This documentary from 1967 was directed by Tony Palmer, who also made many films about the pop world - I suspect this clip of Fairport Convention comes from one of them - and directed Michael Palin and Terry Jones in one of the precursors to Monty Python. 2012 is Benjamin Britten's centenary year.
This morning at 8:10 the BBC Radio 4 Today programme quoted a "prominent Liberal Democrat blogger" as saying "now we can sit back and watch the Tories go mad". That blogger was me. Having gone against my better judgement and stayed up for the Eastleigh result I tweeted this: Congratulations to @mike4eastleigh - now we can sit back and watch the Tories go mad #libdemandproud — Jonathan Calder (@lordbonkers) March 1, 2013 Being awake at that hour, I was also able to spot a certain Mr G. Mulholland of Leeds becoming my 3000th follower on Twitter. Which means I must ...
OK... I'm working on a ton of stuff at the moment, writing-wise, and when I've finished this novel I'll be doing posts on Doctor Who, Promethea and the Beach Boys at a fairly fast rate. But I have a whole series of posts lined up in my head, which I *DEFINITELY* need to write but ...
On Thursday Colin & I facilitated a meeting between a local business looking to expand its premises and OGRES – the Onslow Gardens Residents Association. The business – The Monarch Partnership, located in Stafford Road close to Onslow Gardens, had had a previous planning application turned down after significant objection from local residents. On advice ...
The Guardian report of the death of Bruce Reynolds, the brains behind the Great Train Robbery, reveals a striking piece of information: In 1995, Reynolds wrote his memoirs which recounted, without sentimentality or self-pity, how he had embarked on a life of crime after initially seeking a job as a journalist but ended up working in the accounts department of the Daily Mail.Liberal England Comment It backed the British Fascist leader Oswald Mosley. It employed the mastermind of Britain's most notorious theft. Today we ask: Are there no depths to which the Daily Mail will not sink?
My mum's mum passed away before I was born, but I still grew up with two grannies. My dad's mum passed away a couple of years ago, but I still had granny P. Granny P was my dad's best friend's mum, and she was as much my granny as any blood relative could have been. She was born in 1922. In the second world war she was a meteorologist in the WAAF, She saved the lives of many pilots at Thornaby airfield by spotting unfavorable conditions before anyone else, and after the war took up teaching, but this was all ...
Here is the latest FOCUS newsletter from Meols Ward Liberal Democrats, which has been delivered to the streets of Churchtown, Crossens and Marshside.
[IMG: Eleanor Laing - Some rights reserved by UK Parliament ] Eleanor Laing MP is right on the money! Well done to the Laingster for telling it how it is! The Tory party must, must, MUST do more to retain and attract the support of traditional Conservatives. They must have tougher policies on immigration, Europe and social issues like same sex marriage. They must distance themselves from silly nonsense like House of Lords reform. That is the only way that Britain will return to its natural party of government, the Conservative Party. "Ordinary Conservative voters" – those are the people ...
Fri 1st
18:20
Liberal Democrat Win in Eastleigh as Tories Come Third and Labour Trail in Fourth Place
Mike Thornton, Liberal Democrats - 13,342 Elected Diane James, UKIP – 11,571 Maria Hutchings, Conservative Party – 10,559 John O'Farrell, Labour Party – 4,088 Danny Stupple, Independent – 768 Iain McClenann, National Health Action – 392 Ray Hall, Beer, Baccy and Crumpet party – 235 Kevin Milburn, Christian Party "Proclaiming Christ's Lordship" – 163 Howling "Laud" Hope, Monster Raving Loony William Hill party – 136 Jim Duggan, Peace party – 128 David Bishop, Elvis Loves Pets party – 72 Michael Walters, English Democrats "Putting England First!" – 70 Daz Proctor, Trade Unionists and Socialists Against Cuts – 62 Colin Bex, ...
