This morning I blogged about the claim by Ukip MEP Bill Etheridge that Hitler was a "magnetic and forceful public speaker" who "achieved a great deal". As I said then, "to the British Hitler's performance always seemed ranting and laughable". Not for the first time, there is something strangely unpatriotic in Ukip's view of the world. I looked first for an example of a healthy British attitude to Hitler in Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator. And if that doesn't quite work for the modern viewer, here is a scene suggested by a reader in the comments to this morning's post. ...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=SicFn8rqPPE&feature=youtu.be Politics in the UK is very much these days a world of few if any real leaders, so lets remind ourselves of a giant of American politics taking on shifty Republicans. Well worth watching and listening to. Thanks thanks to Roy Connell for pointing this video out to me.
The top line of Plaid Cymru's 2012 manifesto read as follows; "Plaid Cymru councillors are a crucial part of the team of Plaid Cymru representatives at all levels of government who are listening to what everyone in our community has to say and are working hard to make people's lives better." In a recent meeting of Full Council in [...]
The Fox Hollies Green Neighbourhood Forum had it Annual General Meeting on Wednesday 6th August at Oaklands Primary School. There was a good turnout with around 30 members of the community and Acocks Green's 3 ward councillors attending. PC Ian Upston gave an update of policing matters. Overall crime has fallen by 0.3% with bigger falls for burglary from dwellings (down 8%) vehicle crime (down 16%) and robbery (down 15%). However burglary other has risen by 4% and, as previously reported, there has been a major spate of thefts from front gardens. There has been an operation to deal with ...
I must have a go on this. Yesterday my wife Claire and I, went for a bike ride to enjoy the fine weather before today's gales and rain. We completed out circuit, as we often do, at King"s Gardens. I'm becoming a bit of a bore now as once again I sang the praises of this, soon to be completed, transformation of a tatty park into something that Southport can be proud of. My way of a change we decided to take in Plesureland on our way home as neither of us had visited it for some time. We were ...
I was in the National Railway Museum in York in the last week of June and little did I know that I would be one of the last people to photograph the magnificent Terrence Cuneo painting of London's Waterloo Station intact! You see on 28th June this huge painting suffered significant accidental damage, leaving an 8" gash, when a piece of scenery for an event fell on it. Here is the painting as I saw it on 25th June. It is truly magnificent both in detail and indeed size (it is 20ft by 10ft) and was commissioned by the Science ...
Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 385th weekly round-up from the Lib Dem blogosphere ... Featuring the seven most popular stories beyond Lib Dem Voice according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (3rd-9th August, 2014), together with a hand-picked quintet, you might otherwise have missed. Don't forget: you can sign up to receive the Golden Dozen direct to your email inbox — just click here — ensuring you never miss out on the best of Lib Dem blogging. As ever, let's start with the most popular post, and work our way down: 1. A franker reason than usual for changing ...
Now that Boris has confirmed that he is looking to stand for parliament: it is becoming more and more apparent that the jester wants to be king. In our latest guest post, James King (co-finance officer for Liberal Youth) proactively compares Boris with another politician with a gift for humour: Lembit Opik. This post is inspired [...]
Chicken Art at Higher Carnyorth Farm. Well if Tracy Emin can call an unmade bed art I think this has to compete!! I could look at it all day. [IMG: Chicken Art] How many birds can you see? Photograph by Kevin Mathis The post Chicken Art appeared first on Cllr Sue James | St Just in Penwith | St Just and Pendeen.
All around us we hear of war and the remembrance of war. As I watched the lamps going off across the town on Monday evening and as the last candle was about to be extinguished at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier the camera panned to the plaque in Poet's Corner which bears the names of sixteen soldier poets . One name caught my eye- Ivor Gurney. A few weeks back I had caught bits of as radio programme (now available as a podcast) about the life and music of Gurney. I knew of his protracted mental illness but I ...
[IMG: Tessa Munt photo by Keith Edkins] Tessa Munt, Lib Dem MP for Wells in Somerset, has explained over at her own website why she's taken the decision to boycott Israeli goods and services: This summer, the majority of people I meet out and about are disturbed, upset and angry. It's clear that Israel has crossed a line. It's not ok to drop bombs on civilians and the sight of parents carrying the remains of their small children in plastic bags is sickening. Bombed hospitals and schools, an entire population stunned and damaged is criminal. It simply cannot be justified. ...
