Today Dulwich councillors were sent confirmation that new health facilities will be constructed on the Dulwich Hospital Site. The new health centre will be a new build and initially house the existing facilities provided at the Dulwich Hospital with the capacity to deliver more. After 22 years I'm chuffed that a coalition government involving Lib Dems finally have decided what to do with this site and the re-provision of more health services. Hooray. Just the boring details of making it happen! [IMG: Dulwich Hospital] When Cllr Rosie Shimell, Jonathan Mitchell and I were elected in 2010 we made it one ...
Dog fouling Wardens have investigated 17 reports of dog fouling this month. Wardens also removed 11 stray dogs. Littering Wardens have investigated 2 reports of littering this month and issued 5 fixed penalty notices. Fly-tipping 50 incidents of fly-tipping were reported this month. Wardens carried out investigations into these incidents in order to find any evidence to link the fly-tipping to those who dumped it. Untidy yards and gardens Wardens issued a community protection warning to a property with an untidy garden or yard. Antisocial behaviour Neighbourhood wardens investigated 3 reports of ASB made to DCC. Neighbourhood wardens attended 18 ...
Another film from the Railway Roundabout television programme. The Whitland and Cardigan Railway closed to passengers in September 1962 and to freight traffic the following May.
Mon 19th
20:49
Dear @normanlamb, thanks for your e-mail. Could I bring the transgender community to your attention?
It was very nice to get an e-mail from the Minister of State for Health, especially so soon after we met in Saxmundham, And I couldn't agree with him more that we should, as a society do more, if we can, to reduce suicide rates in this country. Which brings me to the transgender community. I understand, from friends, that the suicide rate, particularly amongst young transgender people, is very high, far higher than that of the population as a whole. They are often poorly treated by the NHS, due in part to a lack of awareness but also due ...
The Liverpool Echo has the story – see link above. I have commented on this before but it seems as if here on Merseyside we environmental campaigners have been put on the back foot/called to arms by determined Labour-led Councils like Liverpool and Sefton who seem to have turned their backs on 'going green'.
The writer and producer Brian Clemens died last week. As his Guardian obituary said, he was "responsible for hundreds of hours of escapist television entertainment, including such enduringly popular programmes as The Avengers and The Professionals". In 2011 Clemens took part in a Night Waves discussion about The Avengers on BBC Radio 3. Also taking part were Matthew Sweet, Bea Campbell, Sarah Dunant and Dominic Sandbrook. As Clemens says in the course of it, he did not invent The Avengers but he did invent all the elements that make people remember it.
Buzzfeed has the story along with the American all-initial-caps headline: Nigel Farage held a rally yesterday in South Thanet and bragged about 500 people showing up. But there was only one problem: There were only 92 people visible in the tweet Farage sent out. Online Pedant Quite Funny Shocka. #UKIP pic.twitter.com/VaxXhzpsg0 — Tim Brannigan (@tim_brannigan) January 18, 2015 A later tweet by Farage, sent out this morning, showed a little over 100 people at the rally.
We thought it helpful for you to be aware of the extra funding planned for Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) in England. A draft press release is below but you may want to localise it: Press Release Funding for [our area's] health services rises by £23.5 million [our area]'s health services - such as G.P.s, hospitals [...]
It's the afternoon of the 19th of January as I write this, not long after Lord Ashcroft released his latest voting intention poll for the general election. According to the New Statesman's database, this is the 22nd opinion poll released so far this year, and there's at least one more to be released today. We're still almost four months from the election and we're currently averaging over one opinion poll being released a day, not forgetting the many different polling aggregators and polls of polls that update regularly based on the new figures that come in. Given that I've blogged, ...
Last week David Cameron set out the six key themes on which the Tories will fight the general election . They are: Tackling the deficit.Creating jobs.Lowering taxes.Improving education.Tackling the housing shortage. Helping the retired.Perhaps it is a bit unfair to comment on these priorities before they publicly flesh out the policies they are going to follow. Nevertheless here are a few comments in anticipation. The deficit: is not a priority. This is not only my view but was expressed on the Radio 4 "Today" programme last week by a leading economist (I didn't catch his name but he was not ...
