I am a member of Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums (TWAM) Joint Committee (something of a mouthful but as an historian it's one of my favourite committees). Within TWAM is the Discovery Museum which over the weekend celebrated its 80th birthday. There was a birthday cake cutting ceremony at midday though I was not there long enough to enjoy a slice. I had to head off as I had people to see

Posted by Jonathan Wallace on Jonathan Wallace

From the Swindon Advertiser today: Swindon South MP Robert Buckland is facing calls to stand down from his new role as Solicitor General after it emerged he was found guilty of professional misconduct but failed to disclose it to the Prime Minister. It relates to a race hate crime in 2007 where a Wroughton schoolboy was left with severe brain injuries following a vicious attack by a group of 13 Asians. Both the victim, Henry Webster, and four of the attackers were pupils at Ridgeway School at the time, where Mr Buckland, a former barrister and part-time judge, was a ...

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

Nice one Lib Dems, you get some credit on green issues (via @jossgarman) http://t.co/CZI6xicB2O pic.twitter.com/05ESNISviz — Sunny Hundal (@sunny_hundal) July 21, 2014

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

London and Southwark have seen a dramatic increase in the number and proportion of our poor children going onto university. At 63% of young people from the poorest families going onto university this is a higher proportion than children from wealthier families in all other parts of the country. Well done to all those schools, teachers, staff, governors, parents and of course the hard working children. And despite pessimists the tuition fee changes have not deterred this incredible change.

Posted by James Barber on James Barber

I have just spent a glorious week with my guest Søs Haugaard of Radikale Venstre, visiting a lot of old and new friends across Britain, culminating in the very splendid and successful Social Liberal Conference on Saturday and the Monty Python Reunion on Sunday night. Tears of joy all round.

Posted by disgruntledradical on Disgruntled Radical

Last week I spoke to Julian Huppert MP about my concerns with the DRIP Act that was then passing through parliament. He informed me that one safeguard the Liberal Democrats had won was a restriction to the number of organisations that could access communications data retained under the new act through use of RIPA powers. If you are not familiar with what RIPA is then here is a good report on it by Big Brother Watch. Julian informed me the bodies that could access RIPA powers would be restricted via a Statutory Instrument. The same claim was made by Julian ...

Posted by jamesbaker on Cllr James Baker
Mon 21st
22:00

Six of the Best 452

"Moscow gave these weapons to the frankly low grade forces they have created in the Donbas without thought for the consequences. That those consequences have proven to be so dreadful simply underlines the brutal and arrogant stupidity that has become the hallmark of Putin's policy." Cicero's Songs says Putin must pay the price for his brutal incompetence. What You Can Get Away With argues that one member, one vote is not a magic wand that will solve the Liberal Democrats' problems. Bits of Books, Mostly Biographies looks at the fall of the Conservative MP Sir Ian Horobin, a case with ...

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

So this rather long post is all in response to some questions about parking charges Andrew Marsden has raised on his local blog. Andrew's comments are put in quotes. The Conservative opposition assisted by the Liberal Democrats announced in February their success during a full council meeting. They obtained a democratic decision at the full council meeting to reverse increases to Car Parking charges thus amending the CMBC annual budget due to be implemented with effect from 1st April 2014. Assuming as with a vote at Westminster a vote in the full CMBC Council is binding and can only be ...

Posted by jamesbaker on Cllr James Baker

I'm currently sat in my living room. And it's quite quiet. I'm listening to some music and generally having a pretty chill time. I've finished third year, I did pretty well, so all is looking up. But now things – as my final year of university starts – are becoming more real, adult and scary. Now when people meet me and find out I'm a student, they're more often than not asking me "So have you decided what you are doing after you graduate yet?" That question is terrifying. It feels that I need to fill in this massive blank ...

Posted by Harry on Yellow Tinted Spectacles

An interesting missive has reached Liberator from Party Headquarters, sent to party organisations taking part in Federal Conference (it is not believed to have been sent to us, but we should embrace it in the way our readers would appreciate):- "I'm emailing regarding our corporate identity. Many of you will have noticed that our logo and branding has changed recently. This is in large part due to a substantial amount of work carried out by our in-house designer, which has culminated in the attached branding guide. [Sadly this document has not yet reached us] Autumn Conference represents an excellent opportunity ...

