At today's meeting in the Carlton Road Day Centre a number of important local matters were discussed including the Piccadilly Line at Turnham Green consultation and a range of items funded by the ward forum's budget. I chaired the meeting alongside Liberal Democrat councillors Andrew Steed and Harvey Rose. First of all I indicated that residents who wanted Piccadilly line tubes to stop at Turnham Green should fill in the two minute consultation which can be found here. Also the police have a ward wide AGM that takes place on 25th September at the Carlton Road Day centre from 6.30pm. ...
[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 ...
Matthew Hoggard, who took 248 wickets in 67 tests for England, announced his retirement from first class cricket today. This a good time to point you to a post that Go Litel Blog, Go... wrote about him back in June: It is tempting to see Hoggard as the last of his breed (the steam-powered trains, perhaps, or the heavy horses) if it were not for the fact that, after the second string Aussies Hogan and Copeland, the leading wicket-takers this season in Division 2 are Alan Richardson (38), David Masters (35) and Glen Chapple (39). This may suggest that modern ...
Over at Liberal Democrat Voice today Tom Brake provides an update on the progress of the Lobbying Bill, focusing particularly on Part 2 because of the extensive criticism it received both inside and outside Parliament last week. Brake's post notes that: It is not, and has never been, the intention of this bill to in anyway restrict the ability of charities to campaign to change government policy or on other issues they feel strongly about. And government is more than happy to consider amendments to make that crystal clear and set to rest any concerns parliamentarians and campaign groups might ...
So quickly has public opinion moved that it seems almost unbelievable that the last Labour government shied away from upgrading same-sex civil partnerships to 'marriage' because of the fear of a backlash (including from some of their MPs). But it is a tribute to Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg (strongly and admirably supported by PM [...]
In May's local elections UKIP made their most spectacular gains in Lincolnshire, gaining 16 seats and depriving the Conservatives of overall control. True to form, their council group has now split in two. The BBC News Lincolnshire pages report: A councillor suspended by UKIP has been removed as leader of the party's group on Lincolnshire County Council. Chris Pain said he had been suspended from UKIP because of a "serious issue" between himself and national chairman Steve Crowther. Nine of Lincolnshire's UKIP councillors have now signed a letter to the county council's chief executive saying Mr Pain has been removed ...
I had the misfortune today of having an illness that kept me off school. I had the double misfortune of being able to follow PMQ which is that public display of male buffoonery which I find really embarrassing. Some of the monkey antics were aimed at the Labour MP Gloria de Piero. Our own Sarah Teather has come under fire for announcing that she will be stepping down at the next election because she does not agree with Lib Dem policies on welfare and immigration. Just as the party conferences are coming up and, no doubt, there will be talk ...
After the cockroach incident in March, you might be forgiven for thinking that you might have to read Tim Farron's pre-conference interviews from behind a cushion. And the headline in the New Statesman is quite mischievous. It screams: Exclusive: Tim Farron interview: I really like Ed Miliband, I don't want to diss him They make out like Tim just gushed about Miliband. But let's be clear, Tim isn't known for being horrible about anyone. He is not going to slate Miliband in the New Statesman or anywhere else. They accompany the interview with an illustration of Miliband and Farron out ...
Wed 11th
20:00
Liberal Democrat Voice Awards: The Shortlists (6): Lib Dems' favourite Labour and Conservative MPs
The Liberal Democrat Voice Awards are but three 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. Our Members' Forum has now been e-mailed with the chance to vote for the majority of the awards so I can now start to reveal the shortlists in those categories. This time, it's the turn of or favourite Conservative and Labour MPs. Nominations ...
Cambridgeshire Trading Standards is warning people thinking of bringing a puppy into the country from abroad to ensure the animal is eligible for import with a legal rabies vaccination. The warning comes after three puppies were taken into quarantine in the space of five days after it was found their vaccinations did not meet legal requirements. In two of the cases, the owners had their puppy vaccinated in Poland and Hungary before bringing it into the UK, but the vaccine was given to the animals when they were too young and would not be effective. The third case involved a ...
