When the previous series of Sherlock invented a secret station on Dartmoor, I was struck by the parallel with Malcolm Saville's Saucers Over the Moor where just such an establishment also appears. This evening Sherlock gave us a villain who lived at a house called Appledore, just as the villains do in the first of Saville's Lone Pine books, Mystery at Witchend. But a little research shows the writers of Sherlock got the name Appledore from Conan Doyle - from his Sherlock Holmes short story "The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton".
There's a part of me that is already smiling at the people from other parties who might have clicked this for some gossip. There's been an internal falling out in the LibDems? I've been caught speeding? Niet. The truth isn't nearly as interesting, nor would it get reported in the Daily Mail. Regular readers (yes, all three of you!) will know that I've been battling depression for some time now. I don't write about it all the time, because I don't think it's that interesting, but it's the truth. With the help of my therapist, I've come to realise a ...
The new poll from Ipsos MORI for British Future shows 65% of Liberal Democrat voters want to either leave the European Union or reduce its powers. Relatively speaking, Liberal Democrat voters are more pro-European than the average voter, but – according to this poll – the stress should be very much on the relatively. [IMG: Views on the EU - British Future/MORI poll] I suspect if the 'reduce its powers' option was broken out, Liberal Democrat voters would also be happy with much smaller reductions than those that would be needed to satisfy Conservative or UKIP voters who gave the ...
As this post appears, we'll be getting ready for the season finale of Sherlock. If my Twitter feed is anything to go by, we includes many of this site's regular readers. We've waited two years for the third season and it's all over in a week and a half. I loved the nods to the fandom, the tube line geekery and the usual ingenuity of the first episode. I also liked the fact that the eccentric guy with the beard was right. The second episode dragged in places but had the best Best Man's Speech since Four Weddings and a ...
Cambridge MP Julian Huppert MP Julian Huppert's fight to stop the tolling of the A14 has won him praise as "one of the most assiduous campaigners" in Parliament. Julian received recognition for his efforts from Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander today (Wednesday, December 4) in the House of Commons after he congratulated the government on dropping plans to toll the Cambridge to Huntingdon stretch of the road. Since the plan was first revealed, Julian has fought to prevent it warning that it would lead to rat-running by heavy goods vehicles through Cambridge and surrounding towns and villages putting ...
Oh to be in a fly on the wall as the Queen met Tory MP, honourable member for the 17th Century, Jacob Rees-Mogg.
This week work began to redesign Trinity Square in Nottingham. Ok, so it's not the most beautiful place in the world but it's fine, and plenty of people use it. It had a facelift just four years ago, which begs the question, is it the right time to spend half a million pounds in making [...]
It's been our tradition in recent years to go to the Pantomime at the King's Theatre in Edinburgh, which always stars comedians Allan Stewart and Andy Gray and Grant Stott from Radio Forth. Usually I book the tickets at the last moment and get a seat up in the gods. However, last year I was a bit more organised and got what I thought were good seats in the stalls. If I'd read the seating map properly, I'd have realised that they were THE front seats at the end of the row. We loved being there, so close to the ...
Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 361st 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 (5-11 January, 2014), 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. 7 quick observations ...
[IMG: homepage-carousel-vienna-final-weeks] Today we went to see the last day of the National Gallery's exhibition of portraiture from Vienna at the turn of the 19th/20th Century. The art was interesting in its own right, but the main impact for me was learning about the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which lasted from 1867 to 1916, and its implications for our time. Austria-Hungary came into being after the Habsburg Austria Empire's disastrous war with Prussia in 1866. This put to an end idea that the Habsburgs would lead a united Germany. It also put paid to the Austrian Empire's possessions in Italy, which joined ...
[IMG: Haringey Council Tax] Thankfully that is not the case any more! I wanted to share this excellent graphic on Council Tax increases in Haringey – from an article on Lynne Featherstone's website. Its easy to forget but until recently inflation-busting increases were the norm – which is why we have the 5th highest council tax in London (out of 32 boroughs!). Stroud Green's Lib Dem councillors started campaigning for it to be frozen in 2009 to help local residents with the cost of living. We've been successful every year since then – and thanks to all the pressure the ...
It is said one can learn from history, and if any readers out there would like to learn from back issues of Liberator about what went on in liberal politics not so long ago, I have a number available. In the interests of recovering my front room from a tidal surge of paper I am about to sling out a lot of duplicate back issues of Liberator, mostly from the last 15 years, not needed as file copies. If anyone wants the whole lot please contact me below but I can't wade through them to find specific issues. There are ...
Well worth reading Andrew Rawnsley's column in today's Observer – Labour is blowing kisses at the Lib Dems. But don't buy a hat yet – taking a look at Lib-Lab relations in the light of Ed Balls' much commented on chumminess with Nick Clegg. He rehearses two points familiar to readers here. First, that almost all Labour's policy announcements in the past year (it's not a long list) are in tune with existing Lib Dem policy: reducing taxes for the low-paid, a mansion tax and ending wealthy pensioners' benefits are just three of the ideas that started with the Lib ...
The advice for pregnant women to emigrate to get a fair trial is nothing new. There are many cases of people who have emigrated (particularly pregnant women). I would highlight two cases (although there are others on my blog). A. Michelle Freedman whose case was reported here. It is important to note that she is a family court barrister. I tabled an EDM about her case here which says: That
It was only three weeks ago when I wrote about the continuous changes in our education system (How To Turn People Off Politics) and how those changes meet with political praise or objection depending on the party that is supporting change. I mentioned grade inflation but said that it applies to any form of change. Well two days ago the Labour Party proposed that teachers should be licensed. Why would Labour do this when they had thirteen years in government in which to implement such a change? Well they did try in 2009 when Ed Balls wanted "classroom MOTs". It ...
