Not the colour scheme we are used to. Taken in town on Saturday morning.
Robert Hutton spells out how little Reckless can be trusted for Bloomberg: Mark Reckless, who last month became the second Conservative lawmaker to defect to the U.K. Independence Party, is focusing his campaign to hold his seat on blocking a proposal he backed when he was a Tory. Leaflets going out to voters in Rochester & Strood attack a "Tory Stitch-Up" over a plan to build 5,000 houses in Lodge Hill, a rural area that's one of Britain's most important nightingale colonies. ...Reckless was less troubled by the area's wildlife in March 2013, when he made a speech in Parliament ...
There was a clarinetist busking in St Mary's Place, Market Harborough, yesterday and because he was playing this I stopped to give him some money. Because it was pure nostalgia for me. We did not have many records at home when I was a little boy, but one of them was an Acker Bilk EP which included Stranger on the Shore. Released as a single in 1961, it reached no. 2 in the UK and (remarkably for a British record in those days) no. 1 in the USA. Still playing at 85, Acker Bilk was one of the stars of ...
Sun 19th
19:39
We must dispel myths about Ludlow not having poor people and that than half of us are retired
I was at a meeting in Shirehall a couple months ago when a Conservative councillor asked: "Surely there are no poor people in Ludlow?" More recently a local councillor told a meeting that more than half of the residents in Ludlow are aged 65 or over. Neither of these statements is anywhere near the truth. [...]
Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 394th 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 (12-18 October, 2014), together with a hand-picked quintet, you might otherwise have missed. Don't forget: you can sign up to receive the Golden Dozen direct to your email inbox — just click here — ensuring you never miss out on the best of Lib Dem blogging. As ever, let's start with the most popular post, and work our way down: 1. So farewell then, Jeremy Browne by Jonathan ...
This blog entry is about my strategy for maximising my state pension. I'm making the entry for anyone else in my position — that is with a low income but spare cash, or a partner with a higher income, which means that they are not forced to claim their state pension at the first opportunity [...]
Earlier this week, I blogged about the damaging and potentially deadly effects of perfectionism. That explored it as a psychological phenomenon but for some people it can have a theological dimension too. Christianity is apparently pretty clear on human beings being imperfect. In Romans 3, the Apostle Paul writes that "all have sinned and fall short [...]
I may not have mentioned this before, but one of the best bits about being a Liberal Democrat, aside from being the most democratic of the main political parties, is that we also boast an impressive number of sub organisations who campaign on many issues and factors that are often overlooked by mainstream media. The [...]
Earlier this week the International Agency for Research on Cancer, part of the World Health Organisation, launched a new code against cancer focused on what people in Europe can do to halve our chances of cancer. Currently each year in the European Union 2.66 million new cancer cases and 1.28 million people die from cancer every year. Imagine halving this. The code is about highlighting what we can all do to prevent cancer. Things like avoiding tabacco, excessive alcohol, excessive sunlight and taking part in organised programmes cancel screening programmes. Do not smoke. Do not use any form of tobacco. ...
Back in May I pointed out UKIP's bizarre feet of managing to lose whilst winning: On any conventional measure of elections, UKIP is the big winner from Thursday's European Parliament elections. Votes up, seats up, the anti-EU cause on a roll right? Well not quite. Votes and seats up, yes - but during the UKIP surge of the last few months there's been another, quite contradictory surge. From being regularly behind in Europe referendum polling, the 'stay in' vote is now consistently ahead of the 'come out' vote. Just as UKIP has risen in popularity, its preferred choice in an ...
Here are the latest national voting intention figures from each of the main pollsters. To put the numbers into longer context, take a look at my database of polling figures going back to 1945, which is updated quarterly. Con Lab LibDem UKIP Green Con lead Fieldwork Method ComRes 31% 34% 7% 19% 4% -3% 15-16/10 Online ComRes 29% 35% 10% 15% 4% -6% 26-28/9 Phone ICM 31% 35% 11% 14% 4% -4% 10-12/10 Phone Ashcroft 28% 32% 8% 19% 5% -4% 10-12/10 Phone Ashcroft 31% 34% 8% 18% 4% -3% 8-9/10 Online MORI 30% 33% 8% 16% 5% -3% 11-14/10 ...