Wed 11th
18:44Liberal Democrat Voice Awards: The Shortlists (5) Liberal Democrat Councillor of the Year
The Liberal Democrat Voice Awards are but three 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. Our Members' Forum has now been e-mailed with the chance to vote for the majority of the awards so I can now start to reveal the shortlists in those categories. It's high time we celebrated our councillors, so here is the shortlist for ...
ohmygodi'mnaked! I've had better days standing in front of a room of my peers. There we were doing different ways to do/teach long multiplication and it all started so well. It took me all of ten seconds to do the long multiplication task on the board using the grid method and then things started to go wrong. After the tutor did it, for want of a better phrase, in the old fashioned way, he asks for alternative methods. Quick look down, checks the maths, sticks hand up. "I used the column method." I proudly announce. Then it goes very wrong...very, ...
"[T]here are really only seven passages in the Bible that refer directly to homosexual behavior, and none of them are associated with Jesus. Compare that to the more than 250 verses on the proper use of wealth or more than 300 on our responsibility to care for the poor and work for justice, and you [...]
There is a dangerous and almost imperceptible drift that has taken place in the Liberal Democrats in recent years, a drift away from tolerance, of acceptance of religions and faiths, alongside secular belief systems like humanism, towards a moral conformity. A moral conformity that certain views are part of who we are; and that many faith based, Christian views are rather something to be reserved for private worship that should be kept firmly out of the political arena. It may not be as obviously discriminatory as the abuse I experienced during that election campaign, but it is nevertheless equally damaging ...
As the Liberal Democrat Voice Awards ceremony draws rapidly closer, my mind is drawn to the question of what makes an effective user of Twitter. Now I've had a Twitter account for a while, which I use to broadcast my increasingly infrequent blog postings and, from time to time, respond to something on my timeline that intrigues me. Mostly, I use it to receive information from organisations that I interact with (local council, Greater Anglia, the Party, local Liberal Democrats) and things I have an interest in. But I'm not what you'd call terribly active. My life is not especially ...
Going to Glasgow? Feel strongly about civil liberties? Here are some of the key opportunities to raise the issue at conference: Post by Liberal Democrats for Civil Liberties. (This post is taken from the Liberal Democrats for Civil Liberties Facebook page. Do head over and click 'Like' on it.)
At the beginning of August we released the first of this cycle's new ALDC artwork templates. This week, we are happy to add 3 candidate versions for those with all-up elections such as London . They have been designed with the intention of getting as many of us as possible out on the doorsteps while [...]
Stockport Funding news 2013, including £1.7 million cycle funding, free Google advertising for charities worth over £6,000 a month and many more funding opportunities for charities and community groups.
The General Power of Competence (GPC) was introduced in the Localism Act 2011 and took effect on February 2012. In simple terms, it gives councils the power to do anything an individual can do provided it is not prohibited by other legislation. It applies to all principal councils (district, county and unitary councils etc). It [...]
The government have announced additional funding for early years education for two year olds, with 130,000 children from Britain's poorest homes now eligible for 15 hours free childcare per week. Click here to download the party's spreadsheet detailing the numbers of eligible children in each local authority area. Template Press Release: Liberal Democrats Contact: [...]
This year's Activists' Network programme of ALDC members-only workshops is as follows: Sunday 15th September 09:15-10:45 Two Elections, One Polling Day An exchange of best practice and experience on how to campaign for the Local and European Elections on the same day in 2014. Mike Bell, James Macleary, and Elspeth Finlay Crowne Plaza Hotel, [...]
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 [...]
Wed 11th
15:30Duncan Hames writes: Local Enterprise Partnerships and low carbon development: what works and what d...
