[IMG: Budget Cuts sign with clouds and sky background] Last week researchers associated with the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion at the London School of Economics published a substantial suite of papers reviewing the Coalition government's policies across a broad range of social policy areas. They summarize the key strands of policy and try to provide an assessment of the impact of those policies, both in aggregate and distributionally. The latter task is hampered by inevitable lags in data availability – the most recent data available for some policy areas relates to 2012 or 2013. So you are quite ...

Posted by admin on Alex's Archives
Sun 1st
20:30

New Focus for Bar Hill

A new focus is currently being delivered across the division. If you haven't received yours yet it can be digitally downloaded here. This issues stories are; County Council by-election, February 12thIntroduction Fiona Whelan, Bar Hill CandidateFiona asks, 'Please sign our petition for fairer school funding'Campaigning to stop speeding in our villagesTransport MattersA record of action on careThe truth about the Conservatives and tax cutsLibraries are not a luxury!If you'd like to be involved in the campaign, you can contact me or Fiona directly at; apellew@gmail.com (Andy Pellew)fewhelan@gmail.com (Fiona Whelan)

Posted by Andy Pellew on Focus on Bar Hill

Those of you who remember Flanders and Swann will doubtless recall one of their best-known songs, all about a scarlet-painted, diesel-engined, ninty-seven horsepower omnibus. But, whilst they may now be but a distant memory in London, not much has changed in Mumbai, with some glorious old boneshakers still dominating the streets. Mostly single decker these days, they are utterly disabled unfriendly, with steep steps and narrow doorways (assuming that the bus actually stops) to be negotiated. The conductor operates predominantly with one hand on the cord operating the bell but, in fairness, they do have some kind of Oystercard system, ...

Posted by Mark Valladares on The view from Creeting St Peter

Who were the first supergroup? Cream? Blind Faith? Or was it Eric Clapton and the Powerhouse? They were a studio project that recorded just three tracks for What's Shakin', a compilation issued by Elektra Records to cash in on some unreleased tracks by groups like the Lovin' Spoonful and the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. However, there was not enough material to fill two sides. As the record's producer Joe Boyd recalls: "I suggested that we include an English blues band in the project. Paul Jones came to see me at Elektra and I told him of my difficulty in finding ...

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 409th 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 (25 – 31 January, 2015), 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. Who are the three groups ...

Posted by Caron Lindsay on Liberal Democrat Voice

This is mostly good news (though remember some of the views Alex Carlile expressed when he was the watchdog – so not a guarantee of good outcomes!): [IMG: David Anderson QC] As the Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation, Mr Anderson felt stifled in that he could examine the impact and workings of only four security laws. At present, these reviews have to be conducted on an inflexible annual basis... Mr Anderson has been granted the discretion to decide when and why he needs to review all but one of the relevant pieces of legislation.

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

Oh look, the Labour Party is pledging not to get personal during the election campaign. From the BBC: Labour has vowed not to feature Prime Minister David Cameron on billboards ahead of the general election. The party said it would focus on issues rather than personalities. and not use negative personal campaigning. Its election strategist Douglas Alexander said the Conservatives were preparing to spread "fear and smear". This is in response to poorly photo-shopped Conservative posters of Ed Miliband costing up to Alex Salmond. It's always nice to see a pledge of positive campaigning, even if it does come from ...

Posted by Caron Lindsay on Liberal Democrat Voice

It is great news that for once the rumours proved to be true and that Peter Greste, an Australian former colleague of mine at the BBC, currently employed by Al Jazeera, has indeed been released after 400 days in a Cairo jail. He is now returning home to join his family. However his Arab colleagues [...]

Posted by jonathanfryer on Jonathan Fryer

A few months back, a lot of prison reform organisations and charities (all very worthy organisations, and some of which I give regular donations to) decided to start campaigning against a ban on books being sent to prisoners through the post. As a result of their campaign, prisoners can now receive books through the post. [...]

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

More comedy genius from Australia's Clarke and Dawe:

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack
YouGov

[IMG: 7 ver 4 full] Many thanks to the 16,800 visitors who dropped by Lib Dem Voice this week. Here's our 7 most-read posts... Surely it's time for the Liberal Democrats to part company with Alex Carlile (100 comments) by Caron Lindsay Clegg on The Last Leg – first thoughts (14 comments) by Caron Lindsay Open Doors: All 3 versions of the first Lib Dem broadcast of the year (71 comments) by The Voice Nick Clegg on The Last Leg tonight (7 comments) by Mary Reid The Left cheers Syriza while Miliband equivocates (66 comments) by Joe Otten Opinion: Let's ...

