One thing one cannot fault John Kerry on: his eternal optimism. Just about everyone who has anything to do with the Middle East — including Binyamin Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas, if truth be told — agrees that the chances of a Middle East "peace" being negotiated by the arbitrarily-set deadline of May is an illusion. [...]
Now watch some bastard remember it.
Labour seat. Death. There is not a Liberal Democrat Candidate.
Do you remember this? [IMG: Ed Balls denies his denial over the structural deficit] Now there's this:
Today I received a comment on last week's blog, Tory Lies or Labour Cluelessness and I have published this comment. Unfortunately the person who wrote it has missed the point. The list that he published on his Facebook page was called "ten Tory lies". All the points in his comment could be true, and it wouldn't show that the Tories had lied. For that you'd need to reference an actual statement by a Tory which contradicts one of those truths. To take number one of the 'lies', if David Cameron had said "Royal Mail was making a loss when privatised" ...
Tue 7th
19:53
Willie Rennie: "In 20 years, they'll be glad they had nursery education at an early stage because it...
There were extraordinary scenes in the Scottish Parliament this afternoon. First of all, the Scottish Liberal Democrats didn't even vote for their amendment, and nor did anyone else. They didn't have to, because the Scottish Government had taken a big step to doing what they wanted.For months, Willie Rennie has got up at virtually every First Minister's Questions session and doggedly asked, pleaded, cajoled with Salmond to extend nursery places to 40% of 2 year olds from its current figure of 3%, just like Nick Clegg had done south of the Border. And every time, Alex Salmond replied with varying ...
With exactly six months to go until the start of the third stage of the Tour de France, a cultural and sporting festival is being announced to celebrate the famous race coming to Cambridge. The Velo Festival will be a series of countywide activities run by local community organisations between May and September to showcase how cycling has become part of Cambridgeshire's past, present and future. The Festival already involves many types of events such as the Big Weekend in Cambridge, a bike ballet and cycling roadshows in market towns. Now local groups, organisations and clubs are being invited to ...
Tue 7th
19:50
Willie Rennie: "In 20 years, they'll be glad they had nursery education at an early stage because it...
There were extraordinary scenes in the Scottish Parliament this afternoon. First of all, the Scottish Liberal Democrats didn't even vote for their amendment, and nor did anyone else. They didn't have to, because the Scottish Government had taken a big step to doing what they wanted. For months, Willie Rennie has got up at virtually every First Minister's Questions session and doggedly asked, pleaded, cajoled with Salmond to extend nursery places to 40% of 2 year olds from its current figure of 3%, just like Nick Clegg had done south of the Border. And every time, Alex Salmond replied with ...
£120,000 project at Cut Bridge, Willingham Work is about to start on repairs and improvements to Cut Bridge, in Shelfords Road, Willingham. Contractors move in on February 3, to begin removing corrosion from the steel structure of the culvert and also to increase the thickness of the road surface covering the sub structure. The work is expected to take around two months to complete at a cost of £120,000. The work will be carried out in two parts to maintain access across the bridge with vehicles controlled by traffic lights. Working hours will be 7.00 am-7.00 pm Monday to Friday ...
The County Council is about to invest more than £278,000 in footpath and road repairs and improvements in St Ives. Contractors will begin work on January 13 to repair and improve the footways between The Rainbow Centre in Marley Road and the Wheatfields Primary School - the £180,000 project is expected to take around 10 weeks to complete. The work will be carried out in sections with a signed diversion for pedestrians in place. Working hours will be between 8.00 am-5.00 pm on weekdays. On January 20, work will begin to install traffic calming measures at High Leys, Green Leys ...
A new free computer course is aiming to help beginners bag the basics within just a few sessions. The course, Learn my way, starts on 15 January at the Maple Centre, Huntingdon, between 10 am and 12 pm, and runs for five weeks. Initially, Learn my way will focus on mastering the keyboard, mouse and the Internet. It will also cover job searching and the social side of the web, with sessions on Facebook, sharing photographs and shopping online. The course is ideal for both beginners and those who want to refresh their computer skills. The initiative has been developed ...
Owen Hatherley has a good article in today's Guardian laying bare the shrinking size of modern houses and calling for a return to the 'Parker Morris' standards of the 1960s. Sir Parker Morris was the author of the 1961 government report Homes for Today and Tomorrow. He called for minimum space standards for new accommodation, and these became mandatory in new towns in 1967 and in all public-sector housing two years later. The Parker Morris standards were abolished by the new Conservative government in 1980. Thanks, Maggie. When I became a councillor later in that decade, the phrase "Parker Morris ...
