The very first point absolutely must be about Smaug. This dragon was made to be mighty, scary, glorious, amazing: all at once and more. Mr Cumberbatch gives him the voice that makes one shiver, the entire team who worked on the dragon deserve all the Oscars and medals film industry has to give. Having said [...]
For well over a year, we've been working with the Friends of Bramall Hall and Park to secure Heritage Lottery Fund money to make major improvements to the hall – a real local gem. The news that we've got the money has gone public this week and I've been doing a few interviews. In particular I'd like to thank the Friends who have worked tirelessly to secure this major investment. Here's the Council press release with more information Bramall Hall in Stockport has been awarded a £1.6 million grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) to transform it intoa regional ...
Well done to the Northamptonshire Telegraph:Ken's Diner in Finedon closes An authentic American restaurant has closed and relocated to the States.You can see what happened. The owners spent 18 months in search of that elusive authenticity until someone put his finger on the problem. They were in Finedon.
This evening there was a small explosion in Belfast's busy Cathedral Quarter where there are many restaurants and bars where there will have been many out on work parties for Christmas. The Police Service has confirmed that it was caused by a bomb, but no further detail is available as yet. The Northern Ireland Liberal...
Meols Ward Lib Dem Councillors John Dodd, David Rimmer and Nigel Ashton, together with FOCUS Editor Jo Barton, are holding their next advice centre on Saturday 14th December, from 11 am to 12 noon at St John's Primary School, Rufford Road, Crossens. We will be there to meet you and discuss any Council problems you may have. No appointment necessary. Just pop in. We hold our advice centre at St John's School, Rufford Road, Crossens every month (except August) on the second Saturday of the month. We also hold a monthly advice centre in Churchtown, at Cafe Moo Moo on ...
Fri 13th
17:38
Jade Holden chosen as Scottish Liberal Democrat candidate for the Cowdenbeath by-election
[IMG: Jade Holden Cowdenbeath] The Scottish Liberal Democrats have chosen Jade Holden, who's 23, a current Euro candidate and former Liberal Youth Campaigns Officer, as their candidate for the forthcoming Cowdenbeath by-election. The poll was caused by the sudden death of Labour MSP Helen Eadie of whom Scottish Leader Willie Rennie said: As fellow parliamentarians for West Fife, Helen's intense, burning commitment to socialism was inspiring to observe. Although a gentle and kind lady you did not cross Helen without suffering from the sharp end of her tongue. Helen made waves for her causes and her constituents. I first got ...
A constituent approached me in 2011 raising concerns about the failure to consider the new evidence It seemed that this should be considered and the court of appeal has now considered this. On behalf of my constituent I spent some time working with his lawyer to get the CCRC to consider this aspect of the case. I am mainly concerned about two things directly relating to the appeal: a) How long
Our friends in Wolverhampton have prepared a comprehensive policy document to set out their vision for the city in advance of the 2014 local elections. It's a detailed (16 pages) document that spells out clear achievable policies in key areas, and shows great understanding of Wolverhampton's history, development and wider regional context. Documents like these [...]
During the festive season, I love shopping in our local stores for presents. From the Big Green Bookshop in Wood Green to the delightful delicatessens in Highgate - there is a big enough range to get gifts for everyone! This year, the Haringey Lib Dems and I have worked hard to support and promote independent traders - through our campaign for cheaper high street parking and our independent shops competition. And to round off the year, I'm happy to promote the following special offers from some of our best loved independents: Crocodile Antiques in Muswell Hill are offering two mugs ...
It's that time of the year again and chances are you'll be shuffling through the shopping crowds, ordering in the food and doing the Christmas party rounds. This [...]
So last night I got sent home from work after fainting at my desk whilst complaining of chest pain. My dad came to pick me up, and took my pulse and did various other first aidy things and decided that I probably wasn't having a heart attack (yay) so took me home. I spent a fitful night of yet more nightmares and the chest pain was still there this morning, so I went to the doctor. There now follows a link to storify, as I have already told this tale on twitter. And can't be arsed typing it all out ...
It is a tradition for LDV to bring its readers copies of our new MPs' and Peers' first words in Parliament, so that we can read what is being said and respond. You can find all of the speeches in this category with this link. On 28 November, Baroness Grender made her maiden speech in the House of Lords during a debate on broadcast media and its role in the economy. Her words are reproduced below. Baroness Grender (LD): My Lords, I would like to thank my noble friend Lady Bonham-Carter of Yarnbury for introducing this debate. I would also ...