Liberal Democrat County Councillors are shocked and disturbed to learn that Chief Executive Andrew White has stepped down from his £123,000 role having previously held the the top job at the county's now defunct police authority. Members of Hertfordshire's Police and Crime Panel were told of the departure on Monday. Mr White has become the second senior figure to leave Police Crime Commissioner David Lloyd's office in the last two weeks following the departure of the commissioner's deputy Rachel Frosh. Liberal Democrat County Councillor Chris White (St Albans Central) said, 'Hertfordshire residents can only be more and more disturbed by ...
The BBC has the story of how the SNP Government received a ticking off from the Scottish Parliament's Presiding Officer Tricia Marwick yesterday. They've developed a bit of an unfortunate habit of leaking reports and the like to the press before sending them to Parliament, in the style of the excesses of the Labour Westminster government. This infuriated Liberal Democrat MSP for Shetland, Tavish Scott, not known for his patience in dealing with the Government's shortcomings at the best of times. He raised a Point of Order in the Parliament yesterday, asking the Presiding Officer to intervene "in defence of ...
Quite a few applications in this week. 130195: Change of use to residential, Sir Isaac's Walk. 130196: Listed building consent for 130195. 130340: Series of internal alterations, Crouch Street. 130341: Listed building consent for internal alterations in 130340, Crouch Street. 130359: Listed building consent for wheelchair ramp and other internal alterations. 130371: Enclosure of courtyard, North Hill. 130372: Listed building consent for 130371. Please note that I am a member of the Council's Planning Committee for this municipal year. This means that I'm required to act in a 'quasi-judicial' manner with regard to applications before the Committee and as such, ...
If you get the chance, drop in at Derwentside College on Saturday March 2nd and cast you votes for four projects to share in the £40,000 on offer to local community groups. It's running from 10.00 a.m. till 2.30 p.m. It's a great way to see some of the wonderful things planned and done by local people, and your chance to support the work of any group that catches your eye. Please do spare a thought, too, for some of our smaller communities who find it harder to drum up support in a "popularity contest". They'll value your support even ...
From this rather good article Eastleigh is yet more proof of an old adage: in the event of a nuclear holocaust, all that will remain of life on earth will be cockroaches, and Lib Dem activists handing out Focus leaflets attacking the cockroaches for not being local
European Liberals and Democrats to oppose the 2014-20 budget proposal but accept the global amount In a statement on Wednesday, the ALDE Group in the European Parliament adopted its position ahead of negotiations on the new EU budget. Guy Verhofstadt, its Group Leader, called for a transfer of spending from farming and cohesion policy towards research, innovation, infrastructure and competitiveness, and condemned the EU's growing deficit; Nor can we countenance the creation of excessive deficits, building up outstanding commitments year on year to a potential debt of €300 billion by 2020, if all commitments are taken up. He also called ...
This by-election was incredibly important to the party, as you might have guessed. Liberal Youth needed to step up. We did. This was by far Liberal Youth's biggest and best by-election campaign yet, crucially make a difference right when it mattered. People on the doorstep, and our fellow members. warmed to seeing so many young members campaigning. ...
[IMG: sushilaresult] As well as being one of the day editors on Lib Dem Voice, Mary Reid is chair of Kingston Liberal Democrats. The local party covers the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, which includes the whole of the Kingston & Surbiton constituency, plus a third of the Richmond Park constituency. Actually I would have loved to have joined in the fun at Eastleigh. It is an easy journey down the M3 from where I live. But while all the national focus was on the south coast, here in Kingston we had our own needle match to fight. The ...
In short... Five Lessons From Eastleigh: 1 Partial winners: the Liberal Democrats, UKIP 2 Total losers: the Conservatives, the Labour Party, the entire British media 3 Voters trust or like none of the above 4 Hard work and authenticity can still win 5 All politics is local. Thank fuck. Two Questions After Eastleigh: 1 With a neo-fascist party on the rise, will British politics get nastier and more illiberal? 2 Will the entire UK media change their narrative about the Lib Dems now? Or will they just hold up two fingers to the voters? ...It's the two fingers, isn't it? ...
