The Lib Dem victory in the Eastleigh by-election has been widely signalled as the start of the Lib Dems' fightback and an acceptance that Nick Clegg's strategy in government is beginning to pay off. But even before this weekend's conference rebellion on secret courts and high profile resignations by Jo Shaw and Dinah Rose, this analysis was wrong. Eastleigh was no victory for Clegg or his strategy (if he has one) in government. It was a victory for local activism - built up over the years - standing up for local people, doing the right thing by them where possible ...
Almost an hour of footage from these lost industrial railways. Too much of a good thing? Not to me.
I welcome the Liberal Democrats' spring conference voting overwhelmingly to condemn the Government plan to introduce 'secret courts' and is saddened by the fact that most of our MPs defied the wishes of the party ...
Sun 10th
22:10
#notosecretcourts is a very Lib Dem thing...we care but the sad truth is does anyone else?
Ah Secret Courts or to be more formal The Justice and Security Bill. It is legislation that no-one will talk about on the doorstep. No-one. People will talk about many national issues but whether in certain circumstances evidence can be heard in secret is not one of them. Equal marriage is something most people said was a waste of time and even that is 100x more likely to be a topic that fires up the average voter. They care about many things but secret courts is not one. Yet the fact is for liberals it is vastly important and the ...
The Liberal Democrat leadership does not seem to have made much of an attempt to defend secret courts. Alex's Archives covers Nick Clegg's performance at his question and answer session in Brighton: we saw pretty much every tool deployed from the box marked "evasion tactics for politicians who don't wish to engage".In the secret courts vote itself, Tom McNally seems to have acted as the voice of the party establishment. According to the Guardian: McNally, a justice minister, indicated he was unlikely to lead a rebellion but would instead seek further concessions. He said it was to the credit of ...
There have been many excellent posts today about the disgraceful support of so many of our MPs and the party leadership for the Justice and Security Bill Charlotte Henry gives Nick both barrels here And Alex Marsh explains why the leaderships support of the bill seems so bizarre here But really: just watch this video - it's Jo Shaw's speech to conference today - and you'll understand just what we've lost... Update added a fourth - excellent POV here from Andrew Page
[IMG: 20130309_170813.jpg] This may have been Conference weekend but today has a special significance in being Mother's Day. My mother and I woke up in Brighton to a lovely view of the sea before dashing off to the emergency debate on 'secret courts' which is an illiberal move. Ever since I was little I have recognised liberalism by instinct. I have my mother to thank for nurturing this moral, political and humane view that I have. At conference someone told me, as people often do, that I will cease to be as idealistic as I grow up. That may be ...
Kenny Ball, one of the big names in the trad jazz revival of the late 1950s and early 1960s, died this week. As his Daily Telegraph obituary explained: The Trad Boom ended suddenly, with the triumph of the Beatles and Merseybeat, in 1963, but Kenny Ball's Jazzmen were scarcely affected. The band had by then become firmly established in the world of popular entertainment. They appeared in every episode of the first six series of the Morecambe and Wise Show, beginning in 1968, and were the resident band on Saturday Night at the Mill (BBC One) from 1975 to 1983. ...
International Women's Day fell during the Liberal Democrats Brighton Conference and among several events pegged to the occasion was a fringe meeting with the Turkish writer Elif Safak, which was put on by Liberal Democrat Friends of Turkey. Elif won many friends among London Liberal Democrats when she spoke at our autumn conference in Croydon ...
David Howarth, former MP for Cambridge, speaking in today's debate on secret courts at Liberal Democrat conference: This is not about policy or about deals: it is about who we are. This bill does nothing to help the security services to gain more information or foil more plots. All it does is give them an unfair advantage in cases where they are accused of kidnapping and torture. Again, anyone who cannot see that is fundamentally wrong and not liberal.Howarth also had a message for Tom McNally, Liberal Democrat leader in the House of Lords: Tom, I know the Lords can ...
Peter Gabriel at work on 'So' in 1985, Ashcombe House near Bath.
