Local Grammar Schools Nonsuch High School for Girls, Wallington County Grammar School, Wallington High School for Girls and Wilsons School are currently consulting on changes to their admissions arrangements from September 2015. Selective school Glenthorne High School is also consulting on proposed changes. In essence the proposals are that year 6 pupils will need to sit and pass a common Selective Eligibility Test [...]
[IMG: Boston-euros] Euro candidate Issan Ghazni was warmly welcomed by Eastern Europeans in the town of Boston, many of whom see the Liberal Democrats as the only party that stands up for free movement of workers. Ghazni said if more Lib Dems meet Eastern Europeans the party's electoral prospects would sky-rocket. Boston, in the East Midlands, has been the focus of media attention as a hub for agricultural labourers in Lincolnshire. But when Ghazni toured the coffee houses speaking to recent migrants he found unprecedented levels of fear over their future. Visiting five cafes and speaking to groups of Eastern ...
The first video from this series that I posted looked at the remains of the line from Norwich to Melton Constable. This one covers the seaside town of Cromer and its fascinating history of lost lines, viaducts and the only standard-gauge railway tunnel in Norfolk.
"Is Liberal Democrat blogging dying, becoming more 'concentrated', or simply less fashionable?" asks The View from Creeting St Peter. A Scottish Liberal mourns the death of John Farquhar Munro: "A keen sailor, a fisherman and a Gaelic speaker, he was an ideal Highland MSP. A passion for such issues as land reform, crofting, ending tolls on the Skye bridge made him an authentic voice for Highland interests in Holyrood." Mark Pack has been reading some old copies of Liberator. His reflections on them for Liberal Democrat Voice have led to a spirited debate. Over 100,000 high resolution images including manuscripts, ...
Bangor Mail 22.1.14 "A BANGOR councillor is concerned after receiving complaints regarding bus ticket fayres. Cllr Rhys Taylor, who represents the Menai ward for city, said he had contacted both Gwynedd and Anglesey councils about the recent changes made to Padarn Buses ticket pricing and arrangements. "Weekly tickets have been withdrawn (£18 per week) and [...]
Last week I blogged about Mike Hancock's worrying attitude to human rights in Eastern Europe. A little research has shown that concern at this goes back a long way. In 2010 the Guardian reported the reaction of fellow ALDE members Council of Europe's parliamentary assembly (PACE): Mágyás Eörsi, the former chairman of the parliamentary assembly's liberal group to which Nick Clegg's Lib Dems belong, said he and his colleagues were frequently "stunned" by the pro-Kremlin stance taken by Hancock during parliamentary assembly debates and amendments ... "I don't say that Michael is a spy," Eörsi said. "But I'm very sure ...
Today I attended the national event to mark Holocaust Memorial Day. On the 69th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz the gathering at Westminster's Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre heard readings and testimonies from survivors of the holocaust in Nazi occupied Europe. I met Mrs Aaronson, who survived the evacuation of the Lodz ghetto by [...]
Southwark Council can be painful to deal with. It's such a large organisation doing so many different things that people often tell me it's hard to find the right person or get the response they expected. All queries are dealt with by a now in-house contact centre based in Peckham. It handles huge volumes of phone calls and emails. Typically 25,000 calls a month but only gets to answer between 45% and 73%. The average time taken to answer those calls is much improved from a high in October 2012 of 5 mins 56 seconds down to 1 mins 21 ...
Next week's Cheadle Area Committee is on Tuesday 4th Feb, 6pm at Bolshaw Primary School, Cross Road, Heald Green. All welcome. Agenda items include a discussion on Cheshire East's plans to build housing at Handforth Dean, proposals for Cheadle Green improvements and the legal order for 20mph limits across the Foxland Road/Lakes Estate area. Just the one planning application at committee – a residential property in Cheadle Hulme.
Long-time community campaigner and Redcar Councillor Chris Abbott is today celebrating the publication of the 300th edition of his Newcomen Ward "Focus".The unbroken series of newsletters began in October 1984, raising issues of council house rent, fly-tipping and asbestos. The "Focus" newsletter has always been about community politics and getting things done for local people issue number one carried the tag line: "It's often the little things that really matter to people". Thirty years later, Cllr Chris Abbott continues to work by this premise.Commenting, Chris Abbott said:"We have come a long way since the early days when we produced Focus ...
The local paper reports: [IMG: Mike Hancock] The Lib-Dems decided to look for a new parliamentary candidate. At a meeting last night the Portsmouth Liberal Democrats executive agreed it would do so and speak to the council group over its decision last week [to let Mike Hancock remain a member of the council's cabinet]. As Mike Hancock is currently suspended by the party, he cannot take part in any such selection and therefore this decision is in effect a sacking of Mike Hancock as the party's choice for the 2015 general election. Judging by his quote to the local papers, ...