A gentle reminder of what Ed Miliband said himself: [IMG: Ed Miliband - Labour will not reverse cuts] Not a surprise really given some of the cuts Labour have been boasting about supporting.
The Leicester Mercury carries the surprising news that Diane Horne, a Liberal Democrat town councillor from Shepshed, is to stand as a Ukip candidate for the authority in May. Yes, she is only a town councillor, but she also hopes to be elected to Charnwood Borough Council for one of the town's wards at the same time. Diane Horne explains her move: "I'm not against Europe but I am for the British people having control of the country. "I am not against all immigration but I am against illegal immigration and I think that a person coming here should already ...
The Echo web site has another great selection of old photos to view – See link above.
The Arriva bus company have announced the following service changes affecting Southport from Sunday 25th January (information from Arriva website) Service 42Minor changes to Sunday times. Service 43Re-routed to serve Central 12 Retail Park, evening and Sunday journeys replaced by new service 43A. Extension to and from Botanic Gardens on school-days is withdrawn. Service 44Minor changes to times. Service 46Timetable revised, evening and Sunday journeys replaced by new service 43A. Service 47Minor changes to times, some additional journeys introduced. Service 49Minor changes to weekend times. Service 300Minor changes to times, additional Monday to Friday journey introduced at 7.21am from Maghull ...
Meols Ward Lib Dem Councillors John Dodd, Nigel Ashton and Jo Barton are holding their next advice centre in Churchtown. We will be at Cafe Moo Moo on Cambridge Road (by the junction with Preston New Road, next to Boots) from 10:30 to 11:30 am on Thursday 22nd January. We will be there to meet you and discuss any Council problems you may have. No appointment necessary. Just pop in. We also hold a monthly advice centre in Crossens, at St John's School, Rufford Road, Crossens every month (except August) on the second Saturday of the month from 11:00 am ...
Ooops: This wins 2015. "@DiaryCS: "Should we – I mean, this is just." "Print it." RT @AustenAllred: pic.twitter.com/mB7ANkToiD" — John Arundel (@bitfield) January 7, 2015
[IMG: Nick clegg by dave radcliffe, liberal democrats] This is the full text of the speech Nick Clegg gave today at the Mental Health Conference that he co-hosted with Norman Lamb. You can see a video of part of the speech here. Imagine breaking your leg, only to be told that your nearest care facility was half way across the country, with a long waiting list and no guarantees about when you'll actually get the help you need. Or developing diabetes but being too scared to tell your family, friends and your boss about what's happening, because you're worried about ...
John Pugh led a debate in Parliament on Coastal Towns and Economic Development recently. The debate was very well-attended with many other MPs queuing up to sing the praises of or cite the problems of their own local bit of the UK coastline. John Pugh, Lib Dem MP for Southport, said that it was necessary to raise the voice of the seaside and coast so that it would not be drowned out by the power of lobbying from the cities. John Pugh MP speaking in the House of Commons "There is no doubt that cities are crucial for the country's ...
Many months of hard work are starting to pay off for the team at the North Meols Library Association (NMLA). The excellent news is that Sefton Council will provide £25,000 towards the project to open a community-run library for Churchtown and the surrounding area. This is how NMLA supporters were informed of the good news
I've paid a couple of site visits to Storrington Way, in recent weeks. The issues have mainly related to concerns relating to the shops and flats at the bottom of the road, plus graffiti and litter problems. Not forgetting of course, a recent planning application too! But, I just wondered, if you knew of any other [...]
I am very proud that the Scottish Lib Dems have committed themselves to reducing the voting age to 16 - it is one reason of many that I am a liberal. There are a number of reasons why extending the franchise makes perfect sense. The most obvious of these is that it seems absurd to empower 16 and 17 year olds to exercise their democratic right in a referendum on Scotland's future, but not in a General Election. The Lib Dems, the SNP and many Labour politicians have been advocating change. It's one small step in the right direction and ...
Research shows that one in four people will suffer from mental health problems at some point in their lives, however there is still stigma and discrimination surrounding mental health. The Liberal Democrats believe that mental health should never be ignored or stigmatised. That's why we are committed to improving mental health services in Ealing, London and nationwide. There are many reasons why people suffer short or long term incidences of mental health problems. These include a loss of their job, when family or social relationships change, developing a physical health condition. Save Our Solace demo outside Town Hall Not feeling ...
