd. Councillors at Southport Area Committee in May had unanimously supported Cllr Dodd's proposals to remove speed cushions on Rufford Road between Drewitt Crescent and North Road, and to reduce the height of the remaining cushions. The three Meols Ward councillors, Lib Dems John Dodd, David Rimmer and Nigel Ashton have all expressed their shock and disappointment that Sefton Council officers are trying to overturn the decision of the Area Committee. The final decision rests with the Labour Cabinet member for ...
A very enjoyable reread of the fundamental vampire novel, which I guess I read first when I was about 15 and again when I was about 30; I am now 45. It remains a rollicking good story, as our heroes (a lawyer, a lord, a psychiatrist, an American, a weird Dutchman and a beautiful woman) chase to the end of Europe to prevent foreign evil from contaminating the purity of the heart of Empire. You can read all kinds of political agendas into it, and you are probably meant to. One point in Stoker's favour is that Mina Murray, later ...
Via YouTube:
The Potter Blogger attended the Social Liberal Forum's second annual conference in London on Saturday. "I was walking down a street near my home when I heard sirens. No surprise in that. A police car raced past. No surprise in that. It was followed by a people mover, with darkened windows. Its sliding door was open and paramilitary-attired officers were pointing out sub-machine guns at passers by. I have witnessed such scenes in the various authoritarian countries I have worked in. But this was central London in 2012." The price of our safety shouldn't be our freedom, says John Kampfner ...
Deep Purple key board player Jon Lord died today after losing his battle with cancer. Here they are in their early 70s heyday with Child in Time.
I have spent another day exploring York - or rather exploring my memories of York, which is a very different thing. In this exercise I have found two websites invaluable: York Stories - "In search of the real York from a resident's point of view"Imagine York - "Created to showcase photographs of York held by City of York Libraries and the City Archives"
I don't often do these subject-per-day things, but I'm making an exception today because of the passing of a magnificent musician. Jon Lord, of the mighty organ, has passed away. I hope he'll be reunited with his good friend (and another of my great heroes) John Mortimer when he gets to the other side. [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
Mon 16th
20:11
BHA: Creationists Approved To Open Free School In 2013 - Here's How You Can Help Stop It
I write to you with the bad news that a creationist group has gained approval from the Government to open a fully state-funded Free School from 2013. The school, called 'Exemplar - Newark Business Academy', is a revised bid from the same people who proposed Everyday Champion's Academy last year. Everyday Champion's Academy, which was formally backed by Everyday Champions Church, was explicitly rejected due to concerns surrounding the teaching of creationism. The group initially caused controversy in February last year, when while promoting the previous bid, Everyday Champions Church leader Gareth Morgan stated that 'Creationism will be taught as ...
I've not been up to writing much the last few days (though I'm hoping at least to get the last Kinks post up this week, and contribute to part four of the Mindless League posts) so here's a few links: I forgot to link to it earlier, but Lawrence Burton has started a book blog, ...
I took a day trip to London this weekend. An insanely early train from Stockport got me to London about 8am - rather early, so I wandered round talking pictures of fire station pubs and The Old Vic, amongst other things. When eventually everyone else arrived, including two of my favourite Lib Dems, Kat Dadswell and Daisy Benson, the first event was the inaugural Beveridge lecture from Nick Clegg. He went through the five giant evils that Beveridge wanted to slay : SqualorIgnoranceWantIdlenessDisease and added another - Environmental / Ecological impact as, his reasoning was, the impact from environmental effects ...
A national £9 billion package of rail improvements that will also help boost the economy in Cambridgeshire has been welcomed by councillors. The money will see a notorious rail bottleneck at the Ely North junction improved making it easier for freight and passenger trains to travel to and from Norwich and King's Lynn as well as London. This was a key priority of the regional rail prospectus put together by local and regional councils as well as MPs. £240M has been earmarked for the East Coast Main Line, and improvements could include the widening of the line to four tracks ...
From the BBC: [IMG: A moving train] A £9.4bn package of investment in the railways in England and Wales, including £4.2bn of new schemes, has been unveiled by the government. The plans include electrification of the Midland Main Line between Bedford and Sheffield. Other rail improvements have been unveiled for the Manchester area, south Wales and East Coast Main Line... Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, who is due to meet business leaders with the PM, said the plans would help "close the north south divide". Building work on the rail projects will not start until at least 2014, as the ...
