Arriving in December 1970 (on foolscap paper) the call for evidence from the Terrell Commission on relations between the Party and the Young Liberal Movement. It takes you back. A colleague of mine was moving office and found the letter behind a bookcase. I'm not sure who wrote the wikipedia entry on NLYL ( I shall refrain from guessing who wrote it, but I would note that in parts it gives undue prominence to a few obscure people) but the bit about the Terrell Commission if fairly accurate: The party leadership were very unhappy about the antics of their youth ...
Oh well - several more Lib Dems will no doubt be considering their positions as a result. So who's left from 2010 for Clegg to piss off now? Edit - following an idea from Roger Crouch, tomorrow I will be phoning the membership department asking them to change my membership subscription to the minimum.
If he'd have had more courage, David Miliband could have been Prime Minister today. On 4th June 2009 when his close political ally James Purnell resigned as Culture Secretary Miliband senior could and should have gone over the top too. I know for a fact that Purnell and his advisers were expecting him to and were baffled when he did not. Had he done so and then gone to the country in the Autumn on the back of a bounce he could have had 5 years as PM. The fact that Cameron could not even scrape a majority against Brown ...
The town's post office is now squeezed into a newsagent's shop, but thanks to Aqeela's House for making me appreciate the building it used to occupy. This is currently empty, having housed a couple of unsuccessful bars and clubs since it closed as a post office. I particularly like the "The".
[IMG: image] It seems that Moving to New York is replacing the Chiltern Hundreds as the place where resigning MPs go. First, Louise Mensch. Now, David Miliband. It is remarkable for an MP to stand down with such suddenness. Presumably, he wants to get out of his brother's hair. Since Ed Miliband was elected Labour leader, David Miliband has made the odd speech in the Commons, each time showing remarkable skills of articulation, passion and intelligence. – Each time raising an unspoken banner saying "It should have been David". The one with the looks, the brains and the gift of ...
Andrew George is trying to establish a badger vaccine project in West Cornwall to help cattle farmers with the continuing and growing problem of Bovine TB. "The party leadership were very unhappy about the antics of their youth wing, and party leader Jeremy Thorpe set up a three-man commission which produced the Terrell Report. The report accused some of the Young Liberals of being communists." Birkdale Focus on a forgotten episode in Liberal Party history. We need a new consultation on the Communications Data Bill - more commonly (and fairly accurately) known as the 'Snoopers' Charter' - which is due ...
It's a bit late, but on Saturday I wrote a guest blog for The F-Word entitled "Her Name was Lucy Meadows". It talks about the complicity of the entire press system in the transphobia that may have led Ms. Meadows to take her own life. It's very much worth a read, so follow the link above. [IMG: :)]
From the Daily Mirror site this evening: David Miliband is to stun Parliament by stepping down as an MP tomorrow to take up a "dream job" in New York. The former Foreign Secretary - and brother of Labour leader Ed - intends to make the shock announcement tomorrow morning. The Mirror understands he intends to step down with immediate effect, triggering a by-election in May.The report goes on to say that Miliband is to join the charity International Rescue. This was the organisation made famous by Thunderbirds. Assuming this is not an early April fool story, the Mirror must mean ...
I had the Leveson debate in the Lords on in the background last night and two interesting things popped up in the debate. The first issue that 'small blogs' will be exempted but there is no definition of small blogs. This has been covered elsewhere and there is nothing much to add but I will just to put on record the fact that the government will consult the press on the definition of small blogs is bizarre to say the least. Stephen Tall has a good summery of the issues here. The second issue I picked up was the status ...
The latest YouGov/Sun tracker post this morning is CON 30%, LAB 41%, LD 13%, UKIP 11%. While 13% clearly isn't fantastic, particularly given that the Lib Dems with 57 MPs and UKIP with no MPs are just two percent apart, it does give the Lib Dems their highest YouGov rating since November 2010, four months after ...
Peter Bradwell, policy director for the Open Rights Group, asks whether the Internet will continue to be a kind of 'surveillance state' or if people will instead be given the tools to seize control over their personal information and how it is used. In the past year Liberal Democrats have had a good stab of standing up for citizens' privacy rights. The Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg demanded that the Home Office's 'snoopers' charter' be subjected to the scrutiny of a Joint Committee. Julian Huppert MP was a key figure on the Committee and was integral in highlighting the faults ...
Tue 26th
18:46
A sensible reform to Lib Dem selection rules - giving a warmer welcome to returning lapsed members
Back in November I wrote about how I'd like to see the party's selection rules changed: There is another rule I've got in my sights: the qualification period before someone can vote in the party's candidate selections. Details vary a little depending on which selection you are talking about, but typically you have to have been a member for a year prior to a contest taking place. Joined more recently? Sorry, no vote. It used to be much more common to allow people to join at the last moment and still get a vote. That caused problems in a few ...
