The biggest shift in three hundred years could be just around the corner.In just one month we will know whether the three-hundred year old British Union will remain as it is or be broken by will of the people. Will Scotland stand once again an independent state, or will it remain part of an increasingly federal union of the Isles? Right now, Union seems more likely, but the race remains so close that a single twist of a key issue could swing the vote the other way. With such uncertainty it is important to know what will happen next. Unfortunately, ...

Posted by Peter Kelly on A Third Opinion

I'd like to talk about one thing that I like, and one thing that I don't like so much, and what any of this has to do with the latest social media charity wildfire - the Ice Bucket Challenge. I love the fact that over the past year or so charities really seem to have caught on to how to use Social Media. They seem to - at last - be abandoning the expensive and probably not super effective targeted social media ad buys. Less and less I'm seeing harrowing images of orphans in my sidebar, and I can't say ...

Posted by Sam Phripp on So Sam said...

There is a Labour member in Gateshead who loves to sneer at my use of social media. Actually, there are lots of Labour members who sneer at everything I do, but one in particular springs to mind. So, especially for him, I'd like to announce another milestone reached. On Flickr, I have just clocked up 1.5 million viewings of my photos. My Flickr site is used nowadays mainly as a place to show my

Posted by Jonathan Wallace on Jonathan Wallace

via Facebook

Posted by Raging Reg on Raging Reg

#109766342 / gettyimages.com Metro wins Headline of the Day.

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

As every politician knows, you're never going to please everyone; so an unhappy posting on the Gatley Facebook group mentioning my name wasn't a great surprise. Sometimes people simply disagree with me, and sometimes I get things wrong. On this occasion the complaint was about my lack of response. The resident was upset that he'd posted a query on the Facebook group, tagging me so it popped up in my notifications, and I'd not replied. Fair enough, perhaps. Except his post was made on a Tuesday lunchtime in August - on a week when I happened to be on holiday ...

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

As the rain fell at Bristol this morning, Vic Marks, Michael Vaughan and Graeme Swann explained what is wrong with England's approach to one-day internationals and what can do to put it right. It is riveting listening for any cricket fan, so catch the podcast of it on the Test Match Special website before it disappears. You have a week. If you reading this after it has gone, let me recommend Down at Third Man. I suspect the Squire will agree with the pundits' prescription.

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

The Liverpool Echo has the story – see link above. This sadly takes me back only a few months to the farcical situation that two volunteer groups faced in Sefton when they tried to take over Aintree and College Road (Crosby) Libraries. The bottom line was that Labour-run Sefton was simply not going to let them. I really do hope that Labour-run Knowsley is prepared to give their volunteers the chance that Labour-run Sefton was not prepared to do. I would hate to think of more volunteers being given the run-around.

Posted by Cllr. Tony Robertson on Sefton Focus

Gender Equality from a man's perspective was not something I was looking for but as some-one (anonymous) sent it to me, I thought I would share it. A very interesting point of view from the other side of the equality coin! Enjoy a few minutes of YouTube. The link is here: The post Gender Equality from a man's perspective appeared first on Cllr Sue James | St Just in Penwith | St Just and Pendeen.

Bernadette Smyth the director of Precious Life, an anti-abortion group in Northern Ireland, has finally let her mask slip as to just which lives are precious and which are to be cast aside. In a twist on George Orwell's Animal Farm: "All life is precious, but some is more precious than others" How can I say that? Well in today's Belfast Telegraph she is reported as saying: "Pregnant women seeking to terminate their pregnancy because they are suicidal should be institutionalised until the baby is born." In other words, she is seeking to section pregnant woman who for whatever reason ...

Posted by Stephen Glenn on Stephen's Liberal Journal
YouGov

[IMG: caron lindsay] Over on STV, our own editor, Caron Lindsay, has been making some predictions about the Salmond/Darling debate this evening. Alex Salmond goes into tonight's debate as the underdog. The Yes campaign is behind in the polls and he knows that he failed to make a convincing case for independence three weeks ago. On the other hand: Alistair Darling has to strike that balance of making an emotional connection with everyone watching and exposing the many flaws in Salmond's case. She concludes: I'd like to see a high-quality debate, with both men listening and responding thoughtfully to each ...