The following information is from a recent email sent out by Merseyside Police and Home Watch CALLERS AT THE DOOR There have been reports of people calling at houses, asking if the occupier wanted work done on their houses e.g. gutters, roofs, paths and gardening. On some occasions it has been one person calling, in other reports two people have contacted residents. When two people have called, one of the males has talked to the occupier the other seemed to be taking notice of the security of the property e.g. windows, doors and side gates. When residents don't know the ...
Evidence base for affordable housing in Cornwall is too generic to be useful in assisting Councillors determining local planning decisions. That is a very much shortened version of the message I took to County Hall today. I put a question to the 'Informal Planning & Development Improvement Group'. The group consists of the Chairs & Vice Chairs of area & strategic planning committees with the Head of Planning & the relevant Cabinet Member in attendance. My question stems from a concern that Homechoice register figures are used as a universal indicator of local housing need, regardless of the type of ...
[IMG: Beckenham_Junction_stn_main_entrance] There are two key reasons I have chosen to stand for a seat in my home constituency of Beckenham. One reason focuses on achievements of Lib Dems in government and the second focuses on meeting the challenge of extreme voices in UK society today. As a liberal and democratic thinker I believe that people should always be given a choice. It is 'choice' that symbolises freedom, which is at the heart of all free societies and civilizations. During this General Election it is vital for a Lib Dem voice that is unafraid to shout about what we have ...
The modern history of France is a peculiar business. The nation seems never to have quite survived the wounds of the French Revolution, and violent outside interventions seem to make this horribly clear. The Prussian invasion in 1870 led directly to the slaughter of the Communards in Paris the following year. The Nazi invasion in 1940 seemed to lead, not so much to occupation - as it did in the rest of occupied Europe - but to a kind of civil war: 75,000 French Jews were deported, and there were French people at the heart of the efforts both to ...
Final blog from my visit to Burma last week – including meeting Aung San Suu Kyi. Also available here. Last week I spent 2 days in Burma, the last foreign country I will have visited as the UK's champion for tackling violence against women and girls overseas. And what a fascinating 2 days it was meeting Burmese civil society groups, women's rights campaigners, government ministers as well as the iconic Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. Burmese women suffer discrimination and violence as the direct result of decades of military rule and conflict, and due to widespread displacement. In Kachin State ...
Liberal Democrats are making sure that mental health stays in the headlines, and that our policies are linked in people's minds with the issues. Today the focus has been on preventing suicide. Here was Nick Clegg speaking this morning: He quotes the Samaritans: The majority of people who feel suicidal don't actually want to die, they just don't want to live the life they have. Nick wants the NHS to adopt an highly successful approach to preventing suicide that has been pioneered by the Henry Ford Medical Group in Detroit, where it has reduced the suicide rate amongst their patients ...
Last month, Emily Brothers broke news for being the first openly trans person to be selected by Labour to fight a parliamentary election, for the (relatively) safe seat of Sutton and Cheam. The coverage has been mixed to say the least, either being positive but factually dodgy, or being incredibly negative. But what may have damaged her own campaign more than anything was an interview she participated in for Russia Today, which was riddled with inaccuracies that can only really be explained by partisanship where it's inappropriate. The presenter describes her as the first openly transgender candidate for Parliament. In ...
[IMG: British politics books] You can read my reviews of several of these titles on this site: Why vote Liberal Democrat? 2010 version The other 2010 Why vote... books The Politicos Guide to the 2015 General Election Why vote Liberal Democrat? 2015 version Why vote UKIP? Why vote Conservative?
[IMG: Green Lib Dems] The Green Party, which I was a member of briefly in the late 80s, has hard left socialist roots and is widely considered both anti-capitalist and paradoxically authoritarian and localist. It has a wide range of policies, all of which take note of environmental concerns (which do not begin and end with climate change, any more than ours do) but only reference those concerns where necessary. Lately it has been adopting a less hard line approach and on many matters, such as human rights, is decidedly liberal. However in many cases their authoritarian command economy habit ...