This morning's Observer reports that Nick Clegg has once more clashed with Tory Ministers over welfare reform, in what is increasingly looking like a deliberate process of disengagement from the coalition. They say that the Deputy Prime Minister has dismissed a proposal by Iain Duncan Smith to limit child benefit to the first two children as a "Chinese-style family policy": Speaking on the Andrew Marr Show on BBC1, the deputy prime minister also warned that the Tories were locked in a "deathly embrace" with Ukip over Britain's membership of the EU. This would lead to a race to the bottom, ...
Here's today's hand-picked selection that caught my interest... When 140 Characters Isn't Enough: Weekly round-up – 11th January 2014 The excellent @Samfr has a new weekly round-up of education blogs. Catch up with his first selection here: http://bit.ly/1cXKJ5n Countdown to May 7, 2015 in UTC This is quite a niche website, I'm guessing > Countdown to 7 May 2015 http://bit.ly/1cXKzez Solihull MP Lorely Burt likely to become Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader – Birmingham Post Good stuff > Solihull MP Lorely Burt likely to become Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader – Birmingham Post http://bit.ly/1c5kqdF If the Tories lose the next election, Clegg ...
The Welsh Liberal Democrat Assembly Member for South Wales West, Peter Black has welcomed a deal that could secure the future of elite swimming at Swansea's National Pool. Mr. Black who has taken this issue up with the Sports Minister in the Welsh Government in the past, is delighted that British Swimming and Sports Wales have agreed to make the investment that could see top coaches Bud McAllister and Billy Pye and star swimmers such as Jazz Carlin remain at the Swansea facility beyond the Commonwealth Games. According to the BBC British Swimming will make a direct investment into Swim ...
Sun 12th
11:45
Opinion: as Labour and the Conservatives play "Find the Lady" on immigration, what are we to do?
I must admit that the whole immigration debate bemuses me. As Labour and the Conservatives compete for the prize of being 'not quite as tough on migrants as UKIP want to be', some of my fellow Liberal Democrats respond by talking of the benefits of migration, making the mistake of assuming that there is a rational debate to be had there. The problem is that there isn't – not now, at least. Instead, I suggest a different approach – holding the other three parties to account over their proposals. You see, I have concluded that most of the proposals will ...
Many thanks to the 14,800 visitors who dropped by Lib Dem Voice this week. Here's our 7 most-read posts... What's with the Nick Clegg/Ed Balls love in? (18 comments) by Caron Lindsay Opinion: Foodbanks: Are there more hungry people than a decade ago? (25 comments) by Iain Roberts Don Foster MP to stand down in 2015 (12 comments) by Caron Lindsay Opinion: The Immigration Trap (76 comments) by David Allen Should MPs be allowed to take their babies into the voting lobby? (26 comments) by Caron Lindsay Lorely Burt to stand for Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader (19 comments) by The ...
I can discover nothing about the singer of this very 1968 song. Even Marmalade Skies calls him "the mysterious Mr Christie".
The Cowdenbeath by-election caused by the death of Labour MSP Helen Eadie takes place on 23 January. This week all the parties have launched their campaigns. One of these is very different from all the others. Liberal Democrat candidate Jade Holden visited a local nursery with Scottish leader Willie Rennie on Thursday. This was particularly appropriate given that childcare is such an important issue. As we reported on Tuesday, Willie had to hastily re-write a speech after the Scottish Government went some way to doing what he had been pressing them for for months – to match Nick Clegg's extension ...
A new hole in the safety net - The Social Fund under threat (tags: ) Liberal Democrat Voice Roll of Honour 2013 - Part 6 Hah! Two of those nominations were mine :) (tags: ) [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
Michael Robbins has written an illuminating review for Salon of a new book on modern American Evangelicalism. He begins with a personal account of how his faith ultimately flourished despite his Colorado childhood bringing him into contact with some grisly manifestations of fundamentalism: [The] Lutheran pastor of the church in which I was confirmed was [...]
A constituent recently expressed concern to me at the extremely poor state of the car park at the Poundstretcher store on Lochee Road - the photo (below) shows how broken-down the surface has become.So many thanks to the Property Director, £stretcher, who promptly replied to my request for repairs, as follows: "We are aware of the issues at the Dundee store and in the last couple of weeks have asked 3 contractors to price the car park works This is a priority for us. We have received one very high quote, the second one due back today and the other ...
This photograph from Photopolis shows a Hunter Street of old, hugely different to today's Hunter Street 'link road' between Old Hawkhill and the Hawkhill by-pass.
Note from the county council What are we doing? We will be carrying out works on the worn-out road surface from the junction of Folly Lane to the junction of Waverley Road. The work is programmed to start on Thursday 30th January and should be completed within 1 day. We will be working between the hours of 09.30- 15.30. How will this affect you? We will need to close the road during these times; this may disrupt access to your property or business but we will keep this to an absolute minimum. Do not park in the works area during ...
The performance of the Uno bus service was put under scrutiny by St Albans City and District Council's Local Services Scrutiny Committee on Tuesday 7 January. At the meeting, Philip Waters, Chairman of Uno, responded to councillors' questions and addressed issues raised by local bus passengers about the bus service in the District. In particular, passengers are concerned about the punctuality of the 653 service from Jersey Farm to St Albans city centre in the early morning. They are also concerned that Uno buses have not been leaving St Albans City station between 6pm and 7.30pm and from 8.30pm onwards, ...
