Welcome to Broxtowe Enews, brought to you by the Liberal Democrats and edited by David Watts, the leader of the Lib-Dems on Broxtowe Borough Council. May I give a special welcome to the new readers that we have this week. I'm delighted to say that I am writing this sat in my own living room. Regular readers may recall that last November my house flooded but yesterday, just four days less than six months after the flood, we were able to move back home. 1. Beeston and Chilwell Garden TrailTheBeeston and Chilwell Garden Trail 2014 will be taking place on ...
Today at the Dulwich Festival Fair on Goose Green we had the opportunity to for Haberdasher's Aske's to further introduce themselves to the families of East Dulwich. Haberdashers' are our preferred school provider for a new East Dulwich Secondary School. It felt a huge success with lots of positive interest. Thank you to everyone who made it possible today and everyone who stopped to say hi. I was amazed at how many people didn't know about the campaign. Boy have we tried to let people know about it! [IMG: Goose Green] The Charter School was also present seeking further support ...
Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg will today (Friday 9 May) set out the Liberal Democrat vision for reform of the European Union. Nick will make the case that being pro-European means being pro-reform. Speaking at a Reuters Newsmaker event Nick will make the following key points. It's "utter nonsense" to suggest that if you are "pro-Europe", you are somehow anti-reform and there are three key reasons why the Liberal Democrats are the only party who can be relied on to deliver the change Britain needs.Unlike the Conservatives, we understand that you cannot "secure a new settlement for Britain through a ...
Today on Europe Day, Danny Alexander gave a speech to business people from all across Gibraltar, conveying the support of the British Government. Danny mentioned that next month HM the Queen will mark the D Day landings of 1944 - the start of the liberation of Europe. "It behoves us all to reflect that 70 years on, those countries sheltered within the framework of the EU are enjoying the longest period of peace and security in generations. 500 Million people leaving and trading in peace. 28 countries working together to further democracy." Danny spoke of Europe's crucial role in delivering ...
Haven't started a blog before not knowing what to say! That's because I write about issues, not myself, stories not feelings. And even as I type it still doesn't seem like a good idea! Before [...]
Labour has given up trying to win votes from the Conservatives, says Mark Pack on Liberal Democrat Voice. "In one of the richest countries in the world 2.4 million of our children are living in homes with problem debt with an additional 2.9 million families with dependent children having struggled to pay their bills over the past 12 months." Linda Jack, also on Lib Dem Voice, has been to the launch of the Children Society campaign The Debt Trap. Birkdale Focus looks at The Liberal Canvasser's Guide from 1929. Once the fourth-largest lake in the world, the Aral Sea in ...
Sun 11th
20:33
Thanet Council - Reputation slides further? - Do Cllr. Clive Hart and Dr Sue McGonigal have any answ...
It really is simple, allegations were made concerning a conflict of interests involving TDC Chief Executive Dr Sue McGonigal acting as a board member of East Kent Opportunities (EKO) property company set up by TDC and KCC and the Planning department of Thanet council. Cllr Ian Driver rightly made a formal complaint, which was being investigated by the monitoring officer, Harvey Patterson, who was abruptly removed from the council in the last week or so. Why? Good question, still Thanet Council claims on it's web site that it "is following due process and in order to allow this to be ...
Steerpike blogs for the Spectator: There has been plenty of progressive backslapping this morning because Britain was one of the many countries to award the full 12 points to the bearded Austrian drag act Conchita Wurst in Saturday night's Eurovision Song Contest. We showed those bigots over in Eastern Europe and Russia a thing or two, the chatterati say. Mr S hates to be a party-pooper, but he has news for you. The British public actually voted for some Polish girls in milkmaid outfits, seductively churning butter and cleaning clothes. ... The blushes of our progressive elite were spared by ...