[IMG: Ricky] Temporary Road Closures Harefield Rd, from 9.30am-3.30pm on Sunday 25th January, for approx. 2 weeks, from the junction with Woodcock Hill to the junction with Church Street. This is to allow the replacement of telegraph poles. Sarratt Lane, 9.30am-3.30pm, 3rd February , from junction with Bridle Lane to junction with Loudwater Ridge. This is to allow utility service works ....................................................... National Non-Domestic Rates Under the present arrangements many local authorities have to pay a levy to central government on the income they receive from growth in business rates. Each authority collects business rates, these are pooled centrally before ...
There is currently a lot of talk in the media about future television debates during the 2015 general election. In 2010 the Conservative Party, the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats were involved. However now there are calls for the leaders of the UK Independence Party (UKIP), the Green Party, the Scottish National party (SNP) and Plaid Cymru to also be included. Obviously, the Conservative Party and the Labour Party should be included in all three televised election debates. The Liberal Democrats with their record in government over the last five years and there realistic potential to hold the balance ...
With the changes to electoral registration in the news, it is worth promoting the fact that Liberal Democrats have secured additional funding to enable local authorities to make sure that everyone who should be on the roll is registered. It is also worth remembering in these debates that registering to vote is easier than it [...]
Southport's famous Botanic Gardens are once again in the news concerning proposed "cuts" by Sefton Council. I read with interest a recent posing on Southport Visiter's Facebook page by Sefton's labour leader Peter Dowd. He made a couple of statements that I'd like to comment on. Firstly, he stated: "In my view there has been a lot of misinformation flying around about the proposals that suits some political parties, and what they are saying is boarding on fantasy." I think I can safely assume that he refers to my political party, the Liberal Democrats. Yes my party has been campaigning ...
The Times has an interesting article this morning in which they say that Ed Miliband is struggling to find a way to fund cuts in university tuition fees despite saying that the maximum would be £6,000. They say that Labour may be forced to restrict the cut in fees to certain types of courses such as technical degrees, leaving other students to pay the current cost: Labour reaped big rewards for attacking Nick Clegg's decision to back Tory demands to triple fees to £9,000, meaning that the party could risk some of its support from former Lib Dem voters if ...
Mon 19th
11:27
The Independent View: The upcoming election in Israel: the dawn of a new progressive era in Israeli ...
For political progressives, the upcoming Israeli general election on the 17th of March may prove itself to be one of the most decisive in that country's history, with most polls conducted in recent weeks pointing to a narrow victory for the centre-left alliance between the social-democratic Labor Party and the progressive liberal Hatnuah party. Not only would this mark the first time since 2001 that Labor has led an administration, but it will be one in which both liberals and socialists will be able to influence the drafting and passage of government legislation in the new Knesset, possibly marking the ...
Cambridge MP Julian Huppert is calling for university students to be better protected against the danger of sexual assault after figures revealed that one in three had been assaulted. He has joined a cross-party group of MPs and representatives from the National Union of Students and Rape Crisis calling for action as the country meets the deadline for university applications. In an open letter to the Telegraph he called on Universities UK and the government to work together to draw up guidelines on how universities should respond to complaints of sexual assault. "This would send a clear message to universities ...
Other guides in this series, for both the 2015 general election and previous ones, vary between being the work of a single author and an edited collection. The advantage of the former approach is that it usually makes for a clearer and more consistent argument running through the whole book. The disadvantage is that, as with Jeremy Browne's Liberal Democrat 2015 book and Nick Herbert's Conservative 2015 book, the consistent viewpoint may also be the slightly idiosyncratic, off-message personal view of the author which many of their party colleagues disagree with – making it more interesting, perhaps, but also a ...
Summary election result for Federal Policy Committee Principal Councillors 2015-6 Places: 3 Total valid vote: 328 Quota: 82.00 Spoiled: 7 ELECTED Candidate 1st Prefs Elected at stage Votes at final stage Surplus transferred Lucy Care 36 7 73.65 Keith House 86 1 82.00 6 Paul Tilsley 43 7 77.40 NOT ELECTED Candidate 1st Prefs Excluded [...]
