It has just been confirmed on BBC Newsnight that Defence Secretary Phillip Hammond will replace William Hague as Foreign Secretary. No doubt Gove will be dissapointed not to get the job, and this also leads to the possibility of the first female Defence Secretary.
Just under a week ago Martin Bean, the current OU vice-chancellor, announced that he was going to step down from his £407,000 post at the end of this year to return to Australia. Today David Willetts, the universities minister, has decided to step down from the cabinet with immediate effect and will leave the commons at the next election. Perhaps the vice-chancellorship of the OU would be a good retirement job for him? It would certainly offer him a significant pay-rise. But if it were to happen, I do wonder how it might be perceived by staff, alumni and students. ...
English Buildings explains: The lock-up was once a common sight in English towns and villages. The local constable found it useful to have a place where wrongdoers could be detained until the authorities could deal with them and hotheads and drunkards could be locked up until they cooled down. In other words, lock-ups were used in a similar way to the cells at the police station in a time before there was an organized police force. This distinctive 18th-century lock up can be found in the village of Breedon on the Hill across the road from the pub and beneath ...
Do not Go Gentle into that Good Night These words from the poem by Dylan Thomas are followed by "rage, rage against the dying of the light". I have used them several times, in several places, in recent months to describe what I perceive as the party's slide into a vale of darkness. A hardy crew have tried to save it from this fate, but inevitably the sheer weight of apathy and fatalism of the rank and file combined with a stubborn determination by the parliamentary group's leader to hang on like grim death have produced a generalised acceptance of ...
Kenneth Clarke stood down today after a remarkable 42 years in front-bench politics. If the Conservative Party had known its own best interests, he would have become its leader after the landslide defeat of 1997. Clarke would have busked it and kept the Tories' spirits up while they worked out how the hell they were going to fight back against Tony Blair and New Labour. Instead, the party's members chose leaders whom they saw as true Thatcherites - William Hague and then Iain Duncan Smith. Eventually the MPs felt obliged to take control by nominating Michael Howard as the sole ...
[IMG: 20140201-202125.jpg Sarah Yong] It's six months since Sarah Yong was selected as the Lib Dem candidate for Somerton and Frome, held by David Heath since 1997. Today she's announced her decision to stand down. Here's the letter she's sent to her local paper, announcing the news: Dear Editor, I just wanted to let you know that it is with great regret that I've decided to stand down from my role as Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Somerton and Frome. I have made this decision for personal reasons and as a result of changes in personal circumstances. It's a decision I've ...
Over at the 1729 blog A dastardly tale of murder to liven up your Monday
I just wanted to put on record, how incredibly sad I am to see that Sarah Yong has stepped back from her role as LibDem PPC in Somerton and Frome. I've known Sarah for a few years now, and know that this decision won't have been made lightly. I also think that it's important that it's put on record the incredible work that Sarah did during her time as our candidate. As a County Councillor, she took time to speak to me directly about issues affecting people in my division and actively sought solutions for problems that arose. When bus ...
My Flickr site is carrying some shots of Ruby Princess which today sailed down the Mersey, past Bootle, to dock in Liverpool. Her's a shot of her:- [IMG: rsz_ruby_princess_5] For more photos of Ruby Princess look at my Flickr shots at:- www.flickr.com/photos/86659476@N07/
Today the official church of English state, the Church of England, caught up with the 21st century – it agreed to allow women bishops. Well done to Justin Welby for patiently workin to make this happen. Long long overdue. We've now caught up with Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and the US anglican communion. Why is this so important – the Church of England is the state church. It shouldnt be but it is. To have a state church until today discriminating against women was at best embarassing..
Mon 14th
17:15
Norman Baker MP writes...Why the Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Bill is compatible with hum...
[IMG: Data Center] As a party we care deeply about human rights. Left to their own devices, the Conservatives would have pulled us out of the European Convention. Thanks to the Liberal Democrats, we have stopped that from happening. So I am concerned by some suggestions that the emergency legislation we published on Thursday isn't compliant with the ECHR. This is simply not true. As many of you will know, in April this year the European Court of Justice overturned the EU Data Retention Directive. They did so on the basis that this particular directive was incompatible with the EU ...
Mon 14th
16:30Laws: "99% of schools now have a plan in place to deliver universal free school meals in September"
[IMG: school meals] I'll be honest. If I had the choice over where to direct £500 million a year of taxpayers' money, universal free school meals for infants would not be top of my priority list. That said, the sheer desperation of right-wing newspapers like the Daily Mail for the policy to fail just to spite Nick Clegg strikes me as pretty mean-spirited. It's a policy which is highly popular with headteachers, and will be with parents too. Perhaps more surprisingly, it's possibly the only Lib Dem policy ever to attract the support of Paul Staines (aka blogger Guido Fawkes): ...