Here are the Liberal Democrat entries in the top 100 political blogs as ranked by EBuzzing (Wikio as was). A quiet start to the year: no joiners, no leavers. 1 (4) Liberal Democrat Voice No change 2 (24) Mark Pack Down 6 3 (33) Stephen Tall Down 4 4 (43) Jennie Rigg Down 3 5 (49) Zoe O'Connell (Complicity) Up 3 6 (57) Lynne Featherstone MP Down 16 7 (59) Alex Marsh Down 1 8 (60) Nick Thornsby Up 4 9 (70) Paul Walter (Liberal Burblings) Down 15 10 (72) Mark Valladares (Liberal Bureaucracy) Up 10 11 (78) Charlotte Henry ...
[IMG: lorely-outside-parliament-1] Solihull MP Lorely Burt has announced that she is to stand for the Deputy Leadership of the Liberal Democrats. The post became vacant when previous incumbent Simon Hughes became a Minister last month. Lorely has secured the nominations of 24 of the required 29 MPs. Lorely has a background in business and is described as having broken many glass ceilings during her career, including being the first women to chair the Liberal Democrats' Parliamentary Party. She said: With me as deputy leader, local people would have a stronger voice than ever. They'd know that if they told me ...
I said last month that, were it not for the actions that led up to it, Cardinal O'Brien's very public fall from grace would've been the highlight of 2013 for me. What actions was it that made me a little more reluctant to gloat? Was it the fact he'd hurt so many people with his aggressive and hurtful language in opposition to LGBT freedom? Nope, though he did. My concerns with Cardinal O'Brien stem not from his textbook example of how to be a homophobic closet-case, but from the fact he hurt several men he was responsible for. From a ...
For liberal fundamentalists, open-door immigration policy exerts a fatal attraction. Right-wing economic liberals advocate the freedom to recruit cheap labour on the global market and make British business more profitable and competitive. Traditional centre-left liberals advocate anti-racism and individual freedom to migrate. Thus, immigration is one of those special issues which can be claimed to bring Left and Right together, and thereby supersede these "outdated" political concepts with an all-conquering philosophy of Liberalism. Joe Public will have none of this. Joe believes it is bonkers to import shiploads of foreign labour while millions of natives are out of work and ...
When one is accusing others of distorting historical truth, it's probably best to avoid simultaneously whitewashing your own recent past. In his Daily Mail article Michael Gove claims that "the changes we've made to the history curriculum have been welcomed by top academics as a way to give all children a proper rounded understanding of [...]
[IMG: Michael Gove] Michael Gove's intervention into the complex historical debate over the First World War was as bizarre as it was ignorant. Gove attacked 'left wing historians' for promoting the Blackadder (a satirical sitcom, not, unless I am mistaken, a documentary) viewpoint that thousands of young Brits were consigned to an early grave by an out of touch elite. The issue with Gove's comments weren't his interpretation of history, which is certainly arguable, but the idea that history and commemoration should be used to score political points. It is the diversity of opinions and interpretations within historical scholarship which ...
So, after truly dreadful Festive television (with only a few exceptions like Doctor Who and Death comes to Pemberley), will the new season deliver anything worth watching? Well, this week is replete with decent stuff from several hours in the company of Professor Brian Cox on Stargazing Live, to BBC1's two part drama starring Sheridan Smith, Olivia Colman and David Morrissey, The 7:39. The first part was shown last night. It's written by the author of One Day, David Nicholls. That novel was a work of genius, which I loved. However, his previous work, Starter for Ten was laddish and ...
There is a big decision to be made at next week's council meeting about the draft Local Plan for Cornwall. This is the planning strategy for the next 20 years which sets out, among other things, the number of new houses which are to be built in Cornwall in that time. It's a very contentious issue. Quite rightly, people don't want to see Cornwall being concreted over. But there are very large numbers of people who already live here who need new homes and the way we live today requires more housing than we needed 20 years ago. There are ...
So Michael Gove has decided to attack Blackadder, for not being a true reflection of history. Guess what? It is a sitcom and not a documentary? But as a result of it being set in four historical times (more when you include Blackadder's Christmas Carol and Blackadder Back and Forth) it can lead to quizzical young minds to look into those periods of history more thoroughly. Indeed you may find some do just that as they do with the Horrible Histories series of books now turned into an award winning TV series. Nobody can say that Horrible Histories give a ...
