[IMG: Outsourcing] The Public Accounts Committee report on government contracting, published earlier this week, secured substantial press coverage. The focus was on the report's finding that G4S and Serco continued to be awarded additional work from government while they were under investigation for overcharging. And this fact rather contradicts previous assurances given by the Government. How these two miscreants were handled in the period during which their behaviour was being investigated is without doubt an important question. But it is only one issue that the PAC addresses in the report, and it probably isn't the most important one. The report ...

Posted by admin on Alex's Archives

I'm getting as fed up with arguments about the economy as I was about the quality of the debate in the independence referendum. We seem to be stuck in a yah-boo soundbite fest that is deeply uninspiring. Ed Miliband's latest contribution on the deficit was pretty risible if you looked at it in terms of facts. He's opposed practically every single cut the Coalition has made over the last four years but presumably his "sensible cuts" won't actually affect anyone. Of course he's not actually told us what they are, so we can't really judge. Our problem is that with ...

Posted by Caron Lindsay on Liberal Democrat Voice

There are hopes that the railway line between Cambridge and Bedford will eventually be reopened as part of the EastWestRail project. This film was taken in December 1967, a few days before the line closed. You may also enjoy a slideshow of the line in those days that I posted a year ago.

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

Rather like applying electrodes, my post this morning suddenly sent a surge of life into this blog. I got two responses!!!! The post itself was blogging at its most classic. That is, a rant banged into an iphone on my knee on the train to London at 7am with the most cursory glance at any basis of "facts". So I am grateful for those two responses for reminding me that it is always a good idea to spend a few minutes actually looking for both sides to the story. First of all, thanks to my good friend and neighbourhood attack ...

Posted by Paul on Liberal Burblings

A major programme of gas mains replacement is planned for Ludlow during 2015. A total of 700 metres of pipes will be replaced by National Grid Gas and their contractors Balfour Beatty. Streets from New Road south to Temeside will be closed or controlled with traffic signals at some point. The work will involve a [...]

Posted by andybodders on Andy Boddington

I'll have to send this as a nomination to Liberal Heroland. It's a great quote from Lenny Kravitz: I personally think women should be running the world, I believe women are so much more sensible, have so much better intuition and ultimately are stronger. I think that calls for a spin of Fly Away. Well done to the Kravster say I!

Posted by Paul on Liberal Burblings

The Mirror wins Headline of the Day. Tidy!

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

Caron Lindsay writes on Liberal Democrat Voice: Senior Liberal Democrats are getting very rattled by the rebellion. I'm hearing tales of angry rows and confrontations with rebel peers being told that they are damaging our General Election chances as if being associated with a measure like this wouldn't. It sounds like peers have had the sort of pressure put on them that would make even a Labour whip from the Blair days blush.I hope that the Lib Dem peers will continue to vote against the changes Chris Grayling wants to make to judicial review. They are right and Lib Dem ...

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

The BBC tells us that poorer pupils are doing better at school, although you have to scroll through a load of text and graphics before they squeeze in as an afterthought that the Pupil Premium championed by Nick Clegg was responsible for the success. Two-thirds of pupils (67%) on free school meals gained a Level 4 in reading, writing and maths this year – up four percentage points on 2013. This compares with 83% for non-disadvantaged pupils, reducing the attainment gap to 16 percentage points. The data is based on tests taken by 11-year-olds in 16,000 school Schools Minister David ...

Posted by Caron Lindsay on Liberal Democrat Voice

I was very pleased to visit and personally welcome a quirky new restaurant to Wallington: Byrnes Pie and Eel House. This establishment, just opened in Ross Parade in Wallington town centre, is run by local couple Nick and Sally Byrne, who did their research and were convinced that there was a market for their traditional wares [...]