I visited Ethiopia last week in my capacity as International Development Minister. This is my blog from the field. An early morning flight takes me away from the relative hustle and bustle of Addis Ababa, and out to a remote village in Amhara in the north of the Ethiopia where I meet a young girl, around 16 years of age in a village called Tagel Wodefit. I'm here because I want to learn about her life. In particular, I want to find out how being married at a young age has affected her opportunities and choices. Her story is a ...
Mon 14th
15:30Opinion: Post 16 transport: It's time to change the law to enable everyone to get on in life
[IMG: Ear buds 'n' ears] For many 16 year olds across the country the post-exam, pre-result time in the summer should be a time of freedom, working a summer job to save some money or hanging out with friends and family, sure in the knowledge that come September they will be on track to take the next steps in life. Northumberland's young people are facing uncertainty this summer. The previous Liberal Democrat administration at County Hall had guaranteed the right of free post-16 transport to the most suitable accessible course. This has been taken away this summer by the new ...
Calderdale Liberal Democrats' Policy Working Group met on Saturday night and we've written a motion for conference expressing our dismay at DRIP and what we feel the party's policy response should be. We do realise that DRIP will be pushed through before conference, but the motions deadline is Wednesday (when DRIP will be in the Lords) and we think this is the best way of getting the parliamentary party who are selling our principles down the river (for not even 30 pieces of silver or anything) to take notice. I'm not going to publish the text of the motion here ...
[IMG: antony Gormley statue by kungfugen] When young adults, who may even at the time have been members of prestigious universities and their more infamous clubs, became intoxicated and indulged in aggressive or loud and disturbing speech, violent actions or were simply careless and destructive, did we automatically assume that when they matured they would behave that way for the rest of their lives? We did not. Indeed some may still be thought fit to take part in the running of our country. When young adults or older youths indulge in isolated incidents of unwise pyromania, do we say that ...
Despite its death often being breathlessly predicted, the good old press release is still hanging on and filling up email inboxes every day. It is certainly not dead, and it may be around for a long time yet, but it is slowly slipping away as the search volumes on Google for 'press release' demonstrate:
I have received the news that the application to turn Eagle House Hotel into a single private residence will be turned down today by Cornwall Council's planning case officer. The current owner of the hotel had applied to return the property to a single residence, partly on the basis that they said that it is not economically viable as a hotel. Campaigners against the move were concerned that it would mean the loss of both hotel bedrooms and the function room. The latter is a very popular venue for all sorts of occasions including weddings, anniversaries, club functions and exhibitions. ...
A move to give Cambridge City Council accreditation as a living wage employer, driven by the city's Liberal Democrats, looks set to win the backing of councillors today (Monday, July 14). The accreditation, from the Living Wage Foundation, will recognise the city council along with 700 other organisations across the country which pay their staff the living wage. Newnham Councillor, Rod Cantrill, who led the push for the living wage of £7.65 an hour for council employees and those working for the council through outside contractors, welcomed the move. He said: "This is a great achievement. It recognises Cambridge City ...
Cambridgeshire Liberal Democrats claim it is not enough for the county to pat itself on the back for the success of the Tour de France but instead it should be creating a lasting legacy. They have criticised a Labour motion to the next full Cambridgeshire County Council meeting which just congratulates organisations for their help and support without building on the event. Councillor Ian Manning, Lib Dem Spokesperson for Corporate Resources said: "It is absolutely right that we should be proud of the way our county celebrated the Tour de France, but we should go further. "There is a real ...
[IMG: Samsung Galaxy Note 3] Unusually for me, I'm starting writing this piece without knowing what conclusion I'll come to by the end of it. Normally it's straight forward enough to marshal evidence, decide on view and then write it up (unless the curse of writers' block strikes of course). But the Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Bill (DRIP) takes the usual perils of journalism turning most stories into a simple good versus bad dynamic, throws in the paucity of expert mainstream coverage of many technical issues and adds a dash of juggling different uncertainties. Certainly if you approach the ...
As can see from recent entries to this blog,I've not been following local issue, currently I have some time to waste, so it's the simple pleasures for me, glancing thro twitter local blogs. A couple of trivial tweets caught my eye, one was a re tweet from Cllr Will Scobie who is the remarkable Labour Prospective Candidate for Parliament, (remarkable in is as much, as he doesn't seem to of ever held any significant or proper job in the economy) . Anyway the text of his re-tweet was this "Between 2001 and 2011 the proportion of 20-24 year olds went ...
In the wake of the sacking of Alun Davies, Welsh LibDem leader Kirsty Williams writes: This week has been one of the most extraordinary since the Welsh Assembly first opened its doors fifteen years ago. The revelations surrounding Alun Davies as Minister for Natural Resources had begun to die down on Tuesday, following his breaking of the Ministerial Code announced last week. That was until a statement landed in my inbox from the First Minister telling me he'd been sacked. Reading on, it became clear what had caused his dismissal. After finding out he'd broken the Ministerial Code, Alun Davies ...