A map was doing the rounds on the internet last week that was a variation on a theme seen before: The Atlantic ran a (flimsy) piece on the map, and what it says about America's national psyche. It also made reference to other maps that had been done in the past, using the same format for Europe, for example. I checked them out and they were a bit dated in terms of their results, so for
This morning was a time which was reflective but uplifting at the same time. At 9.30 I laid a wreath in our Garden of Peace in St John's Gardens with Rabbi Mordechai Wollenberg. The sash on the wreath said, 'Never ... Continue reading →
Former US Defence Secretary Robert Gates recently decried the UK's conventional force cuts making it clear that the UK's ability to conduct global operations as a major US partner would be threatened. In doing so, Gates was pointing out the obvious implications of the Chief of the Defence Staff General Sir Nick Houghton's December speech at the Royal United Services Institute. I was therefore heartened by Sir Nick Harvey's recent LDV post, where he accepts that the conventional force cuts will constrain the international role to which he aspires. He then logically makes the point that Trident is expensive, and ...
It's incredibly easy and cheap to spy on people these days — wherever they are. That was the (depressing) core message of the presentation by Gus Hosein, Executive Director of Privacy International at an Association of Europe Journalists (AEJ) UK briefing at Europe House in Westminster this lunchtime. Technology means that just as George Orwell [...]
At ten past eight this morning, Shropshire Council's portfolio holder for transport, Claire Wild, spoke to BBC Radio Shropshire's Clare Ashford. After this councillors and future candidates met Wild in the Church Inn. BBC Radio Shropshire Transcript Clare A: Good morning, it's ten minutes past eight, Breakfast Show, now Ludlow's bus services will change this morning, [...]
COMMUNITY ENERGY REVOLUTION BRIEFING: Whenever Liberal Democrats are discussing energy and climate change policy it doesn't take long for someone to say that we should be doing far more to encourage community energy. This is no surprise. Community energy involves encouraging local community action to save energy as well as promoting renewable energy and so [...]
Can we make the rise of wearable technology a story about better health for everyone, not just better gadgets for me? I am obsessed with my running app. Last week obsession became frustration verging on throw-the-phone-on-the-floor anger. Wednesday's lunchtime 5km run was pretty good, almost back up to pre-Christmas pace. On Friday, I thought I had smashed it. The first 2km were very close to my perennial 5 min/km barrier. And I was pretty sure I had kept up the pace. But the app disagreed. As I ate my 347 calorie salad - simultaneously musing on how French dressing could ...
[IMG: Plimsoll Line (http://www.flickr.com/photos/brinkmann/509192200/)] All are warmly invited to the following events in Folkestone on Saturday 8 February to celebrate the life and work of Samuel Plimsoll, who successfully campaigned for the painting of a line on ships to prevent overloading. There will be collections on behalf of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) and the Kent Merchant Navy Association. 2.30pm A wreath-laying ceremony at Samuel Plimsoll's grave at St Martin's Church in Horn Street, Cheriton, CT20 3JJ 3.00 pm in St Martins Church - the first Plimsoll Memorial Lecture by Nicolette Jones, on "The Continuing Relevance of Samuel Plimsoll". ...
LibDemVoice has two parallel sites. The first is our public blog, the thing you're reading now. The second is our private members' forum, which only current Lib Dem members can access. If you're a member and want to chat with fellow party members about any issue that's on your mind, then why not sign up? In addition, you'll be included in our regular surveys' of party members' views. Here's some of the most active discussions this past 10 days: TOPIC ; Cowdenbeath by election ; Mohammed Shafiq on Maajid Nawaz ; Victory for Hemming over Family Court secrecy ; Inside ...
Monday 27th January marks the 69th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration and death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau, the site of the largest mass murder in history. I am marking Holocaust Memorial Day, honouring those who died during the Holocaust as well as honouring the extraordinary Holocaust survivors who work tirelessly to educate young people about what they endured. In the weeks leading up to and after Holocaust Memorial Day, thousands of commemorative events will be arranged by schools, faith groups and community organisations across the country, remembering all the victims of the Holocaust and subsequent genocides. It is important ...
In the Guardian, former Energy Secretary, Chris Huhne comprehensively trashes Cameron's fracking revolution. It is worth quoting it extensively: The Cameron song is that Britain is going to be "re-shoring" businesses - the opposite of offshoring - in part because of cheap gas as fracking takes off: prices will fall as they have in the US, where they are just a third of Europe's prices. British consumers, whose bills will be halved, will doff their caps to Tory ministers who made possible this revolution of cheap energy. Grateful billionaires will come gambolling back to bring new business to Bradford and ...
