If you enjoyed this, hurry over to part 1, part 2 and part 3.
Con Seat. Death Prospective Candidate: Andrew Porrer Contact: Tony Gubb, Agent, a.gubb@visionplc.co.uk
Wed 22nd
21:00
We're Lib Dems: we need to care a lot more than we seem to about digging out the truth
Chris Rennard on Monday, Mike Hancock today. The Lib Dems have been doing quite a bit of membership-suspending this week. Those of us who are left are feeling scandal-fatigued. Probably the public are, too. Today has been especially depressing. Partly that's the result of having read the redacted QC's report commissioned by Portsmouth Council into the allegations against Mike Hancock which has been leaked online – it's a distressing read. This paragraph in particular is damning: "I consider that the prima facie evidence of his unwelcome sexual approaches remains unquestionably a very serious matter in the light of the position ...
The last time the Liberal Democrats were consumed by scandal was during the leadership election that followed Charles Kennedy's defenestration. At the time, as a service to the readers of Liberal Democrat News, I devoted a House Points column to a guide to Liberal scandals of the past: Take Sir Charles Dilke, once the great hope of the Radicals and a possible successor to Gladstone. In 1885 Dilke was cited in a divorce case. He protested his innocence, but when he produced his diary in court it had holes cut in many of the pages. He claimed this was his ...
As Phil Purser-Halard has now announced it, I can tell you that my story The Adventure Of The Piltdown Prelate will be published in Tales Of The Great Detectives, a collection of Sherlock Holmes stories set in the City Of The Saved. Here's the blurb and list of authors from the link: The Afterlives of [...]
Concluding my recent essay on drugs control and the limits of legitimate state intervention, I quoted from Rutgers University philosophy professor and legalization advocate Douglas Husak that the "best reason not to criminalize drug use is that no argument in favour of criminalizing drug use is any good". Having read more of his work since, particularly a book featuring a scholarly debate between Husak and anti-legalizer Arizona State University's Peter de Marneffe [Husak & de Marneffe, The Legalization of Drugs (for and against), Cambridge University Press, 2005], I wanted to return to this idea, because Husak advocates a different approach ...
On Friday last week, the next heavy lifting job on the route to creating our community library at Marley Hill Community Centre was carried out. I took my land rover and trailer to Gateshead Civic Centre to collect 3 wardrobe sized cupboards to take to the community centre. Today, after a meeting about Gateshead Council's budget, I picked up the shelves and brackets. The next job is to bolt the
There's actually a very quick answer to these questions NO and NO. I am, however, a politician so let me elaborate, This Country has been in a financial state which was as bad as that which pertained at the end ... Continue reading →
I am delighted to say that I have joined Rock the Boat – the Liberal Democrats against Sexual Harrassment on Facebook. This seems an excellent excuse, if excuse were needed, to revisit this tunesome Hues Corporation track from 1974: [IMG: Post to Twitter] Tweet This Post
Wed 22nd
18:28
Edward Davey MP writes...Lib Dem led British diplomacy paves way for global climate change deal
Liberal Democrats in Government are having a huge impact on tackling climate change, and today you've seen concrete evidence of how we're winning the debate – not just in the UK, but across the EU and potentially beyond. The main prize is huge - we're working towards a global climate change deal that will be discussed at the critical 2015 talks. But how do we get there? Firstly, I got cross-Government agreement on an ambitious UK position. We have pushed for a 40% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions across the EU by 2030. We want this increased to 50% if ...
since the economic car crash of the last Labour government the economy is pgrowing and forecast to grow stringly. Pay rises will return. But how to ensure pay rises are applied fairly. One system that a staff committee I worked with developed was the following: [IMG: Pay rise grid] It worked a treat bringing transparency and fairness.
A bad week is getting worse for the Lib Dems, as a report into MP and councillor Mike Hancock has been leaked, prompting further calls for his suspension from the
[IMG: obama] Florida House candidate Joshua Black (R) has been quoted by the Tampa Bay Times tweeting that President Obama "should be hanged": I'm past impeachment. It's time to arrest and hang him high This was said on Martin Luther King day, reportedly. The Tampa Bay Times report goes on: Hours after the tweet, Black defended his comment. Obama should be held responsible for ordering a drone strike that killed a U.S. citizen overseas, he said. "He should be executed for treason," Black said. "I think the appropriate punishment is death. They killed Benedict Arnold. (Obama) shouldn't be allowed to ...