This is the last of three extracts from the forthcoming collection of essays Green liberalism: a local approach to the low carbon economy. Similar collections will be published under Green Alliance's 'Green social democracy' and 'Green conservatism' projects as part of the Green Roots programme, which aims to stimulate green thinking within the three dominant political traditions in the UK. A one size fits all policy, devised at a distance, imposed on local communities and implemented rigidly, is unlikely to rise to the environmental challenges we face today. That's why we should give Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) the freedom to ...
A few days ago I issued a press release exposing the awful living conditions of some residents in the Colorado Apartments at New River Village. In response, the local Lib Dems and I have started a petition, calling on Circle 33 (the company who manage the block) to step up and take action. I have now also released this video, taken from my visit, so you can really see the problems for yourself. As you can see, in contrast to the pristine private apartment blocks, these social housing blocks are in disrepair and suffering from damp walls. Since we started ...
[IMG: Tom Brake] This week has demonstrated both a good and bad example of communication (or not) with party members and helpers, courtesy of Tom Brake and David Laws. Tom's got the communication better even though the substance he's working with is less promising. David's had the better case – but the he and the party haven't been explaining it. David Laws first. The BBC reported this about the forthcoming conference in Glasgow: Although there will be a string of new policy announcements in Glasgow, they have all been agreed with the Conservatives, reflecting the coalition's desire to continue "right ...
As is pretty obvious, I haven't been blogging a lot lately (no updates for over a month - woo!). This is mainly because I've found myself both busy with other things and tending to vent about topical issues elsewhere rather than having the time to sit down and blog about them. I don't want to give up on this blog though so I've decided to adopt a new approach to it. While I'm not going to rule out writing posts about current events, I'm going to try to focus much more on posts actually explaining the process of politics itself ...
The lobbying bill is either cock-up or conspiracy is the verdict of Robert Barrington, the executive director of Transparency International UK. Glasgow North Local Party has submitted an emergency motion on the Bill to Federal Conference. If you are a conference delegate please vote for our motion in Sunday's ballot to choose the three emergency or topical motions which will actually be debated later in the week. The Transparency of Lobbying, non-Party Campaigning, and Trade Union Administration Bill to give it its full title, was sneaked out just as MPs went on holiday. An unusually tight timetable has been set ...
Nigel Evans has been charged with multiple charges of sexual assault and rape, and has resigned as Commons deputy speaker. I don't know Nigel Evans, and I certainly don't know if he is guilty or not of the serious offences he is charged with, all of which he strongly denies. I've only bumped into the Conservative MP [...]
Every now and again some politician, usually of the right, huffs and puffs about putting the "Great" back into "Great Britain," when,of course, in either of its true senses, it has never gone missing. The two explanations for the "great" that I know of are: to distinguish us from the eastern region of France, Brittany: hence Bretagne (them) and Grande Bretagne (us) to distinguish between our main island, Britain, and the main island plus all the smaller islands around (such as Anglesey, the Isle of Wight, Isle of Arran, Orkney, the Shetlands and many more,) which make up Great Britain.Which ...
When I filled in the latest Lib Dem Voice members survey this afternoon I was asked to vote for some awards. Some were no brainers like the best Lib Dem MP of the Year. I mean seriously Julin Huppert is about as beloved in Lib Dem grass root circles as Doctor Who and with very good reason. He is a man who has Lib Dem core values permeating out of his pores and it is people like him who many of us cling on to in the hope that Lib Dem core values are still very much in place and ...
As Nick mentioned to party members in his Letter from the Leader over the weekend, the government has signalled its willingness to accept the principle of amendments to Part 2 of the bill from John Thurso and other Liberal Democrat MPs. I would like to thank John for the hugely constructive approach he and many other Liberal Democrat MPs have taken to this bill. It is not, and has never been, the intention of this bill to in anyway restrict the ability of charities to campaign to change government policy or on other issues they feel strongly about. And government ...
