A thought-provoking post entitled The dangers of academic blogging appeared yesterday at The Sociological Imagination. The post drew, in turn, on series of posts at Near Emmaus. Like many such posts the implied audience is postdocs and early career researchers. The key point made in the Near Emmaus posts was that while you – we – might see the value of blogging to twenty-first century academic life, the same may not be true of all those looking to recruit staff or make promotion decisions. Such senior staff may see this blogging lark as a bit of a distraction from serious ...
I hope, in similar circumstances, I would do the same
Private Eye has lamely tried to imply that Lib Dem policy supports paedophilia by linking Conference's decision to refer back motion F17, to the investigation into Sir Cyril Smith. The piece on P5 of Eye 1349 begins: Last Sunday, as the Lib Dem conference voted against toughening up controls to protect children from online pornography, [...]
LIB DEMS OPPOSE LIVERPOOL CITY REGION 'COMBINED AUTHORITY' PLAN Labour-controlled Sefton Council, supported by the Conservatives, has voted to force Southport into being a part of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority despite the efforts of the opposition Lib Dem group. At an Extraordinary Council Meeting, held at Bootle Town Hall on Friday evening, Labour and Conservative councillors supported the move to give powers over transport and economic development to the new 'Combined Authority' which comprises 6 Labour council bosses. A Lib Dem amendment, voicing concerns over inadequate arrangements for scrutiny and transparency, was voted down by the combined weight ...
1. The Tories lost the 2010 General Election. I know we all knew this before - but Cameron actually said it on Marr, which is, I think, the first time he has ever said it publicly (I stand to be corrected but no one has yet).2. The most successful policy this government has enacted so far (at least, I imagine, in Tory focus groups) is... taking 2 million people out of tax altogether and reducing taxes for 25 million others. I know this because Cameron said it twice in the Marr interview, Hammond said it on WATO and it's on ...
My latest effort in the New Statesman ('After Labour's leftward lurch, the Lib Dems have the centre all to themselves') has generated a fair amount of comment and one exchange in particular, which I promised to reply to properly. Here's that reply, but first, the exchange, printed below... (Matthew has since added a further post about a number of other issues but I'll concentrate on the tuition fees one for now, as I'd like to deal with that point properly). Tuition fees. Matthew, you're right -it's a tricky one for the Lib Dems. We broke a pledge which we had ...
It was with enormous sadness that I learned earlier this week that Joan Coleman had died. She had been in a nursing home for some while. Joan, a Scot, was a stalwart of Southport Liberals and later Lib Dems. In her own right she was a formidable politician but her contribution extended far beyond party politics; she was a charity worker, a senior magistrate, real ale advocate and a family women. In 1965 she was in the small market town in the Scottish borders when the declaration of the Roxburgh, Selkirk and Peebles by-election- which sent David Steel to parliament ...
Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 346th 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 (22-28 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. I agree with ...
In honour of Paul Mason's documentary earlier this week - you can still catch in on the BBC iPlayer - here is a Northern soul classic. "There's a Ghost in my House" was originally released in America as a B-side in 1967. Helped by the Norther Soul boom, it reached no. 3 in the British singles chart in 1974. Mason placed strong emphasis on the affinity between Northern working-class youth and Black American music - something Joe Boyd has also written about. But R. Dean Taylor, an important figure in Northern soul was white. He was the first white artist ...
Pubs must work harder at pleasing their customers says Matt Wright, founder and director of Melton Mowbray based Great Food Club I was recently at an unassuming Everards pub called The Tudor on the very urban-feeling Tudor Road in Leicester. Tenant landlord Andrew Trickett cooked a tasty pop-up meal to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support using some locally sourced ingredients. A few months earlier, in association with De Montfort University's Square Mile project, he set up a makeshift cinema in his pub's barn, near the site of Leicester's old Tudor Cinema. He showed some movies with Leicestershire links (The ...
In between working on Susan Leslie's campaign for the Dunfermline by-election campaign, I have spent the day in mourning. And if you tell me that you can't mourn the death of a fictional character, I will simply respond that you have no soul. Bridget Jones author Helen Fielding has revealed that she has killed off her hero, human rights lawyer Mark Darcy. Bridget is now a widowed single mum with much younger boyfriend. And if you think I'm being silly about it, you should know that it's the second most read story on the BBC website. I wonder if Mark ...
