A documentary from 1986 looking back at the Border Counties Railway, which ran from Hexham to the remote Riccarton Junction over the Scottish border. This line was closed to passengers in 1956 and freight services continued over part of the line until 1963. Part of the route now lies beneath Kielder Water. There is more about Riccarton Junction, and many photographs, on the Disused Stations site.
Manning the stall About a month ago the Medway Liberal Deomcrats were approached by MidKent College's Student Union President Matt, along with other parties who have a Parliamentary members - Us, Labour, Conservatives and the Greens, and asked if we wanted to attend the College's Democracy week. The idea was, as part of the Bite the ballot campaign to get teenagers to get involved in politics and registered to vote. I spoke passionately at the last Exec meeting saying that we should go, so passionately in fact that I was volunteered to do it! With a clutch of leaflets and ...
On Saturday the 29th March Parish Councillors who are looking at building a new Skate Park her in Bar Hill are looking to meet with local residents and skate park users to try an determine what people are expecting from the new park. We'd love to see as many people as possible at the this event. It's being held between 10:30am and 12:30pm in the Octagon (next to the parish Council Offices). Alternatively if you have any views you'd like us to consider you can drop me an email at; andy.pellew@gmail.com I look forward to seeing as many people as ...
From Folklore of Leicestershire and Rutland by Roy Palmer: By far the most widely used threat was that of the nine o'clock horses which would mangle young children who were out too late, or even staying up too late. In some places they were called bell horses, which might indicate that the fear was originally connected with the curfew bell, which once rang at nine o'clock.I offer "The Nine O'Clock Horses" as the title for a novel or poem.
This story appeared in the February - March 2014 Forest Hill Focus Unemployment in Forest Hill has fallen by a third in less than two years, from 647 to 421. This is in line with the national trend which shows that, for the first time, 30 million people are now in employment in the UK. [...]
This story appeared in the February - March 2014 Forest Hill Focus Lib Dems are calling on Lewisham's Labour Mayor to act after figures showing the council is bottom of London's recycling league table for a second year in a row. In 2012-13 just 20% of household waste was recycled in Lewisham, less than half [...]
Cllr Bridget Smith and Cllr John Williams South Cambridgeshire Liberal Democrats have named Councillor Bridget Smith as their new leader. Bridget Smith takes over from Sebastian Kindersley as group leader with John Williams becoming the new deputy leader. Cllr Bridget Smith, who has represented Gamlingay on South Cambridgeshire District Council since 2008, was elected last night following Cllr Kindersley's decision to stand down as group leader at the end of his term. Cllr Smith said: "It's been a privilege to work with Sebastian both within the group and in our division. He has led our group through challenging times and ...
Cambridge MP Julian Huppert will hand over his petition next week demanding urgent investment for city pavement repairs just days after the government announced another £200 million for highway maintenance across the country. The money, for which local authorities are invited to bid, was unveiled in the Budget and is on top of just over £9 billion being made available between 2011 and 2021. Julian will join Paralympic hopeful, Claire Connon at Cambridge's Shire Hall on Tuesday, March 25 to present the petition to Cambridgeshire County Council ahead of its full council meeting. The petition calls on the county council ...
This story appeared in the February - March 2014 Forest Hill Focus Liberal Democrats are pressing for urgent action to tackle air quality in Lewisham after a study found it frequently ranked as one of the worst three London boroughs for air pollution-related deaths. Forest Hill councillor Alex Feakes said: "Last summer Lewisham council agreed [...]
This story appeared in the February - March 2014 Forest Hill Focus In the summer, Lewisham Council tried to introduce a cash-free payment system for parking permits, where residents had to buy permits online or by phone. To make matters worse, the Council failed to tell residents who need visitors' permits what they were doing. [...]
Nick Clegg and Nigel Farage are going head-to-head in two live debates. Here's your chance to win tickets for you and a friend to watch live in the studio. The debates will be held on: 26th March, 7-8pm, hosted by LBC2nd April, 7-8pm, hosted by BBC2Just submit your details by following this link; http://www.libdems.org.uk/win_tickets_to_nick_v_nigel and you will automatically be entered for both the LBC and BBC debates. A winner will be drawn for the LBC debate, after which all remaining entrants will be rolled over to the BBC debate so you don't have to enter twice.
This story appeared in the February - March 2014 Forest Hill Focus Many residents of Hengrave, Boveney and Devonshire Roads contacted us about the traffic problems caused by the Thames Water works on Honor Oak Park recently. The diversion system in place was inadequate for dealing with the volume of cars and lorries that use [...]
