[IMG: Scottish flag. Some rights reserved. Courtesy of http://www.sxc.hu/photo/584559] There it is, in black and white: Conservatives on 25% and SNP on 24% amongst Scottish voters in YouGov's poll from last week. It's a graphic illustration of the point Anthony Wells makes regularly, powerfully (but alas, that not everyone pays attention to): picking out one sub-group from withing a national voting intention poll often produces ludicrous results because the sample size is so tiny. Especially if you pluck the figures out from one poll, marvel at them in isolation and tweet excitably whilst ignoring the wider picture from other polls. ...
This was a first for me - on Thursday I was the after dinner speaker at the Whickham Rotariams' gathering. In the upstairs function room of the Bay Horse pub (an establishment that brings back interesting memories of my 6th form days) I gave a talk about self-sufficiency, bee-keeping, hen-keeping, jam-making and so on. I spoke for about 40 minutes and the presentation seemed to go down well,
Well, I blogged at the New Statesman on tuition fees. The inevitable happened Ho hum Enjoy Unlike the Independent, I've not been privy to the 'Learning and Life' paperthat is apparently being presented to Lib Dem conference in September, which suggests we should go into the next election without making any, um, pledges, on how tertiary education should be funded. Just a bit of a vague promise to take a look at it when we're in government - by all accounts: "...we have thoroughly examined the current system and the alternatives - a graduate tax and lowering fees - and ...
Photo of Charterhouse Square by Stuart Taylor "What will happen at Glasgow is a series of votes where Ministers will tell Conference representatives that it would be politically damaging for the party to fight the 2015 election on positions different to those taken by the Coalition Government. Of course, the Conservatives will not be doing this on subjects such as equal marriage, Europe or renewable energy; but that appears to be of no concern to the strategists." Gareth Epps ponders Liberal Democrat identity on the Social Liberal Forum website. "It's not worth removing him unless there is a credible replacement ...
We have had 7 crimes reported to us since my last ecops message. Only 6 of these can be disclosed. 3 of these crimes are in relation to thefts from Tesco retail store. Between the 16/07/2013 and the 17/07/2013 unknown offender(s) have caused damage to a memorial bench in Dry Drayton crematorium. On the 17/07/2013 unknown offenders have stolen a watch which was accidentally left behind in the toilets of Cambridge Services on the A14. On the 22/07/2013 an unknown offender made off with £60 worth of fuel from the BP garage on Huntingdon Road, Lolworth. The investigation still ongoing. ...
[IMG: old-friends1] During the PCC election last November I nominated Dr Jackie Pearcey to be Deputy PCC if I was elected. There was an all-male list of candidates for the post and I felt that Doctor Pearcey brought a balance and insight that would be lacking if the only perspective on offer was a male-dominated one. The decision was made after much consideration of the pros and cons, and was put to the electorate from the outset. Tony Lloyd dismissed my proposal and argued publicly against the need for a Deputy PCC, stating "I don't need a deputy, I will ...
When I was a boy the Headmaster of my little primary school was always talking about the War. To him it was so fresh, though his patriotic fervour was by then targeted mainly against the Communists — and especially "Red China" — than against the Germans. I do remember him proudly stating that Britain stood [...]
In the last 24 hours, over 40,000 people have signed an e-petition calling on Twitter to install a "report abuse button." This was started after journalist Caroline Crialdo-Perez suffered numerous tweeted threats of rape and sexual assault in the wake of her successful campaign to have Jane Austen put on a bank note. Shewrote for the Independent about her experience both of the abuse and the support she'd received in return. Ishould warn you that if you click on the link you will see some examples of the tweets she was sent: These are all tweets from men. Men who ...
