President Obama will shortly be giving his State of the Union address. When the great and the good arrive in the Capitol to hear President Obama deliver his State of
On Thursday evening we had a Full Council. Labour spelt out with an unintentional clarity their dystopian vision of society. The Tories, incidentally, said absolutely nothing all night. We had certainly not come for bout of extreme ya boo exchanges but clearly that was Labour's plan from the off. They were even petty about answering written questions I should start by saying that during the meeting we got the devastating news that our friend and colleague Robert Hamilton had been killed in Southport when he and his bike were hit by a car in Linker St. John Pugh paid tribute ...
News this evening of the surprise elevation of Malcolm Bruce to the Deputy Leadership of the Liberal Democrats in the Commons may prove more interesting than meets the eye. It is being variously rumoured that:-a) a margin of only 2 votes separated Malcolm from the widely-championed establishment candidate, Danny Alexander's PPS Lorely Burt;b) factors at play included the championing of Burt by the party leadership, a reaction among certain MPs to this and additional backing from Scottish MPs (a significant constituency) for Malcolm's traditionally strident opposition to the SNP;c) although 24 MPs reportedly nominated Lorely, not all of them voted ...
Sir Malcolm Bruce: new deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats in the Commons It has been announced in the last few hours that the latest person to be elevated to the position of deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Commons is former Scottish leader and MP for Gordon Sir Malcolm Bruce. Not for the first time, I have failed to correctly predict how the vote would go. My money was on Lorely Burt, so it's just as well I'm not a betting man. It seems a curious coincidence that, on the day the Liberal Democrats announce ...
Much in the news lately the small community of Muchelney in the Somerset Levels. I heard Chris Smith, chair of the Environment Agency, on the Today Programme this morning (at 2h11m) defending their work to help flooded Somerset. I thought he made a good case. The Levels flood every winter, as did the lane where I lived not far away in Ilford, Ilminster, but these floods are the worse
Nick Clegg has announced that the UK will give refuge to some of the most vulnerable citizens. No figure has been put on how many as they are focusing on need, not quotas, but it will mean that many woman and girls who face the risk of sexual violence, for example, will be able to come to this country. The Government will work with the UN High Council for Refugees to determine who is in most urgent need and they will be brought here over the next few months. They will include those most traumatised by the crisis. The UK ...
There was a lot to enjoy in last night's Not Just Cricket. We got an honest analysis of England's failure in Australia, while the bromance between Graeme Swann and Jimmy Anderson reminds us that there is a lot to like about this team if only the players are allowed to express themselves. I also like the way that my teenage hero Mike Brearley has become an almost mythic figure for modern players. As another BBC page reports it: Swann also gave his backing to captain Alastair Cook, saying not even legendary skipper Mike Brearley could have turned around a failing ...
You can watch Vince Cable at the Royal Economic Society here: http://live.wavecast.co/publicpolicy/live-feed/
[IMG: S Delaney A McInnes W Rennie C Jardine M Bruce] Christine Jardine, who was widely recognised to have put in a great performance as candidate in the Aberdeen Donside by-election last June, has been selected as the Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Gordon, the constituency currently represented by our new Deputy Leader, Sir Malcolm Bruce. She is pictured second from the right here next to Sir Malcolm. Christine is a journalist who previously worked in Aberdeen for the Deeside Piper and the BBC. She also spent a year as a Special Adviser in Downing Street. Nick Clegg was quick to ...
My older readers may remember Irfan Ahmed, a Liberal Democrat whose kamikaze style of blogging led to disaster in 2009. He gave up blogging - and deleted his blog - after making some particularly distasteful comments. As the Burnley Citizen reported it at the time: Controversial Pendle blogger Irfan Ahmed has apologised for comments in which he appeared to criticise the families of dead soldiers. Mr Ahmed, of Pendle LibDems, said in his political online blog: "The parents of the lost children have enjoyed the nice salaries that their children have been earning from the army."At the time I wrote: ...