The SLF welcomes yesterday's warnings from Nick Clegg that he aimed at Tory Chancellor George Osborne. Speaking at a press conference in Whitehall, Nick Clegg referred to Tory plans to make a further £25bn of cuts to the welfare budget...Read more ›
Tue 7th
14:07
Lib Dems demand urgent review of gully cleaning programme and Ringway performance over flooding.
Opposition Liberal Democrat councillors on Hertfordshire County Council have demanded that the Conservative run authority review its current gully cleaning programme and performance of Ringway is main highways contractor after hundreds of roads and footways became flooding in the last few days. Stephen Giles-Medhurst, Liberal Democrat Leader, said: 'I can make a distinction between flash flooding where ultimately you are always going to get a problem and recurrent issues where clearly there is a gully problem. I raised months again with the Conservative administration that I did not think the gully cleaning programme was working sufficiently well to allow water ...
Tue 7th
13:55
Dole Queues and Demons: British election posters from the Conservative Party Archive by Stuart Ball
[IMG: Dole Queues and Demons by Stuart Ball] Stuart Ball's collections of election posters from the Conservative Party Archive at the Bodleian is really two books in one. First, a sumptuously produced full colour collection of Conservative political posters from the last century and second, interspersed with that, a clear and succinct retelling of the history of the last century's politics from the perspective of the Conservative Party. The quality of the writing means that even if you know little about some of the people or issues the posters are about, the book clearly and swiftly gives you enough context ...
[IMG: BGY1frontcover] I make fanmixes when I'm writing. DON'T JUDGE ME. Just listen. [IMG: 104 hero] Hero - Kutless You could be a Hero You could be the change in this world Rise above the Normal Don't have to be afraid any more [IMG: 300a fly] Fly - Nicki Minaj Me against enemies me against friends Somehow they all seem to become one A sea full of sharks and they all want blood. [IMG: 400b coz-I-can] Coz I Can - Anna Johnson I`ll be a fly in your soup The one that`s always in your face Try to wave me ...
[IMG: DPMQ] Bob Russell wished Nick Clegg "Happy Birthday" at his monthly Deputy Prime Minister's Questions today, hence the quote in the headline. Nick dealt robustly with a wide range of questions, from regional airports, food banks, the triple lock on pensions to Syrian asylum seekers. He managed to get in a reference to his disagreement with George Osbourne over the fiscal methods that should be used to reduce the deficit after 2015, claiming a sincerely held difference of view. He advocated a mix of public spending constraints, welfare savings and fair taxes on those with the broadest shoulders. And ...
Which man is that? The one we saw watching the action replay of Sherlock rescuing John from the bonfire at the end of episode 1. He also appears in the trailer for the series finale and seems to be the main adversary. Isn't that the guy from Borgen? Yep, he's actor Lars Mikkelsen who played [...]
As I mentioned in a previous post, I'm sick of people not being able to spell or pronounce shkspr.mobi correctly. So I've decided to double down and start using my alternate domain 莎士比亚.org. It's pronounced "Sha-shi-bi-ya", if that helps. Getting my email account set up with my hosting provider was easy enough but it turned out to be quite tricky to send email to my account. This is what happened when I tried to send an email from Gmail to test@莎士比亚.org: [IMG: GMail IDN Support] Error The address "test@莎士比亚.org" in the "To" field was not recognised A Quick Bit of ...
Chardine Taylor-Stone: Afrofuturism provides a lot more to the black experience than simple escapism, silver Dashikis and pyramid-shaped spaceships Chardine Taylor-Stone
We have lost too many pioneering green economists lately. First David Fleming and then Richard Douthwaite, and now Margrit Kennedy, who died just before New Year. Back in the mid-1980s, when I first got interested in the future of money, there was Tom Greco to read about local currencies, Michael Linton to read about for his pioneering currencies in Canada - but if you wanted a critique of the way money worked, then really there was just Margrit, and her book Interest and Inflation-Free Money. I wrote about her work in my reader The Money Changers, and like so many ...
[IMG: Rock the House] Every year Parliament runs competitions to reward and promote the UK's creatives. Entrants will have their work judged by the leading lights of industry and win prizes ranging from festival slots, studio time, equipment, and the opportunity to have your work premiered in London's West End to name a few! Rock the House is open to musicians, and its patrons include Alice Cooper and Brian May. Film the House seeks to help celebrate the best up-and-coming amateur film producers, directors and script-writers. I encourage all local musicians and film makers to find out more by clicking ...