Posted by jaynemccoy on Diary of a Sutton Councillor
YouGov

Yesterday we told you about the Liberal Democrat rebels in the Lords who voted against the Government's plans to restrict judicial review and to reject the plans for the new secure college to be open to girls and under 15s. It's worth adding that the NSPCC are totally opposed to the secure college plans. Penelope Gibbs from the Standing Committee on Youth Justice wrote in an LDV article two weeks ago that young children and girls would be put at risk if this were to go ahead. One of the key issues about Judicial Review is the "highly likely" test. ...

Posted by Caron Lindsay on Liberal Democrat Voice

I imagine Thanet council will be going through the motions and doing it's level best to bury Manston at tonight's Cabinet meeting. I rarely comment these days since Thanets council reputation for poor practice and slippery way of doing things behind closed doors, since I'm sure you like I are heartly sick. The latest banality despite the well publicised and genuine offer to under right a Compulsory purchase order by River Oak, have been kicked into the long grass by the same "competent" officers who were no doubt a responsible for multi million pound f*** ups such as TransEuropa ferries. ...

Posted by tony flaig bignews on BIGNEWS MARGATE

One commitment I made when I stood for election to the English Liberal Democrats Executive (ECE) was that I'd write on this blog about what was coming up at each meeting, and then do a post summarising what was discussed or decided after the event. I was pleased to be elected back on to ECE [...]

Posted by Anders Hanson on Anders Hanson

During a New Year's Eve party at the beginning of 2011, a peculiarly irritating fellow guest offered his ill-informed opinion to the others: "Well, I think it was obviously the landlord who did it." He was talking about the murder of Jo Yeates, and the landlord was then in custody, largely it seems on the grounds that he was a little unusual. I was horrified by the remark because it seemed to me to be, very quietly, an echo of the mob. More than a downer on new year's eve. It is a strange thing when your English teacher, of ...

Posted by David Boyle on The Real Blog

[IMG: Ashcroft seat polling] Edition #55 of Liberal Democrat Newswire came out last week, taking a look at the general election seat prospects for the party. You can also read it below, but if you'd like the convenience of getting it direct by email in future, just sign up here. It's free! And if you are already a reader and like it, why not Like my Facebook page to help publicise the newsletter to others? Welcome to the 55th edition of Liberal Democrat Newswire, which returns to the Ashcroft polling of Liberal Democrat seats to see how many the party ...

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

I'm half way through my third day at the Lima UN climate change talks and the negotiations look set to go to the wire this weekend. But that's not because there's some crisis in the global talks - it's because these are the most technically complex and politically challenging global negotiations ever. To make global agreements on how we move our carbon world to a low carbon world is an extraordinary task. And the good news is that – thanks to Liberal Democrats in government – we come to the talks with a good story to tell - one of ...

Posted by Edward Davey MP on Liberal Democrat Voice

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-30223050 Sadly, gun crime has been a a bit of a running theme on this blog site over the past couple of years and I see little to give me any confidence that it is being effectively managed in Sefton and more widely across Merseyside. Incidents of guns being discharged are now, dare a say, almost commonplace in the pages of the Liverpool Echo. Above is a link to the BBC web site and at face value the story is good news because the weapons handed in can't now be used on our streets but it does beg a very ...

Posted by Cllr. Tony Robertson on Sefton FocusSefton Focus

Unlocking Liberalism: Life after the Coalition, published by Liberal Futures. Taking a leaf of out Lord Bonker's diary, and there is no shame in copying the Liberal blogfather, I will post my review of the book which has appeared in the most recent edition of Liberator in instalments. This is the second instalment, the Introduction can be found here There is a grotesque disparity of wealth and income in our society and that directly impacts on people's opportunities to fulfil their potential; or as the 1928 Yellow Book asserted; the end of all our policies was that men and women ...

Posted on birkdale focus

From the Council: Please be advised that contractors working on behalf of United Utilities will be undertaking works to replace a manhole frame and cover on Styal Road, Gatley, at the junction with Osborne Grove. These works require the use of temporary traffic lights on Tuesday 16th December 2014, between the hours of 9.30am and 3.30pm only.