[IMG: KingshillJctnCropped] Following a refusal of planning permission for one of the nearby residential developments that would have financed the badly needed improvements at Berkhamsted's Kingshill Way Junction it was feared that these could be delayed for more than 10 years. This prompted an alternative proposal by campaigning Liberal Democrat councillors Danny Bonnett and Garrick Stevens to get the traffic safety measures back on track. Their proposal could have enabled Berkhamsted Town Council to bridge the gap at minimal expense by using a short-term loan via the Public Works Loan Board. Then the Town Council in partnership with Hertfordshire County ...
[IMG: LDV FANTASY FOOTBALL] The English Premier League kicks off this Saturday and LibDemVoice has revived its Fantasy Football League to mark the occasion. So if you fancy pitting your soccer selection skills against fellow party members, here's your chance. To enter all you have to do is click on this link. Simply register your details, pick your team, and away you go. And for those who don't feel they have the insider knowledge to compete, you can always choose the 'auto-complete' option so your team is picked for you – just imagine how smug you'll then feel when you ...
I knew Al Stewart as the long-haired singer of The Year of the Cat, which was always on the radio in the 1970s even thought it was a much bigger hit in the USA. This recording, made in 1965 and taken from the BBC's Folk Britannia series, shows him a decade before that with a very different look. The venue justifies the comment by Rob Young in Electric Eden: The crossover folk stars of the late 1960s, such as [Roy] Harper, Ralph McTell and Al Stewart, were still men of the people, having worked their way through small city venues, ...
It has been a rather rough week with the Black Dog. When it gets this bad, it leads to irrationality and stupid behaviours: self-harm, skipping meals, not eating healthily, perhaps a little too much drink, forgetting to take the meds, not keeping track of finances and housework are just some of the details to day-to-day living that one takes for granted, becomes a mountain that refuses to stop getting taller. I have a dark secret I cannot speak of, that deepens the darkness. Exhaustion and weariness leave you hollow and drained: you feel there is little fight left for this ...
[IMG: 7 ver 4 full] Many thanks to the 14,050 visitors who dropped by Lib Dem Voice this week. Here's our 7 most-read posts... Six new Lib Dem peers named (47 comments) by Stephen Tall Linda Jack writes... Why I am standing for Party President (53) by Linda Jack Julian Huppert's Tory opponent in Cambridge next May will be... an ex-Lib Dem London mayoral hopeful (36) by The Voice Maajid Nawaz speaks out against Baroness Warsi's "selective principle" against Israel (43) by The Voice One way to ease your blood pressure when reading LDV comments threads (60) by The Voice ...
It's not even six months since my co-editor Caron Lindsay urged fellow Lib Dems to make nice and drop the internal briefing against colleagues. This followed a spate of whisperings against Vince Cable and Tim Farron among others. The voices off against Vince even prompted Nick to start an internal inquiry, though, as Jonathan Calder observed here, nothing more was heard of it. Today, though, the Mail on Sunday reports: Allies of Vince Cable reacted furiously last night over a Liberal Democrat 'whispering campaign' suggesting that he is on the brink of walking out of the Coalition. The Mail on ...
The Mail on Sunday tells us: Nigel Farage was facing a storm of protest last night after one of his MEPs was revealed to have coached Ukip candidates to emulate Hitler. Bill Etheridge described the Nazi dictator as a 'magnetic and forceful public speaker' who 'achieved a great deal' - and said the candidates should copy the rhetorical style deployed by Hitler at the Nuremberg rallies.It seems this advice was given last weekend at a training event for young Ukip members planning to be council or parliamentary candidates. So if your local fruitcakes march to the stage accompanied by the ...
[IMG: Capture] For those who've already downloaded Cllr Darren Fower's app, you should by now have received a notification of the latest updates and improvements? Improvements included, refreshed contacts page, redesigned news feed, fuller events section and the inclusion of Daren's latest AudioBoo recordings! To download the LATEST app now for YOUR phone, mobile device or tablet simply CLICK HERE!
Yet another profile of Susan Greenfield feels the need to dwell on her long, youthfully blond hair. Why are the media so rubbish at covering women in science? The Observer has an interview with Susan Greenfield this weekend. There are lots of questions it might prompt. Why, for example, has she still not answered Dorothy Bishops 2011 question about cause preceding effect when it comes to comments about autism, ADHD and internet use? Is the climate change analogy really all that helpful? Or why are scientists who claim to march to the beat of their own drum always a bit ...
