At what point do people die from lack of sleep when they are able to get just three or four hours a night indefinitely? Keep following this blog and you may find out! A three-part series of posts on John Cleese's connections with Amnesty benefit shows. A radio documentary on Charles Ives The Dutch Socialist [...]

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

#90734607 / gettyimages.com Longstanding readers will remember that Rudyard Kipling was named after Rudyard Lake in Staffordshire. But where did the lake, in reality a canal reservoir, get its name? It was named after - and this is our Trivial Fact of the Day - Ralph Rudyard, who is reputed to have slain Richard III at Bosworth.

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

Tim Farron is coming to the end of his four-year term as President of the Liberal Democrats, but he's still juggling being the campaigning MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale with the demands of the rubber chicken circuit. This evening he was in Mortlake, to open the new constituency offices of Richmond Park LibDems, at 65a [...]

Posted by jonathanfryer on Jonathan Fryer
Tue 21st
21:53

A London tram poster

#464494465 / gettyimages.com If you are interested in London trams, I recommend the short film The Elephant Will Never Forget.

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

#71470942 / gettyimages.com I am a great believer in representative democracy. You elect someone and if you do not like how he or she performs as your MP, you vote for someone else at the next election. Increasingly, however - fuelled chiefly by the expenses scandal - there have been moves to allow voters to petition for the ejection of an MP between elections and the holding of by-elections. Some versions of recall require an MP to be convicted of a criminal offence or some other former of wrongdoing. Others just require the voters not to like them very much. ...

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

It was a private meeting so I can't name the Tory councillor that asked: "Surely there are no poor people in Ludlow?" I suspect that she had never been beyond Mill Street. Those of us that know this town intimately recognise that affluent people live cheek by jowl with people who struggle to make ends [...]

Posted by andybodders on Andy Boddington

Liberal Democrat councillor Ross Henley is to seek nomination as the party's next parliamentary candidate for Taunton Deane, reports the Around Wellington website. This, of course, is the Lib Dem seat to be vacated at the next general election by Jeremy "There is a world beyond politics full of opportunities and it will be exciting to explore it" Browne.

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

[IMG: ALDC Master Logo (for screen)] Last week saw ten principal by-elections contested across the country with the Liberal Democrats recording two victories. In York, former city council leader Andrew Waller was re-elected following a resounding Lib Dem victory in Westfield Ward, defeating the Labour Party candidate by 1,216 votes in second place. Andrew who had lost his seat in the 2011 local elections, polled 60.2% and was able to capitalize on a fall of 28.3% for Labour's vote share from 2011 to give the party their ninth councilor in York. The Liberal Democrats were also victorious in Rutland with ...

Posted by ALDC on Liberal Democrat Voice

-Follow and keep in touch!A key aide to Nick Clegg was photographed leaving a meeting, holding a piece of paper that reveals that leading policies for the Lib Dems manifesto. Ryan Coetzee is a General Election strategist for the Lib Dems, and an important advisor to Nick Clegg. Coetzee was photographed leaving a political meeting [...]

Posted by Charlotte Henry on Charlotte Henry

#453307194 / gettyimages.com First, what's likely to be on the front page of the next Liberal Democrat general election manifesto: Ryan Coetzee leaving Lib Dem Political meeting before Cabinet this morning seemed to be showing me there future plans pic.twitter.com/TReplSoKwn — Political Pictures (@PoliticalPics) October 21, 2014 To those who track Lib Dem policy debates the content is not surprising, though the omission of the environment, civil liberties and political reform is notable (although the environment and civil liberties feature in the list of secondary policies). Second, we've learnt how respected Liberal Democrat Director of Strategy Ryan Coetzee is with ...

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack
YouGov

Lib Dem Director of Strategy Ryan Coetzee fell into that trap of forgetting that the papers you are carrying are just one super-duper camera lens away from being photographed. And once photographed, social media is just a few clicks away. ... Continue reading →

Posted by caronlindsay on Caron's Musings

I had a fantastic time over in Bedford seeing Scouting at its best in PHXG Scouts and at Bedfordshire Scouts Indaba as well. After a late night scramble from London back to Bedford Station and back to where I was staying and back to the station and onwards to Luton Airport I made it back to Gibraltar....

Posted by John Carchrie Campbell on HIV Blogger: living positively

This year's Newsham Model Railway exhibition will be held at St Bede's Parish Centre on Friday 24th ( 2 pm to 8 pm ) and Saturday 25th ( 10 am to 5 pm ) I'll amend this post when I have details of the layouts and exhibitors, but I see that Ed Orwin's layout of Blyth will be there again. [IMG: Photo]

Posted by Alisdair Gibbs-Barton on Alisdair Gibbs-Barton

Councillors in Manchester have backed moves to give Greater Manchester a new figurehead, as part of the first step to having its own directly-elected mayor. The plan would involve appointing a new leader to a "super-council" in the hope the Government will then hand over a package of new powers and finance. Lord Peter Smith, the leader of Wigan Council and the current chair of the Greater Manchester combined authority, is understood to be the frontrunner for the interim post. The Manchester Evening News carried this story recently. No surprise that Lord Peter Smith he is the front runner to ...