A chap called Breass discovered the best overall flow of traffic may not be by the most direct route. In fact adding direct routes can slow down traffic. The corollary is removing shorter more direct routes can actually speed traffic up. Example to demonstrate this...Imagine a single route between A and B that however many cars take this route it always takes them 10minutes. Add a second shorter route that takes 1 minute for every car using it. If everyone, all 20 cars, take the shorter route their average speed will be 20minutes. Chopping this shorter route and diverting them ...
Am composing this on my phone on the bus so it may be typo-ridden, but... There's been a lot of outrage on Twitter today about some people who pinched food from the bins at the back of a supermarket being prosecuted. In my view this outrage is fair, but it does worry me that people are reacting as if this is a new thing. When I worked at a supermarket (and I did in fits and starts from being 16) the store always prosecuted people they caught nicking from the bins. This is not a new thing. I thought it ...
I was doing some research on road traffic offences (don't ask), when I came across the first of these videos below. It just served to remind me that after all the bad press that Northern Ireland has received recently about flags, marches, intolerance, bigotry and religious censorship, everybody from Norn Irn, Catholic, Protestant, Jew, Muslim or Atheist, can all stand together and take pride in
This weekend sees a special Election Congress to select the Liberal candidate for the Presidency of the European Commission, and whilst the two erstwhile candidates, Guy Verhofstadt and Olli Rehn, have shaken hands on a deal whereby Guy will be the candidate and Olli will be nominated for a prominent role in the next Commission, the deal itself still has to be ratified. But Saturday also sees the launch of a new pan-European website, www.ivoteliberal.eu, which will allow voters to find out more about all of the European liberal and democrat candidates for May's election, including a profile of each ...
A shocking report from today's Independent: The borough in Leicestershire, where Melton Mowbray pies have been produced since the 19th century, has the highest concentration of accidental death, according to figures out today. ... Melton ... had the highest rate of accidental deaths in 2010/11, 29 per 100,000 people. The authority with the lowest rate was Runnymede, Surrey, with 5.5 deaths per 100,000. Melton also had the most number of years of life lost annually, at 95.6 per 10,000 people compared with 10 per 10,000 in Surrey Heath.The paper asked for reaction from local residents: "Nothing much really goes on ...
Malcolm Bruce has been elected as the deputy leader of the Lib Dems by MPs. .@malcolmbruce is the new Deputy Leader of the @LibDems — Lib Dem Press Office (@LibDemPress)
.....Drum roll..... [IMG: Malcolm Bruce 30th anniversary dinner] Sir Malcolm Bruce MP. Reaction will be added as we get it. Update 19:53. It's definitely a surprising result given that Lorely Burt had said when she announced her candidacy that she had 24 MPs backing her. She only needed five more to have a majority. Why could she have lost a seemingly unassailable position? Well, Sir Malcolm Bruce is very well liked and respected. Remember what Vince Cable was like as Deputy Leader? Malcolm will not be dissimilar. He won't always be as on message as Lorely, either. He has not ...
Stockport Council's Liberal Democrat Group met earlier this week to finalise their proposals for the 2014/15 budget, which will be published early next week. Speaking after the meeting, Councillor Sue Derbyshire, Leader of the Council and of the Liberal Democrat Group, said: "I am delighted to announce that the Liberal Democrats will be proposing a further freeze of Council Tax for 2014/15. This will be the third council tax freeze we have delivered in the past four years, despite the unprecedented financial challenges we continue to face." Cllr Derbyshire added: "We know local authority finances will get no easier, with ...
The Liberal Democrat Party in England – one of the most superfluous of that party's bureaucratic layers – may not be long for this world. Its demise would please English members no end. They never wanted it, but had this additional layer foisted on them by the Scots and Welsh, who in turn felt it would be an insult to be otherwise comparable to mere English regions. Liberator, July 1991.
