[IMG: 8610361700_dea8d85350_m] It is as predictable as the changing of the seasons. Last week Labour used an Opposition Day Motion to bring forward another motion against the bedroom tax. The proposal was simple and broad - immediate abolition. As with previous instances of using this strategy, a key aim was to make the Liberal Democrats look either stupidly inconsistent or cravenly unwilling to vote against the Conservatives. And Labour, presumably, hoped they'd get both. The run up to the vote was accompanied by high profile articles in the Mirror pointing to the distress caused by the policy and calling for ...
I have just contributed a post on Lord Bonkers' adventures and opinions this year to Liberator's blog.
January A headline from a 1922 edition of the New York Times returned to prominence: Three Englishmen Saved from Boiling Pot By Cannibal Chief, Who Was Friend at Oxford At dinner one evening Lord Bonkers commented to me: That is the great thing about public school and varsity: your friends will help you out in later life if you find yourself in hot water. Incidentally, too much is made of cannibalism in the South Pacific. In my experience of those lovely islands, it was rare. The same, unfortunately, cannot be said of the Upper Welland Valley.That same month, Lord Bonkers ...
I first posted this back in 2008. Since then there have been a couple more white Christmases, but it seems worth repeating... Why is snow so firmly established in our ideal Christmas when there have been only seven white Christmases since 1900? It is all down to Charles Dickens. The Daily Telegraph quotes a Canadian professor as saying: "The whole of A Christmas Carol is really an invocation of his childhood Christmases with his family before his father fell into debt and was sent to the debtors' prison. "A Christmas Carol made Christmas respectable for the English bourgeoisie, who had ...
Nick Harvey paid tribute to the former Liberal Party leader Jeremy Thorpe at his funeral on Friday. "Far from completing the modernisation they once promised they have, in large part, abandoned the project. As a result the electorate, generally speaking, reckons the Tories just as extreme as Ukip." Alex Massie on the failure of Cameron and Osborne. Tiffany Jenkins dissects the left's current enthusiasm for censorship. Vladimir Putin is living in another world, says Cicero's Songs. "The Ronald Pinn I created from the distant memory of a young man in a graveyard became, in imitation of the bent police officers ...
Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 403rd 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 (14-20 December, 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. 7 years on, 2 "myths" about the ...
If you have an interest in photography and may want to join a local club then Maghull has one of its own. The club has a display case in Maghull Town Hall which it updates about once per month. I always try to have a look at the excellent work that is on display when I go to the Town Hall. This is the present display:- [IMG: rsz_photo1111] Click on the photo to enlarge it You can find the display case next to the lift on the ground floor.
Mike Smithson at Political Betting talks about data from the British Election Study that shows how well thought of MPs are in their own constituencies. Liberal Democrat MPs come out well on top, being much more liked even among opponents than their Tory and Labour counterparts. His graph illustrates thus: [IMG: LD MPs wider respected] As Smithson puts it: The chart shows views of those in LAB/CON and LD-held seats and highlights the split between those who say they will vote for their incumbent (supporters) and those who won't (opponents). As can be seen there was a markedly different response ...
Lots of data, few conclusions: British Election Study tries to understand the 2015 general election The audience at the recent British Election Study's (BES) event in Westminster faced a solid blue screen. This was no political premonition as to what will happen in May 2015, because what followed showed how unlikely a solidly blue Conservative government is after the next election. The event, which marked the launch of the BES film 'Understanding British Democracy', demonstrated to the gathering of journalists, politicians and researchers that the election will not be a simple red versus blue contest because the direct movement of ...
View image | gettyimages.com When he saw the writing on the wall and was desperate to get people to vote Yes, Alex Salmond made a last ditch appeal on the Andrew Marr Show the Sunday before the independence referendum. He said that people had a once in a generation or even a lifetime chance to vote for independence and they should take it. Now, it was fairly clear to me and I expect most other people that he absolutely didn't mean what he was saying. There was no way that the entire nationalist movement was just going to give up ...
