Before I became vegetarian I had very little desire to help animals. Even when I first became one, it was more of a "I shouldn't completely mistreat them" rather than "I really care about them". That's still fairly true, though I now believe animal suffering is really important. This post describes why. Do animals have [&hellip
Can someone explain why Stephen Harper has been invited to address Parliament? The last time a Canadian prime-minister did this was in 1944. Canada had, of course, contributed enormously to the Allies' war effort, keeping Britain supplied with food and materials via the Atlantic convoys (my late father-in-law took part in The Battle of the [...]
This blog post is cross-posted from Lib Dem Voice: Choice is a funny thing. I spent seven months studying how it worked in practice when I was running the Barriers to Choice Review for the Cabinet Office. Despite the rhetoric from parts of the left, I believe that people can improve public services by being able to choose between different providers. I'm also only too aware how many people are excluded from that - by a lack of information or advice, by a lack of transport and any number of other factors. I am also aware of the political ...
Gatley Festival is on the way – and thanks as ever to the hard-working team of volunteers who make it all happen. As well as the carnival parade and fun day on Sunday 7th July, there's Open Gardens, beer festival, bike ride, stream clean. comedy, music and more. For the full list of events and lots more information, see the Gatley Festival website here or the Gatley Festival Facebook page. The Lib Dem team will have our regular stand at the Fun Day – see you there.
Thu 13th
21:36
Cannabis factory discovered when police open car windows after officer kept breaking wind
Metro wins our Headline of the Day Award - and the story is about Leicester!
Below are recently submitted Planning Applications in the Chorlton area. You can find out more information about any of the proposals on the City Council's Planning Portal at http://tinyurl.com/yv6lex or by contacting the South Area Planning Group Manager - Roger Hall; Tel: (0161) 234 4536; email: r.hall@manchester.gov.uk . You can also make a Planning representation (in support or opposition) to Mr Hall or the designated planning officer for each application. Please feel free to contact me on (07947383740; cllr.v.chamberlain@manchester.gov.uk) if you wish to discuss any application and please also send me a copy of any representation you make. 102363/FO/2013/S1 Wrea ...
Launceston Town Council tonight voted unanimously against the planned development at Upper Chapel dubbed 'death row' because of the new cemetery extension which would be at its heart. This was the best attended town council planning meeting I have yet seen and local residents spoke passionately about the problems they perceive with the plans. The chief concern was the highways issue with claims by the applicant that there would be just one more car per minute at peak times openly laughed at. I'm not a member of the planning committee but I also attended and spoke on the issue to ...
Oh dear: [IMG: Haringey Council sign spelt wrong. Photo from Friends of Ducketts Common
Thu 13th
20:59
John Leech MP's Guest Blog: Let's work together for a 20mph limit across Manchester's residential st...
With John Leech MP, Manchester Euro MP Chris Davies and Chorlton residents This is the column Chorlton MP John Leech wrote for the South Manchester Reporter: Last week the Council's Executive met to finally sign off a plan that will take the first steps in making the default speed limit on residential streets 20mph. 20s plenty speed limits will be piloted in parts of Hulme, Moss Side, Fallowfield, Miles Platting & Newton Heath and parts of Ancoats, Clayton and Gorton using £500k from Government Public Health money. This is a welcomed first step, but well overdue. Chorlton's Lib Dem Councillor ...
The Labour dominated Planning Committee of Sefton Council last night voted to approve what I believe to be a flawed draft Local Plan. The 8 Labour members of the Planning Committee all voted in favour of the Local Plan with its proposal for substantial building in the Green Belt. 4 Lib Dems and 1 Conservative voted against. From my perspective the flaws are:- • Too easily giving in to pressure to release high grade agricultural land for development. • That in 15 years time the Council will most likely revisit the process and yet more 'best and most versatile' agricultural land will ...