[IMG: John F and Charles K] When Charles Kennedy was elected MP for the then Ross, Cromarty and Skye in 1983, John Farquhar Munro, the former MSP who died at the age of 79 on Sunday, was one of his key supporters. A friendship that would last more than 30 years was forged. Charles has paid tribute to him. John's passing is very sad not only for all his former constituents who he represented so ably for many years, but also for the wider Highlands and islands, where he was seen as a champion. Since I was first elected as ...
Nick Clegg today says the Coalition stuck to Plan A: Despite the endless clamour to change course on our economic strategy, we held our nerve and resisted calls for a Plan B - and it's paying off. Vince Cable last night points out the Coalition didn't stick to Plan A: ... the Government (contrary to the popular political narrative) has also used counter-cyclical stabilisers to offset the downturn in 2011 and 2012. ... Consider this. In the first Coalition Budget, we anticipated borrowing £37bn in 2014/15; down from the £150bn we were borrowing in 2010. In the next two years, ...
This morning we've seen yet more proof that the economy is firmly on the path to recovery. Growth is returning, with today's figures showing the longest period of growth since 2007. We've also had good news on jobs – with youth unemployment down, jobs outside of London up and a surge in new full time jobs. In Government we're clearing up Labour's mess. Here are four reasons why it would not be happening without the Liberal Democrats. 1. Our decision to go into coalition gave Britain the stable government needed to get the country through these difficult times. Despite the ...
Email this morning from the Council: 'The graffiti has now been painted over'
[IMG: Council housing in Brentwood] From the Shelter website: If you live in England, have claimed housing benefit continuously from before 1 January 1996 and your housing benefit has been cut by the "bedroom tax", a legal loophole means you may get a full refund. In January 2014 the Government announced that "bedroom tax" cuts to housing benefit should not have been applied to some people. The loophole applies to people who have been claiming housing benefit continuously for the same home for the past 17 years. Those affected include people who have been working for low wages or are ...
Being married to a Colombian and having a professional interest in Asia, I started to wonder yesterday evening what results would be thrown up if I repeated yesterday's experiment for those two (three?) continents. This exercise will certainly have made me few friends in China, and I am glad that I didn't use google.co.uk instead of google.com, as that would have produced 1.5 billion more
The return of the debate on the top rate of tax has surely prompted some soul searching on the left of the Lib Dems, but it shouldn't. Ed Balls' declaration
[IMG: egypt fists] The reaction of the US and EU governments to the crackdown on protestors in Ukraine has been swift. EU governments seem to be considering possible sanctions on Ukrainian officials, the US warned the Ukrainian Government of "consequences" on relations, and the Prime Minister of Ukraine was not allowed to speak at the World Economic Forum at Davos. This stern reaction comes as up to five protestors have been killed in clashes with the police in Kiev over the past week. In contrast, the EU and US Governments have been very lenient, if not supportive, of the crackdown ...
[IMG: Unemployment falls once again] I've brought together "claimant count" statistics for Folkestone & Hythe and Dover constituencies for 2012 and 2013 in the chart below. The figures are from the BBC website economy tracker at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10604117 In both Folkestone & Hythe and Dover, claimant counts slightly dropped in 2012. In 2013 however, both areas saw a marked (almost 25%) drop in claimant counts - but in both instances, that drop occurred from January to September 2013, with numbers then levelling off from September to December (in fact, rising slightly in Dover). In both constituencies, the claimant count percentage is ...
[IMG: energy bills] The Citizen Advice Bureau are running three free drop-in sessions in Folkestone this week offering advice to consumers about how they can cut hundreds of pounds from their energy bills. Why not drop in and find out how much you can save? Wednesday: 10am to 3pm - Folkestone Library Thursday: 10am to 3pm - Folkestone Library Friday: 10am to 3pm - Folkestone Library Folkestone Library is at 2 Grace Hill, Folkestone CT20 1HD To find out how Big Energy Saving Week can help you visit the Citizen Advice website at www.bigenergysavingweek.org.uk Published and promoted by Tim Prater, ...