Posted by Gareth Epps on Liberator's blog
YouGov

Mark Hunter MP and the local Lib Dem team have long been concerned about speeding on Frances Street - an issue raised whenever we call to see residents. We recently asked residents along the road about erecting a "Reduce Speed Now" sign on a pole where the road narrows. We've had 7 replies, all in favour of the proposal. We'll now ask Council officers to progress the scheme. In nearby Bulkeley Road residents complained of problems seeing clearly to pull safely out the road, so we've had the stop line moved forward out into Stockport Road (with the lines guiding ...

Posted by Iain Roberts on Keith Holloway, Iain Roberts & Pam King

The Lib Dem team will soon be delivering a letter about speeding to every house along Styal Road. We've printed a map on the back of the letter (which you can see below) showing Styal Road with the location of all accidents reported to the police over the last five years, plus signs and other safety additions. The issue of speeding on Styal Road has been regularly raised with us. A couple of months ago we wrote to let residents know we were looking at options. We've now investigated further and need your help to identify where the most dangerous ...

Posted by Iain Roberts on Keith Holloway, Iain Roberts & Pam King

Ludford parish council was due to hear two presentations at its meeting tonight. Simon Hoare was due to present details of the supermarket proposal for Rocks Green. He cancelled and will not be presenting his plans to the parish council until September. The other presentation did take place. John Acres from Turley Associates and Mike [...]

Posted by andybodders on Andy Boddington

South Glos Council is consulting about proposed diversions to public footpaths near Peg Hill in connection with the coming housing development. You can find details and make comments on the South Glos website here - the consultation closes on 15 August.

Posted by Paul Hulbert on Focus on Sodbury, Yate and Dodington

Us Girls Yate is a FREE session for girls only, aged 14+ years. Come along, join in and have a laugh with your friends while getting fit. The sessions will be a mix of AerobicsZumba Street danceand more!You can join in at Chipping Sodbury School Sports Centre on Wednesdays from 3-4 pm during the summer holidays. For more details email sport@southglos.gov.uk or or phone 01454 865821. Us Girls is active in lots of places throughout the country - check them out online: Facebook facebook.com/UsGirlsGetActive?fref=ts Twitter @UsGirlsTweet https://twitter.com/UsGirlsTweet

Posted by Paul Hulbert on Focus on Sodbury, Yate and Dodington

We reported a few weeks ago that the Council was consulting on what would be the largest 20mph zone to date, covering many of the residential roads around the centre of Gatley. The Council delivered 1300 consultation letters/drawings for the above and received 217 replies, (16.7%). Of these replies 181 (84%) were for the proposal and 35 (16%) were against. The funding for this is coming from the Cycle City Ambition Grant (it helps cyclists, but also helps keep our roads safer for everyone else). We'll say what we always say about 20mph limits: just like any other speed limit, ...

Posted by Iain Roberts on Keith Holloway, Iain Roberts & Pam King

Would you like to see trams running in our borough? Well, now's your chance to have your say. Starting this week the Council wants to know your views about bringing the tram to our borough, linking Sutton Town Centre directly to Wimbledon via Morden. The aim of the consultation is to gather evidence about the level of borough-wide support from businesses, residents and stakeholders for a tram to Sutton. You can find the questionnaire here. Please respond by 17 August. The results of the consultation will be shared with the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, and will strengthen the case ...

Posted by Colin Hall on Colin Hall's Blogspot

Another one from the 'hey, the world isn't quite like the repetitive political clichés claim' folder: [IMG: Vince Cable] The Manifest-MM&K Annual Survey of Executive Pay shows that the Shareholder Spring has clearly had an effect on remuneration committee thinking. This has been galvanized by regulatory intervention to reinforce investors actions... The latest survey hows that top pay awards [for FTSE100 CEOs] have reduced for two consecutive years: by -7% in 2013 and -5% in 2012. The findings are from research and analysis of the latest annual reports of FTSE100 companies... Regulatory intervention has had a galvanising effect. Vince Cable's ...

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

Going back to the early planning stages of this Link Road, which is presently being built, I made a plea for the historic Brickwall Lane wall to be sensitively taken down and properly rebuilt. A small matter you may say but that wall is a part of the heritage of historic Sefton Village and its a wall I have had to badger Sefton Council to maintain in the past. But my pleas, which I worried had not been heard, have been acted upon and the wall is being rebuilt at an angle where the new road will have a junction ...