The Daily Telegraph have today become the latest newspaper to announce they are going behind a paywall. Readers can get 20 articles a month for free, then they have to pay £1.99 to continue reading. Alternatively, you could just sign up for a years subscription to my Despatch Box newsletter for just £5.38 and get ...
How do you change the culture of an organisation - particularly one as large as the NHS? That was one of the key questions posed by the Francis Inquiry into the appalling failings at Mid Staffordshire Hospital. Today we set out part of the answer. The overriding message of the Francis report was the need for a culture change across the NHS to make sure that patients always come first. That change will take time, leadership, and engagement from staff. But the measures announced today set the tone, and signal what I hope will be the start of a transformation. ...
[IMG: Tim Gordon looking serious] Well done to party Chief Executive Tim Gordon whose rating in the latest Lib Dem Voice poll of party members is not only up, it's also the highest rating secured by a party Chief Exec in any of the Lib Dem Voice polls. Tim has been a little cagey in the past about how he views these polls. I'm sure this result will in no way influence him... In other news of polling highs: Good news: LibDems hit highest YouGov poll rating for 29 months. Not quite so good: It's 13% goo.gl/WwBt9 — Mark Pack ...
Today lastminute.com founder, and Government digital tzar, Martha Lane Fox, was enthroned as a Baroness. Lane Fox will take the title Baroness Lane-Fox of Soho in the City of Westminster, and will sit on the cross benches. She is the youngest female peer in the House of Lords.
According to The Guardian "The new citizenship test for aspiring Britons, intended to place more emphasis on British history and achievements than previous versions comes into force this week" No. It. Doesn't. It's the Life In The UK test. Passing it doesn't give you the right to citizenship, just the right to live in the ...
The transfer of Consett's CCTV camara monitoring to the south of the county began today. I hope that the warnings the police have given, and which we have tried to get heard at County Hall, prove unfounded – but I fear the worst. From having an integrated set up with the same sets of eyes monitoring all Consett's cameras, and the local knowledge of the area and the way people move around our town, we'll move to a dis-integrated system. People will walk out of the view of Project Genesis cameras which are being monitored in our town, and onto ...
On Monday the Home Affairs Select Committee published yet another damning report of the UK Border Agency. We found that, in addition to the half million undetermined immigration and asylum cases, UKBA were failing to deal with new immigration cases. It is no wonder that immigration is consistently identified as one of the biggest issues facing the UK if the Agency established by Labour cannot tell us who is in the country, who should be here and who should not. The backlog started in the 90s, but in response Labour put the whole border control operation at arm's length. They ...
There's a lot of snake-oil in the technology world. From gold plated fibre optic cables to anti-radiation phone cases - there are a whole lot of people willing to exploit technical ignorance in return for money. There's also a lot of misinformation, folklore, and crazy thinking which confuses us when we try to interact with "simple" technology. For example, I was in Waterloo Tube station when I saw this [IMG: Waterloo Wifi] That's one of the WifI boxes which power Internet access underground. I took a look at the antennae on the box and was shocked at what I saw... ...
Local news from your Liberal Democrat councillors is updated weekly at www.bathwick.mycouncillor.org.uk
As members of the body setting up a review of Liberal Democrat policy on immigration and identity under Andrew Stunell MP, or members of the review itself, we feel the need to put a few facts in the public domain following Nick Clegg's speech on Friday. It would have been helpful had we been made aware of the contents in advance. It would have been very helpful if members of the Policy Working Group had been sent an embargoed copy of the speech the night before. There was much in the speech that reiterated Liberal values on immigration; indeed much ...
So now search and rescue services are to be privatised. I thought the point of privatisation was to offer more choice but the Bristow Group has bagged the whole lot for £1.6bn. If you need rescuing, it will be Bristow or nothing. What will the new service be like? If a ship is sinking off the British coast and a sailor makes a distress call, the response may sound like this: Automated voice: "Thank you for calling Bristow Search and Rescue Services. Please wait for all of the available options before making your next selection. If your ship is sinking, ...
It takes more than a bit of snow to make the people of Leicestershire surrender their ancient customs, so the Hallaton Bottle Kicking will definitely be going ahead on Easter Monday. And the Hare Pie Scrambling too, of course. No, I am not making this up (even though Easter Monday is 1 April).
