The Guardian reports: David Cameron's plans to end housing benefit for under-25s look set to be omitted from George Osborne's autumn statement this week after a Lib Dem revolt against more draconian benefit cuts. Government sources suggested that the idea, floated by the prime minister in June as a way to trim a further £2bn off the benefits bill, has been fiercely opposed by the Lib Dem leader, Nick Clegg, and the Treasury chief secretary, Danny Alexander. In another sign of wrangling between the coalition parties before Wednesday's statement, plans by Osborne to announce a freeze on all working-age benefits ...
I have a feeling that, whenever people talk about reaching a compromise between different Liberal imperatives - as Nick Clegg has about the Leveson Enquiry - it often means that we have missed the key Liberal point entirely. I don't know whether Leveson included much on press and media ownership. The political debate has been entirely over what balance between state, legal and self regulation there should be, with everyone wanting versions of pretty much the same thing. But the real evil is not there: it is the hold that the Murdoch press managed to have over politics because of ...
Just before the bus from York reaches Ripon it takes you past an incongruously large rural church. A little research proves it to be the Church of Christ the Consoler at Skelton-cum-Newby and there is a remarkable story behind it. The church is a memorial to Frederick Vyner who, age 23, was captured and murdered by brigands in Greece in 1870. His mother raised money for his ransom, but when Frederick was killed she used it to to commission the architect William Burges to build the church. That unspent ransom money also paid for the church of St Mary the ...
Incumbent MEP Sir Graham Watson has been re-elected the first candidate on the list in the region for the 2014 European elections by Liberal Democrat party members in the South West. Sir Graham, who has been an MEP for the region since 1994 and is the current President of the European Liberal Democrat pan-European political party, received the most votes ahead of Dr Kay Barnard and Dr Brian
With Tenology, 10cc should finally get their due as the Fab Four of the 70s. Songs such as Donna, Rubber Bullets and The Dean and I were melodically ingenious, sonically inventive, radical yet hugely commercial, crammed with ideas and hooks.A couple of weeks ago Paul Lester wrote an article for the Guardian celebrating the 1970s group 10cc. I have always thought of them as a bit of a guilty pleasure, but when you consider the dross that was in the charts in the mid 1970s, they do indeed shine like a good deed in a naughty world. So much so ...
As debate rages over press regulation following the Lord Leveson report one issue that should be on the agenda is protection against racism and prejudice. Under the existing Press Complaints Commission editors have been given a ...
"Welcome to Pyongyang" - Simon Titley, writing on Liberator's blog, mourns the overwhelming advantage enjoyed by incumbents in internal Liberal Democrat elections. "Scientific research drives economic growth, innovation and improved wellbeing, yet science is underfunded and undervalued in the UK. Commitment to long-term investment in scientific research is crucial to keep our future economy strong and competitive." In the New Statesman Julian Huppert, Lib Dem MP for Cambridge, emphasises the importance of science to our economy - and name checks Market Harborough's Nobel laureate William Bragg in the process. David Kaiser and Lovisa Stannow, in the New York Review of ...
All Stratford-on-Avon CAB are running a campaign to 'Get a Better Deal for Prepayment Users', as part of this they are conducting a survey called 'Left out in the cold.' If you'd like to take part in the survey then then you can download it here. With fuel prices as they are, I think this is a worthwhile campaign – but please note that it closes on December 17th. You can print it from the link above and drop it off at either the Town Council, or if you live near me my house (but please put it in an ...
Reading this morning's Observer I was overcome by a sense of déjà vu. Wasn't it the last budget when all the good stuff was leaked out in advance only for the announcement itself to contain a series of own goals? I really hope that the Government has learnt from their error. So that when I read that the Chancellor is touting about that the wealthy will have to make a larger contribution and admits that cutting the deficit is taking longer than planned, I must assume that he has more good stuff up his sleeve for Wednesday. Nevertheless, what morsels ...
Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 302nd (well done to Jennie for spotting the deliberate mistake) 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 (25 November - 1 December, 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 ...
Congratulations to Mark Stratton, winner of my prize draw for a ticket to go and see Steve Richards. Hope you love the show Mark.
