The Progressive Tradition of Scotland, the North and Wales Next week on 18th September, the people of Scotland will have the ability to decide the future of the United Kingdom. In the Referendum next week, the people of Scotland get to choose if they want independence from England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The debate between the Separatist Yes campaign and the Unionist No campaign is getting increasingly heated and the opinion polls show that the campaigns are neck and neck. As someone who lives in the North of England, I have been reluctant to get involved in the Scottish Referendum ...
MP Philip Dunne's latest email newsletter is out today. Six articles down you can read his views on the health consultation, Future Fit. The consultation concerns yet another health service reorganisation that will reshape A&E and other services. It gives no guarantee our community hospital in Ludlow will continue. In his newsletter, Mr Dunne says: [...]
I'm a campaigner, a reformer, and I have huge ambitions for our party. I'm 32 and I'm prepared to spend the next 50 years of my life fighting for our beliefs. The next few months will be challenging but they also present an unrivalled opportunity for us to lay the foundations for a Liberal Revival. [...]
If you or someone you know is affected by dementia, there is a new memory café launching at Emersons Green library this Thursday 11 September. Come along to the new memory café and meet other people in a similar situation. This is a friendly and supportive atmosphere where people and families affected by dementia can get together and share their own experiences over a cup of tea and a slice of cake. Staff and volunteers from the Alzheimer's Society will be on hand to provide you with information and offer support. Although the café is run by the society with ...
Cineworld have been confirmed as the main tenant for the new cinema and retail development, which will be called Yate Riverside. The main construction work will start early next year, aiming for the cinema to be ready late in the year, ready for Xmas. Councillor Ruth Davis, a member of the Focus Team that has been fighting for a cinema in Yate for well over 10 years, expressed her delight that things are now happening: "Many previous shopping centre owners have told me they will try to get a cinema but nothing has ever come of it. Today Yate Shopping ...
[IMG: england-flag] I'm glad to see Lib Dem bloggers thinking aloud about devolution in England. In particular, this very concise piece by Nick Barlow on his blog is excellent, though neither it nor Matthew Green's rather more critical tone, or even Stephen Tall's, reflect the fact that the Party has already been thinking, developed proposals and had them endorsed by members at conference. We are ahead of the game and should say so! We passed at York the Power to the People policy paper, and endorsed a 'devolution on demand' model for England to enable new institutions to be set ...
[IMG: Darling - we will cut deeper than Thatcher] The reason for all this? Post by Mark's Lib Dem email newsletter.
Tue 9th
16:50
The Independent View: Government can ensure that the election debate on welfare and tax reform is in...
[IMG: HBAI] The changes to taxes and benefits that came into effect in April 2013 are the Coalition's most important single package of work and welfare reforms. Some, above all the bedroom tax, have provoked fierce opposition. Others, like the replacement of council tax benefit by council tax support, have impacted millions. But April 13 was also the moment when the income tax personal allowance went up by the largest amount ever, returning £5 a week to the pocket of anyone earning between about £9,500 and £41,000 a year. Add in the fact that the knock-on effects of reforms as ...
Tue 9th
16:16
Tell you what though: if this fucking tinnitus doesn't stop - I am sending in the Motorhead worm to ...
via Facebook
[IMG: Union Flag] What would happen to people living outside Scotland if Alex Salmond succeeds in turning the clock back to 1602? The origin of our current state as a successful multi-ethnic, multi-cultural entity owes much to the Union. Following James VI succeeding to the English (and Welsh and Irish) crown people born in Scotland were no longer aliens before an English court and people born in England, Wales and Ireland were no longer aliens before a Scottish court. James recognised the multi-ethnic nature of his state by joining the Scottish Saltire with the Cross of St George to form ...
The Bath Green Homes autumn programme of events kicks off this Sunday (14 September) with the Bath Home Improvement Fair, supported by Bath & North East Somerset Council. Whether you are doing a DIY project, looking for professional help, or just want to get some ideas on how to make your home warm and beautiful, there is a lot to discover at the Bath Home Improvement Fair. Cllr Paul Crossley (Lib-Dem, Southdown), Leader of Council, said: "The Fair is a great opportunity to find out what you can do in your own home. There will be plenty of local experts ...