Sun 19th
14:45
Conference Speeches: Vince Cable: Liberal Democrats have brought compassion, common sense and compet...
Continuing our series of Conference speeches, today it's the turn of Vince Cable. He announced an increase in pay for apprentices, talked about the benefits of migration and spelled out the difference between Liberal Democrats and Conservatives. He talked about what the Liberal Democrats have brought to the Government and exhorted us to be proud about it. You can watch here, and the text is below: Firstly it is a pleasure to celebrate with Alistair Carmichael and the rest of the Scottish team after our successful cross-party campaign to keep the United Kingdom united. British politics owes a lot to ...
Have a look at the link above to an article on the Echo web site. There are some really nice photos in the on-line gallery.
[IMG: Miriam González Durántez by Cabinet Office] It seems that Miriam González Durántez's interview the other day has impressed a couple of Fleet Street columnists. In the Guardian, Gaby Hinsliff says Miriam is "electrifying.": I've seen Miriam talking to girls at an Essex comp about raising their sights. She was electrifying. In a world where successful women are regularly portrayed as ball-breakers, lonely, or just underdressed, she makes working motherhood look thrillingly fun and achievable, if not easy. (She's big on graft). And for teenage girls, she explodes the myth that men won't want you if you're clever. She doesn't ...
[IMG: 7 ver 4 full] Many thanks to the 15,700 visitors who dropped by Lib Dem Voice this week. Here's our 7 most-read posts... ++Jeremy Browne to stand down as Lib Dem MP in 2015 (110 comments) by The Voice Opinion: Generation Y: Why don't they vote Lib Dem? (114 comments) by Simon McGrath Opinion: Jeremy Browne deserves our thanks (46 comments) by Ed Fordham Brian Paddick writes...Are we confusing anti-politics with anti-Westminster? (66 comments) by Brian Paddick 28 Lib Dem MPs vote for recognition of State of Palestine, 1 against (39 comments) by The Voice ICM has Labour ahead, ...
[IMG: libdemvoice] LibDemVoice's surveys of party members signed-up to our discussion forum have been running for over six years now. (I posted yesterday the final set of figures from our most recent poll.) Our surveys are a way of testing members' views on a variety of hot topics. And as they've been running throughout the four-and-a-half years of the Coalition they're also an interesting record of changing views on how the Coalition is regarded within the party. If you would like to take part in the LibDemVoice surveys, there are simply two steps you need to follow: 1) Be a ...
[IMG: AV baby] In the way that members of a certain generation remember exactly where they were when they first heard that John F Kennedy had been shot, those who either worked or volunteered on, or were in any way emotionally involved with the Yes to AV campaign will never forget the circumstances under which any of us first saw what was to become the defining image of the AV referendum campaign, the sick baby billboard. For those of you who don't remember it as clearly as we do, it was an advert put out all over the country by ...
Hansard now has Friday's speeches on the parliamentary website. I spoke in both debates. This is a link to my speech in the EU referendum debate. This is the debate on the Transparency and Accountability bill Both are I think important speeches. The difficulty on the issue of pan-European institutions (including the Council of Europe and the European Union) is that the heat of the
[IMG: sundaypaps] Here's my selection of articles to inform, infuriate and inspire from this week's Sunday papers. First up this week is a piece from the Observer by Barbara Ellen. Its headline "Like all rapists, Ched Evans will never be really free" got my hackles up, but the article itself is a bit more balanced than its headline suggests. It's worth remembering, though, that most rapists go unpunished because the conviction rate is scarily low. Ellen says that Evans will never be able to leave this crime behind him, much more so than if he'd been convicted of a different ...
The Guardian warns David Cameron and his Conservative Party that UK efforts to bring terrorists, including jihadis, to justice in this country will be seriously impeded if he bows to pressure from Eurosceptics and opts out of European Union police and justice co-operation. The paper says that the prime minister is facing what could be the biggest backbench rebellion of his premiership over Europe next month, when up to 100 Conservative MPs could vote against the UK continuing to be part of a package of EU policies that includes the European Arrest Warrant. Apparently, Tory rightwingers are arguing that the ...
