The East of England Liberal Democrats are holding an event on 7th February at 19:30 at Old Divinity School St John's Street Cambridge CB2 1TP The event will start with Champagne and canapés and will include music provided by The Gentlemen of St John's. Music will be classical, modern, and barbershop. Tickets are £40 The easiest way to get tickets is to pay for them via Andrew's website at; www.andrewduff.eu/en/donate And then email nethsingha@btinternet.com to say where to send the tickets. Alternatively you can send a cheque payable to; "East of English Liberal Democrats" To; 15 Bulstrode Gardens, Cambridge CB3 ...
[IMG: House of Sin @ night] I think it is a complete red herring to expect the House of Lords Liberal Democrat party to withdraw the whip from Lord Rennard. The peers tend to be legal experts (their leader is the Advocate General for Scotland, Lord (Jim) Wallace) and their standing orders talk about proceeding based on natural justice. Disciplinary action requires a group decision at a party meeting and has to be based on grounds "of (a) extreme or repeated disloyalty to colleagues in the party, or (b) conduct that is liable to bring the party or the Liberal ...
At the end of a long day for many of you, here's some light ballet for you, courtesy of the Consort of Musicke, performing Monteverdi's "Tirsi e Clori"... And a peaceful goodnight to you all...
Symington's corset factory was built in 1889 and closed in 1974. It was later converted into the town's library and the offices of Harborough District Council. The building is about to reopen after a major refurbishment.
LDW believe the entire process from the word go has been mishandled. As a result we have been left with an unsatisfactory position which has not been fair to anyone involved. We, have been talking to Senior Members of the Party about how LDW can contribute to resolving this distressing situation. Our involvement has been welcomed and we have been working behind the scenes to help in anyway we can. We are speaking to the Leader's Office to arrange a meeting with Nick Clegg as soon as possible. LDW is aware that the women who made the allegations against Lord ...
[IMG: Slaves] A window opened up in my schedule today to watch "12 years a slave". I was braced for something fairly serious. I have to say it is an absolutely classic film. Superbly acted, brilliantly filmed. It packs an extremely powerful punch. I found many of the scenes profoundly disturbing. I had to hold back sobs on several occasions. But, ultimately it is a rewarding film which gives us, I hope, a better insight into slavery. One of the things which struck me about the film, was the juxtaposition of the glorious hot and beautiful rural deep South of ...
Thursday When Nelson Mandela was banged up I sent him a cake with a file in it, but I had not great confidence that the South African authorities would be sportsmen enough to give it him. So I decided to raise public awareness of his plight here in Britain by writing a song. I called it "Free Me", but as fitting the words and music together proved harder than I had expected, it came out more like "Free-ee Me-ee-ee-ee-ee". The idea, you see, was that someone should sing the song while in the character of Mandela himself, and I wrote ...
A local councillor belonging to the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) — not in the photo — has declared that the recent floods in Britain were caused not by climate change but by gay marriage. If you thought that sort of Christian fundamentalist bullshit only existed on the other side of the Atlantic, think again. [...]
I have to say that it was like a breath of fresh air to receive a further statement from Liberal Democrat Women in my inbox tonight. For the last few days we appear to have been stuck in an intractable stalemate, with slit trenches being dug on both sides. Much has been said about the party rules, but the LDW statement reminds us that there are a several ways of skinning the cat (i.e moving forward) within the party rules. I welcome the news that four of the women involved have initiated an appeal under the party rules, which have ...
There has, rightly, been widespread derision, for the UKIP town councillor David Silvester and his suggestion that the recent floods have been sent by God because parliament has brought in equal marriage. But his are not the silliest or the most worrying words I have read today. Step forward Tom Winsor, Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Constabulary. Here he is speaking to The Times (and quoted in the Guardian): "There are cities in the Midlands where the police never go because they are never called. They never hear of any trouble because the community deals with that on its own ...
Karen Wilkinson on Liberal Democrat Voice updates us on the campaign against the government's enthusiasm for fining or jailing parents who take their children on holiday in term time. Moderate Labourite Hopi Sen is bemused by the way his party's high command has suddenly become keen on cooperation with the Lib Dems: "Labour moderates, already suspect due to their liberal deviations, would face ... agonies in any Lib-Lab coalition. Centrist ministers would be tarred at PLP meetings, be accused of a lack of backbone at policy commissions, be berated at conference for secretly agreeing with Nick Clegg." Why did Friedrich ...