Julie Scheeres had a shitty childhood. Now you might think you've had a shitty childhood and feel you could hold your own in the Shitty Childhood Championships but, unless you have a particularly harrowing story or were her brother David, it is unlikely to be as shitty as Scheeres. She grew up in a fundamentalist Christian household with parents who she paints as unloving and scary. Her father beat her adopted brothers brutally. Her mother had an intercom system set up so she could monitor conversations anywhere in the house. She also experienced sexual abuse from her older adoptive brother, ...
[IMG: st Andrews flag saltire scotland Some rights reserved by Fulla T] Was Scotland only to be offered a referendum to which the answer would be No? From the press today one would think this was the case. Did the Westminster bubble think Scotland would not dare to cut the apron strings? Political commentators from south seem not to have recognised that the Yes campaign is not a vote for Eck Salmond and the SNP, nor even for nationalism. It is a positive decision for Scotland and its future. Scotland has substantial natural resources and independence will be our coming-of-age, ...
[IMG: Transparent solar panel. Photo credit: Yimu Zhao, Michigan State University] This, via Science Daily, is rather good news: A team of researchers at Michigan State University has developed a new type of solar concentrator that when placed over a window creates solar energy while allowing people to actually see through the window. It is called a transparent luminescent solar concentrator and can be used on buildings, cell phones and any other device that has a clear surface. Transparent solar panels offer all sorts of interesting applications, including on the face of mobile phones and tablets. That would be both ...
Today the Better Together parties have - finally - made an official announcement backing more powers for Holyrood. Johann Lamont, Ruth Davidson and Willie Rennie made a statement this morning confirming their commitment to unspecified further powers and backing former Prime Minister Gordon Brown's timetable for a process to facilitate change in the event of a "No" vote. Ms Lamont stated that "the importance of this debate to the people of Scotland is to give them certainty that there will be more powers." This was echoed by Ms Davidson, who reiterated that "this is the way that Scotland can have ...
A Thousand Lives. What an absolutely excellent book. Julie Scheeres has a real talent for bringing history to life. Whilst Reiterman's "Raven" (which I read a couple of months ago) gives a detailed history of Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple this book gives us an insight into the people of Jonestown and how they fell in love with the Peoples Temple and how it turned out for them on November 18th 1978. You follow the lives of people like Hyacinth Thrash who was with Jones from his early days in Indiana all the way through to that last evening ...
Yesterday Nick Clegg officially launched our pre-Manifesto, which will be debated at Federal Conference next month. David Laws was asked by the BBC about the costings, and he said: We will publish the figures before the next election, but what Nick Clegg did say today is that the proposals that are in our pre-manifesto that we published today are considerably less expensive than the manifesto that we stood on in 2010. I personally am confident that if we were a Liberal Democrat government by ourselves, and we didn't have to negotiate with other parties, then all that we've put in ...
Below is an article I had hoped to have been published on LDV - but timin and 'events, my dear boy, events.' I still think, even with Iraq - ISIS - Ukraine vs Russia - Gaza: mental health is an important issue to debate and to 'get right.' The reporting of suicide in the national media usually only occurs when the deceased is rich, famous, or infamous. Yet it is approximated that one person dies from suicide every 40 seconds. A report from WHO - Preventing Suicide - A Global Imperative; examines the need for urgent action to reduce suicide ...
The BBC have caused a bit of a stir by labeling anyone using encryption in the form of a VPN a "pirate". On that basis, almost anyone who works from home regularly – and whose laptop is likely to be backed up over a VPN as a result – is a potential pirate. Small offices with just a few staff in also often use broadband connections with VPNs back to HQ. Snooping for heavy users of encrypted traffic will also pick up those using services such as Tor, to evade state surveillance and blocking. Such tools tend to be used ...
Tue 9th
12:34Opinion: Patience, not paranoia is needed if the UK is to solve the productivity puzzle
[IMG: Workers bankers london bridge - some rights reserved by zoonabar] Economist' brows furrow when they note that midst the generally positive economic data emerging in the UK and the US, wage growth continues to be absent. On the surface the answer is simple – the participation rate in both economies has fallen. For some, particularly those anxious to play Cassandra to the next crisis, this is a sign that economic growth is a mirage. In the UK context, wild and dangerous theories are granted fertile ground by some determined that coalition economic policy can't possibly have achieved growth; suggestions ...