#167937760 / gettyimages.com An important snippet from Lord Ashcroft's final national telephone poll of the year: Four in ten of those who named Labour as their first choice gave their second preference to the Lib Dems. The Greens were the next most popular destination for Labour second preferences (19%), followed by UKIP (14%) and the Tories (13%). That's important for two reasons. The tactical: it shows the big scope still there for Liberal Democrats up against Conservatives to put the tactical squeeze on Labour voters. The strategic: it is a reminder of how much the next general election isn't Labour ...

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack
eUKhost

Nick Clegg reportedly told the House of Commons yesterday that the only Health Secretary to privatise a hospital was Labour's Andy Burnham. Despite all the protestations he has been proved correct and suddenly Ed Miliband's strategy for attacking the government over the way they have reformed the English health service is in tatters. Over at the Times, David Aaronovitch nails the Labour position. He says that the official opposition have no credible plan for funding the NHS and are hiding behind alarmist nonsense about 'Cameron's market': But there is a problem with the way in which the word "privatisation" is ...

Posted by Peter Black on Peter Black

I read with interest Sam Bowman on Motte & Bailey arguments - essentially the action of advancing a reasonable point that nobody would really disagree with and using it to justfiy a more extreme point. I would like to apply the opposite of this to some people's views on feminism - where people have used the extreme points made by some feminists to discredit the movement as a whole. Some feminists say very strange things at times, which the more reasonable of us wish they wouldn't. Of course they are entitled, via their right to free speech, to express an ...

Posted by Louise Ankers on From one of the Jilted Generation...

The Department for Education today published Key Stage 2 performance tables, covering the attainment data for 11 year-old pupils. You can read the detail here, and below are three tables/graphs that stood out for me... 1) Let's see how the Conservatives' academisation programme – setting schools free from the dead-hand of local education authorities – is transforming results for primary school pupils... [IMG: academies v LEAs] Oh. It's almost as if structures matter a whole lot less than standards. Who'd have thought? (For more on this from me, see "What should the political parties promise on education in 2015?" - ...

Posted by Stephen Tall on Stephen Tall

The Financial Times reports: Britain's energy secretary has called for tougher rules to be applied to companies holding "risky" fossil fuel assets that could plunge in value because of global action to tackle climate change. Ed Davey's move makes him one of the first senior politicians to weigh into a growing debate on the future of oil, gas and coal companies as governments work on sealing a global climate deal in Paris next year. "We're seeing a move from a carbon economy to a climate economy," Mr Davey told reporters on the sidelines of UN talks in Lima shaping the ...

Posted by NewsHound on Liberal Democrat Voice

[IMG: Censored_stamp] Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of South Park, were once asked if there was any ethnic, religious or national category that they would make off-limits to their satire; whether any group was too taboo to make fun of. They said no, and their answer as to why was brilliant: because if they made one conglomerate immune to their ridicule, it would make the choice of all of the other jibes they had made retroactively suspect. If you make fun of everyone equally, fine; when you start making distinctions, it can begin to feel like racism or ...

Posted by Nick on nicktyrone.com

Conservative seat, resignation Liberal Democrat candidate- Gareth Jones To help contact Gareth Jones: garethjones@hotmail.com; 07929 017339

Posted by Michael Powell on Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors

Conservative seat, death No Liberal Democrat candidate

Posted by Michael Powell on Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors

Labour seat, resignation Liberal Democrat candidate- Stephen O'Brien

Posted by Michael Powell on Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors

Labour seat, death Liberal Democrat candidate- Paul Meara

Posted by Michael Powell on Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors

Labour seat, resignation No Liberal Democrat candidate For more information: http://www.moray.gov.uk/moray_standard/page_95696.html

Posted by Michael Powell on Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors

Conservative seat, death No Liberal Democrat candidate For more information: http://www.newforest.gov.uk/index.cfm?articleid=6864