Earlier today, I watched "My Week With Marilyn" which tells the story of the filming of "The Prince and the Showgirl". Filmed at Pinewood, the Third Assistant Director on the production was Colin Clark (son of Kenneth Clark, and brother of Alan Clark) who wrote the memoir the film is based on. So, inspired by that, here is Marilyn Monroe with "I Wanna Be Loved by You" from Some Like It Hot, which was the next film she made: Andrew
This afternoon, I had the pleasure of attending the Friends of Magdalen Green's Roseangle Playpark campaign Teddy Bears Picnic on the Green. Despite it being rather rainy up to 3pm, it all went very well, raising over £250 this afternoon alone, in addition to promoting the forthcoming wine tasting event and the dinner dance planned for November. And don't forget the wine tasting evening on 9th August - 7pm at Aitken's Wine Warehouse.Only £15 per ticket which includes a glass of fizz on arrival, tasting of three whites, three reds and something special to finish. For tickets email sharon.dickie@asktheobvious.com or ...
Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 336th weekly round-up from the Lib Dem blogosphere ... Featuring the seven most popular stories beyond Lib Dem Voice according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (21-27 July, 2013), together with a hand-picked quintet, normally courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed. Don't forget: you can sign up to receive the Golden Dozen direct to your email inbox — just click here — ensuring you never miss out on the best of Lib Dem blogging. As ever, let's start with the most popular post, and work our way down: 1. Tories win Beverley ...
There were not many signs of last night's dramas in town this morning beyond some silty pavements. The great exception was this shop, which was being pumped out by the fire brigade. Elsewhere a coffee shop had clearly suffered from leaking windows and a charity shop was taking no chances. See pictures of last night's floods.
It's recess, so politics is a bit quiet, but the Despatch Box newsletter is still jam packed with political news, gossip, and insight from Westminster and beyond. This week: The money from the porn filterers to the Tories David Ward's latest Twitter meltdown Lembit Opik losing it, and his new, new job Sign up now, ...
Sun 28th
17:08
Green Belt - Maghull Town Council – On the really big issue of the day Labour has failed Maghu...
Labour is in the dock over their Green Belt building plan, as we saw only too well in their by-election losses of last Thursday, but when they won control of Maghull Town Council in May 2011 they knew this juggernaut was hurtling towards them, yet they did nothing. If the Council had remained Lib Dem run the clear plan was to launch another campaign to save the local Green Belt around the Town just as had been successfully done in 1998. But Labour did nothing; they did not even make a submission to Sefton Council in the summer of 2011 ...
There are articles in the papers today about the billboards being driven around London which are asking illegal immigrants to go home. The newspapers have been reviewed on the Andrew Marr show and one of the reviewers was Trevor Phillips, the former chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission. According to him "it is a stupid campaign". I can't see much wrong with that review It is supposed to be targeting illegal immigrants, and presumably many of these immigrants don't speak (or read) English. The billboards are in English. There is nothing wrong with attempting to uphold the law. ...
A year or so ago I saw a trailer like this on the television and I turned to my wife and said; I have got to play this game dude... I have played a lot of shooting games like Call of Duty Modern warfare and Black ops as well as other games like The Sims 3 and was thinking about a change and this trailer caught my eye. I hadn't played a role play game like this in a really long time, since Daemon's gate on the PC and that was more of a strategy rather than a one player ...
Many thanks to the 15,000 unique visitors who dropped by Lib Dem Voice this week. Here's our 7 most-read posts... Opinion: Cameron's porn ban – what does it mean? by Iain Roberts (42 comments) POLL EXCLUSIVE: What Lib Dem members think will happen in 2015 and what we want to happen in the event of a hung parliament by Stephen Tall (47 comments) Labour MP for Tottenham tells residents: wait until September for help by Mark Pack (15 comments) The good news on university applications in 5 graphs by Stephen Tall (29 comments) Exclusive: Liberal Democrats: "Go home" poster vans ...
Here's today's hand-picked selection that caught my interest... miss_s_b | A report button will not solve twitter's misogyny problem. Re Twitter boycott, also excellent from @miss_s_b | "A report button will not solve twitter's misogyny problem." http://bit.ly/19qazTs Caitlin Moran's #trolliday Twitter boycott will encourage trolls, not silence them - Telegraph Blogs Terrific post from @brokenbottleboy re Twitter boycott. http://bit.ly/1e3BNNw 3 pts: 1) Any bullying of women (or men) on Twitter is vile..