This article appeared in today's Manchester Evening News about information I've obtained showing the Council has spent £70,000,000 on Agency staff over the last six years (click picture to make it larger): At a time when the Council is laying thousands of workers off and imposing harmful cuts on Manchester communities; it is hugely wasteful for them to be spending millions on agency staff. This is just the latest example of Manchester Labour making the wrong choices with our money. Chorlton MP John Leech said: "If there is a full time job to be done a worker should get a ...
Robert Reich was US Secretary of Labor under Bill Clinton and is presently Professor of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley. In a brilliant Lecture, given apparently without notes in July 2013, he tells us all we need to know about what's wrong in the British and US economies, with some strong indications as to how to put things right. His analysis and solutions are far from the received wisdom of the right, or, for that matter, Britain's Labour Party. Here's a brief outline of four of his essential points: 1. Government debts/deficits are not (my emphasis) the ...
We've reported before on the allegations of sexual assault against Portsmouth South MP Mike Hancock – Mike temporarily stood down from the Lib Dem whip last June and denies any wrong-doing. He has continued to serve as a Lib Dem councillor in Portsmouth and is the city's cabinet member for planning, regeneration and economic redevelopment. Last night, Lib Dem-run Portsmouth City Council voted not to publish the report – we understand on the advice of the Council's solicitor – commissioned by the Council to investigate whether Mike Hancock had breached its code of conduct. In November, the Council's standards committee ...
Why is the media obsessed with the alleged influence of political spouses? I ask this because of the nonsense story in one national newspaper that Nick Clegg was forced to act over Chris Rennard because of pressure from his wife. Miriam González Durántez has now been forced to deny this story saying that she did not even know the four women whose statements formed the basis of the inquiry report on Chris Rennard: She added: "I think that by now you would know that I'm the kind of woman that doesn't influence in the shadows. If I ever wanted to ...
Today's Telegraph published an article which suggested that Miriam Gonzalez Durantez was behind Nick Clegg's decision to take a robust line with Lord Rennard last week. It seems too much to ask that they actually get her name right, referring to her as Miriam Clegg throughout. But, according to Miriam, interviewed by the BBC at an event for her Inspiring the Future organisation, they didn't get much else right either: I say this with a very heavy heart because this is in the Telegraph today and ever since the Telegraph was the very first newspaper who supported this campaign I ...
The weekly lowlight of PMQs once again provided much bluster, and little of insight. Despite an important discussion on Syrian refugees, the economy gave Cameron an easy win. At the
At the January meeting of Redcar Constituency Liberal Democrats this evening, Ian Swales, Liberal Democrat MP for Redcar Constituency, was unanimously reselected to stand in the 2015 General Election. Ian, who was elected with the biggest swing in the country in 2010, has been a strong voice for Redcar Constituency and the region in Parliament. He he serves as Lib Dem Treasury Spokesman, has been Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for the Chemical Industry and as the only trained accountant on the influential Public Accounts Committee. Locally, Ian has overseen the beginning of a new future for manufacturing ...
Liberal Democrats have uncovered a scandal involving hundreds of people in Redcar & Cleveland Borough being denied help by the Labour Council. The Government has given the Council £429,000 for Discretionary Housing Payments following the removal of the spare room subsidy. But with only ten weeks of the financial year left, the Labour-controlled Council has used less than half of the money to help people who need it. Cllr Chris Abbott, Lib Dem Housing Spokesman, commented: "It's a scandal, especially as local Labour activists have been scaremongering and condemning the Government as hard-hearted. "George Dunning's Labour Party must explain whether ...
The new pedestrian crossing on Western Road will be installed on the week starting 10th March. This is good news as the promise had been made for the crossing to be installed during the current financial year. The aim has been to make it easier and safer for people living on the western side of town - in the St Johns, Chapel and Priory areas - to walk into the town centre. The first crossing - by the railway bridge at Newport - has been rather controversial as a formalised crossing was preferred by most but blocked by the highways ...
Wed 22nd
14:41Today's Call Clegg highlights: Mental health, Benefits Street, getting more women into politics and ...