This is flytipping that the Council is refusing to do anything about in L19. There are plenty of pix showing piles of stuff over quite a space. Today I saw several piles of deliberate dumping plus meals left out for animals (presumably urban foxes) on land right next to houses. The Council says .. not our problem as not our land.Well I've just been doing a land registry search and guess what.. some of the land is owned by the Council and the Council could use powers to get the stuff cleared up even in the case where it doesn't ...
UPDATE: The Council has now spoken to Redrow and will be going through with them what the want to do and what is allowed under the planning conditions. We don't know yet if they have actually broken any of them but work will stop until a discussion takes place and they are clear about what they and can't do. People living on Cressington Heath were shocked to discover a digger on the bit of land that's meant to be maintained (including through their management fees). The digger was hacking into the ground and damaging trees. When challenged residents were told ...
Secret courts lead to secret justice, and that isn't justice at all. http://www.libdemsagainstsecretcourts.org.uk/
[IMG: annoyed] There's been some talk amongst the commentariat that when it comes to sexual harassment, the problem is that some women need to toughen up. I make a minor concession below about understanding where that point of view comes from, but it's still nonsense. Here's some simple reasons why. Bluster ain't tough There's a lot of bluster coming from people talking about the need to be tough, or alternatively how bravely they are standing up for due process. Thing is, bluster ain't tough. It can be loud and arrogant, but really it's just giving in to temptation. Giving in ...
The Liberal Democrats pulled off a hard fought victory in the early hours in Eastleigh but it isn't the story today. The story is UKIP's surge but not for the reason that you might think. They received 28% of the vote and beat the Tories into second place. They had a very impressive candidate who didn't seem very UKIPpy at all. In fact she sounded like a middle of the road Conservative – and this is because she is in fact a middle of the road Conservative. The Tory candidate was far more UKIPpy than Diane was but that isn't ...
As of now, I am officially unemployed for the first time in about nine years (most of my last few jobs have had an overlap period where I've had two jobs at once, for poverty or contractual reasons). But as of Monday I become, officially, a full-time writer. Not (yet) a freelance, write-whatever-I-want writer, but ...
Want to celebrate the fantastic result in Eastleigh? Why not join a working celebration at Regional Action Days in either Watford or Lewes, tomorrow, Saturday 2nd March. There'll be good company, free food and invigorating campaigning. Normally, the local teams for these Regional Action Days need at least a few days notice. However, normal promotion hasn't been possible this time round, so for these events we'd welcome last minute registrations. But please do register, even if it's in the early hours of Saturday morning, here for Lewes and herefor Watford. As far as we can, the teams want to be ...
Here's today's hand-picked selection that caught my interest... Eastleigh by-election: Dave's problem isn't finishing behind Ukip, it's how his party will react to finishing behind Ukip - Telegraph Blogs Dan Hodges cutting thru Eastleigh hype with brutal acuteness http://bit.ly/XKMKvE 10 things we've learned from the Eastleigh byelection V good from @AndrewSparrow: '10 things we've learned from Eastleigh' http://bit.ly/ZH4SZk Tho all will promptly be forgotten by journos. Lib Dems win in Eastleigh "Disaster avoided, not triumph secured" says Peter Kellner. #harshbutfair #ish » 'Lib Dems win in Eastleigh' http://bit.ly/WvsNZq Factcheck: Has the Coalition ended child detention? | Full Fact Now with ...
"The most important thing I learned on Tralfamadore was that when a person dies he only appears to die. He is still very much alive in the past, so it is very silly for people to cry at his funeral. All moments, past, present and future, always have existed, always will exist." Kurt Vonnegut - Slaughterhouse-Five [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
[IMG: House of Lords chamber] Yes, we're back, after this column's regular late winter break to study comparisons between government systems in the Caribbean. And whilst the House of Lords and the Cuban leadership do have some similarities – having octogenarians in prominent positions, for example – you would probably want to see more of Eric Avebury than you would Fidel Castro... So, on with the motley... Monday kicks off the week with the main business being Day 2 of the Report Stage of the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill. Amongst the amendments to be discussed is an cross-party attempt ...
