The home of the poet William Cowper in the centre of Olney is now a museum devoted to him and is friend John Newton, who wrote the words to "Amazing Grace". In the garden you will find the summerhouse where Cowper did much of his writing. And across the road in the town square you will find a wicker sculpture inspired by Cowper and his three pet hares. Over to John Stuart Mill, recalling his famous education: Cowper's short poems I read with some pleasure, but never got into the longer ones; and nothing in the two volumes interested me ...

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England
Sat 19th
20:23

Bacup Goes Nutters

Today I spent a very enjoyable easter saturday in backup watching the Britannia Coconutters Morris Dancers, in Bacup. Paparazzi Without going into great detail, they are a unique bunch of men who perform their annual ritual though the streets of backup and the adjacent villages. If you have seen them, then you'll know what I mean, if you haven't then try looking them up on YouTube. Guess how she got a black face? Having arrived with my friends David and Julie, I spent the rest of the day bumping into old friends whilst enjoying a pint or four in the ...

Posted by Mike Booth on kew focus
Sat 19th
19:14

Pmq

I risk jumping on a bandwagon, but it is an issue that has bothered me and fellow Lib Dems for a long time: the terrible Yah -Boo culture during Prime Minister's Questions or otherwise known as PMQ. While the Prime Minister is shouting at the top of his voice, the MP's on the opposition benches [...]

Posted by werahobhouse on Wera's Blog
Sat 19th
17:29

Off at Least One Fence

[Commentary from Liberator 365, which will be with subscribers next week] Nick Clegg's decision to challenge Nigel Farage to television debates on the European Union was certainty brave - even if Clegg's jokes suggested a career in stand-up comedy does not await him after politics. Although commentators mostly said Farage had won the debates, Clegg was able to say reasonably enough that he could not reverse decades of populist eurosceptic bile and alarmism in two hours. What he did do was make the pro-EU case unabashedly in public - a refreshing change from previous European elections when the Liberal Democrats ...

Posted by Mark Smulian on Liberator's blog

Well the other day a rather attractive young lady said to me, 'Neil, you do know why you're single don't you?' I replied that I didn't and she proceeded to say, 'well it has nothing to do with the fact that you are slightly overweight, sweat a little bit too much, don't have perfect teeth, lack even the most basic fashion sense and are a selfish little sod, no it has nothing to with with any of those negative traits, all of which can be overcome, no, your problem is you can't cook even the most basic of Chinese dishes. ...

Posted by neilmonnery on The Rambles of Neil Monnery

I asked the following questions via Twitter yesterday – they're all taken from the now-deceased Punch magazine's Election 1992 political board game, Landslide. Yes, I have kept it for 21 years in the hope that it would come in useful for a blog-post on a quiet holiday week-end: I'm that far-sighted. Easter Quiz (1): Who is the only C.20th British PM to have also held – concurrently – the post of Foreign Secretary? — Stephen Tall (@stephentall) April 18, 2014 Answer here. The second set of questions appear tomorrow, Easter Sunday... * Stephen Tall is Co-Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice, ...

Posted by Stephen Tall on Liberal Democrat Voice

[IMG: members forum wordle] 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: Student support; London and the rest; What do you think about Jeremy Browne's book launch; The latest ...

Posted by The Voice on Liberal Democrat Voice

Where there are constitutional means to bring about changes in the law, there is no justification for breaking it to achieve political ends A few days ago, Green MP Caroline Lucas and a group of co-defendants have been cleared of breaching the Public Order Act during a protest outside an oil exploration plant in Boscombe. [...]

Posted by Mark Mills on Matter Of Facts

MEPs in Brussels are used to being lobbied — by business groups, farmers, trade associations and NGOs of every description. This year, in the run up to next month's European elections, MEP candidates are getting the same treatment as well. I have already replied to over 1,000 lobbying emails (over half of them from the [...]

Posted by jonathanfryer on Jonathan Fryer

"Get the Facts: Student Finance" is a "factsheet" that has recently popped up on the Liberal Democrat website. Upon seeing it I was incredibly angry. I understand why my party is trying it's best to confront and justify our position, ... Continue reading →

Posted by Joshua Dixon on Liberal Insight
YouGov

It's ten years since the Speke Garston coastal reserve was set up (although obviously people used to walk there before) and there'll be events in early May to celebrate the birthday. The reserve is a great place to walk. I often pop down along Brunswick Street and then walk along to the Sailing Club. But you can go further along, in fact to Speke Hall. Anyway, to celebrate the birthday there are two days of activities. One is a spring clean day and the other involves guided walks, talks and exhibitions. On 2 May there's a clean up. Organisers are ...

Posted by Paula Keaveney on Paula Keaveney - Lib Dem Campaigner

[IMG: Linda Jack] Lib Dem activist Linda Jack will shortly announce that she will be a candidate for the post of Party President in the all-member election that will take place this autumn. To date, two candidates have declared their intention to run: Baroness (Sal) Brinton and Pauline Pearce. I understand Linda will officially throw her hat into the ring after May's local and European elections. Linda Jack has twice been a parliamentary candidate for the party: in Luton North in 2005, and in Mid-Bedfordshire (up against Nadine Dorries) in 2010. She also served as a a councillor on Bedford ...

