Today were see launched plans for City State devolution within England. These are by their very nature inadequate as a response to what is happening in Scotland with Devon Max. We need to recapture our confidence in Regionalism if we are to have an adequate answer to the challenge, and then we need to make afresh the federalist case. I was watching John Prescott getting a hard time in Rutherglen on the TV last evening. What a wholly unconvincing advocate of decentralisation he proved to be. There should be no surprise there, it was he who produced the pathetic proposals ...

Posted on birkdale focus

#2658623 / gettyimages.com Photographed on the set of An Alligator Named Daisy with the eponymous crocodilian and Richard Wattis.

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

This afternoon, I had the pleasure of chairing the latest West End Christmas Fortnight committee meeting, which took place in Blackness Library. West End Christmas Fortnight 2014 is taking really good shape - and we discussed the detail of various events taking place during this year's fortnight - 22nd November to 6th December - and these include : Saturday 22nd November : Grand Christmas Fortnight Launch including Shoppers' Saturday, vintage car cavalcade, children's lantern making workshop and Dundee West Church Christmas Coffee Morning. Wednesday 26th November : The West End Christmas Lights Switch On at Seabraes, Christmas Concert at Dundee ...

Iain Martin, billed by the Telegraph as "political commentator", wins our Bizarre Opening Sentence of the Day Award. He reminds me of polling day at Richmond upon Thames in the 1983 general election. Having been up to do the good mornings and working ever since, I arrived on a doorstep 10 minutes before the polls closed. A Conservative Party worker arrived on the same doorstep at the same moment. We compared notes and found we were there to knock up the same person.

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

No...Really! Pot....kettle springs to mind!

Posted by Carl Minns on Carl Minns - Thoughts from Hull

Donald Sinden was one of those rare actors who excelled in both comedy and tragedy, and offstage he was a brilliant performer as well. He liked to assume the role of a scatty old man — while retaining his rich, fruity intonation — while in fact he kept his marbles more or less up to [...]

Posted by jonathanfryer on Jonathan Fryer

[IMG: michael-moore-mp-secretary-of-state-for-scotland] Michael Moore's Private Members' Bill, which enshrines the 0,7% of GDP target for international aid into law, passed its Second Reading in the Commons today by 164 votes in favour to just 6 against. It will now go forward to be studied in more detail by a Committee. In July he wrote for this site about why he'd chosen this issue. Speaking during the debate, Moore, who was International Development Spokesman for the Party in the run up to the last General Election, said: Right now we are in the midst of an almighty debate about our future. ...

Posted by Caron Lindsay on Liberal Democrat Voice

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Posted by Raging Reg on Raging Reg

[IMG: Computer keyboard] The TFM&A website has an interesting write-up of what happens when you give your email address to different political parties. One slight caveat I'd add for when you read it (and it's well worth reading) – without seeing the performance data for emails, it is hard to judge for sure which is effective and which is not. For example, one Lib Dem email is marked down for not having images, and there are many people who do email communications intensively who swear by the value of images – but there are also those who swear by the ...

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

[IMG: railway bridge path for web] Wokingham Borough Council is doing work on the footbridge part of the railway bridge by Winnersh station in Robin Hood Lane, to replace the steps with a slope, so that wheelchairs and buggies etc can cross the bridge on that side of the road. This is a longstanding ambition of the borough councillors, parish council and the Neighbourhood Action Group, who have all been asking the council to make the change. The work started a week late, in August (thanks Network Rail for holding it up). It has been going on very very slowly ...

Posted by pruebray on Prue Bray
YouGov

[IMG: No yes scotland photo by kyoshi masamune] How do we point out to SNP supporters that they should vote No next Thursday to save their party, without alarming No voters? The survival of the SNP depends on a No vote. The party exists to campaign, lobby and bully for independence achieved through a Yes vote in the referendum. It has no other purpose. If it wins the referendum, even by a single vote, it will have achieved its purpose and have no further reason to exist. The SNP is not a liberation movement like the ANC or SWAPO, whose ...

Posted by Ian MacFadyen on Liberal Democrat Voice

I'm not sure the electroVine is the wisest of new product ideas, all things considered... [IMG: electroVine] (Via Laughing Squid.)

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

This week saw six council by-elections in Carlisle, Cumbria, two in Newark and Sherwood, Newham and Vale of White Horse. All the incumbent parties held their seats. [IMG: Margaret Crick, Layla Moran and the OxWAb Lib Dem team] In the Vale of White Horse, former Abingdon Town Councillor Margaret Crick retained the Liberal Democrat seat in Abingdon Dunmore with 52.4% of the vote. The Conservative candidate took 35.1% (-6.2%) in the Tory/Lib Dem marginal seat. UKIP came third with 6.3% and Labour came last with 6.1%. The Local Liberal Democrats ran strong campaign to protect the Green Belt from an ...