Here's today's hand-picked selection that caught my interest... Why we shouldn't ban smoking in public places | Stephen Tall Why we shouldn't ban smoking in public places http://bit.ly/18OPY7n Almost 9 yrs since I wrote this, yet currently 5th-most read blog-post The lobbying bill is a pernicious attack on freedom. All good men (and women) should oppose it. » Spectator Blogs .@alexmassie mounts a comprehensive demolition job of @benedictbrogan's odd reds-under-beds defence of lobbying bill http://bit.ly/1fYoG13 Ed Miliband, like most of the left, misread Lehman – FT.com Nail on head frm @janaganesh "centrl fact of politics=scarcity, parties defined by public spend ...
1) It's a political thriller set in the twenty-first century 2) Five books I consulted in the writing of it — The Book Of Lies by Aleister Crowley, Bernice Summerfield And The Vampire Curse, The Arabian Nights: A Companion by Robert Irwin, A Dictionary Of Latin Phrases And Sayings, and a book that you won't [...]
Conservative Party Chairman , Grant Shapps MP, has barely been able to contain his rage at a UN inspector who criticised the so called 'bedroom tax'. She obviously touched a nerve. Without getting into the argument over the merits of the ' tax' David Cameron told his party conference in 2011 that 'We're bringing back the right to buy and using the money to build new homes'. Fine if it were actually happening - but it's not. The right to buy scheme was re-invogorated in April 2012 by bigger discounts to tenants since when some 8000 homes have been sold ...
For a fleeting moment in May 2010 there was genuine optimism that the environment might be put at the heart of Britain's political agenda. With a coalition of Liberal Democrats, praised by many, including Friends of the Earth, for their manifesto's prioritisation of environmental issues, joining forces with a 'vote blue, go green' Tory party, fresh from championing the Climate Change Act, it looked as if yellow and blue really could produce green. But three and a half years later Cameron's pledge to lead the "greenest Government ever" now seems little more than a cynical sound bite. Perhaps less expected ...
The first thing to say here is that several people had difficulty completing the survey: if this happens to you my advice would be to wait half an hour and then go back to it, that's what worked for me. On to the meat of this post then: you can't get back into the survey once you've filled it in, so this is from memory, and the list of categories on Lib Dem Voice. CategoryWho I voted ForWho I think will winComment LD Councillor of the Year Pauline Nash Alex Folkes All the nominees in this were not big national ...
Wed 11th
12:00New LDV members' survey now live: your views on Syria, conference hot-topics, the Coalition - plus y...
The new LDV members' survey is now live. So if you are one of the c.1,500 registered members of the Liberal Democrat Voice forum — and any paid-up party member is welcome to join — then you now have the opportunity to make your views known. Questions we're asking this month include: your views on military intervention in Syria; what you think about nuclear power and 'fracking'; other conference hot-topics like tuition fees, the 50p top-rate of tax, and the 'bedroom tax'; are you in favour of HS2? your views on Nick Clegg's leadership leading figures within the Lib Dems; ...
Grant Shapps doesn't seem to understand that the worst way of downplaying a bit of news you don't like is to raise it up the news agenda by over-reacting. A report by a UN functionary that nobody has every heard of before criticises the changes to housing benefit in the UK. Well that might not be great news for the government, but I would suggest the best way to counter it would be to re-state the policy or blind the media with detail. Not Mr Shapps of course. His reaction is to write to the UN Secretary General to complain. ...
Yesterday I was very proud to have been able to host the Wear it Pink Campaign in Parliament. The event was an awareness raising mission for the Wear it Pink [...]
Wed 11th
11:18Opinion: 3 real life reasons why we need a fair asylum system and 3 chances to argue the case
I am going to write about 3 people who sought sanctuary in the UK. All people I know well. K came here, fleeing from the terror on Mugabe's Zimbabwe. She is a strong determined person, passionate about democracy, and held a good responsible job in administration and had children. She fled here, in fear of her life, leaving job and family behind. She has not been given permission to stay here, but as we all must know by now, Zimbabwe is not a safe place to return to. So she had no job, no benefits, and no home. She does ...