Posted by Michael Powell on Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors

Liberal Democrat seat, resignation Liberal Democrat candidate- Anders Christensen

Posted by Michael Powell on Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors

Independent seat, death Liberal Democrat candidate- Harrish Bisnauthsing

Posted by Michael Powell on Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors

Labour seat, resignation Liberal Democrat candidate- Peter Agoro

Posted by Michael Powell on Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors

Independent seat, resignation Liberal Democrat Candidate- Selwyn Runnett To help contact Selwyn- 01267 600120

Posted by Michael Powell on Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors

SNP seat, resignation Liberal Democrat candidate- Joyce Oxborrow

Posted by Michael Powell on Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors

First Bus say that the level of service provision will vary by area, but to help travellers information has been published already, with posters on buses across the area, and a special guide for Bristol is available. The specifics in Bristol (including Yate and Chipping Sodbury) · In the run up to Christmas buses will operate normal timetables until Christmas Eve · On Christmas Eve most night buses in Bristol city will run until around 2am. There will be no buses after this time or on Christmas Day itself. Some journeys on buses to and from Bristol will not operate ...

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

[IMG: image] For the past few years in my role as MP for Eastbourne, I have been working with residents and councillors from across the political spectrum on an outstanding, £80million redevelopment plan for Eastbourne's harbour. Together we have drawn up plans which aim to bring 1,500 jobs, new and affordable housing, as well as leisure activities to the community. Eastbourne, like so many other towns on the coast, has suffered a great deal during the past few years as a result of the recession; but these harbour plans are a clear sign that things are getting better as we ...

Posted by Stephen Lloyd MP on Liberal Democrat Voice

Grayling admits misleading parliament (tags: ) Great Firewall of Cameron blocks Parliamentary committee on rendition/torture (tags: ) In which Andrew is completely right. Again. (tags: ) [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments

From Stockport Council: Stockport Council is encouraging residents to recycle as much as possible over the festive period as part of its 'Right Thing, Right Bin' initiative. Using their wheelie bins residents have the facility to recycle most of their household waste including wrapping paper, food waste, cardboard food packaging and Christmas trees. People can recycle their real Christmas tree by chopping it into pieces and putting it in their green food/garden bin. Food waste such as turkey carcasses and plate scrapings can also go in this bin which is then collected for composting. Since the Council introduced its new ...

Back at the turn of the decade I wrote about the absurdly complicated paperwork required to take out a Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA): I've no doubt that it was well intentioned people who supported the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and its provisions (in England and Wales) for people to be able to lay down instructions on what should happen if they are no longer able to make decisions for themselves. Having a clear legal framework in which people can specify who can make decisions about their health, welfare and financial affairs is a good idea. It needs to balance ...

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

This service, at the Oakland Centre in the West End Ward,provides support to people over 65 years old, or have dementia to access services in their local community. A trained and experienced support team can offer short term support to older people and people with dementia, who live independently in the community. Examples of the type of support are: • accessing community facilities or activities• independent travel• meeting new friends• building confidence• increasing wellbeing The short term service is free, however there may be costs if a person requires ongoing support to use some other services or facilities. Finding out ...

Southport has long benefited from good rail connections with Manchester but since the Beeching era there has been some significant chipping away at the level/standard of service. Indeed, Southport grew partly because Manchester business people liked to live in the town and commute to Manchester due to its once excellent rail connections. Often these days Southport – Manchester trains can be overcrowded, slow and made up of the 'Pacer' units that people like John Pugh MP have campaigned to have removed from the British railways network. Of course the get rid of the 'Pacers' campaign has recently been won as ...

Posted by Cllr. Tony Robertson on Sefton FocusSefton Focus

We have recently been doing some work on the accessibility of 'publicly accessible defibrillators' in our local area. Defibrillators Statistics show that your chances of surviving many types of heart attack increase from 0% to 40% with early CPR and early defibrillation. It is important to stress that good first aid training is also important – normally when a emergency defibrillator is put in place then training should be given to key people nearby. In a formal question to Bury Council earlier this year, I discorvered that the council did not keep records of publicly accessible defibrillators in Bury. Further ...