From The Guardian: The government is to unveil controversial plans to make publicly funded scientific research immediately available for anyone to read for free by 2014, in the most radical shakeup of academic publishing since the invention of the internet. Under the scheme, research papers that describe work paid for by the British taxpayer will be free online for universities, companies and individuals to use for any purpose, wherever they are in the world... British universities now pay around £200m a year in subscription fees to journal publishers, but under the new scheme, authors will pay "article processing charges" (APCs) ...
Last Thursday afternoon was not the most comfortable experience that I have ever had. Reading the Freeh Report and somehow not throwing up all over my desk and surrounding carpet is I think an achievement in itself. There will be many people who don't even know what the Freeh Report is – well I'll tell you this – it is a 267 report into the Jerry Sandusky child sex scandal and more importantly it is the report into how Penn State as a university dealt with a paedophile on campus. I didn't go to Penn State – I went to ...
I'll immediately rubbish my own title. Of course, the BBC does thousands of things. Its beauty is that hundreds of thousands of people can point to be one thing and say "That is what the BBC is for" – be it "Strictly", Greg James or BBC Radio Ulster. For me, if I was to identify one programme series which summarises all that is great about the BBC, it would be "Hollow Crown", a quartet of Shakespeare kingly history plays currently showing on BBC2. It takes considerable courage to show two hours of Shakespeare at peak hours on Saturday night. But ...
The railfreight industry has welcomed today's announcement (16 July 2012) by the Coalition Government of major investments in a new Strategic Railfreight Network. DB Schenker Rail UK described it as "the biggest upgrade to the rail network in years". Follows the investment of £55 million in the freight network announced last November, rail freight will benefit from a further £200 million to deliver core routes that enable longer, faster and bigger freight trains to operate. In addition, the proposed electrification of the Great Western and the Midland Main Lines will also benefit railfreight, enabling operators to deliver services with electric ...
"The problem facing western democracies is doubt about the ability of government to deliver rising living standards" so wrote George Osborne in January. He went on " My argument is that the way to address this doubt is not to run away from capitalism but to run towards it". Since when George has blundered into one mess after another, one might argue the most spectacular of which was his reduction of the 50p tax rate which blew out of the water the myth that "We are all in it together". He (& a lot of other Tories) seem unable to ...
I've just been told by a message on this site that 'my browser is no longer supported,please go to one on the list". My browser is Mozilla Firefox - one of the most popular I believe but not one from the Google/Microsoft stable. I'm not well up on these things but to suddenly decide NOT to support it (I've been in this blog regime with this browser for some years) smells like an unpleasant business practice to me.
Sometimes people find it hard to comprehend just how appalling the Labour party is inLiverpool. Well here's yet more hard proof in the form of a leak to super sleuth David Bartlett. There are two things which are sad ... Continue reading →
Hats off to all involved at The New Statesman
Whilst recalling the successes of the 1997 General Election, in which the Liberal Democrats earned a net gain of 28 seats, Paddy Ashdown brought his speech at a commemoratory reception hurtling into the present with talk of the now embattled Lords Reform Bill. In a manner delivered only by a character such as Paddy, he proclaimed that the current proposals were of Lincolnian proportions in that they existed to produce a Parliament "of the people, by the people, for the people". In the hope of Paddy not minding me quoting him, although I've heard that phrase somewhere else before, he ...
[IMG: Guardian front page 16th July 2012] Guardian front page, 12th July 2012 Today's Guardian front page offers an encouraging headline: Free access to British scientific research within two years. The idea is that by 2014 all publications of all research which has been funded by the British taxpayer has to be accessible to universities, companies and individuals. This is a response to the real problem of expensive academic publishing, where companies accept (for free) research papers from academics, ask other academics to peer-review those papers (also for free, usually) and then sell the published product at a very high ...
Ten thousand people have registered in just ten weeks for a major campaign to bring superfast broadband to Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. The speed at which the Connecting Cambridgeshire campaign has reached the milestone total shows how strongly householders and businesspeople feel about getting better broadband. Council leaders are celebrating the latest figures - but they say many more people need to register their support for the campaign if they are to secure vital investment from broadband suppliers to bring superfast broadband to the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. Councillor Nick Clarke, Leader of Cambridgeshire County Council, said: "This is a fantastic response ...
Contractors working on behalf of Cambridgeshire County Council are about to start work on improvements to the highway at Whittlesey and Elm.The B1040 Ramsey Road, at Whittlesey will be repaired between August 7-10. The road will be closed south of Whittlesey to the Peterborough railway line and at the B1095 junction in Pondersbridge, with a signed diversion in place.Work will take place between 7.00 am-6.00 pm and is expected to cost round £125,000.Later in the month, from August 14-15, resurfacing work will be carried out between the Rose Lane and Begdale Road junctions on the B1101, at Elm. Drainage improvement ...
