I was chasing up a recycling query and cleansing informed me that: 'the recycling bin collection in the north of the borough (that is Sefton speak for Southport/Formby) was running behind again by roughly a day. The (alleged) reason for this is the increased amount of recycling in the north of the borough (see translation above) over the Christmas period is up 33% from 75 tonnes to 100 tonnes. Because of this the wagons will be working on Saturday and if required Monday, but they will definitely be back to normal on Tuesday.' I am a little puzzled by this ...
John Barrett, who was Liberal Democrat MP for Edinburgh West between 2001 and 2010, has an article in The Scotsman today. He has some uncompromising things to say about the direction the Lib Dems have taken and about the Scottish referendum debates. On the Lib Dems he writes: the fact that the party I joined over 30 years ago bears little resemblance in policy terms to the Liberal Democrats now in government at Westminster. I have not changed my views on opposition to university tuition fees, Trident nuclear missiles and the construction of new nuclear power stations. More recently ... ...
It's not often these days that the comments underneath a newspaper's online article are supportive of the Liberal Democrats. However, virtually every commenter in this Independent article backed the party's stand on filters which are aimed at restricting access to content deemed in appropriate for children but in reality block a great deal more. Since they were activated, we've reported that they've blocked access to the LGBT+ Lib Dems' section of the Liberal Democrats' website and the site of St Mary's Cathedral in Glasgow. Tim Farron's and Julian Huppert's motion to Spring Conference on a Digital Bill of Rights makes ...
After my ward surgery this morning in Sunniside, I headed down to Blaydon ward to spend a couple of hours delivering our latest Focus. It gave me the opportunity to look at the new housing development that has taken place at Axwell Hall. Fortunately the day was sunny though cold. No soaked clothes or boots today!
The BBC report that the number of patients waiting longer than they should for diagnostic services like MRI scans and ultrasounds has trebled in the last two years. They add that figures also show proportionately more patients in Wales face waits of over eight weeks than in England: The number of people waiting more than nine months for hospital treatment in Wales has also reached its highest level in two years. When a patient is referred for diagnostic services such as a CT scan or an endoscopy they are meant to be seen within eight weeks – the so-called "operational ...
We have been contacting the council about the rough surface on Rush Hill near the old Rose and Laurel pub. It is good to see today that this is now been sorted out.
There is no doubt some truth to the closeted homophobe meme. We need only look at Nigel Evans, Cardinal O'Brien or, possibly, Aaron Schock to see this and need not even look at the studies pointing out the links between an extremely closeted life and projections of anti-LGBT sentiment. But the gusto with which some have adopted it to explain every case of homophobia concerns me for a number of reasons. Giles Fraser today implies, rather than looking with true curiousity at the fact Uganda is at once a country recently infamous for anti-LGBT legislation but also the one with ...
I blogged earlier this week about why I think making voters show ID at polling stations is a seriously bad idea. Mark Pack highlights some of the more practical problems it poses: First, what sort of ID would be acceptable? Once you get beyond passport and driving license (and not everyone has one or the [...]
Northumberland County Council's Labour administration is planning to scrap free travel for post-16 students travelling to and from school or college - replacing it with a £450 annual charge. The Liberal Democrats across the county have heavily criticised the plan, warning that it would have a huge damaging effect on the prospect of the county's young people, particularly in rural and remote areas.Julie Pörksen, Liberal Democrat Prospective Parliamentary Candidate (PPC) for Berwick-upon-Tweed, has said: "Labour's plans to charge for school transport for over 16s are outrageous, especially when education is to be compulsory until age 18. Their actions mean families ...
Stephen Tall has been writing for Total Politics, painting a worrying scenario of what might happen electorally if the Liberal Democrats were to go into coalition with Labour after the next General Election. That ominous phrase "Be careful what you wish for" is the theme... He points out that the Coalition has caused problems for the party: In the circumstances, we might be forgiven for turning round to the voters and saying, "You know what, guys? Next time you can't make up your minds, don't look to us to break the deadlock. You can suffer Conservative/Labour minority rule instead. That's ...
[IMG: Killer] I guess most newspapers use the same CMS to add articles for their printed edition and their web edition. It's mostly ok - but when a journalist (or copy editor) creates content, they should always think about all the ways it can be displayed. Even if they had inserted an image of The Attorney General in the website, there's no guarantee that it would be displayed to the right of the text. For example, on a mobile site it may be below. [IMG: flattr this!]
With just five months to go before the European elections, the junior partners in Britain's governing Coalition, the Liberal Democrats, have been showing just how much they differ from their Conservative partners when it comes to the country's relationship with the European Union. The Party Leader, Nick Clegg, as well as its President, Tim Farron, [...]
From today's Telegraph: A secret Whitehall report recommending that two new cities are built in southern England to combat the housing shortage is being suppressed by David Cameron, The Telegraph can disclose. The document was drawn up after the Prime Minister gave a speech supporting the idea nearly two years ago. It was described this week by Nick Clegg, his deputy, as a "prospectus" for future developments. Party President Tim Farron has some fairly robust quotes: Tim Farron, the Lib Dems' party president, told the Telegraph: "It is time to break the log jam. This report needs to come out ...