As we draw nearer to the May 2015 General Election we are told that the TV companies have 'decided' which political parties will be allowed to take part in the live debates. Can't say I am a fan of these staged events but what on earth is going on when UKIP are offered a shot at it but the Greens are not! That's simply not fair and reasonable in my view. No, I would not consider voting for the Green Party because their narrow interpretation of environmental issues makes them little more than a single issue Party, like UKIP with ...
It must be a thing if two Sunday columnists have both noticed it – Andrew Rawnsley and Matthew D'Ancona both notice that there are simultaneous plots against both the Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition and attempt to work out what it means. For me, it's Rawnsley who finds the best explanation: In Britain, it runs deeper than that. Austerity has sharpened and accelerated a much longer-term trend of disintegrating support for the two major parties. They've gone, the solid blocks of red and blue voters that the major party leaders used to be able to mobilise. There has ...
Good, but plenty of scope to be even better: [IMG: MORI polling on income tax allowance]
Bath MP, Don Foster has welcomed the news that the number of unemployed claimants in Bath has continued to fall over the last year. The number of unemployed claimants in the Bath constituency in September 2014 was 644. This represents a rate of 1.5% of the economically active population aged 16 to 64. The number of claimants is 491 lower than in September 2013 and 29 lower than in
Don Foster, MP for Bath, has welcomed the news that the basic state pensions will rise by at least £2.85 a week thanks to the Lib Dems' triple lock. It means Bath pensioners will benefit from an increase in their pension. This rise will bring the level of the state pension to at least £115.95. In Bath and NES there are almost 32,000 pensioners who will benefit from this rise, which will
As well as looking at speeding traffic in Upper Bloomfield Road and Old Fosse Road, we took the opportunity to look at speeding traffic in Rush Hill. The speeds were slightly higher in Rush Hill with the highest being 32mph. We hope to make this a regular occurrence, Rush Hill is not classified as a major road, we have residents have near misses trying to get out of their drive by speeding
[IMG: Orange_Book] "10 Years on from The Orange Book: what should authentic liberalism look like?" That was the title of a Lib Dem conference fringe meeting in Glasgow, organised by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), at which I was speaking alongside MPs Tim Farron and Jeremy Browne, Orange Book co-editor Paul Marshall, the IEA's Ryan Bourne and ComRes pollster Tom Mludzinski. Here's what I said... I often describe myself as an Orange Booker. Like most labels it's a short-hand. To me it simply means I'm a Lib Dem at ease with the role of a competitive market and who ...
It was good to get out with local PC Martyn Bridges to look at the issues of speeding traffic in Upper Bloomfield Road and Old Fosse Road. Although no one was seen speeding, drivers will see enforcement can take place. We will be looking to set up an evening visit as well.
Burgenland is the least populated of all Austria's states, a jagged sliver of land bordering Slovakia, Hungary and Slovenia. As such, it was the ideal location for this year's Congress of the Association of European Journalists (AEJ), when our minds were turned to the fall of Communism in Central Europe 25 years ago. It was [...]
Yesterday, I had the pleasure of attending the launch of Dundee Botanic Garden Endowment Trust, part of a great day of well-supported activities at the Botanic Garden. You can find out more about the Endowment Trust by contacting the Botanic Garden - contact details here. Some photos from yesterday's activities : Lady Dalhousie welcomes guests Forfar and District Pipe Band Dr Hugh Ingram gives an official welcome Gardeners' Question time with Nicola McNee, Lady Catherine Erskine, Jim McColl and John Stoa
Sun 19th
08:29
More powers needed to combat fly-tipping – Lunt, Ince Blundell & Melling residents would a...
Councils in England and Wales have called for more powers to punish fly-tippers who are costing taxpayers millions of pounds every year. The Local Government Association (LGA) said that councils should be handed the ability to issue on-the-spot fines or fixed penalty notices to those who dump rubbish in a bid to tackle the 711,000 incidents putting a huge strain on budgets and resources on an annual basis. Currently fly-tipping costs councils £36m every year. Peter Box, the LGA's environment spokesman, said: "It is utterly unacceptable and inexcusable for anyone to dump waste illegally and councils know how much people ...