On the day, to quote the Guardian... The International Monetary Fund has downgraded its forecast for UK growth next year by more than any other developed nation, as it warned that the world economy is weakening.The Washington based organisation predicted on Monday that growth in the UK will be just 1.4% in 2013 compared with a previous forecast of 2%. This year the situation will be even worse and a previous forecast for 0.8% growth this year has all but evaporated.The IMF said in its latest World Economic Outlook that GDP across the UK - which is currently in recession ...
By Callum Morton & Ben Richards As the academic year draws to a close, most young people are thinking about the summer ahead – not us though. At Liberal Youth we're already planning for the next academic year and we want this year's Freshers (the inaugural party / join-a-society week at the start of the ...
Political Scrapbook from time to time do come up with some good stuff. It seems though that the recess imposed quiet preiod is hitting them rather earlier than some others They've decided to run a puff piece on whether Housing ... Continue reading →
Applications are open for the G8 Grants programme for 2012-13. 'G8' is a grants programme, administered by ALDC, to provide resources to help Liberal Democrats win local elections. G8 is made up of funds kindly provided by the English, Scottish, Welsh and Federal Parties of the Liberal Democrats. G8 is changing. Our main grants programme 'G8 Winning Wards' will focus on supporting individual wards where G8 funding can make the difference between losing and winning in the local elections. Over time we are moving to identifying wards TWO YEARS before their local elections - don't worry if you have elections ...
We've got agreement from the Highways Agency not only to improve the sliproad from Junction 3 of the M60 onto Kingsway, but also to change the timing of the Kingsway lights and make it quicker for people to turn right from Cheadle and Gatley. The slip road work is in two phases. The first part involved BT moving some equipment that had been under one side of the road to the other side – which took quite a few weeks back in the spring. According to the plans, the Highway Agency Contractors A-one+ should have started work on the second ...
Robert Hazell and Ben Yong's work, The Politics of Coalition: How the Conservative-Liberal Democrat Government Works, is a very readable volume, written mostly in the style of an introductory politics textbook and based on extensive interviews with the participants, including at very senior levels. The book is well done, readable, comprehensive and has a few gems lurking in the revelations from all the interviews, such as the limited involvement of Andrew Lansley and Paul Burstow in drafting the health section of the Coalition Agreement. Perhaps the one thing it lacks is surprise, due to the regularity with which both the ...
From the BBC: A £9.4bn package of investment in the railways in England and Wales, including £4.2bn of new schemes, has been unveiled by the government. The plans include electrification of the Midland Main Line between Bedford and Sheffield. Other rail improvements have been unveiled for the Manchester area, south Wales and East Coast Main Line. Prime Minister David Cameron called it the "biggest modernisation of our railways since the Victorian era". During a visit to Birmingham to announce the railway investment, the PM said it would lead to the electrification of an extra 850 miles of track. He said: ...
The Derby Telegraph reports: THREE women have been arrested as part of an investigation into allegations of electoral fraud in Derby. Derbyshire police said the women, one aged 45 and two aged 27, were arrested in the city and bailed on suspicion of committing "serious electoral malpractice" under the Representation of the People Act 1983. A police spokeswoman said: "We take any allegation of electoral malpractice very seriously and a detailed joint investigation is under way." It is understood the alleged offences took place in Arboretum ward. This is the ward in which Liberal Democrat campaigners complained about evidence of ...
Someone (the most popular candidate is George Bernard Shaw - or, as he's known in the States, "George Bernard? Sure!" - is supposed to have said that Britain and America were two nations divided by a common language. Despite the odd argument over faucet/tap, john/toilet, humor/humour and tenderize/tenderise, we do have a common language, which enables us to misunderstand one another better because we assume that someone speaking our language is similar to us and better communication means more differences are identified. In Douglas Adams' "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", the Babel Fish, which enables instant translations from any language ...
Manchester Liberal Democrats have welcomed the funding of the Northern Hub in full as part of the huge £9bn investment in the rail industry in the UK announced today. It will see 700 more trains a day running between towns and cities across the North, with space for 44m more people to travel by rail each year. Manchester Victoria could get a £27m revamp and Manchester Piccadilly two new platforms with the capacity for faster trains to overtake slower ones. Chorlton Lib Dem MP, John Leech, said: "This is about increasing capacity and making sure we have a rail network ...
