A referendum on Britain's membership of the European Union isn't expected until 2017, and may not happen then, but the arguments for both In and Out are getting more insistent. This evening, the magnificent Great Hall at the Guildhall in the City of London hosted a capacity crowd to hear a debate on the question "The [...]
I am not a huge fan of the recent revival of Doctor Who, but I have fond memories of the early years of the show and of the actors who played the hero. My favourite among them is Patrick Troughton, who we have seen as the murderous Tyrell in Richard III and as Cole Hawlings in The Box of Delights. A few days ago across a post on the blog sophieneville which tells us that Troughton played The Eel Man in the BBC's adaptation of Arthur Ransome's The Big Six: that was filmed in 1983 and screened the following year: ...
I thought it might be helpful to have a wee mosy around the Conference agenda and highlight some of the must-see picks of each day. You can always guarantee with a Conference agenda that there will be at least two things you want to do at any given moment. In fact, if it's only two, that's a bonus. On Saturday, I need to split myself into 10 to do everything I need to do. The age old concept of divide and rule is alive and well in 2013. If you have two highly contentious consultation sessions likely to be attended ...
National campaign calls for all smokers in Cambridgeshire to join a 28-day quitting challenge During October, smokers in Cambridgeshire are being encouraged to take part in the first ever mass quit attempt launched by the Department of Health - Stoptober. We know that if you can stop smoking for 28 days you are five times more likely to stay smokefree, and Stoptober leads smokers through a detailed step-by-step programme to help them achieve this goal. CAMQUIT, your local stop smoking service, wants you to start your planning now and make an appointment early. CAMQUIT were inundated with extra people asking ...
I am hosting an event on Thursday 19th September from 6:30- 8:30pm in the Community Room, Doreen Ramsey Court, The Cut, Waterloo, London, SE1 8LN on 'Has Chelsea Manning Redefined Nationalism and Patriotism?' The evening will start off with a play put on by Calders Bookshop followed by an open forum discussion. Biscuits and soft drinks will be provided. Children welcome. Disabled access.
From the East Midlands Liberal Democrats website: The Liberal Democrat group on Derby City Council have put forward a motion to the full council meeting on Wednesday 18th September that will stop tenants effected by the under occupancy penalty from being evicted. This will follow a debate at the Liberal Democrat conference. It is highly likely that the party will make it party policy that once a tenant has registered to downsize, then they will be exempt from the under occupancy penalty. Littleover Councillor Eric Ashburner said "Liberal Democrat run Stockport council have put this policy in place to ensure ...
From the Dispatches page on Channel 4's website: Liberal MP Cyril Smith was knighted in life and celebrated in death. Behind this public face, Dispatches reporter Liz MacKean investigates Smith's paedophilia and uncovers the inaction by police officers, Security Services, politicians and the Crown Prosecution Service, which allowed Smith to abuse for decades. MacKean speaks to victims, police officers and colleagues, and unearths previously hidden investigation files to reveal why Smith's crimes were ignored and how one of Britain's most famous politicians was protected by the establishment.The programme will be shown on Thursday 12 September at 11.05 p.m.
Within the debate around Sarah Teather kicking up so much fuss there has been several people, notably Baroness Hussein-Ece here and Lord Greaves here, who have basically said "You won gay marriage now get over it" – their attitude is ... Continue reading →
I wrote a blog post 18 months or so ago questioning just how useful the time saving afforded by HS2 is likely to be. This was in response to the main argument at the time, that London and Birmingham will be brought some 20-25 minutes closer through HS2. Although I am in general a fan of 'big capital projects' I wasn't so convinced the logic stood up this time. Its interesting that over the course of time, as the opposition to HS2 has become more vociferous, so the arguments have shifted away from time savings and onto other areas. Firstly, ...
One might have thought that a leader who has presided over a catastrophic slump in his party's membership would have better things to do than insult those who remain. Yet the media were being briefed assiduously over the summer that the Liberal Democrat conference in Glasgow is the event at which Nick Clegg would confront his party over whether it accepted 'grown-up' politics. Translated into English, that means, "will it do what I tell it to?" Having evaded any real debate on the economy for the past two years - helped by the fiasco over two competing amendments last September ...
