One of today's headlines concerns a UKIP MEP, Godfrey Bloom. Just in case you haven't seen it he had the party whip taken off him for making a joke at the expense of women. In response to one woman admitting that she never cleans behind the fridge, he said "this place is full of sluts". Ironically it was at a UKIP conference fringe meeting entitled 'women in politics'. Godfrey reckons it was a joke and the women in the room enjoyed the joke, so it should not matter that other women may be offended. Sorry Godfrey, it does matter. Thefreedictionary.com ...
Fri 20th
23:15
UKIP MEP Godfrey Bloom to BBC's Allegra Stratton: "Has your mother never called you a slut?"
Clearly not one wanting to be upstaged by his press officer, Godrey Bloom has now gone on better:
Chances are if you don't live in Oxford's North Ward then you won't have noticed there was a by-election their yesterday - if you did then the incessant canvassing and leafleting will have made it difficult not to notice, however, hard you tried. The result gave both Labour and the Lib Dems something to be [...]
Thinking Liberal reports from the Liberal Democrat Conference and concludes: "Lib Dems tend to be very self congratulatory about this supposedly democratic way of adopting party policy by a biannual meeting of self appointed activists. Scepticism is in order, but I think the process is of real value in keeping members and activists involved. But this does not inevitably follow from the constitutional processes. It matters a lot how the party's various leadership bodies choose to use them." "Go Home" posters are still on display in UKBA's Glasgow office, reports Caron's Musings. The Cricket Geek describes his experience of depression. ...
As Stockport Council is reporting, a resident in the Borough decided to put a tin of red paint in their brown bin for recycling. The tin split open in the lorry, the paint spilled over half the load and material which the Council would normally have sold to be recycled had instead to be sent to landfill. All told, that tin of red paint cost taxpayers £900 – money we can't now spend on anything else like road maintenance and parks. Stockport residents do a fantastic job at recycling – at 61% our recycling rate is the highest in the ...
A very nasty crime in the car park at Gatley Tesco on Thursday early evening – a mother and son robbed at knifepoint. I heard about it on Facebook and, having spoken to the officer investigating the crime on Friday morning, was able to update the group with the facts. As the Manchester Evening News reports: A mother and child were robbed at knife-point during a car-jacking outside a supermarket. The robbery happened after the 42-year-old victim left the Tesco Express on Church Road in Gatley with her six-year-old son at around 7.30pm last night (Thursday). As they left the ...
Liverpool City Council, like others, has a number of Select or Scrutiny committees that are meant to scrutinise,look into, examine, challenge what the Council is doing. The Chairs of each get a pretty impressive extra payment and if you add up the number of councillors attending you can see quite a bit of elected member time goes into them. I will leave you do decide, gentle reader, if this one was planned as a worthwhile scrutiny event. (Of course its just one of a number at which there are few items that look like discussions and debates rather than just ...
[IMG: Godfrey Bloom MEP. Photo shared under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Godfrey_Bloom.jpg] This is the gem a current press office came up with when their MEP, Godfrey Bloom, was struggling with journalists' questions about his views on women: His press officer chipped in to explain: "I think people don't understand the difference between slut and slag, maybe it's something to do with the lack of grammar schools in our education system." There should be a vacancy some time soon...
I've fallen a bit behind on these, not helped by there being a big flurry of them in the past few days when I was away at party conference. But anyway, here are all the latest applications: 130472: Listed building consent for internal partition, Town Hall. 131580: Change of use from B1 offices to residential, Chapel Street North. 131737: Listed building consent for new canopy and chimney, North Hill. 131758: Advertisement consent for new signage, Moorside. 131787: Advertisement consent for new fascia, High Street. 131799: Refurbishment of buildings and new link bridge, Colchester Institute, Sheepen Road. 131805: Advertisement consent for ...
In the run up to London 2012 I did a series looking back at all the previous Olympics posting it at 5pm every Friday, I've decided to do the same in the run up to Sochi 2014 with the Winter Olympic Games. You can catch up on any you missed in the Olympiads Revisited tab. In 1925, following the success of the week of winter sport in Chamonix, the International Olympic Committee decided that every four years there should be a Winter Olympic Games, entirely separate from the Summer Games. Chamonix was retrospectively called the First of these Winter Olympiads. ...