[IMG: Pall Mall - Some rights reserved by Leonard Bentley] (Notice that I put the most important one first, dear fellow blogger). It's been quite a weekend. Brighton on Friday for the conference. Birmingham on Saturday morning for the Cross Country championships. Then it was on to the Army and Navy Club in Pall Mall (see photo), London (gulp). The latter was the venue for the Old West Buckland Association London dinner this year. I attend every so often. This year I went specially to hear the main speaker, Mr Tucker, who is the one remaining master/teacher left over at ...
10 ways to be a MediaMug Alan Stevens tells us his top ten ways on how not to deal with the Media. I've seen a few of them in reality. Have you? Filed under: Blogging Tagged: blogging. CIPR, Media, PR, Public Relations
I'm sitting in the departure lounge at Gatwick, with a massive infusion of Earl Grey which I hope will keep me awake for a couple more hours. With less than four hours' sleep after staying longer than I'd planned at the Glee Club, I am close to being wrecked. I'm far too old for this carry on, but I'll not willingly give it up. Luckily I was relatively abstemious with alcohol, so there was no hangover. Mind you, if there had been Skittles Vodka on offer as a Clegg's speech drinking game, I'd have happily indulged. A shot every time ...
It's been a hard job working out what to do with this blog for me in the past few months. A number of reasons for my quietness on the blog have been in evidence: my law studies; my lack of enthusiasm for the actions of the Parliamentary Party of the Liberal Democrats; my ongoing work ...
Nick Clegg keeps it brief in his weekly email despatch to members and supporters (which, kudos to Lib Dem HQ, pinged into my inbox at the precise moment Nick's conference speech finished) — building on the party's victory at Eastleigh, he urges party members to "Tell our side of the story and keep winning." [IMG: libdem letter from nick clegg] I've just had a wonderful three days with Liberal Democrat members at Conference in Brighton. Until today, I have spent nearly three years asking you to hold firm. Three years urging you to remain steady under fire. And you have. ...
Throughout the coalition Liberal Democrat MPs have pursued the politics of compromise in attempts to win concessions. Over contagious issues such as tuition fees, healthcare reform and secret courts Clegg's mantra of compromise has led Liberal Democrat MPs into voting against principles that they hold dear. As a small party within a coalition some compromises would always be necessary to influence government policy. Mature plural politics necessitates some political solutions based on compromise, but Clegg's mantra of compromise has gone too far. The parliamentary party is suffering from the delusion of Clegg's compromise mantra. It's a mantra places too much ...
[View the story "Liberal Democrat spring conference, Brighton 2013" on Storify] Liberal Democrat spring conference, Brighton 2013 Here's a quick sample of the highlights, the gossip and the interesting facts as seen via my Twitter feed this weekend in Brighton. Storified by Mark Pack· Sun, Mar 10 2013 10:32:48 'We may be two genders, but we have one future.' – Lynne #Featherstone #LibDems #Brighton #WomenMaria Wilder Am thrilled Lynne Featherstone says: 'I want to see female genital mutilation ended in this generation.' #LDConf">not just cos I research itBelindaBrooks-Gordon Featherstone stands firm on international aid commitment 'not going to balance our ...
Yesterday, I ran the Lake Sammamish Half Marathon with a HUGE group from my running club (there were more than a hundred of us)! I had a fantastic time and would definitely run this again next year, if I'm still in Seattle (unlikely). My ONLY regret is that I couldn't take a stab at a PB, since I'm a slave to marathon training; it would have been a perfect day for it - great weather, flat course. But, cry me a river: I have marathoner problems. The course is a point to point. The start and the parking were in ...
I'm very grateful to the King of the Lib Dem bloggers, Jonathan Calder, for reminding me that it is William Cobbett's 250th birthday - actually yesterday. But perhaps after a quarter of a millennium, being a day late doesn't matter. Cobbett returned to England as a Tory, but the critical moment in his conversion to what I believe was a ferocious proto-Liberalism, came in 1805, a few months before Nelson's historic destruction of Napoleon's naval ambitions. He bought a farm outside the Hampshire village of Botley and immediately found himself campaigning against proposals to enclose nearby Horton Heath right from ...