I am immensely saddened that Sarah Teather has decided to step down from her Brent Central seat at the next election. She stood up for liberal and democratic principles, particularly after she left government, and [...]
It's in bloody base 8! It was like the first day of 'big school.' There we all were shiny new students with our protractors and our sharpened pencils and our calculators and after a bit of warm up maths* the obligatory paperwork (No I'm not a pedophile, yes I am British) a free cuppa courtesy of the Great British taxpayer and a bit of a pep talk it was down to some maths. So we spent the afternoon doing maths in any base than the decimal system. Mainly base 8. As a way of throwing a class of new students ...
I don't normally take much notice about Russian comments on democracy. It's like asking an Eskimo to describe sunbathing - they know it exists but don't really have much experience of it themselves! However, for the past few days I ... Continue reading →
Federal Conference takes places this year between 14th-18th September at the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre in Glasgow. ALDC will be taking part, providing quality training on campaign essentials, members-only workshops on advanced topics, fringe meetings on pressing political issues and our usual mix of chat, advice and printed publications at our exhibition stand. Our [...]
Police newsletter from our Cheadle neighbourhood police, September 2013
Members visiting our aldc.org from today will see some significant changes, as we launch our latest website. We have rebuilt the front end of our website, which has enabled us to resolve some long-running technical issues and improve our service to members. This new site also makes it easier than ever to access, search and browse [...]
I spent four days last week taking photos at the annual conference of the Royal Society of Statisticians in Newcastle. One of the exhibitors had a gigantic cake to celebrate 10 years of their magazine. They were running a competition to guess the weight of the cake. I was persuaded to have a go. Guesses had to be in grammes. As this was a statisticians conference, I could hear lots of people
Planning policy is a crucial issue for Liberal Democrats. We believe in supporting and strengthening local communities - and the development of the built environment locally, and residential, business and other opportunities on offer, is critical to that. We believe that the revised NPPF has defined the broad parameters of the planning process but [...]
LDHQ have produced a pocket guide that outlines how Liberal Democrats in Government are working to build a stronger economy in a fairer society, enabling everyone to get on in life. It identifies our key achievements as of August 2013 and some policies we aim to deliver in the future. As the governments in Scotland, Wales [...]
Mon 9th
16:17
Liberal Democrat Voice Awards: The Shortlists (3): Best online campaign by a Liberal Democrat
The Liberal Democrat Voice Awards are but five days away. At 10 pm on Saturday 14 September, in Castle 2 of the Crowne Plaza, with cash bar on hand, and an imaginative dress code, the best in blogging, campaigning, social media and politics in general will be feted in a ceremony filled with razzmatazz, glitz and glamour. Very soon, our Members' Forum will be e-mailed with the chance to vote for the majority of the awards. They will have first sight of those shortlists and will be able to pick their winner. This survey will also have questions on the ...
Stockport Council, in partnership with the National Apprenticeship Service (NAS), announced today that Stockport employers have pledged to employ 100 apprentices within 100 days. The 100:100 scheme was launched at Aldi in Romiley at the end of June, and the ambitious target was reached in just over two months – well within the 100 day target. The Council and NAS will continue to run the campaign until the end of the 100 days to see what figure can be achieved. Councillor Shan Alexander, Executive Member for Lifelong Learning and Achievement at Stockport Council, said: "This is excellent news, well done ...
On Friday 28th September, Liberal Democrats across the country will be taking part in a national Day of Action to celebrate our success in helping add over one million new jobs to the economy since 2010 and calling for a million more. Alongside the positive job creation figures, Liberal Democrats can also be proud of [...]
