Fifty years ago this year, the then leader of the Liberal Party, Jo Grimond, went to Manchester Grammar School (MGS, then a direct grant grammar school, rather than the independent establishment it is now) to talk to the boys in the lecture theatre. This was during the 1964 general election campaign, and was an extraordinary [...]
#3164550 / gettyimages.com The wonderful Queenie Watts video I posted the other evening has made me look up a half-remembered news story from my childhood. I found it in a Guardian obituary of Ted Johns from 2004: One Sunday night in early 1970, Ted Johns, who has died aged 71, turned to thinking about what would happen if the Isle of Dogs, the East End area he represented on Tower Hamlets council, followed the example of another London district, as portrayed in the 1940s Ealing comedy Passport To Pimlico - and opted out of Britain. Soon afterwards, came the Isle ...
The political-selfie thing is getting a bit post modern... pic.twitter.com/MvggbLaaCn — Robert Hutton (@RobDotHutton) October 10, 2014
A planning application has been submitted for two detached houses on the Linney (14/04328/FUL). These will fill the last green gap along the Linney beside Castle Grange. Comments should be submitted by 7 November. Applicants Les Stephan Planning say: The design of the two dwellings has been determined by reference to the characteristics of The [...]
That's it folks, the party which stands for pulling up the drawbridge and blaming all our ills on immigrants, the EU, and development aid whilst offering nothing to improve the lives of ordinary people has finally won a seat in Parliament! One small step for Douglas Carswell, one giant leap for UKIP it seems. I would like, therefore, to address all those decent, tolerant, liberal-minded people out there who abhore much of what UKIP stands for but until now have perhaps preferred to keep their heads down as they wondered in disbelieve just what the rest of the country is ...
The Liverpool Echo has the story – see link above. [IMG: rsz_img_1706] This piece of land has been a wasteland for quite a while. No wonder the Council wanted it tidied up, especially with it being in such a prominent spot. In fact it was pleasing to see how it had been sorted out when the Giants came to Liverpool. Believe it or not this now grassed over area is underneath thousands of folks in my photo above. Well done Liverpool City Council and don't be so daft Langtree, it does you no favours. Indeed, this kind of response ...
Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 392nd 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 (28 September – 4 October, 2014), together with a hand-picked quintet, you might otherwise have missed. This is last week's, being published late because of Conference. This week's will also be a little late as I'm away this weekend. Seriously, Libereal Democrat conference last weekend, Doctor Who convention this weekend. I know how to live. Don't forget: you can sign up to receive the Golden Dozen direct to ...
A lot of Lib Dems will have received an email from Tim Gordon, the Chief Executive this afternoon. In it, he asks for those of us who are conference representatives to use our power to nominate one of the four candidates for the party presidency. Each of them needs 200 nominations from representatives to stand, and I believe not all of them have currently reached flat figure. I think it would be a shame if any of them were denied the chance to stand because of insufficient nominations, so I would appeal to anyone who hasn't yet nominated anyone to ...
The winners of the ALDC Campaigner Awards 2013 were again sponsored by Midshire. They were presented at the ALDC AGM held in Glasgow at Federal conference by Veronica German - President of ALDC and Sir Nick Harvey MP. Overall Winner - Kirklees We liked this because: The campaign for 2014 started as soon as the results were [...]
On Saturday afternoon conference voted overwhelmingly for more engagement by members through OMOV, and for transparency and accountability from the party and its committees, in order to nourish this engagement. The amendment, put forward by Mark Pack, Duncan Brack, and others was purposeful and helpful, and made clear that we need to make sure that the party is more accountable to members. The party needs to show its firm intent to follow up on this motion as soon as it can, preferably for endorsement by spring conference next year, so that our next autumn conference operates as members wish. However, ...
Fri 10th
17:20
My reaction to resignation of Caroline Shaw, suspended Chief Executive of the Christie
I have issued the following statement following the resignation of the suspended Chief Executive of the Christie, Caroline Shaw. "As a huge fan of the work the Christie do, the [...]
[IMG: William Beveridge. Public domain image via Aside from housing policy and the question of what the purpose of a political speech is, the third part of my critique of Tim Farron's William Beveridge Memorial Lecture was that it went for, "simple cheerleading for Beveridge - he was a Liberal! he did great stuff! hooray! - rather than any crunchier analysis of William Beveridge's legacy and what it means for contemporary policy problems". To which a fair response, 'OK Mr Critic. What would YOU have said?' So here's are the two crunchier problems with Beveridge's legacy I would have ...