Posted by The Voice on Liberal Democrat Voice

[IMG: House of Lords. Photo courtesy of - some rights reserved] In their pre-democratic origins, British political proto-parties were collections of Parliamentarians. They had as their members whoever they wished, and if people outside Parliament didn't like who was in the current faction – well, then they were always free to go and support someone else instead. But in a modern democracy, political parties are the collective property of all their members, not just a select few. Who can stand in the party's name is for the party collectively to agree on – though for obvious issues of practicality, ...

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack
Mon 25th
17:37

Running cycling

Looking to start running again, feel fats so can't this being good for a while !

Posted by nigelroberts on Nigel Roberts

The latest monthly unemployment figures in Acocks Green show a fall in the claimant count of 29 to 800. This is down 291 on a year ago and represents a claimant level of 6.1%. Across Birmingham the seasonally adjusted claimant level fell by 744 to 36,201, a rate of 7.5%. Nationally the claimant level now stands at 1,007,500 or 3.1%

Posted by rogerharmer on Roger Harmer

One of the biggest problems is local councils out of the blue charging council leaseholders huge amounts for general maintenance. Often this appears to come from councils just not professionally planning ahead. I'm proud to say that A cap has just been introduced to limit the amount local authorities and housing associations can charge leaseholders for repairs to council homes. The new directions limit the amount authorities can charge for future major repair, maintenance, or improvement works when they are wholly or partly funded by the government. Outside London the maximum amount residents can be charged for repairs on a ...

Posted by James Barber on James Barber

[IMG: Bald head. Photo courtesy of http://www.freeimages.com/photo/574667 - some rights reserved] Welcome to the latest in my occasional series highlighting interesting findings from academic research. Today – how the amount of hair on top has an impact on how voters view the politician underneath: Governors and members of Congress ... are much more likely to have a full head of hair than would be expected of men of their age... [However] no voter bias against bald or balding candidates is apparent, a finding that suggests that the causal mechanism underlying underrepresentation of bald and balding men is not voter bias. ...

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

There was a time, not so long ago, when a travelling bureaucrat would have been in some big city, looking at big things, flying on big planes. But times change, and so have my, or should I say, our travels. The Äland Islands are a Swedish-speaking collection of Islands and skerries which form the western end of an archipelago that reaches out from Turku, in south-western Finland, across the lower Gulf of Bothnia towards Sweden. 25,000 or so people live in what is an autonomous province under Finnish sovereignty. That autonomy is such that they have their own flag, their ...

Posted by Mark Valladares on The view from Creeting St Peter

[IMG: SharonBowlesJean-ClaudeTrichetBlogSmall] Congratulations to Dacorum resident and former Liberal Democrat MEP, Sharon Bowles, on her appointment on 15th August, 2014, as a non-executive director on the board of London Stock Exchange Group. The London Stock Exchange is a major component of the City of London, the world's most important financial centre. More euros are traded on the London currency market than in the rest of Europe combined and more US dollars are traded in London than in New York. In 2012 Sharon Bowles was shortlisted for the post of Governor of the Bank of England, her candidature at the time ...

Posted by nickhollinghurst on Nick Hollinghurst
Mon 25th
14:50

Reg's Week

Last week was a strange one: the death of two of Hollywood's best; Robin Williams and then Lauren Bacall; meeting my youngest niece, after a self-imposed estrangement of nigh on ten years. Meeting my two great nephews for the first time ever and my beautiful great niece: has left me with a sense of family for the first time in many years. In fact, I think I may grow closer to my brother and his family now than I ever was before. We are still poles apart politically and philosophically, they are however, blood and with all that has gone, ...

Posted by Raging Reg on Raging Reg
Mon 25th
14:38

DW Review

via Facebook For Clive Luff The subtext, was by far the most important element to 'Deep Breath': it is the person behind 'the veil' not their physical appearance. Imaginatively illustrated throughout a rather needlessly long episode with a pedestrian plot; it did however give time for The Doctor to recover. To some the recovery from regeneration: the first episode for a new Doctor will always be problematic. The episode will always return to certain familiar territory: the opening episode though is important; it gives the Doctor the beginnings to the personality he will adopt for the course of his run. ...

Posted by Raging Reg on Raging Reg
eUKhost

As a result of some recent discussion, the Toiletgate incident from Pride London 2008 has been in people's minds again. It surprised me that this event is little known to some, even though it was in relatively recent history. It surprised me even more when I realised that a key focal point for this incident, one that has even ended up being cited in academic texts, is not longer available. Specifically, a single web page was put up on the old www.TransAtPride.org web site to document the incident and the aftermath but the site no longer exists and was not ...