I'm beginning my journey home from Brighton, but ahead of, hopefully, doing some commentary later, here's the link to the storify of my live tweeting of Nick Clegg's leadership speech. Andrew
As is always the case when seeing great bands from the 60s these days, the five men who make up the Magic Band that came on stage at the Band On The Wall on Thursday never played together before last year, so it's probably best to start this brief review by saying who they are. ...
Liberal Democrat members decide party policy, but what happens when policy is wilfully ignored? Whatever can be said of Nick Clegg, there can be no escaping that his handling of key situations isn't improving. Nearly three years into the coalition, Clegg seems determined to demonstrate that he either doesn't understand his party or that he has not wish to listen to it. That it the most simplistic of interpretations of his management of debate surrounding the Justice and Security Bill and, in particular, its provision for what have popularly become known as "secret courts". But the fact that it is ...
[IMG: Lib Dem Conference app screenshot] Here's a few highlights from the second day's action at Brighton... (You can catch up on my round-up of the first day-and-a-bit here.) Let's start with the positive... First, if you haven't yet, do read the Independent's editorial today (I suspect someone in Nick Clegg's office will have it framed for him): The Lib Dems are walking tall the party is gathered in Brighton for its spring conference this weekend in better heart than it has been at any time since that glad confident morning in the Downing Street garden. The immediate source of ...
From former parliamentary candidate Jo Shaw delivered at the very end of her conference speech earlier today in Brighton paraphrasing Harry Willcock explaining why she was resigning from the Lib Dems on the issue of secret courts: Because I am a liberal, and a democrat, and I am against this sort of thing.
Sun 10th
15:13Why women can't win even when wronged after being called a 'Bitch' or other derogatory terms
As regular readers of this blog will know there are only a few blogs that I actually have on my feed that I read pretty much every single thing that gets uploaded on to it. One of those is the Confederacy Of Spinsters website. It is blogging of the highest calibre and today it was Mae who blogged something that caught my eye and made me think. Blogging that makes me think is the type of blogging that I like. Mae wrote A Letter To The Client Who Called Me A "Bitch" and made some rather pertinent points. The short ...
[IMG: Double Clegg 2 - Some rights reserved by Liberal Democrats] It took 3,000+ words and Nick Clegg 30 minutes to deliver them — but there was only one message he wanted to be heard in his leader's speech today: Only the Liberal Democrats can deliver a stronger economy and a fairer society, enabling everyone to get on in life. That's the core message, one that's been tested in polling and was tested in real polling in Eastleigh. And it's the message the party leadership wants the party to get sick of repeating ad infinitum for the next two years ...
Here's today's hand-picked selection that caught my interest... BBC News – Lib Dems: Mixed mood at spring conference To journos criticising my post on news media failures here's classic example of what I had in mind http://bbc.in/13PaB4F (ht @alixmortimer) I agree with Nick still. The question is: does Nick still agree with Nick? | Stephen Tall I have my answer: Nick no longer agrees with Nick http://bit.ly/Wt6mt0 #secretcourts #ldconf Clegg courts catastrophe | Alex's Archives We don't always agree, but on this Alex is spot-on » Clegg courts catastrophe | Alex's Archives http://bit.ly/10prWfB How Murdoch hack Isabel Oakeshott cold-bloodedly sold ...
The Observer 10th March 2013 interviewed eleven City of London finance workers to seek views on the EU plan to restrict payouts. What was weird was the fantasy land in which these people live - except it's not a fantasy, it is the reality. One man in his 30's said "If you are a bog standard trader you make maybe £400k of which £150k is base pay". He went on to point out that the cap would reduce his total remuneration by £50k & that would not encourage him to move abroad. One other in his mid 40's queried whether, ...