Two useful motions from our friends in Oldham. 20 mph Residential Limits The 'Twenty's Plenty' and similar campaigns have been successful across the country and many Liberal Democrats have been involved in campaigning on the issue locally (here is our very own Cllr Victor Chamberlain being covered by the Manchester Evening News prior to his [...]
The phrase 'anti-business' is being flung around again and I've been puzzling about what it means. I'm equally confused about what 'pro-business' might mean too. Does it mean pro-Barclays? Or pro-entrepreneur? Does it mean pro-Tesco? Or pro-Tesco's suppliers of apples in the UK? So when Ed Balls is being accused of being anti-business because of his support for a 50p tax rate for people earning more than £150,000, I'm wondering if the phrase has any meaning at all. There are a whole range of reasons for disagreeing with Ed Balls on most things. Nor is a 50p tax rate likely ...
[IMG: Power to the People! Edward Davey and Greg Barker in Brixton] For those of you old enough to remember, 'Power to the People' was the battle cry of 'Wolfie Smith', Robert Lindsay's character in the BBC sitcom 'Citizen Smith'. The running joke of the series was that while he had radical and revolutionary ideas, the delivery side was left somewhat lacking. What I've announced today is both radical and sets out how community energy will be delivered. Astonishingly, it's Britain's first ever community energy strategy and will empower communities up and down the country to produce and block buy ...
It was ironic that 10 October saw two transport debates for the incoming Minister to deal with, but as Susan Kramer is an old friend, I'm fairly confident that she didn't mind too much. In the first, Bill Bradshaw renewed his annual challenge to the Government to do more to support the bus industry and Ros took up the debate on behalf of rural non-drivers such as myself. Readers may note that I am referred to as a gentleman at one point. I try not to take it personally... Baroness Scott of Needham Market (LD): My Lords, I start by ...
It's official and its real. Ludlow now has decent buses. As one Ludlow resident said to me moments ago: "It's beautiful." I agree. Today and tomorrow, Minsterley Motors is running an hourly 701 service around Ludlow with a brand new Optare. From Wednesday we are promised a half-hourly service. People have been worried for weeks [...]
Here's my latest Muswell Flyer article – on the changes I want to see in our borough this year. Also available here. The Christmas festivities are over and I hope everyone had a great time welcoming in the New Year. Alongside my usual resolutions, there is something specific I want to see in 2014. This year, I want to see a change in how our local services are run and how our council tax money is spent. And with a local election taking place in May - change is a real possibility! Our borough has so much potential - it ...
Mon 27th
11:08
Lib Dems select local Councillor Mary Di Mauro to stand in Wythenshawe and Sale East by-election
Local Liberal Democrats have tonight (Sunday January 26th) selected Northenden Councillor Mary Di Mauro to be the Liberal Democrat Candidate in the by-election following the death of Labour MP Paul Goggins. Mary was a secondary school teacher for ten years. She lives in Northenden village with her husband and two children. Mary has represented Northenden ward on Manchester City Council since 2010. Mary Di Mauro said: "I am very proud to have been selected to fight Wythenshawe and Sale East for the Liberal Democrats in the by-election. I have lived locally for 20 years and have always stood up for ...
A follow-up to: Dear Nick: please be unpopular and controversial, and Dear Nick, Thank you for being unpopular Now there's this: [IMG: Maajid Nawaz] Nick Clegg has intervened in a growing row over freedom of expression, describing as "unacceptable" death threats made against a prospective Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate who tweeted a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed and Jesus greeting each other... The Deputy Prime Minister defended Mr Nawaz's right to send the personal tweet of the "Jesus and Mo" cartoon after BBC producers decided it was too offensive to be worn on T-shirts by two atheist audience members at ...
[IMG: Labrador puppy. Photo courtesy of http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1145720 - some rights reserved] No, not Jeremy Thorpe but David Steel. In the late 1970s the then Liberal Party leader David Steel presented the Communist dictator of Romania, Nicolae Ceausescu, with a labrador puppy. As you do. At least that made a change from deciding not to bomb Greenland.
The party's next national Day of Action is taking place on Saturday 1st Feb 2014. The more individual action days we have, the more we can amplify the effect of our national campaigning for our local areas - especially those facing local elections only eleven weeks after! What do I need to do? 1. [...]
On Saturday afternoon, my wife, a friend and I visited the Wallaw, the recently opened Wetherspoons in Blyth. This was my second visit to the Wallaw since it opened , although I had been many times to the former cinema. My first visit was just a "nosey", and a quick pint ... well you have to don't you? We chose to visit the afternoon of Burns night to sample the Burns themed food and drink. The decor is absolutely stunning, neither my wife or friend had been before and were stunned by the standard of the work. Enough of the ...