Watch the new fun (yet educational) video from CGP Grey: You can also watch this on YouTube.
[IMG: Photo by Riots Panel - Riots Communities and Victims Panel reception] Our Stephen Tall has written a column for Total Politics in which he suggests that the Liberal Democrat manifesto next year will have much more in common with Labour than the Conservatives. First he sets the scene in the wake of the European and local election results and the Oakeshott coup: Clegg knows he needs to do more than just survive. Limping towards 2015, acknowledged to be a survival election for the Lib Dems, won't be good enough. He must inspire the troops that a great liberal victory ...
The A12 road underpass at Capel St. Mary was flooded for much of the weekend. The Highways Agency have been informed. Given that this is happening on a very regular basis we are calling for urgent action as the pump seems to be failing all too frequently. [IMG: Sunday 13th July at 8pm water is at least two feet deep on the right of the picture.] Sunday 13th July at 8pm water is at least two feet deep on the right of the picture.
[IMG: Blatter] Gary Lineker, not given his full due as a philosopher, once said, "Football is a simple game; 22 men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end the Germans always win." It's as true now as it was in Gary's prime. After an inexplicable twenty-four year gap, Deutschland finally lifted Jules Rimet once again after last night's 1-0 win over Argentina. And they deserved it, not just on the night but across the whole of the tournament. They were unquestionably the best side. I went into the match not really minding who won or lost, but ...
[IMG: Data storm byt Dave Herholz] As a Liberal former police officer I am acutely aware of the difficult balancing act the government has to perform between keeping us safe and keeping our personal data safe. At the same time I see both the anxiety that those concerned with civil liberties have over the new legislation and the Government's need to act to prevent a valuable crime detection tool slipping from our grasp. So why the need and why the rush? In cases of serious and organised crime and those plotting terrorist attacks, the police and the security services can ...
I share a house with two small boys so I have been watching and listening to more football these last few weeks than I have done since I was 12, and Chelsea was playing and replaying Leeds or the FA Cup (1970, if you must know). It has made me wonder a little why the most lucrative, expensive and money-laden nation on earth - when it comes to football - should produce such a less than successful team. There has been rather too much involvement by very old-fashioned economists in the football debate. Goldman Sachs calculated that Brazil would win, ...
Unpaid in the UK: No lunch, no overtime as excessive work culture grips Britain And, of course, we all (well, all apart from Jeremy Browne, who thinks we in the UK work too few hours and are not industrious enough - yes I've been trading Race Plan again, sorry) know what THAT does to productivity, don't we? (tags: ) DRIP: a shabby process for a shady law (tags: ) Emails shed new light on UK link to CIA 'torture flights' (tags: ) Liberal England: More speculation on a Liberal Democrat reshuffle I agree with Jonathan. Especially about Vince. (tags: ) ...
Mon 14th
09:55Vince Cable shows why Liberal Democrats need him to be our Economic Spokesperson for the General Ele...
[IMG: Vince Cable, Business Secretary at the launch of the joint government and UK automotive industry's automotive strategy] Vince Cable was interviewed by Andrew Marr yesterday. His confident and credible manner and his clear explanation of Liberal Democrat priorities make it very clear to me that he should be our Chief Economics Spokesperson during the election campaign. He can take the fight to both Conservatives and Labour in a way that nobody else can. Stephen Tall has been saying this for a long while. I have to confess that while my heart was for Vince, my head said that if ...
Lib Dem Councillors on Sutton Council have launched plans to build up to 140 new council houses using its Housing Revenue Account borrowing headroom and right-to-buy-receipts. At the same time the council is setting up a wholly owned company with the purpose of using the freedoms that brings to consider developing all kinds of residential properties including council [...]
The relationship between politicians and civil servants is back in the spotlight. Janan Ganesh in the FT, for example, has argued that civil servants need to be brought to heel more effectively by their political masters. Cries of 'politicisation', whenever the prized independence of the civil service is threatened, should be recognized for what they are - an attempt by civil servants to maintain their capacity to undermine democracy by frustrating the will of elected governments. Giles Wilkes, in contrast, argues that the machinations of a Mandarinate intent on frustrating the will of the people are much less of an ...
North East Fife MP Sir Menzies Campbell, who has visited Commonwealth war graves throughout North East Fife, has called on local schools and constituents to visit their local Commonwealth war graves to gain a greater understanding of the scale and magnitude of the Great War and the impact that it has had on today's society. The call follows a national initiative spearheaded by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC), the All-Party Parliamentary War Heritage Group and the 'In From The Cold Project' that maps over 300,000 Commonwealth war dead by each Parliamentary constituency. [IMG: Sir Menzies and Iain Anderson, Regional ...
