I do despair of the BBC sometimes. They held a discussion, moderated by Steve Richards, this monring on 'The World This Weekend' with two 'grassroots Lib Dem voices'. One of them, Nick Thornsby, to my knowledge is known solely as an opinionated blogger and has not held any office in the party. He represents no-one. The other was an individual by the name of Ben Ramm. Some years ago he somehow found the funds to publish a magazine, 'The Liberal', that consisted largely of poetry. It has not been published for several years. I recall meeting Mr Ramm at a ...
[IMG: caras apretadas1] The resurgence of private renting is perhaps the biggest transformation in the UK housing system over the last decade. Indeed, if you put it into a longer historical perspective it is quite remarkable. In the 1970s, in the face of seemingly inexorable growth of owner occupation and local authority renting, housing commentators seriously forecast the imminent demise of the private landlord. The decline of private landlordism went into reverse under the later Thatcher government, but its revival has been propelled more rapidly since the early 2000s by the engines of Buy-to-Let funding, affordability problems in owner occupation, ...
For too many years getting old and needing social care has ruined families finances. So I'm chuffed that the Lib Dems in the coalition government have ensured the Care Bill moves our country towards the Dilnot Report recommendations: - New asset threshold before having to help with the cost will rise from £23,250 to £123,000. A huge leap. - Cap the maximum amount of costs a family or individual will incur a lifetime limit of £72,000 . - Ability to move from one part of the country to another – often to be nearer family. - Ofsted type rating will ...
Has Camden Council lost its grip on the Abbey development? The development, at the junction of Abbey Road and Belsize Road, has been on the agenda since 2007. It involves knocking down the Belsize Road car park and the Emminster/Hinstock housing blocks and replacing them with new private and public housing, shops and businesses. After [...]
Here are a few reasons why the 200th anniversary of Waterloo, on 18th June 2015 should be marked: Its importance. Because it was the last battle of the Napoleonic Wars which had been going on since 1804, and Britain had been at war with France intermittently since 1793. Some would argue about its significance: for the [...]
New from the Deputy Prime Minister's office: Also on YouTube.
File this story under one of two categories, according to taste: 'How did we miss this at the time?' or 'Why are you even bothering to tell us now?' [IMG: nick clegg flowers] Here at LibDemVoice we try and keep you up-to-date with all Lib Dem affairs. And speaking of affairs... according to the Daily Telegraph of 11th June (yes, I'm afraid I don't regularly read its 'Home > Women > Sex' section) Nick Clegg is the most attractive of the party leaders to women on the look-out for "a bit of extracurricular" as the paper puts it. Swing to ...
With three stages, alpacas, food, a Saxon village, a real ale bar... there was a lot to enjoy at the Foxton Locks Festival this afternoon. And it is on tomorrow too.
On Dimensions In Time...
I am sitting on my bed during a brief lull in Doctor Who convention proceedings sipping Earl Grey & marvelling at how many exciting things are going on this weekend. On the Liberal Democrat front, Portsmouth Councillor Gerald Vernon-Jackson and his partner John have their civil partnership today. I hear that there was gridlock in the city as guess made their way to the ceremony. Best wishes to Gerald & John for a long & happy life together. Then there's the British Grand Prix at Silverstone. I so want Mark Webber to win his last race here but he'll have ...
Seen in Derby today at the back of the waterless waterfall in the market place. It's great that Derby now has an official speakers' corner even if it is tucked well out of sight, but it's not so great that whoever was responsible for the sign (the City Council I assume) missed the apostrophe out. At least it's not a writers' corner I suppose ... [IMG: Derby Speakers Corner]
I was on the Week in Westminster on Radio 4 earlier today, discussing the interesting, enigmatic character that is the business secretary Vince Cable. Steve Richards from the Independent was presenting, and Ben Ramm, former editor of The Liberal, was ... Continue reading →
Sat 29th
15:45
A longer read for the weekend: Tim Leunig on how to increase airport capacity in the UK
[IMG: leunig bigger and quieter] Congratulations to Tim Leunig — these days a senior adviser in the Department for Education, but until recently chief economist at the CentreForum think-tank — whose report Bigger and quieter: the right answer for aviation was the winner this week of the economic and financial category at Prospect Magazine's Think Tank of the Year Awards 2013. Tim's report, published jointly by CentreForum and Policy Exchange, examined all the options for increasing airport capacity in the UK. It supports placing four runways immediately west of the current Heathrow site, doubling the existing capacity to 130 million ...