At last week's Andover Town Council meeting I queried the costs of running the town's allotments because the fiugres recently published don't add up. In a letter to allotment holders the chairman of the town council's allotment committee outlined the costs of running the allotments at almost £22,000 and to balance the books they have raised rents accordingly. Until the town council took control of allotments they were run and maintained by Test Valley Borough Council the costs being charged to all residents through the Andover levy. Therefore I must assume TVBC were spending about £22,000 a year of the ...
Things I have seen of late and wish to blog about: Jack Dee, live at the Victoria theatre in Halifax. Was hilarious, although on a couple of occasions he skirted a bit too close to the "I'm not racist but" line. He was wearing amazing purple loafers, though. And he made fantastic attempts at inserting local colour into his set along the lines of Mark Steel's In Town. If I had paid for the tickets I would have considered them good value for money. 8/10 Gambit was silly, but a lot of fun, with the usual caveats about Hollywood movies' ...
This morning it was off to Sutton to help Nick Emmerson and the team in the Stonecot by-election. I knew I'd arrived in South West London Lib Dem land when I turned the corner of a street and met a team of street sweepers coming my way doing a remarkably diligent job. And of course being Sutton, the Liberal Democrat team is tip top too – including a good canvass brief pack and script, complete with encouragement to gather email addresses from residents. Polling day for Nick Emmerson is this Thursday. Details of how you can help are on Flock ...
The Local Services Scrutiny Committee for St Albans City and District Council wants to hear from residents about how the District's general appearance and street scene can be improved. The Committee will be discussing the public realm and state of our streets and pavements at its next meeting on 3 January 2013. Residents are invited to give their views on the cleanliness of the District and the appearance and state of streets and street furniture. Comments on the condition of pavements and the attractiveness of approach roads into St Albans are also sought. The Committee will use these views to ...
Sun 2nd
14:38
Still 2 days left to add your name to the Petition 4 a dedicated cycle lane along Bridge St
Ahead this weeks Full Council meeting (5th December 2012), local LIB DEM ward councillor, Darren Fower is reminding people there's still time to add your name to the petition calling on the Tory controlled City Council to introduce a cycle lane to Bridge Street, in the city centre. Add YOUR name to the petition! Commenting, Darren said: "The Tories at the Town Hall say they want more people to cycle, yet the Leader, Marco Cereste says people DO NOT WANT a cycle lane along Bridge Street? "A cycle lane WOULD increase safety, enable continuous cycling, allow police to concentrate on ...
Melissa was gentle in her criticism. She is after all my campaign manager - despite being born a Tory. As we supped glasses of Pinot Grigio in the Market Tavern, she spoke softly to ensure that no one else can hear. "You are my best mate, Libby. But these days you talk about nothing other than the next election. It has begun to take over your life!" Mel of course was right. In recent weeks, I had become a bit of a Lib Dem bore. "You know," I said quietly. "I swing from excitement to frustration. But there are days ...
One of the most striking developments of the past decade has been the rise of Turkey, not only as a regional power but increasingly as a global player. The AKP government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has stated that it wants to see the Republic amongst the top 10 world economies by 2023 — ...
The Facts:The press have behaved atrociously. The behaviour is not all journalists, but is systemic across all the papers, although it's worse at the tabloids than the broadsheets. The police have been reluctant to arrest journalists, even when they quite blatantly break the law. Politicians have been reluctant to offend the press for fear of losing elections. There are lots of laws which could have been applied to most of the situations people have a problem with - both in terms of the stuff that was printed and the corrupt relationships between politicians, police and media - nobody enforced them. ...
In his book Stupid White men, Michael Moore describes a raft of policy brought in by the Clinton administration that would create a lot of public interest and support but knowing full well they weren't implementable such as; Safeguard Alaskan seals Award $320m to the Chicago mass transit system Out law snow mobiles in national parks Award $7.2 million to states for child passenger safety... They were all to be cancelled by the incoming Republican government thus making them look bad even though the reversals would have to be a given as they were expensive and unworkable. So what has ...
People who live near the bit of Garston Old Road where it joins with Stormont Road may remember the battle around a year ago about whether or not that corner (with the empty shop premises) was going to be an off license. I represented quite a few residents who were worried about alcohol being sold there. The problems were the closeness of the park, of Clarendon College (the Montessori School) and so on. There were worries about litter and parking and anti social behaviour more generally (we get reports every now and then of alcohol related asb in bits of ...