Posted by The Voice on Liberal Democrat Voice

One of the worries many people had about the new system of university tuition fees was that it might put people off from deprived backgrounds from going to university. If you listened to the Labour Party or the Guardian at the end of 2010, you'd have thought that nobody from such a background would be able to ever go to university again. The facts, though, tell a different story. UCAS figures this week show that an 18 year old from a poorer background is now 72% more likely to apply to go to university than they were in 2006. It's ...

Posted by Caron Lindsay on Liberal Democrat Voice

Remember, the only comment about turnout in elections you're allowed to make in public is a pessimistic one. Campaigning for electoral reform? Remember you can only progress your cause by doing down the state of the current system. Regulating the system? It's all got to be bad news, because the worse the system the more a regulator is needed to improve things. Journalist? Don't be so naive as to think moderately good news on turnout should ever be reported. It's got to always be DOOM. If you're lucky one day it'll be proved that voting gives you cancer. Member of ...

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

A couple of snippets from the Sundays to help you understand how British politics works today: First, the Telegraph is very eager to tell us that Liz Kendall has suddenly emerged as the favourite for a Labour leadership race that may or may not be taking place at some unspecified point in the future. How has she achieved this impressive, yet somewhat nebulous, feat? Some mass mobilisation of Labour members? A series of impressive performances in the House of Commons? Perhaps she's set out some important new ideas for the future of the Labour Party? Maybe it's through a long ...

Posted by Nick on What You Can Get Away With

There's a good chance you've never heard of Andrew Sullivan or his blog the Dish, and will therefore regard the news that he is giving up blogging as not especially worthy of note. But for me this is a momentous announcement. I've been reading about politics online for a decade now yet the Dish remains perhaps my [...]

Posted by Mark Mills on Matter Of Facts

Good news from Lib Dem Chief Exec Tim Gordon in our inbox this morning. Yesterday, the party raised £50,000 in just one day from members and supporters. That's half as much as it raised during the whole of January. Nick Clegg's appearance on The Last Leg may well have stimulated a good old shot in the bank balance for the party. What's particularly good is that the £150,000 raised from members and supporters will be matched by major donors, giving the campaign a £300,000 boost. This news, combined with the recent news that Liberal Democrat membership rose for the sixth ...

Posted by The Voice on Liberal Democrat Voice

This was meant to go out last night but I came back from collecting surveys last night with a painfully swollen foot which necessitated a hot bath to kick start the recovery process. For those numerous Labour hacks in Gateshead who follow my every move, I'm pleased to say the recovery is now complete and I will be back out on doorsteps again in the next day or so. Anyway, this link takes you to

Posted by jonathanwallace on Jonathan Wallace
Sun 1st
12:04

It's alive!!

After a long break, I'm reviving this site. Had a problem with the backup, so a lot of content is going to have to be restored (probably manually) from original drafts. If anyone wonders why new content pops up with old dates, that's why – it's actually old stuff. Bear with me, caller, we are working to restore the service...

Posted by Jon on Contrasting Sounds

Norman Lamb takes to the pages of today's Independent on Sunday to make a plea to replace political heat with non-partisan light in the debate over the future of the NHS. He outlines what is currently happening: Labour is pulling out all the stops to convince voters that the NHS is in crisis - a basket case run by private firms working to destroy it; the party searches for negative statistics and hospital horror stories to fit its narrative. On the other hand, the Conservatives have failed to come up with a plan to meet the £8bn shortfall by 2020 ...

Posted by NewsHound on Liberal Democrat Voice

I previously reported the news that Ukip council group in Southend expels its own Parliamentary candidate. Now there's this farcical twist: Ukip has suspended its four Southend councillors... because they disowned the party's Parliamentary candidate. The anti-EU party has confirmed that James Moyies, Tino Callaghan, Lawrence Davies, and Lee Burling, have had their party membership suspended... Steve Crowther, Ukip's national chairman, said: "UKIP has suspended Cllrs James Moyies, Tino Callaghan, Lawrence Davies and Lee Burling from Party activities, following their expulsion of Cllr Floyd Waterworth from their Group. "The Party considers that the expulsion was unnecessarily damaging to Mr Waterworth's ...

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack
eUKhost

Following on from our post on Thursday night, here are some more pictures of Liberal Democrats campaigning in the snow. Keep sending them in. Danny Alexander went for a walk (remember #dannyswalks) in the streets of Aviemore: Canvassing in snowy aviemore this afternoon pic.twitter.com/ek2QDxTlXe — Danny Alexander (@dannyalexander) January 30, 2015 And it was proper snowing in Balloch, near Inverness, this morning, when he was out with Councillor Carolyn Caddick: Canvassing with Carolyn Caddick in Balloch this morning – lots of support on a snowy day! pic.twitter.com/VL3PjIOZSj — Danny Alexander (@dannyalexander) January 31, 2015 And Layla Moran led her team ...