Posted by Cllr. Tony Robertson on Sefton FocusSefton Focus

[IMG: Lib Dems celebrate 100 years of women councillors - Photo by Martin Tod] This week, Lib Dem Women went public with our campaign to lobby Nick Clegg to promote more of our brilliant women, and especially to ask one of them to join the Cabinet. This weekend, it was announced that he has no intention of another reshuffle before the General Election. Here's why that's a really bad idea. It's not just because the Liberal Democrats have plenty of exceptional and capable women who deserve more senior positions. We do, of course, but if we were talking about experience ...

Posted by Alice Thomas on Liberal Democrat Voice

#456784852 / gettyimages.com Continuing my series of guest posts from candidates to succeed Tim Farron as Liberal Democrat President (of whom there are now three, after Linda Jack dropped out), here is Liz Lynne setting out her priorities for the first months in the job. What I will do as President from January to May – Liz Lynne My first job as President of the Liberal Democrats, apart from ensuring all aspects of Morrissey have been acted upon, is to enthuse the party membership and to make sure that we get as many MPs and councillors elected. The President has ...

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

Ryan Coetzee, recently appointed the Lib Dems' General Election Director of Strategy, was snapped today clutching papers which look like they might reveal the party's top four priorities for the 2015 manifesto. Ryan Coetzee leaving Lib Dem Political meeting before Cabinet this morning seemed to be showing me there future plans pic.twitter.com/TReplSoKwn — Political Pictures (@PoliticalPics) October 21, 2014 * Stephen Tall is Co-Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice, and editor of the 2013 publication, The Coalition and Beyond: Liberal Reforms for the Decade Ahead. He is also a Research Associate for the liberal think-tank CentreForum and writes at his own ...

Posted by Stephen Tall on Liberal Democrat Voice

[IMG: Gough_Whitlam_bust by WikiTownsvillian] I'm an avid consumer of the politics of other countries, including that of Australia which borrows so much from our Westminster system yet, viewing its Parliamentary proceedings on-line, some might say its politics are even more robust than our own. I first became interested in Australian politics at around the time of the original coup when Julia Gillard became Prime Minister after ousting her own Party colleague Kevin Rudd. Three years and three days later, of course, Mr Rudd got his own back when he took back the crown, albeit to shortly thereafter lose it again ...

Posted by Mathew Hulbert on Liberal Democrat Voice

Last week saw ten principal by-elections contested across the country with the Liberal Democrats recording two victories. In York, former city council leader Andrew Waller was re-elected following a resounding Lib Dem victory in Westfield Ward, defeating the Labour Party candidate by 1,216 votes in second place. Andrew who had lost his seat in the 2011 local elections, polled [...]

Posted by Michael Powell on Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors

Lib Dems in Cornwall are campaigning to end a loophole being used by some second home owners to avoid paying either council tax or business rates. As the cabinet member in charge of finance in Cornwall, I have been asking ministers to close the loophole. Now Julia Goldsworthy, the Lib Dem parliamentary candidate for Camborne, Redruth and Hayle has written to the Chancellor. Here's how the loophole works: A second home owner is normally liable for full council tax on their property (two years ago the government removed the requirement to give a discount on second homes and the council ...

Posted by Alex Folkes on A Lanson Boy
eUKhost

There is a sensible contribution from employers today to the debate on EU immigration with EEF, the manufacturers' organisation, calling for an end to the "misinformation and paranoia" it says is dominating the debate over Britain's future in Europe. The EEF joins the CBI in defending the EU's free movement principle, as Mr Cameron pledges to make reform of it his key demand when he seeks new membership terms ahead of the in/out referendum he has promised in 2017. The Independent says that Terry Scuoler, chief executive of the manufacturers' body, will say in a speech tomorrow: "For too long ...

Posted by Peter Black on Peter Black

Here's a statement from Jane Ellison MP and me, following the sad passing of Efua Dorkenoo. Also available on Huffington Post. We learned with very great sadness of the passing of Efua Dorkenoo OBE on Saturday 14 October. We had the honour of working closely with Efua for some years, and she was deservingly known as 'Mama Efua', the mother of the movement against FGM. Efua worked tirelessly for many decades, most recently as Programme Director for the International Social Change campaign, The Girl Generation'. But Efua's pioneering work began in the early 1980s and since then, she dedicated her ...