Call Clegg took place today because Nick is heading off to Davos. He could have easily invented some reason to get out of it but you have to respect his courage in going ahead given the furore over the past week. We're going to start with the most important thing he talked about and work back from that Improving mental health care for young people He was asked about whether it was surprising that young people's mental health was suffering when they faced low wages and not being able to find affordable housing and about mental health provision itself. He ...
In May's local elections we need Lib Dem candidates more than ever. Standing as a Lib Dem candidate, even in a paperless ward, is a service to the party that is easily and often under-estimated. As ever it's a hard slog to match all our target wards with the right calibre of candidate. We have [...]
Tony Greaves posed the Minister a question about the greening of the Common Agricultural Policy on 30 July and, as the Chair of the relevant scrutiny committee, Ros thought that she ought to raise an issue that had troubled it in the recent past... Baroness Scott of Needham Market: My Lords, given the very different patterns of agriculture across the 28 member states, to what extent is there flexibility within the new arrangements for member states to implement the greening measures in a way that suits British farmers and builds on some of the very real progress that they have ...
When I took driving lessons I received the advice that if I were ever in an accident I should never say sorry as this implied guilt and would count against me. It would not matter if I were guilty or innocent, nor would it matter if I were only sorry for the hardship that this accident would cause to anyone involved in that accident. I have also heard stories about care professionals walking past situations in which their caring skills may have been useful. Their fear is that if anything went wrong then they could be sued because of the ...
Good news from Winchester Liberal Democrats: Councillors Jamie Scott and Derek Green, both representing St Luke ward on Winchester City Council, resigned from the Conservatives after deciding they could do a better job for their residents as part of the strong local Liberal Democrat team. Winchester's prospective Liberal Democrat MP, Jackie Porter said "Jamie and Derek are fantastic additions to the Liberal Democrat team. They both live in the heart of their community. Like me, they want to improve the lives of local people by supporting local jobs and giving everyone a fair chance in life." This means that the ...
The list of voting delegates for the ALDE Election Congress, scheduled to take place in Brussels on Saturday week, is an intriguing one. Whilst I admit that I've not been involved in the international work of the Party for that long, the list of Liberal Democrat delegates does include an extraordinary number of highly reputable people who I've never seen at an ALDE event previously. Indeed, so prestigious a list is it that, were it not for the fact that I'm an elected member of the ALDE Party Council, I probably wouldn't have made the cut. Indeed, given that I've ...
Lesley Gore 1965 It's my party, and I'll cry if I want to Cry if I want to, cry if I want to You would cry too if it happened to you [IMG: Post to Twitter] Tweet This Post
The crisis over Ludlow's buses is growing daily. I have spoken to Alan Radnor, owner of R&B buses this morning. He runs the current town bus services, the 701 and 722. He confirmed that, as reported in the press, the last town services will run on Saturday and has given the required formal notice of [...]
[IMG: Rock the Boat logo] Eleven months ago the Liberal Democrat world was tipped on its axis when Channel 4 broadcast reports from women making serious allegations of sexual harassment against one of the Party's most senior, loved and respected figures. As the sorry tale unfolded it was clear that the party had failed to deal with the complaints they had made and had failed to let anyone involved in the terrible situation get justice. It became clear that we, as an organisation, had a cultural problem and no idea of how to get our house in order. As one ...
Figures released today show that the rate of employment has grown by 1.3% over the last quarter and by 2.5% over the past year, in addition to this there were 13,944 fewer people across Wales claiming Job Seekers Allowance in December 2013 compared to December 2012. The Economy is picking up and people are starting to feel it, employment figures are on the up and the number of people claiming unemployment benefit is on the way down, but there is still work to be done. We want to see the Welsh Government aggressively market Wales' Enterprise Zones to attract inward ...
Wed 22nd
10:52
The Lucas Plan: What can it tell as about democratising technology today? | Adrian Smith
Thirty-eight years ago, a movement for 'socially useful production' pioneered practical approaches for more democratic technology development. Perhaps their argument was the most socially useful product left to us. Adrian Smith
I remember one of the scandals that most influenced my political thinking in recent years was the bizarre events at the animal laboratory at Huntingdon Life Sciences in 1997, when secret filming recorded employees deliberately punching the animals. I don't mean that I am somehow putting cruelty to animals above cruelty to humans on the great moral scale, but it does set the issues in stark relief. There were no religious or cultural or economic reasons why the animals should have attracted such malevolence. There was no civil war, no spending cuts which made them more vulnerable. Yet somehow it ...