Does anyone running this Government have the slightest clue how the last financial crisis came about? It seems not. Before David Cameron knew where it was, in 1991 a friend of mine in West Oxfordshire saw the sharp end of that property crash. Buying the home of a late relative having come out of the Army, a recession-triggered job loss meant negative equity turned to repossession. It took a while to recover from that: not that anyone in Cameron or Osborne's circle would have had any of that experience. Looking forward to today, the Help to Buy scheme has been ...
Add caption As 2015 gets closer and closer I'm starting to look ahead to the election and what the various national parties are planning and offering policy wise. Ed's Labour party have done well in the polls mostly by saying they would not do what the Coalition would do (but would not reverse it if they got in.) Considering some of the policies that have come out of CHQ (the things we have had to agree with) it is fairly to score points this way. However it does seem that Labour have been picking at holes and nitpicking at times ...
Well, I've finally decided, I'm going to seek a spouse. At the age of 38 & three quarters & a bit, it's time. But I don't want just any spouse. I want one who doesn't earn more than, say, £9,000 a year. Or, perhaps, one who earns substantially more whilst I stay at home - just as long as they're not a Higher Rate taxpayer (for now)... Let's go with the latter option. Perhaps that sounds a bit mercenary? Hmmm... Apologies if you think it does, but money is, as they say, what makes the world go round. Anyway, I've ...
[IMG: jason zadrozny] One of the largest swings to the Lib Dems at the last election was in the Nottinghamshire seat of Ashfield: Jason Zadrozny gained a massive swing of 17% from Labour, but was pipped by just 192 votes by TV journalist Gloria De Piero, taking over the seat from the disgraced Geoff Hoon. Well, local Lib Dems have offered Jason second go. He has been selected for a return match, as the Nottingham Post reports: Mr Zadrozny will go head-to-head with Labour MP Gloria de Piero at the polls in 2015, with Miss de Piero winning by 192 ...
Haringey Labour doesn't seem to be having a good run-in with democracy this year. Over the summer there were the complaints about Unite's "autocratic monopoly" for its role in the selection of a Parliamentary candidate in Hornsey & Wood Green. Now there are allegations of rigged candidate selections for the May 2014 local council elections, with claims that the selection of Peter Morton, the Labour Party's Head of Press, occurred at a meeting in which people ineligible to vote were allowed to vote and at which at least one candidate had been given preferential advance notice of hustings questions. The ...
I appeared on BBC South Politics show this morning to talk about the Operation Black Vote report – which I authored – into the Power of the Black Vote. You can watch this programme for [...]
Susan Leslie's campaign in the Dunfermline by-election is off to a flying start. I'm sitting in the office in the town centre working on emails and phone calls and sending people out with leaflets and canvass cards. It's quite emotional being back here, having spent 4 years as part of Willie Rennie's team when he was the MP. I am proud of what he and Jim Tolson did for the area and for the people of West Fife. Our office was always so busy and people knew they could rely on us to fight as hard as we possibly could ...
We have reported a number of potholes in Bloomfield Drive to the Council, including the potholes at the Junction of Bloomfield Drive and Corston View which is causing a big bang every time a bus goes ove.
The council has changed the planning rules via an article 4 direction that has meant all houses in multiple occupancy (HMO's) need planning permission in Bath. This was done to ensure that areas had mixed tenure, that not all house were HMO's There have now been three planning applications for conversion in HMO's on the Clark's estate, residents have been asking us what is going on. There is
Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. Almost 700 party members responded – thank you – and we're publishing the full results. It's a month ago to the day since David Cameron lost the vote in the Commons on keeping open the option of military intervention against Syria. Just a day ago, the United Nations Security Council voted unanimously to destroy Syria's chemical weapons. In the week before the Lib Dem conference in Glasgow we asked what party members ...
It's that last week of the political conference season, and while I'm no apologist for conservative politicians on the basis of what's on offer, and performance, David Cameron, is the best realistic choice for the next parliament. This morning the Prime Minister, on the Andrew Marr show gave a confident performance, the sort of questions that Ed Milliband stumbled and tripped over, Cameron seemed to glide through, of course both, say little of substance and what they do say is crafted to please everyone, a particularly awkward subject the question of women wearing a veil, the PM suggested it wasn't ...
Many thanks to the 13,000 visitors who dropped by Lib Dem Voice this week. Here's our 7 most-read posts... Five reasons not to assume the FDP wipeout in the German elections will happen here in the UK (58 comments) by Stephen Tall How UKIP managed to lose 45% of their MEPs (31 comments) by Giles Goodall That Ed Miliband speech in full (70 comments) by Joe Otten Ed Miliband's speech: 5 thoughts on what it means for Labour, Tories, Lib Dems and the 2015 election (25 comments) by Stephen Tall Labour's energy freeze is terrible economics but excellent politics (77 ...