... on the Hacking Inquiry website.
In addition to being the results day for the Liberal Democrats' European candidate selection, yesterday was something far more fundamental... Wold AIDS Day. HIV is a very serious infection, but it is easily preventable and now highly treatable making AIDS no longer its inevitable result. It is therefore very important that everyone takes steps to protect themselves, and those in high risk groups ensure they are tested periodically. I was therefore very pleased to see that G-A-Y once again teamed up with the Soho's 56 Dean Street practice yesterday to get a record number of people tested at the famous ...
This year I've noticed a lot of YouTube showing houses with their 'performing' Christmas (or other seasons) light displays. So here we have a little offering from Halloween but replace the pumpkin with a Santa and you get a great Christmas display.
It's Sunday, so here are twelve thought-provoking articles to stimulate your thinking juices... Europe's long shadow – Anthony Beevor isn't optimistic about the continent's future as cuts bite: 'This is what risks creating the bitterness and national resentments which encourages people to listen to demagogues and turn their backs on democracy.' A bail-out by any other name – Charlemagne looks at the latest re-scheduling of Greece's debt: 'the euro zone is crossing the Rubicon: it knows it will have to take losses in order to keep Greece in the club.' The Future Jobs Fund: what a waste – Jonathan Portes ...
We had a discussion in the office Saturday morning. It was a wide-ranging and occasionally sweary discussion. It touched on Leveson, CCDP, access to justice, housing and many other areas. And at the end of it, we reached a conclusion. The conclusion was this: The problem with Lib Dems in government* is that they don't listen to or trust the people who know what they are talking about. For example, I am not a big economics geek, but I know enough about it to know it's important and to know who IS a big geek and which of them to ...
Sun 2nd
12:00
Shami: statutory underpinning of press regulation is "political control by the back door"
Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, is always worth listening to. A member of the Leveson Inquiry team, she has backed much of the Leveson Report — BUT not the crucial element: statutory underpinning. Here's The Independent today: ...[this is] a crucial intervention that could change the nature of the battle, Ms Chakrabarti, a member of the six-strong panel of assessors, wrote in The Independent yesterday: "The Prime Minister is right to be concerned about any Government-appointed body 'supervising' the independent regulator. That would bring about the danger of political control by the back door. It is unnecessary and must be ...
Since taking a job at Telefonica I've had a fairly dramatic change of lifestyle. Namely - I now have a car. [IMG: New Car] This car is red I learned to drive pretty much as soon as I hit 17. Within a few months, I had passed my driving test (first time!) and so I took to the road. That last year of sixth-form before university I drove my batterd old Peugeot to death. I remember driving my friends everywhere - cinema, pub, randomly around town - it didn't matter. I had the freedom to drive where I wanted. As ...
Following the day of action in the ward on Thursday, there was a night of action in and around the town centre last night. Unlike the day of action, this was something we couldn't tell people about before because advance knowledge of it happening could have affected the success of it. (It's hard to catch people who've been reported to be persistently breaching regulations if they've been forewarned of a visit) All three of us ward councillors – along with members of the Council's Licensing Committee – were out during the night, travelling around the town centre with police and ...
Sun 2nd
10:15
Nick Clegg's Letter from the Leader, No. 5: Leveson - "the Prime Minister and I disagreed"
Here's Nick Clegg's latest missive to Lib Dem members and supporters — and no prizes for guessing which topic is the subject this week: Lord Justice Leveson's report into media standards... On Thursday afternoon I made a statement in Parliament on the Liberal Democrat response to the Leveson Inquiry. I spoke after the Prime Minister, to outline my view that we must implement Leveson's plans for an effective new press watchdog, underpinned by legal guarantees. As you may have picked up, the Prime Minister and I disagreed; there is not yet an agreed "government line". That's in part why we ...
As I read through the Sunday news, I am struck with a sense of fatigue. The responses to the Leveson Report might have come straight from an episode of Yes, Minister. The self-serving posturing of the corporate press merely confirms all we feared most: they have a profit-driven agenda which is little or nothing to do with the national interest and which they will ruthlessly defend. The switch from open contempt of David Cameron to mild adulation, merely because the Prime Minister has essentially rejected the core recommendation of the report- that new arrangements should be underpinned by statute- reveals ...