Earlier this week, I blogged about the challenge that a new Hindu nationalist government might pose for the West. Potentially the trickiest of these issues is how the US deals with its travel ban on Narendra Modi, the man whose very likely to be the next prime minister of India for his role in anti-Muslim [...]
Here's today's hand-picked selection that caught my interest... Liberal Hero of the Week #54: Sir Ian Kennedy, Chief Executive of IPSA | CentreForum Blog My @CentreForum Liberal Hero this week is... Sir Ian Kennedy, Chief Executive of IPSA http://bit.ly/18InA9U Controversial choice? Nah... The budget deal and Washington's new politics of compromise | Anatole Kaletsky Fascinating take from @Kaletsky » "The budget deal and Washington's new politics of compromise" http://reut.rs/1kDoSoO Why do private schools still attract the most memorable teachers? | Martin Kettle | Comment is free | The Guardian There's some lovely stuff in @martinkettle's piece on The History Boys ...
Towns across Cornwall will now have cheaper season tickets in their Cornwall Council owned car parks thanks to the Liberal Democrats. The measure (as well as cheaper pay and display prices) was contained in the Lib Dem budget that we persuaded the council to adopt back in February. The cheaper prices are based on a very successful trial held in Launceston. Now that the Liberal Democrats are in the administration at County Hall, we have been able to put the cheaper prices into operation. Cornwall Council sells very few season tickets in most of Cornwall. And even where we had ...
It was an idea hatched on a train journey a few months ago whilst travelling with colleagues to an EMLD executive meeting. At our Annual General Meeting last month the hosting of the "EMLD Achievement Awards" as a way of recognising and rewarding those who have fought for and championed race equality in the UK received the approval and endorsement of our members. There is currently a Federal Party award, the "Dadabhai Naraoji Award", given to the local party that is the most successful in its outreach to the BAME communities but it was felt that EMLD as an organisation ...
I read with interest this piece in the Times (£) yesterday on the least credit-worthy regions. "After the North East, people from Lancashire, Wales, the West and Yorkshire had the lowest average credit ratings, according to research by Confused.com, the comparison website." A note of warning - it could be that people have such low credit ratings because they've never had credit, however this survey indicates there is a lot of debt in the region (expressed as a household debt-ratio) With interest, because I'm always interested in the North West and how it performs against other regions. I think Manchester ...
Alice Bell: George Monbiot is petitioning the BBC to give more information about financial interests of people they interview. He's right to ask for more context from media experts. Alice Bell
The latest information on Pupil Premium allocations was released yesterday (Thursday 12th) and Lib Dem HQ have provided a comprehensive spreadsheet for the data and a template press release for local adaptation. The spreadsheet provides figures for Pupil Premium, Catch Up Premium and Summer School funding where applicable, and the data is presented by school. [...]
I thought I would write this blog now before the festive season really kicks off and I run out of time to even think, let alone to think back over the year in the garden... January to April ~ snow! Then more snow.... and more snow.... May to June ~ New patio...and straight from winter to summer! (And a tick on my life list for finally getting to visit the Chelsea Flower Show.) (The patio changes from this.... ...to this!) In July we said goodbye to our much loved family cat, who was 18 years young. Peas, strawberries, gooseberries and ...
I've covered before the creation of one new left-wing party fighting elections in Haringey, the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition. Now the ironically named Haringey Left Unity has joined the fray, not quite bringing unity on the left. And in keeping with 1970s traditional left-wing factionalism, Left Unity is now under attack by Communists. This all reminds me of:
All three main political parties in the UK today broadly accept the Bank of England's (BoE's) programme of buying the paper 'assets' of banks with printed money – worthless and valuable alike (quantitative easing – QE). There are few dissenters, but I am one of them. My dissenting post-2008 remedy was a managed partial default/bankruptcy of the UK's insolvent banks with a quick operational reboot, on the grounds that it would be cheaper than a printed-money 'bankers subsidy'. The quantity of intricately interwoven bad assets was unknown, and thus the UK government was subsidising a pig-in-a-poke, I believed. But hey ...
[IMG: Children] It's Sandgate Craft Club in Sandgate Library tomorrow (Saturday 14th December). This is for 2 to 11 year olds, accompanied by an adult. Times: 10am - 12noon; free hot and cold drinks available. Also, on Monday at the Read & Rhyme session, Rosa will help the little ones to make simple Christmas decorations. This is from 10am to 11am. All newcomers will be very welcome. Learn more about Sandgate Library and Library Christmas opening hours. Published and promoted by Tim Prater, 98a Sandgate High Street, Folkestone, CT20 3BYPrinted (hosted) by Prater Raines Ltd, 98 Sandgate High Street, Folkestone ...