[IMG: hs2] The Lib Dem transport strategy "Building a Fast Track Britain" agreed in 2008 is an excellent document which is well worth re-reading. Lib Dem proponents of HS2 constantly refer back to this strategy when declaring their support for the project. But High Speed Rail (HSR) does not necessarily mean HS2. On the day that the Public Accounts Committee publishes yet another damning indictment of the project, it's worth making clear that HS2 is certainly NOT in line with Lib Dem transport strategy:- It will not help to reduce carbon emissions. Its ultra-high speed specification will result in much ...
Just two days after US civil rights leader Rev'd Jesse Jackson called for affirmative action on a visit to Britain, Labour's shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper (pictured) has responded by backing the idea to increase [...]
Dear Readers, I ought to be a natural rap fan. To anyone who knows me and about my not exactly hip hop lifestyle, this might seem like a surprising claim. However, the music I do like tends to emphasise the lyrics and the beat. And there is some rap I do indeed like; I listen [...]
The Lib Dem transport strategy "Building a Fast Track Britain" agreed in 2008 is an excellent document which is well worth re-reading. Lib Dem proponents of HS2 constantly refer back to this strategy when declaring their support for the project. But High Speed Rail (HSR) does not necessarily mean HS2. On the day that the Public Accounts Committee publishes yet another damning indictment of the project, it's worth making clear that HS2 is certainly NOT in line with Lib Dem transport strategy:- It will not help to reduce carbon emissions. Its ultra-high speed specification will result in much higher emissions ...
We have been working to get Orchard and Rosewood Gardens adopted by the Council for some time, so they can be properly maintained. The good news is that both roads should be adopted by the end of November. When a road is adopted, the Council takes on the maintenance. The streetlights have already been taken on by the Council, which was necessary for safety as a number had failed and the developer was not maintaining them. Most of Rosewood Gardens is already adopted (the pink area on the map below). There have been a number of issues causing the hold-up, ...
One of the most memorable scenes from last week's Syria vote in the House of Commons was Ed Miliband's floundering and playing politics with the motion. First suggesting that he might support the Prime Minister, then once the Government's motion was 'watered down', announcing his own amendment, not particularly different to the Government's, was pretty lame. His actions may arguably have prevented British involvement in Syria but that did not appear to be his intention. It is relieving to see that he has won little credit for his actions in the media, which has instead chosen to focus on his ...
I work for the MP for St Austell and Newquay, however, over the last few weeks I've been fortunate enough to help with the Wadebridge by-election. I thought I'd share a little story of positivity to cheer up other hardworking campaigners during these quite tough electoral times. Just to give you some background, we almost won this council seat in May 2013. However, an independent candidate beat the Lib Dem candidate (a guy called Steve Knightley) by just 5 votes in May 2013. Sadly, he was forced to resign soon after the election, as he was accused of making a ...
Last Saturday marked the tenth anniversary of the death of Mikey Powell in Birmingham. I am sorry I was not able to get up to the community meeting and rally this weekend, however I am [...]
Rumours abound that the Huntingdon and North West Cambridgeshire Conservative Associations are in the midst of a serious crisis. In the case of the Huntingdon Association this includes very serious financial difficulties. Losing seats to us Lib Dems and to UKIP in May can't be helping. But there are more fundamental, long term causes of their decline and internal disarray. The decision some years ago to select candidates who we not local and belonged to minorities in this very 'conservative' area is the root cause. Of course they will bounce back at some point, but is this signifying a more ...
Episode 75 of the House of Comments podcast "The End of her Teather" is out. This week myself and Emma Burnell were joined by Nick Denys from Platform 10 to discuss the Lobbying Bill, the Universal Credit debacle, further Falkirk fallout and Sarah Teather's decision to stand down from parliament. You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes here. Other podcasting software e.g. for Android can be pointed here to subscribe. You can download the mp3 for the latest episode directly from here. Or you can listen to the embedded episode below here: listen to 'Episode 75 - The End ...
Food is essential to all citizens and they have the right to be part of the related decision-making process, according to Baroness (Kate) Parminter, who was the guest speaker at a Hackney Liberal Democrat event yesterday afternoon. She has been making the point strongly over the summer with particular reference to GM crops, following their [...]
Latest newsletter from our neighbourhood policing team.