Today, Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg unveiled a "manifesto for the next generation" launching the party's pre-manifesto, an 80-page document that will form the backbone of the party's 2015 election platform. The document includes a host of policies aimed unapologetically at realising the potential of children and young people. Launching the pre-manifesto, Nick said: We are now just 10 days before a momentous decision for the United Kingdom: the referendum on Scottish independence. The pre-manifesto I am launching today repeats my party's longstanding commitment to Home Rule; we've been advocating it for as long as we have been in existence. ...
The joint DECC & OxFutures (Oxford City Council) conference called Powering UP held its first national conference on community energy for local authorities and community energy groups and is seen by government as a key component of DECCs' recently published Community Energy Strategy. Our work with Bath & West Community Energy (BWCE) is cited in the Strategy as a key case study of what local authorities can do to support the development of renewable energy within their own communities and BWCE and the Council were invited to speak at the conference to jointly present the local authority and community enterprise ...
The nice people at Pocket Places, the project looking at how we can impove St Mary's Road, are doing a temporary art activity this weekend (13th). This will include stencilling some parts of poetry or quotes about Garston and/.or St Mary's Road (I want to stress the word temporary at this point!!) They are busy contacting local poets and looking at things already written, but are keen for some other sentences. So, if you know Garston and/or St Mary's Road and want to send a sentence in , please do. I said I would collect in some and pass them ...
In a joint statement just released by the party leaders, they announced that they would not be at PMQs. However, a question time session will go ahead, with Hague taking questions for the Government, and Harriet Harman standing in for Ed Miliband. No10 source confirms William Hague v Harriet Harman at PMQs instead tmrw. #dontpanic [...]
Panic stations in Westminster seem to have finally peaked, as the risk of a Yes vote in the Scottish referendum looks a real possibility. Cameron, Clegg and Miliband have decided to cancel Prime Ministers Questions tomorrow, and head to the campaign trail in Scotland. The three party leaders issued a rare joint statement: "There is [...]
I think we can all agree that another Minion post is long overdue. So here's a video of some 'Minions' dancing to Pharrell Williams' Happy. Oh and another: Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Despicable Me, Despicable Me 2, Films, Happy, Minions, Music, Pharrell Williams
[IMG: Lib Dems winning here] When I announced my candidacy for Lib Dem Party President, I said that my number one priority was for us to 'focus on winning'. I said that we must use May 2015 as an opportunity for every member to experience winning, gain confidence to campaign on our messages, and develop their campaign skills. That's how I believe we'll motivate members to go out and win. A number of people have asked me how we might do this in practice so here are my ideas. We must first re-assert our commitment to local government in its ...
[IMG: The Chiltern Hundreds - screenshot] [IMG: The Chiltern Hundreds - DVD cover] Based on comedy play written by William Douglas Home, brother of the later Conservative Prime Minister, The Chiltern Hundreds is one of those comedies that was successful in its time but has not aged that well. The subjects of its satire are still very recognisable – politics and class in particular – and the well-plotted farce is almost calling out for an updated version. That's because of the great weakness at the heart of the film to modern eyes: the female characters. Scheming, fickle and with an ...
From the Council: contractors working on behalf of Vodafone will be carrying out maintenance work to their telecoms mast on the southbound carriageway of Kingsway, approx 20m south of the junction with Broadway. The works are scheduled to take place on Tuesday 16th September between 09:30 and 15:30 and will require a lane closure.
Owen Jones, like so many Guardian writers, combines a detailed knowledge of politics and a gift for cutting analysis with passionate prejudice trenchantly expressed. His article on Scottish independence last Sunday firmly blames Blairite Labour and Thatcherism but ignores the longstanding Liberal attack on institutional sclerosis. Like socialists throughout history he is right about what's wrong [...]
[IMG: House of Lords] Paul Scriven was made a peer just a month ago, and here he reflects on the path he has taken through life. As the son of a dustbin man from a council estate in Huddersfield it was never in my wildest imagine that I would ever be in the House of Lords. Now that I have it is with a sense of both pride but just as important with a clear duty not to forget my journey in life and to fight for a more Liberal and fairer UK. I know very well that the Liberal ...