[IMG: Harrish Bisnauthsing] The Sleaford Standard reports: Coun Harrish Bisnauthsing has been selected as the prospective parliamentary candidate for the Grantham and Stamford Constituency by the Grantham and Stamford Liberal Democrats. Coun Bisnauthsing is a long serving district and town councillor in Stamford and was the Lib Dem candidate for the constituency in 2010. The chairman of South Lincolnshire Liberal Democrats Brian Withnall said: "Harrish is enthusiastically involved in the life of his community and is respected by people of all parties and of none as a person who listens to and addresses the problems of the people he represents ...
Theresa May has the unenviable task of trying to make irreconcilables add up when it comes to implementing the Conservatives' rash promise to reduce net immigration to the UK to "tens of thousands". But her latest idea of making international students leave the country after they graduate is wrong on do many levels. International students [...]
Sun 21st
14:00
The lamentable Doctor Who Movie (1996) is shown on Drama today the only good aspect of it:-
via Facebook
That North Korea has managed to create a massive international incident over a Seth Rogen movie is kind of crazy. Right? Yet it is exactly the kind of mad thing you'd expect from such a mad regime. Right? Vox suggests this is wrong and that there is actually a great deal of rational calculation underlying Pyongyang's [...]
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. Polling company Con Lab LibDem UKIP Green Con lead Fieldwork Method ComRes 33% 34% 8% 18% 2% -1% 10-12/12 Online ComRes 29% 32% 12% 16% 5% -3% 12-14/12 Phone ICM 28% 33% 14% 14% 5% -5% 12-16/12 Phone Ashcroft 30% 31% 8% 19% 5% -1% 5-7/12 Phone MORI 32% 29% 9% 13% 9% 3% 13-15/12 Phone Opinium 29% 36% 6% 16% 5% ...
[IMG: 7 ver 4 full] Many thanks to the 13990 visitors who dropped by Lib Dem Voice this week. Here's our 7 most-read posts... Lib Dem MPs were right not to play Labour's silly games over the Bedroom Tax (57 comments) by Caron Lindsay Our worst nightmare? Peter Kellner's scenario 3: "Lib Dems choose who's the PM" (49 comments) by Stephen Tall Vince speaks out against "devastating and ideologically driven" Tory spending cuts plan (56 comments) by The Voice Opinion: Universal basic income is the way forward for the Liberal Democrats (61 comments) by Robin McGhee "The best opinion poll ...
In the early days after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in March, the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel made a widely reported comment that Vladimir Putin was "living in another world". The point being that the statements that were being made by the Kremlin were so completely untrue that they had literally no basis in reality. Over the past few months we have started to become used to Russian propaganda: astroturfing, Putintrolls, and all the rest of it, but nevertheless, no matter how vehemently propagated, the Kremlin position remains completely at odds with objective, evidence based truth. The well funded Russian ...
There was a sort of Welsh pop renaissance in the 1990s: Manic Street Preachers, Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, Stereophonics. This was the first song on the Stereophonics' first LP, which I liked and bought in 1997. It is sung here by Kelly Jones, its writer and the band's singer, at the Hay Festival a few years ago.
Sun 21st
11:08
Tim Farron on Murnaghan: "There is massive space for the Liberal Democrats standing up for strong ec...
Tim Farron has just been on Sky News Murnaghan programme. Someone on there didn't do their research. First all, Dermot said that Tim was handing over to "Sarah Brinton." Yes, that's her official name, but everyone knows her as Sal. You wouldn't run up to Elton John and say "Hi, Reg", now, would you? Then he asked Tim the equivalent of wasn't he just a rat deserting a sinking ship, stepping down now. Tim was able to say that this wasn't his choosing, he had served the two terms he was allowed. After that easy one, the line of questioning ...
[IMG: xmas2014] I'm unlikely to get the time to any blogging for the next week, so I hope you all have an enjoyable time, and I'll see you all in a week or so for what'll probably be some looking back at 2014 and ahead to 2015.