[IMG: Clegg on Osbourne] The media are full of stories and commentary about George Osborne's announcement yesterday on the need to make a further £25 billion cuts after the next election, the bulk of which would come from welfare benefits. Even the Telegraph refers to him as a "prophet of gloom". There is also much coverage of Nick Clegg's response at his monthly press conference in which he said the Tories were making a "monumental mistake". You've got a Conservative party now who are driven, it seems to me, by two very clear ideological impulses. One is to remorselessly pare ...
This is a time of year when many people on low wages or benefits find that the money just will not stretch. I worry that people are very proud and reluctant to ask for help until the problem becomes a big one. Ask early, is the best advice I can give. If council tax changes have put you behind then there is a fund you can apply to so just contact Cornwall Council tax staff and ask for the 'Exceptional Relief and Transitional Support fund' application form (you can download it on-line). The CAB are helpful with debt and eviction ...
I am responding to the letter in the Cornishman, dated 19 December, from Ray Lloyd, basically asking: What benefit we have gained from having an elected Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC)? Well the timing was perfect as, in my role of Cornwall Councillor, I am a member of the Police and Crime Panel. The Panel's role is to scrutinise the PCC and his office and on Friday, I travelled to Plymouth to scrutinise "The Police and Crime Commissioner's Staff and Consultancy Expenses, and Expenses and Allowances." Readers who want to see how this meeting went can watch the webcast at ...
Tue 7th
10:46The Independent View: The Public Service Users Bill is an opportunity for Lib Dems to show whose sid...
[IMG: weownit] In 2011, Nick Clegg strongly backed the government's 'open public services' agenda. In practice, this was used as a figleaf for outsourcing everything from prisons, probation and the NHS to council services. Corporations like G4S, Serco, Atos and Capita have won billions of pounds in contracts yet they are hugely unpopular with the public and the scandals keep coming. Clegg also promised to 'take a hard line against the kind of blanket privatisation which was pursued by governments in the past'. Yet the coalition has sold off the Royal Mail, the blood plasma supplier, the search and rescue ...
Appeals to crowdfund science sound good, but are too often applied to dismiss a role for sustained and large-scale state support Alice Bell
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. Some 750 party members responded – thank you – and we're publishing the full results. 69% of Lib Dems back raising the retirement age to 69 The Chancellor has said that the retirement age for state pensions will rise to 68 in the mid-2030s and 69 in the late 2040s. People now in their twenties may have to work until they are 70 before they receive a state pension. Do you support ...
posted The Blood is The Life 06-01-2014 http://t.co/75PYAWArpU on #dreamwidth (tags: dreamwidth (from twitter) ) So please do take an interest in "access to justice" issues relevant to today's strike, more at http://t.co/kbOZTCCASV: #walkout4justice 4/4 (tags: wa (from twitter) ) 10 Reasons You Will Fall Back In Love With Nick Clegg At The Next General Election http://t.co/JBR0cZ4Eml (via @martinpetts) (tags: (from twitter) ) Tom Harris shows why Labour cannot be trusted with the civil liberties agenda: http://t.co/HINi1oFBqg #libdems (tags: libdems (from twitter) ) Five of the most common mistakes that Lib Dem campaigners make | Mark ...
I am delighted that Nick Clegg has come out against George Osborne's proposal to cut another £12 billion off welfare provision after the next general election. The Liberal Democrats' Leader is absolutely right when he says that defcit reduction should focus on taxing the wealthy rather than further targeting the vulnerable. However, it is not just the Liberal Democrats who are critical of Osborne's stance. He has critics in his own party too. As the Times makes clear, the Chancellor of the Exchequer has been accused of "hacking at the same people" by allies of his Cabinet colleague Iain Duncan ...
Don't miss Cafe Science Dundee's event tomorrow - Wednesday 8th January 2014 at 6pm. Science fiction has come up with many fantastical tricks and tools to move objects without human touch; such as Star Trek's tractor beam and Dr Who's sonic screwdriver. Local scientists have now turned this fantasy into reality with real-world versions of sonic screwdrivers and tractor beams that use ultrasound, albeit at a much smaller scale. The science behind all this is that ultrasound can be used generate forces, pushing, pulling, or trapping objects, and this can be used on the lab bench or applied in the ...