Those of you who have not been willing to take the word of senior Liberal Democrat sources on those notorious poster vans, and have been waiting for a minister to say something will not be disappointed by Vince Cable's comments on today's Andrew Marr show: It's stupid, as Trevor Phillips said, the idea that illegal immigrants have got a sophisticated grasp of English, read at a distance and I think it is offensive. It is designed, apparently to create a sense of fear within the British population that we have a vast problem with illegal immigration. We have a problem, ...
Sun 28th
11:45
Majority of Lib Dem members back monarchy - but 40% would prefer UK to become a Republic
Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. More than 600 party members have responded, and we're publishing the full results. 44% want Charles as King, 9% prefer Wills: 40% want neither Thinking about the future monarch, which of the following would you prefer? [IMG: Prince Charles - Some rights reserved by University Hospitals Birmingham] 44% – Prince Charles should succeed as King after Queen Elizabeth II 9% – Prince William should succeed as King after Queen Elizabeth II instead ...
Recently the Met Police force, under the direction of London Mayor Boris Johnson, paid an awfully large amount of money to deliver a leaflet to every home titled "WE'RE IMPROVING THE WAY WE POLICE YOUR NEIGHBOURHOOD". They usefully highlight that non urgent crime reporting can take place by calling 101 or online somewhere within the www.met.police.uk website. They then state if you want to report something face to face that instead of having an East Dulwich Police Station open 16 hours every day, which Boris had closed from 24 June, you should pop Dulwich Library on a Wednesday between 7-8pm. ...
Over the past few days the debate has raged over how to deal with pay day lenders, loan sharks and even worse and more aggressive types of lending practice. It was unfortunate that the C of E was found to ... Continue reading →
[IMG: MarketFishGoodFriday] Tring's Deputy Mayor, Cllr Nick Hollinghurst, dined well on Friday night! Two good sized trout from the fish stall ready prepared for £6 – potatoes, carrots, cauliflowers and strawberries from fruit and vegetable stall. Trout baked in the oven in our new long glass covered "fish dish" (from Metcalfe's), served with perfectly cooked vegetables. And then to follow - strawberries lightly sprinkled with a little sugar. 50p for the gas and it was a delicious two-course meal for two for about £10. There's good value to be had at Tring's Friday Market!
Nigel Farage's party can do no wrong. How else cam we explain the fact that they continue to soar in the polls when any sane evaluation of their policies, their membership and what they get up to when elected screams out that people should not touch them with a barge pole? The Daily Mirror has the latest revelation. They say that UKIP has been branded Europe's laziest party after figures revealed its MEPs top the skivers' league: Leader Nigel Farage has the fifth worst attendance record out of all 752 MEPs. His anti-European Union party sidekicks Godfrey Bloom and deputy ...
This week, Nick's focus is on the Liberal Democrats' Million Jobs campaign. He talks about his experience shadowing an apprentice in a pharmacy in his Sheffield constituency. We're glad he reassured us that his work was carefully double and triple checked. Find out what other Liberal Democrat MPs are up to in their areas... [IMG: libdem letter from nick clegg] This summer, Liberal Democrat MPs and Peers are going back to the shop floor and finding out what it is like to be an apprentice. For my part, I spent some time last week stepping into the shoes of 18-year-old ...
posted The Blood is The Life 27-07-2013 http://t.co/HWqAiHX6Cm on #dreamwidth (tags: (from twitter) dreamwidth ) "i'd pick hell over anti-gay heaven" the legend that is Desmond Tutu http://t.co/eAPurV0uZ7 (tags: (from twitter) ) @CCriadoPerez it said on your blog posts that you had? http://t.co/iRwKbYo9Hb @tom_watson (tags: (from twitter) ) 9 Questions for Lib Dem Candidate Selections If you ever wondered why I am so fond of Julian Huppert and Greg Mullholland... (tags: ) Factcheck: How to make bad charts in 7 simple rules | Full Fact Amazed not one of these is a Lib Dem one. (tags: ) ...
At the end of September 1974 I contracted bronchitis and was off school for a couple of weeks. This period coincided with the second general election campaign of that year, and I got into the habit of staying up to watch the late night election programmes. I was already interested in politics, partly as a result of the Liberal Party's recent by-election successes - Alan Wyburn-Powell reminded us that Friday was the 40th anniversary of our double triumph at Ripon and the Isle of Ely. But those two weeks were certainly a factor in making me far more interested. Who ...
