"There's something happening here, what it is ain't exactly clear..." The story of how Buffalo Springfield formed is one of those too-good-to-be-true rock legends. Stephen Stills had met a musician called Neil Young on a visit to Canada in 1964, and admired him greatly. Young had travelled to New York — apparently to look for [...]
Jeremy Browne and I should, I guess, be ideological soul-mates. We both self-identify as Orange Bookers. We both believe in free and fair markets and that access to those markets are often the best way by which social injustice can be righted. We both want to see the Lib Dems self-confidently making the case for Britain as a proudly open and liberal nation. Yet when I read his book, Race Plan, I was, to be honest, a bit disappointed. Most of the policies put forward were notable more for being conventionally right-of-centre (for-profit schools, cutting social security and the top-rate ...
If the problem in part 1 was the amount of redevelopment that has taken place at the Shrewsbury end of the line, the problem here in part 2 is geology. While a preserved steam railway would complement the industrial museums of the Ironbridge Gorge nicely, there are serious problems there with landslips. I suspect they mean a northern extension of the Severn Valley Railway will remain a dream. Look out for the Jackfield Tile Museum, which I visited a few summers ago.
#56250580 / gettyimages.com "By 2015 I will have been the Member of Parliament for Taunton Deane for ten years. That is generally long enough to do the same job. "It is not my ambition to remain in Parliament until I retire. I have been very committed to the role and I have done it to the best of my ability. It is time to do something different. "There is a world beyond politics full of opportunities and it will be exciting to explore it."I do wonder what the chair of Taunton Deane Liberal Democrats made of Jeremy Browne's resignation letter. ...
Another day, another Tory MP telling ordinary folk what they think of them. This time it is Lord Freud shooting his mouth off about disabled people. Lord Freud claims to, "care passionately about disabled people" . So passionate is Lord Freud that he sees fit to threat disabled people as inferior beings. He has branded disabled people as being unworthy of even the minimum wage! When you consider how people on the minimum wage are struggling to survive this puts Lord Freud's thoughts into context. Also, when the Adam Smith institute defends someone who spouts right wing views then you ...
#98485469 / gettyimages.com The broadcasters are struggling to arrive at fair arrangements for leaders' debates in next year's general election and risk being snookered by the realities of multi-party politics and threats of legal action. But would it be such a tragedy if there were no debates? Many argue that the 2010 debates were a breakthrough and interested new people in politics. But the most striking thing about those debates was the way that all three party leaders avoided talking about what the secretly regarded as the biggest issue facing the country. Because there was barely a mention of the ...
[IMG: mullion photo] Photo by HJSP82 Listening to ickle Jamie Cullen on Radio Two last night, I was saddened to learn of the passing of Sheila Tracy, bless her. Sheila Tracy was a large feature in my early years, as she introduced "Spotlight South West" and was a general announcer and newsreader on BBC South West from Cornwall. I think she was there at around the same time as Hugh Scully, Joe Pengelly and Sue Lawley, while Ken MacLeod, Angela Rippon, Stuart Hitchison, Del Cooper, Clive Gunnell et al were on the "other side" on Westward. She was a very ...
So Jeremy Browne has decided to step down at the next election. What should we make of this? I've disagreed with many of Jeremy's choices - I certainly don't come from the same wing of the party as him. I also thought his spell at the Home Office was ineffectual at best. He may not have been aware of the 'racist vans' - but his job was to be aware. I've been very impressed by Norman Baker's subsequent performance as the Liberal Democrat minister in the Home Office. He seems to have got the hang of the job very quickly, ...
[IMG: question time photo] Photo by mjtmail (tiggy) Tomorrow night, Question Time will be coming from Newbury. Charlie Kennedy will be on the panel. So that should be excellent value. I won't be in the audience. But it wasn't for the want of trying. I filled in their web site form. One question asked "Have you ever been on Question Time before?" By "on" I assumed they meant had I actually been on the telly – that is, asking a question on the show, on the actual gogglebox. Well, I haven't. But I sat in the audience for the 2004 ...