Posted by ALDC on Liberal Democrat Voice

Former Liberal Democrat MEP Sir Graham Watson has been awarded the Freedom of the City of Gibraltar - the Rock's highest honour - at a ceremony held on the Rock's National Day, Wednesday 10 September. Sir Graham, who served Gibraltar for more than a decade in his role as Member of the European Parliament, received the honour recognition for being 'the Rock's staunchest supporter in Europe' and

Posted by Andrew on La Treizième Étoile

(Liz Lynne was the second to respond to the questions I posed in my earlier Presidential post, and here are her answers in full after the cut. I've formatted them as she had them in the Word document she sent but not edited them in any way, but please tell me if anything looks wrong. You can, of course, ask any questions about her answers in the comments.) I thought your blog was very good and you are right we are all saying very similar things which isn't really surprising as we are all running for the same post and ...

Posted by Nick on What You Can Get Away With

One of the most frustrating things about Ian Paisley, a man whom history ought to judge harshly for his role in creating and perpetuating a vicious cycle of violence fuelled mainly by his own sense of self-righteousness and a Bible-inspired sectarian disdain for the Roman Catholic Church and its adherents (or as my father used to put it, rather more succinctly, "that oul' bastard"), is that he was in real life very personable and likeable, and with a great sense of humour. And while it was welcome that he became a peace maker later in life, I think Ian Jack ...

Posted by Chris Connolly on A Yellow Guard

This week saw the end of an era in Gatley as sub-postmaster David Edge retired after 31 years of service to the village. Well-wishers gathered at the post office on Friday morning, before the new post office opened in Gatley News in the afternoon. Being part of the newsagents, the new Post Office will have longer opening hours (7am – 6pm Monday to Satuday and 7am – 12.30pm on Sunday). We wish David a long and enjoyable retirement. [IMG: david edge retires]

Posted by Iain Roberts on Keith Holloway, Iain Roberts & Pam King
Fri 12th
13:48

Ian Paisley

There are very few truly jaw dropping moments in politics. One of those happened on the 26th March 2007 which was the date the Paisley led a DUP delegation to meet with Sinn Féin and agreed to enter into government together as the two largest parties. It came months after the St Andrews Agreement which had agreed to new elections and a new executive but still the agreement that Paisley would serve as First Minister with Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness as Deputy First Minister was truly jaw dropping. While that may have been a jaw dropping moment in my life ...

Posted by Stephen Glenn on Stephen's Liberal Journal

This week saw six council by-elections in Carlisle, Cumbria, two in Newark and Sherwood, Newham and Vale of White Horse. All the incumbent parties held their seats. In the Vale of White Horse, former Abingdon Town Councillor Margaret Crick retained the Liberal Democrat seat in Abingdon Dunmore with 52.4% of the vote. The Conservative candidate [...]

Posted by Victor Chamberlain on Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors

In an extraordinary development, our Headline of the Day Award goes for the second consecutive day to a story involving lobsters. Yesterday it was the Cambridge News: today the Northants Herald & Post. Mind you, the best lobster story of all remains the one from Market Harborough.

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England
eUKhost

Liberal Democrat Chief Executive Tim Gordon has written an emotional piece on the party website's Ad Lib blog (which you can access if you are a member) in which he says how much he values the UK and how upset he would be if it were to break up. Whenever I think about the United Kingdom splitting up something inside me breaks. I do not live in Scotland and so I have no vote in the referendum. But I am British and so have every right to a say. On a national level I can think of nothing worse than ...

Posted by Caron Lindsay on Liberal Democrat Voice
Fri 12th
13:08

The "Elvis Movie" genre

[IMG: Elvis] Werner Herzog once said that there are only four essential genres of film: musicals, documentaries, kung-fu films, and pornos. To this I would add one other: the Elvis Movie. You may retort by claiming they are just a bolt-on to the musical category, but you'd be wrong. The Elvis Movie is a genre, completely self-contained, unto itself. Some films that Elvis appeared in, incidentally, do not fall into the category. Something like Elvis: That's the Way It Is, a documentary about Elvis' return to the stage in the early 70's, is not an Elvis Movie. Nor in my ...

Posted by Nick on nicktyrone.com

At 5 a.m. on Sunday I will be up and off to New York to take part in 3 days of talks at the United Nations. There I will be joining more than 40 representatives of local government throughout the ... Continue reading →

Posted by richardkemp on But what does Richard Kemp think?