Urbane, witty, well informed and sensitive, even as he punches your lights out. Looks like Michael Crick got off likely then.
...have featured me in their weekly roundup, after my exchange of views with Sadiq Khan. Here's a link to the review (it's on page 2) A couple of screen grabs from the piece And some links to Sadiq's piece and to my reply
I have a vision of one aspect of the future. It's perhaps not particularly outlandish, certain from a sci-fi perspective and yet whenever I have mentioned it to anyone either in the real world or online I have had a lot of scepticism. OK, here it is. I think that within the next 20 years (perhaps sooner) many people will have an entire wall in their house as a display. It will be 3D and the technology will be such as to allow correct parallax so whatever you are watching will simply look like an extension of the room in ...
We know that Liberal Democrats within the Government have said that there will be no repetition of the Go Home poster vans which were sent to drive round certain boroughs in London.We also know that there will be no repetition of the Go home posters displayed in the Glasgow UKBA office, again thanks to Liberal Democrats within the coalition. Sadly, though, these posters have not been taken down as some asylum seekers I met earlier this week at the Liberal Democrat Seekers of Sanctuary fringe meeting on Monday were able to verify on Tuesday afternoon. Speaking at Monday's meeting, Nico, ...
We know that Liberal Democrats within the Government have said that there will be no repetition of the Go Home poster vans which were sent to drive round certain boroughs in London. We also know that there will be no repetition of the Go home posters displayed in the Glasgow UKBA office, again thanks to Liberal Democrats within the coalition. Sadly, though, these posters have not been taken down as some asylum seekers I met earlier this week at the Liberal Democrat Seekers of Sanctuary fringe meeting on Monday were able to verify on Tuesday afternoon. Speaking at Monday's meeting, ...
I am really pleased to be able to promote this year's CavFest, which will be taking place in West Didsbury tomorrow! The festival has in the past raised as much as [...]
In response to being asked about the all-white UKIP brochure, MEP Godfrey Bloom lost his temper with Michael Crick. It's not quite John Prescott, but the hit and the faux indignation are fabulous. Nigel must be delighted.
UKIP's conference programme. Via ConHome Exec Editor Mark Wallace. Awkward.
Fri 20th
14:40
Ukip's Godfrey Bloom brands Michael Crick a racist and hits him with party's 'no black faces' confer...
This tweet from Mark Wallace was picked up Channel 4′s political editor Michael Crick... "UKIP: Changing the face of politics"...to make it entirely white, apparently #UKIPConf pic.twitter.com/fNT5bjgX58 — Mark Wallace (@wallaceme) September 20, 2013 ... who decided to quiz shy and retiring Ukip MEP Godfrey Bloom about the absence of black faces from his party's conference brochure. Here's what happened next... * Stephen Tall is Co-Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice, and editor of the 2013 publication, The Coalition and Beyond: Liberal Reforms for the Decade Ahead. He is also a Research Associate for the liberal think-tank CentreForum and writes at ...
The Lib Dems have often, rightly, been criticised for not being very female friendly, but male voices seem to be dominating the Labour fringe. Kirstin Hay has done some sterling stat crunching on LabourList, exposing the outrageously high number of all-male panels at this year's Labour conference. There were 34 in total booked at the [...]
Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 344th 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 (8-,14 September 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. Sarah Teather speaks ...
As Nick Clegg announced at the Lib Dem conference last week, every child in a state school in Reception, year 1 or year 2 will receive free school lunches from September 2014, saving the average family £437 per child. Pilots around the country have found that giving all children free school meals boosts academic performance, and also avoids the situation where for a whole variety of reasons poorer families who are entitled to free school meals fail to claim them. Iain said "This is a great way to boost achievement in schools and help hard-pressed parents. Coming on top of ...
Here's today's hand-picked selection that caught my interest... Clegg has gambled his party's future on another hung parliament I agree w/ first 3 paras, not so much last 3 > @georgeeaton: Clegg has gambled party's future on another hung p'ment http://bit.ly/1bvknNa Blair's bunker: leaked emails reveal real story of rows, abuse and threats | Politics | The Guardian Tho I'm pretty interested in Gdn's "Blair's bunker leaked emails" story can't help feeling most folk hv prob moved on http://bit.ly/1bv78fr Twitter / markpack: .@DPMcBride revelations in ... Spot-on tweet from @markpack about the @DPMcBride revelations http://bit.ly/18GuZ4A BBC News – Lib Dem ...