Have England's universities been privatised by stealth? – How fees have radically changed higher education. Some Thoughts On Online Voting – Why introducing it would bring in a whole load of new security concerns. Iran: The Ayatollah succession question – A report from Open Briefing that explains a very different political culture very well. Modern money and the escape from austerity – Does modern money theory offer us a completely different way of running the economy? Square this circle: Common sense, UKIP and the decline of deference – "Things like this make me not envy politicians. How do you make ...
At Maryam al-Khawaja's press conference this morning, at Index on Censorship office. She is head of foreign relations for the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, but lives in Copenhagen. Her father, Abdulhadi al-Khawaja is serving a life sentence for freedom of expression offences, and her sister Zainab is awaiting sentencing for tearing up a picture of the King in front of a judge. Maryam told the press conference that IS sympathisers are being recruited into the police and security services in Bahrain.
Before the champagne corks are popped like a Fresher's cherry, and the coalition celebrates another fall in unemployment, it is important to look behind the figures: drill down and the euphoria should really turn to despair. Firstly, the drop in unemployment is driven by an increase in the economically inactive 113,000 (long-term ill, students, retired). Secondly, job creation is slowing down as is the employment rate overall. Thirdly, real wages are still low. Whilst inflation has been low (latest figure at 1.4%) earnings growth is at a paltry 0.9%: many are not feeling this 'good news' in their pockets. Of ...
[IMG: 4683247908_64ebc5b752_Jeremy-Browne] I wish Jeremy Browne well as he prepares for the next phase in his life. As I have stated before, there is much I admire in his thinking. He has very strong liberal/Liberal roots. He certainly is an original thinker, and has been an excellent MP for Taunton Deane. I don't normally explain my attempted witticisms, but for the avoidance of doubt, there is no bitterness or sarcasm intended in the title to this post. It is simply a reference to the Times headline of 24th April 2014 which said: "Lib Dems 'are pointless'", which was based on ...
The internet is abuzz with news that the NUS voted last month not to condemn terrorist group Islamic State. Allegedly, Malia Bouattia suggested that condemnation of ISIS equated to islamophobia and support for military intervention. By intentionally conflating genuine islamophobia and solidarity against the vile ISIS, Ms Bouattia is suggesting that to be muslim is to be violent. There is an enormous difference between the vast majority of ethical, peaceful muslims and the minority that choose to use genocide to further their twisted ideologies. To suggest otherwise is an insult to all those that follow islam. Not only that, but ...
Conservative welfare minister Lord Freud has apologised for suggesting that disabled people are "not worth" the national minimum wage and that some of them should be paid £2 per hour. Such remarks show a staggering ignorance of disability, equality and economics. Freud made the comments at a Conservative Party conference fringe meeting, but they only came to light today in a question at PMQs from Labour leader Ed Miliband. Creating a multi-tier system of pay whereby people with disabilities are paid less would inevitably lead to exploitation and further discrimination. In his apology, Freud insisted that he was responding to ...
I have been to the excellent new(ish) Museum of Liverpool a few times but had not previously spotted the reference to Lydiate Hall and indeed the old timbers from it. Here are a couple of photos (click on them to enlarge) I took on our most recent visit:- [IMG: Timbers from Lydiate Hall on display at the Museum of Liverpool] Timbers from Lydiate Hall on display at the Museum of Liverpool [IMG: History of Lydiate Hall.] History of Lydiate Hall.
-Follow and keep in touch!The proposals to ban smoking in London's parks by the Chief Medical Officer are nothing but an affront to liberty and free personal choice. Dame Sally Davies and Lord Darzi make proposals to Boris Johnson that smoking should be banned in London parks. The ideas could be brought in, and used [...]
[IMG: Go sign - road sign from Mauritius. Image courtesy of Kingroyos. Some rights reserved Want to get a summary of new posts on this blog by email rather than having to check the RSS feed, stalk me on social media or manually come back to this site? Or fancy getting my monthly Liberal Democrat Newswire? (It has a larger readership than the party's official monthly magazine.) Or would you like to get all the latest stories from the party's website by email rather than having to remember to go and visit the website yourself to check for stories? ...