That was the claim in this very interesting essay by Robert Cooper – a visiting professor at the London School of Economic and a member of the European Council on Foreign Relations – in last week's New Statesman. In it, he mounts a staunch defence of parliamentary democracy as the best way of deciding such matters rather than referendums: The sovereignty of parliament is a good principle because it allows maximum space for political decision-making and maximum opportunity for debate on issues that are always complex. It was his three reasons for continuing to support British membership of the EU ...
It is mid-winter, and the usual greenery of the mid-Suffolk countryside is replaced by a rather more stark world, with bare trees and hedgerows, little to gladden the soul on a grey afternoon. However, that will change, as crocuses and daffodils are already beginning to poke above ground, so Ros has been out in the garden, tidying, pruning and weeding. That means that I have been too, not something that one might normally associate with this bureaucrat. I'm not particularly good with plants, although I have improved my ability to spot what shouldn't be there, but I can follow instructions, ...
Sat 18th
14:55
Lib Dem membership increase confirmed: "Across the country, 75% of our local parties grew in 2013&Pr...
We reported here three weeks ago that the Lib Dems finished 2013 with a more members than at the start of the year – "the first governing party in recent history to have increased membership while in power," as the party put it. At the time, final figures weren't known as local parties had still to report their numbers to party HQ – so it's worth noting this snippet from Lib Dem chief executive Tim Gordon in his latest weekly email: Congratulations to those local parties that have increased their membership. Parties have been notified this week of the incentives ...
Here's today's hand-picked selection that caught my interest... feedly.com Interesting Speccie article looking at impact on Scottish referendum if Ukip fail in Scot but advance in England http://bit.ly/1mcCpo3 feedly.com / @Peston explains why Lab's bank break-up has not hurt shares http://bit.ly/1mjZg3T (A: investors don't believe him.) feedly.com Ipsos-MORI leader satisfactn ratings for Jan 2014 http://bit.ly/1cEiY1W Interesting thing is there's not much diff btwn Cam, Mili or Clegg. feedly.com "Was the UK government's use of North Sea Oil a scandal?" http://bit.ly/1jcAe6O « Interesting, rational analysis by Simon Wren-Lewis. Lib Dems: The in-betweeners | Total Politics Just filed my latest @TotalPolitics column. ...
Gatley's been quietly building up a strong artisan and vintage quarter centred around Buxton Street off Church Road. [IMG: IMG_0066] The latest arrival is Black Rose Vintage Company at 53A Church Road (above Aubergine). Owner Iysha Barrett has loads of fantastic vintage clothing for sale, so please give the Black Rose Facebook page a like and drop by the shop. ,
Young David Laws – no, not a new telly detective, but a picture of Lib Dem schools minister David Laws aged about 19. Hint: he's the chap on the left... a phrase not normally associated with David. (Hat-tip to Jezz Palmer for spotting.) [IMG: young david laws] Anyone got other photos of Lib Dem MPs before they were famous? * Stephen Tall is Co-Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice, and editor of the 2013 publication, The Coalition and Beyond: Liberal Reforms for the Decade Ahead. He is also a Research Associate for the liberal think-tank CentreForum and writes at his own ...
I've just launched a campaign to get the IEC Power Symbol into Unicode! [IMG: IEC5009 Standby Symbol] A couple of months ago, I asked this question on HackerNews I was looking for the electrical "standby" symbol - AKA IEC5009 / IEEE1621. You know, the circle with the line through it. The one that's on every single bloody piece of electronic equipment produced since the mid-1970s. It's not in the Unicode standard. I can, if I want, have a snowman ☃ or a reversed rotated floral bullet ☙. What other useful and/or important symbols are missing from Unicode? Well, Joe Loughry ...
[IMG: Patrick Wintour tweet] Good.