[IMG: FSA] At the end of last week, an article in the Indy appeared about how there is a pool of Brits stuck in Syria, those jihadists who went to fight for IS or some other militant fundamentalist grouping, who are now desperate to come home. The only thing that stops them is the fear of being stateless. They talk about being willing to undergo any programme the government wishes to throw at them in return for coming back to the UK. At present they are staying put, terrified of being left without a country. And staying put means having ...
Liberal Democrats to announce decriminalisation of all drugs (subject to approval by conference) (tags: ) Ahhhh @WyrdWaysRock this is why you are the best of the many rock & metal podcasts (tags: ) how to mute things on twitter (tags: ) Learn to play Doomtown Reloaded at @IQGamesCentre in Huddersfield Yes, yes, I know, it's a faceache link. But Doomtown is MatGB's favouritest ever game, & he's been involved as a consultant in this relaunch, & he's v excited. He & I will both be at @IQGamesCentre for this. (tags: ) If you haven't the first clue about Doomtown: Reloaded ...
Hallam Land Management, the developers who won permission to build 100 new homes on land north of Upper Chapel in Launceston, have submitted an application to increase the number of houses to 140. The original application was resisted by both the town council and Cornwall Council as it ran contrary to the town framework plan - the plan developed in conjunction with the local community to set constraints on the building of new homes and new infrastructure over the next 20 years. However, despite being rejected unanimously by both the town council and Cornwall Council planning committees, Hallam appealed and ...
The referendum in Scotland is the most interesting thing to hit British politics for a long time. Last night the unionist side wheeled in former Prime Minster Gordon Brown. Mr Brown vindicated my judgement of him last week as being a cut above our current, mediocre political leaders. But how is this drama playing down here in England? After all the outcome involves us too. The first point is that we are bit late on the game. The Scots have been arguing about the matter intensely for many months. The English, taking their cue from their politicians and media, have ...
Imagine the following scenario... At the next general election, 7th May 2015, there is a hung parliament in which the Lib Dems hold the balance of power. However, the party doesn't do very well. Nick Clegg resigns as party leader, or at any rate it becomes inevitable that he will do so soon. The party turns to its Deputy Leader (elected by MPs, not members). Then it remembers that he, Sir Malcolm Bruce, retired the previous day. So there is no longer a Deputy Leader. The Lib Dems then turn to their Party President — the only post other than ...
I'm now living in West Sussex and, every five minutes or so, some kind of comparison with London occurs to me that would make a blog post. Perhaps the most obvious is in the schools. West Sussex County Council has put my children in two different schools, which is I suppose a comment on public service choice in education (I know - it's only supposed to be a right to express a preference). I have no idea what the education is like - though one of them is a very small school, very high on the league tables (more about ...
Pre-Manifesto Launch Today the Liberal Democrats will unveil our pre-manifesto. This is a significant political moment as we begin the run in to the 2015 General Election. The pre-manifesto is a comprehensive document that contains the bulk of what will become our 2015 General Election manifesto. It sets out the Liberal Democrat vision for Britain in the next Parliament, with spreading opportunity at its heart. We are proud of our record of action in this Parliament and this document sets out our promise of more in the next. Rescue to renewal Since 2010, Liberal Democrats have worked in government to ...
[IMG: End of the world] It should have been the end of the political world last Friday. There was a vote in Parliament about changing a piece of government legislation, and Liberal Democrat MPs – including ministers, such as Vince Cable, who first ostentatiously cleared his diary - merrily walked through different lobbies from the Conservatives. The Conservatives were defeated and... well, government continued, coalition continued, the political world trundled on with Andrew George's bill to reform the Spare Room Subsidy / Bedroom Tax progressing to its next stage. (For the policy background see Lynne Featherstone's blog post which contains ...
Tue 9th
08:49The Independent View: Why Lib Dem conference should vote to protect the country from climate change
[IMG: Flooding in Cedar Rapids, IA] Yesterday saw the publication of the agenda for Liberal Democrat conference – including a particularly welcome motion on protecting the UK from the impacts of climate change. 'Adapting to climate change' (Policy Motion F19, debated at 9am on Monday 6th October) calls on the government to "Ensure flood defence spending is kept in line with that needed to protect against climate change impacts". This is a vital commitment that we sincerely hope Lib Dem conference will support. It will directly help protect hundreds of thousands of households around Britain from worsening flooding. After the ...