Are you standing in the local elections in May? If so, you need to be aware of a change in the guidance about nominations and the new nomination form. If you do not return the form correctly you may be disqualified. The regulation is: a candidate must return the entire consent to nomination form which includes copies of the relevant legislation by the close of nominations for their nomination to be valid [my emphasis] So when you return your nomination form you must send back the 5 pages of legislation, as well as the consent form. ALDC thinks it is ...
Via Mark Easton at the BBC: Mr Duncan Smith says he is proud of the fact that his government agreed that Job Centre staff could refer people to food banks. "What would you prefer? Under the last government, Job Centre staff were not allowed to talk about it. My concern is that the individual who is in front of Job Centre staff can get access to everything they need to." Does anyone not see what the obvious error here is? For Christ's sake; the idea of a social safety net is that it provides enough to survive on. If welfare ...
Local residents have been asking the question - who will really stand up for Andover? With Labour coming a distant THIRD in our area at the last election, and FOURTH at the recent Eastleigh by-election, and with JUST ONE Labour County Councillor across all of Hampshire, many local people have ruled Labour out of the race for this May's crucial County election. The choice for residents is expected to be between the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives. Andover Voice spoke to Sarah, a local mum, about her views on the up-coming choice for local people. Sarah told the Voice, "Many ...
Nicholas Coombes is a Liberal Democrat Councillor representing Bathwick to Bath & North East Somerset Council. He was first elected in May 2007 with Cllr Armand Edwards. Nicholas was born in 1986 and attended school in Kent, where his parents still live. In 2004 he moved to Bath to study a BSc in Architecture at Bath University, graduating in 2008. In 2011, Nicholas returned to university to undertake an MA in Town Planning. He joined the Liberal Democrat Society at Bath university and served two terms as society Chair. Although he held some Student Union elected positions, he was not ...
A motion from the Lib Dem group at tonight's Full Council meeting will seek to set up an urgent meeting involving leading Councillors and senior officers from both authorities to secure a commitment from the County Council to reprovide the Pioneer Club facilities and skateboard park. Chris White, County Councillor for Central Division, commented: 'It's crunch time after many years of uncertainty. The 'For Sale' board have been up and it won't be long before a developer is selected. The Pioneer Club is a fantastic local charity which provides a wide range of youth opportunities and also oversees the enormously ...
Yesterday the Mayor of London announced some important changes to the Met Police service which will have a huge, and in many ways, a bad impact on policing across London and the borough of Ealing. We do know that Acton police station will stay open 24 hours a day, the Ealing front counter services will transfer to Perceval House and Southall will be downgraded to a standard front counter service. If you want to check out the full report click here. This raises questions about how an Ealing police station in Perceval House will operate. It is more than possible ...
Tue 26th
13:45
Jonathan Portes writes: If you want to get serious about growth, you need to be positive about migra...
On Monday, I did seven interviews on David Cameron's immigration speech. Each time I've tried to get across one simple fact: that all the available evidence suggests that immigrants – and immigrants from the new EU member states, in particular – more than pay their way. That is, that they pay more in taxes than they cost in benefits and services; overall, from being a burden, they make it easier to finance our welfare state not harder. It is that basic fact that all three party leaders should be explaining to their constituents. Instead, they seem to be engaged in ...
Here's today's hand-picked selection that caught my interest... 17 London Underground Maps You Never Knew You Needed Awesome >> 17 London Underground Maps You Never Knew You Needed http://bit.ly/15P8WIC Press regulation rules may exclude small-scale bloggers | Media | The Guardian Erm. Govt to launch "miniconsultation with the newspaper industry" over how to define blogs. Shome mishtake shurely? http://bit.ly/Yc1OWZ BBC Sport – New Zealand v England: Matt Prior earns series draw in Auckland Ah, a thrilling draw #onlyincricket #amazingactually > BBC Sport – NZ v Eng: Matt Prior earns series draw http://bbc.in/YbZCyC Boris Johnson: the Irresistible Rise, BBC Two, review ...
Once again Stephen Tall gets to the heart of the issue What is a small scale blog? My 2p worth - I can't say that it's not bothering me i.e. what I am allowed to write and when. I'd like to think I'm not likely to libel anyone with my thoughts on emotions in politics and related issues - but I'm not sure of : a) what the legislation actually means, b) whether I'm covered by it c) whether I need to sign up for a regulator d) what rights I have to defend myself and e) if a vengeful ...
David Cameron made a speech yesterday promising a crackdown on abuse of the welfare state by migrants. If you suspected that this crusade is based on dodgy assumptions, you'd be right. Full Fact has analysed the facts and found that this is not exactly a case of evidence-based policy making. But then it rarely is in this age of tabloid hysteria and poll-driven policy. No wonder Cameron's speech is already unravelling. And as with Nick Clegg's recent speech, no matter what protestations they make about the good side of immigration, merely to discuss the subject in terms of the anti-immigrant ...
