It is, of course, an unusual situation to have both the opposition amendment fall and the government motion fall. I was concerned about the issue as to whether UK bases would be used by anyone attacking Syria without a motion in parliament. I, therefore, obtained an assurance from the government before voting for the motion. I voted for the motion on the following grounds: a) We were assured
Mr Justice Harman, voted by lawyers three times as the "worst judge in Britain", resigned in 1998. He once, when a female witness said her title was "Ms", replied: "I've always thought there were only three kinds of women: wives, whores, and mistresses. Which are you?" —"Classic judicial clangers" by Gary Slapper in The Times,...
A friend asked me if I would rule out military action in all circumstances without a resolution of the UN Security Council. Putting on on side the circumstances in which the UN Charter authorises actions without such a vote, I still don't think it is possible to rule out action ever without a UNSC motion, but yes I support the development of international law since the Second World War. To
[IMG: Free Syrian Army rebel trying to save his friend's life.] I have been appalled, confused and dumbfounded by the Syrian situation, like many people. The British parliament did a superb job today in articulating the doubt about military action and ultimately voting against it. This has helped me to conclude that they are right. Chucking in a few Cruise missiles, or even hundreds of missiles, is not going save a single life. Indeed, it would probably kill lots more people, none of them called "Assad". Over 100,000 people have been killed in the Syrian conflict. A few hundred people ...
The Coalition Government's motion backing a strong humanitarian response "which may include military action" has just been DEFEATED in the House of Commons by 13 votes (285 votes against to 272 in favour). Responding, David Cameron has said he "gets" the will of the House. Earlier, Labour's amendment – urging further evidence of the Assad regime's responsibility for chemical attacks – was defeated by 112 votes. No official list yet, but here's an *unconfirmed list* of Lib Dem MPs thought to have abstained or voted against the Government: Gordon Birtwhistle Malcolm Bruce Paul Burstow Tim Farron Andrew George Julian Huppert ...
Yesterday an email was sent over Nick Clegg's name to all Liberal Democrat members - something to be commended in itself. In it Nick assures us that "this is not Iraq": This is not about boots on the ground. This is not about regime change.If that is what is not being proposed, what is it that is being proposed? Nick says: Deterring the use of chemical weapons to protect innocent people from being murdered in future by brutal dictators.He also talks of "proportionate, targeted military action". Having read this I am still not at all clear about what is being ...
Writing in tonight's London Evening Standard, Nick Clegg, Simon Hughes, Paddy Ashdown and Shirley Williams set out the case for international action in Syria. After describing the horrors of chemical weapons, they declare: We four believe a strong response from the international community is now necessary. They also make clear that if the UN cannot reach agreement, that must not hinder intervention: It will be far better if we are able to reach agreement for military action within the UN Security Council - not least because strong international support will bolster the message sent to Assad. Hoping that China and ...
So the pot has addressed the kettle again. Tom Brake and Chloe Smith have accused 38 Degrees of being either alarmist or scaremongering about the effects of Part 2 of the Transparency of Lobbying, Non-Party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Bill. Perhaps they would like to add the famously hysterical Electoral Commission to their list of doom-mongers, as they have also expressed serious concerns. Mr Brake and Ms Smith claim that Part 2 will save the UK from unaccountable big-spending American-style Super-PACs. No alarmism there, then - especially when the only thing preventing this horror is that non-party spending is ...
Yesterday afternoon I emailed about 1000 voters in Oxford West and Abingdon asking them for their views on Syria. What is interesting is that despite the complexity of the situation, there has been broad consensus in their views. Many start by saying things like 'I am no expert' and 'I am torn' but when they explain their reasoning the convergence is clear. I summarise the responses received so far in the hope that a) it has a cathartic effect on those who haven't expressed their views as I suspect many people feel the same and b) to ask if this ...
Dear Nick, Today Parliament is considering international action in Syria and you will take the most important decision of your leadership of the Liberal Democrats. It would seem to me that there are four clear questions that must be answered before any military intervention is launched in Syria. Is there compelling evidence of Assad's guilt? If compelling evidence of Assad's guilt emerges, has an international arrest warrant been issued under international war-crimes law? Have all non-military avenues for extradition to The Hague failed? Has the Security Council sanctioned the necessary action to execute the arrest warrant? Right now there appears ...
Chorlton Library in 1951 (c) Manchester Libraries You may have seen this story from the Manchester Evening News confirming that Chorlton Library has recieved Grade II listing from English Heritage. This is fantastic news and is the result of Chorlton Lib Dems' year long campaign to protect the Chorlton landmark after it's future was thrown into doubt by City Council plans. John Leech MP even raised the issue in Parliament. I am delighted that Chorlton Library has been given the recognition and protection it deserves. This is great news for Chorlton and our heritage. Our Library is an architectural and ...