Posted by prestwichfocus on Tim Pickstone

I have been contacted by a planning consultancy company which is undertaking work for clients who are the new owners of Nutt Farm – the derelict building across from he Church on Nutt Lane (Simister). The developers are hoping to be able to submit a planning application to build four homes on the site, and to submit this application early in the new year. They have asked me if I would like to find out more about the proposals with them, which I am happy to do informally, but obviously I would want to represent the views of residents in ...

Posted by prestwichfocus on Tim Pickstone

It was recently reported that the House of Lords refreshment committee purchased 17,000 bottles of champagne costing £260,000 from 2010 onwards. Suggestions of buying cheaper champagne fell on deaf ears. A few years ago, loved ones once treated me to a wine tasting with famous wine and drink expert Oz Clarke. OK, it was in a big room with a hundred other people but I was down the front and treated to the full gamma rays of Mr Clarke's wonderful wit and wisdom. Plastic corks or screw tops are better than cork corks – was one of his pearls of ...

Posted by Paul on Liberal Burblings

A new planning application has been received in Holyrood Ward as below: Application Number: 58157 Registration Date: 08/12/2014 Location: 263 Bury Old Road, Prestwich, Manchester, M25 1JA Proposal: Lawful development certificate for an existing use as Chinese fish and chips hot food take away (Class A5) Please do not hesitate to get in touch if you require further information or help with this. The details will be on the Council's website here. Tim

Posted by prestwichfocus on Tim Pickstone

Over the last three decades, much of the world, from Brazil to Indonesia, has moved from dictatorship to democracy, but despite the so-called Arab Spring that began with Mohamed Bouazizi's self-immolation in Tunisia in December 2010, most of the Arab world has remained immune. Several states, such as Syria and Bahrain, are even worse than [...]

Posted by jonathanfryer on Jonathan Fryer

Metrolink have written to councillors to inform us that they will be carrying out a rolling programme of overnight cabling and ducting works at various locations along the Bury line from the Queen's Road junction to Bury Metrolink stop between midnight and 5am from now until 19th December, 2014. No work will take place over the Christmas and New Year period and will then re-commence on 4th January and continue until 27th February, 2015. No work will take place between 5am on Fridays and midnight on Sundays. This work can only take place outside normal working hours when the trams ...

Posted by prestwichfocus on Tim Pickstone

I Will, if You Will has been a in Bury (funded by Government) to encourage women and girls to feel the benefits of getting more active. Over the last 12 months, IWIYW has been piloted in Bury to see what helps create a shift in attitude and what encourages more women and girls to be more active, more often [IMG: i-will-if-you-will-content-header] Over 7,000 new participants took part in IWIYW activities, sf ever £30,000 was allocated to local community groups to engage with women and girls Between now and the end of the year, the team are now running a consultation ...

Posted by prestwichfocus on Tim Pickstone

The Welsh Liberal Democrats cannot support the Future Generations Bill in its current state. The Well-being of Future Generations Bill aims to ensure joined-up thinking by public bodies. However, there have been multiple criticisms, including from the Assembly's Environment and Sustainability Committee, that the Bill is unclear and the requirements on public bodies are too weak to be effective. The Welsh Liberal Democrats are concerned that the Bill lacks clarity and direction. The party is arguing for there to be a distinct and robust definition of sustainable development that reflects the importance of nature and living within environmental limits. The ...

Posted by William Powell AM on Freedom Central
Thu 11th
01:03

Political Issues

(If you're the kind of person who needs trigger warnings for things, the following post almost certainly contains a mention of whatever triggers you, but doesn't contain any graphic descriptions or endorsement of those things...) There have been many things in politics that have depressed me over the last few years — the loss of [...]

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