About a year ago, in the midst of "Pantigate", I managed to stir the pot a little more by arguing that Rory O'Neill was wrong to automatically ascribe the motive of homophobia to those whose voices were loudest in the Irish media in their opposition to marriage equality. I am glad he did, however, for the debate he initiated in Ireland was a welcome one, and his now infamous TV appearance precipitated both his beautifully candid RTÉ Radio One interview with Miriam O'Callaghan, and the globally-viral YouTube video of Panti's "Rousing Call" at the Abbey Theatre. While I still stand ...
Confessions of a Skeptic looks at the terms of reference for the government's historical child abuse inquiry: "There are one or two good points in the Terms of Reference, but the overall impression is that it is a half-thought through mess. It is self-contradictory concerning the range of information the inquiry can access, there are redundant phrases within it, there are phrases whose meaning is very unclear. It has the air of having been hurriedly scribbled on the back of an envelope in response to a 30-minute deadline." Making choice work for the poorest families does not undermine good schools, ...
We already struggle with mobile phone signals across much of the south of the county. Fast broadband doesn't get much beyond the towns and larger villages. Now, South Shropshire is set to lose out on improved digital radio reception. The government has issued plans for upgrading DAB (digital audio broadcasting) transmitters around the country. The [...]
Nick Clegg has set himself up for a potential pounding with space hoppers by agreeing to appear on Channel 4's The Last Leg programme to convince presenter Alex Brooker that it's worth voting. From the Independent: Nick Clegg has accepted a challenge to appear on television show The Last Leg as part of a quest to convince one of its presenters to vote. The Deputy Prime Minister said he would happily face being pelted with space hoppers as part of the Channel 4 comedy show. He was the only politician to respond to a challenge to poll presenter Alex Brooker ...
Be very aware that there are two deadlines rapidly hurtling towards us. The first is tomorrow, so you really need to get a move on. It's for ALDC's postal voter mailing, the details of which you can find here. As they say: Turnout of supporters who receive literature and are contacted during a campaign exceeds 80%, far higher than the turnout proportion of our polling day Shuttleworth. This underlines the importance of getting known supporters onto postal votes, as it will help both our local and national results next May and could be the crucial difference. What ALDC is offering ...
The latest statistical first release from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) was made on 15th January. New part-time enrolments (often, but not always, mature students) have fallen by 8% across the whole sector, adding to a 15% decline from the previous year. New full-time enrolments have increased by 1%. Table 10 of the release provides a detailed analysis of OU student numbers (who are all considered to be part-time, regardless of the intensity of study undertaken). This has allowed me to update the chart I created last year. [IMG: OU Student Numbers 2008-09 to 2013-14] The chart shows a ...
As reported in the Telegraph, action to prevent people falling from the multi-storey car parks near Peterborough's Queensgate shopping centre has begun – and long overdue in my opinion! The aim seems to be to install stainless steel wire meshing on the rooftops at the centre's multi-storey car parks, the application for security meshing and [...]
Today Liberal Democrat campaigners will have been out doing what they do most weeks – getting out and about on the doorsteps or with the leaflets. By now, I expect they'll be thawing out with a nice cup of tea. Make sure, by the way, that you send us your pictures from the campaign trail as many of you trudge out in snowy conditions. Tweet them to @libdemvoice or email to voice@libdemvoice.org. Smartphone or iPod and headphones are as common a part of leafletters' attire these days as the cloth bag with the bird on it and the spatula to ...
The Oscar nominations for this year are out. As usual it contains some astute choices, some really bad ones and some that are just truly bizarre. The pale, male and stale voters of the Academy retain a strong preference for a particular kind of film. The nominations have as always gone disproportionately to English language [...]
Excellent news about someone who has been at the forefront of the party's efforts to reach out to BME communities: Proud to be selected Lib Dem PPC for Beckenham & really thrilled to be back with Bromley Lib Dems! pic.twitter.com/5BO1SNhqRP — Anuja Punj Prashar (@AnujaPrashar) January 17, 2015 Good luck Anuja.