Following a suggestion from a resident, we've asked the Council to consult over possible changes to parking restrictions near Gatley Primary School on Hawthorn Road. Cars often park right up to the junction with Acres Road, making it difficult for vehicles to get round the corner, so we're looking at putting double yellow lines just on the corner. It's been suggested that the parking restriction opposite the school (on the single yellow lines) might be changed to start earlier. We're not sure if that would cause more problems than it solves, so we'll ask residents what they think. We've also ...
Over the last couple of months, the Lib Dems have called on nearly 1,500 homes across Cheadle and Gatley, speaking to hundreds of people with our Residents Survey. In the last week we visit Styal Road, Firs Road and roads off in Gatley, then Cheadle Road, The Spinney and nearby roads in Cheadle. We're aiming to call on all 6,000 households in Cheadle and Gatley over the next year – we're calling in Project 6000. We're calling with our Residents' Survey to find out what you think is good or bad, and what we should be concentrating on. We're picking ...
The information in this report relates to tasks and actions dealt with by Neighbourhood Wardens and Antisocial Behaviour Team in the Consett Area during May 2013. Neighbourhood Wardens Dog fouling Dog fouling is one of the major issues dealt with by neighbourhood wardens. We have investigated 10 reports of dog fouling. We have also removed 18 stray dogs. Littering Litter is another important issue. We investigated 2 reports of littering and issued 5 fixed penalty notices for littering. Fly tipping 77 incidents of fly tipping were reported during May. We carried out 22 investigations into these incidents in order to ...
I've no answer to this question, it is simply a question for those more in the know. Tiffer Robinson has pointed out on Twitter an area of possible concern that doesn't seem to be quite covered in the Marriage (Same-Sex Couples) Bill. At the moment female same-sex couples have two different ways they can register their children? Female civil partners Either woman can register the birth on her own if all of the following are true: the mother has a child by donor insemination or fertility treatment she was in a civil partnership at the time of the treatment her ...
I've been inspired folks. Well I say inspired but more I read something today that made me think and do some light reading, which in turn turned into heavy reading and well here we are. I read the following: Is nice really enough? Logic states yes, but the heart may query. Fireworks burn fingers, but let's face it – it's fun. This is the type of stuff you can read anywhere and not blink. However the source of this wasn't random. It was written by a young lady after we'd had a date or two. I didn't read it at ...
[IMG: helena morrissey report] I offered my first impressions of Helena Morrissey's independent report into the Lib Dems' culture and practices here yesterday, based on a skim-read and hearing Helena's presentation of it at a media briefing. I read the report in full (available online here) on the train home last night. I recommend it to all Lib Dems, and indeed anyone interested in how organisations can totally mess up when dealing with delicate internal issues. It's an excellently written, fair-minded, balanced and practical report which understands the idiosyncratic nature of party politics and those involved — without using that ...
This year the University of Bedfordshire has begun a series of public policy lectures with prominent invited speakers. I presume that driving this is the influence of the newish vice chancellor former Labour MP and government minister Bill Rammell. Last month the Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, spoke about parliamentary reform. He talked about how the House of Commons had seen a revival in recent years and highlighted the importance of the Parliamentary Committee on Banking Reform. You can watch the lecture in the video below. You might want to skip the introductory stuff. The lecture doesn't ...
Thu 13th
16:45
"Dr Julian Huppert (Cambridge) rose. Hon. Members: Oh, no." Yes, folks: this is our Parliament.
There are few more popular Lib Dem MPs — among the ranks of party members — than Cambridge MP Julian Huppert. It's not hard to see why. He stands up for civil liberties, and as a scientist (indeed, the only MP with a science PhD in the House of Commons) he is keen on evidence and a rational approach to policy-making. On both grounds, he is unpopular with those Labour and Tory MPs who regard such behaviour as a tiresome intrusion on their evidence-free, and often authoritarian, prejudices. How do we know he's unpopular? Because some of their number have ...
Thu 13th
16:11Bill Newton Dunn MEP writes...European cooperation is indispensable in the fight against organised c...