Posted by Zoe O'Connell on Complicity

[IMG: Facebook login page] Useful advice from Laura Packard: With all social media websites, even ones that don't filter, the flow of new content is so steady that your information may be quickly washed away. This is why it is critical to always be using social media to capture more email addresses - then you can reach your entire intended audience, and control the flow of communication to your supporters. Her blog post contains five pieces of handy advice on how to do this – and even if you don't follow each exactly, the general idea behind each is widely ...

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

Ah yes, Finnish humour - a concept somewhat less likely than the same nation's historic fascination with tango. But I digress, and not for the first time. There can be little doubt that the process of differentiation between Liberal Democrats and Conservatives has begun in earnest. Odd, really, because the Conservatives have had very little trouble in that regard - there are very few serious commentators outside of the Coalition parties suggesting that they are much more 'wet liberal' than a Cameron-led, Conservative-only administration would have been, and in cutting welfare spending, they're doing what most people would expect them ...

Posted by Mark Valladares on The view from Creeting St Peter

The one good thing about a wet and miserable Bank Holiday is that at least it means that the ground will be soft underfoot for Warlingham's pre-season friendlies up at Hamsey Green this coming weekend. After a long summer break it is good to be able to look forward to a soft landing after putting in the first tackle of the season. Although, to be fair, my first tackle of the season doesn't normally happen until about March. Ben Stobart, the first team coach, and Pete 'Magic Hands' Mattison, the physio and fitness guru have been having those brave enough ...

Posted by Steven Gauge on Gauge opinion

I had a few hours free yesterday afternoon so visited Berkeley Castle. It's just one of the many places I could have visited that are within about half hours drive of my home in Bristol. I could have gone to Tyntesfield or Clevedon Court. All would be free to visit as I am a member [...]

Posted by stephenwilliamsmp on Stephen Williams' Blog

 

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

[IMG: APPRENTICE job blog] Liberal Democrat Business Secretary, Vince Cable has launched a new campaign to encourage more young people to take up apprenticeships. The "Get In, Go Far" campaign is being supported by a number of employers across the country and coincides with the introduction of 40 new employer-designed apprenticeships in sectors including engineering, hospitality and the legal profession. To mark the launch of the campaign, Vince visited ITV studios in Leeds to meet TV production apprentices. Vince said: "For too long there has been a divide between university and vocational education which has been damaging for both employers ...

Posted by nickhollinghurst on Nick Hollinghurst

[IMG: Pigs-Head98] I have been involved in the making of a few indie flicks in my time, both in front of and behind the camera, most of them understandably not available on Netflicks at present. People ask me if I ever miss the world of film. I always say, emphatically, no. Here's a taste of why that is, with some of my more memorable moments in the cinematic milieu described for you: Auditioning for an ad in which the try out required you to improvise "a crazy story about the alternate meaning of a mainstream film". So you know, like ...

Posted by Nick on nicktyrone.com

Joking about religion too often leads to demands for censorship and threats of violence. The youngest of the world religions shows how to behave when you are the subject of a joke. Stewart Lee is one of my favourite comedians yet I've never seen his stage show Jerry Springer: the opera. Having heard an interview in [...]

Posted by Mark Mills on Matter Of Facts

In line with the wider investment into cycling, Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) are offering grants to Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) in the Greater Manchester area to help landlords either improve cycle facilities or build new ones. Up to 100% of the costs of installing new or improved cycle parking facilities can be applied for, with £10,000 being the maximum amount allocated. The application closing date for the scheme will be the Friday 3rd October 2014. For further information on how to apply and about the scheme please email: cycling@tfgm.com or call 0300 123 1675. For further information please click ...

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

[IMG: cheadle gatley football fun day]

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

So, let's summate;the original 1999 list saw nine out of its fifty members get the call, although two more went on to get one eventuallyits 2004 replacement saw just two successful candidates, although that was better than...the 2006 list, of which only one member was preferred...but not as good as the 2008 list, which has seen five successes, and another from its subsequent 2010 top-upMy calculation tells me that, therefore, there are still thirty-nine names available to the Glorious Leader. That is, theoretically. Sadly, Viv Bingham is no longer with us, following his death in 2012. Meanwhile, John Stevens quit ...

Posted by Mark Valladares on The view from Creeting St Peter

[IMG: lords parliament photo] Photo by ukhouseoflords Mark Valladares provides very interesting updates on the progress, or otherwise, of the names on the Lib Dem list for peerages (or whatever it is called). It reminded me of the scheme, in the title of this post, coined by the late great Simon Hoggart. I have had a simple approach to voting on the peers list. I vote for all the female ethnic minority candidates starting at the end of the alphabet (working backwards) and then for the male ethnic minority candidates starting "Z" also. When I told a young British man ...