[IMG: Conchita Wurst, Mario Soldo-2208] There'll no doubt be a lot of the usual 'why do they hate us' headlines in the UK following our disappointing showing in last night's Eurovision Song Contest. 17th place was indeed below par for one our strongest songs in years and a polished performance on the night by 27-year old Mollie Smitten-Downes. But such introspection - rather typically for Britain on matters European - misses the bigger point. Far more interesting was the winner: a gay, bearded transvestite from Austria called Conchita Wurst with the song 'Rise like a Phoenix'. Having faced down homophobia ...
Stand back and applaud: Always thought those made-up charts on election leaflets were funny but this from Dudley Tories is hilarious. pic.twitter.com/40mJ0EjxKo — Ian Austin (@IanAustinMP) May 11, 2014
Watch out for your new bin calendar 'hanger' between 12th and 23rd May. SITA are changing the collection rounds from 2nd June to accommodate the new materials you can now recycle and to cope with the major new developments being built around South Glos. It's important to read the hanger carefully because you may have a new collection day and there are changes to which items are put out on which weeks. From 2nd June the fortnightly schedule will change so that black and green bins will go out together, with the green recycling box being collected in the other ...
[IMG: Conchita Wurst-2210] It was great to see Conchita Wurst winning Eurovision. I was particularly impressed to see that the UK gave her 12 points. That made me proud – even though I voted for the Netherlands, as their song is more to my liking. "Is it a man or a woman?" someone asked. Well, first of all, could the enquirer not perhaps simply google the name and read the first para of her Wikipedia entry? Hopefully we are starting to accept, as a society, that everyone has a right to express themselves and that it is pointless and inhumane ...
[IMG: 7 ver 4 full] Many thanks to the 16300 visitors who dropped by Lib Dem Voice this week. Here's our 7 most-read posts... Opinion: We are still living with the consequences of nationalised railways today. Turning back the clock will make matters worse. (117 comments) by Alisdair Calder McGregor Labour VAT attack backfires badly (43 comments) by Joe Otten Nick Clegg unveils council waste and incompetence (71 comments) by The Voice An open letter to UKIP voters (106 comments) by Paul Reynolds Latest Euro election polls: Ukip take the lead, but what about the Lib Dems? (50 comments) by ...
[IMG: Bedroom tax demo , all the photos taken with a iphone 5] One thing escapes most political commentators when critiquing the merits of the Bedroom Tax. It is, of course, a great socialist policy. Of course most commentators accept New Labour introduced the Bedroom Tax through the Local Housing Allowance policy from 2003 to 2008. The mistake commentators make is that they believe LHA to be an ideologically compassionate conservative policy, instead of democratic socialist one. The argument has two parts. The first is relatively straight forward. For a socialist common ownership (of which Social Housing is the product) ...
The inexorable move towards tolerance of homosexuality across the developed world is taking hold even among the fundamentalist Christianity Slate writer Will Saletan reports on a high profile forum on ethics and public policy and the extent to which the right side of the Culture War is losing the will to continue fighting against tolerance [...]
John Pugh has written an excellent posting for Lib Dem Voice and Stephen Hesketh (also of this parish) has added some important thoughts. John and I had a discussion at the weekend about this-and how it should impact on our leaflets. I went away thinking of doing a blog posting and had in my mind a quote from Jo Grimond which I have now found. 'The salient feature of British politics is not the conflict of class and class or Tory and Liberal and Labour, though these conflicts exist, it is the conflict between the government and the governed. Part ...
I promised I would return to the Liberal Party 1929 canvasser's guide , so here we are.The guide begins with general guidance which I will come back to but I thought we should start with policy
The Welsh Liberal Democrats have criticised the Welsh Government for letting down tenants on welfare reforms, as only three of the 22 local authorities in Wales applied for extra UK government funding to help mitigate the impact of the spare room subsidy. The Welsh Liberal Democrats Spokesperson on Social Justice, Peter Black commented: "The Housing Benefit bill doubled from £11 billion to £22 billion under Labour's last 10 years of government, which is unaffordable and unsustainable. There are a quarter-of-a-million households living in overcrowded social housing and we subsidise a million spare bedrooms in the social rented sector, so it ...