On Tuesday the European Parliament voted through an interim report calling for greater European cooperation to tackle organised crime, corruption and money laundering in the EU. Hundreds of billions of pounds worth of taxes are lost every year across Europe due to organised crime, as well as millions of legitimate jobs which have been taken from hard-working citizens. Fraud, counterfeiting, smuggling and cyber-crime all have a drastic impact on the economy and are undermining efforts to promote jobs and growth. Britain is particularly affected, with half of Europol's investigations into organised crime having links to the UK. Organised criminals conduct ...
More comedy genius from Australia's Clarke and Dawe: Also on YouTube.
Here's today's hand-picked selection that caught my interest... The Daily Mail, that Ofsted report, and setting for pupils: what does the evidence say? | Stephen Tall The Daily Mail, that Ofsted report, and setting for pupils: what it actually says... http://bit.ly/10eBBtN It is time for Lord Ashcroft and the Tory party to part company – Telegraph Pretty ironic, really, Peter Oborne complaining that Twitter elevates "the strident over the thought-provoking" http://bit.ly/13FPrCi Helena Morissey's report: my first impressions | Stephen Tall Helena Morrissey's report: my first impressions http://bit.ly/14XiFvC Quote of the week - Stephen Tall on the Morrissey report | Liberal ...
[IMG: Barristers wig] Choice is a funny thing. I spent seven months studying how it worked in practice when I was running the Barriers to Choice Review for the Cabinet Office. Despite the rhetoric from parts of the left, I believe that people can improve public services by being able to choose between different providers. I'm also only too aware how many people are excluded from that - by a lack of information or advice, by a lack of transport and any number of other factors. I am also aware of the political confusion around the term, when words like ...
The humanities matter. Books matter. Through open access, they can reach a wider audience than ever before A policy requiring open access to academic books? Surely that's asking for trouble? After all, it was only a few months ago that many humanities researchers were up in arms when Research Councils UK (RCUK) implemented its new policy on open access to journal articles. Although such measures are broadly accepted in the sciences, the RCUK policy was criticised by the Royal Historical Society, among others, for being a blunt instrument, insensitive to the differences that mark out historians from histologists. Given the ...
[IMG: jo swinson] Way back in May, Stephen Tall made Jo Swinson his 36th Liberal Hero of the week for her plans to make consumer rights more wide-ranging and easier to understand. She published her draft bill yesterday. The measures within it include: a service to be re-performed or some money back, eg if 25 out of 100 photos of an event are substandard, you would get 25% of your money back; rights over digital content, eg a streamed movie that keeps freezing; a clear 30 days to return faulty, non perishable goods for a refund; Consumer legislation currently consists ...
In the words of the playwright Bertolt Brecht, 'Welcome to the gutter, brother in science' I sympathise with David Nutt and his on-going battles for evidence-based policy on drugs. I really do. But to claim to have been privy to the "worst case of scientific censorship since the Catholic Church banned the works of Copernicus and Galileo" (Nature Reviews Neuroscience, coverage in the Independent) does seem a bit overblown. He's not the first to draw on such a narrative. Like many slightly loose appeals to a general sense of scientific rationality, it gets used in a multitude of ways. The ...
Eurosceptics argue that Britain should withdraw from the European Union to gain greater autonomy. But leaving the EU would not achieve this objective. In a post on the LSE's British Politics and Policy blog, Seamus Nevin points out that leaving the EU would not only fail to secure what Eurosceptics desire but would likely make the UK's position worse. Britain would continue to be strongly influenced by the EU, whether it liked it or not, but would have much less power. EU laws, which the UK currently helps make, are becoming a de facto global standard and cannot be avoided: ...
Ros hasn't spoken much in the Chamber lately, focussing more on her Committee work. But when Lord Sacks decided to initiate a debate on the relationship between business and society, she leapt upon the opportunity to highlight one of the ways in which that relationship might be improved...Baroness Scott of Needham Market (Liberal Democrat)My Lords, perhaps oddly in a debate on business, I am going to focus on the topic of volunteering. I am going to do so because the good news is that more and more people of working age are volunteering, but they are able to do so ...