Knitting an EDF logo might seem like an odd thing to do. But people are odd. Science policymakers should remember that I'm surrounded by badgers. I've never actually seen one live, though I'm told my university campus is riddled with them. Our student newspaper is called the Badger (I think he's called Ronald). I have several badger badges and a couple of badger toys friends have given me to laugh at my interest in the cull. I'm forever spotting brightly coloured badger-themed street art around my home in Brighton. I have piles of books on the things. Wikipedia's list of ...
That's such a shame [IMG: ;-)] A fantastically morale-boasting article from Paddy in the Guardian today: For the rightwing press, this was the perfect story; the perfect storm in which they held all the thunderbolts. It rolled up, in a single attack, three targets that they have long loved to hate: the Lib Dems, the coalition, and finally (and for them most deliciously) the Leveson proposals. That's why they have devoted so many column inches, so much invective and such lip-smacking relish to the task. That was only to be expected. Fortunately in Nick Clegg, who has led our party ...
Liberal Democrats are entitled to a weekend of being incredibly pleased with ourselves. I have never been as proud of this party as I am now. The way we calmly and professionally got on with delivering a brilliant campaign on the ground was astonishingly good. Activists put their lives on hold and dedicated themselves to Eastleigh for three weeks. My eternal regret will be that I never made it there, due to a horrendous Flu and its lingering aftermath. However, Team Scotland and many others across the country phonebanked their hearts out. Yesterday in Edinburgh, we even had to have ...
The latest version of the Chrome Browser for Android has introduced a curious rendering bug. When scrolling, I notice that the font hinting seems to break down. This makes the text very "juddery". It looks like the fonts shrink and grow and they scroll. This is very disorienting when reading. In this example I've noticed that once I've stopped scrolled the page, the fonts are hinted differently. [IMG: 1] [IMG: 2] [IMG: 3] I've enlarged the examples (without interpolation) so you can see them a bit more clearly. [IMG: 1 Big] [IMG: 2 Big] [IMG: 3 Big] To give you ...
It was, once again, a bizarre night at last night's budget setting meeting for Sefton Council. The night began with the Mayor failing to use his microphone correctly. When a member of the public asked him to speak up, he retorted that he didn't need a microphone and that his voice would easily carry to the back of the room - more on this later! Ten minutes into the meeting an unruly section of the public gallery began a tirade of childish chants and insults. The Mayor decided that he wasn't standing for such behaviour and he declared an adjournment ...
Phew!! When all was said and done it really was a close one, and another week, maybe even another day or two and it could easily have been another result. Be that as it may, the party dug as deep as I have ever seen it do, and the relentless commitment and hard work of thousands of volunteers with spectacularly good organisation on the ground made the difference. Bravo! Set against pretty much the very worst that the party could face from pretty much the very worst of the British press, the result is -frankly- something close to a miracle ...
Dear Mr Nevols, Thank you for contacting Channel 4 Viewer Enquiries regarding CHANNEL 4 NEWS. We are sorry to hear that you feel the timing of this report was ill-timed, we have passed your concerns onto our news editors. Please be assured your complaint has been logged and noted for the information of those responsible for our programming. Thank you again for taking the time to contact us. We appreciate all feedback from our viewers; complimentary or otherwise. Regards, Steve Reynolds Channel 4 Viewer Enquiries A rather bland and standard response - I doubt my comments will have been 'noted' ...