Like a lot of people, I discovered R.E.M. through their early nineties albums Out of Time and Automatic for the People which, like David Letterman, I bought on vinyl. I bought a lot of their subsequent CDs after that, hoping they would be as good. Though there were some great individual tracks, they never were. My theory is that some bands can be spoilt by success in that they have to come up with songs that sounds good in stadiums. The same thing happened to Queen - I prefer their early witty records to their later bombastic ones. Researching R.E.M.'s ...
Research published today shows that the salaries of permanent employees are growing at the fastest rate in 7 years. The Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) and KPMG Report on Jobs finds that growth of permanent salaries accelerated in April, the most marked increase since July 2007. There was also a sharp increase in temporary pay in April, compared with the previous month. The report also shows fast growth in the number of permanent staff placements. Commenting on the report's findings, Liberal Democrat Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander said: "This is yet more encouraging news. It is more evidence ...
[IMG: Labour Party logo] I'm not fully signed up to the mockery for Labour's recent TV and online films mocking Nick Clegg. Why? Because for all the naff content themselves, the broad message of them has been massively reported in the media, reaching a much wider audience than the films themselves. I doubt that was a deliberate strategy as you can't count on calibrating something to be just bad enough to get lots of coverage but not so bad as to sink under it. It's a handy silver lining, however, especially as it diverted most criticism from the political strategy ...
Sun 11th
10:30
Airport expansion: 73% of Lib Dem members want to see it - but opinion divided on where it should ha...
[IMG: Airport terminal] Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. Over 830 party members responded – thank you – and we're publishing the full results. 37% want London airport expansion; 36% want no-London airport expansion; 21% want no airport expansion There is currently a discussion about how to expand airport capacity in the UK to meet future demand for air travel. Which one of the following do you think is the best option? 11% - Expand Heathrow airport 16% ...
It is just eleven days until we go to vote in the European elections. The low turnout in these elections amongst those who go to the polling station in person most probably means that the majority of those who will vote have already done so. The opinion polls do not look good for the Liberal Democrats, but as ever, we are at heart optimists (we have to be) and we will wait to see what happens on the night before drawing any conclusions. Nevertheless, commentators have already started to speculate on the future of Nick Clegg, not least in today's ...
Media Week asked the question and got contrasting answers: [IMG: A Liberal Democrat billboard poster from 2012] A Liberal Democrat billboard poster from 2012 The recent furore over UKIP's campaign highlights that doing so is not without its risks... The posters have been defaced at sites in London's Vauxhall and Liverpool, with pictures of the graffitied and spray-painted sites appearing on social media and in the press. Some are not surprised by this reaction. "Any ad for UKIP was going to be controversial," Tim Bleakley, the chief executive of the outdoor media owner Ocean, says. "A risk you take in ...
[IMG: Selection of British newspapers] Here's my pick of today's Sunday papers. Please add your own favourite stories in the comments. In the Observer, Andrew Rawnsley asks if Nick Clegg can survive another meltdown at the polls and puts the answer squarely at Liberal Democrat MPs and whether they think they can survive next year. The article acknowledges that Nick comes across as "thoughtful, engaged and reasonable" but that nothing so far tried has lifted our position in the opinion polls. Rawnsley doesn't really go into the fact that to ditch your leader, you have to have an alternative in ...
Here's some of the articles that have caught my attention in the past couple of days... Can Nick Clegg survive another meltdown for the Lib Dems? | Andrew Rawnsley | Comment is free | The Observer Andrew Rawnsley on Clegg's fate post-22 May: "Clegg is surely praying that his party isn't about to finally snap" http://bit.ly/1qrKc94 Liberal Hero of the Week #68: Allan Bell, Chief Minister of the Isle of Man | CentreForum Blog My 68th @CentreForum Liberal Hero of the Week is Allan Bell, Chief Minister of the Isle of Man. Find out why here: http://bit.ly/1j5IsOA The 100 Most ...