Fabian questioner adds that he's been told by London Labour not to speak about the economy "as it's not one of our strengths". #fab15 — George Eaton (@georgeeaton) January 17, 2015
There were no signs of the otters this morning, but I did another welcome new resident of this stretch of the Welland.
From the Liberal Democrat website's jobs page: [IMG: Lib Dem jobs] Ah, if only we'd had these sorts of staffing levels back in the 2001 when I first ran the party's online general election operation...
The announcement of Al Murray to take on Nigel Farage in Thanet South has certainly opened up debate about UKIP in a way that only satire can. Many politicians would kill for the ability to nail supposedly popularist policies in the way that the 'Pub Landlord' manages in today's Independent including the answer on immigration that 'the last thing we need is people coming over and making us look work-shy': On Europe, you've pledged to buy Greece and have it operated by Kent County Council. How do you intend to honour your promise? "I envisage Greece exiting the Euro and ...
(The first, and possibly last, of a series of pitches for films that don't exist) [IMG: From an early draft, which ended with a musical number.] From an early draft, which ended with a musical number. The Pitch: The country's in the middle of an election campaign, and the Prime Minister discovers that his advisers have got it badly wrong. Despite his refusal to participate, broadcasters are still going to go ahead with a leaders' debate and he'll be represented merely by an empty chair if he's not there. Realising he needs to be there, he now has just 90 ...
Tony Davis at the bus stop - it's still standing, but very badly danaged We thought you might like to see the extent of the damage to the Rodford Way bus stop following Thursday evening's crash. It doesn't look too bad as you drive past, but when Cllr Tony Davis visited site to check it out it was clear that it's a write-off. We will report back when we know a bit more about the circumstances of the accident.
[IMG: Norman Lamb] Could we be on the brink of a huge mental health breakthrough? So asks no less a publication than Cosmopolitan in an article citing how Liberal Democrat Norman Lamb has been making the weather on ensuring that the NHS has the money it needs in the future and for saying that improving mental health treatment is one of the key aims for the next Parliament. Over the past ten years, there's been a 77% rise in self-harm admissions to hospital among women under the age of 25, and young women are most likely to suffer from eating ...
Some interesting data from the British Election Study research into voters, showing where voters put themselves and the Labour Party on the left-right political scale: [IMG: Labour and voters have moved apart - BES] Hat-tip (and thanks for the graph): Ed Fieldhouse.
Happy birthday to Spinach and congratulations to the Northants Herald & Post for winning Headline of the Day,
I developed a passionate dislike of the Home Office during the 4 years I was an MP's caseworker. The lack of compassion, fairness, justice in the system made me furious. They frequently didn't bother following their own policies. One of the most shameful things the last Labour government did was to tell LGBT asylum seekers that they really didn't have to come here. Of course not. They could just go back to their home country and be discreet. Of course, Liberal Democrats in the Home Office have stopped all that nonsense, haven't we? Errr.....no. Since we ended child detention for ...
John Hemming's Office at 1772 Coventry Road has two new advice services available. They are being provided by independent organisations which are operating from our Lib Dem premises every week; Welfare advice & Benefit support. Thursdays 9.30am - 3.30pm For Benefit and Money Advice, benefit applications, tribunals and appeals. Pro-Bono Legal Advice. Tuesdays 11am - 12noon Mr Naved Iqbal of Baileys Solicitors http://www.baileys-solicitors.co.uk For free legal advice regarding a range of issues including; Civil Litigation, Family Law, Employment Law, Immigration, Personal Injury, Property - Conveyancing Residential/Commercial, Wills and Probate Please contact John's office on 0121 722 3417 should you require ...
[IMG: maninthehighcastle] Looking back over my previous posts, I see I've been waiting for an adaptation of The Man In The High Castle for over four years. It was first announced as being adapted by Ridley Scott for the BBC in 2010, but after disappearing into the netherworld of development hell, it was then announced as an Amazon series last year, and the first episode of it has now appeared as part of their latest pilot season. The big question, then, is was it worth the wait? On the evidence of this pilot episode, yes it was, and also worth ...