Yesterday - the day of the nail-biting Eastleigh by-election. It seems events had done everything they could to ensure we lose it. High profile former cabinet member Chris Huhne resigns as MP to spend time at her Majesty's pleasure, thus sparking the contest in this marginal seat where we won by just 500 votes in 2005. And this week, we have done our best to feed as many negative front page
The result of the Eastleigh by-election is a source of delight for Liberal Democrats. The background couldn't have been worse: our identification with the coalition's failing economic policy, the disgrace of the previous Liberal Democrat MP, along with the revelations about the Rennard allegations and the party's ham-fisted handling of them. This last, whether the result of "dirty tricks" timing or not, was given massively disproportionate coverage by the media (including the Guardian -shame on them): on at least one BBC news bulletin the item took precedence even over the loss of the AAA credit rating. Yet the Eastleigh electors ...
It was a by-election not like any other in recent history. When the result came, it provided not the kind of joy for Liberal Democrats as another result here in 1994 famously did, but rather immense relief. Here was evidence that we can win by-elections in government - or at least hold our seat against the disjointed and admittedly nasty campaigning of a Conservative party in conflict with itself. It may have been a far cry from the early 1990s when the Liberal Democrat campaigning machine appeared unstoppable, securing famous wins in Eastbourne, Ribble Valley, and Newbury. But there were ...
My first reaction to the overnight result of the Eastleigh parliamentary by election was, as a loyal Lib Dem, relief. For once the party isn't having to explain away a lost deposit. A more considered reaction is that it shows just how out of touch with ordinary people the Westminster bubble is – I nearly wrote "has become", but I think it has always been thus. Will they will be chastened by the experience? Alas, there is no chance of that. By "the Westminster bubble" I mean that community of London-based politicians, journalists, lobbyists and their hangers-on, who control the ...
Back in 1928, publication of The Yellow Book – the report of a party inquiry "Britain's Industrial Future" – provided the basis for Lloyd George's 1929 general election programme "We can conquer unemployment!". It put the party firmly in the camp of an interventionist economic strategy, with John Maynard Keynes as its intellectual lodestar. With the Great Depression ranging, the party firmly rejected laisser-faire liberalism. Come 2004 and the Orange Book -subtitled Reclaiming Liberalism and edited by David Laws and Paul Marshall – challenged what some were calling nanny-state liberalism. It promoted choice and competition and argued that the Liberal ...
How do you deal with populist jokers like Beppe Grillo and Nigel Farage? The brilliant result in Eastleigh last night (a little bias showing here) was excellent news for the Lib Dems but a nightmare result for the Conservatives, beaten into third place by UKIP. Like all ultra-conservative political campaigns, of the small nation, small ambition, small minds variety, UKIP is primarily a problem for the official Conservative Party. But in the end they are everyone's problem, because of their disastrous destabilising effect on mainstream politicians. So I am not just being generous here when I offer this advice to ...
One of the lesser-known facts about Yugoslavia's Communist leader, Josip Broz Tito, was his passion for movies. Almost every night he had a private screening — often with his formidable wife at his side — and he had a full-time projectionist who had to keep up the supply of suitable films. Yugoslavia itself was a ...
I'll do some politics blogging when I'm awake & can function. In the meantime because I can do Dr Who in my sleep here is the latest of my celebratory posts To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the longest running science fiction show in the world I am taking a weekly look at some of my favourite Dr Who episodes focussing on one Doctor a month. In February i've been looking at the Second Doctor Well that is my quick whiz through my favourite second Doctor stories is done. Yes, I may have been a little Cyberman heavy but hay ...
The by-election at Eastleigh provides a much needed fillip to the LibDems in general and to Nick Clegg in particular after a nasty few weeks. But it tells us nothing new about the state of politics in the UK. We know that where we work we win. We have worked ceaselessly in Eastleigh over the last couple of decades and built an excellent local party that has delivered when it mattered. We also worked tirelessly during the campaign itself. We are very good at ground wars, and this was a particular case of a good ground war. It was not ...
Huge congratulations to Mike Thornton, the new Lib Dem MP for Eastleigh. With the Conservatives coming third behind UKIP, there are sure to be some serious recriminations within Mr Cameron's party. But these are happening in Cornwall Tories too. Here the Conservatives seem to be imploding as a result of the budget vote on Tuesday when some blues backed the Lib Dem alternative plan for a council tax freeze and investment in services. A month ago, the cabinet's portfolio holder for finance quit because she didn't approve of the budget drawn up by her own department (apparently she had been ...