This week's meeting of the Federal Executive could have been a fractious affair as we were discussing both the future of Spring Conference and the future of the interim peers' panel. In the end, it was very consensual and amicable. We also passed next year's Federal Party budget, talked about membership (growing) and the S/AO Group, of which I'm a member, reported on its work. We are trying to develop a tool kit to help S/AOs along the lines that they've been feeding back to us that they would like to see. We're also wanting to be more proactive about ...
The NHS blogger Roy Lilley has accelerated his campaign against the Care Quality Commission (CQC), and he is now so influential that he may succeed in winding the old dinosaur up single-handed. His blog earlier this week, with snippets he has been sent by NHS staff, was pretty devastating. Apparently, a coachload of 130 inspectors turned up to inspect Barking & Dagenham hospital last week. Yet there were the complaints in other places (not B&D, as far as I know) that, because there had been a tip-off about the arrival of inspectors, staff numbers had been doubled for the day ...
Fri 13th
10:03
Tim Farron: "Only a fool could trust in the 'oversight' provided by the intelligence committee"
"We don't have any time to lose. The EU has already begun drafting a new set of data protection regulations, expanding and reinforcing the right of European citizens. Britain needs to decide how it will treat her citizens online and start re-building trust in the democratic oversight of our security services," says Tim Farron. Post by Liberal Democrats for Civil Liberties.
So, what happened to 'reforming welfare so work always pays'....? This morning's papers report Resolution Foundation evidence that, buried away in the Autumn Statement, the level of income allowed in Universal Credit calculations is to be cut by a total of around 8%. This is silly and counterproductive: indeed it goes directly against the Government's own headline commitment in the Coalition Agreement to 'reform welfare so work always pays'. In spite of a series of reductions to the welfare budget focused almost entirely on the working-age population and their dependants, those analysing the effects of policy changes have highlighted those ...
Fri 13th
09:04
Did Government misrepresent Professor Harrington's view on Employment and Support Allowance rollout?
I've written many times about the problems with the Government's Work Capability Assessment, the tool, implemented by ATOS, used to decide who qualifies for Employment and Support Allowance. The WCA was first introduced by Labour for new ESA claimants in 2008 and its flaws were immediately clear. It took no account of fluctuating conditions or mental health conditions and even after reviews still bore little resemblance to assessing someone's actual fitness for work. The Coalition had everyone who was claiming the old Incapacity Assessment put through the Work Capability Assessment. This has led to some really quite appalling decisions. I'm ...
Scientists create 'robotic sperm' to help with fertilisation and drug delivery Cos it's all about the MALE zygotes, AMIRITE? *headdesk* (tags: ) 'Good' gender segregation and 'bad' gender segregation? Somewhat misguided from Stephen Tall Still, there's a right old dingdong going on in the comments *gets popcorn* (tags: ) VVV cute Thor crossover thing. Must show this to Holly, she'll love it. (tags: ) MEP slams Calderdale Council's waste of EU funds Of course Labour didn't check whether or not they'd have to pay the EU funding back *headdesk headdesk headdesk* (tags: ) YAY Serco and G4S lose tagging contracts! ...
At last some commonsense on MP's pay with the The Times reporting that the three party leaders have united to call on IPSA to rethink their proposal of an 11% pay rise. The paper says that they are prepared to back a Commons vote, or even a new law, designed to head off the pay increase for MPs, formally announced by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority yesterday. Although this will once again put the fate of MPs remuneration back into their own hands, it is the right thing to do, at least until IPSA start to understand the economic and ...
An excellent offer from the West End's Time2Give:
Tuesday's Estyn report on the importance of tackling poverty to improve educational attainment underlines the need for schools, consortia and local authorities to start working together as a matter of course to make sure that the very best schools are always sharing their excellent working practices with others. It is heartening to see that the most recent data shows a narrowing in the gap between learners eligible for free school meals and those who aren't, and this data supports the findings of the survey we undertook in the summer which showed how students from poorer backgrounds are benefiting from this ...
A group of councillors from St Albans City and District Council is to look into traffic issues surrounding the transportation of pupils to school by coach. The group wants to hear from residents about any issues they have faced with coaches travelling to and from local schools in their area. The Local Services Scrutiny Committee set up a Schools and Coaches Task and Finish Group to look into this topic following concerns raised by residents and councillors. Chris White, Chair of the Local Services Scrutiny Committee: "Some residents and councillors are concerned about traffic congestion caused by coaches transporting children ...
Remember the Market Harborough floods in July? Well, they were very popular on this blog at the time. Here is a video of the town centre that evening, complete with a commentary in Polish.
