I think Nick Clegg's handling of the Coalition has led to unnecessary damage to our party. He has acted mendaciously on several occasions, and his market-friendly inclinations have inclined him to pass a number of reforms which have enraged our ... Continue reading →
Designed by the Leicester architect Howard Henry Thomson, the Woodhouse Eaves war memorial stands on a rock near the church. It is odd to see a First World War monument in an English village that is so obviously influenced by German romanticism. The church porch was given in memory of an 18-year-old called Lewis Eric Tuckett, who died in 1913 - "in particularly tragic circumstances," according to the church guide book. It seems he committed suicide during his second year at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, while suffering from acute pneumonia and pleurisy The report in the London Standard suggests ...
Many Liberal Democrats, including Liberator Collective members Tim McNally in Southwark and John Bryant in Camden, will be going through that pit-of-the-stomach sensation where they try and work out exactly who is to blame for their losing their council seat. Some have already done it - see http://www.libdems4change.org/ - and blamed Nick Clegg. To echo the words of a former leader, they say, greater love hath no man than this - to lay down half the Liberal councillor base in England (more than half the base in urban areas) for the goal of perpetuating leaders' backsides in Cabinet Daimlers. With ...
Thank you to everyone who helped, supported and encouraged me – today I was re-elected to Stockport Council with a majority of 1098 over the Conservative candidate. The full result (changes are compared to the last election, in 2012) Votes %age Change from 2012 Iain Roberts (LD) 2176 44.8 +2.3 Conservative 1078 22.2 -14.9 Labour 781 16.1 -4.3 UKIP 605 12.4 +12.4 Green 216 4.4 +4.4 Lib Dem majority: 1098. Turnout 4856 (40.7%) Across Stockport the story is little change. Labour were aiming for three gains at the Lib Dems expense and failed in all three. The Lib Dems gained ...
The Leicester Mercury reports: A Leicester city councillor has quit the city's Labour party after claiming his former colleagues were divided and guilty of backstabbing. Councillor Wayne Naylor says he has left the party with "a heavy heart" after 12 years and will now represent the city's Braunstone Park and Rowley Fields as an independent member.Why the resignation? Apart from some unlikely claims about Labour members "being suspended or expelled across the country for actively demonstrating against Tory cuts," it seems that Naylor's support for another councillor who recently resigned from the Labour group, Barbara Potter, is behind this decision. ...
Today the High Court ruled that the exhumation licence granted to the University of Leicester is a valid legal document, which means that the planned reburial of Richard III in the city's cathedral can go ahead. This is very good news. You can read the court's judgment online - and if you have any interest in Richard III and his discovery, it is will worth doing so. It ends by saying: We agree that it is time for Richard III to be given a dignified reburial, and finally laid to rest.As to why I am so pleased, besides the obvious ...
Put aside party differences for a moment. Standing in an election in which you have a good expectation of winning but then coming second is not good for raising spirits. Months, for some people years, have been dedicated to the cause. Shoes were worn out on the streets, knuckles were chewed by aggressive letter boxes, life has been put on hold for ages only to come in as runner-up in a contest in
Haydn Preece Liberal Democrats 1187 30% Elected Jamie Halsall Conservative Party 1159 29% Not elected Terry Durrance United Kingdom Independence Party 990 25% Not elected Stephen Jowett The Labour Party 444 11% Not elected Barbara Ann Dutton The Green Party 207 5% Not elected Birkdale Iain Brodie Browne Lib Dem, win!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Birkdale - resultsElection CandidatePartyVotes% Iain Brodie - Browne Liberal Democrats 1484 41% Elected Tom McKenzie United Kingdom Independence Party 945 26% Not elected Ged Wright The Labour Party 521 14% Not elected Georgia Twist Pactor Conservative Party 489 14% Not elected Tony Young The Green Party 178 5% Not ...