Posted by Cllr. Tony Robertson on Sefton Focus

[IMG: Budding Artists Create Holiday Masterpieces] In my constituency of Eastbourne, one in four households with children is headed by a single parent. This mirrors the diversity of modern families across Britain, where families come in all shapes and sizes, and reinforces my commitment to support and promote policies which enable each and every one of these families to balance work with bringing up their kids. I am proud of the coalition government's record on job creation and bringing down unemployment - reflected in the latest statistics out last week which showed that unemployment had fallen to its lowest level ...

Posted by Stephen Lloyd MP on Liberal Democrat Voice
eUKhost

The most cogent criticism of the OMOV proposals comes from people who don't accuse the team and I of being "leadership stooges" or that we are aiming to attack any wing of the party. One such person is Nick Barlow who has written this piece - I also asked him for further comment on twitter. Nick's main point is that by believing OMOV to be some kind of panacea, we miss the opportunity to reform party structures so as to encourage more participation in conference votes and elections to the Federal Policy Committee (FPC), Federal Conference Committee (FCC) and Federal ...

Posted by Louise Ankers on From one of the Jilted Generation...

[IMG: earth] (This is the fifth in a series of posts looking in depth at issues from Conrad Russell's An Intelligent Person's Guide To Liberalism. Previous posts in the series are here: 1, 2, 3, 4 and my original post on the book is here.) When it comes to internationalism, Russell's historical account of the development of liberal thought shows how the application of consistent principles to international affairs over the years have resulted in very different outcomes of liberal policy as the international situation has shifted. It's interesting – and not at all coincidental – to note that liberalism ...

Posted by Nick on What You Can Get Away With

[IMG: nhs sign lrg] The NHS is becoming too big to fail. Like a more benign version of the banks, it has become such a vital part of our national life, with such a slick lobbying machine and such a powerful public profile that it has become hard to challenge. So when the system starts to creak, everyone from MPs to doctors immediately shouts for more money. The problem is that more money may not solve the problem, but simply allow the NHS to subsist in a state of perma-crisis. The only way out is a transformed NHS working much ...

Posted by Simon Parker on Liberal Democrat Voice

[IMG: "Frozen Poetry" - Houses of Parliament, London] This afternoon, an amendment to the Criminal Justice and Courts Bill in the name of four Liberal Democrat peers, Jonathan Marks, Olly Grender, Liz Barker and Sal Brinton, will be debated in the House of Lords. Its effects would be to make it an offence to publish a sexually explicit image of a person without their consent, punishable by 6 months to a year in prison. It's just over two months since I first wrote about this modern form of abuse. I said: It's time for the law to catch up with ...

Posted by Caron Lindsay on Liberal Democrat Voice

[IMG: Container Ship trade] At last year's autumn conference, the Lib Dems pledged to support a new trade agreement between the European Union and the United States — known as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. The motion, 'Strengthening the UK Economy' (pdf), called on the coalition to: Increase trading opportunities by working in the EU to ensure that the success of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, doing everything possible to revive the World Trade Organisation led Doha Development Round and further integrating the EU services market. Since then there has been significant progress in the negotiations to make ...

Posted by Nick Thornsby on Liberal Democrat Voice
Mon 21st
12:57

Tell Us Your Candidates!

The process of selecting your candidates for next May's local government elections should now be under way. For ALDC members looking for more information on selection and approval procedures, we have created a number of FAQs with useful information and there is a dedicated 'Party and Membership' section of the ALDC File Library with all [...]

Posted by Craig Whittall on Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors

[IMG: Pensions blog] New rules which would provide greater choice and more innovative pensions products, are expected to be announced this week. The Coalition Government wants to encourage pension providers to develop new retirement income products that are tailored to the needs of the individual consumer and which offer more choice, freedom and flexibility. The government is expected to publish its response to the consultation 'Freedom and Choice in Pensions' this week. As part of its response the Coalition is expected to announce changes to the tax rules that govern the pension products firms can sell. It is expected that ...