Ok, solved might be a rather strong word but he seems to have guessed the answer before anyone else. The puzzle he cracked is something called Olbers' Paradox. I came across both this problem and Poe's answer for the first time in Jim Al-Khalili's book Paradox: The Nine Greatest Enigmas in Physics. Al-Khalili explains gives [...]
[IMG: damian+mcbride] I've met Damian McBride only once, in February this year. Two things struck me. First, how much healthier (and happier) he looked than he did in 2008 when his role in a dirty tricks campaign against the Tories was exposed. He was only 34 when that furore flared, yet in pictures from the time he looked at least a decade older. Secondly, he is seriously smart. A career civil servant promoted to Head of Communications at the Treasury he retains a deeply impressive knowledge of the knottiest tax policies. It makes his downfall all the more poignant: all ...
Cllr Tolhurst I had the (mis)fortune to sit through the debate on the future of rtochester airport a few months ago. I won't go into the detail of the debate but there was something that sparked an emotion that was not frustration or anger. It was confusion. Councillor Kelly Tolhurst (con) gave a very rousing speech in defence of her party's plans, by far the best argument I had heard from any of the Tories that night. Councillor Jarrett had defended the position with all the airs and graces of a bison negotiating it's way out of a liquidiser and ...
[IMG: Who uses Twitter in the UK?]
Who would have thought that real life could trump the farcical drama of The Thick of it? Well, anybody who has had any experience of politics really. Nevertheless, the revelations of Gordon Brown's aide, Damian McBride are jaw-dropping in parts. And was Tony Blair really as naive as painted? The Telegraph says that Mr. McBride, who was Mr Brown's former communications chief, has claimed that he discredited the former prime minister's enemies by tipping off the media about drug use, spousal abuse, alcoholism and extramarital affairs: In an autobiography that will cast a shadow over Labour's party conference in Brighton ...
Some excellent news from Cambridgeshire, as reported on the NE Cambridgeshire Liberal Democrats website: "There was a shock defeat for the Tories in the March North town council by-election on Thursday 19th September 2013. Lib Dem candidate Stephen Court stormed to victory gaining almost 50% of the votes cast and a majority of 156 over the defeated Conservative candidate. Stephen becomes the first Lib Dem councillor on March Town Council and breaks a stranglehold that the Tories had on the March North ward for many years. He is a local campaigner for improved rail connections, open spaces, decent bus services ...
We know that the Liberal Democrats, in common with other parties, have been looking at declining membership figures for some years now. Tim Farron alluded to this in his conference speech at the weekend. Three times as many people entered the X Factor this year than joined a political party. In the Liberal Democrats it has been a tough three years. People have not felt confident about recruiting members because of the wider political environment. Also, many local parties feel that there is no incentive to put time and effort into recruitment when there is little or no reward for ...
Post by Dr. Mark Pack for Federal Policy Committee.
[IMG: Three Acres and a Cow.] For some peculiar reason, even in this age of the internet, I still get too many magazines. They pile up for months, and sometimes longer than months, waiting to be read - or at least flicked through. But one of the few magazines I read all the way through is the Journal of Liberal History. I don't have to read the whole thing in this latest issue because one of the articles is by me: it is called 'Three acres and a cow' and it is about the story of the man who used ...
Liverpool City Council is to decide next week on a "trial period" in which there are no longer bus lanes in the City. I've taken the time to read the Cabinet report on this as well as the media coverage and heaven help us if this is the basis on which decisions are taken. Firstly it's worth saying that not every bus lane is necessarily needed. The one at Horrocks Avenue for example was originally linked to a fast bus service to the airport. That service no longer exists and people using that stretch of road generally feel the lane ...
Fri 20th
10:30
Goal & Own Goal. My pick of the Lib Dem conference's "hero and biggest gaffe" for Demos's Fantas...