So Stonewall is now campaigning for Equal Marriage – according to the feed on Twitter and its website. But let's be honest, this wasn't always the case: Stonewall initially refused to change their position or engage with critics and even appeared to argue that marriage equality would be too expensive. However, shortly before a planned ...
I'm absolutely delighted to announce that Cornwall Council have agreed to a trial lowering of season ticket prices in Launceston. For a three month period, the annual charge will be cut from £470 to £200. This is a campaign that Sasha, Adam and I have worked with the Chamber of Commerce on for many months and it's great that it has proved successful. Until May last year, season tickets were £195 per year and take up in Launceston was high with around 200 drivers buying the tickets. Price rises to £400 in May 2011 and then £470 in April 2012 ...
On Saturday I received the following email from a resident in my ward, Mr Steven Kenyon. Dear Councillors Booth, Fearn and Weavers, I am writing to you because I am so concerned about the town I live in and have grown up in - Southport; it is becoming full of litter. As a breeding ground for rats, vital amenities are becoming threatened. I have started taking action to remedy this myself and wanted to communicate with you about it. Together, we need to work to clean up our town.Recently, I took my ten year old son and my thirteen year ...
Thursday 15th saw eight principal council by-elections and a pair of elections out in the towns. Of the eight, the six in England produced no changes, whilst both of the contests on the Isle of Anglesey resulted in seats changing hands. First, the six no-change results. Our best result of the evening came from the Horndean Downs ward of East Hampshire, where candidate Terence Port and the local Lib Dem team added just short of fourteen per cent to their vote-share and ran the defending Tories to within forty votes of a fun upset. Onwards and upwards, team! Our vote ...
Like a football manager whose team needs a burst of energy, David Cameron needs to make some big half time substitutions and reshuffle his Cabinet after the Olympics. His determination not to "do a Blair" and reshuffle the government every ... Continue reading →
It seems ridiculous, given that I've been campaigning for LGBT equality for most of my adult life, but I hadn't been to a Pride event before. I'd seen one in all its awesomeness, in London in 1992 as I was heading to a Women Liberal Democrats meeting but I'd never managed to get there. I'd been disappointed to miss Pride Scotia on 30th June as we were away on holiday so when I realised I was able to get to Pride Glasgow on Saturday, I jumped at the chance - and was really pleased that both Bob and Anna wanted ...
Every year at the Remembrance Service in St John's Birkdale we sit and listen whilst members of the youth groups read out the names of the men of Birkdale who died in war. Listening to Bruce Hubbard the other week at Full Council talking about the Battle of Festubert in May 1915 I got to wondering whether any of the men of Birkdale died in that battle. Fortunately at the back of the church thater is a file whilst lists all the men on the memorial and reports the research* that has been carried out them . There are two ...
"@OpenEurope Cameron: Europe an issue to deal with in next parliament under majority Con government" < So Clegg / LDs gets their way — Sam Coates Times (@SamCoatesTimes) July 16, 2012
In a move that will crush the spirits of most true Liberal Democrats it has emerged that plenty of Lib Dems are ready to jump ship and join the Tories before the 2015 General Election. This is the shock announcement that the Shadow Health Minister Jamie Reed MP made today. I know I'm as stunned as everyone but who are we do think that a Labour MP is going to lie and make up stuff for political reasons? Jamie Reed MP tweeted at lunchtime: [IMG: Lib Dems say no to Labour but yes to the Tories] Lib Dems say no ...
I'd say yes and this blog will argue yes in a way, but ultimately I know I'll still try and debate in a fair fashion with those who hold opposing views to me. Why should I have this quandary? Because I'm sick to my stomach with rage about the constant bigoted, fearful, backwards tripe being spouted by people who question the rights of LGBT people (or ANY group, but this article is just about LGBT). For a while now, I've argued two things about LGBT rights: Despite improvements and "wins" over the last 3 decades, in no way should anyone ...
Writing over on the Huffington Post, Lib Dem Voice's Mark Pack has been taking a look at the party's plan for the next year: The plan of senior Liberal Democrats is to focus heavily on delivering and communicating the four priorities from the front page of the party's 2010 manifesto: "fair taxes – that put money back in your pocket "a fair future – creating jobs by making Britain greener "a fair chance – for every child "a fair deal – by cleaning up politics" On taxes, this year has already seen a big step towards the £10,000 income tax ...
