A hastily arranged meeting this evening at a local church hall saw Kingston and Surbiton MP and Energy Secretary addressing local Lib Dem members about the Syrian crisis, the recent Commons vote and his and the government's position. Although extremely well received - particularly for his openess to question and debate - my feeling was that the vast majority of those there remained unconvinced of the need for any military action.
Sun 1st
22:44
Councils selling electoral registers - the truth is not what the Daily Mail would have you believe
Tomorrow's Daily Mail leads with the splash headline: "Sold for £5 - your personal details"The story sets out the details of something that has long been the case - that councils are forced to sell copies of the electoral register to anyone who pays the appropriate (low) fee. All of this is covered by the law and local authorities have no say over the sales or the amount charged. When councils ask for your personal details to compile the electoral register, the form contains a box which you can tick if you do not want your details to appear on ...
"The government will ensure that the legislation [for cuts in education, pensions etc] is presented to Parliament in Quarter 3 and agreed by Parliament in Quarter 4... The government will present a Privatisation Plan to Parliament and ensure it is speedily passed." No, not the instructions of a monarch to a client state, or of a foreign power to a conquered vassal, but the instructions of the Troika - the EU's economic directorate - that now governs indebted states like Greece, Portugal and Ireland, as explained in an absolutely revelatory article about the state of Europe in the London Review ...
The world was horrified at the possibility that chemical weapons had been used in Syria so sent UN inspectors in order to gather evidence. They have now left Syria and we await their report. I am no expert but I think it is fairly easy to tell from the videos that came back from Syrian hospitals that chemical weapons had been used. The real question is who used them? There are reports like this one from Reuters that say it is the rebels and not Assad who used chemical warfare. So was it President Assad, that calming influence in the ...
The sign in English is fine, however according to the BBC the welsh says; "I am not in the office at the moment. Send any work to be translated."
[IMG: Get Adobe Flash player] I was sorry to hear of the death of Sir David Frost today, if only because he was one of the increasingly few public figures who had been there all my life. And it is appropriate that Andrew Neil should be in this clip too. When he wants to be, he is Britain's best political interviewer because he has learnt Frost's lesson that being polite and friendly is far more likely to win admissions from the interviewee than are bluster and interruptions. Jeremy Paxman and John Humphrys please note.
Sun 1st
19:48
LibLink...Paddy Ashdown: After the Syria vote, Britain must not sleepwalk into isolationism
Paddy Ashdown has been writing about the implications of the Syria vote for the Guardian's Comment is Free site. First, he pretty much repeats what he said on Friday: There are strange paradoxes here. It is possible to be both proud of a parliament that said no to the executive on a matter like military action. But sad; even - dare I say it - a little ashamed at the decision it took. Of course there are reasons for this. The leftover poisons of the Iraq war; the toxic effect of public distrust in our politics. Mishandling by the government. ...
Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 341st 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 (25-31 August, 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. Council by-election night ...
As an alternative to military action, I looked at proposals for financial sanctions against Syria and against the guys who supplied the chemical weapons amongst other armaments. Why, I wondered, do we not go after them ? The Daily Record has the answer.
I'm not going to lie. This last week has been a bit tough. I was (and am) exhausted, as it has been an intensive month of campaign activity (amongst other things), and I know there is no immediate relief, as we have 2 really important by-elections coming up. I've been a bit emotional, irritable, and stressed, whilst trying to deal with that inevitable perma-headache caused by stress, but nonetheless, I managed to find 7 happy moments! :-) Bank Holiday Monday. This marked the end of the first bank holiday weekend that the Boy, and I have been able to spend ...
We'll be having our AGM on 1st October. I'll post more details soon but meanwhile if you live in the Greenhill Road and Melbreck Road area and are interested in getting involved, do please save the date.
Next month a temporary community radio station will be broadcasting from and to South Liverpool. Based at ESLA in Garston, the project is designed to give local people a chance to take part in broadcasting as well as to provide some interesting local content. There's free training for anyone wanting to get involved in making some local programmes. If you're interested, and live in South Liverpool, please contact sfaragher@hotmail.com The station is due to start on 14 October and broadcast for 12 days but obviously there's lots of training and prep that has to happen first.
I do like a challenge and this week I have accepted three. The first two can be seen on YouTube. They were a ukulele tutorial, Sunny Afternoon by The Kinks and a ukulele solo Smile by Charlie Chaplin. Now I have a third challenge which is to give my views on the decline of the seaside resort, in particular the decline of Morecambe, and how regeneration should take place. This is the hardest challenge as there are so many things that could be done. Seaside resorts have been hit hard for many reasons and there was a rapid decline in ...