There appears to be just a single principal authority by-election this evening. It's in the Windermere and Bowness North ward of South Lakeland District Council. As the Lib Dems had almost two thirds of the vote last time and the ward is in the redoubt of Party President Tim Farron anything other than a comfortable Lib Dem win would be a shock. A correction from last week. I mistakenly thought that the Lib Dems fought both Scarborough wards, but they only fought Ramshill where their vote slumped to 56 - just 9.6%. Former Kingston councillor Adrian McLeay had the best ...
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. 103100/FO/2013/S1 West ...
As many of you will be aware we held a public discussion last week in Calderstones Park to discuss the future of the Mansion House and the Stables Block. The meeting was called because a very small number of local ... Continue reading →
Contractors working on behalf of Stockport Council will be carrying out repairs to South Park Bridge in Gatley between 08:00 and 16:00 on the 16th to the 20th of September 2013. These works will require the use of two-way signals on South Park Road which will be manually controlled. These are regular maintenance works and nothing to do with the proposals we are currently consulting on to put a speed cushion on the approach road and make the one-way section of the service road two-way. That consultation will finish soon and I'll report back on what residents said.
The conflict in Syria has continued with greater or lesser public notice for more than two years now. In this time thousands have died, millions have been displaced within Syria and into neighbouring Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan. And the international community has done little or nothing, hamstrung by Russian support for Assad, Chinese support for non-intervention, and ultimately, lack of western interest. The large-scale chemical attack in a Damascus suburb claiming at least 300 lives at once changed everything and nothing. Everything, in that such an egregious violation of the laws of armed conflict, along with President Obama's previous warnings ...
Love and Liberty by Alex Wilcock sums up perfectly my view on the unfolding Syria crisis: "One of the few bits of moral high ground we still have that lets our supporters sleep at night (and still vote for us) is that unlike the Labour Party, at least we didn't invade another country and soak ourselves in blood in defiance of international law." You can read the full post here.
I finally got round to reading this rather interesting 1937 book and it was just as eye-opening as I was hoping for. We need only look at last year's "The Mormon Candidate" documentary on the BBC to see how American the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is perceived as, especially in this country. To be fair, the LDS Church has often played on this as they've integrated into the American mainstream. But you'd be surprised, I think, if you know just how important the United Kingdom has been for the survival and continuation of the Church. And, perhaps ...
Thu 29th
14:27
The Independent View: It's not alarmist to raise concerns about government plans for non-party campa...
The government ministers leading on the transparency of lobbying, non-party campaigning and trade union administration bill need to make their minds up. Last week, the newspapers were briefed that the government was "open to changes" to the bill following severe criticism from senior charities. This week, Tom Brake and Chloe Smith are lining up to attack 38 Degrees for "scaremongering" over the bill. So what is the truth? Unlock Democracy has campaigned for several years now for the introduction of a statutory lobbying register and so has taken a keen interest in this bill. Our main focus of the bill ...
The argument over Syria is depressing. After decades of an appalling regime and months of appalling civil war, poison gas has pushed many people simply to say - enough. And, morally, they're right. Who can't understand the urge to say, these are terrible things, and they must be fought? But real life doesn't let us be the Sheriff, all guns blazing. The last decade above all has taught us about playing at cowboy 'peacemaking'. So much as I empathise with Nick Clegg, it's time to tell him to be a grown-up. Syria up-ends all the usual certainties of UK politics. ...
Your Wallington South ward councillors have secured £100,000 from Transport for London to make improvements to Stafford Road in Wallington with the aim of making it more attractive and safer for shoppers and visitors to the area. There are a large number of excellent businesses and shops along Stafford Road and we are pleased that [...]
Here's today's hand-picked selection that caught my interest... Stop slagging off Jamie Oliver. He's earned the right to these opinions – Comment – Voices – The Independent Grace Dent on top form > Stop slagging off Jamie Oliver. He's earned the right to these opinions http://ind.pn/156gg2n So, What's It Going To Be? | The Onion – America's Finest News Source One of the best Syria analyses I've read. Via The Onion. Yes, really > "So, What's It Going To Be?" http://onion.com/1dR1WBY Letters: Protest on the march | Politics | The Guardian Here's another Feb 2003 letter re Iraq war: this ...
Thu 29th
13:20** Lib Dem members' poll results on Syria ** Military intervention: 25% say No, 7% say Yes. 62% say ...
Lib Dem Voice yesterday polled our members-only forum to discover what Lib Dem members think of the situation in Syria. Some 580 party members have responded, and we're publishing the full results today. The survey remains open and we'll update these results in the next day or so if they change. Lib Dem members: opposed to Iraq and Afghanistan wars; supportive of Libyan and Kosovo interventions First, we asked about views of UK involvement in recent conflicts abroad. There was a big span of views. Unsurprisingly, given the Lib Dems were the only party to vote against military action against ...