So, in case you're wondering what we got up to in Glasgow, here's us speaking from the stage. Firstly, our lovely PPC for Calder Valley, Alisdair Calder McGregor ( spoke several times... ) Todmorden's own Ruth Coleman-Taylor ( spoke twice ) and also ( filled a good half of the first Today at Conference ) My lovely treasurer Dr Mick Taylor ( also spoke twice ) Sarah Noble ( spoke twice too ) Oh yeah... And I ( spoke agin gender quotas ) [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
Fri 10th
15:56
Gordon Birtwistle MP writes... A revived nuclear industry could unlock the UK's engineering potentia...
In March 2013, the Government published its Nuclear Industrial Strategy with the ambition to make the UK once again world leading in nuclear new build and decommissioning expertise. It is forecast that globally £930 billion is set to be invested in new reactors and a further £250 billion to pay for decommissioning. But to take advantage of these growing opportunities, the UK needs to recruit and train far more people into engineering than currently. Figures from EngineeringUK show that the sector needs to recruit 2.2 million candidates over the next five to ten years in the UK. Despite the many ...
There has been more vandalism in our town centre. A bench has been pulled from its moorings outside the Library and a Museum Resource Centre window has been broken. There has been quite a bit of vandalism and antisocial behaviour in this area, including damage to Ludlow in Bloom planters. That's why the CCTV cameras [...]
Hey! I've got Peter Robinson on the line. Not so much Wonga, as a cash advance from next year's block grant. But only on the proviso that we can come up with next year's budget which will have to account for the £100m that has been brought forward to this year to deal with the indecisiveness of the Executive to make hard decisions this year. There is a problem though. Next year's budget has got to be sorted out by the end of this month or else the deal is off. It has taken Northern Ireland's politicians a lot longer ...
I had two opportunities to speak at the Liberal Democrats' Autumn Conference; the first was moving the policy motion Towards Safer Sex Work on Saturday evening. I had never moved a policy before, so it was radically different to in Spring when I made a supporting speech to a third-party policy motion. Although I was given seven minutes, I was called for time after four, hopefully by error of the chair of the debate, leading me to cut out some of the speech. We also had to see off an attempt to wreck the motion from Oxford East, which would've ...
The election of Douglas Carswell and the impressive performance of UKIP in Heywood and Middleton raises many questions - most importantly, however, is this: what does UKIP stand for? UKIP has become the "alternative alternative", a new "none of the above", anti-establishment party that takes populist positions and rails against the corrupt system, moral redundancy of UK democracy, etc. However, do UKIP voters know what they're actually voting for? Do they really understand the nature of UKIP? Do they grasp the reality that David Cameron's "fruitcakes, loonies and closet racists", while unkind and unprofessional, pointed to a deep truth about ...
One of the first posts I published on this blog looked at the purported rise of Christianophobia in the UK. Polls of churchgoers indicate that 74% of them believe that Christians are the most discriminated against faithgroup in the UK. Yet the evidence for this is utterly negligible. For example, while there are an unfortunately large [...]
In one sense I lost a battle in court today (having 13K costs awarded against me). However, possibly over 500 dumps of green waste have been cleared up as a result of the legal action although not all of the ones I highlighted were removed. Some long standing ones like in Nooklands Croft have now mainly gone (but not all). I am likely to appeal the case. However, the clear message of the
Following Sal Brinton's response on Saturday I have now received the following from Linda Jack, which I reprint in full and unedited: All my life I have fought for those without a voice – those who have been judged because of the colour of their skin, their disability, sexuality, class or just plain being different (no one enslaved by conformity?). I started aged 6 when, in a completely white area I did my best to support a 5 year old friend who was being bullied in my school for being black – to the extent that whenever there was a ...
Blog Categories: Everything Else Oxford Vote: 2 votes + Vote up! - Vote down! [IMG: URBED Wolfson Oxford Illustration] Don't you just love it when someone comes up with an idea you had, more or less, ages ago, and gets a prize for it when they do it. Grrr! Well, I am pleased to say that one of my ideas this year has won the Policy Exchange think tank's Wolfson Economic Prize which called for ideas about "garden cities". The winning submission, but David Rudlin and others of URBED, is based on the idea of doubling the size of existing ...