So, what do Labour's paymaster want? A Stronger Economy and a Fairer Society! And why do we all want it? Because ... Thee are the bye election wins since October 2012 ... And in nearby Hemel Hempstead... Both the Conservative and Labour votes collapsed on Thursday 21st March, 2013 as Liberal Democrat candidate, Ron Tindall, swept to victory with 33% of the vote - an 18% improvement for the party since the Borough Council elections of 2011.Dacorum Borough Council Adeyfield West WardLib Dem (Ron Tindall) 363 votes, 32.6% vote share (+18.1%)Labour 278 votes, 25.0% vote share (-17.5%)Conservatives 229 votes, 20.6% ...
How I spent my morning: emailing every single Liberal Democrat peer I could find an email for and who wasn't Jim Wallace, Jonathan Marks or Tom McNally with this email. I then excised the Lib Demmery and did another version for cross benchers. The letter itself is mostly nicked from those nice Liberal Democrats against secret courts people with my own bit tacked on at the beginning. Richard Morris has written his own version which you can read here. Let's hope it persuades them to do the right thing and vote for the amendments this afternoon. Dear (Lib Dem Peer) ...
You may not have noticed but our railway system is in a wee bit of an omnishambolic mess. The recent franchise fracas regarding the West Coast rail tender cost the government upwards of £50 million. Going back further in time, the collapse of National Express on the East Coast rail franchise put a £1.4 billion dent in ...
Over the years there have been many changes in legislation that have made the UK more liberal country and a safer place to be. Equal marriage is a recent example, a proposal that would have been inconceivable 50 years ago when homosexual acts between men were still a crime. In my lifetime we have seen anti-discrimination policies enshrined in law in terms of race, gender, disability and sexuality; we have laws that protect children and that give women control over their own bodies. But all of these were only possible because of cultural shifts that had occurred in the decades ...
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[IMG: house of lords] The Liberal Democrat Lawyers' Association held a special meeting on Monday to discuss the Justice and Security Bill. They have sent this message to Lib Dem peers: It was the unanimous view of the meeting that the measures introduced by the Justice and Security Bill amount to an attack on the Rule of Law in the United Kingdom and that those present were opposed to the measures contained in Part II of the Bill. I was felt that arguably the measures are a greater attack on our traditions and freedoms than that posed by terrorists, as ...
It is hard to believe that recent statements by Cameron, Clegg and Miliband on immigration were spontaneously synchronous. Perhaps they were just responding to each other. More likely they were all responding to UKIP's performance in Eastleigh. Nick Clegg's statement came first. Wrong and foolish, Nick. We don't want the xenophobe vote and, even if we did, we wouldn't get it. Farage
Last June, the idea of insisting that those wishing to bring a foreign spouse into the country should have a minimum level of income was mooted. It was bad enough that the Government adopted it, but it was the Labour response that was even more dubious. Here's what Yvette Cooper asked at the time; Will the Home Secretary explain why the Government ruled out consulting on a bond that could have been used to protect the taxpayer if someone needed public funds later on? So, when Nick Clegg talks about introducing a security bond for visa applicants, it isn't original ...
It is coming up to year end for GP practices and that of course means that they will all be diligently filling in reams of paperwork for the DH in order to secure maximum funding via the QOF. In the doctor's business journal medeconomics Dr Gavin Jamie gives some top tips on how practices can maximise their points score. According to Jamie: It is that time of year when practices are polishing their data and preparing for the annual inspection on 31 March of their QOF achievement. For many it is a matter of pride, and not simply financial necessity, ...
The Beeb reports an HSE spokesperson: "We often come across half-baked decisions taken in the name of health and safety, but this one takes the biscuit. "The real issue isn't what shape the flapjacks are, but the fact that pupils are throwing them at each other - and that's a matter of discipline, and has got nothing to do with health and safety as we know it. "We're happy to make clear that flapjacks of all shapes and sizes continue to have our full backing."
Dear Everybody So, today is the day. The final chance to send the Justice and Security Bill back to the House of Commons with a firm 'no' written all over it, in the shape of the excellent amendments proposed to the bill, designed to consign it to a permanent state of ping pong between Houses until time runs out. I hope you take the chance to send the Bill to this Parliamentary limbo. Why? Partly because it is fundamentally illiberal. There is a reason why successive Lib Dem conferences have rejected the Bill over and over again. There is a ...