FutureLearn seems to be in the final stages of getting ready for launch, as an invitation on its homepage is now allowing people to register their interest for courses that are due to start in September. The FutureLearn website also hosts an interesting set of articles about the progress being made with the development of the platform to support the initiative. The most recently published article talked about their choice of a responsive design for the site. In simple terms, this is one which works in an appropriate and usable manner for all screen types automatically – mobiles, tablets and ...
Thu 29th
12:59
"The Government won't let my husband into UK - while they talk about bombing the bejeezus out of his...
This morning, Christine Gilmore wrote an article on Liberal Democrat Voice about why she believes intervention in Syria is critical. She has a different perspective than most of us as she has lived in Damascus. She moved there in 2010 to do her PhD at the university. While she was there, she met and fell in love with Ziad, whom she later married. Sadly, she had to leave Syria, and her husband, behind in October 2012, because it was getting too dangerous for her to remain there. She has since been trying to get him a spouse's visa to come ...
Speaking yesterday at the opening of the new premises of the Evangelical Alliance the Archbishop of Canterbury had some forthright things to say on the churches stance to LGBT people. It was also of course the 50th Anniversary of Martin Luther King's I have a dream speech, and while the language wasn't as all encompassing and inclusive ad King's famous words it was a radical step forward. What he said was: "One of things that I think is most noticeable where we make a bad impression in society at the moment is because we are seen as against things, and ...
A couple of years ago, we had solar panels installed on our roof. We based our power generation estimates on the Europa Solar Calculator which estimated that they would generate around 2,700 kWh per year. [IMG: Solar Estimate] Every few months we take a reading and see how the panels have been performing. Our meter reading for the end of May was 4,271kWh - our reading at the end of August was 5,791. That means this summer we generated 1.5MWh! Let's put that into context. The average UK domestic household uses around 4.6MWh per year. Naturally, there's a lot of ...
It is easy to work out what I disagree with on Syria. The absurd politics of those on the left who have never lifted the smallest placard in protest again Assad's wide scale murders but break out a garage-full the moment there is a whiff of US involvement in something. Or those who talk about Syria with reference to Iraq but without references too to countries such as the Ivory Coast or Sierra Leone, where military intervention worked. Or without reference to countries such as the former Yugoslavia where the problem was not that military intervention took place but that ...
Thank you, Suzanne Moore. All summer, I have been defending the thesis in my book Broke: Who Killed the Middle Classes. I have had a great deal of support, as well as a great deal, of the opposite thrown in my direction as the weeks have gone by, but have felt pretty alone in the argument. Most recently, I was called a 'gentleman squire in London'. On my own blog too. If only I was... And now, here is Suzanne Moore in the Guardian coming up with much the same thesis (thank you, Simon), though basing it on the virtual ...
Fifty years ago this summer, British newspapers — which still had many millions of readers, especially on Sundays — were full of the Profumo affair, involving a government Minister (John Profumo), a good time girl (Christine Keeler), a society osteopath (Stephen Ward) and a Tory viscount (Bill Astor). When I gave a talk about it [...]
As far as tax changes are concerned, the Liberal Democrats have a lot to be proud of. At the last election our manifesto commitment on tax was to take the poorest taxpayers out of paying tax altogether, so that nobody...Read more ›
Syria is not Iraq. While Liberal Democrats were right to be sceptical of Blair's claims about the existence of Weapons of Mass Destruction against the better advice of Hans Blix, the UN and his own legal advisers, the situation in Syria is different in important respects. In one case Blair and Bush wanted to invade and used chemical weapons as an excuse. There were no chemical weapons. In the other case a genocide against civilians, ethnic cleansing of Sunnis particularly in Alawite-majority areas has been going on for over two years. Chemical weapons not only exist but have been used ...
[IMG: michael-moore-mp-secretary-of-state-for-scotland] Our Michael Moore is many people's favourite cabinet minister. He is also one of our most successful. As a Scot, I've seen at first hand how he played a blinder in ensuring that both Holyrood and Westminster parliaments were willing to pass the Scotland Act 2012. Then he brokered the Edinburgh Agreement, setting out the process for the Scottish independence referendum. For this feat, he was described by John Rentoul as Westminster's answer to James Bond. Because of his work, 16 and 17 year olds will get their first vote in the referendum next year. Since then, he's ...