[IMG: Nick Clegg (Photo by Dave Radcliffe for the Liberal Democrats)] Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has closed the Liberal Democrat Spring Conference in Brighton by calling on members to spread the message of the Party's commitment in Government to deliver a stronger economy and a fairer society. In his keynote Leader's speech, Nick paid tribute to the work of the Party in winning the Eastleigh by-election, beating the Conservatives into third place and squeezing Labour while campaigning on the Lib Dem record of delivering in Government. Nick said: "Eastleigh. Conference, I have never seen anything like it. Thousands and ...
Here's the text of Nick Clegg's speech to the Lib Dems' spring conference in Brighton today: Eastleigh. Conference, I have never seen anything like it. Thousands and thousands of activists flooding in from every part of the UK. Young people arriving in their droves. Hitting the pavements, the phones, Facebook, Twitter, email - finding any and every way to drive our message home. I want to thank you all - you were just brilliant. They said we'd never win it. The same critics who try to write us off time and time again. But, you know what? The naysayers can ...
Paddy Ashdown will be at Uppingham School Memorial Hall on Tuesday 12 March (7:30 p.m.) to talk about his new book A Brilliant Little Operation, and his career, and answer questions from the audience. More details on the East Midlands Liberal Democrats site. Booking information on upp.the.arts.
10th March 2013 Today after almost twelve years I am resigning my membership of the Liberal Democrat party. I have done so because I cannot reconcile the principles which form the backbone of the Liberal Democrats - fairness, freedom and openness – with the measures introduced by the Justice and Security Bill and supported by the party leadership. This Bill passed through the Commons this week with barely more than a handful of objections from Liberal Democrats. In opposition I know the Liberal Democrats would be spearheading the campaign against this illiberal repressive Bill. The fact this party has chosen ...
Sun 10th
12:10
It's not just the Lib Dem leadership trying to ignore the 'secret courts' row: the news media is too
I had an odd experience on Friday. I was doing a round of media interviews – 3 for TV, 3 for radio – previewing the Lib Dem conference. I'd been called by researchers in advance to 'get my take' on the key issues. Each time, I said there was a big issue on which the party leadership could expect to be defeated and which would see activists from across the broad spectrum of the Lib Dems united: opposition to secret courts. This received an "Uh-hum" response which I took for baffled boredom. And as expected, each interview in turn dwelt ...
Here's the new film from the Liberal Democrats: Also on YouTube.
[IMG: school2] Liberal Democrat Councillor Mark Watkin, Opposition Spokesperson for Education, challenged Hertfordshire County Council's Executive Member for Education, Conservative Councillor Frances Button, to explain how services will address the needs of specific groups who cannot cope with schools, such as high achieving children with autism. She failed to do so. Instead she repeated the standard response that they could either attend a Moderate Learning Difficulty school; or have home help; or attend a mainstream school – none of which will adequately meet the needs of many of these children. "What parents of such children have pointed out time and ...
A new planning application has been received within Holyrood Ward:- Application number: 56068 Type of application: Full Date Registered: 08/03/2013 Location: 16 Newlands Drive, Prestwich, Manchester, M25 3BU Proposal: Single storey rear extension and two storey side extension Plans will be available to view on the Council's website here (use the planning application number to search). Any questions or if I can help please just get in touch. Tim
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 focusing on one Doctor a month. This month it's the third Doctors turn. This week. Inferno At a top secret base there is a deep drilling project to access what is known as Stahlmans gas - an unlimited source of cheap energy. Although there are tensions between the senior staff regarding the safety of the project work is under way and continuing. Meanwhile, the Doctor is also on the base using ...
I put a speaker's card in for Stephen Williams MP's Corporate Tax Avoidance motion today (page 44) but didn't get called. But this is what I would have said... Conference, Taxation is a vast and complex area but it is also one in which it is easy to be populist and to create scapegoats. Where perceived injustices are used to draw dividing lines between us and "them" as movements such as Occupy do. When determining taxation policy we need to be clear about our aims, objectives and targets. We should be seeking a taxation code that is fair and reasonable. ...