From the treatise Against Heresies by Saint Irenaeus, bishop The glory of God gives life; those who see God receive life. For this reason God, who cannot be grasped, comprehended or seen, allows himself to be seen, comprehended and grasped by men, that he may give life to those who see and receive him. It [...]
Here's today's hand-picked selection that caught my interest... Liberal Democrat Voice Me @libdemvoice on the advantages of Ed Miliband "doing a John Smith" and push for an early EU in/out referendum http://bit.ly/17s4LFG Liberal Democrat Voice Interesting take @LibDemVoice on what #SR2013 means for UK's cities from @CentreforCities' Ed Clarke > http://bit.ly/1aogGIf cc @BenCities BBC News – The luck of the Canadians (and Mark Carney) Stephanie Flanders on Mark Carney's record in Canada » "Good timing" http://bit.ly/17JeL0V Russell Brand: what I made of Morning Joe and Question Time Russell Brand truly is an extraordinarily good writer (minus casual sexism too) » ...
The banking scandals of recent years have been so big and so complex that it is difficult for most people to grasp the extent of the problem. In the London Review of Books, John Lanchester surveys numerous major scandals, in ascending order of seriousness: Two traditional trading floor disasters - The huge losses caused by Kweku Adoboli, the UBS wunderkind who lost £1.4 billion in 2011, and Bruno Iksil, the 'London Whale' at JPMorgan Chase, who in 2012 lost an amount described by his boss Jamie Dimon as 'a tempest in a teacup', until it turned out to be $6.2 ...
Sat 29th
12:05Will Ed Miliband "do a John Smith" and push for an early EU in/out referendum? There are advantages,...
[IMG: John Major and David Cameron] Could Labour be about to "do a John Smith" to the Tories over the timing of an in/out referendum on the UK's membership of the European Union? In the 1990s, Labour wrought havoc on the fourth-term Tory government by (cynically) teaming up with the right-wing 'Maastricht rebels' to inflict damaging Commons defeats on their common enemy, John Major. Could Ed Miliband try and do the same to David Cameron? That's the hint in today's Guardian: Labour is considering backing an in-out referendum on Europe as early as its autumn party conference. Sources say the ...
This morning's edition of BBC Radio 4's Week in Westminster included an interview about Vince Cable with two Liberal Democrats, Nick Thornsby of Liberal Democrat Voice and Ben Ramm, billed as "former editor of The Liberal, regarded as being on the left of the party". What was not mentioned is that The Liberal magazine is defunct and has been for four years. During the six years it was published, it ran to only thirteen editions. Throughout that time, it had no influence or standing in the party but was merely a heavily-subsidised vanity project. As Liberator's Radical Bulletin column reported ...
I wanted to share with you a message from Lib Dem MP Gordon Birtwistle: 'Nothing matters more right now than creating jobs, especially for young people. I know from my own experience the difference a good start in life can make; my career in engineering started when I left school to start an apprenticeship at [...]
[IMG: Nick_Clegg_signature.png] Nick Clegg
Residents will recall that, earlier this month, I gave an update on bus service improvements that are due to take place from tomorrow, Sunday 30th June. In addition to some changes to the Number 5 and 22 services that serve the West End, there are some new services - the new (or rather the return of an Outer Circle service) 9, 10, 11, 12 (various versions) - includes evening an weekend services to Pentland, City Road and surrounding areas and the new 203 service - giving an off-peak Monday to Saturday daytime service to link streets like Glenagnes Road, Scott ...
My blog yesterday about the roads programme in the 1970s, and what a disaster it was - despite the Treasury's enthusiasm for it in their recent announcement - has brought a whole lot of half forgotten thoughts bubbling, as thoughts do, to the surface. And some new ones entirely. First, thanks to Gareth Aubrey, I've read an absolutely fascinating website about the unbuilt motorways and bypasses of Britain. More about that in a moment. The second thing I remembered was one of the first public meetings I ever went to. I can't remember where it was exactly, only that it ...
This week's announcements were both a preview of the coalition's spending plans for 2015/16 and a sign of the government's direction of travel. For cities, the spending review was mixed. Despite the Government delivering the Single Local Growth Fund devolution was fairly limited, with an emphasis on central government control rather than local autonomy, and most of the policy announcements lacked a focus on 'place'. Wednesday's announcement of the Single Local Growth Fund was an important move towards greater localism, but the allocation of £2bn a year for five years was paltry compared with the £49bn over four years Heseltine ...