Posted by Lynne Featherstone on Lynne Featherstone » Blog

School children across Peterborough can now benefit from free flu immunisations. Children aged 11 to 13, in school years seven and eight, are being offered free immunisation against influenza as part of a national pilot programme. The immunisation will protect young children, their siblings, grandparents and others who are at increased risk of becoming ill. [...]

Posted by Cllr Darren Fower on Cllr Darren Fower

Sarah Teather was one of the five Liberal Democrat MPs who won a spot in the annual ballot (actually a big raffle) for Private Members' Bills. John Hemming is tackling secrecy in the family courts, Andrew George the Bedroom Tax, Martin Horwood is trying to stop parking on pavements while Mike Moore wants to enshrine the 0.7% aid target into law. Sarah's bill is to stop your landlord chucking you out in the street if you complain about poor conditions. So called revenge evictions cause huge problems. She's written a blog for Shelter explaining what her bill would do and ...

Posted by NewsHound on Liberal Democrat Voice

[IMG: snp_cards_and_coin_0] A comment by Andrew Hickey got me thinking this morning about how the SNP's surge in membership fits in a European context. In the post-referendum period, the party now reportedly has 80,000 or more members which makes it the third-largest UK party by membership, but also means its membership is about 2% of the total Scottish electorate. (As a comparison, to achieve that UK-wide, a party would need a membership of over 900,000) Luckily, to place that into a European context, I don't need to do a huge amount of work because someone else has already looked at ...

Posted by Nick on What You Can Get Away With

There are some things in life that go hand in hand In the UK it is a General Election and talk of Immigration Controls In every general election since Enoch Powell's "rivers of blood" speech Labour and the Conservatives have sought to out-do each other on the toughness of their respective policies on immigration Usually the war of words starts at about the same time as the political parties start their election campaign. This time round the battle has already started even though the General Election is some six months away And the reason? The Tories are running scared of ...

Posted by Rabi Martins on Liberal Democrat Voice

No time like the present... Daisy slams a fist onto the panel of the bulkhead, aware it won't open it but at least it vents some frustration and fear as the capsule rocks slowly from side to side. 'What's making us shake?'After some seconds the reply from the computer program. 'It is some people with what look like metal poles, trying to push over the ICL... Daisy, I'm going to let you into the cockpit and then talk you through an emergency evacuation procedure...''I am not going back out there, it's that cannibal and his cronies... I knew there'd be ...

Posted by Trisha xx on ripplestone review

-Follow and keep in touch!Sir Andrew Green, former Director of anti immigration group Migration Watch, has been appointed by the government to the House of Lords. In the run up to the Rochester and Strood by-election, David Cameron truly is on the run from UKIP. Sir Andrew Green is a former diplomat, and has served [...]

Posted by Charlotte Henry on Charlotte Henry

One of the main purposes of writing blogs, it often seems to me, is to prove yourself right. Preferably so many times that you even come to believe it yourself. I try not to do too much of this, in case it becomes embarrassing, but I noticed today some evidence of one of my repeated theses: in this case, that - despite all the rhetoric about technology - change is actually slowing down and has been for some time. After all, I have been driving in Minis and flying in Jumbo Jets my entire life (I'm 56), and - although ...

Posted by David Boyle on The Real Blog

The first minister has dismissed calls for an inquiry into the running of the NHS in Wales. Welsh Liberal Democrat leader Kirsty Williams repeated her call for an all-party commission, saying: "Labour's-running of the NHS in Wales is nothing short of a national scandal." She went on: "it is the Labour-led Welsh Government's fault that waiting times are increasing and they are not caused by devolution. She said: "Nurses in Wales have more patients to care for than any other part of the UK. That is why the Welsh Liberal Democrats are campaigning to introduce safe staff nursing levels on ...

Posted by LD Neath on Aberavon & Neath Liberal Democrats

Opinion polls show that the Conservatives are the most trusted party on the economy. This gives them a big advantage over the Labour opposition, which they are trying to exploit by promising reckless tax cuts. The Tories say that the crisis was caused by the recklessness of the previous Labour government, which necessitated firm austerity policies, which in turn have led to a strong recovery. Labour supporters are sore about this, but their party leaders seem forced to meekly accept the Conservative economic narrative – and promise strict fiscal discipline. And yet economics writer Ha-Joon Chang writes in the Guardian ...

Posted by Matthew on thinking liberal

This year's Scottish Liberal Democrat Autumn Conference takes place much later than usual. It's been delayed by the Referendum and will take place in Dunfermline on Saturday 22nd November. There's just about enough time for Presidential candidates to come and chase some last minute votes. The preliminary agenda has just been published and it's busy. Six policy debates, two keynote speeches, a devolution discussion, a thank you reception for our former MEP George Lyon and two lunchtime fringe meetings crammed into one day. The policy motions include: Liberal Youth Scotland's on engaging young people and encouraging them to register to ...