[IMG: Orang Utang] * See Liberator's Glee Songbook, available at all good Liberator stalls. I've been thinking a lot about values, beliefs and politics recently. A friend recently challenged me for my support of Nick Clegg, saying "he's a Tory". The friend is a Labour supporter, but voted tactically for the LibDems in 2010. He is so disppointed that he will vote Tory next time. Eh? Voting out of bloody mindedness? Interesting. I didn't like to tell him that I have listened to Nick Clegg speak about 50 times and interviewed him twice. He isn't a Tory. But he does ...
There will be plenty of time to pore over the local and European election results this weekend. Perhaps Liberal Democrat Parliamentarians should take time to reflect, too. Because it does seem that some of them appear to have been following an altogether different set of elections, on a parallel universe where a 'successful' strategy deployed by the Liberal Democrat leadership has led to tangible success. Most of the people receiving the following letter just emailed 'from' Annette Brooke MP to Lib Dem activists, including Sir David Williams who lost the Ham and Petersham ward in Richmond held for 40 years ...
Yesterday was a very long day, followed by a very long night! I left the local election count in Enfield as Chase Ward, where I was standing as the Liberal Democrat candidate, was entering its third recount. It had already become clear much earlier, however, that the performance of Liberal Democrats in local elections across the country, as well that of my own candidacy in Chase, was extremely disappointing. I would like to thank everyone who voted for me as the local Liberal Democrat in Enfield Chase as well as all those who helped my campaign here in Enfield. In ...
Den of Geek reports that Mycroft himself has confirmed that: Martin Freeman's rumour about a potential one-off Sherlock film being on its way before series four is bunkum. "There was talk amongst people who have nothing to do with Sherlock I'm afraid", Gatiss joked. The plan is still for a three-episode fourth series, and the complicated scheduling is [...]
Just a quick note to say a huge THANK YOU for re-electing me as your Councillor for Holyrood Ward. The result was: Tim Pickstone (Lib Dem) 1800 (50.4%). Labour 1448 Conservative 315 I'm very privileged to be elected to serve for another four years. Tim
The day after Results for the council elections across the country are still coming in and here is what I have to say: Most councillors lost their seats for no fault of their own. Conservatives, Labour and Liberal Democrats are all parties of government and all have now a local as well as national record [...]
The results are in. Huge thank you to everyone who voted for Jonathan Mitchell, Rosie Shimell and me. Some really lovely feedback on the doorsteps about how hard we've worked as a team. But only Rosie and I are still East Dulwich Lib Dem councillors. Terribly sad that Jonathan missed remaining a councillor by 44 votes. Thank you to everyone who voted. The East Dulwich turnout of residents voting was 43.4% which means 4,053 residents came out and voted. Also thank you to all the other candidates that stood and all the volunteers from all the parties for working so ...
The BBC has published its estimate of the national vote-shares for this year's local elections. They show Labour out in front, on 31%, the Tories just behind on 29% – with Ukip in third place on 17% and the Lib Dems in fourth on 13%. Compared to the 2013 results*, this means Ukip is the only one of the four main parties to have lost votes in the last year. Here's the graph showing results over the last four years, 2010-14: Here's the national vote share (est.) of the 4 main parties since 2010. Ukip DOWN on 2013. #VOTE2014 pic.twitter.com/5Kkh7jQAeV ...
Local elections about local issues............ SOUTHPORT & FORMBY PUNISHES LABOUR FOR ITS LIBRARY & ENVIRONMENTAL POLICIES We Lib Dems held all our seats that were up for election in the Southport part of Sefton but we lost 3 seats in the Sefton Central part of the Borough. All the losses were to Labour and I have been struck by how voters went out to support a Party who are openly going to trash our Green Belt and potentially charge for the emptying of Green Bins in the Borough. And of course Labour has also closed many of the Borough's Libraries. ...