I'm one of the celebrity judges (in my case, that term is gapingly loose) in think-tank Demos's fantasy politics league running throughout the conference season. My task was to pick the two MPs who had the best or worst weeks of the Lib Dem conference. Here's who I chose... Goal & Own Goal (conference hero and biggest gaffe of the week as judged by Lib Dem Voice Editor, Stephen Tall) Goal: Julian Huppert "Julian was Mr Ubiquitous at Lib Dem conference, putting in 11 appearances on the fringe meeting circuit and popping up at pretty much every debate, sealing his ...
The announcement at Lib Dem conference that all infants in state primary schools will get free school meals is an interesting one. Firstly the party leadership clearly thinks it will be popular and they are probably right. Secondly it's a distinctive policy that the party can point to to say "this would not have happened without us". It's almost certainly impossible to measure the benefits of such a policy in cost terms mainly because the benefits will likely be in ways that cannot be measured very easily or quickly such as improved concentration and long term health outcomes. That in ...
I thought it would be good to remember some of the best speeches of this year's Autumn conference. I wrote down a list of 7 that I thought were fantastic and then decided to ask Twitter. The list that they came up with was remarkably similar. So, without further ado, and in no particular order until the end, let's go through them: First up, Glasgow's own Paul Coleshill comparing renewal of Trident to a middle aged man buying a flashy sports car to prove his virility, but was only able to use it 3 days a week. The Economy In ...
Speeches I Didn't Make: The Manifesto and Freedom #LibDemValues (tags: ) posted The Blood is The Life 19-09-2013 http://t.co/4Pih5OGmwm on #dreamwidth (tags: (from twitter) dreamwidth ) Socks This comic is SO true. (tags: ) Auto-Brewery Syndrome: Apparently, You Can Make Beer In Your Gut : The Salt : NPR (tags: ) Lib-Dems to re-launch as Boy Band | NewsBiscuit It's a bit harsh on Jo Swinson, but still funny... (tags: ) http://toys.usvsth3m.com/drwho/ 6 lines of JavaScript that write Doctor Who plots indistinguishable from the current series... http://t.co/bcGN4p0OSg via @UsVsTh3m (tags: (from twitter) ) http://theyorkshergob.livejournal.com/60169.html @WoollyMindedLib for historial reference: http://t.co/jfltVlCRO3 ...
[IMG: Media interview. Photo © iStockphoto] Rule of political journalism #27: When writing about spin doctors smearing political opponents in the media, remember that your colleagues who ran the stories bear no responsibility. And so: .@DPMcBride revelations in a nuthshell: his book says he regularly manipulated journos; journos say nothing of interest in book #FancyThat — Mark Pack (@markpack) September 20, 2013
Liverpool Council is meant to be making its final decision on the Meadowlands planned sell off later this month This follows the legal process with an advert and people sending objections in. This should be happening at the Cabinet meeting next Friday (27th). Papers for meetings are meant to be published a clear five working days in advance but pretty typically this item hasn't appeared yet on the Cabinet agenda (it's not uncommon for this council to dump things out with just a day to go) However when it does appear it should be at this link.
Big thanks to everyone who came to the first Friends of Garston Library literary evening last night. We heard some really interesting stuff from author Martin Edwards about crime writing and where he gets his ideas from. Our next event is on 17th October when we'll hear from Mike Axworthy about local history writing AND the winners of our summer writing competition will take part in a presentation by a guest of honour. Our literary events are free and start at 6pm at the Library with free refreshments. We end by 8pm. Do come along if you can . We ...
The Lib Dem team have been very concerned about the problems with parking on St Ann's Road North over the last year or two, where cars from the business park have started being parked along the road. It's dangerous and frustrating for residents, and we've been working with our fellow councillors in Heald Green (where the problem parking is occuring) to see if we can find a solution. We're getting yellow lines painted each side of the chicanes to keep them free and improve safety. Those who use the road will also have seen that we've had bollards put on ...
[IMG: Shropshire Logo in Black Hole] I am lucky enough to live in Shropshire, in Ludlow - one of the most treasured places in my known universe. I am so unlucky to live in Shropshire, in Ludlow - one of the most trashed places in my known universe. Yesterday, we lost our dream hospital. This was not for any real reason; it just fell through the widening cracks in the national health system. We have also lost our local tip and recycling centre in Ludlow. It's not official. It's just that the staff have been told they have no jobs ...