[IMG: Photo by https://www.flickr.com/photos/artimagesmarkcummins/ Bournemouth Summers Eve'] At last our party will have a proper seaside conference again in 2015. Bournemouth is the ideal spot for it. The town has a remarkable story; from almost nil population in the present town centre area in 1810 it has grown to 180,000 today. It first developed as a place where the wealthy came to spend the winter. Some would say that the rot set in with the arrival of the railway in 1870. The original Southampton to Dorchester line ran on a more inland route so it was harder for the masses ...
Mon 14th
08:40
Committee says no action needed on 'tit for tat' 'schoolboys in a playground' 'waste of time and tax...
Headline of the Day goes to the Wisbech Standard. The complaint in question was made against a Conservative councillor who filmed a UKIP county councillor during a meeting of Wisbech Town Council.
Botanic Garden Dementia Event Well-known artists and members from local art clubs have come together to give their time and talent donating 10% of sales towards dementia charities. Exhibition includes paintings and prints by : Paul CravenLiz DulleyFiona HaldaneAngus McDonaldJoe McIntyreJohn StoaRuth Walker The exhibition is open daily from 11am until 4pm, concluding on Friday 18th July. Friends of University of Dundee Botanic Garden Event The Friends are having a visit to the garden at Kellie Castle, near Pittenweem, this Wednesday 16th July. Contact 350990 for more information.
[IMG: rsz_img_0001] This is an excellent book by Andrew Roden which is well worth the read if you are interested in railways. These magnificent steam engines were, without doubt, the ultimate locomotives running in the UK. And only a few weeks ago I had the opportunity to see one of only 3 preserved Duchesses at the National Railway Museum in York. The other two locos are City of Birmingham which is exhibited at Birmingham's Thinktank and Duchess of Sutherland which is at the Midland Railway Centre. Only Sutherland is presently operational. www.thinktank.ac/ www.midlandrailway-butterley.co.uk/home/ Here are a few shots that I ...
[IMG: War Memorial - Port Sunlight Village] I am grateful to my old chum Roy Connell of Ainsdale for sending me this shot of the rather grand war memorial in Port Sunlight Village over on the Wirral part of Merseyside. It fits nicely with my war memorial theme for 2014. Other shots welcome.
It is fair to say that neither of the two UK coalition parties have a particularly good record in promoting woment to senior positions. In the case of the Liberal Democrats the main problem has been getting women elected. We will make a huge effort to put that right in 2015. For David Cameron, the reshuffle promised for this week could be a major step forward. Political pundits predict that he is poised to promote a number of women into the cabinet and other ministerial positions. For some however, that is not enough. The Independent reports that for Shadow Home ...
Today's Western Mail reports that compensation worth at least £3.7m was paid out by authorities across Wales over the past three years. They say that Councils and fire and police authorities who replied to Freedom of Information requests made revealed the mass of cash that was given to staff and members of the public after claims were made: Cardiff council alone spent around £1.6m on payouts in the same period, and said it was "actively taking measures" to address the level of compensation paid on its behalf. Some of the more detailed responses given by authorities gave examples of seemingly ...
Labour councillor Sonia Winifred has had to resign, forcing a by-election in Knight's Hill ward after it was discovered she stood for election despite being disqualified from being a councillor due to being employed by the council. All candidates have to sign a declaration that they are qualified to stand, but despite the warnings contained in it, it was only after her election that she says she realised that being employed as a teaching assistant in a local school meant she was disqualified. Even when a candidate isn't aware of the rules, this sort of disqualification is something their party ...
The BBC reports: Hackers have briefly disrupted online voter registration for elections in Tunisia later this year, the election commission [Isie] has said. Registration on the internet and by SMS was temporarily suspended following a "pirate attack", it added... Isie had for the first time allowed registration to take place online and by SMS in order to boost registration. However, only a little more than 100,000 people had been added to the electoral list since the month-long registration process opened on 22 June, AFP news agency reports. Journalist Naveena Kottoor told the BBC that the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, ...
JESTER FESTIVAL 2014Of the many events this summer, the Jester is always one of our favourites. This year the weather looked unpromising but actually was kind to us. One comment was made as to why we didn't hold it in May because there was less competition then, and it's a simple answer - because the weather in May is even more unreliable than it is in July - even if we do compete with the final weekend of Wimbledon! Undaunted by the recent election results, the Lib Dems held their usual successful cake stall (thanks to all contributors)and managed to ...
Just a few links today (spent my normal writing time writing a short story, which you'll see here eventually if it's not accepted by any pro markets): Power Pop Criminals has the out-of print demo EP that XTC put out with the first 2500 copies of the French edition of Nonsuch. Political Betting says the [...]