View image | gettyimages.com The main headline in today's Sunday Times (£) is something of a milestone. (Helpfully, the Murdoch empire make most of the story available on Sky News without a paywall). We've seen the bidding war on immigration between UKIP and the Tories. But Theresa May is now taking it to a new level. It's one thing talking about restricting the benefit rights of EU migrants. But it is another to declare, as May does through the Sunday Times headline: "I'll kick out foreign graduates". Just think that one through. [IMG: sunday times] Our schools, colleges and universities ...
[IMG: Pol Pot] So the islanders loved my goddamn story so much, the big kahuna said he would give me whatever I wanted. I could have had John Daiquiri put to death if I so desired, but I had enough blood on my hands for one lifetime. Instead, I asked for Daiquiri's boat, the one he sailed to the island on. And all of the money he had in the world, which amounted to about four hundred English pounds. It would be enough to get a start when I arrived in France. I also demanded that Daiquiri tell me the ...
View image | gettyimages.com The main headline in today's Sunday Times (£) is something of a milestone. (Helpfully, the Murdoch empire make most of the story available on Sky News without a paywall). We've seen the bidding war on immigration between UKIP and the Tories. But Theresa May is now taking it to a new level. It's one thing talking about restricting the benefit rights of EU migrants. But it is another to declare, as May does through the Sunday Times headline: "I'll kick out foreign graduates". Just think that one through. [IMG: sunday times] Our schools, colleges and universities ...
Sun 21st
09:29
Maghull – Leighton Avenue car park lights – an update and the strange story of a Council...
My previous posting on this matter of a few days ago refers – see link below:- I have spoken to the Maghull Group Company who own Maghull's Leighton Avenue car park and they tell me they are aware of the non-working street lamps in this car park and are trying to fix them. I hope they appreciate the urgency of getting the lights back on especially at this time of year when it can be very dark in that car park by late afternoon. [IMG: rsz_photo1085] As an aside when talking to them I picked up on a rather ...
There is some speculation on-line as to whether UKIP's recent slump in the polls is the result of the cumulative impact of a series of gaffes by high profile candidates leading up to Farage's own defence of the terms 'chinky' and 'poofter' or just the voters finally waking up to the reality of the sheer-awfulness of this party of reactionaries and bigots. Fortunately, the Independent has provided a useful on-line guide to UKIP's top excuses for a series of blunders that has peeled back the veneer of respectability that they have painted themselves with over the last 18 months. These ...
England replacing Alastair Cook is right decision at wrong time (tags: ) Liberal England: Colin Baker in Finding Richard (tags: ) The survival time of chocolates on hospital wards: covert observational study (tags: ) Excellent article by Nick Cohen on how the news media have cocked up politics for all of us (tags: ) Rosetta space mission voted most important scientific breakthrough of 2014 (tags: ) The First Ever Argos Catalogue - horrifying & fascinating in equal measure (tags: ) [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
[IMG: Mark Reckless legal claim form] The Tories are suing their former MP Mark Reckless: The Rochester and Strood Constituency Conservative Association have lodged a claim against its former MP Mark Reckless to claw back thousands of pounds it spent on 2015 General Election campaigning literature before he defected to Ukip. Members of the association say Mr Reckless and his agent, Cllr Chris Irvine, who are both now Ukip members, were approving expenditure for campaign literature for next year's general election, up to two days before Mr Reckless defected to Ukip Saturday, September 27. They say they had no alternative ...
Four years ago, the City Council repaired the mosaic outside the Rep, following my raising the matter with the Director of City Development. Unfortunately it is again needing repair :I have therefore asked the City Council to undertake necessary repairs.
A report from Stonewall Cymru has established that homophobic bullying is still a major issue in schools in Wales. It is a sad reflection of life in today's schools that the prevalence of homophobic bullying is so high: 87% of secondary school teachers say homophobic bullying happens in their school and 85% of school staff have not received specific training on how to tackle homophobic bullying. This report shows that the Welsh Labour Government's bullying guidance just isn't working. If, as this report suggests, a third of teachers hear homophobic language from other school staff, then serious questions must be ...