A follow-up to my weekend post, Bloggers unite to oppose "botched late-night drafting" that proposes new press/web regulation, highlighting the concerns of many — including the Hacked Off campaign group — that politicians' hasty law-making had resulted in legislative over-reach. [IMG: lord mcnally] In the House of Lords last night, the Government accepted an amendment that will exclude from the Royal Charter-backed independent self-regulation plans 'A person who publishes a small-scale blog'. How 'a small-scale blog' is defined will be consulted on by the culture, media and sport department. Patrick Wintour in The Guardian reports this as "a miniconsultation with ...
Now that we appear to be getting a Double Dip Winter (I blame George Osborne), I thought this picture of the lane behind my house - with my son Robin coming home from school in midsummer - might cheer everyone up a little. It has certainly made me feel a little warmer just looking at it.
Yesterday, I had the pleasure of calling by a Communities in Action Afternoon Tea at Logie St John's (Cross) Church Hall. This was a great opportunity for older people in the West End to discuss what it is like growing older in the local community and what services and opportunities are provided and what could be improved. A further feedback event will take place at the same venue from 2pm on 5th June. I also attended the latest meeting of the Remploy Working Group where members were unfortunately advised that a bid to run the Dundee Remploy factory as a ...
The Reason Stick: The Venn Diagram of Irrational Nonsense (tags: ) David Cameron: I will oppose 'aggressive secularisation' of British society - Telegraph Ugh. Straw men abound. (tags: ) We could have been anything that we wanted to be - Nick Barlow on Clegg's Immigration speech (tags: ) almostwitty | Nostalgia is a dangerous thing On the closure of BBC television centre. (tags: ) Immigration: if only politicians would lead, not follow - Telegraph Blogs Comments frankly terrifying. (tags: ) BBC News - Children should be allowed to get bored, expert says (tags: ) Adagio Teas - Sami K's Doctor ...
On Friday we published a report on the prospects for an elected mayor in Bristol. It is the first report from the Bristol Civic Leadership Project. The prospects report was based primarily on views collected from around Bristol prior to the mayoral election in November. It drew on the respondents to the Citizens' Panel, a survey of civic leaders, and workshop discussions with stakeholders. The aim of the report was to set out a baseline of information on people's expectations for the arrival of mayoral governance and, where possible, on the back of that evidence to draw some lessons about ...
By Paula Keaveney At the Liberal Democrat Spring Conference recently, I asked three questions about the so called "bedroom tax". I got a range of answers , although the one that saddened me the most mainly focused on whether the words "bedroom ... Continue reading →
Further to my article yesterday about a welcome review of regeneration funding, I was interviewed by both Radio Tay News and Wave 102 News on the matter. You can hear the Wave 102 interview on this morning's news by clicking 'play' below:
Lib Dem Voice polled our members-only forum recently to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. Some 650 party members have responded, and we're publishing the full results. LDV asked: How would you rate the performances of the following leading Liberal Democrats and government ministers? Full results are published below, but here's three key lists for those who want to cut to the chase... (with comparison to December 2012 ratings in brackets) Top 5 Lib Dem performers in the Government: Vince Cable +70% Steve Webb +58% Lynne Featherstone ...
Last night the Liberal Democrat Lawyers' Association held a meeting at the National Liberal Club to discuss the Justice and Security Bill and most particularly the provisions allowing secret courts in some civil cases. They later issued a statement condemning the measures which you can see on their website. It was the unanimous view of the meeting that the measures introduced by the Justice and Security Bill amount to an attack on the Rule of Law in the United Kingdom and that those present were opposed to the measures contained in Part II of the Bill. It was felt that ...
If you are wondering who to blame for the current unseasonal weather, look no further. It is the coalition government's fault. Or at least it is if you cannot tell the difference between correlation and causation. The Guardian's Datablog has not made that error but it has correlated the Met Office's monthly data with the terms of office of each British prime minister since Margaret Thatcher: It appears that under David Cameron it has been colder, and less sunny - but there has been less rainfall too. Under Tony Blair, there was more sunshine and warmer temperatures than the decade ...
Can I take the opportunity to wish residents a Happy Easter (for this weekend), and a Happy Passover (which started yesterday). Let's hope the snow stops for the bank holiday weekend! Tim
It's time for the second entry in my meander through Texas' back catalogue in the run up to the release of the new album on May 20th. Today, though, saw the release of The Conversation - and we can finally hear a studio recording of a song which has been played by the band at the odd few concerts they have actually played over the past couple of years. The single version has a more poppy sound than this version, although it does still have the country twinges. To be honest, I'm not sure what to make of it at ...