This month marked my twentieth year of helping the Lib Dems in by-elections. My first by-election was at Newbury in 1993. My wife and I threw ourselves into the campaign on our home turf, after losing our son Toby to meningitis aged 16 months (he died just three days after Judith Chaplin, the former MP whose sad demise caused the by-election). It was a bitter sweet time, but we were truly delighted to host Paddy at our home three times during the campaign, once accompanied by Jane and their dog, Luke. Paddy was and is a shining inspiration in the ...
Today parents will hear about secondary school place applications – online today or via 1st class post tomorrow. For the whole of Southwark 58.7% of parents have received their first choice. A smidgen up on last years 55.9%. We're trying to find out this data specifically for East Dulwich. Overall 6.9% of parents were allocated a school they hadn't chosen, down a little from last years 8%. But it's likely that across London more families obtained their first choice - last year 66% across London leaving Southwark some distance behind. Any of 6 stated preferences – Southwark parents and carers ...
Procrastination Is Not Laziness | Thought Catalog Oh good god.i recognise this so much (tags: ) Why do we demand that politics has to be tough? Nick has some sterling points here, although I wish he had a pithy solution, too. (tags: ) The Lessons of the Rennard Affair | Shifting Grounds Nick Clegg happens to have been the one left standing when the music stopped, but let's not pretend this couldn't have happened in any party. (tags: ) The Ice Warriors animated for DVD - exclusive first look | Articles | Doctor Who SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!! (tags: ) Frenzal Rhomb Singer ...
My colleague, Cllr Richard Oglethorpe, and I met a manager from the National Trust recently to talk about problems facing people living on Forthlin Road, and round the corner in Hurstlyn, caused by some visitors to 20 Forthlin Road (usually tourists visiting a series of Beatles related places) The National Trust manage their own visits carefully, but it seems that selfish parking and noise and intrusion at all times of the day and night is being caused by some other organisations (not all) We've agreed to work with the National Trust to see if there is a solution that at ...
Late notice I know but here's a link to the info about tonight's meeting of the Garston and District Historical Society http://www.garstonhistoricalsociety.org.uk/
This was going to be titled "Why You Shouldn't Campaign for Mike Thornton", but I was too busy campaigning for Mike Thornton to do it earlier. Now you shouldn't campaign for Mike Thornton because the polls have closed for the Eastleigh by-election so there's not much point. I've written this before the count finishes, so ...
The second Planning Application 12-AP-3773 for a new M&S store at 84-90 Lordship where Iceland used to be has just been rejected. The first planning application had been withdrawn by the applicant last year. This application was to extend the shops and convert the upper floor offices into 8 flats. It was applied for such that the statutory consultation took place over Christmas. Not the most public spirited behaviour of such a well respect national institution. East Dulwich councillors had called-in this decision due to impacts it would have and that so many details had not been properly thought through. ...
The Tories' poor result in Eastleigh last night is a manifestation of a deeper problem: the party no longer knows what it is for. As Robin McGhee points out in a perceptive blog for Prospect magazine, the basic issue isn't the split over Europe: Conservatism in 2013 faces an existential problem: how can it reconcile free markets with traditional values? As the Conservative party shuffles meekly towards electoral demolition, this intellectual imbalance can only become more damaging.A evidence for the prosecution, McGhee examines a recent pamphlet Britannia Unchained, written by five MPs (led by Kwasi Kwarteng) from the Tories' young, ...
Mike Thornton MP and some of the team Excellent news from Eastleigh - Mike Thornton has been returned as a candidate for the Liberal Democrats despite the Huhne and Rennard scadals. Local Libdem Council group leader Geoff Juby had this to say: The general public have recognised the hard work that the Liberal Democrats have done, not only on Eastleigh borough council but also within the Coalition. We have delivered tax breaks to everyone and dulled the Tory cuts for millions of hard working families. We are delighted for our candidate and glad that the hard work put in by ...