[IMG: jo swinson] Round about the middle of the Duchess of Cambridge's pregnancy, I remember seeing an article in a newspaper suggesting that her bump wasn't big enough for the stage she was at. I remember thinking that that was such a cruel thing to write. So she might have a doctor on hand to reassure her that everything was absolutely fine with her baby. That might not be the case for another pregnant woman sitting at home. who might be caused anxiety by reading something like that. Of course, I knew then that once the wee one arrived, Kate ...
Helena Morrisey has written a very misleading and mistaken article in the Telegraph. (Nothing unusual there, you might say, but it deserves rebuttal). Ms Morrisey makes four criticisms of the EU legislative process and one massive mistake. The criticisms are: 1) legislation on a large scale at a distance leads to bad outcomes; 2) EU Commissioners may be motivated by proving themselves
[IMG: A Preston Train pulling into Ormskirk] A Preston Train pulling into Ormskirk This is very much a long standing problem which not only has frustrations because of the poor nature of the main road from Southport to Ormskirk (for the volume of traffic it has to take at times) but which also has health implications due to the split site nature of Southport and Ormskirk Hospitals. The web address above is a report by Lancashire County Council which, amongst other transportation matters, covers the Southport access problems from the east. Sadly, this is a problem which has be ...
This summer, Liberal Democrat MPs and Peers are going back to the shop floor and finding out what it is like to be an apprentice. For my part, I spent some time last week stepping into the shoes of 18-year-old Genna Hibberson, an apprentice pharmacy technician in Sheffield. It's a tricky job. You have to be very precise when handling medicines because there's no room for error when you're dealing with people's health - is it the right dose? Are the instructions correct? Is it in the right container? Everything has to be double and triple checked. Luckily, Genna was ...
Sun 28th
08:36
Camilla Cavendish on published judgments - Martin Narey is wrong (as is often the case)
Camilla Cavendish has written in the Sunday Times about the publishing of the judgments. Her column is behind a paywall, but I have extracted the last paragraph: You may say that this is none of our business. But the number of blunders that seem to have been made in this case, by a local authority in chaos, suggests it needs to be our business until there is true openness. I hope the good lord
South of Bath Alliance has a web site www.soba.org.uk this will contain information about the campaign.
We are now all now familiar with the way in which Google, Starbucks, Amazon, Vodafone et al avoid paying their due taxes, and relieved that, at last, governments seem to be trying to do something about it. I've just discovered what may be another little wheeze large firms use to avoid their civic accountabilities. I have a complaint to make about "Orange" who provide the network for my little-used but hugely costly mobile telephone, so yesterday wrote them a letter to explain how I felt I'd been "ripped off" and asked for some modest compensation. I prefer in these circumstances ...
Back in April, I mentioned that I had chaired a residents' meeting at Pleasance Court at which one of the matters discussed was the proposal by the City Council to review the parking waiting restrictions on streets in the area. This should hopefully free up some additional on-street car parking in the area - including quite a wide area to the east of Pleasance Court towards Lochee Road to the north and Hawkhill to the south. As a preliminary part of the legal procedures to be undertaken to give effect to the proposals, the Council be undertaking public consultation soon ...
Note from the county council: This is to inform you that the School Crossing Patrol at SS Alban and Stephen School has now left. This site meets with our criteria and we will be actively trying to replace here. A Relief Patrol has agreed to cover this site for the first 2 – 3 weeks of the new term in September which is good news.
There's a simple reason for that: twitter's misogyny problem is society's misogyny problem. The only way to solve it is to make misogyny have worse consequences than non-misogyny. This is not going to happen any time soon. The current furore has arisen over a(nother) high profile lady being shocked at the level of abuse women who dare to speak out against misogyny get heaped upon them. Why is anybody still surprised by this? Hell if I know. More saliently, why is anyone still daft enough to blame the medium? Before twitter there were forums, usenet, anonymous phone calls, poison pen ...