We've been out consulting over a thousand households over expanding the 20mph zone around Silverdale Road to include that whole area. Our proposal is to expand the 20mph zone to include the whole of the Lakes estate, Foxland Road, Springfield Road, Delamere Road, Torkington Road and the roads between. This is the area bordered by Gatley Road, Kingsway, the railway line and Gatley golf course. The zone would set a speed limit of 20mph for the whole area It would not involve additional speed humps or chicanes Evidence we have is that a 20mph speed limit reduces average speeds by ...
That was the 250 word essay question a group of us were set by The House magazine. Mark Pack has offered up his thoughts here. Here's my effort... What the Lib Dems need to focus on in the next year is clear: getting the party into a position to be able to fight in 2015, billed as a "survival election" by party president Tim Farron. The prize on offer? The chance to ensure a decade of Lib Dem participation in coalition government. You might think that, after the scarring experience of governing as a junior partner with the Conservatives, Lib ...
Three award-winning writers feature in the very first Rochester Literature Festival, an eclectic and imaginative ten-day programme of events inspired by the overarching theme, 'Other Worlds, Other Voices'. The festival begins on 3rd October to coincide with National Poetry Day and runs to 13th October. The festival opens with multi-award winning, Guyana-born writer Maggie Harris reading from a selection of her moving, resonant work in celebration of Black History Month in the first of two events in association with Medway Libraries. Maggie Harris is now based in the county of Kent and she has won countless accolades for her work, ...
There are two meetings at Blyth Town Council next week Tuesday 24th September, 6:30 pm, Events Committee Thursday 26th September, 6:30 , Planning & Development Committee Both meetings are in the Council Chamber at Arms Evertyne House
Fri 20th
07:00
Harold Wilson's 'white heat' speech was aimed at the 'squeezed middle' | Steven Fielding
When Harold Wilson sat down after a speech opening the 1963 Labour conference debate on science, he probably didn't realise he had just delivered one of post-war British politics' most cited pieces of rhetoric. He just wanted to win a general election Contemporaries hailed Wilson's invocation of the promise of "the scientific and technological revolution" and of the need for government to plan Britain's response to "the white heat of technological change" as outlining a new vision of socialism. Many historians have also subsequently praised the Labour leader's evocation of a spirit of optimism in a Britain emerging from austerity ...
From Dundee City Council: THE ROAD TRAFFIC REGULATION ACT 1984 : SECTION 14(1) THE DUNDEE CITY COUNCIL AS TRAFFIC AUTHORITY being satisfied that traffic on the road should be prohibited by reason of Scottish Water renewal works being carried out HEREBY PROHIBIT the driving of any vehicle in Osborne Place (from Shepherds Loan to Magdalen Yard Road), Dundee. This notice comes into effect on Monday 30 September 2013 for 5 working days. Pedestrian thoroughfare will be maintained. Alternative routes for vehicles are available via Magdalen Yard Road/Shepherds Loan. For further information contact (01382) 433168. Mike P GallowayDirector of City DevelopmentDundee ...
The latest figures for creating apprenticeships have shown a rapid decline across key sectors. The most recent figures available, which have been analysed by the Welsh Liberal Democrats, show that from 2006 to 2011 the amount of work-based learning programmes in a number of important sectors saw a large decrease. Some examples of sectors that saw declines in apprenticeships are: • 80% decrease in transportation based apprenticeships • 65% decrease in agricultural based apprenticeships • 58% decrease in manufacturing based apprenticeships • 46% decrease in retailing and customer based apprenticeships • 18% decrease in engineering based apprenticeships • 15% decrease in construction based apprenticeships These figures ...
Liz Heazell with Lib Dem District Council Group Leader, Sebastian Kindersley When I became councillor in charge of Housing at South Cambs District council, I was appalled to discover how many people were waiting for permanent housing, particularly for rented dwellings. Many more council houses have been sold under the Right to Buy since then and are no longer available. Only recently have councils been able etc borrow money to build any more. Working with parish councils, local landowners and housing associations, the district council has acted as an effective housing enabler, providing the rented and equity shared housing which ...