Solidarity in the West has been impressive post-January 7th. The surge of the far-right has, so far, not been as scary as I had feared. Nigel Farage's comments on the matter were rightly jumped all over, by all sections of the press, as being opportunistic and a bit nasty. Nigel had to take his brand of pub bore philosophy to American news channel Fox News, where xenophobia and indeed Islamophobia are always welcome. Cameron has used the crisis well. His appearances with Obama have made the Prime Minister seem statesman-like and measured. The message is getting through: in times of ...
NGPVAN, the suppliers of the Liberal Democrat Connect database system, are rolling out a major new version: A quick tour of the new features is available here. It's written with the US market in mind (hence the reference, ahem, to being ready for 2016 rather than 2015) and uses some exuberant American jargon ('leveraging best-in-breed' doesn't mean hoisting a cow, I guess) but it's still a handy taster.
The Liverpool Echo has the story and a useful link to see how your local GP's are doing according to their patients.
I don't, as a rule, attend a lot of public meetings - it's a pain to get home from them as a non-driving village dweller, so a taxi is inevitably involved. And, to be frank, if they are full of people who have already made their minds up, they don't tend to enlighten me much - I can surf the web and find out what I need to know. And this is only the people in the hall... However, having seen the signs in Stowmarket, apparently announcing the closure of the two major level crossings in the town, and being ...
Sat 17th
09:14
LibLink: Tim Farron: Without the Lib Dems, there would be nothing to stop the Tories neglecting the ...
Tim Farron has been writing for the New Statesman about what the Liberal Democrats have done, despite the Tories, to protect our environment. He says we can look to Europe to see the sorts of things they would be doing without us to propel them with some force towards the door marked "green". But we've come a long way since the days of trips to the Arctic and hugging huskies. Cameron now openly talks about "getting rid of green crap," while Tory minister Michael Fallon has said the Tories would stop the construction of onshore wind farms if they win ...
Beards are a Horcrux for your manhood, apparently (video) (tags: ) You're going to need a bigger cot - this is amazing, & if I ever have more babies I want one (tags: ) Amazon Tax Deal May Break State Aid Rules (tags: ) David Starkey is a litmus test of our commitment to free speech (tags: ) Vox got no threats for posting Charlie Hebdo cartoons, dozens for covering Islamophobia (tags: ) What taking his seven-year-old daughter to a comic book store taught one father. (tags: ) Tory MP introduces amendment to make council prayers compulsory (tags: ) How ...
Residents have complained to me about an area of overgrown weeds next to the pavement on the south side of Glenagnes Street - see right. I have taken this up with the Environment Department and have asked for this to be tidied.
There's no change at the top: congratulations to George Murray and his Marauding Fullbacks, who continue to lead the LibDemVoice Fantasy Football League after Week 21, with an impressive 1,233 points. But let's also hear it for three players outside the top 10: Kye Dorricott (Chip Bang Utd) and Andrew Tennant (Secret Ginger XI) had the best week's performances, amassing 93 points. An honourable mention, too, to a certain Adrian Sanders (TheOnlyWayIsUp), just behind with 92 points. [IMG: LDV FANTASY FOOTBALL_21] There are 158 players in total and you can still join the league by clicking here. * Stephen Tall ...
There's no change at the top: congratulations to George Murray and his Marauding Fullbacks, who continue to lead the LibDemVoice Fantasy Football League after Week 21, with an impressive 1,233 points. But let's also hear it for three players outside the top 10: Kye Dorricott (Chip Bang Utd) and Andrew Tennant (Secret Ginger XI) had the best week's performances, amassing 93 points. An honourable mention, too, to a certain Adrian Sanders (TheOnlyWayIsUp), just behind with 92 points. [IMG: LDV FANTASY FOOTBALL_21] There are 158 players in total and you can still join the league by clicking here. * Stephen Tall ...
The links above are to the Liverpool Echo and Independent newspapers and they paint a grim picture for Joe Anderson and indeed they do nothing for Liverpool and Merseyside. Joe my well want to be the elected Mayor of Merseyside or the Liverpool City Region (call it what you will) but it must be pretty obvious to just about everyone that his views are not shared or supported much beyond his own campaign team. This horrible row is no surprise though. Merseyside's Labour Council Leaders sadly have a history of kicking lumps out of each other but I ...