Posted by nickhollinghurst on Nick Hollinghurst

[IMG: I don't mean the title literally, so relax. It's just that it is interesting to see how a situation like the one in Gaza manifests itself in a cosmopolitan city like London. On Saturday, there was a pro-Palestine rally held in the West End. The way the event has been covered in the UK media is striking, with there being a distinct left/right axis to the way its various write-ups read. The Spectator talked about it as an openly anti-Semitic affair, while the Indy focused on the "pro-Israel" bias of the BBC coverage of the conflict. The right ...

Posted by Nick on nicktyrone.com

via Facebook

Posted by Raging Reg on Raging Reg

[IMG: Clegg axe bedroom tax] The Removal of the Spare Room Subsidy (the 'bedroom tax') has not met its intended outcomes. This has led to an apparent U-turn by the Liberal Democrat leadership, based on evidence published in the interim policy evaluation. This report highlighted the economic hardship experienced by those affected and that the accelerated demand for downsizing has been difficult to meet. It is to be applauded that Liberal Democrats appear to have responded to evidence which suggests that the policy isn't working. Also to be welcomed is the intention to exempt disabled people from the policy. But ...

Posted by Jo Ingold on Liberal Democrat Voice
Mon 21st
11:24

VIDEO: Ban Revenge Porn

Here's the new film from the Liberal Democrats: You can also watch this on YouTube.

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

So I've banged on quite a bit about how the notion of inequality as a fair reward for hard work. However, John Oliver does it much more entertainingly in this clip likening the American economy to a rigged lottery. Filed under: Uncategorized

Posted by Mark Mills on Matter Of Facts

[IMG: Teacher Tom at Canterbury994] I'm a governor at Seven Sisters Primary School and South Grove Children's Centre in Tottenham, where we've been running a programme for two-year-olds from deprived backgrounds for the last three years. We've tracked the progress these children make, and it's clear there are real benefits. This is a good Lib Dem policy, aiming to break down the barriers that hold back children from poorer families. In September, the eligibility criteria for the programme will be widened, so that around 40% of two-year-olds become eligible. In Haringey, that means that around 1,790 children be entitled to ...

Posted by Cara Jenkinson on Liberal Democrat Voice

Council meetings - lights, cameras, action! Councillors can't stop meetings being filmed ... or blogged or tweeted. (tags: ) Kenneth Clarke: I had a lot of views, but they didn't coincide with No 10's utterly fascinating interview with Ken Clarke, who remains my favourite Tory. (tags: ) [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments

News release For immediate release 21st July 2014 FLOODING RISK REDUCED FOR ROSEANGLE RESIDENTS Scottish Water has invested over £780,000 to investigate and resolve historic flooding issues, which have affected around 43 properties in Roseangle, Dundee. Flooding had affected residents living in the area, largely due to blocked drains, however there had been a few occasions when the flooding occurred during heavy rain, with no blockage found, potentially due to a surcharging of the sewer. West End Dundee City Councillor Fraser Macpherson said: "I am extremely pleased that this work has been carried out and grateful to Scottish Water for ...

Hertfordshire's ruling Conservatives have been accused of misleading residents over plans to reduce bus services in the evenings and at weekends. Liberal Democrat Group Leader, and Highways Spokesperson, Stephen Giles-Medhurst has found out that instead of the 200,000 passenger journeys being cut due to the Tories suggested cuts to evening and Sunday services, the real figure will actually be closer to 809,000 passenger journeys. Stephen said, "When the proposal first come out I asked for details of who would be affected by what route and what the county subsides were. I have had to chase several times for this and ...

Posted by chriswhite on Chris White

[IMG: Ed Davey Social Liberal Forum conference Jul 19 2014 Photo by Paul Walter] WARNING: Contains strong hagiographic content, which some readers may find disturbing. On Saturday, while much of the country was enjoying the sunshine, I spent two hours studying and listening to The Right Honourable Edward Davey MP FRSA. In the wonderful surroundings of the new headquarters of Amnesty International, Ed addressed the Social Liberal Forum conference on "Energy and climate change – the balance between state and market". He was then interviewed by four bloggers: Jonathan Calder, Matthew Hulbert, Caron Lindsay and myself. My feelings during all ...