I admit to being a big fan of the work of Terry Pratchett. It may well be that I read between the lines in a manner influenced by my liberal world view, but a lot of his work appears to expound a moral code that challenges many of our lazier assumptions. Here, in "Hogfather", Death is arguing with his grand-daughter, Susan... "All right," said Susan. "I'm not stupid. You're saying humans need... fantasies to make life bearable." REALLY? AS IF IT WAS SOME KIND OF PINK PILL? NO. HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN. TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE ...
Liberal Democrat MP Michael Moore writes a regular column for newspapers in his Borders Constituency. Here is the latest edition. Free Childcare My colleagues in the Scottish Parliament have been making the case for extending child care provision in Scotland for some time. So the fact that from August 2014 thousands of two-year-olds in Scotland will be entitled a free childcare place for 15 hours a week is excellent news for families across the Borders. This means that we now catch up with the situation in England where the Liberal Democrats have helped to deliver a similar plan for two ...
I am appalled by the way that Shropshire Council is treating the residents of Ludlow. It is stripping jobs and services out of the town and concentrating them in Shrewsbury. We are not getting our fair share for the council tax we pay. Papers for a Shropshire Council meeting on 28 January recommend that our [...]
In the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, there is reference made to the Ameglian Mega Cow, a ruminant specifically bred to not only have the desire to be eaten, but to be capable of saying so quite clearly and distinctly. This is, of course, very silly, and should not be taken seriously at all. However, it seems that scientists are working on a computer chip that can be added to food to tell you when it is going past its prime. This was apparently news to the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for water, forestry, rural affairs and resource management, ...
Stupid people pick stupid passwords. Let us all laugh at them (tags: ) Most Doctors don't understand statistics any better than non-doctors (tags: ) We should support Lib Dem parliamentary candidate Maajid Nawaz in the face of death threats (tags: ) On anonymity in science and on Twitter (tags: ) WTF is the Regional Parties Committee? | Andy Strange (tags: ) Lord Rennard: injustice all round | Head of Legal (tags: ) [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
I was on a policy panel recently, when I heard somebody dismissing the idea of 'choice' in public services as a sop for the middle classes. Now, there are two rather odd aspects of this. The first is that, depending on what you mean by choice - and every political party has its own distinct meaning - it isn't actually true. The polling I carried out during the Barriers to Choice Review showed that nearly 90 per cent want 'choice'. It is just that they are often muddled about what that actually means. The second is that I hear this ...
Reports from K'yev overnight suggest that at least one, and probably two people were killed when the police moved in against the protesters. As I feared, the criminal regime of Yanukovych will stop at nothing to maintain its grip on power, and the strangulation of Ukrainian democracy is now inevitable. Carl Bildt has suggested that sanctions be imposed against the criminals responsible. It seems like the minimum that we should do. Ukraine should not be left at the mercy of Putinist murderers.
From an interview on LBC with Iain Dale: [IMG: Germaine Greer] Germaine Greer: I vote Liberal Democrat. I'm not a member. Iain Dale: Does this sort of incident make you less likely to [support them]? Germaine Greer: Not really. Because it's the penalty for a democratic structure, that you don't have a caucus, that you don't muzzle your members, that you agree they can disagree.
I am councillor for the ward with the fewest people claiming benefits in the whole country. That doesn't mean my constituents aren't dependent on the state. "Have you managed to watch programmes like Benefits Street and On Benefits and Proud? If so, have you, like me, been struck by the number of people on there [...]
Blackness House was a picturesque 17th century mansion, demolished before World War II. It is shown on Ordnance Survey maps of the periods in extensive grounds, and a bowling green to the south side, the North Lodge House being on Blackness Road. In 1867, J. B. Brechin published a list of paintings by the old masters in the Blackness House Gallery, which included Giotto, Bruegel, Gainsborough, Rembrandt, Raphael, Rubens and Titian. In 1894, when Alexander Wilson took this photograph, Blackness House belonged to John E. Prain, listed in the Dundee Directory as a manufacturer. James Prain and Sons, spinners and ...
"Two girls for every boy..." The Beach Boys came along at the perfect time for Jan and Dean. In August 1962, the Beach Boys were the exciting new kids on the scene. They'd just had their first top twenty hit, and had only just signed to Capitol Records. Meanwhile, Jan and Dean had some claim [...]