The issue of food being used for fuel has become increasingly contentious. And decisions are fast approaching – in the European Parliament Liberal Democrat MEP colleagues are currently negotiating capping the use of damaging biofuels. Norman Baker, Liberal Democrat Transport Minister will also be taking up the issue in the Council of Ministers. While first generation biofuels were lauded as the future it is now clear they cause more problems than they solve. The UK's Gallagher Review in 2010 in fact concluded that in some cases biofuels can generate a higher carbon footprint than fossil fuels and contribute to deforestation. ...
Here's today's hand-picked selection that caught my interest... Chris Huhne: People despise politicians - but whose fault is that? | Comment is free | The Guardian Kudos to Chris Huhne for this ("People despise politicians - but whose fault is that?") http://bit.ly/1e6jRHf He knew he'd kop flak for it. CentreForum Liberal Hero of the Week #46: The Economist | CentreForum Blog My 46th @CentreForum Liberal Hero of the Week is @TheEconomist. Find out why here: http://bit.ly/14w2gnV The Lib Dem leadership finally sees sense on Secret Courts Richard Morris celebrates a step in the right direction > The Lib Dem leadership ...
Locals bidding to save Scrubs Wood, an inner London wildlife haven in west London, from destruction have launched new flyers to raise awareness of the campaign. Concern is growing over proposals from Mayor of London Boris [...]
Next Sunday, conference will debate the Green Growth and Green Jobs motion (F10). This wide ranging motion includes, among other things, lines on fracking (56-58) which state: Permitting limited shale gas extraction, ensuring that regulations controlling pollution and protecting local environmental quality are strictly enforced, planning decisions remain with local authorities and local communities are fully consulted over extraction and fully compensated for all damage to the local landscape Like many of you I am skeptical about fracking for a number of reasons but primarily because I am absolutely committed to tackling Climate Change, and the lines in the motion ...
Mon 9th
12:25
The Liberal Democrats and Republicanism: In conversation with Julian Huppert MP (Part 2)
(5) Will the eradication of monarchy ever be a priority for the Party? It's something I'm always aware of and I think it matters for the identity of the Party. I think there will be interesting times when the current Queen stops reigning, whether she abdicates or dies. I think that will be a very [...]
In the run up to party conference you get all kinds of media stories. Usually what happens is the party identifies some key issues and pushes those hard. Meanwhile the media looks for a few key stories and goes for...Read more ›
I love Dilbert and it's caustic take on the business world. However, it's creator Scott Adams has to say the least some eccentric views. These led him to a hopeless run for president. A year ahead of 2012 election, he announced his bid on his blog. His campaign pledges included appointing Bill Clinton as his [...]
The most popular version of Little Red Riding Hood has the woodman storming into the Grandmother's house at the end of the story, killing the wicked wolf and slitting open his stomach - and, unharmed, out pops Little Red Riding Hood and her grandmother, none the worse for a bit of mild digestion. I've always wondered about this when I thought of Britain's dysfunctional and over-concentrated banking system, and the announcement yesterday about the rebirth of Trustee Savings Bank as a separate organisation rather confirms it. Let me explain. In a flurry of consolidation, our banks wolfed each other down ...
Chris Huhne is in apologetic-but-fighting form in the Guardian, taking on wider reasons than himself for the negative public perception of politicians. Chris is careful to apologise for and explain without excusing his conduct, but goes on to argue - Maybe it was coincidence, but that summer I was the only frontbencher who, with Nick Clegg's brave backing, called for the Metropolitan police to reopen the voicemail hacking inquiry into Rupert Murdoch's empire. Given that I was falling in love with someone who was not my wife, you might think that it was an act of folly to court Murdoch's ...