You may be forgiven a sense of déjà vu: the Liberal Democrats have voted overwhelmingly to oppose secret courts legislation. Just as we did last September. Clegg faces blow at #LDConf as delegates vote to condemn Lib Dem MPs and peers for backing 'secret courts' – bit.ly/YkWSKS — AndrewSparrow (@AndrewSparrow) March 10, 2013 Here's the text of the motion which was just passed: Conference believes: 1. That the measures in Part II of the Justice and Security Bill will mean the courts system of the United Kingdom will provide neither justice nor security in cases involving allegations against the state ...
This post was prompted by a comment: "Clegg days the Lib Dems are no longer a protest party? No longer a need for them then." No doubt an ad hoc comment on (via Andrew Sparrow, The Guardian/Observer): Nick Clegg is ... Continue reading →
Lib Dem parliamentary candidate Jo Shaw dramatically announced her resignation from the party as she moved this morning's emergency motion calling on our MPs to stick by the party's policy of opposing 'secret courts'. You can read Jo's full statement at the foot of this post. It was Jo's speech at the party's autumn conference that captured everyone's attention, including her line 'Kafka was a warning not a manual'. Together with another parliamentary candidate, Martin Tod, Jo set up LibDemsAgainstSecretCourts.org.uk and has waged a determined campaign to persuade the parliamentary party to back the party's line. And it's not only ...
Today's Western Mail reports that not one single police officer in Wales has been prosecuted for police corruption over the last four years despite scores of complaints: Between April 2008 and December of last year, Dyfed-Powys Police recorded 80 allegations of improper disclosure, 36 allegations of corrupt practice and 141 allegations of irregularity in evidence/perjury. Only 16 of these allegations were upheld. In answer to the question about what disciplinary action or criminal prosecutions have resulted from the upheld allegations, the force replied: "I can confirm that there is no information held by Dyfed-Powys Police. This is as a result ...
It is good that despite all the negative sniping and biased write-ups in the media that at least one national newspaper is prepared to recognise the achievements of the Liberal Democrats in Government. Today's Independent on Sunday has a blisteringly good editorial in which they praise the party's resilience and its achievements: [The] party is gathered in Brighton for its spring conference this weekend in better heart than it has been at any time since that glad confident morning in the Downing Street garden. The immediate source of its good spirit was its success in holding Huhne's seat in Eastleigh ...
Realising the the guest presenters don't have the kudos of Andrew. Wishing him a thorough recovery and a retun to our tv screen in due course.
Lib Dem spring conference liveblog from Andrew Sparrow The only comprehensive coverage offered by the nationals (tags: ) What Are The Liberal Democrats for? - Lord Ashcroft Polls (tags: ) My Tim Farron interview - the unexpurgated version | Stephen Tall (tags: ) Lord Ashcroft: Ed Miliband doing less well in marginal seats than nationwide - but still firmly ahead I find it hard to believe that we'll lose Cambridge or Leeds NW, but Cashcroft's polling does tend to be very robust. Food for thought. (tags: ) Which Doctor Who Character Tops Britain's List Of Baby Names? | The Mary ...
At least that's what it says in the Sunday Mirror. Although the Mirror's headline is the more dramatic: Vince Cable backing rebel Lib Dems' call for end to Tories' "slash and burn" policiesThe Social Liberal Forum's emergency motion at this weekend's Liberal Democrat spring conference is titled 'Kick-starting the economy'. Again, the Mirror prefers a more hyperbolic description, calling the motion: ...an explosive bid to rock the Coalition.Which is all a bit odd because, of the two emergency motions to win yesterday's ballot and thus be chosen for debate, neither is the SLF motion. First place in the ballot, predictably, ...
No perhaps, no maybe, no one is bound to suspect , no other polite suggestions of possibilities: distinguished Cambridge economist Ha-Joon Chang, in yesterday's Guardian, comes out with it bluntly:- "...spending cuts are not about deficits but about rolling back the welfare state." I sincerely hope this article is blazoned around the Liberal Democrat conference in Brighton and flaunted in the faces of Liberal Democrat ministers and MPs. What are the implications for the party? Not that we should leave the coalition. The parliamentary arithmetic, determined by the electorate, and the intransigence of the Labour party, meant that we had ...