Sun 10th
10:55
Pub raided by police hunting for an ancient Holy Grail relic, only for them to discover it was just ...
[IMG: Holy Grail. Photo courtesy of Lairich Rig http://www.geograph.org.uk/reuse.php?id=3203827 - some rights reserved] The Daily Telegraph brings this awesome news: A village pub was raided by police hunting for an ancient Holy Grail relic, only for them to discover it was just an old salad bowl. The team of 12 officers accused pub workers of hiding the stolen Nanteos Cup, claimed to be the cup Christ drank from at the Last Supper. Police and a dog handler locked all the staff inside while they searched every inch of the 15th century pub in their hunt for the stolen relic. But ...
[IMG: Houses of Parliament. Photo courtesy of - some rights reserved] Coming out soon is the 50th edition of Liberal Democrat Newswire, including stories on: the Liberal Democrats' own popular Mayor with a dilemma about running for Parliament, an exclusive guest piece from Vince Cable's former advisor Giles Wilkes on the party's spending plans, a look at why detailed costings of the party's manifesto will matter less in 2015 than in previous elections, a round-up of the first round of literature from the candidates for Party President, and more (but no 50th edition birthday cake for everyone; sorry). Sign ...
This is one of those places I had been meaning to visit for years but somehow not got around to. www.prescotmuseum.org.uk/ My attention was drawn back to it because of of a controversial move of the Museum from its historic Georgian building into a shopping centre! You can see why it was controversial. This is the old and seemingly now unused Georgian building:- [IMG: rsz_img_1392] It really is quite a nice building and very much one that would befit a museum. So why the change? Obviously, local government funding issues were at the heart of the move but whilst having ...
Here's some of the articles that have caught my attention in the past couple of days... The Guardian view on Gaza and the rise of antisemitism | Editorial | Comment is free | The Guardian A good leader (tho clearly written in the brace position): "The Guardian view on Gaza and the rise of antisemitism" http://bit.ly/1lIlpGK Ukip may well win a seat in May 2015. But the least likely person to get elected is Nigel Farage | Stephen Tall Ukip may well win a seat in May 2015. But the least likely person to get elected is Nigel Farage http://bit.ly/1ssvR9h ...
Sun 10th
09:00
The Independent View: Norman Baker's move to cutting edge science will benefit Britain
Norman Baker's calls for an end to animal testing were dismissed as "short sighted" in Alasdair Hill's Lib Dem Voice article ('Why a ban on animal testing is short-sighted and bad for our knowledge-based economy'). But the comments made by the Liberal Democrats' Home Office Minister are welcomed by the National Anti-Vivisection Society (NAVS) which has long championed moves towards modern science, benefiting humans and animals alike. However, progress away from animal tests will falter while researchers are working within an outdated system that hinders scientific progress and keeps animal experiments hidden from public scrutiny. Despite the advancement of alternatives, ...
[IMG: Thunder and lightning. Photo courtesy of http://www.freeimages.com/browse.phtml?f=view&id=1185168 - some rights reserved] Sometimes you really have to wonder why someone has paid good money to commission a poll. Thunder. It's the big political issue, right? And hence this. Remember to enjoy the cross tabs. (Click on image for a larger version.) [IMG: YouGov thunder poll]
There will be a temporary public art installation in place from today until 24th August on Magdalen Green - see photos below. It is by Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design student Laura Donkers as part of the Masters Degree show. Entitled 'Landship', the work is a large blue ring, about 5m in diameter with text running around the ring. Approximate position of 'Landship' 'Landship' on the Green (original photograph by Liz Broumley)
Sun 10th
08:21
CQC "...were shocked by what they found.." at #Werrington Lodge says report! #BaronCourt
[IMG: WerrigntonLodge] The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has warned national care provider Barchester Healthcare to make urgent improvements at its Werrington Lodge care home in Peterborough to ensure everyone who lives there receives the quality of care and support they are entitled to expect. During an unannounced inspection which took place on 8 and 12 May 2014, CQC found a number of very significant concerns, including: Some people were left in bed for long periods of time during the day, sometimes in beds that were wet with urine. The home was unclean and people were not protected from the risks ...
Phil Spector wanted in on the folk-rock boom, and so he started looking for a folk-rock band of his own to produce. He really wanted the Lovin' Spoonful, a New York-based band who played what they called "good time music", a more cheerful brand of folk-rock that was more influenced by jug-band records than by [...]