Graphic showing awesome scale of UKIP landslide victory, sweeping all before it http://t.co/6rfCofHbBU— Stuart Bonar (@StuartBonar) May 23, 2014 They are indeed on the rise but from a pretty low baseFiled under: Uncategorized
[IMG: Election count progressing] See overnight results here. So far:l Key Stats Vote share so far: Labour 33% Conservative 27% Liberal Democrat 16% UKIP 15% Green 7% Others 2% State of Play Labour: UP 6 Councils and 174 councillors Conservative: DOWN 10 councils and 149 councillors Liberal Democrats: DOWN 2 Councils (Portsmouth to NOC and Kingston to Conservatives) and 169 councillors Key headlines for the Liberal Democrats Mixed results: Another good result in a held seat – keeping control of the Council in South Lakeland, Tim Farron's patch, with the only change being the Tories gaining an Independent seat. We've ...
As Chairman of the Yorkshire Ridings Society you would think I would be delighted that a group of residents have successfully pressed Yarm Town Council to hold a referendum about whether or not Yarm should be in Yorkshire but I am not. Yarm is already in Yorkshire legally and geographically. There is no question about it, no referendum is required. What is going on here is not about allegiance to England's largest County it is about some people not liking decisions taken by Labour controlled Stockton Borough Council and the wish to be administered by a Conservative controlled Council. What ...
[IMG: Cllr Darren Fower] Hi! I just wanted to type some words of thanks to all those people who kindly gave their support to me and the Liberal Democrat FOCUS Team on Thursday 22nd May 2014. Ever since I was first elected in 2004, election victories have been as a result of the efforts and energy of the FOCUS Team volunteers and local residents. Thanks to the team's efforts tens of thousands of FOCUS newsletters are hand delivered throughout the area, come wind or rain, we also undertake resident surveys on the door step and on-line, chase up and highlight ...
Jo Barton has been successfully elected as the new Liberal Democrat councillor for Meols Ward, Southport - the area covering Churchtown, Crossens and Marshside. The full result, which was declared at the Southport election count at Dunes Leisure Centre on Friday morning is: Jo Barton, Liberal Democrat 1,177 UKIP 976 Conservative 630 Labour 332 Southport Party 277 Green Party 117 The results for every ward in Sefton are available on the Council's website. Cllr Jo Barton pictured at the election count with fellow ward councillors John Dodd and Nigel Ashton
Thank you to all those residents who have generously placed their trust in us and re-elected Colin Hall and myself, and newly elected Muhammad Sadiq, to represent them on Sutton council. We look forward to continuing to work with our residents to ensure that Sutton, and especially Wallington South, remains a lovely place to live. [...]
Here's ConservativeHome's Mark Wallace, LabourList's Mark Ferguson and me on BBC News this morning, discussing the local election results:
A little smorgasbord of Liberal Democrat commentary from f Nick Clegg, Malcolm Bruce and our co-editor Stephen Tall who have all been on the BBC this morning: [View the story "#Vote 2014 - Liberal Democrats comment" on Storify]
Today's Western Mail reports that despite their opposition to wind farms two Tory MPs have received donations amounting to £5,000 each from a Russian wind farm developer, whilst there is an application for a huge 100m wind turbine on the land of the leader of the Welsh Conservative Group in the Assembly, Andrew R. T. Davies. All remain opposed to wind farms. C'est la vie.
Well, let's not kid ourselves, it was another pretty gruesome night for the Liberal Democrats. Yet although losses in Kingston, Cambridge, Portsmouth, and Haringey are all painful (with, doubtless more to come, as I write), the fact is that the Lib Dems actually do have a few gleams of comfort amongst the ash. Although these gleams come not so much in the results, but in the implications of the results. The surge in UKIP support this time is creating problems across the board for both Labour and the Conservatives. In fact Labour must be deeply concerned that they are not ...
[IMG: arrest in chicago] I must admit, I have become sceptical about the word 'empowerment'. For two reasons. One is that it is a Blairite word, and based on a misunderstanding about where sovereignty lies. Power isn't distributed by an all-powerful prime minister. People already have it - they give it to the governments - but sometimes they have to be encouraged, persuaded or cajoled to use it. The other reason I have become sceptical is my experience of the word. I have sat in too many conferences where disabled people are encouraged to say how grateful they are for ...