This story appeared in the February - March 2014 Forest Hill Focus Labour-run Lewisham Council have come under fire for having one of the worst records in the country for collecting council tax. Last year (2012-13) the Council failed to collect a whopping £5.7 million of the council tax which was due. That is a [...]
This story appeared in the February – March 2014 Forest Hill Focus The Forest Hill Focus Team are working with Lib Dem London Assembly member Caroline Pidgeon to get action to tackle overcrowding on buses serving our area. Caroline is Deputy Chair of the Assembly's Transport Committee, which recently identified the 185 and 176 as [...]
Sat 22nd
19:06
Newsletter From The European Parliament Saturday 22 March 2014 - Sir Graham Watson MEP
Sir Graham Watson MEP While Ukraine again dominated the agenda and underlined how the EU cannot hope to influence Russia unless it is united, UK PM David Cameron chose last Sunday to outline, in an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, a seven point plan to distance the UK even further from its continental partners. Many of the points he made involved setting up Aunt Sallies to knock them down again: such as saying he would free businesses from EU red tape to make them freer to trade with North America or Asia. There are currently no EU rules which restrict ...
I have shamelessly copied this posting from Lord Bonkers. Vince Cable gives a Commons master class - at the expense of Ed BallsVince Cable's response to Ed Balls in the Budget debate yesterday was a work of art and deserves to be quoted at some length: I have calculated that this is the 18th Budget to which I have responded in some capacity, and the fourth directly to the shadow Chancellor, Ed Balls. However, since he wrote many of the others, I was probably responding to him indirectly. Having heard the right hon. Gentleman over the years, I have picked ...
Business secretary Vince Cable was on his feet in the Commons on Thursday, providing his response to budget. His speech has already proved something of a hit, not least for his deft responses to point-scoring interventions by Labour MPs, including with the Voice's Stephen Tall. You can watch (and read) Vince in action below. Here is the Hansard transcript of the debate: The Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills (Vince Cable): I have calculated that this is the 18th Budget to which I have responded in some capacity, and the fourth directly to the shadow Chancellor, the right ...
There's been a flurry of news stories in the past week, most likely to coincide with the country's first same-sex marriages starting next Saturday, regarding how the bill came to pass. Firstly, we had television personality Paul O'Grady describe David Cameron as a "twat" and state the Lib Dems were "as much use as men's tits". Then, a few days later, Ben Summerskill tried (very unconvincingly) to attack the Lib Dems for being "opportunistic" on same-sex marriage. And finally, Tony Blair said that "in hindsight", he would've pushed for marriage equality whilst Prime Minister. All this leads me to think ...
Over the past few weeks I have been commenting regularly on developments in Ukraine/Crimea for an Arab TV channel, Al Etejah*. And while much of the attention rightly has been on Russia and what exactly Vladimir Putin has in mind from day to day, one of the broader aspects I've been mulling over is the [...]
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 7 days: Liberal or Not?; Can we now speak ill of the dead?; Housing; "Voters back Osborne's pensions revolution"; We do have a ...
More comedy genius from Australia's Clarke and Dawe: You can also watch this on YouTube.
This all arises out of an extended in-joke between Steven Spielberg and George Lucas: In Spielberg's 1982 film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, the alien E.T. sees a child dressed in a Yoda costume and says, "Home!" In return for the Yoda cameo, Lucas promised to insert an E.T. cameo into the next Star Wars film. And [...]
Sat 22nd
12:50
Without a shadow of a doubt: Vince Cable should be the Lib Dems' Shadow Chancellor at the 2015 elect...
[IMG: Vincent Cable] One of the quirks of being in coalition is the Lib Dems no longer have a shadow chancellor. But we shall need one in time for the 2015 general election – not least for the traditional televised 'Ask the Chancellors' debate. There have been newspaper reports that there's some jockeying for this position, with the Financial Times reporting that "Senior Lib Dems say the high-profile job is very likely to go to Danny Alexander, the Treasury chief secretary". Meanwhile, over at the New Statesman, Lib Dem blogger Richard Morris suggests pensions minister Steve Webb should get the ...
In an earlier post I admit to not knowing much about foreign policy. My friend Michael Meadowcroft, sometime Liberal MP for Leeds West, does and has written the following letter to the Yorkshire Post. Dear Sir In my time in parliament, Sir Malcolm Rifkind tended to be a voice of sanity as a Conservative foreign minister. I am disappointed to see that he has now become a cold warrior (Putin must feel pain over Ukraine, March 20). I am no supporter of President Putin and his militaristic Russian regime, nor indeed of nationalism generally, but your readers need to look ...