As it's 9/11 today, here's a terrorism related fact to ponder. Loads of Islamist terrorists have studied engineering. The attacks on the WTC and the Pentagon were inspired by, planned by and lead by men who all all appear to have gained engineering degrees of some sort. (Osama Bin Laden, Muhammad Atta and Khalid Sheik respectively) [...]
The Liberal Democrat Voice Awards are but three 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. Our Members' Forum has now been emailed 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 also contains questions on the likely Conference ...
In an earlier post (28th May, 2013) I suggested that at least ten days after a general election be allowed for the formation of a government – time which would be especially important when a coalition government of two or...Read more ›
Where did it come from, this obsession with targets, with breaking down every aspect of a task into little bits that can be measured and processed? Some people date it back to the moment in 1903 when the time and motion study pioneer Frederick Winslow Taylor rose to his feet in Saratoga Springs to explain his idea that every factory could be measured to work in what he called 'the one best way". (More about Taylor in my book Broke). Maybe it was actually James Oscar McKinsey, the first management consultant. Whose consultancy still lives and dies by the highly ...
Britain Would Be £60bn Worse Off Without EU Migrants, According To A New Study http://t.co/G6HJ0IkUXt (tags: (from twitter) ) posted The Blood is The Life 10-09-2013 http://t.co/detBxUzTsJ on #dreamwidth (tags: (from twitter) dreamwidth ) I just wished for: 'LEGO MONSTER FIGHTERS HAUNTED HOUSE 10228' by LEGO MONSTER FIGHTERS via @AmazonUK http://t.co/BvR16daDBf (tags: (from twitter) ) I just wished for: 'LEGO Monster Fighters 9468: Vampyre Castle' by LEGO Monster Fighters via @AmazonUK http://t.co/0XCShNSxxy (tags: (from twitter) ) http://www.gmc-uk.org/static/documents/content/Fregene.pdf Oh for... Gay Cures and God. @wheresbenefit: Depressed gay man advised by Atos assessor to investigate "gay cures" http://t.co/MwwnXodqiK ...
This is an interesting permission to appeal case for grandparents. It uses the argument that because grandparents have successfully brought up some children then they should pass an assessment. This is an argument I have used in the Family Justice Bill. I am not sure where the case went in the end, but this was a useful step.
Apparently today is the day of the government's big fightback on the subject of HS2, the plan to spend £42 billion on a new high speed rail line that will knock half an hour off the journey time from London to Birmingham. There is concern in Cornwall (and other parts of the country) about the diversion of huge amounts of funding to this one project and the exclusion of other parts of the country. It resembles the Olympics in this respect. On its own, I think the concept of HS2 is a valid one. Our railway infrastructure is pretty creaky ...
The BBC report the view of the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) that the Government should not use tolls from the Severn Bridge to fund an extension to the M4 around Newport. The FSB quite rightly say that keeping tolls on the Severn bridges after they revert to public ownership towards the end of the decade is unacceptable, beyond the costs of maintenance. Iestyn Davies from the FSB in Wales said: "The FSB and other organisations know what we want - a good, honest funding settlement for the people of Wales and to be able to fund the kind of ...
Wed 11th
09:48
It's time for the Liberal Democrats in Government to call for the abolition of the "Bedroom Tax"
Point 1. If anybody says I should call it the "spare room subsidy", that argument was lost months back. Point 2. An international housing expert representing not just any international organisation, but the UN, for goodness sake, has recommended that the Bedroom Tax should be abolished. And this is not just the Guardian doing its thing. Raquel Rolnik was interviewed on the Today programme and she said that the testimony she had received from hundreds of people and Councils had convinced her that this measure was a retrograde step in the "protection and promotion of human rights to housing". She ...