The departure of Ben Summerskill from Stonewall has renewed the age-old discussion about the relationship Stonewall has with trans folk. This is partially because the acting Chief Executive, Ruth Hunt, is known to be more trans-friendly but also due to an article written by Sarah Brown for Pink News. I've seen a few responses to this from the gay community, some of which are in the comments to the Pink News post – such as one person saying including the T in Stonewall would be "like having a blind man in a deaf support group". The letter that Sarah published ...
I have just tabled the following statement of opinion in the Welsh Assembly: This Assembly: Notes concerns by Welsh environmentalists at the recent slaughter of over 40 wild dolphins in Taiji, Japan; the capture of a further 52 dolphins for sale to aquariums and other customers including a rare albino dolphin calf, separated from its mother and kept in captivity in Taiji Whale Museum; Expresses alarm that the Japanese Government has issued quotas for the killing of over 20,000 dolphins, whales and porpoises in its coastal waters every year, despite the International Whaling Commission's moratorium on commercial whaling; and Calls ...
Three Lib Dem MPs hope that by this evening they will be elected Deputy Leader of the Lib Dems – the post was vacated by Simon Hughes when he was appointed Justice Minister. The three competing for the post are (in strict surname order) Gordon Birtwhistle, Sir Malcolm Bruce and Lorely Burt. The electorate is comprised of their fellow MPs – technically the post is Deputy Leader of the Parliamentary Party in the House of Commons, though only the first two words of the title are commonly used – with the wider party membership getting to choose the Party President ...
The Independent reports that the Liberal Democrats have started to put in place key policies that will differentiate themselves from the Tories at the next election through a determination to eensure that the rich contribute more to reducing the deficit so that we do not have to rely entirely on cuts as set by George Osborne. The paper says that plans being drawn up by Danny Alexander, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury will commit the Liberal Democrats to raising £2bn a year from a banded "mansion tax" on multimillion-pound properties. They add that the party is also planning to ...
Claire Wild, Shropshire Council's conservative portfolio holder for transport, has published a blustering defence of her handing of the Ludlow bus debacle on the Shropshire Council website. The article is factually wrong. Shropshire Council rightly takes pride in its website, but this article undermines its reputation for accurate information. In the article, which should be [...]
Over at the Huffington Post, Mark Pack has been waging a war on "Initiativeitis": Initiativeitis – an ugly word for a regrettable phenomena. It is an often-criticised habit of government ministers of all parties always to be touting a new initiative backed up by a new piece of legislation in order to look like they are working hard and making a difference. Yet speak to those who work in the frontline in public services, and complaints about too many new initiatives coming down from on high are widespread – again, regardless of which party is in government. While political commentators ...
Yet again, the Annual Report by the schools inspectorate in Wales, Estyn, which was published today, is sombre reading. Last year's report highlighted a number of failures in the system, but it also included examples of best practice so that all schools could work towards improvement. It appears that lessons are not being learned: standards in primary schools are very similar to last year, with very few being marked as "excellent" and around a half requiring follow-up visits. The proportion of secondary schools graded as "unsatisfactory" has almost doubled, with over two-thirds of secondary schools inspected last year requiring follow-up ...
Truly sad news about Pete Seeger, one of the true greats. Given that he was 94, it's not unexpected, but I'd still rather hoped he was secretly immortal. He made many mistakes in his life, not least his defence of Stalinism (at a time when almost all left-wing intellectuals did the same thing, with the [...]
Paying local communities for fracking rights should be seen as fair compensation rather than bribes David Cameron has argued that the UK should go "all out" for shale gas. As someone hearing this from atop the Barnett Shale in Texas, this makes me cringe. We've been going all out for fracking for years, and the results for local communities have been grim. In exchange for modest and fleeting tax revenues, we've had earthquakes from injection wells, blowouts, tainted water, exacerbated air pollution, health problems and even showers of unidentified fracking foam on neighbouring yards. But there is a significant difference ...