Sat 18th
11:28
Charity "stunned" as Charity Commission opposes exemption from controversial legislation
Charity Times reports: [IMG: Charity Commission logo] An amendment that would have removed charities from the Lobbying Bill and the Political Parties Elections and Referendums Act 2000 (PPERA) was torpedoed by the Charity Commission in a key debate in the House of Lords on Wednesday night. Earlier in the week support for the move had been building within the Lords for the amendment tabled by Lord Phillips of Sudbury, the leading charity law expert and Liberal Democrat peer. However, the wind was taken out of his sails by an eleventh hour letter to Lords from the Charity Commission, in which ...
[IMG: Ripped Papers] The Liberal Democrats seem to be getting into an almighty tangle over the Rennard affair. Stephen Tall offers a good overview of the state of play. It seems no one, apart from Lord Rennard and his chums, feels the outcome of the Webster inquiry is satisfactory. Many also feel the process of inquiry is problematic. Or, rather, if it is possible to conclude there are credible claims of inappropriate behaviour, but it is not possible to prove them to the required standard, and therefore nothing can be done, then by definition there must be something wrong with ...
I am only aware of one meeting at Blyth Town Council in the week of Monday 20th January Events Committee, Tuesday 21st January, 6:30 pm, at Arms Evertyne House
In the course, of Ros's research into her family roots, it has become apparent that her father's side of the family are properly Northern, and in linking up with the far flung strands of family, the notion of Bradford as the base for a renaissance in British textile manufacture has been mooted as a 'good thing' - it's amazing what emerges from family discussions. And so, when Baroness Eaton, whom Ros knows from her days in the Local Government Association, sought a debate on the future of Bradford, Ros was keen to contribute... Baroness Scott of Needham Market (LD): My ...
Bad things happen in political parties just as they do elsewhere – the important thing is to learn from your mistakes and make every effort not to repeat them. Recently, serious events forced us as a party to hold up a mirror to ourselves and in a number of areas we were found wanting. As Helena Morrissey author of Processes and culture within the Liberal Democrats and recommendations for change herself said Liberal Democrats recognise that the allegations alone and the circumstances surrounding them mean that the Party failed to live up to its own ideology. Our ideology aka our ...
Salon recounts the story of Fran and Dan Keller and the window it provides on one of the most bizarre parts of recent American history - the hysteria over Satanic Ritual Child Abuse: Among the atrocities that Frances and Dan Keller were supposed to have committed while running a day care center out of their [...]
With the fining of Stewart & Natasha Sutherland this week, an update on the campaign to reverse the changes to the attendance policy (see my previous article). Emma Whiting's e-petition to 10 Downing St gained almost 50,000 signatures and closed before most parents were aware of the forthcoming changes. Craig Langman, finding himself unable to sign it in September, put up a members' petition on 38 degrees and it went viral, gaining 127,000 signatures within a few weeks without any media coverage or promotion by 38 degrees. It now has 190,000 signatures. We delivered it to a nervous civil servant ...
It has been announced that the second part of the Silk Commission report will be published on March 3. The Welsh Liberal Democrats were instrumental in establishing the Silk Commission as we believe Wales must have a proper functioning Parliament. The first report was an excellent piece of work that was rightly taken forward by the UK government as a blueprint for the Wales Bill. It showed that, when parties work together, consensus can be established across the political spectrum for the good of Wales. I hope that a similar consensus can be found once again when the second report ...
Zelo Street: Lord Rennard - Time To Go (tags: ) [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
The Police Commissioner for South Wales, Alun Michael is all over today's South Wales Evening Post calling for changes to the formula that determines how much he has to spend each year. Mr. Michael points out that because of the way the system works, instead of receiving the full amount a formula says is needed to police South Wales appropriately, a significant amount is taken and allocated to other forces to give them a minimum amount of funding: He said: "This year, we have lost £9million because of this practice. "I have been given assurances that this will be considered ...
This photograph shows part of Dundee's Perth Road, known as Invercauld Place, here leading eastwards towards the city centre. No. 153 was Sarah Campbell, a fruiterer, and No. 151 John Farquharson & Sons, 'plumber, gasfitter, tinsmith & brassfounder'. George Christe, a grocer, had a shop at No. 149, and another fruiterer was at No. 145, John (later Mrs John) Peebles. No. 143 was the grocer, David (later Mrs David) Sewart and, beyond Pennycook Lane, which led northwards to Hawkhill, was a butcher shop, which was probably what is listed in the Dundee Directory as John Birse, flesher, at No. 133. ...