Over the last couple of weeks, several events have proved, as if we needed it to be proved, that hate speech and prejudice is alive and well in 21st century Britain. Last week, Pink News reported a disturbing, angry and hate-filled transphobic ... Continue reading →
Sat 22nd
11:06Liberals need to stand up against hate speech and prejudice. If we don't, we condone it.
Over the last couple of weeks, several events have proved, as if we needed it to be proved, that hate speech and prejudice is alive and well in 21st century Britain. Last week, Pink News reported a disturbing, angry and hate-filled transphobic rant by Julie Burchill which appeared as a comment on an article by Paris Lees. Paris had written of her delight in being catcalled and wolf-whistled while on holiday in Ibiza and asked if that made her a bad feminist. Burchill's reply seemed to be trying to make out that she was a bad human being. I don't ...
[IMG: econafterthecrisis] A little late in the day I've just finished Adair Turner's Economics after the crisis: objectives and means, published in 2012. It is based on Turner's 2010 Lionel Robbins lectures. Economics after the crisis is a thoughtful book which makes a number of relatively simple but profound points. The early pages note some of the findings emerging from the literature on happiness. In particular, it examines the paradoxical finding that there is an apparent disconnection, once national income per head reaches a certain level, between further rises in average incomes and reported levels of happiness. More money on ...
It's great to see one of our long-standing campaigns finally come to fruition with the installation of an access ramp in the Round Hill estate. A number of the residents if the lower part of the estate have had difficulty negotiating the steep steps to reach their front doors. Forest Hill ward Lib Den councillor [...]
Useful data from Twitter about what makes a political tweet more likely to be retweeted. Or, more precisely, it's about the correlation between tweet content and retweeting. Correlation isn't the same as causation and I'd caution reading too much into the hashtag figure. I suspect what it means is that if you're tweeting about a major event, you're more likely to be retweeted. Simply adding a hashtag to a tweet on a theme no-one else is talking about doesn't give it a boost. [IMG: Political retweets graph] (Digit means numbers, i.e. a tweet that quotes statistics.)
[IMG: image] In the cool light of day, I have studiously re-read Nick Clegg's speech to the York spring conference (in full below). I'll go out on a limb here and say that I think it is his best speech ever. The passage about why he loves the UK had me welling up as I read it, just as it did when I watched the speech. And he gives a superb summary of where we are headed in the next five years. The speech is an act of real leadership. We could easily have gone into the May European elections ...
Sat 22nd
09:20Independent: Liberal Democrats' "major and under-rated contribution" to Budget success
[IMG: Budget 2010 photocall] Yesterday's Independent editorial had some very complimentary things to say about the Liberal Democrats' influence on the Budget: It is widely said that George Osborne had a decent Budget this week, aided in no small part by Ed Miliband's curiously weak response. But the Liberal Democrats, as has frequently been the case during this parliament, made a major and underrated contribution to its success. Raising the tax-free personal income threshold is the Liberal Democrats' baby. It is their most popular policy and the achievement that will be heralded in the run-up to the next general election ...
Did you spot this? Budget gives HMRC power to raid your bank account - like Wonga (tags: ) Worth reading in full: @vincecable delivers a comprehensive kick to the Balls. Apologies for the punning title, but seriously? It's just stunning. Do read his effortless batting away of interventions too. 3 Vince. (tags: ) The Lib Dems are asserting themselves, as welcome measures in this week's Budget demonstrate (tags: ) [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
Today at The Guild – a Liberal Democrat innovation to work with digital workers on creating an exciting co-working Hub – the Council are hosting the first Bath Hackathon 'Bath: Hacked' - a two day event to come up with a clever use of technology that could change the way we look at some of our data and improve life for all of us with innovative apps and tech solutions to understanding data. 'Bath: Hacked' will enable technology experts to think, play and hack a range of data streams to create their ideas. It is taking place at The Guild, ...
Nigel Farage's excuses for a poor voting record in the European Parliament just don't stack up. In the lead up to the Nick vs Nigel debates, Clegg and Farage have exchanged criticisms over their voting records. At a speech to The Centre for European Reform Nick Clegg said: "You would have thought that if your [...]
[IMG: License Some rights reserved by shareski] This is a blatant rip-off of my co-editor Stephen Tall's piece yesterday giving all our MPs' first tweets. It must have taken him ages to embed them all. I've seen the list described as "adorable" and it is a really useful trip down Memory Lane. I have much less to do in my shameless copy, but I thought it would be interesting to see what first utterings came from the Liberal Democrat Voice team. The first thing I noticed is that we were all pretty early adopters. It was the much missed Andrew ...