The Department for Transport this morning announced a "landmark decision to take electric rail beyond Cardiff to Swansea, completing the full electrification of the Great Western Main Line out of London Paddington at a total cost of more than £600m, and electrifying the Welsh Valley lines, including Ebbw Vale, Maesteg and the Vale of Glamorgan. These will give two-thirds of the Welsh population access to new fleets of electric trains helping to generate Welsh jobs and growth by slashing journey times and boosting passenger and freight capacity." Local Liberal Democrats welcomed the boost which the decision will give to confidence ...
Labour talks the talk when it comes to Green Transport, but they just didn't deliver in Government. They delayed Metrolink locally and in 13 years they electrified just 9 miles of railway track across the whole country. Already, the Liberal Democrats ... Continue reading →
An opinion poll has found that the London 2012 Olympics are of no benefit to Wales. Eluned Parrott, Welsh Liberal Democrat spokeswoman on business, said: "These results do not come as a surprise to me. The Welsh Labour Government's childish attitude in engaging with the Coalition Government in Westminster meant that many Welsh businesses that could have won lucrative contracts from the 2012 Olympics lost out. "In the months and years running up to the 2012 Games, the Scottish and Northern Irish Governments were busy engaging with the UK Government and the London Organising Committee. Instead, in Wales, the Labour ...
The Government has announced a £9 billion investment in railway infrastructure across the country. Part of that is £322 million for the "Northern Hub" – a collection of schemes including: building the Ordsall Chord, which will allow trains to go directly between Manchester Picadilly and Manchester Victoria stations major refurbishment to Manchester Victoria station electrification of some lines that are currently diesel This will allow for more, longer and faster trains to travel across the region. One of the specific improvements planned is for more trains to run from Gatley to Manchester and Manchester Airport, and it may also make ...
Lib Dem MP Charles Kennedy has started doing a regular email newsletter. It is focused on his Ross, Skye and Lochaber constituency. As that's a part of the country I love, I signed up to receive it fairly immediately. It does also have more national and international stuff in it from time to time. It's well worth reading, so if you want to hear regularly from one of the party's most loved figures, you can sign up here. They are sending another one out today, so if you do so soon, you will get it.
I post regularly with news about Garston, Cressington, Grassendale, Allerton, Mossley Hill and the wider area. But I send out e mail bulletins too. If you want to subscribe to them, you can do that using this link.
I had an e mail the other day from someone moving to Garston . He told me he had reserved a house on Harold Newgass Drive. It was great to have evidence that the day when we honour (again) this particular Garston hero is nearer. I've blogged before about the work to do more to recognise Lt Newgass and about his bravery in Garston Under the Bridge during the war. We managed to persuade the Council to recommend a new street being named after him. And when the extension to Kings Lynn Drive is finished, there it will be - ...
What Google Is - TechCrunch Hmmm.... (tags: internet ) Georgia's New Public Center is its Crown Jewel "shiny glass buildings, sleek lime green waiting areas and touch-screen computers do not alone a democracy make." (tags: georgia )
Just as the race rolls out from Samatan this morning you may spot a rider wearing a new blue jersey. After the events of yesterday Tour Director Christian Prudhomme overheard the suggestion from the Sky Team bus that there should be a jersey for the rider who was best at tacks avoidance. When Prudhomme asked Berhard Eisel where he could acquire such a jersey at short notice he was directed towards Garmin-Sharp stage winner David Millar. There is an added incentive to wearing the blue jersey. At the end of each stage the director sportifs of the other teams will ...
We're not far away now from the SNP Government up here announcing whether it will legislate for equal marriage. In the last few days, the leader of the Catholic Church in Scotland has promised an "unprecedented backlash" if legislation is introduced. This is seen as a threat that Catholics will withdraw their support from the SNP. It's a threat the Cardinal can't hope to deliver upon. The Equality and Human Rights Commission report last year found that the Church leaders did not speak for their members. In fact, research carried out by Professor John Curtice as far back as 2006 ...
I invite you to join me in a thought experiment. Let's imagine Lords Reform has been passed as an Act. But let's also imagine the Act includes a commitment to a referendum... A Lords Reform referendum will be perceived as a Liberal Democrat 'fix', much like the AV referendum. This perceived fix, in the eyes of the electorate, is personified, regrettably, in Nick Clegg. According to UK Polling Report, Clegg's leader approval rating stands at minus 55. Clegg made a major strategic error after the Coalition was formed: he took on 'special responsibility' for political and constitutional reform, which gave ...