As the fallout of the government defeat in the House of Commons over the proposed military action against Syria rumbles on, it seems pertinent to ask a few questions. Despite various attempts to place foreign policy analysis in some kind of ethical framework, the fact is that military action exists within a purely Darwinian framework: Right does not prevail, unless it has sufficient might. There are many despicable governments on the planet- including, not least, the government of Russia- but we do not propose to remove their corrupt and criminal incumbents by force. That would be inviting a trial of ...
The Reading and Leeds Festivals, spread over the weekend 23-25th August this year, headlined by Green Day, Biffy Clyro and Eminem were both as popular as ever. I used to be a Reading kid, having gone there in 2010 and 2011 but in 2012 I arranged to work at Leeds festival as an Environmental Health Officer, monitoring (but not, thankfully, cleaning) the hygiene facilities and water chlorine levels. I had a great time and returned this year to do the same work. It only involved a few hours' work each day so I was able to see most of the ...
Many thanks to the visitors who dropped by Lib Dem Voice this week. Here's our 7 most-read posts... Tom Brake on 38 Degrees and the Transparency and Lobbying Bill by Tom Brake MP (67 comments) Syria Debate: How Lib Dem MPs voted by Andy Boddington (27 comments) +++Government defeated on Syria motion by 13 votes by Stephen Tall (54 comments) Clegg: Five reasons why this is not Iraq by The Voice (56 comments) **Lib Dem Members' Poll on Syria. **Military intervention 25% say no, 62% say yes BUT by Stephen Tall (33 comments) Syria: what do Liberal Democrats want? by ...
By Paul Lewis To the surprise of many, including myself, the House of Commons voted on Thursday evening against the principle of intervention. Government defeats on foreign policy are extremely rare, with leading academic Phil Cowley tweeting in the minutes afterwards that this was the first time this had happened in Britain since the Crimean [...]
131619: New rear extension and other internal and external alterations, Head Street. 131620: Conservation area consent for 131619. 131646: Advertisment consent for new signage, Osborne Street. 131688: Advertisement consent for new signs, North Hill. 131717: Fitting of new canopy and chimney, North Hill. You can make a statement in favour or against any of these applications on the Council website, or if you want to discuss it further with one of your councillors then please contact me or my ward colleagues Bill Frame and Jo Hayes. Related PostsCastle Ward planning applications, up to 14th June Castle Ward planning applications, up ...
Sir David Frost – satirist, interviewer, writer – has died. Here's my favourite That Was The Week That Was sketch, in which he and Willie Rushton excoriated Conservative home secretary Henry Brooke. It concludes with the brutal pay-off: "If you're Home Secretary, you can get away with murder". * Stephen Tall is Co-Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice, a Research Associate for the liberal think-tank CentreForum, and also writes at his own site, The Collected Stephen Tall.
It's now 10 days since Bill Walker, MSP for Dunfermline, was convicted of 23 offences of violence against 3 wives and a stepdaughter over a 28 year period. So far, his only public comment has been to state to the Courier: I never had any plans to vacate my seat and that's it. I will just leave it at that. That's not good enough for many MSPs. Willie Rennie has put down a motion (like an Early Day Motion at Westminster) calling on him to resign. That has so far been signed by over 80 of his parliamentary colleagues. Willie ...
Unsurprisngly, this week, Nick's letter is about Syria. He highlighted his unprecedented Q and A session with members (embedded below if you missed it) and talked about the humanitarian aid that the UK is piling in to help the people of Syria and surrounding nations. [IMG: libdem letter from nick clegg] This was a week in which we all grappled with a complex set of questions about Britain's role in the world: our views on the scope of international law; on the place for humanitarian intervention; and on how to respond to war crimes committed on foreign soil. My own ...
I am pleased that Obama has delayed the military action scheduled for around now. The delay has the major advantage of giving sufficient time for the UN inspectors to report and for international bodies to debate the issue. The Russian public position is still that the evidence is not there. I personally believe that the evidence is there, but that we need to be working to make the
Today's Telegraph contains a shocking report on the vulnerability of data held on all of us by private companies and public bodies. They say that that the authorities have investigated more than 700 cases of sensitive data being obtained illegally from organisations such as mobile telephone companies, councils and the NHS in the last five years. They add that these cases cover the details of hundreds of thousands of individuals, and include instances where confidential medical information was stolen from official databases. In some cases the personal information was sold on to marketing firms, providing leads for Britain's burgeoning cold-calling ...
laws of physics. For cats. (tags: ) posted The Blood is The Life 31-08-2013 http://t.co/C93hiWONlH on #dreamwidth (tags: (from twitter) dreamwidth ) Roxy is not interested in the #icewarriors http://t.co/zy8Fk5y0Si (tags: (from twitter) icewarriors ) TW for assault RT @andrewducker: Wow. Labour whip's physical bulling of MPs is appalling. http://t.co/5AoD7SDAq7 (tags: (from twitter) ) http://twitpic.com/db9tpk Oh yeah, this'll end well. http://t.co/FmJM68wSB7 (tags: (from twitter) ) News via @markpack: celeb musician in shocking election fiddle http://t.co/P5dk9jSXhl (tags: (from twitter) ) http://youtu.be/vasazrCYTCE Via @abjtal, @SawbonesHex does Matt Smith's speech from Rings of Ahkaten http://t.co/xeyvmiAp3n he's READING it, you ...