PRESS RELEASE FROM REFORM CLAUSE 1 - 'FEEL FREE TO ANNOY ME' CAMPAIGN | Reform Clause 1 (tags: ) The catalogue of UK Entrances to Hell (tags: ) How to screw learning with one simple belief (tags: ) [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
The Boy and I recently spent the evening at Bistrot Pierre. We've both been very busy lately, so I was very excited that we managed to spend an evening out of the house together. My sister gave us a gift voucher for Christmas, and we'd been looking forward to using it. Chris found lots of meals that he liked on the menu. However, much like in many places that we visit, I was a little disappointed by the vegetarian selection. There were just two vegetarian main courses, and they both contained cheese. Not the most exciting of options! Fortunately, there ...
Leaving through some kindly donated old copies of Liberator from the late 1970s to the early 1990s, there is a distinct sense of déjà vu. Calls to revive Community Politics. Urgent pleas to reinvent liberalism for a modern age. Complaints about how the English Party is run. Provocative comments from Simon McGrath triggering hostile rejoinders. (Although it did amuse me to find that one passionate argument against the party ending up a centre-right pro-capitalism outfit came from one Gavin Grant.) Some of the issues covered have been lost in the gaps of history. Others are still very relevant - such ...
Hats off to The House Magazine for the best pun of the Liberal Democrat Deputy Leadership contest, a three-way race between frontrunner Lorely Burt, outsider Gordon Birtwistle and the recently strongly showing Malcolm Bruce, backed by those who think Nick Clegg pays too much attention to young, inexperienced staffers. Here is some of what The House Magazine has to say about Lorely Burt: [IMG: Lorely Burt] [She] is happy to talk about the "very chauvinistic environment" in the Commons. "It is tough, you can start asking a question or making a speech and if the opposition party consider that you ...
The video below is a very un-Ted Talk like Ted Talk. It doesn't offer a simple gee whiz solution to a problem. Rather it's an often sobering look at the nuisances of a brutal problem: depression. The writer Andrew Solomon gives a wonderfully evocative presentation on depression. It's longer than the average Ted talk but [...]
I am not exactly young, a point that I am reminded about every morning when I wake. However, one of the advantages of age is that you do tend to gather experience, and if you are blessed, as I am, with a pretty good memory, some of it sticks. Like tax rates, for example. When I started work, in the mid-eighties, my speciality was income tax and, because computers were only really beginning to come into use, a lot of the work was done manually, meaning that it was much easier if you knew things like tax rates, bands and ...
Kids Movie Screening - The Aristocrats When: Saturday February 1st at 1.30pm Venue: The Hannah Maclure centre (Abertay University Student Centre) A relaxed fun afternoon viewing a family film - The Aristocrats. Crafts and activities from 1.30pm with the film starting just after 2pm. We will have a number of play-park 'mood boards' on display so it will be chance for kids and grown-ups to share their ideas for the park. Admission is free but suggested donation to the park- fund is £3 per person. Food and drink is available to purchase from the other venues in the Abertay University ...
This photograph shows a section of Dundee's Perth Road's north side, looking to the west, with a no longer extant road at the righthand side. The taller block is Hermonhill (numbered 21-27 Perth Road), the smaller one Hermonhill Terrace (1-6, disregarding continuous numbering of Perth Road). George H. Gibb, the town postmaster, lived at No. 21, Hermonhill House. In 1895, the residents of the terrace included Mrs J. McCheyne (widow of the Rev. J. M. McCheyne, a [prominent Dundonian preacher), George A. Harris, an architect, and the undertaker William Scarlett, who had offices in Ann Street and Logie Street.
Residents in Maygrove Road were horrified when they got a letter last Wednesday from the developers of Handrail House saying their road was to be totally blocked to traffic for three months starting the following Monday(27th) to allow them to put in a new sewer. This came as a great surprise to everyone, not least your local councillors both from Fortune Green and West Hampstead. Also residents of neighbouring streets and the local Sidings Community Centre had not been notified. We think this was an appalling failure of communication from both the developers and Camden Council. At present we're trying ...
There are approximately 400 North Koreans living in and around New Malden and I was delighted to be able to meet some of them on Saturday night with Robin Meltzer - the Lib Dems excellent candidate in Richmond Park constituency. And if anyone doubts the need for the UK's borders to remain open to refugees and those fleeing persecution then a few minutes in their company should disabuse them of the idea.
The documents below give an idea of what work is proposed on the Alban Way: Alban Way GAP 2014-19 Briefing Document FINAL Jan14 Alban Way GAP 2014-19 Briefing Document FINAL Jan14.2 Alban Way GAP 2014-19 Briefing Document FINAL Jan14.3