(First posted at reshapedebate.net, 14/10/14) [IMG: Saving For A House] We need a new approach to thinking about housing. Not only do we need to think differently about housing, but political economy more broadly needs to recognize the centrality of housing. It is not possible to carry out meaningful macro-social analysis without recognizing that the housing market occupies a position at the heart of capitalist society. Those, at least, are the contentions that Manuel Aalbers and Brett Christophers (A+C) advance in Centring housing in political economy (£), a paper that recently appeared online and which will form the centrepiece of ...
Episode ThreeJust You, Me and the Dog... As Daisy picks her way back over the fallen masonry into the late sunshine of the car park outside the Isolation Capsule Laboratory, the dog keeps its distance, preferring to stalk her. She clutches the CO2 canister a little tighter to her as she heads for the nearest road junction to look for a road sign. She crosses the road and heads up a wide avenue running between derelict warehouses and business units. Here and there are abandoned cars, doors gaping. Bullet holes are splashed across the bonnet of one, windscreen glass scattered ...
The Guardian published its latest ICM poll — commonly regarded as the 'gold standard' — this week. The top-line (with changes on the previous months) was: Labour 35% (=), Conservatives 31% (-2), Ukip 14% (+5), Lib Dems 11% (+1) and Others 10% (-3). [IMG: icm poll - oct 2014] Polling in September/October tends to fluctuate, as the noise of conference season often leads to spikes in support for each party in turn which soon fade. There have been two additional events which may have further confused matters: the Scottish independence referendum and last week's Clacton by-election. It's the latter event ...
From Cheadle Civic Society: See the Civic Society's new photograph archive here. Photographic history of Cheadle The Cheadle Civic Society has digitised its entire collection of approximately 800 archive photographs and has now uploaded these online to provide a revealing insight into Cheadle history. The rare photographs cover 130 years, dating back to the 1860s and include everything from early pictures of Abney Hall, Cheadle High Street and the historic St Mary's parish church. There is also an excellent selection of late 19th Century photographs of the horse-drawn bus services which used to operate between the White Hart Hotel and ...
So, the Adam Smith Institute are supporting Lord Freud's remarks about 'some people with disabilities are not worth the minimum wage. This is wrong on so many levels I find it difficult to find a starting point. Ethically and morally, the comment is all that is wrong with the detached ruling elite, with little or no relationship with the vast majority in the country. What Freud suggests is that a disabled person should work for a pittance to gain their own self-respect and self-worth: the government tops up the wage. What I find appalling about is that this notion is ...
I had a concern raised about the quality of the finished road surface on Riverside Drive and have had the following update from the Roads Maintenance Partnership Manager at Tayside Contracts, which also updates on the re-opening of the right turn from Riverside drive (heading west) into Riverside Approach and the removal of traffic management : "I'm not aware of there being any surfacing issues however, a final inspection of the works will be carried out next week and I'll provide feedback following this. With regards completion of the works and previous correspondence. The traffic management will not be completely ...
Wed 15th
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Lord Roger Roberts writes: Join #TheAmendment campaign to make Welsh voter registration accessible &...
[IMG: bite the ballot] Much of the current spotlight on Parliament is focussed on the Scottish devolution proposals, which were debated fiercely in the Commons yesterday. This has spearheaded a much needed public discussion about devolution and I welcome these new opportunities. However, as well as being an important issue for Scotland, these debates are equally vital for Wales. Today's second Committee Stage debate of the Wales Bill signifies an important step towards easier, engaging and more accessible voter registration in Wales. Today, the Lords will be debate amendments 19 and 20 that have the potential to spark youth engagement ...
The Council's Cabinet will now discuss, and decide on, the issue of bus lanes on 24th October. They were meant to do so last week although the item didn't appear on the agenda. Perhaps there was a delay with a report. The paperwork for the meeting should be published by 9 am on Friday (17th) at the latest. I'll link to it when I have it.
[IMG: Folkestone Banksy.. and Tim Prater] "I think we both agree, Shepway District Council have done a pretty good job of cleaning the graffiti off this plinth..." How about a competition to come up with exhibits that should be on the Folkestone Banksy plinth. what should our audio-guided visitor be looking at? Earlier this week, the artwork was defaced with one suggestion - a large picture of a cock (sorry chicken fans - not that sort). Massive congratulations to that graffiti artist - that's cutting edge humour right there. And has been for about 40 years. But what would be ...