A Marta to the cause Andriessen vs UKIP. (I sort of hope they will both lose.) (tags: eu )
The Liberal Democrats vivtory in the Eastleigh by-election was a huge relief for me and the thousands of activists who worked so hard to ensure that Mike Thornton succeeded Chris Huhne as the local MP. It was the most difficult by-election I have ever been involved in not least because of the circumstances that led to it being called, but also because of the dreadful headlines over the last week and the turmoil in the party they generated. What is important about this victory is that it shows that the Liberal Democrats cannot be easily written off despite the best ...
[IMG: Morning After Assault] Disclaimer This post is inspired by allegations made regarding Lord Rennard, but it is not about whether or not the allegations are true. Lord Rennard is innocent until proven guilty via due process. I do however want to comment on the way in which the claims of the women are not being taken seriously in some quarters. I'd also like to make clear that while this post is based on my personal experiences of assault and harassment, it is absolutely not intended to shift the focus away from sexual harassment in a kind of, "hey, what ...
Last night, after my Thursday ward surgery at Blackness Primary School, I attended the Harris Academy Parent Council at which progress with the impending decant to the Rockwell site was discussed. Mr Thewliss, Head Teacher, indicated that, during June, it is planned to show Harris Academy pupils round the facilities at Rockwell. There will also be opportunities for parents and P7 pupils from feeder primary schools and their parents to view the decant facilities. Harris Academy is making available for sale certain items of furniture etc from the current building that will not be required at either the decant Rockwell ...
Labour: "We've made huge strides in Eastleigh" In the 1955 General Election, Labour got more than 49% of the vote in Eastleigh. They lost. In yesterday's by-election, Labour secured just 9.82%. If you exclude 2010, you have to go back to 1987 to see the last time Labour even failed to top 20% in an Eastleigh poll. Yesterday's vote was Labour's second lowest share in over half a century. The combined total of the two big parties, which between them have run the UK for nearly a century, is even more stark. As recently as 1992, the Labour and Conservative ...
I recently mentioned the play that service users from Jericho House together with a group of young people are performing in April. Produced by Claire Bee, there's now a poster available advertising it and my thanks go to the City Council's Design Unit and our West End communities officer who made that possible. The poster is below but you can download a high quality PDF poster here:
Ambulance response targets for the most urgent 999 calls have been missed for the eighth month in a row. Latest figures revealed that an average of just 59.6% of category A calls in January received an ambulance within the eight minute response time - below the Welsh Government's target of 65%. It can come of no real surprise that ambulance response times missed their targets once again last month. Weather conditions were particularly testing in January, nonetheless, it is still essential that urgent calls are responded to within the target time as it can often be a matter of life ...
Fri 1st
03:04
Eastleigh result - a geek writes...The Tories were wandering around like farts in a colander
Obama's victory last year was based on data management, many field offices and keen volunteers. The ground war was won. The Lib Dems in Eastleigh had superb data management (based on decades of election work), very keen volunteers and unbelievably slick organisation. I had loads of messages and encouragement to go down to Eastleigh. At 6pm today I was tweeted to ask if I could stay on for another hour. I did. The level of organisation was, unbelievably, a notch or two above normal for a by-election. Absolutely slick and fantastic. On the other hand, we should not under-estimate the ...
[IMG: ballot] Well done Mike Thornton and the Lib Dems who helped him win the Eastleigh by election. A fantastic achievement, both the campaign itself and the long, long, year round work that the Eastleigh team put in to their community. (I spent Saturday waiting for my car to be recovered to a garage instead of pounding the streets as planned, and today keeping an invalid company. Still feel bad I didn't make it down, though). There will be much punditry about this, but my bet is that the constants from commentators on my side will be: Community politics: Hard ...