This year's Liberal Democrat autumn conference takes place from 4-8 October at the SECC in Glasgow. As always, ALDC has a packed schedule full of campaigns training, workshops, fringe meetings and members' events. A comprehensive listing of ALDC events will be made available shortly, but here is a quick summary. ALDC Campaign Essentials and Other [...]

Posted by Craig Whittall on Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors

Contractors working on behalf of Transport for Greater Manchester will be undertaking works to replace the sensor loops for the existing speed cameras on the A34, Kingsway, Cheadle; under the Etchells Road overpass. These works require the use of lane closures from 21st to 23rd September 2014; between the hours of 8pm and 6am only. This work was originally scheduled to take place between 7th and 9th September but was postponed.

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

[IMG: Gatso_Camera] The Lib Dem team is currently working on making Styal Road safer. When we surveyed residents, one of the suggestions that came up (and, we though, a good one) was to put up a speed camera. But, as usual, it's more complicated than that. There are fairly strict rules about where speed cameras can be erected, in part to avoid them being used as a fund-raiser. Unfortunately Styal Road would not qualify for a speed camera as the numbers of accidents fall below the required threshold as determined by the camera partnership. The Greater Manchester Casualty Reduction Partnership, ...

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

Speaking on Radio Sheffield this morning (here, from 1h36m) Nick Clegg has said that he always had misgivings about Police and Crime Commissioners, and has said it is "now time to scrap this experiment". The Conservatives have to explain "why their promise that PCCs would attract independent members of the public have actually become a way for ex or failed politicians to have another lease of life, which is what we have seen in Shaun Wright and others like him." If you have the stomach to listen, Shaun Wright explains why he is hanging on to his job earlier (1h20m) ...

Posted by Joe Otten on Liberal Democrat Voice

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Posted by Raging Reg on Raging Reg

Leading Liberal Democrats, including Vince Cable, have patronisingly claimed that Keynesian economics is "old hat" - no longer a viable option in the open economies of today's world. Whilst it is true that "Keynesianism in one country" is more difficult to implement in world of open economies, figures quoted in a letter from Labour MP Michael Meacher in Wednesday's Guardian demonstrate that Keynesian policies still produce the desired effects. First, some elementary theory. When an economy goes into recession government revenues fall because of reduced taxation income, and government expenditure rises because of increased social security payments. Hence the budget ...

Posted by Peter Wrigley on Keynesian Liberal

A quick update on the Lidl Planning Application 2014/04299/PA (I'll write a fuller report on this weeks Acocks Green Ward Committee tomorrow). The application has been resubmitted but its exactly as before and previous comments will stand – see here (item 4). The reason for the resubmission is that the cheque Lidl gave when they submitted their previous application bounced! Red faces all round no doubt. No doubt they have enough money in their bank account this time. I hope the planning officers will take note of the concerns I and many others have expressed and will limit the extension ...

Posted by rogerharmer on Roger Harmer

The new school term started last week and so did the Lib Dem policy of providing every child in infant school in England with a free school meal. If [...]

Posted by John Leech MP on

The Jetty Project is an Arts & Humanities Research Council funded project led by Newcastle and Manchester Universities. It has created a temporary large-scale architectural artwork, "The Cone", on the wooden structure of Dunston Staiths in Gateshead, a landmark Scheduled Monument and Grade II structure on the south bank of the River Tyne. The Staiths are the biggest wooden structure in

Posted by Jonathan Wallace on Jonathan Wallace

Why won't they hear you out? A weekend in Edinburgh (tags: ) On scientists in parliament "@JulianHuppert is the token Beaker stuck in there with all the muppets." (tags: ) Vaguely-rude-sounding event - adults only! - at the @mediamuseum (tags: ) "As a father of daughters" (tags: ) Nick Barlow reviews Jeremy Browne's 'Race Plan' so I don't have to (tags: ) Parliament without Scottish MPs: how would it have looked different since 1997? (tags: ) Just Giving Page to donate to the Manchester Dogs Home after some little bastard set fire to it 43 dogs dead. The bit he ...

Here's some of the articles that have caught my attention this week... Left and right should unite to see off Ukip, Gove says | The Times #TeamGove: Left and right should unite to see off Ukip, Gove says | The Times http://thetim.es/YCmI5b d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net YouGov #indyref figs in full (incl important Don't Knows): No +5% to 50%, Yes -2% to 45% http://bit.ly/1xRWQBI The Enduring Political Impact Of 9/11 For Those Who Were Closest | FiveThirtyEight Those in NYC closest to 9/11 more likely to be politically active, less likely to be Democrat in aftermath http://53eig.ht/1tO3Ugc RIP iPod: Apple kills its oldest ...