The news is full this morning of the welcome announcement by the Government of £9 billion investment in the rail network. But how much of that money is being used to improve rail services in the South West? Precisely nothing. I understand that there is a need for investment elsewhere, but consider our plight. The antiquated trainline beyond Exeter means that services slow to a crawl beyond that point. The lack of a high speed (or even a decent speed) network means that firms are often unwilling to invest in our area and tourists find it quicker to navigate Heathrow ...
Sir David Attenborough: 'This awful summer? We've only ourselves to blame...' - Profiles - People - The Independent (tags: ) [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
Yesterday the Equal Marriage Northern Ireland campaign launched a Twitter account @equalmarriageni I know as I was one of the first 10 to follow it. This morning if you look for that account you will find that it is suspended. Why? It has not been spamming people which is one of the reasons that accounts can be blocked. Nor have any of the messages been offensive. Indeed the account was only set up within the last 24 hours. Most of the messages were welcoming its followers or telling people how to get involved. The only reason that many of us ...
Back in May I posted on a distinctive message for the next election. This post looks at the defining global political issue since 2008: no, not the House of Lords; the financial sector. Long before the LIBOR scandal, the financial industry dragged millions into poverty, awarding the perpetrators staggering salaries. But you already knew that. What we need is an intelligent, credible policy response. It is tempting to announce that millionaire bankers should be boiled in oil, but as some Liberal Democrats have bravely argued, finance is important in the UK, employing lots of people, not all of whom are ...
And lo, the headlines were filled with puns, just as the road was filled with pointy things. It made for an altogether odd day as Mark Cavendish led the peloton up a climb, while Peter Sagan sprinted up a steep climb with a breakaway as the leaders all found themselves needing new wheels – and in some cases, new bikes. The upshot of it all was that what could have been a tough stage for Bradley Wiggins turned into another day when no-one except the breakaway gained any time on him and he became as the potential new patron of ...
Apparently yesterday there were two first category climbs. This was meant to mean that Peter Sagan (LIQ) would have been dropped from the lead group he set up after his second attack was successful in getting away on the second of these when the road ramped up. It also meant that Mark Cavendish should have been dropped early on the first one rather than leading the peleton over it. Neither of these things came to pass, although there was an effort to achieve the first from Luis Leon Sanchez (RAB), Sandy Casar (FDJ), Phillipe Gilbert (RNT) and Gorko Izagirre (EUS) ...
This Saturday I went to Social Liberal Forum's second annual conference in London (though next year they allegedly intend to move it somewhere less south-east-centric). For those who don't know, the Social Liberal Forum is a group of Lib Dems, founded shortly after the creation of the coalition, to be a "critical friend" to the coalition and to develop and promote social liberal policies within the Lib Dems. It's essentially the closest thing to the centre left faction that the Lib Dems have (even though pretty much everyone in the SLF thinks that "left" is a fairly inaccurate and meaningless ...
The new issue of Liberator is with subscribers, so it is time to spend another week in the company of Rutland's most celebrated fictional peer. Monday If I were asked to put my finger upon the point at which the Bank of Rutland showed it had got too big for its boots, I should say it was when it started demanding an annual tribute of seven youths and seven maidens from its customers. We had become used to the inflated salaries it paid its directors and its sniffy attitude if the dividend on a chap's Rutland Oil shares was late ...
Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. Some 560 party members responded, and we're publishing the full results. (Apologies for the delay in reporting this one, by the way: slipped through the net.) 68% Lib Dem members oppose Draft Communications Data Bill LDV asked: The Draft Communications Data Bill - which proposes to extend the powers of law enforcement agencies and others to have access to communications data (such as Skype and instant-messaging services) - was announced in the ...
I have long-campaigned, on behalf of local residents, for an improvement to the terrible road surface in Hillcrest Road. It must have rated as one of the worst across the city - rather resembling the surface of the moon! See below:I was pleased, earlier this year, to be given an assurance that road resurfacing would happen. This work was slightly delayed, but has now been carried out. The outcome is really good, as the photo below indicates:
Possibly the most-quoted article in Liberal Democrat circles yesterday was this one by Andrew Rawnsley in the Observer. He takes an interesting look at last week's vote on the House of Lords and concludes that the Tories need to grow up and start to take the coalition seriously. He says that 'it is the Lib Dems who have been the grownups of the coalition and the Tories who have been the juveniles': The Lib Dems have understood the fundamental premise of coalition: that a marriage between two parties can be sustained only if both partners are prepared to sacrifice their ...
For more information click here: SAR12011 Bulletin