Posted by The Voice on Liberal Democrat Voice
Sun 1st
09:35

Labour face civil war

If Ed Miliband thought that the approaching General Election would unite his party behind him then he might need to think again. According to today's Sunday Times, senior Labour figures have warned that the party faces a new civil war over the party's direction whether Ed Miliband wins the general election or not. The paper says that Miliband was accused last night of lacking "substantive policy positions" on key areas such as the economy and failing to devise plans that can "unite the party".: They add that Blairites in the shadow cabinet are planning to demand that the Labour leader ...

Posted by Peter Black on Peter Black

Shapps is keeping steady guard of the Tory fortress - although it may not look it at first glance. Last week the Conservative Party chairman seemed to claim that Cameron wanted to do the TV debates - come on the lot of you, let's see what you're made of. All right, I'm exaggerating slightly, but not much. Then on Friday he ruled out any post-election deal with Farage's bunch. "I can rule out - we are not going to do pacts and deals with Ukip," he said when pressed on the topic. I just want to take a moment to ...

Posted by Nick on nicktyrone.com

[IMG: Delete key. Public domain image courtesy of It was there on Saturday: the Ministry of Justice's guide to the courts which got the little matter of the innocent until proven guilty / burden of proof thing embarrassingly wrong. And then what happened a few hours later? Zap. The link to the document stopped working as it disappeared from the web. As The Observer reports: Red-faced Ministry of Justice (MoJ) officials have been forced to deny claims that they had dismantled a centuries-old cornerstone of British law in advice that the ministry gave to people facing criminal trials... In ...

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

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% 7% 18% 3% -1% 14-15/1 Online ComRes 31% 30% 8% 17% 7% 1% 23-25/1 Phone ICM 30% 33% 11% 11% 9% -3% 16-19/1 Phone Ashcroft 32% 32% 6% 15% 9% 0% 23-25/1 Phone MORI 33% 34% 8% 11% 8% -1% 11-13/1 Phone Opinium 32% 33% 5% 18% 6% ...

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

MoJ is telling people with learning difficulties that they are guilty unless they can prove themselves innocent (tags: ) In which @stealthmunchkin has a lightbulb moment which makes sense to me (tags: ) Reasons You Were Not Promoted That are Totally Unrelated to Gender. (tags: ) What happens when you play a game of Hearts with a deck where Queens Trump Kings? (tags: ) 5 Bizarre Realities of Being a Man Who Was Raped by a Woman (Obvious TW) Nevertheless, this is an excellent piece. (tags: ) Geena Davis continues excellent work in gender representtion in media Actually quite proud ...

[IMG: Annette Brooke] There are no dress rehearsals when it comes to where we are and who we are with when we die - so it's crucial that people have as much choice and control over the situation as possible. This is important not only to the person who is at the end of their life, but also those close to them. A person's last days will stay with family and friends forever, so it is important that they should be left with a lasting, positive memory of their loved one receiving good quality care in a place of their ...

Posted by Annette Brooke MP on Liberal Democrat Voice

Seen on the Leeds Liverpool Canal in Maghull, last summer, near Shaw's swing bridge:- [IMG: Duck House] Click on the photo to enlarge it. The photo is amongst my Flickr shots at:- www.flickr.com/photos/86659476@N07/

Posted by Cllr. Tony Robertson on Sefton Focus » Sefton Focus

Sadly both teams seem to have fired the starting pistol to see who can get relegated first! [IMG: Southport FC] It would be sad indeed if Mansfield Town were to be relegated to the Football Conference again and not be able to play Southport because they in turn have been relegated from that league. Based on current form both these depressing possibilities are likely to become realities. [IMG: Mansfield Town] Southport seem more likely to save themselves than Mansfield so I may well be going to watch my Team play at Haigh Avenue once again in the 2015/16 season.

Posted by Cllr. Tony Robertson on Sefton Focus » Sefton Focus

From Sheena Wellington : The Lunchtime Recital at Wighton Heritage Centre at the Central Library on Wednesday 4th February, will feature well-known local fiddle teacher Morag Anne Elder and 17 year old Joanna Stark. The Tayport duo will brighten a winter day with music for the season played on fiddle, cello and guitar. The recital starts at 1.15pm. Admission free, but donations welcome.

Sun 1st
05:06

You talk, we'll listen

No related posts.

Posted by Freedom Central on Freedom Central

BBC NI have on their online news managed to cover the No Conscience Clause protests this afternoon without any quotes from the speakers who were present. This is kind of sad especially as the Belfast protest took place at City Hall, which regular viewers will know that the rear of City Hall is often a backdrop used for new reports as the back of Broadcasting House is actually at the other end of a street that leads straight to the site. For people not used to Belfast this is only a few minutes away. Therefore to make up for the ...

Posted by Stephen Glenn on Stephen's Liberal Journal