Jeremy Browne - looking decidedly uncomfortable at Glee Club Lib Dem MP Jeremy Browne has announced that he will not be contesting next year's General Election. Browne currently represents Taunton Deane, and would have been defending a majority of 3,993. He has served as Minister of State in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and , later, Minister of Crime Prevention in the Home Office. Browne posted a statement on twitter this morning,which read: "After much deliberation I have decided not to contest Taunton Deane as the Liberal Democrat candidate at the 2015 General Election and to stand down as Member ...
Organisation will condemn UKIP but not ISIS The Tab reports that: Hand-wringing delegates at the NUS blocked a vote to show solidarity with Iraqi Kurds and condemn Islamic State militants because they say it's "Islamophobic". The bill called for the Union - which claims to represent UK students - to support unity between Muslims, condemn the [...]
Three months ago I hadn't heard of Kumamoto City. It's a city of approximately 750,000 people in the South East of Japan and I visited it last week as part of my study tour of Japan organised by CLAIR the ... Continue reading →
[IMG: The Guardian Bookshop] You know what the first thing I did was when I saw that The Guardian has launched its own online bookshop, don't you? Yes indeed, 101 Ways To Win An Election is on sale, complete with a price that at time of typing is lower than Amazon's. Go on, you know you want to.* * If only to annoy my co-author, whose name has been dropped from The Guardian website.
At Consett Fire Station from 6.45 onwards. [IMG: Bonfire Night]
Jeremy Browne, Lib Dem MP for Taunton Deane, has announced he will not be standing again in May 2015. Here's his tweet, complete with resignation letter: I have decided not to stand as a candidate at the 2015 General Election. Resignation letter to local party attached. pic.twitter.com/rYfpa3XVIO — Jeremy Browne (@JeremyBrowneMP) October 15, 2014 Here's Nick Clegg's response to the news: 'Jeremy Browne has decided that now is the right time to announce he will not stand at the next election and the Liberal Democrats wish him all the best for the future. The Deputy Prime Minister regrets that he ...
It's been a tricky 18 months for Lib Dems and charities. Of course the party has traditionally been close to the voluntary sector. Many current parliamentarians previously worked in it. But the Lobbying Act opened up a serious rift. Charities are now suffering the consequences of this illiberal and undemocratic limit on their free speech. With an election fast approaching, how has the party tried to heal the wounds? This year at ACEVO – the social leaders' network – we decided to do go beyond the usual third sector manifesto-writing and ask a range of Lib Dems to set out ...
Former Special Advisor to Vince Cable, Giles Wilkes, has written a compelling piece [paywall] about the political failure of Nick Clegg's strategic move of the Liberal Democrats to a party that supports tax cuts. It raises a number of questions that Liberal Democrats would do well to know the answer to: not least 'if this policy is not politically popular – and the evidence of Lib Dem poll ratings suggests that it is not – why persist with it?' With Edelman's polling suggesting that the general public think the policy of raising the income tax threshold is owned by the ...
On 28 November Sarah Teather MP's private members' bill will reach its second reading stage. The bill aims to prevent landlords from using the accelerated possession procedure to evict tenants who have complained about disrepair in their home or where health and safety hazards are found to exist at the premises. These are popularly known [...]
In case you weren't able to make it to Glasgow, here's some good news from Conference. The hard work that many people in the party have done on housing is being recognised. Jules Birch, housing blogger, sums up our party's policies on housing: 'As so often before the Lib Dems look like going into the next election with the best housing policies.' This is not an easy feat. Housing is a complex issue which spreads its effects throughout society. It runs all the way from the individual tragedies of homelessness, to structure of our economy and the psychology of homeownership. ...