I declare an interest and very personal one: I suffer from chronic clinical depression. It is quite resistant to treatment too. That is not the main crux of what I want to say however. One of the major issues facing anyone who encounters mental health issues in their personal life is what I call the 'Great Mental Health Ping-Pong'.It runs like this:- 1) Your life is slowly falling apart, due to whatever influences trigger your particular mental health issue. You begin a decline in social interaction, this maybe followed by self medicating with prescription pills, over the counter pills, 'illegal' ...
Maajid Nawaz, the Liberal Democrat Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Hampstead and Kilburn and Mohammed Shafiq, member of the Liberal Democrats, have released a joint statement: "We wish to make a statement about the recent concern expressed over issues related to conflicting views on depictions of Prophet Muhammad. "We recognise that, when it comes to this question, some Muslims of various persuasions may take different views. However, we also recognise that there are many Muslims who have taken offence, and we assert that images of the spiritual leaders of all religions should be deemed to be respectful. We also respect the ...
Vince Cable's speech to the Royal Economic society is being reported as undermining the Chancellor in his pursuit of a budget surplus. This misses the point, as Vince is rightly focussed less on the ins and outs of Westminster politics...Read more ›
I was in Portcullis House, in Westminster, a few weeks ago when Parliament was paying tribute to Nelson Mandela. One of the people I was with was complaining that everyone who spoke in the debate, one after the other, managed to dredge up a claim to have met the man himself. Well, I never met Mandela. I never even almost met him. But I did meet Pete Seeger, who died yesterday at the tremendous age of 94 (though the BBC didn't use his age). I had been brought up with his singing, in a sense. The only 45 rpm record ...
Tue 28th
11:36
Council backs LIB DEM move for more control over spread of payday loans and betting shops
Sefton Council held its first Council Meeting of the new year at Southport Town Hall last Thursday, 23rd January, and rather more happened than usual. I will write up over the next few days about some of the other things that took place at the meeting, but I first wanted to refer to a Lib Dem success in a key area of concern. Before I go any further, and having said that rather more happened than usual, I will mention something that didn't happen: not a single Conservative councillor said anything for the whole meeting. The Lib Dem success I ...
Welsh Liberal Democrat leader Kirsty Williams has urged Secretary of State for Wales David Jones to bring forward a Bill in the Westminster parliament as soon as possible in order to give the people of Wales a chance to raise additional finance. She told the Western Mail: "Liberal Democrats in Government worked tirelessly to ensure that the Silk Commission was established and that their key recommendations were to be implemented. That momentum must continue. "There is only a year and half until the end of the parliament; we need to make sure the Wales Bill becomes law before then. I ...
Great news - the economy is growing at the fastest rate we've seen since 2007 - according to the Office of National Statistics. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) also increased its growth forecast for the UK economy from 1.9% to 2.4%. The UK has also seen a sharp drop in unemployment, and there are now more people in work than ever before. All good signs that the economy is recovering. And we're really leading the way in Hornsey and Wood Green. There are now over 1100 fewer people claiming Job Seekers Allowance than there were in 2010. Youth unemployment here ...
Sarah Chisnall is a Scottish public affairs consultant and mental health campaigner. She's also married to Liberal Democrat MP for Edinburgh West Mike Crockart. On Sunday, she wrote a powerful piece for Scotland on Sunday talking about her experience of living with Bulimia and Depression and how she pledged to speak out to tackle the stigma attached to mental illness. The stigma surrounding mental illness prevents us from speaking out to family, friends, let alone the wider world. I have always worried what friends might think and how it could affect my career or that of my husband, Mike Crockart, ...