Posted by Stephen Tall on Liberal Democrat Voice

Phew. After five months, numerous emails, a fair number of phone calls and a few appeals to Haringey's Chief Executive, the fence outside Wall Court on Stroud Green Road has finally been fully repaired: [IMG: New fence, Wall Court, Stroud Green Road]

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

I'm a non-violent person. I abhor violence in all its forms. I think guns are scary (and I grew up around them so I'm not just some liberal sort with no real-life experience). But I've started to sympathise with the sort of loony survivalist that frequent the mountains of Idaho with a stockpile of arms and a deep suspicion of anyone telling them how to live their lives. I'm worried, literally worried, that people, who are supposed to be vastly more intelligent than I am, think there's a connection between Zac Efron going shirtless at the MTV awards and Cyril ...

[IMG: Labour_halves_apprenticesBLOG] Nick Clegg has revealed Labour's secret plans to scrap half a million apprenticeships. Apparently Labour and their Union bosses see no value in this popular and effective way to help people into work, because they think they are 'deadweight'. This is the strongest signal yet that Labour can't be trusted to build a stronger economy. Their wrecking plans would make it harder for young people to find good, well-paid jobs, and would damage the skills base in the British economy. In a little-publicised paper written by the Labour Party, they propose to scrap Intermediate (level 2) Apprenticeships, replacing ...

Posted by nickhollinghurst on Nick Hollinghurst

In the 1990s I used to lead walking tours in the beauty spots of Britain for a company, now sadly defunct, called English Wanderer. Many of our group members were from abroad and one very personable young man from the Low Countries, Belgium I think, explained to us that he was a teacher of non-confessional ethics. In his country schools each had a "slot" when the various priests, ministers, imams and rabbis came in to give religious instruction to their flocks. His job was to teach ethics to those pupils who had, or whose parents had, no attachment to any ...

Posted by Peter Wrigley on Keynesian Liberal
Sat 19th
10:58

Borderline insanity

It is not often I find myself agreeing with Conservative MPs, but the senior politician who has described the latest wheeze by HMRC to sell the personal financial data of millions of taxpayers to private firms as "borderline insane" has hit the nail on the head,. even if it is David Davis. The Guardian says that despite fears that it could jeopardise the principle of taxpayer confidentiality, the proposed legislation would allow HMRC to release anonymised tax data to third parties including companies, researchers and public bodies where there is a public benefit. They add that HMRC documents say that ...

Posted by Peter Black on Peter Black

[IMG: sarah wollaston] Blogging is back in the headlines again today. Dr Sarah Wollaston, the feistily independent Conservative MP for Totnes, has hit back at those online critics who denounced her role in the trial of her fellow Tory, Nigel Evans, acquitted this week on all charges of sexual assault and one of rape. In an interview with The Times, Dr Wollaston was keen to stress that she was in no way challenging the verdict in the case, adding that she empathised with Mr Evans and his ordeal. She confessed, however, that the fallout from the case had been "very ...

Posted by Stephen Tall on Liberal Democrat Voice

Men seek excuses to remove beats without appearing to be weak-willed fashion victims (tags: ) Vince Cable takes aim at dodgy directors - Liberal Democrats (tags: ) BBC News - 10 sartorial moments that tell us a lot about politics surprisingly in depth and interesting (tags: ) [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments

[IMG: don foster] The Bath Chronicle reports the news of the contenders seeking to succeed Don Foster as Lib Dem MP for Bath: The party has this week decided on a shortlist of contenders who will battle it out for the Lib Dem nomination. Mr Foster announced in January that he would be standing down from the seat he has held since 1992. Several hopefuls turned to Twitter to announce they had made the shortlist including Chris Lucas, Steve Bradley, former Bath City chairman Councillor Manda Rigby (Lib Dem, Abbey) and former mayor Councillor Andy Furse (Lib Dem, Kingsmead). ... ...

Posted by The Voice on Liberal Democrat Voice
eUKhost

 

Sat 19th
07:47

13 Kids!

[IMG: rsz_thats_a_big_family] Click to enlarge Leeds Liverpool canal in Lydiate 18th April. That's one hell of a big family to look after! This photo is amongst my Flickr shots at:- www.flickr.com/photos/86659476@N07/

Posted by Cllr. Tony Robertson on Sefton Focus

The Cressington Community First Fund has just advertised another round of grants for local groups or activities in the Cressington ward bit of L19 and L18. The deadline for applying for this round is 6 May. You can find a form, as well as info about the area covered, at this link. The Fund involves a committee of local people making decisions about the spending. The money comes from the Government.

Posted by Paula Keaveney on Paula Keaveney - Lib Dem Campaigner