Today's sunrise was spectacular and I was lucky enough to record it in some photos:- [IMG: rsz_sunrise_1] Click on the photo to enlarge it. There are more shots on my Flickr site:- www.flickr.com/photos/86659476@N07/
Fri 10th
12:08
Library closures in Liverpool – Let's hope those wanting to save them are given the chance to ...
Remember Sefton Council going through this process and how badly I said it treated volunteers wishing to take over College Road Library (Crosby) and Aintree Library? The Liverpool Echo has the story (see link above) of how folks are trying to save Liverpool's threatened libraries. [IMG: Sadly this placard could also read 'NO' to volunteers taking over Aintree Library!] Sadly this placard could also read 'NO' to volunteers taking over Aintree Library! I hope Liverpool's elected Mayor Joe Anderson has more confidence in volunteers wanting to take over libraries than Sefton Labour did when they dismissed the volunteer bids ...
Whilst party activists gathered in Glasgow and quite literally were debating policy F33 Age Ready Britain there was another gathering taking place of a quieter, but perhaps more significant nature. In the Admiral Rodney Pub, in Southwell, Nottinghamshire a small group of LGBT activists and supporters prepared to demonstrate for equality. Archbishop John Sentamu was in Southwell for the opening of the refurbished Bishop's Palace and he was accompanied by acting Bishop of Southwell and Nottingham, Richard Inwood. Normally simply an occasion of celebration, instead Bishop Inwood and Archbishop Sentamu were met at the doors of Southwell Minster by LGBT ...
Nominations have now closed for the ALDC Management Committee for 2014-2016. The Returning Officer has declared that the following persons have been elected, and there is no need for a ballot of members on this occasion: President Cllr Kath Pinnock / Baroness Pinnock of Cleckheaton (Kirklees) Chair Cllr Claire Hudson (Mendip) Vice-Chairs Cllr Anood Al-Samerai [...]
[IMG: Special Advisers are often seen as shadowy figures, but what do they really do?] Special Advisers are often seen as shadowy figures, but what do they really do? My review of Ben Yong and Robert Hazell's new book, Special Advisers: who they are, what they do and why they matter, concentrated – as the book does itself – on the overall picture that can be drawn of Special Advisers, what they get up to and the circumstances in which they help or hinder government. What the authors think of Liberal Democrat Special Advisers is of course of particular interest ...
If you asked a Lib Dem about why they joined our party, I think many of the following reasons for joining, would be on their list: I deliberately choose a smaller organisation I choose to engage in an environment where I could be heard, not drowned out I am able to make do with a few resources against competitors with plenty I want to work with the best and most committed, not the richest or loudest I work to change things, to remake better services for everyone I work harder, faster and more effectively than my opponents because I want ...
There were two parliamentary by-elections in England last night. At Clacton Tory defector Douglas Carswell was re-elected under the Ukip banner with a massive vote. This is a very striking result, but one that was entirely expected. The Essex seaside town of Clacton has a unique concentration of the older, white blue-collar types that are Ukip's best hunting ground, and not a few lower middle class older white Tory types that are also tempted to vote for the party. The more thought provoking result was in the other election in the Greater Manchester seat of Heywood & Middleton. Ukip came ...
Fri 10th
10:07
Heywood and Middleton by-election result demonstrates UKIP's threat to Labour once and for all
[IMG: Heywood] Heywood and Middleton is, by any reasonable standard, a safe Labour seat. But perhaps for not much longer - perhaps not even in 2015. Labour held the seat yesterday, but only by just over six hundred votes. In the 2010 general election UKIP gained 1,215 votes there, not even enough to keep their deposit. Yesterday, they got 11,016, a nine-fold increase. There was a lot of talk on the ground apparently that Labour chose to focus the messaging on the NHS when what everyone wanted to talk about in the constituency was immigration. Liz McInnes, the new Labour ...
And so, inevitably, the media are this morning talking about UKIP. And Nigel Farage in particular. As far as the first of these by-elections, at Clacton-on-Sea is concerned, the result was entirely expected. Lord Ashcroft gave up polling in the constituency over a month ago, given the near certainty of a UKIP victory. The sitting MP, Douglas Carswell, who had resigned from the Conservative Party to join UKIP, was a founder of the Cornerstone Group (which campaigns for "traditional" Tory values), something of a loose cannon and a Euro-obsessive and his defection did not entirely come as a surprise to ...