[IMG: Cllr Sue James speaking at Liberal Democrat conference] Cllr Sue James speaking at Liberal Democrat conference From St Just to Glasgow to speak at LibDem Conference. I have never been to a political party conference before but feel it was well worth the journey. It was good to be able to take part in debates and shape policy and reflect on some of the big and difficult issues facing M.Ps. I even braved taking the mike to speak up in support of party policy to scrap Police and Crime Commissioners but encouraging delegates to get behind my petition to ...
This is the text of a press release just sent out by Wokingham Borough Council: "NEXT PHASE STARTS ON STATION LINK ROAD Work on the next phase of Wokingham Borough Council's station link road scheme is due to start on October 27, focusing on Barkham Road and Oxford Road south of Wokingham Station's level crossing. Because this work's proximity to the level crossing, and the complex nature of remodelling the Barkham and Oxford Road junctions where they meet, sections of these two highways must be closed to traffic. Oxford Road will be closed from October 27 to December 5, between ...
Britain is in a fractious, ill tempered mood. Discontent with the political class festers, and every mountebank, from Alex Salmond to Nigel Farage is being seized on as someone who can break the perceived corruption in Whitehall and Westminster. Politicians are held- especially in the media- in widespread contempt. That, of course is the problem. It is not that politics is necessarily more negative or even more corrupt than it used to be, but rather that we have grown used to a mocking chorus from journalists who are guilty of even more egregious corruption than the politicians they condemn so ...
The Jimmy Kimmel show recently had a segment with a simple but deliciously pointed premise: go to a farmer's market and ask people who refuse to buy GM products, what GM is actually means. Hilarity ensues.Filed under: Uncategorized
So, there will be televised debates prior to the 2015 General Election. The question that beckons is what form they should take. ITV, Channel 4 and the BBC are all set to host the party leaders, each with a different composition. Channel 4 have invited Ed Miliband and David Cameron, the BBC have added Nick Clegg to the mix and the trio becomes four as Nigel Farage will attend the ITV debate. The big controversy, of course, is ITV's decision to invite UKIP to their debate, given they have only one MP. Personally, I absolutely support the move. As Liberal ...
There are sharks who live below the line at the Guardian. It is a frightening place. I know this. I wrote a comment article for the Guardian yesterday about the sign at Beddau RFC urging over-enthusiastic parents to calm down a little. I found myself defending serious parents against the idea that somehow nothing really matters. In the circumstances, I escaped pretty much unscathed - but then it would have been very silly of me to read absolutely all the comments. What does seem to have irritated people was this section: "It's tough out there. So tough that I'm not ...
New figures reveal that nearly 1,400 patients waited more than a year for hospital treatment and that nine of them have been waiting for more than two years. Kirsty Williams, leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats said: "These figures are nothing short of a national disgrace. It is completely unacceptable that nearly 1,400 people are being forced to wait over a year for treatment. "Month after month we see the Welsh Government's 36 week target missed. However these figures show the problem is even worse than that. My concern is that the Welsh Labour Government seems entirely clueless on how ...
Don't be taken in by the Great Tory Green Bin Con! Tories want you to believe they would give you free Green Bin collection. the trouble is that to give everyone free green bins, they would have to cut something else - but they've refused to say what. Either they don't know, or they DO know and don't want to tell us because it would be something even worse... The Tories did try claiming that collecting bins from early morning to late at night would save the money - until independent experts say it would actually COST over £50,000 more ...
My posting of 6th October refers:- The Liverpool Echo said – UP TO £18m of funding meant to help local firms and workers was given back to the government by a Merseyside council after it went unspent. The cash, which was to be spent across the region, was being handled by Knowsley council on behalf of the other authorities. But since then all has gone quiet. Why? Which businesses applied for money and did not get any? How many of them were Sefton based businesses? Were Sefton based businesses even offered the opportunity to bid for the money? I ...
[IMG: imagesXBXR5IHX] There's a saying that goes politics is show business for ugly people. There's probably some truth in that. But I'd counter with this: show business is politics for stupid people. I probably would have been better off knowing that prior to diving head first into an attempt at an acting career in 2004. Bizarrely, it all got off to somewhat of a flying start. I very quickly landed a few gigs on TV ads (none of which ever aired - it is remarkable how many adverts are shot in London that never see the light of day), which ...