Tory achievements: 1) 1.4m new jobs 2) Tax cut for 25m people 3) Deficit cut by a third 4) Benefits capped 5) Crime down by >10% #CPC13 — Nadhim Zahawi (@nadhimzahawi) September 29, 2013 Yup....naughty Nadhim Zahawi is trying to claim credit for the Lib Dem income tax threshold policy.
When you worry a little about the results of your policies, it is a good time to stop and think. I don't mean some of the less successful effects of the coalition, because those are not necessarily Lib Dem policies. They are compromises to achieve other reforms, as any coalition has to make. I'm thinking of Greece. The people of Greece were sacrificed to save the euro, once a major Liberal contribution to economic policy; now rather an embarrassment. The Greek debt is still ballooning as a proportion of GDP. The so-called Troika's rule over Greece, on behalf of the ...
A number of Cornwall councillors are asking the authority to consider a 6% council tax rise next year alongside the 1.97% rise that we are currently proposing as part of our budget. Although I think it is right that there should be an open debate about this issue, there are four key reasons why I won't be backing this idea. First some background. Cornwall Council has to save £23.9 million next year (based on a 1.97% tax rise) in addition to cuts previously made or agreed. This is due to increasing demand for key statutory services such as adult care, ...
Sunday morning and up at 5am to get to the BBC studios in Cardiff for the newspaper review on Radio Wales' Sunday Supplement. What this means of course is that I get to read all the papers for free during a dedicated hour and a half time slot. Luxury but still tiring. Three articles caught my eye in particular. Firstly, the Observer's front page splash detailing the views of the Chief Constable of Durham that class-A drugs should be decriminalised and the policy of outright prohibition radically revised. In truth these are not unique views nor is the Chief Constable ...
A couple of months ago I was thinking about going to the Glasgow conference. I'd never been before. 'You'll enjoy it' said some fellow local party members, "and you can be a voting rep too if you decide soon." My wife spotted the chance of a weekend away from the children. 'Can I come?' 'Well I was hoping you'd come but you'll have to join the party' So we both decided to go at the last minute, with her joining the party the week before. With a little complication on getting her security cleared we went for three days until ...
I first conceived of this blog while traveling in the States this summer and I'd planned to start it off with a series of posts about the States. For various reasons that didn't happen but its remained an appealing idea. So this week is America week which will hopefully include: I've already done a couple [...]
Cameron's patronising attitude towards women will cost him the election (tags: ) Clarissa Explains It All, The Legend of Korra, and Doc McStuffins show that boys will watch girl shows. (tags: ) Carolyn Hax: Don't try to get a child to conform to gender expectations - The Washington Post (tags: ) Doctor Who 50th anniversary: why hasn't the BBC shown more classic episodes? | Radio Times (tags: ) UK Polling Report on how people would vote if there was a Tory/UKIP pact (tags: ) Lazy Giraffe Blog: Samosas from Scratch (tags: ) Eric Pickles tells survivor of alleged child abuse: ...
Sun 29th
09:25
Watch and laugh: Clarke and Dawe - Meat-pricing in Portugal between the wars (CANCELLED)
More comedy genius from Australia's Clarke and Dawe: Also on YouTube.
As I have sat by the pool in Spain contemplating Independent on line and my daily fix of the LGA press service I have been thinking of the similarities between Liverpool and Doncaster (by the way this was before the ... Continue reading →
This week Nick reflects on two speeches in two weeks: the first to the party's conference in Glasgow, the second to the UN general assembly. In one he announced free school lunches for the youngest children in English schools; in the other he announced an extra £100m of aid to help Syrian refugees. As Nick says, "We all hate the idea of a child going hungry. Be they a refugee on the borders of Syria, or the neglected child of a troubled family in an inner city: the world's children deserve our protection." You can read the letter in full, ...
Last week, I was at our party conference in Glasgow. This week I'm writing to you on a flight back from the UN in New York, where I spoke at the General Assembly and discussed Syria, Iran UK and arms control. From setting out our liberal agenda in Britain to setting out our liberal agenda in the world: my speech in New York was all about how we can defend the virtues of liberal, open societies against closed, insular ones. You can read the speech in full here. One of our biggest priorities is aid to help Syrian refugees. It ...
In which I look at the novelisation of Scream Of The Shalka