I am on Wave 102 news today about the Perth Road pavements situation in part of the district shopping centre. Click 'play' below to listen:
I was surprised that Liberty seemed to be backing a role for government (through Ofcom) in monitoring the activity of the press regulator. However, This story in the Mail on Sunday appears to contradict this. Why should those whose function is to investigate wrongdoing by the powerful be held to higher standards than anyone else in society? Judges have a different view on communication and
Yesterday, shortly after midday, I was selected alongside seven of the most talented and inspiring individuals in London Liberal Democrats to fight the 2014 European Parliamentary election as a Liberal Democrat candidate in London. The full results of the European candidate selections for London and the rest of England can be found here: Obviously it would always be nice to end up higher up the list, but considering this is the first campaign I have fought for anything besides a 6th Form College Student Council position - and at a time when I had only recently graduated, consequently still ...
As we struggle against the cold and frost here in the frozen north .... and some people "darn sarf" think that Northumberland is beyond the Arctic Circle ... I came across something to break the stereotype image. Trees Can't Dance is a company that grows , and markets , chillis and chilli products , based in Northumberland. Yes, that's right, they are officially the northern-most grower of chillis . I have only recently discovered them, and as a lover of all things chocolate I can heartily recommend them. So, take a look at their website, ( http://www.treescantdance.co.uk ) buy some ...
Southwark Council provides four travelers sites. Sadly not enough traveller sites exist across England. Labour Southwark has decided to increase the rights of travellers for pitches at those sites. First they're guaranteeing that fees will never rise by more than inflation. So in real terms the fees will go down with time. It also means the fees are unlikely to cover the costs of providing these sites long-term maintenance. They've also decided to give infinite successor rights. Child of the children of the children, etc, etc, etc of current travellers to live on a specific Southwark pitch for ever. Weirdly ...
DECAY Official Site: The LHC Zombie Film OMG PHYSICS GEEKS MAKE ZOMBIE MOVIE YAY! (tags: ) Things James learned form The Dark Knight Rises (tags: ) Ukip row: multiple reasons children taken from Rotherham foster parents | UK news | The Guardian Witness my face of not surprise. Recall last week when Joyce Thacker said on the Today programme that it was not intended to be a longterm placement, and everyone said "oh she's just saying that"... (tags: ) Judge dismisses Keanu Reeves paternity suit - thestar.com The lady in this case clearly needs help. (tags: ) Witches and Unicorns ...
A song I always enjoy at this time of year is 'December' by the Waterboys, because it's beautiful and because I find Mike Scott's ambiguous relationship with religion particularly interesting. For me, this highly atmospheric track is like hearing the story of Christmas for the first time; decoupled from centuries of tired and kitsch baggage. ...
Hungry Harry is the City Council's new food waste recycling service for households in Peterborough, launched in October 2012 and aiming to help get the local authority back on track after years of ignoring waste generation levels. The bins are part of a £500,000 scheme as reported in the Telegraph, which has seen some 80,000 households getting their very own rubbish" little grey bin! Q: Why have we got them? A: Coz the Tory controlled city council failed to reduce the amount of waste generated in the city over the last decade and started to receive fines for their ongoing ...
Yesterday afternoon saw a super finale to West End Christmas Fortnight with the St Peter's Free Church Christmas Fayre - see right - and, also at the church, the Friends of the University of Dundee Botanic Garden held a very interesting, informative - but above all - entertaining Gardeners' Question Time. Many thanks to John Stoa, Andrew Child and Alan Ainsworth for giving their expert advice on gardening matters - just like the similar event run as part of our 2010 West End Christmas events, it was thoroughly professional and enjoyable event. We have had a great fortnight of Christmas ...
I just want to say that for every day in the month of November, I wrote a blog post. That used to be easy, but I had been falling out of touch with my internet and my ability to word, and I wanted to see what I could still do. I celebrated by spending the day NOT writing a post. EVEN THOUGH there are actually things I could write about, and I've started thinking "I could write about that!" again. Yaaaay me!