They might want to move this poster over a little. (Taken in Paddington this morning.) http://t.co/gkULa1DB3s (tags: (from twitter) ) Well said. These beyond-parody products, are an insult on many levels. Please share. http://t.co/sMfwfKgQ8w (tags: (from twitter) ) http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/48628 Yes! - ePetition protesting Grayling's daft and dangerous legal proposals *now over 99,000* - http://t.co/ixPIidbACC - now for 100k. (tags: (from twitter) ) [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
UKIP Leader Nigel Farage is in the Western Mail this morning claiming that his party is now in favour of retaining the Welsh Assembly and that he is relaxed about the institution getting more powers, including control of policing. Farage says he was embarrassed at his party's campaign at the last Assembly elections and that he plans to do better next time, starting with the Anglesey by-election. Oh, there is a by-election? And in an area where this sort of Damascene conversion might play well. The UKIP leader does not miss a trick. I doubt if it will do his ...
During the controversy over the introduction of the 'shares for rights' scheme (whereby employees swap their employment rights for shares), senior Lib Dems told me that it wasn't an issue to get too worked up about as the details of the scheme were so flawed that very few people would end up using it. The Tories will get the headlines they wanted about a scheme being introduced, but workers would be protected by the scheme being flawed. It looks like that is indeed what is happening, for as the FT reports: Only a handful of companies have inquired about George ...
Sat 29th
09:33
Lower Alt Windfarm – A letter from West Lancs Borough Council to Lydiate Parish Council
[IMG: image002] [IMG: image004] I hope those interested will be able to read the above letter. Please click on each page of it to enlarge. I have published the letter as I thought it may be of interest as this subject is a big issue in some parts of Sefton and indeed West Lancashire. It is in response to concerns raised by Lydiate Parish Council about the proposed wind farm development. I will publish more postings as things develop.
Sat 29th
09:20Lynne: Police should target "cutters" who perform genital mutilation on girls in Britain, not their ...
[IMG: Lynne Featherstone in Zambia. Photo: some rights reserved by DFID http://www.flickr.com/photos/dfid/8220719712/] The London Evening Standard reports: Police should target "cutters" who perform genital mutilation on girls in Britain, rather than the parents who pay for it, International Development minister Lynne Featherstone says. The minister, who this week visited Kenya to see how female genital mutilation is being stamped out there, said Britain needs to speed up the first prosecution here to send a warning that the practice will not be tolerated. FGM has been illegal in the UK since 1985 but nobody has ever been prosecuted — a fact ...
The Local Lib Dems are on course to knock on all 6,000 doors in the ward before the elections next May. In the last three months we've knocked on over 2,000 doors and spoken to hundreds of residents. We've got a big pile of returned Residents Surveys which people have filled in, letting us know what the issues are, so we can work on getting them sorted. Last week we were in Cheadle, calling on Bulkeley Road, New Hey Road, Newboult Road and Frances Street. This week we've been in Gatley's Lakes Estate, speaking to residents on Buttermere, Grasmere, Troutbeck, ...
Labour's Councillor Sutherland has jumped to the defense of Council leader Tim Swift's lack of a plan for running Calderdale Council. Councillor Sutherland letter published in the Halifax Courier on 28th June 2013 claims he is 'a practical sort of person' and 'more interested in what the Council actually delivered than in what's written down on pieces of paper'. Quite right I say, who needs tiresome plans, or paper when you can intuitively know like Sutherland that 'the Labour-led council knows what it is about and is getting on with the job'. Even better still why not govern solely on ...
New from the Deputy Prime Minister's office: Also on YouTube.
With thanks to the City Council's excellent Photopolis site, over the next few days, I am featuring some superb historical photographs of the West End: This view of the Hawkhill in Dundee is taken from the West Port, looking west. Thomas Aitken's public house, The Globe, is listed in the Dundee Directory as Nos. 57 and 59 West Port, and is still so named today. Behind it is Johnston's Lane. No. 1 Hawkhill is listed in the Dundee Directory as John Mathieson, broker, which may have been the West Port Loans Office. M. Boland & Co.'s clothiery was Nos. 20 ...
This week marks the twelfth successive month where ambulance response times targets have been missed. The Welsh Government's target is for 65% of ambulances to respond to Category A (immediately life-threatening) calls within 8 minutes, yet figures for May show that only 62.5% of ambulances arrived within that time. It is appalling that this very important all-Wales target has not been met once in a year. Targets here in Wales are already 10% behind those in England and Scotland, yet still Wales is missing these unambitious targets. It's good to see that there has been improvement in performance when compared ...