Posted by Stephen Tall on Stephen Tall

Following up from Monday's post (a Lord thought it was 'excellent', you know...) and with Nick Clegg launching a new report on devolution today, a few more thoughts that I wanted to set down in advance of writing about this properly. 1) We need a new language of devolution I've had a quick look through the summary of the IPPR report that's being launched today and it's generally good. There are some points of implementation where I'd differ from them, but I think the principle is good. The problem is that if you try explaining it to people, or asking ...

Posted by Nick on What You Can Get Away With

Jaws earned sharks a place in the popular imagination as the ultimate predators of the sea. By contrast, Orcas most famous depiction on screen – at least until Blackfish came along – was as the loveable creature that needs liberating in Free Willy. This is ironic because Orcas can eat even the deadliest sharks for breakfast – literally! The [...]

Posted by Mark Mills on Matter Of Facts

While Scotland is engaged in a vigorous discussion about its own future, it is becoming increasingly clear that the referendum, whatever its outcome, is likely to trigger major soul-searching about constitutional arrangements in the rest of the UK as well, and particularly about the devolution of power within England (e.g. see this letter to the Times, 11th September 2014). This should be a real opportunity for the Liberal Democrats, as only party which has long been serious about seeing a federal model developed in the UK. However, I am worried that last spring, we made it a lot harder for ...

Posted by Maria Pretzler on Liberal Democrat Voice

[IMG: Houses of Parliament. Photo courtesy of http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1260013 - some rights reserved] As the BBC reports: New laws to allow voters to "recall" their MP and force a by-election have been published by the government. Under the plan, an MP could be recalled if they are convicted of an offence and get a sentence of 12 months or less. An MP could also be recalled if House of Commons authorities suspend them for at least 21 sitting days. If one of these conditions is met, and 10% of voters in the MP's constituency sign a recall petition, the seat will ...

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

Last year, I highlighted the excellent proposal by local resident Kelly Marr for "Discovery Walk" in the new Waterfront area, a series of manhole covers that would depict some of the great Dundonians who have made a real contribution to the city in the field of discovery. The concept is based around the Sydney Writers' Walk - here's me (below) at the Writers' Walk in Sydney :There has been progress with regard to the project with aims and objectives having been produced (to quote) : • To publicly acknowledge the numerous contributions that the city of Dundee has made in ...

In the translators' folklore Swansea Council will never live down the time that a Welsh language out-of-office message appeared on a road sign purportng to be a translation of the English, however that does not seem to have deterred them and other public bodies from failing to check the accuracy of signs and other publications before they enter the public domain. The latest faux pas to come to my attention is a bi-lingual booklet advertising the Swansea Bay Festival. The booklet is full of errors and appears to have been written with the help of Google Translate. The passage that ...

Posted by Peter Black on Peter Black

Both the George & Dragon pub and Cheadle Post Office have re-opened in Cheadle this week. The George and Dragon looks fantastic, refurbished inside and out. At the other end of the village the Post Office has re-opened for the counter service, with the new shop (inc. a WH Smith) opening in a week or so.

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

Dear Resident, Thank you as ever for taking an interest in my work as MP for Cheadle constituency, both here at home and down in Westminster. Parliament did not sit during August, giving me a chance to spend some more time meeting with local residents, businesses and charities back home. The turmoil in the Middle East of course threw a shadow over August as day after day the conflict in Israel and Palestine grew worse. Throughout the summer I was in contact with Government ministers to urge them to implore both sides to desist in the violence. I am of ...

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

This post is designed to keep people up-to-date with the progress of the application for an out of town supermarket and filling station at Dun Cow, Rocks Green. It will be updated as the planning application works its way through the system. 4 June 2014: Town council briefed Retail consultant Simon Hoare of Community Connect [...]

Posted by andybodders on Andy Boddington

Enfield Council is offering rewards of £500 to residents who help them trace fly-tippers. This is an interesting way forward and I wonder whether it could work in Sefton where long-standing fly-tipping and rubbish dumping occurs on a very regular basis in places like Lunt, Ince Blundell and the rural parts of Melling. Come on Sefton let's look at an innovative solution; if it works great, if it does not well at least we tried. My last posting on this matter was:-

Posted by Cllr. Tony Robertson on Sefton Focus
Fri 12th
03:42

A Writing Process Post

Today I started proper work on my second novel, and the first truly original one, not based in anyone else's universe. This time I'm carefully filing off the numbers from so many other people's pieces of work before throwing them all together that with luck it'll look like my own ideas, which is all one [...]

Posted by Andrew Hickey on Sci-Ence! Justice Leak!

 

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