Posted by Paul Walter on Liberal Democrat Voice

Let's say you want to see the House of Lords replaced by an elected chamber. 'Great!' Someone tells you. 'Then you'll love my plan! I want the upper house to consist of three hundred senators, each one elected from a single constituency at each General Election with the same electoral system as MPs, will you support me?' You say no, because that's not the sort of upper house you want to see, but before you can talk about the flaws in that plan or explain a way to improve it, the proposer starts telling you that you're clearly not interested ...

Posted by Nick on What You Can Get Away With

"London is too full of fogs and ... serious people ...Whether the fogs produce the serious people, or whether the serious people produce the fogs, I don't know." That was one of Oscar Wilde's bon mots in Lady Windermere's Fan. It could have been used, and perhaps should have been, in the Observer yesterday in a tremendously important article about big data and its threat to democracy. Because the real question, as it was for Wilde, is what causes what? The article was by Evgeny Morozov and I hope everyone reads it. It isn't so much about the threat from ...

Posted by David Boyle on The Real Blog

[IMG: Candidates UK Twitter account] It's at https://twitter.com/candidatesuk (or click on the image).

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

The area at the south end of Hazel Drive is maintained by the council's Environment Department through its rough grass cycle - cut back twice a year. However, its currently very overgrown - see below :I have raised this with the Environment Department and have asked that it is cut as soon as possible.

Here is another posting about war memorials and again it is supplied by my old chum Ainsdale resident Roy Connell. Roy tells me that the commandos used to train in and around this famous Scottish mountain range. [IMG: Ben Nevis] [IMG: Ben Nevis 2]

Posted by Cllr. Tony Robertson on Sefton Focus

In light of the news that Tony Benn's granddaughter has been selected to fight a Parliamentary seat for Labour, the Independent publishes a study of the top ten MPs who have or have had relatives in the House of Commons. Top of the pile is Nicholas Soames who is the son of Christopher Soames, the cousin of Winston Churchill, nephew of Randolph, grandson of Sir Winston, and great-grandson of Lord Randolph. Trailing iin second is Hilary Benn, who is of course the son of Tony Benn, the grandson of William Wedgwood Benn (Lib then Lab), and the great-grandson of Daniel ...

Posted by Peter Black on Peter Black

Remember my posting of yesterday about some folks wanting to sweep away Planning rules, well here is a more balanced approach. Richard Rogers, architect and former chair of the Urban Task Force, writes in the Guardian beseeching developers and the government to cast their eyes away from greenfield sites and instead build in the UK's cities. "With intelligent design and planning, we don't need to overflow into new towns on greenfield sites; doing so would damage the countryside and – more importantly – wreck our cities. We do need to make more of what we have, unlocking a million development ...

Posted by Cllr. Tony Robertson on Sefton Focus

Yesterday Labour's national policy forum confirmed that an incoming Labour government would keep to the Coalition's spending plans for 2015-16. An attempt to commit Labour to abandoning those plans was defeated by 125 to 14. So next time you see a Labour politician, blogger or tweeter demanding more spending on something, you can ask them what taxes they would raise or cuts they would make elsewhere to fund it. I certainly would not defend all the Coalition's spending decisions. I think the cuts to local government have been too severe - in fact, given that the worse is still to ...

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

I keep reading that there were ten British victims on flight MH17, but also that two of them — Andrew Hoare and John Allen — had children who died with them. Both men are described as married. So, unless the children were step-children (even though not described as such), they had British citizenship too, even [...]

Posted by Mira on Mira's Picture

A question was asked from the floor at last Thursday's council meeting: "When will ip&e be holding its annual general meeting?" The response from Steve Charmley, the conservative portfolio holder for ip&e, was that an AGM will be held, but he did not give a date. This typifies the ip&e operation. It is an opaque [...]

Posted by andybodders on Andy Boddington

Disadvantaged youngsters across Cambridgeshire have achieved better GCSE results as the Pupil Premium begins to have an impact in schools. The news, that more than 30 per cent of youngsters from poorer backgrounds achieved five or more GCSEs at grade A* to C, has been welcomed by Cambridge MP, Julian Huppert. Figures released by Ofsted show that results improved for almost six per cent of children in the last year. In 2012 24.7 per cent of children achieved the GCSE benchmark compared with 30.6 per cent this year. Julian said: "This is very good news. It is proof that the ...

Posted by Andy Pellew on Focus on Bar Hill