Mon 19th
10:02
Why the Greens' "citizen's income" is a bad idea but will nevertheless cause problems for Labour
Over the weekend, Natalie Bennett did a media drive to promote the Green Party's election policy around a "citizen's income". The idea is extremely simple to explain: every adult in the UK gets £72.40 a week from the government. This takes the place of all current welfare systems. This stipend from the Treasury would be withdrawn once people reached a certain level of income. Apart from being simple to explain, the citizen's income is also a very bad idea. First off, I need to address perhaps the single largest intellectual error made by the modern day Left. There is a ...
You can now get adult First Bus tickets on your smartphone using their mTicket app. Download the free app (search FirstBus mTickets) and you'll be able to buy, store and use tickets on your phone - no need for cash and no need for a paper ticket. You'll be able to buy mTickets for Bristol and Bath Inner and Outer Zones, Weston-super-Mare and the West of England. The tickets available in each zone are as follows: Week Bristol Inner, Bristol Outer, Bath Inner, Bath Outer, Weston-super-Mare and West of England Month Bristol Inner, Bristol Outer, Bath Inner, Bath Outer, Weston-super-Mare ...
Today's Western Mail leads on the study by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation which found 29.4% of families in Wales are struggling to make ends meet. They say that at least eight million parents and children are living on incomes below what is needed to cover a minimum household budget: It says there has been a widening gap in income "inadequacy" since the recession, with lone parents and single breadwinner families facing particular pressure. Around 71% of lone parents live on inadequate incomes, up from 65% since the 2008/9 recession, said JRF. Cuts to benefits and tax credits and a real-term ...
Holocaust Memorial Day in the UK takes place next week and our friends at Lib Dem HQ have sent a message to local campaigners with some ideas for remembering the victims of multiple acts of mass killing in recent history. We strongly encourage all local campaigns to plan some kind of activity to commemorate and [...]
Ros has taken to feeding the birds, now that we don't have neighbours - they had cats - and one robin in particular has become pretty bold. So, as I left the house this morning, here it was, seemingly waiting to be fed... I am a sucker for small, cute wildlife, so I went to the box where bird food is kept, and scattered some across the patio. Eat well, my little friend...
stunning zodiac art (tags: ) French people trolling Fox News beautifully. (tags: ) The indy interviews Al Murray about his candidacy (tags: ) [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
The Liverpool Echo has the story = see link above.
Mon 19th
08:49
Manchester gets a better deal than Liverpool? -How much are you paying for your electricity?
The Liverpool Echo has the story – see link above. [IMG: banner] One way to get a good deal on your electricity and/or gas price is to use the Merseyside collective switching web site – see link below:- www.lcrenergyswitch.co.uk/ It certainly saved my family a few bob.
[IMG: Julian Huppert, Lib Dem PPC for Cambridge] Varsity – the Cambridge University student newspaper - has profiled Julian Huppert. It doesn't begin too well: "Huppert the Muppet, I call him," says the cab driver taking me to see Cambridge's most visible politician, Julian Huppert, Liberal Democrat MP for the city since 2010. But it gets better. "I think it will be a very tight race," he says, "and it'll be a question of whether people like my track record as someone who has worked for Cambridge and delivered for Cambridge." He does work hard in Parliament: They Work For ...
I have formally requested that the City Council's Chief Executive David Martin ask the Auditor General to engage Audit Scotland to independently investigate the full circumstances of the budget problems affecting the V&A project. As I indicated on Friday, the huge increase in V&A projected costs is a shocking indictment of the poor project management skills of the SNP administration with regard to the V&A project. When the Chief Executive and Chief Officers met with myself and two other opposition councillors about the situation on Friday morning, I was shocked when we were informed that the costs have shot up ...
Please note the title. This is the Jerry Sandusky sex scandal not the Penn State sex scandal. So last Friday the NCAA reached agreement with Senator Jake Corman on his litigation with the association that saw changes to the penalties levied against Penn State university. The headline change to these sanctions is the restoration of all wins by the football team between 1998 and 2011. This means that Tom Bradley now gets credit for his win at Ohio State in 2011 and that Joe Paterno gets credit for his 111 wins between 1998 and 2011 and in turn once more ...
The examination of the council's local plan for delivering housing and employment sites (SAMDev) is going well. The plan is now expected to be adopted by the council, after amendments, in the summer. Many other councils have been told by the planning inspector to suspend or halt the examination midway through the examination, usually because [...]