Tomorrow, it's 15 years since the first meeting of the Scottish Parliament established after may years of work and campaigning by the Scottish Constitutional Convention. In that first decade and a half, it's done some groundbreaking and pioneering things. It has a lot to be proud of. Here are some of Holyrood's highlights. 1. Free personal care for the elderly - Enabling older people to live at home for as long as possible [IMG: Stay Well At Home Service, Evesham, Britain] 2. Land reform legislation - Giving communities rights to buy land [IMG: View from Knoydart] 3. Smoking ban pioneered ...
Towards the end of 2013, I expressed concern about the Housing Department's decision to decommission two sheltered properties at the Morven Terrace/Ancrum Place sheltered housing without advising the sheltered tenants or local councillors. Amenity Housing is being considered for a relatively small number of sheltered housing properties that the Housing Department is finding hard to let and is offered (without warden services) to persons over the age of 50. Following a meeting I organised with the tenants at Morven Terrace/Ancrum Place that senior housing department also attended, there was a view from tenants that there is a need to exhaust ...
Green charges a 'stealth tax' The Sunday Express examines the growing trend of councils charging for collecting grass and hedge cuttings from homes, a move condemned by Communities Secretary Eric Pickles and public spending watchdogs. A £35 charge on garden waste collections in Birmingham has resulted in an increase in fly-tipping while a £36 charge levied in South Gloucestershire was described by Kingswood MP Chris Skidmore as "nothing but a stealth tax". [IMG: Cllr. Bruce Hubbard with his petition against Labour's £46 Green Bin Tax on Sefton households.] Cllr. Bruce Hubbard with his petition against Labour's £46 Green Bin Tax ...
No, I could not quite believe it myself when a resident got in touch to suggest that 5.30am may just be a little too early to empty his new brown recycling bin. [IMG: index] I little investigation found it to be, so I am told, a one off event because some of the brown bins in Sefton Drive, Maghull had been missed the previous day and the night crew were asked to pick them up.
Plaid Cymru's long-standing wish for Welsh independence is a threat to Welsh membership of the European Union, and with it the thousands of Welsh jobs that depend on our trade with Europe. In reality, Plaid Cymru are quite similar to UKIP. They both put their narrow, blinkered separatist ideology first, risking the Welsh economy and jobs. Neither stand up for Wales or act in the Welsh interest because they both put our place in Europe at risk. Plaid's position on independence is simply not credible. You can't argue to keep us in Europe to work with our neighbouring countries, whilst ...
Do you have 3 minutes to spare to give your views on our local environment? I've prepared a short residents survey which is going out across the division. If you'd like to complete it online then the form is available here; http://goo.gl/IkD2Q7 You can also printout the two pages individually available here; http://www.electionleaflets.org/leaflets/7981/ This is your opportunity to express your views both in our local area, key national policy areas, as well as international issues. If you'd like to help deliver (or collect) these surveys please drop me an email; andy.pellew@gmail.com I'll respond individually to every completed survey (although it ...
The Spanish- and Portuguese-speakers in London claim to be the capital's largest ethnic minority, self-estimating to be about 10 per cent of the population, and it's not hard to believe when one sees the vibrancy of the Portuguese in Lambeth, the Spanish across the capital, the Latin American Hispanics in Elephant and Castle and the [...]
Sun 11th
00:43Eurovision: the best of the Liberal Democrat reaction and strictly unauthorised beardiness
[IMG: Conchita Wurst-2210] Conchita Wurst's song might not have been the best on offer tonight, but her personality, her embodiment of liberalism and authenticity, combined with a pan-European desire to stick to fingers to the illiberal east triumphed in Copenhagen. She dedicated her victory to peace and freedom. And maybe, just maybe, people start to understand a bit more about gender not being a strictly binary thing. Here's some of the Liberal Democrat reaction to what is a definite high day in our calendar: Kevin Lang thought he saw someone familiar singing for the Netherlands: @caronmlindsay did you see the ...
[IMG: dattch52]