Helena Morrissey's well written report makes me want to cry in parts in a good way - pointing out that it's "simply not credible" to say there aren't good women candidates, and also that the modern world is a good place for liberal democracy to thrive - I believe both of these statements. I will and have made these points again and again, and will do until more people listen. I think she has taken time to understand the culture and think she has done admirably well - the famous organogram is definitely the bewildering experience of many a new ...
Thu 13th
11:30
The Daily Mail, that Ofsted report, and setting for pupils: what does the evidence say?
It's my own fault, I know, for looking at the Daily Mail: Put pupils in sets at 11 to help brightest, says Ofsted: Call for pupils to be separated to make sure top students don't slip back academically Pretty definitive, yes? Pretty accurate? No. Here's what Ofsted's report actually says: In around a third of the schools visited, students were taught mainly in mixed ability groups throughout Key Stage 3. ... In the very best schools, this did not appear to have a detrimental impact on students' progress because the teaching was carefully planned and well matched to the most ...
The three acting c0-chairs of Liberal Democrat Women, Dinti Batstone, Tam Langley and Miranda Whitehead have issued a statement on behalf of the organisation giving their reaction to Helena Morrissey's report on processes and culture within the Liberal Democrats. We welcome today's report by Helena Morrissey following her independent inquiry into the processes and culture of our party, and support in full the recommendations she makes for change. The inquiry was prompted by the sexual harassment allegations against Lord Rennard, although it does not consider the truth or otherwise of the allegations, but rather how they were handled. Morrissey observes ...
Paddy Ashdown has been writing in the Guardian about what he considers should be the key principles underpinning any state intrusion into our communications, online or otherwise. First of all, he tackled the "nothing to hide, nothing to fear" argument: We have recently been told, even by those charged with overseeing the extent of state intrusion in our lives, that citizens who are not breaking the law have no cause to be concerned about intrusion into their private lives. Wrong point. The right one is: if governments never broke the law, citizens would have no cause to be concerned. But ...
The good news is that public opinion is making several multinational companies adjust their tax avoidance plans. We should also note that Section 172 of the UK Companies Act 2006 requires directors to act in good faith in what is normally understood to be the business imperatives but also to have regard to : " the impact of the company's operations on the community" and " the desirability of the company maintaining a reputation for high standards of business conduct". So within existing law there is scope for HMRC to get a lot tougher with its approach & the Government ...
posted The Blood is The Life 12-06-2013 http://t.co/TOwh0TgxAd on #dreamwidth (tags: (from twitter) dreamwidth ) Smelly juror halts murder trial at the Old Bailey | UK Criminal Law Blog "The juror had also been spoken to about his cleanliness by the Court Matron but unfortunately this did not solve the problem." - and so because one man couldn't wash, the public purse gets charged the equivalent of my salary for a YEAR. (tags: ) BBC News - E-cigarettes face new restrictions FFS (tags: ) Science fiction authors attack sexism amid row over SFWA magazine | Books | guardian.co.uk (tags: ...
Sadly, as Chair of the local party, I had to circulate this press release to our members yesterday: Council Leader shock resignation Responding to the news that Councillor Derek Osbourne was arrested on Tuesday 11 June on suspicion of possessing indecent images of children, Councillor Liz Green, Acting Leader of Kingston Council said: "Derek Osbourne has resigned from the Liberal Democrat Group. We are deeply shocked by these allegations but I am unable to comment further as we must now allow the Police the time and space they need to investigate the allegations thoroughly and without prejudice."