Luther prequel could begin shooting next year YAY! (tags: ) 23 Signs That You're Not Really an Introvert, But a Total Narcissist BSing the World and Yourself http://t.co/HIpyU30IUI (tags: (from twitter) ) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1px5LTVIR3A As a communist i must exercise like this now, according to @LozKaye: http://t.co/ucVoTiHEUo #NorthKoreaHulaHoops #CommunistExercise (tags: (from twitter) northkoreahulahoops communistexercise ) posted The Blood is The Life 28-08-2013 http://t.co/BdEZNVirFI on #dreamwidth (tags: (from twitter) dreamwidth ) posted The Internet Says I'm A Communist AND a centrist (via @andrewducker) http://t.co/0wmqRQYXVM on #dreamwidth (tags: (from twitter) dreamwidth ) Dear Jamie Oliver, poverty isn't picturesque by the ...
It should have been Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats forcing Cameron to think again on intervention in Syria. Lamentable performance by Clegg on the Today programme this morning. Gladstone would have got this right. Once again I considered resigning from my party and rejected it. I will be there long after Nick Clegg has gone. I am delighted that we have a parliamentary and not a
In his book the Pinch, David Willetts illustrates how long pensions obligations can last with this rather eye catching fact: The American Civil War veteran's pension fund made its last payment in 2001, 140 years after it made it was first set up in 1862. (The payment was to a widow who had married a [...]
The Rutland Times wins my Headline of the Day Award: Suspected smoke over Colsterworth turns out to be a cloud Firefighters were called to what was believed to be smoke from a fire but turned out to be a cloud. The low lying cloud was seen passing over the A1 near Colsterworth yesterday evening (Tuesday).Thanks to RutlandNed on Twitter.
[IMG: 6079726011_3854842063_m] Yesterday was the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech, which is deemed by many to be the greatest speech of twentieth century American political history. The BBC has produced a number of special programmes examining its content, context and consequences. Many people are reflecting on its significance. I particularly enjoyed Alex Wilcock's post on the speech. The speech itself is highly allusive and intertextual, drawing heavily not only on American history but also King's training as a Baptist preacher. It would be interesting to explore how many people today would recognise these references. ...
Not withstanding the fact that Labour ended up in the right position yesterday (the one that Tory & Labour rebels had been pushing all day) I think Ed Milliband acted appallingly. The government clearly acted after speaking to Ed and his flip floppery will do nothing to engender trust when, ideally, you would like all parties working together on issues such as sending British troops into harms way. His antics, and I think it was him as opposed to say, Douglas Alexander, who was very impressive, will make it much harder for the government to accept Labour's word or sincerity ...
The experience of the war in Iraq rightly made us all more sceptical about involvement in the Middle East. But the underlying principle of 'responsibility to protect', that as human beings we have a duty to one another, remains as true as it has ever been. It is too late for there to be a good outcome in Syria, but there are 'less bad' alternatives we should aim for. No one is considering sending in the army. There's no support for it, scant evidence we could do it legally and little reason to think it would make things better rather ...
Irrespective of how they reached it, the decision by the UK Government not to rush into a military confrontation with Syria is the right one. Like many others I am concerned with the legality of any action, especially after what happened over Iraq, but what is really important is that we understand the consequences of any action and have an exit strategy. It should not be our job to destabilise the country even further, no matter how unacceptable and barbaric the use of chemical weapons is. The use of those chemicals is a war crime and needs to be punished, ...
From the Curator of Museum Services at the University of Dundee : A folio of 14 prints created by the Printmaking Workshop at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design in collaboration with the D'Arcy Thompson Zoology Museum, University of Dundee D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson (1860-1948) was the first Professor of Biology at University College, Dundee (now the University of Dundee) and his landmark 1917 publication On Growth and Form has inspired generations of artists, architects and designers as well as profoundly influencing scientific thought. As part of an on-going project to explore the visual influence of D'Arcy Thompson's work, ...
Dundee is again taking part in Doors Open Days next month, a great opportunity to visit fire stations, factories, castles, churches, laboratories, libraries, pubs and pools - just some of the Dundeelandmarks that will be participating. Across the city, hundreds of people will be granted access to fascinating buildings not normally open to the public as well as taking part in events, tours and talks for all ages. Taking place on 14th and 15th September, some of the West End participants include Blackness Road Fire Station, Dundee Central Mosque, The Rep, Maggie's Centre, various University of Dundee buildings including the ...
This is the 14th consecutive month the Welsh Ambulance Trust has missed its national 8 minute response target. This continued failure is hugely disappointing and just goes to show how dismally the Welsh Labour Government has handled our ambulance service. Sadly, these figures show Wales has by far the worst urgent response times in mainland UK. This is clearly not good enough. Getting to the patient as quickly as possible is very important when ambulances are called out on a category A call. These are the calls when the patient's life is in serious danger. For the Welsh Ambulance Trust ...