Posted by Caron Lindsay on Liberal Democrat Voice

[IMG: Stewart-Pearson-Glenn-Cul-008] Things, as you may remember, were reasonably rosy at the start of the Coalition. The Tories were so happy to be back in government and the Lib Dems so pleased to have made it back after several generations hiatus that crucial differences between the two parties were swept aside as much as possible. This sometimes had strange results. One of which was my soon to be wife and I taking the train to Kendall Rise to attend Steve Hilton and Michael Gove's joint birthday party in late August 2010. Steve Hilton was Cameron's head of policy in Number ...

Posted by Nick on nicktyrone.com

Calderdale Lib Dems call for a Yorkshire Parliament (tags: ) Doctor Who's new web game aims to teach children programming skills I approve of this very much :) (tags: ) Nude lap dancing application rejected by councillors Because apparently a g-string makes ALLLLL the difference between perfectly acceptable and total moral collapse *rolleyes* (tags: ) Miss Marple Blu-ray Preview with breathtaking spot the difference screenshots waaaaaaaaant (tags: ) My treasurer @mickft in storming form on the topic of English devolution *proud face* (tags: ) Gamergate: the internet is the toughest game in town - if you're playing as a woman ...

Tue 21st
09:23

Happy Trafalgar Day!

[IMG: 8433724488_90076f225f_z]

Posted by Paul on Liberal Burblings

[IMG: crime scene] The latest independent crime survey of England and Wales shows crime continuing to fall. It has fallen by 16% over the year June 2013 to June 2014 and 25% under this government. Liberal Democrats have been working in government to make our communities safer. We have freed front-line police officers from unnecessary bureaucracy and given communities more powers to tackle anti-social behaviour. Liberal Democrat Crime Prevention Minister Norman Baker said: "Police reform is working and crime is down by more than 20 per cent under this government according to the independent Crime Survey for England and Wales. ...

Posted by Nick Hollinghurst on Nick Hollinghurst

Every five minutes a child dies from violence. This appalling statistic, released in a new report from Unicef UK today, shows that violence is not confined to an unlucky few or even to war zones. Across the world, millions of children bear the brunt of an epidemic of violence that is often hidden or ignored and that threatens their rights to a healthy, safe and fulfilling life. Violence manifests itself in many forms. Unicef UK's research reveals that more than 125 million women, most in early childhood or adolescence, have been subjected to female genital mutilation (FGM). In some regions, ...

Posted by Martin Horwood on Liberal Democrat Voice

As a member of the Black Watch's 4th Battalion during the Great War, Joseph Johnston Lee spent time not only living and fighting in the trenches, but also as a German prisoner of war in 1917. Incredibly, the Dundonian channelled the experience into his literary and artistic passions, writing poems and drawing sketches of the wretched time to send home. He is often referred to as Scotland's forgotten poet, but in his day he was widely regarded as one of the best in the world. Tomorrow evening sees the launch of a new edition of Lee's poems. Held as part ...

#483579531 / gettyimages.com Ukip was facing the lost of around £1m a year in public funds following the loss of an MEP from the European Parliament group of which it was a member, taking the group below the size requirements for public funding. The answer? To recruit a replacement MEP. Fair enough, you might think. Except this is who they recruited: Nigel Farage's Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy group recruited an MEP from the Congress of the New Right with the blessing of its controversial leader Janusz Korwin-Mikke, according to reports from Poland. The Polish MEP Robert Iwaszkiewicz is ...

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

#113719828 / gettyimages.com From the tender information published on the Electoral Commission's website: In January 2014 the Electoral Commission published its review of electoral fraud vulnerabilities in the UK. One of our recommendations was that electors in Great Britain should be required to present an acceptable form of photographic identification (ID) prior to being issued with a ballot paper and voting at polling stations. We recommended that a proof of identity scheme should be in place to be used by no later than for the 2019 European Parliamentary and English local government elections. We said that we would consult widely ...

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

I have commented recently on the plan of Merseyside Police Commissioner Jane Kennedy to sell off the underused Maghull Police Station (along with others across the County) and to get neighbourhood police officers to work out of smaller premises. In Maghull the new base for the 'Coppers' could be a shop unit, Maghull Library, Lydiate Village Centre? Your guess is presently as good as mine, but change it is a coming. Then the other day I happened to walk past Maghull Police Station and a photograph jumped out at me to be taken. The Station is certainly in the Autumn ...

Posted by Cllr. Tony Robertson on Sefton FocusSefton Focus
Tue 21st
01:17

We Need STV, Not "PR"

(I hope the following is coherent — I've been sleep-deprived for much of the last week, and really don't feel very good) We no longer live in anything that could be made to convincingly pose as a two-party system, even if you squint a bit. Nor do we live in the two-and-a-bit party system we [...]

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