From the City Council : THE ROAD TRAFFIC REGULATION ACT 1984 : SECTION 14(1) THE DUNDEE CITY COUNCIL AS TRAFFIC AUTHORITY being satisfied that traffic on the road should be prohibited by reason of carriageway resurfacing works being carried out HEREBY PROHIBIT the driving of any vehicle in Riverside Approach (from Riverside Drive to Magdalen Yard Road), Dundee This notice comes into effect on Wednesday 10 September 2014 for two days. Pedestrian thoroughfare will be maintained. Alternative routes for vehicles will be available via Riverside Drive / Perth Road / Windsor Street / Magdalen Yard Road. For further information contact ...
If the polls are to be believed, the margin between those intending to vote 'yes' to independence in the Autumn, and those intending to vote 'no' has shrunk towards the margin of error. And whilst I'm not a defeatist, and I'd really not want to see the Scots go, I could hardly complain if they did. I'll set aside the impact of Scotland reclaiming its independence on the rest of the United Kingdom - it's mostly conjecture and there'll be a queue of people writing about it before very long - and look at the decision itself. As a liberal, ...
Organised through Time2Give, the West End timebank, the new West End Knitting Group started last Friday - more details below :
As the misguided badger cull gets underway The Times reports that protesters are gearing up to oppose it by using night-vision goggles and heat-seeking equipment to disrupt plans to shoot at least 900 badgers in the next six weeks. Apparently anti-cull groups have spent about £50,000 on specialist equipment that they hope will make it easier for them to spot marksmen operating at night on farms, and also help them find badgers trapped in cages: The Badger Trust said that the equipment, funded by donations, was similar to that being used by the marksmen to kill badgers in Somerset and ...
The South Wales Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) Alun Michael has warned that merging Wales' police forces would be a 'grievous mistake'. The Western Mail says that Police and Crime Commissioners across Wales have rejected suggestions cutting the number of forces across England and Wales will reduce costs and pump more money into frontline services: It follows comments made by the president of the Police Superintendents' Association of England and Wales (PSAEW), Irene Curtis, who said the number of forces needed to be trimmed down from 43. Speaking ahead of her presentation at the association's annual conference in Warwickshire, Ms ...
Having lived in Maghull & Lydiate for 46 years now the Leeds Liverpool Canal is a set feature in my life and community and it does make you take a wider interest in canals. The Anderton Boat lift was was built by Edwin Clark in 1875 to lift cargo boats the 50 feet from the River Weaver to the Trent & Mersey Canal. So I recently took a trip over to see it with Lydiate's ace photographer Keith Page. We had a fascinating tour of the very top of the lift (this had to be pre-booked) which is not to ...
How political science conquered Washington – Relevant to my interests and things I've talked about before: how political commentary in the US is taking more notice of academic research. Victim-blaming: an all-pervading curse – How a culture of blaming the victim lets the real culprits off the hook. How Jim fixed it: the strange, dark life of Jimmy Savile – Rachel Cooke's New Statesman review of Dan Davies' book on Savile's life. Chicken – Flying Rodent on how 'human rights' and 'political correctness' are handy shields to hide behind when you've failed at doing your job and want people to ...
I blogged ages ago about a plan to turn the unused building on Wellington Street in Garston into flats.This is the building that was used for the "Garston Embassy" and was the Tochy Tech a long time before that. After a huge delay the plans are now about to go to the planning committee for a decision. The committee meets on 16th September . You'll find the details at this link (scroll down for the agenda item, it's towards the bottom). 16th September also sees a licensing committee meeting. This will make a decision on whether to let the proposed ...
Skylarking by XTC has been a favourite album of mine since I first heard it about thirteen years ago, and is the closest thing to a perfect album XTC ever made. While it's often described as a psychedelic album (and XTC were certainly in a psychedelic mood at the time, as the two Dukes Of [...]
I haven't always been the biggest fan of Project Genesis. For many years it was slow to supply people with detail about what it was doing, kept its intentions under wraps, and preferred just to tell us that it was good for us. We were asked to take it all on trust. Recently, however, there has been a great deal more openness about its plans, a much greater effort to get alongside the community, and today's opening of Fawcett Park took that to a new level with representatives invited from many local groups (Friends of the Park, Salvation Army, Royal ...