A point demonstrated in the form of a bar chart, of course: [IMG: Haringey Council Tax levels]
For details click here.
Well, we almost choked on our tea here in LDV Towers when we read that headline. Then we remembered that Tavish is hardly best buddies with the Tories, nor with the idea of the Coalition. What was his latest article in the Scotsman all about? Well, possibly getting his wooden spoon out and stirring it a bit. This article was even quoted in Thursday's First Minister's Questions by Labour MSP Malcolm Chisholm. Tavish looks at Osborne's assertion that there must be £25 billion further spending cuts: Fast forward to this week and Chancellor Osborne is positioning his party against both ...
The people who support a zero-growth economy also tend to be deeply concerned about inequality. You might infer from this that growth is detrimental to equality. However, a new book by the French economist Thomas Piketty suggests the opposite: that growth erodes inequality. As the Economist's Free Exchange blog explains: In Mr Piketty's narrative, rapid [...]
Online Harassment and "Oversensitivity" (Trigger Warning for Threats) (tags: ) Phenomenal Cosmic Powers: in which Debi discusses 3 of her favourite heroes. Capt Marvel FTW! (tags: ) londonkds Loses all respect for Alan Moore (took a while longer than me on that) (tags: ) Rosamund Urwin: We'd all gain if the poor were paid properly Trudat. The piece on Legal Aid lower down is well done too. (tags: ) Little girls deserve better than to be told to make themselves sexy This. This. A thousand times this. (tags: ) Factcheck: UKIP claim two managers for every nurse: is this our ...
1. If it were not for the Liberal Democrats all branches of the media would now be palpitating with frenzied speculation on "When will it be?" Will Cameron call it in March, to take advantage of apparently good economic news and before any bubble bursts? Or try pulling a fast one and calling it it February ? Or will he choose the same date as the Euro elections and thus hope to stymie Ukip, who will not, he hopes, fare so well in the higher turnout that a general election will produce (again, he hopes)? For the first time in ...
We wanted to honour those Liberal Democrats that our readers felt were true stars of 2013. Over the past few days, we have sought out nominations and now have a rather impressive list, of which this is the final part, that we've been publishing in instalments over the past week. Here is the final part. Their names come with the comments made about the contribution they have made. Some are parliamentarians, some are councillors, most are grassroots activists. Let's celebrate them and the many others who are fighting for Liberal Democrat values and victory. These are our Liberal Democrat stars ...
[IMG: image] It would normally be at this time on a Saturday morning, with my nearest and dearest off to work, that I would settle down to a treat in bed with my iPad and a read of Simon Hoggart's Diary. I always enjoyed Simon's parliamentary sketches, but I enjoyed his Diary the most. I am proud to say that he mentioned my name twice in his columns. The first time was in 2003 when I pointed out the phrase "It's all gone Pete Tong" in connection with a string of remarks he was writing. The second time was, more ...
Speke Post Office, which is in the centre of Speke, could partly become a convenience store. A planning application's come in to make the change. You can see the details at this link. The actual detailed info is in a section called Related Documents which is at the bottom of the page. If you click there you can get access to plans and application forms and so on It's not clear from this material when the Council's comments deadline is. Sometimes it takes a while for the date to be adjusted and the comments link to appear. However there's nothing ...
Ages ago (well in 2012 actually) a planning application came in to turn the former community centre on Wellington Street in Garston into flats. This is the building that was the Garston Embassy for a while and before that was used for education. Garstonians call it the Tochy Tech (hope that's spelled right!!!) Anyway, it looked as if a decision was imminent... and then a delay. I've checked up on this and it turns out that there's some info missing from the application and without the full load of info there can't be a decision either way. Anyone who sent ...
There are two meetings at Blyth Town Council next week 14th January , 6:30 Special Council I only found about this on Thursday. The agenda is likely to be discussed under Part 2 (ie in closed session ) because of the nature of the content (and reason for the meeting). I'll not go into it in detail until after the meeting, but suffice it to say there was enough coverage in the local press before Christmas for local people to be able to guess. If you are interested, contact me for a (watered down for legal reasons) explanation 16th January ...
A superb photograph of Perth Road at Mid Wynd and Ryehill Church (now flats) from Photopolis.
As somebody who shares my home with a cat, I was fascinated and a little bemused by this article in yesterday's Independent. The paper reports on the conclusions of biologist and animal behaviour expert, Dr John Bradshaw, the author of Cat Sense. He has suggested that domesticated cats perceive their human companions as less of a parental figure and much more as a larger, non-hostile fellow cat: In Cat Sense, Dr Bradshaw concludes that cats evolved as solitary hunters and still don't quite 'get us' the way dogs do - and perhaps never will. In effect, he says, cats are ...