'UK economy growing at fastest rate since 2007′ is the BBC headline this morning, following the release of the latest GDP figures showing 0.7% growth in the fourth quarter of 2013, bringing the annual growth rate to 1.9%. Last night, Lib Dem business secretary Vince Cable delivered a major speech to the Royal Economic Society assessing the current state of the economy – and in particular how the current growth figures can be sustained in the long-term. There will be lots of glib sound-bites today from politicians and pundits trying to make the facts fit their outlook. As ever, Vince's ...
The British economy is perplexing economists. The economy as a whole is growing but we as individuals don't seem to be any better off. Unemployment tumbles but pay stays rooted to the spot. This is called the "productivity puzzle". Added to this puzzle is the phenomenon of "re-shoring": the reversal of offshoring, the process by which manufacturing and services were migrated abroad, typically to China or India. David Cameron, the Prime Minister, made a speech promoting it last week. It is worth stepping back to think through just what is going on. After all, when offshoring was popular, in the ...
"Lib Dems declare war on rich" is the hyperbolic front page of today's Independent. [IMG: indy lib dem tax jan 2014] It's tagged 'exclusive' though the article – which you can read here – seems to be reporting Lib Dem policy as approved by the party's September 2013 conference – namely: (1) Introduce a Mansion Tax, applicable at 1% on the value of a residential property in excess of £2 million; and (2) Cap the lifetime limit for which tax relief is available on pension contributions at £1 million. (Flick to page 3 of the party's 'Fairer Taxes' policy paper.) ...
Labour would bankroll 'back to work' plan on Bradford model (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus) (tags: ) [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
We reported last Friday the news that Mike Hancock, the MP for Portsmouth South who resigned the Lib Dem whip last year to contest allegations of sexual assault against him, had won the backing of Portsmouth Lib Dems. However, the local party has since confirmed it will be pushing ahead with selecting a candidate for the 2015 election. With Mike Hancock currently suspended by the national party, he will be unable to put himself forward for re-selection. In short, he has been de-selected as a Lib Dem MP (unless his suspension is lifted). Local party chair Simon Dodds is quoted ...
The Leicester Mercury looked back to January 1867 today: The 9.35 from Leicester to London had barely made it past Kibworth, but the passengers were already in a state of open revolt. When the train pulled in to Harborough station, windows were angrily yanked down and red-faced travellers bellowed their indignation at the guard, station master and porters alike. Their mood would surely have turned uglier still had they set eyes upon the driver and fireman, the cause of their ire. The express was going too fast, the passengers protested: it was intolerable.We know about this incident because Charles Dickens ...
In the early twentieth century southern Wales experienced a religious revival that still shapes Pentecostalism and Wales. It is probably folly to try and locate a single place where Pentecostalism began. The modern movement represents the convergence of a number of grouping that sprung up independently around the world. Nonetheless, if one were forced to [...]
The letter below is self-explanetory: 26th January, 2014 The Editor, Newsnight. Dear Editor, I wish to object in the strongest possible terms to the biased nature of your introduction to your feature on the economy last Friday, 24th January.. You introduced some discussion on a speech to be made by Ed Balls with a comment that it was "Labour who presided over the financial crisis"; mentioned that Labour had a "problem of economic credibility"; illustrated the financial crisis by showing a car crash; and then said the government could respond to Mr Balls's speech by asking "Do you want to ...
The new Dundee City Council adult learning newsletter is now available and you can download it here. The following courses are available in the West End :
A School Board was set up in Dundee in 1873 and under its direction a number of new schools were set up, including the Balfour Street Public School. In 1894, there were 23 schools under the School Board, with accommodation for 21,000 scholars. By 1913, the School Board was employing 585 teachers in Dundee.
Find the nearest book to you, turn to page 45, and read the first sentence: this describes your sex life in 2014. "Dead in a year," remarked the desk sergeant, a new-born with a snout-like protrusion in the centre of his face. ... Well that's depressing LOL [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