Posted by Paul on Liberal Burblings

Private firms 'are using detained immigrants as cheap labour' (tags: ) It's a disgrace that Alison Goldsworthy has had to leave the Lib Dems (tags: ) So long Dickie Love. :( (tags: ) Vince Cable asks for loopholes in zero-hours contracts to be exposed (tags: ) Tony Blair: Peace Envoy (tags: ) Set reuse, or grand plan? I'm going for the latter. Apalucia (or however you spell it) was supposed to be like heaven, wasn't it? (tags: ) The UK government and its muddled response to terror This is not about Boris's Guilty Until Proven Innocent proposal, but it may ...

Mon 25th
09:49

Brambles near Clarks

We have asked the council to cut these brambles back. The land is not owned by the council, but we are asking the council to act as part of its transport powers.

Posted by Odddown on Odd Down

We have received this from Avon and Somerset Police Our free Road Smart driving awareness programme is off to a great start with over 1,000 people signed up so far. We're seeking your help to promote these sessions further and get even more people to sign up. The statistics around road safety are scary: - 95% of all collisions are caused by human error and - One third of all serious crashes

Posted by Odddown on Odd Down

[IMG: Boris points out the first guilty man] Boris points out the first person to be presumed guilty In addition to his occasional duties as Mayor of London, Boris Johnson finds the time to do a wide range of other things, including earning £250,000 a year as a columnist for the Telegraph. With all those things to do and so little time to do them in, it's hardly surprising that Boris can't devote his full attention to everything he does, and this time it's the column that suffers. For it's here that he's not been paying proper attention to what ...

Posted by Nick on What You Can Get Away With

[IMG: pissoir with extra fuzz] We were wondering around the fringes of Notting Hill Carnival yesterday. It's great for people watching. There were some portaloos near Pembridge Square which had the usual long queue. However, there was virtually no queue for this snug four man pissoir (above – with heads "fuzzed out" to protect the anonymity of the protagonists), next door to the portaloos. (Be careful how you pronounce that word in mixed company, by the way. The emphasis very much needs to be on the "oir".) I am probably one of a dying breed of people who remember the ...

Posted by Paul on Liberal Burblings

Flicking through my photo collection the other day and I found a photo of Ormskirk Station which I must have bought some time ago and forgotten about. The reverse says it is from the John Ryan Collection and the copyright is held by J A Peden, so due recognition here to them both. The picture is undated and is taken from the Preston bound platform looking south towards the Derby Road bridge which crosses the tracks at the end of the platforms. [IMG: rsz_ormskirk_station] I have recently bought a second old photo of the Station, this time the view is ...

Posted by Cllr. Tony Robertson on Sefton Focus

[IMG: Smiling young boy] You know the score by now: another day, another Liberal Democrat policy announcement that is good in its own right but which also ups the spending pressure on areas that haven't had their moment in the ring-fenced sun, such as local government. The latest: tripling the early years pupil premium. To quote from the party's press release: The Liberal Democrats will more than triple investment in the early years pupil premium from £300 to £1,000 per child under manifesto plans announced by Schools Minister David Laws today. The early years pupil premium was announced in March ...

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

From Blether Tay-Gither : Next meeting is tomorrow - Tuesday 26th August - 7pm - 9pm at the Burgh Coffee House in Commercial Street. We're very pleased to announce that we will be joined at the next Blether by an international guest storyteller, Mary Gavan (pictured left), from Vancouver. Growing up in Scotland and Ireland, Mary learnt the old Celtic legends from her grandparents and modern ones from her parents. Arriving in Canada, Mary began writing her own stories weaving Celtic understanding into modern experiences and her work as a palliative care nurse. Nationally and internationally, Mary performs at events ...

The barmy idea, still being supported by the UK Government, that free shooting marksmen could successfully cull enough badgers on the cheap so as to make an impact on the incidence of bovine TB in a given area has encountered a rather predictable problem. The Sunday Times reports that a criminal investigation has begun into government marksmen involved in last year's badger cull following concerns that they jeopardised public safety. The paper says that detectives are looking at one case where a man is claimed to have stalked a badger for an hour at South Herefordshire Golf Club near Upton ...

Posted by Peter Black on Peter Black