[IMG: mental-health-nhs] Liberal Democrat Leader and Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, announced that treatment for mental health conditions will be brought into line with other NHS services with the introduction of the first ever waiting time standards. For the first time, from April 2015, most patients needing talking therapies - for conditions like depression - will be guaranteed the treatment they need in as little as six weeks, with a maximum wait of 18 weeks. For many patients experiencing their first episode of psychosis, the NHS will start to provide treatment within two weeks of referral - bringing it into ...
[IMG: Poll piechart] The latest quarterly update to my spreadsheet of opinion poll data from 1943 is now up at: http://www.markpack.org.uk/opinion-polls/ You can also sign up on that page to get email notifications about future updates. Enjoy!
Labour has put out a video in which it gives the Conservatives some handy tips as to how to not be the 'nasty party'. The tongue-in-cheek clip doesn't completely fail to amuse and is pretty accurate in what it says. Few here would doubt the Tories are still the nasty party. The Liberal Democrat leadership is quite right when it says 'compassionate Conservatism' has been exposed for the fraud it is. However, there is something unsettling when Labour is the one using the 'nasty party' stick to beat their Tory opponents with when Labour itself has clearly shown itself to ...
Liberal Democrats in government have introduced a triple lock for state pensions. This means every year the basic state pension will rise by either the rate of average earnings, 2.5%, or inflation (depending on which one is highest). This has led to the biggest ever cash increase in the basic state pension. Pensioners on the basic state pension are now £950 a year better off then they were under the last Labour government. The economic recovery hasn't been easy, but i'm proud to belong to a party that where possible has balanced using resources with measures that have helped boost ...
Readers will recall that I have been pressing Merseyside Police and Crime Commissioner Jane Kennedy over the future of Maghull Police Station. My posting of 8th August 2013 refers:- Well things have moved on but there remains a distinct lack of clarity in my view. I attended a recent briefing given by the Commissioner about the emerging estates strategy of Merseyside Police but did not gain much in the way of useful information. [IMG: Here I am at Maghull Police Station where the Neighbourhood Policing Team must have had a tough time during Mad March.] Here I am at ...
The TV leaders debates were one of the big successes of 2010. This was the first time in UK history that the leaders of our major political parties had agreed to debate in this format, and I am convinced that they played a vital role in informing people regarding what they were voting for and [...]
Yesterday morning, along with the area Housing Officer and a representative of the council's City Development Department's Roads Team, I took part in a walkabout round the Corso Street, Abbotsford Street and Place, Blackness Road and Peddie Street areas, to look at local issues and ensure any problems are resolved. Here are some of the matters we tackled yesterday : Pavement repair required - corner of Peddie Street and Abbotsford Place - now reported for repair Litter removal required - communal area - Peddie Street Tree branches across pavement - Abbotsford Place - reported for trimming Drain cover Blackness Road ...
The Times gets it spot on: [IMG: The Times - migrant benefits] The full leader article on immigration is here (free to view).
Patients of the Portcullis practice in central Ludlow will know how cramped the current building is. I am a patient there myself and there are times when it is standing room only in the waiting area. There is no privacy at reception, and if a patient speaks loudly to a doctor is sometimes possible to [...]
I called on the Transport Minister yesterday to meet the Welsh Government's commitment to infrastructure improvements in North Wales by identifying and funding projects to ease traffic on the A55. The Welsh Government has previously welcomed increased borrowing powers for infrastructure projects in Wales and at the same time made a commitment to making much-needed improvements to the A55. I welcome the commitment from the Minister yesterday that the design work and assessments will now be actioned. The Minister has also said that she will share the plans with local AMs in North Wales as soon as possible. The recent ...
It is a sign of how dysfunctional the Labour Party has become when its own leader has to publicly appeal for unity just seven months out from the General Election. The Times reports though that this is precisely what is happening. They say that Ed Mliband has begged Labour MPs for unity, warning that returning to the "bad habits" of infighting risks consigning the party to defeat. They add that the Labour leader expects "every person in this party" to stop sniping and help to secure victory after weeks of anger over election strategy: Mr Miliband has faced a barrage ...