Wed 11th
09:25
My column for ConHome: 7 ideas to unite liberal Conservatives and market Liberals - a personal wish-...
[IMG: con home cartoon] My sixth column for ConservativeHome — The Other Side — ran yesterday. You can read it here — along with the hundred or so comments, including several replies from me. Apparently a pro-immigration stance doesn't appeal to that many Tories: who knew? My thanks to the site's editors, Paul Goodman and Mark Wallace, for giving a Lib Dem space to provoke (constructively, I hope). The first time I wrote for ConservativeHome, in March 2012, I asked the simple question, "Why don't people like me vote Conservative?" I dislike big government, and support a low-tax, free enterprise ...
One of the key battlegrounds on which the 2015 General Election will be fought is living costs, especially for those on low and low-to-middle incomes. With times tough and the cost of many basic items essential for living having outpaced wage inflation for a decade (according to the most comprehensive study of the subject, led by the Resolution Foundation but with considerable input from business and other organisations) - and with no money left in the public purse - answers are not easy. The Liberal Democrats have, rightly, chosen to address this by a range of measures, and the key ...
As I pointed out in David Laws to move conference motion proposing an end to secret courts, the Liberal Democrat pre-manifesto document commits to getting rid of the highly controversial secret courts: We will find practical alternatives to the use of closed material proceedings within the justice system, including the provisions of the Justice and Security Act 2013, with the aim of restoring the principle of open justice. Tim Farron has since tweeted his support for the change of tack: @richardmorrisuk @caronmlindsay @stealthmunchkin @miss_s_b And it's great to see secret courts being sorted. It was a good 'rebellion'... — Tim ...
Did you see the result from New York? Voters went to the polls yesterday to decide who their main party candidates were likely to be. At this point it looks as though Bill de Blasio, a public advocate has just clinched the Democratic nomination without having to fight a run-off battle with second place Bill Thompson. Christine Quinn, the Council Leader was beaten into a distant third on around 15% and reportedly didn't even win her own electoral area. So what went wrong? Chris Quinn's campaign has a lot of similarities with Hillary's primary campaign in 2008. Perhaps the biggest ...
Perth Road, Dundee, is such a long street that sections of it have acquired individual names, such as Windsor Terrace, an elegant Edwardian block to the west of Sinderins, and, as here, Invercauld Place, on the north side. Alexander Fraser, the bootmaker, was at No. 145 Perth Road, with Mrs Mary Bell, 'fruits and confectionery' (she appears in the Dundee Directory as a confectioner) at No. 149. Mrs Adam Bell was another fruiterer with her shop at No. 153. John Farquharson, 'plumber, gasfitter, tinsmith & brassfounder', had works at Nos. 33-35 Barrack Street; No. 151 Perth Road was a shop. ...
I welcome the Government's announcement that legal aid reforms will no longer require contracts to be awarded to those who offer the cheapest fees. Earlier this year when these proposals were announced I had serious concerns about the effects they would have on the provision of legal aid in rural areas, and held a debate on this issue before the summer recess. I am therefore pleased that over the summer the Government have considered the responses to the consultation, and made alternative proposals. This is a relief as there was concern when I spoke with solicitors in Ceredigion that contracts ...
In which I look at my very favourite of the Big Finish audios in less detail than it deserves.
Sunniside Park today (Tuesday 10th September) saw the unveiling of the new sculptured park bench which was designed by children from Clover Hill School. The three ward councillors decided that we wanted a park bench in Sunniside Park as a way of starting to attract more people to use what is, in effect, the poor relative of other parks in Gateshead. We paid for the bench from our community fund
Each person can be an explorer. So says the Clipperton Project (TCP), an Arts endeavour which believes that through multidisciplinary initiatives people can use notions of exploration, journey and discovery in order to face some of the great issues of today in a more positive way. In case that all sounds very theoretical, airy-fairy even, [...]