Today's Sunday Times [£] profiles Maajid Nawaz, the newly selected Liberal Democrat Parliamentary spokesperson for Hampstead and Kilburn: [IMG: Maajid Nawaz] Maajid Nawaz was once a rabble-rousing recruiter for the Muslim extremist group Hizb ut-Tahrir. He spewed out hate speeches and welcomed the horror of the 9/11 attack on America. He spent five years in an Egyptian prison where he was subjected to torture and solitary confinement. Since he renounced radicalism he has been physically attacked on the streets of Pakistan and had his life threatened in Britain. And if that wasn't bad enough, he has just been selected as ...
He was one bad dude, strutting across the stage like a harp-toting gangster, mesmerizing the crowd with his tough-guy antics and rib-sticking Chicago blues attack. Amazingly, Junior Wells kept at precisely this sort of thing for over 40 years - he was an active performer from the dawn of the 1950s to his death in the late '90s.Junior Wells - real name Amos Blackmore - recorded Messin' with the Kid in 1960.
Charities and not-for-profit organisations offer an extraordinary range of care services across the UK. They offer millions of people access to high-quality treatment, advice and support. Brilliant innovation in care often happens in this sector. It is critical that the NHS works hand in hand with third sector organisations to make full use of the important work that they carry out in enabling people to live healthier, more independent lives. Last week I announced the latest round of funding for the Innovation, Excellence and Strategic Development (IESD) Fund, which is designed to support voluntary groups in promoting health and wellbeing ...
I first came across the Hon* Christopher Layton on a refresher course for economics teachers at the University of Bath in the late 60s. He astounded us by pointing our that the peak years for the order books of BSA, which made machine tools as well as airguns and Bantam motor-bikes, were 1951, 1955, 1959 and 1964. To understand the significance of this you need to know about the economic "accelerator," by which a change in consumer demand has a magnified effect on investment demand (eg machine tools). Now those dates were the years of General Elections, so here was ...
From Sheena Wellington of Friends of Wighton: Wighton Heritage Centre, Central Library : Lunchtime Recital Wednesday 4th September at 1.15pm Ewen Sutherland, singer Admission free, donations welcome Ewen Sutherland, is a warm-voiced singer and accomplished guitarist of the greatest skill and sensitivity Dundee born but brought up in Blairgowrie, Ewen became interested in folk music young and formed the band Puddock's Well with school friend Dougie MacLean. More recently he has been a member of the Gallivanters Ceilidh Band, founder member of The Keekin Glass and a regular performer at clubs, hotels and hospitals. For more than two decades, he ...
Residents have commented to me how pleased they are at the improvements to the Grosvenor Road pavements that have recently been upgraded and adopted by the City Council - see right. Back in 2007, I proposed to the council that it increase its funding to tackle unadopted pavements by two and a half fold to £500 000 each year, something that was unanimously agreed and has been continued every since and we are now seeing the number of bad, unadopted, pavements in the West End and elsewhere in the city being tackled at a much better rate.
Last week's news that Further Education institutions in Wales could be facing potential cuts in the region of 5% in their budgets from April 2014 is concerning. The Welsh Government must appreciate that FE colleges are institutions which need to be able to plan well in advance for which courses they offer and how many staff they will need to deliver those courses. The letter from the Minister to the colleges (a copy of which has been obtained by the BBC) raises the issue of further funding cuts which are in addition to the 1.5% announced by the Minister a ...
The performance of First Capital Connect and Network Rail will be scrutinised by St Albans City and District Council's Local Services Scrutiny Committee on Tuesday 3 September. Both companies are responsible for the Thameslink train service, with First Capital Connect running the service and Network Rail maintaining the track and signals. Senior management from the companies will be questioned by Scrutiny Committee members about their performance as part of a regular six-monthly update on the service. They last appeared before the Committee on 5 March. It was agreed that they will update the Committee on 3 September with answers to ...
When the result of the division on the Government motion was announced I was stood at the back of MPs crowded at the entrance to the Commons. So I didn't see the Labour whips move to the position where the winners of the vote get to shout out the result. The stunned silence quickly gave [...]