After last week's glut, just two this week. 130401: Variation of condition relating to parking on application 080690, Middle Mill Road. 130406: Change of use from offices (B1) to student accomodation, East Hill. 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, can't make comments in favour or against planning applications as I may then have pre-judged them before they come to Committee. I can give advice on planning issues and what ...
Q: When is an 'ordinary nurse' not an ordinary nurse? A: When her photo appears on the Welsh Liberal Democrats' website. According to Wales Online, a photo on the Welsh party's website purporting to depict an "ordinary worker" in a nurse's uniform is in fact a stock photo of an underwear model called Louise Cole, who once appeared in adverts for Wonderbra. Not only that, but Ms Cole stood against the Liberal Democrats in the Henley by-election, representing the Miss Great Britain Party. Wales Online also reports that this is not the first time a fake nurse has appeared in ...
When you meet a Gethenian you cannot and must not do what a bisexual naturally does, which is to cast him in the role of Man or Woman, while adopting towards him a corresponding role dependent on your expectations of the patterned or possible interactions between persons of the same or opposite sex. Our entire pattern of socio-sexual interaction is nonexistent here. They cannot play the game. They do not see one another as men or women. This is almost impossible for our imagination to accept. I had of course read this before, long ago, and you probably have too, ...
We've had to wait a very long time, in 24-hour news media terms, to hear from the parliamentary party as to why they voted for secret courts. Modern media moves fast, so when you have to use Aldis lamp to signal for the belated stately relaunching of the SS Sir Menzies Campbell to pick out drowning MPs from amongst the seething ocean of activists, then you look a bit flat-footed. Goodness only knows why there was such a delay. Normally, the party just has to hiccough or fart and you get an email from Nick Clegg explaining what's happened within ...
Last month, I highlighted the fencing that had fallen down between Baxter Street and Blyth Place. I asked the City Council, on behalf of local residents, to have the fencing re-erected and, with thanks to the council for its very prompt response, the fence is now back in place - see right.
Further to my recent item about the refurbishment of the Ryehill Police Station, just a reminder that the station is closed from tomorrow. A further update from our local police inspector: "Ryehill Police Office will be closed from the 11th March 2013 for a period of 10 working days (in reality 2 weeks) to enable Tayside Police to carry out maintenance and repair works both internally and externally. A notice will be placed on the front door of the police station informing members of the public of the situation. The 101 telephone number (non emergency) will still be available. Ryehill ...
In his most significant political intervention since taking office, the Most Rev Justin Welby has warned that "children and families will pay the price" if plans to change the benefits system go ahead in their current form. Mr Welby and the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, have backed a letter to The Sunday Telegraph written by 43 bishops who say the benefits cuts will have a "deeply disproportionate" effect on children. The move will come as a blow to Iain Duncan Smith, the Work and Pensions Secretary, who is attempting to steer the reforms through Parliament. He has said ...
[IMG: 4432808605_43e7400304_n] The way the Liberal Democrat party leadership has handled the Justice and Security Bill seems little short of extraordinary. To depart so dramatically from party policy is one thing. It isn't the first time it has happened during this Coalition. I'm sure it won't be the last. But to do so on civil liberties – a topic many see as close to the core of liberalism and a topic particularly dear to the hearts of many activists – is barely credible. As Jonathan Calder pointed out at Liberal England yesterday, one of the biggest issues in this sorry ...
The Observer reports that Dinah Rose QC, a leading human rights barrister, has resigned her membership of the Liberal Democrats in protest at the most of its MPs supporting secret courts in last Monday's Commons vote: Citing her experience of secret hearings, she described Nick Clegg's support for the government's justice and security bill as a betrayal of the party's guiding principles.Rose said her decision to resign had not been "taken lightly or without great sadness". She told the Observer: "The very first sentence of the Liberal Democrats' constitution states that they exist to build a 'fair, free, and open ...