[IMG: Street Light] If you have a difficult policy, give it a name you can't disagree with. That seems to be the Kent County Council approach to streetlighting. Faced by trying to make savings (and reduce the number of lights they have to maintain) they have come up with a two stage policy of first turning off a lot of streetlights, and then secondly switching many more to part-time working so they would be turned off at midnight (or thereabouts) until pretty much dawn. Now if you were going to consult on the above plan called "Our turn-off and part-time ...
In today's Guardian Martin Kettle has a sobering article in which he argues that austerity and coalitions of one kind or another are her to stay for the forseeable future: The reality of British politics is at the interface between Liam Byrne's infamous "there's no more money" remark in 2010, and the general decline of the major political parties that has been so marked over half a century. In the immediate postwar period almost everyone voted Labour or Conservative. Now no more than two-thirds of voters do. The result is coalitions - either between parties or within them. The central ...
Two stories jumped out at me this week as being deeply connected. Stephen Tall praised Ed Balls for not ignoring the huge chunk of welfare spending that goes to pensioners. Then, a new website from Public Health England reminded us of the country's large health inequalities. These inequalities should give us extra cause to question the fairness of current spending on pensioners. As Stephen wrote "Spending on the state pension will increase by nearly 20% in real terms between 2010-11 and 2017-18." The challenge of an ageing population was present even before the financial crisis. It's now even more essential ...
BitCoin and other crypto-currencies are gaining popularity at the moment - but I remain firmly convinced that they're too hard for the average person to use. I have, however, watched with interest as an ecosystem grows around them. In particular, I like the way The Pirate Bay (and others) have used QR codes to facilitate easy payments and donations. [IMG: PirateBay BitCoin QR-fs8] The QR codes contain only three variables - the payment method (BitCoin), the destination, and a message. As this is a donation there is no value set. There is a full specification for a BitCoin URI scheme ...
Like Lydiate, Melling and Aintree Village in the East Parishes part of Sefton, Maghull now has some outdoor fitness equipment and it is in KGV Park next to Meadows Leisure Centre. [IMG: rsz_kgv_outdoor_fitness_equipment_05_13] I am all for this equipment although I accept that others are not. Interestingly, I predicted that some would be upset by the installation because Lydiate Parish Council had previously looked into providing similar items and it provoked letters to press in objection. That was 3 or more years ago but the same has happened this time in that a letter has appeared in the Aintree and ...
Writing for The Guardian, the former Lib Dem leader and spy himself Paddy Ashdown has said: [IMG: Rack servers] Some in this government (and even more in the last one) propose that there is a fundamental difference between the data of communications - that is, who communicated with whom - and the content - what they said. Not so. There is perhaps a difference of degree - but there is none of principle. The safeguards that apply to the first might be set at a lower level than those that apply to the second, but the basic principle remains the ...
Earlier this week, I received complaints from constituents that that the "red" light on Hawkhill at the junction with Bellfield Street (heading east) is not functioning properly. The 'visor' is not positioned properly so drivers can't see the red light on the right side of the road. The City Council's Head of Transportation has assured me that he has taken forward my complaint and repairs will be undertaken.
Police Scotland has recently published its policing plan for the West End for 2013. Having plans for every ward across Scotland is a very good initiative and the West End Policing Plan highlights local priorities including tackling vandalism and graffiti, dealing with housebreaking and thefts and tackling anti-social behaviour and drugs and alcohol abuse. You can read the West End Policing Plan here. We are lucky in the West End to have a superb team of community police officers and the team can be contacted at westendcpt@scotland.pnn.police.uk.
Between 2006/7 and 2012/11 the number of people on apprenticeship placements in Wales fell by more than 25%. The Welsh Liberal Democrats will be leading a debate this week in the National Assembly suggesting key ways to reverse this decline by overcoming the barriers that prevent young people from seeking and applying for an apprenticeship programme in Wales. The Welsh Liberal Democrats are calling for the Welsh Government to widen access to apprenticeships by: • Developing a school liaison programme to increase the prominence of apprenticeships in the provision of career advice to young people • Establishing an Apprenticeship Ambassador scheme to ...