The district council results are available here: European results will be available on Sunday. So congratulations to Gerard McHale the new Lib Dem councillor for Clarence. And commiserations to Michael Green in St Peter's who narrowly lost his seat after 8 hard-working years – thanks largely to the number of people who switched to the Greens as a means of keeping out the Conservatives. Put simply, the rise in the Green vote delivered another Conservative councillor.
Over the past few months I've been getting increasingly involved with party politics. Although I've been a member of the Liberal Democrats for several years it is only recently that I've become more directly hands on. Back in March I attended conference for the first time, I also launched this blog. Since then I've also [...]
21 People On Twitter Who Are Voting To Annoy Russell Brand (tags: ) Where's the worst place to be a worker? Most of the world (tags: ) [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
Here's some of the articles that have caught my attention in the past couple of days... Local election results – live | Politics | theguardian.com Sky News projects a hung p'ment, with Lab largest single party & LibDems on 40 seats http://bit.ly/1jJy5Aq Suspect most LDs wld take that. Local Elections: Overnight results roundup (Updated) Excellent #vote2014 analysis by @caronmlindsay rounding up the overnight local election results for Lib Dems http://bit.ly/1lHHtA9 FactCheck: Is it fair to compare Putin to Hitler? | The FactCheck Blog | The FactCheck Blog Q: "Is it fair to compare Putin to Hitler?" via FactCheck http://bit.ly/1n6yPzn A: ...
Cheadle Area Committee meets Tuesday week at a new venue. We try to move the committee around the three wards (Cheadle Hulme North, Cheadle & Gatley and Heald Green). Having been in Cheadle & Gatley and Heald Green in recent years, it's now moving to the Ladybridge Park Residents Club, Edenbridge Road, Cheadle Hulme, SK8 5PX. On the agenda for the next meeting, starting at 6pm on Tuesday 3rd June 2014: Planning application 53841 is to demolish a commericial building to the rear of Brooklyn Road, Cheadle (the building has no street frontage and sits between Brooklyn Road, Charlotte Street, ...
From the Curator of Museum Services at the University of Dundee : A Glimpse of a Great Vision: The D'Arcy Thompson Art Fund CollectionOn now - running until 26th July 2014Tower Foyer & Lamb Galleries, Tower Building, University of DundeeMonday to Friday 09.30-20.30 and Saturday 09.30-16.30 This major exhibition features the results of a two-year project by the University of Dundee funded by the Art Fund's RENEW scheme to build a collection of significant artwork inspired by D'Arcy Thompson, our pioneer of life sciences. D'Arcy's book On Growth and Form had a huge influence on some of the most important ...
[IMG: Election count] There's a long way to go, but so far it's been a mixed night for the Liberal Democrats. Here are the headlines: UKIP wipeout in Eastleigh We were told that UKIP were going to make gains in Eastleigh and it was one of the results that worried me the most. In fact, we held our own and UKIP's tactic of putting up a Mr House against leader Keith House didn't pay off at all. Lib Dems lose control of Portsmouth With a loss of 6 seats, the Liberal Democrats remain the largest party on Portsmouth Council but ...
[IMG: speech vince cable 02] Vince Cable said last night on Sky News: The party leader took the gamble of fighting a European election on the issue of Europe, which is a very unusual thing to do in the UK. We'll see. photo by: Liberal Democrats [IMG: Post to Twitter] Tweet This Post
During a debate this week in the National Assembly on Welsh Labour's failures during 15 years of government, the Welsh Liberal Democrats criticised the Welsh Government for letting down people across Wales in key areas of health, education and the economy. The establishment of the National Assembly heralded a new opportunity to forge a distinctive path in Wales over the past 15 years, but sadly in key areas of education, health and the economy, the Welsh Labour Government continues to let the people of Wales down. The UK economy is growing at the strongest rate since 2007, yet Wales continues ...