Today sees a critical report from the Audit Select Committee on plans for the High Speed rail link to Manchester. As a strong support of HS2, I want [...]
posted The Blood is The Life 08-09-2013 http://t.co/Z5P5fg3pPm on #dreamwidth (tags: (from twitter) dreamwidth ) @stackee I see my nomination for best lib dem tweeter made it into the shortlist: http://t.co/pPdetvTriS (tags: (from twitter) ) I want a go! RT @carlminns: Virgin Galactic's SpaceShip2 test fires up to 69,000 feet http://t.co/UjAvF6RVs8 via @wordpressdotcom (tags: (from twitter) ) http://miss-s-b.dreamwidth.org/1430115.html @abjtal http://t.co/GlU4SWaVTJ I was chatting to @AAEmmerson about this, & I suddenly realised the important point. LEAFLETS! (tags: (from twitter) ) New post. Voters are as opposed to Royal Mail privatisation as they are to British missile attacks ...
Mon 9th
09:24
Coalition and Beyond: David Boyle on choice/competition in public services marks Day 1 of countdown ...
[IMG: Lib Reform book] 'Coalition and Beyond: Liberal Reforms for the Decade Ahead' is published this Saturday, 15th September, at the Glasgow conference. With a foreword by Nick Clegg, and ahem edited by me, it brings together 20 essays by a disparate group of liberals. Some will have you nodding along in agreement; others will probably have you spluttering in disbelief. That's as it should be. Nowt worse than group-think, especially in a party wrestling with how to defend its record in government while renewing itself ready for the next election. Liberal Reform, which has brought the contributors together, is ...
Atoms are not the only fission products of nuclear power. This is a technology with a unique capacity to divide people and parties. The pro- and anti- lobbies have been fighting it out for forty years and are no nearer to agreeing about its role in our energy system than they were when they began. When we joined the Coalition we had a settled policy that was an important part of our distinctiveness as the greenest of the major parties. The policy we took into the Coalition Agreement was clear and unambiguous. We had long opposed any new nuclear construction. ...
Calderdale Council has agreed to scrap the system put in place to monitoring Councillor's work and activity. Instead all Councilors will now be required to write a yearly report that will be published on the Council's website at the end of May each year. Readers will note these reports will therefore be published after elections each year and as such the electorate will not really be able to use them to inform them who they might vote for. However if the reports were published before an election they would fall foul of the law of purdah before an election period, ...
On Saturday, the Reading Lib Dems gathered to commemorate 25 years since the party formed in 1988 - and to look forward to more years to come. European election candidates Catherine Bearder MEP and Antony Hook both came along, and also Newbury PPC Judith Bunting. Catherine and Antony give a couple of excellent talks on the importance of the 2014 elections, emphasising that we are a party that engages with the rest of the world, which recognises the importance of Europe to our economy. It was also great to see all the leaflets and newspaper clippings that activists have kept ...
This photograph shows the north side of the Hawkhill in Dundee at the junction with Bellfield Lane at the left (in the west). Alexander Wilson's Dining Rooms and Coffeehouse were at No. 167. One of the advertisements on the gable end are for the Dundee Select Choir's performance of Handel's oratorio "Samson" at the Kinnaird Hall. The Dundee Directory lists the other shops as Mrs G. Harper, tobacconist, Mrs A. Boyack, draper, The Annandale Dairy Company, Isabella Miller, fruiterer, and Miss F. Sheriff, confectioner. Then comes Lowden's Alley.
The Telegraph reports that a second Trade Union is to slash the money it gives to the Labour Party. They say that Unison believe the number of its members who are affiliated to the Labour party will fall from 500,000 to 430,000, meaning that they will be paying Ed Miliband's party £210,000 less each year: The news means that in the past week Labour has seen lost more than £1.2million a year in donations from unions. Last week the GMB union said it was cutting its affiliation funds to Labour from £1.2 million to £150,000 in the wake of the ...
A few weeks ago I asked you to let me know what you wanted me to cover in this letter and one message came back more clearly than any other: anything and everything! The winning choice, by far, was "something else" – with suggestions from bees to tax avoidance. In many ways that makes perfect sense: government does take you from topic to topic with great speed – and from place to place. I started the week at a fantastic nursery in East London, launching our new scheme that gives free nursery places to two-year-olds from the poorest families: 15 ...