Let's consider the backdrop: we're polling at half the level we were in 2010; the previous MP, Chris Huhne, was forced to resign after pleading guilty to perverting the course of justice and faces a prison sentence; we've just endured a week of torrid publicity. And yet we've held on. It's true that, in some ways, Eastleigh was a good seat for us to have to contest. The party is immensely strong in the area, holding every council seat, and runs a popular council. However, what has been immensely encouraging has also been the clear evidence Lib Dem activists remain ...
[IMG: image] Result: Mike Thornton Lib Dem: 13,342. UKIP:11,571.Tory: 10,559. Labour:4088. A fantastic victry for Mike Thornton. Well done to him and all Eastleigh Lib Dems and for all the great Lib Dem professionals and volunteers who thronged to Eastleigh and worked their socks off. Well done to the people of Eastleigh for being so wise! [IMG: Post to Twitter] Tweet This Post
And here it is; Mike Thornton (Liberal Democrat) – 13,342 votes Diane James (UKIP) – 11,571 votes Maria Hutchings (Conservative) – 10,559 votes John O'Farrell (Labour) – 4,088 votes Danny Stupple (Independent) – 768 votes Iain Maclennan (National Health Action) – 392 votes Ray Hall (Beer, Baccy and Crumpet) – 235 votes Kevin Milburn (Christian) – 163 votes Howling Laud Hope (Monster Raving Loony) – 136 votes Jim Duggan (Peace) – 128 votes David Bishop (Elvis Loves Pets) – 72 votes Michael Walters (English Democrats) – 70 votes Darren Proctor (Trade Union and Socialist) – 62 votes Colin Bex (Wessex ...
Fighting a Positive Campaign here!!!! #Eastleigh twitter.com/Mike_Fabricant... — Michael Fabricant (@Mike_Fabricant) February 24, 2013 [IMG: Post to Twitter] Tweet This Post
As some of you will be aware, I stood for Chair of Liberal Youth at the recent by-election. I lost, but what I did do was gather support from the old and new of Liberal Youth who were becoming increasingly dissatisfied at poor leadership and inactive officers. I stood to give a voice to those ...
00:35 So, here we are, a by-election in a Liberal Democrat held seat, only the fifth such contest fought by the Party or its predecessor since 1945. This will be our live thread for the early evening, and I start with what is, hopefully, a good omen... Warm congratulations to Sushila Abraham and @kingstonlibdems for convincing win in #Kingston #Berrylands LD 948, CON 761, LAB 455, Gn 112 — Jonathan Fryer (@jonathanfryer) February 28, 2013 Sleep well, Tim! * Mark Valladares is the Friday Day Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice.
Opposition Liberal Democrat County Councillors have hit out at the waste of money on issuing over 2,500 Locality Budget Press releases in under three years. The Press Releases from County Hall publicise grants made from each members £10,000 locality budget. They a range from small grants of £50 to over £5,000 but each gets a press release drafted by officer that then has to be approved and issued to all of Hertfordshire's papers and other media outlets. Liberal Democrat Opposition Leader Cllr Stephen Giles-Medhurst(Central Watford and Oxhey), " We have long thought that the Conservatives spend too much on corporate ...
This is the article I wrote for the Manchester Evening News earlier this week: "In Manchester we are so lucky to have miles of open green space either side of the River Mersey. The Mersey Valley forms the lungs of south Manchester and allows hundreds of thousands of residents to enjoy nature on their doorstep; not to mention providing a haven for local wildlife. This has been made possible by the hard work of the Mersey Valley Wardens who manage the area for Manchester and Trafford Councils. Council cuts are putting these wardens and our ability to enjoy the valley ...
Readers will no doubt be impressed that, this time, I have remembered that there was a Parliamentary by-election yesterday. And, as one might expect, most of our attention today will be on the result, the aftermath and what this means, if anything. There will, I hope, be the usual reports on the past week in Europe, and a preview of events in the Lords, as the end of the Parliamentary session approaches and the business moves towards a series of crucial votes. So, will Mike Thornton and the hundreds of Liberal Democrats who have worked so hard, on the ground, ...