From the Curator of Museum Services at the University of Dundee : The latest exhibition in the Lamb Gallery in the University's Tower Building features highlights from an outstanding medical collection. Based at Ninewells Hospital & Medical School, the Tayside Medical History Museum has one of the finest collections in Scotland, including material from Dundee Royal Infirmary, Royal Dundee Liff Hospital, Ninewells Hospital and Sunnyside Hospital among others. The museum opened in 1989 but is currently closed for redevelopment as part of the on-going refurbishment of the School of Medicine. We intend to create a new version of the museum ...
P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm; direction: ltr; widows: 2; orphans: 2; }P.western { font-family: "CG Times (W1)",serif; font-size: 12pt; }P.cjk { font-size: 12pt; } We have received this notice of the footpath being closed Notice is given that Bath and North East Somerset Council in exercise of its powers under section 14 of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984
Normally the council will plant wild flowers, but in order to bring it up to a more sustainable bed we will plan over the next few weeks to cover the area with weed suppressant and lay Cotswold stone on top and planting a mixture of 3 colour lavender plants and 3 different colour of ornamental grasses. The council will leave the outside edge green grass as this is often damaged by vehicles and
A row that has rumbled on all week is over who pays for the electrification of the mainline from Cardiff to Swansea and the valleys lines. All of this blew up on Monday when the First Minister stood in front of his expensive lectern in Cathays Park and claimed that the UK Government were reneging in the deal they had made with Welsh Ministers. As Nick Servini explains on the BBC, this turned out to be a bit more complicated than that: Carwyn Jones wrote to David Cameron last week saying that he was coming under pressure from Network Rail ...
"Those are people, quite often for example lesbians, who feel very strongly that marriage is a 2,000-year-old vehicle for the subjugation of women, and they don't like it at all. And I think what we have succeeded in doing, certainly with Stonewall stakeholders and our support has continued to rise throughout that period, is to persuade them that even if they don't want to get married, other people should be able to."So said Ben Summerskill, former head of the charity Stonewall, in the recent radio retrospective of LGB rights in the UK "Gay Rights: Tying The Knot?". He was defending ...
Sat 22nd
08:01
Labour's alternative: No budget changes and definitely no more posters on beer and bingo
Given the fact that Ed Milliband effectively recycled three year old sound bites for his response and with the news that the Labour Party will now support the government's changes to pensions, and the benefit cap, and the raising of the tax threshold, and the extra investment..... And so on. The only substantive thing I have actually heard them oppose is a poster produced by Tory Central office telling us the government will be reducing tax on beer and bingo. Apparently lowering taxes on beer and bingo is patronising and shows David Cameron only cares about rich folk or some ...
The report Health and Social Care Committee report published this week makes it an imperative that there is an urgent review into the remit and functions of Healthcare Inspectorate Wales (HIW). The report, which looked into the work of HIW, states that: "the committee did not receive the assurances it wanted to hear about the role of HIW in ensuring that healthcare providers are examined properly, meet basic standards, and face sufficient intervention when basic standards are not met." The report recommends that: "the Welsh Government should undertake a fundamental review of HIW to reform, develop and improve its regulatory ...
A range of issues involving state endorsement of creationism have occurred recently. We think it's time everyone wrote to their MPs to speak out. We've provided a facility through which it's possible to do so. The Government has been clear that creationism is not scientifically valid and should not be taught as such. As a consequence, it has a policy of rejecting creationist groups that apply for funding through the Free Schools programme. Because of our campaigning, it has also precluded Free Schools from teaching pseudoscience and made it a requirement for them to teach evolution. However, three issues have ...
Sat 22nd
03:00Monthly Report by Cllr Sebastian Kindersley: Green Bins, Rent Increases, and Destination Digital
Cllr Sebastian Kindersley Green Bin CollectionSouth Cambs has agreed to restructure the bin collection service so that money can be saved on 12 jobs i.e. £400,000. As well as resulting in redundancies this will also mean that the Green Bins will only be collected once every 4 weeks during the 3 winter months. We are informed that not many are put out every fortnight during the winter. We are to be told to put our food waste in the black bins during this time because apparently some organic waste is required for the composting /recycling process at Waterbeach to work ...
Liberal Democrats at County Hall were heartened to discover that the Conservative administration had listened to the recent Lib Dem budget suggestion and decided to commit extra funds for repairing our roads and pavements after the recent flooding and atrocious weather. Unfortunately, the Conservatives at County Hall were clearly not listening properly, because they decided they could fix all the damage with just £1m (£270 for every mile of road in Hertfordshire) rather than the £2m the Liberal Democrats budgeted for. The £1m, from a special reserve, was agreed by HCC at a Policy, Resources and Transformation Cabinet Panel on ...
His lordship is seen discussing the international situation with Lib Dem East Midlands Euro candidates Phil Knowles (left) and George Smid.