UKIP's progress: The flexible Mr Farage - Best. illustrative. cartoon. EVER. (tags: ) Mostly-accurate summary of the policy outcomes of #ldconf (tags: ) This article confuses me. If so many business ppl think min wage should be higher, why not just pay more? (tags: ) The Kevin Pietersen saga reveals the rotten mess at the heart of English cricket - at last (tags: ) Those of us who read Batman: Contagion in 1996 were terrified of ebola before it was cool (tags: ) Don't ALL of us love the Shipping Forecast...? (tags: ) Labour's secret plan to sell off Calderdale ...
SERVICE 82 (Southmead Hospital to Chipping Sodbury) First are proposing to extend the 82 service from Chipping Sodbury to Wotton-under-Edge via Wickwar and Charfield, as there is currently excessive layover time at Chipping Sodbury. This will provide Wickwar and Charfield residents with a direct service to Southmead Hospital and Cribbs Causeway, but there would still be no direct service for South or North Yate. NEW SERVICE 87 (Cribbs Causeway to Dursley) - impacts 62 Chipping Sodbury to Thornbury First will introduce a new 87 service; this service incorporates the existing supported 311 service between Thornbury and Dursley, and will replace ...
[IMG: philanthropy impact] "Good Intentions Are Not Enough" is the title of an article I've written for the latest issue of Philanthropy Impact magazine. You can read it here (pages 87-89). Here's how it begins... Good intentions aren't enough. Let me give you an example. A programme called 'Scared Straight' was developed in the USA in the 1970s to deter juvenile delinquents and at-risk children from criminal behaviour by bringing them into contact with adult inmates to make them aware of the grim realities of life in prison. Early studies showed astonishingly high success rates, as much as 94 per ...
Here's some of the articles that have caught my attention this week... New Statesman | Will Labour pledge to cut tuition fees? It's not the cost that should deter Miliband from cutting tuition fees – it's the fact it only helps the better off http://bit.ly/1w30tQf What effect does culture have on learning? – BBC News /@XtopherCook shows the attainment gap is about more than just poverty or schools http://bit.ly/1nervV6 Neither party tells Britain the truth about the deficit – FT.com THIS: "Tories & Labour present public finance policies that scale the heights of absurdity" http://on.ft.com/1BWhYnk (yes also applies to LDs) ...
The overnight news is that Douglas Carswell has been elected as a UKIP MP in Clacton with a majority of 12,068 over the Conservatives and 60% of the total vote. Liberal Democrats lost our deposit in 5th place, the 10th lost deposit this parliament. Meanwhile in Heywood and Middleton, a Labour seat since its creation in 1983, Labour clung on with a majority of 617 votes over UKIP. This time, however, the Liberal Democrats did a little better, coming 4th with 5% and saving our deposit. Here are the full results: Clacton UKIP (Douglas Carswell) – 21,113 (59.7%, N/A) Conservative ...
(For some reason last night's linkblog didn't post, so here it is late) The government plans to outsource identity verification for passports to credit rating agencies. What could possibly go wrong? An interesting article on the reception of the 1954 TV version of 1984 (which will be out on DVD soon, incidentally) Is the voting [...]
The Public Services Minister's evidence to the Assembly's Communities Committee yesterday was a classic case of misdirection. Having announced a local government settlement that cuts grant funding by 3.4% he was keen to put the onus back on councillors, hinting that making savings was not going to be as hard as it looks, simply because between them Wales' 22 Councils hold nearly £1 billion in reserves. Seven of these councils he said hold roughly 20% of their turnover in reserve. He added that if this money was being kept back for a rainy day then that time has come. If ...
Fri 10th
07:55A Lib Dem reshuffle? If it happens, here's who party members would like to see promoted
Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. Some 735 party members responded – thank you – and we're publishing the full results. Jo & Lynne top choices for promotion to cabinet The Lib Dems are expected to hold a ministerial reshuffle after the Scottish independence referendum. Which minister would you most like to see promoted to the cabinet? 20% – Jo Swinson Minister, Business, Innovation & Skills 19% – Lynne Featherstone Minister, Department for International Development 16% – Steve ...
In his Conference speech, Nick Clegg is expected to announce that people with depression should begin "talking therapy" treatments within 18 weeks, from April. Young people with psychosis for the first time will be seen within 14 days – the same target as cancer patients. The Welsh Liberal Democrats have long campaigned for a greater focus on mental health in the Welsh NHS. The party revealed earlier this year that the number of vulnerable young people in Wales waiting more than 14 weeks to access child and adolescent psychiatric services has almost quadrupled, from 199 in January 2013 to 736 ...
