[IMG: Jupiter Artland] Over the last 15 years, my wife and I have supported family members through 10 rounds of cancer. My mother had ovarian cancer, with relapses and recurrences 4 times over 8 years before it took her. My father had lung cancer twice before it took him. My mother-in-law had pancreatic cancer and passed away in under a year. A month before she passed away, her boyfriend started complaining of headaches and weeks afterwards was diagnosed with a brain tumor and passed away within 6 months. My wife's grandfather was treated for a stomach tumor and is now ...
Excellent. Delighted and proud to have been selected tonight as the @LibDems candidate for Poplar & Limehouse pic.twitter.com/jdCKEUwTrP — Elaine Bagshaw (@esbagshaw) February 5, 2015
Produced for British Railways in the 1950s.
This evening Tower Hamlets Liberal Democrat members gathered at Oxford House in Bethnal Green to choose our two candidates for the general election in May, for the constituencies of Poplar & Limehouse (which I fought in 2010) and Bethnal Green & Bow (where Ajmal Masroor lifted the LibDems to second place last time). I'm pleased [...]
I wanted to talk a bit about how immigrating to the UK has affected my mental health, because both mental health and immigration are subjects on which I look to the Lib Dems to support me with, via good policies and campaigning. I've been in the UK nine years now, but when I'm standing in that non-EU passports line (I've long been eligible for citizenship but I can't afford the application fees), I can't help but hear similar interrogations going on to the ones I remember when I first came here and was interrogated by a big scary scouser for ...
The impression that the Conservatives are currently unable to challenge Leicester's domination of Leicester politics is strengthened by their choice of candidate for May's mayoral election. Dr Paul Bremner is a member of Harborough District Council and lives in Market Harborough. It is fair to say he is not a widely known in Market Harborough either, but a quote he gave to the Leicester Mercury suggests he has grasped the essentials of Leicester politics: "Labour took people for a merry ride, and what we have now is council run by a small cartel of individuals around a mayor with absolute ...
An exciting announcement from the Pentabus rural theatre company: The Lone Pine Club by Alice Birch Pentabus Theatre Company presents a riotous brand new play about four young adventurers. The Lone Pine Club by Alice Birch Adapted from the books by Malcolm Saville Children's Show 8+BE TRUE TO EACH OTHER WHATEVER HAPPENS David, Dickie and Mary are starting a journey they will never forget. With their new friend - a girl called Peter - they go off on their own and make a secret camp. They start The Lone Pine Club (which must be a real secret - particularly from ...
Metro wins Headline of the Day. Thanks to Martin Brookes on Twitter.
Most people who see me have only really seen the cheerful, jokey, confident, go getter. Very few have witnessed the other side. There have been times in my life I have literally been staring into an abyss of despair, despondency and darkness. Certain friends are aware of the triggers that lead me towards depression and others are good at picking up the early symptoms. Some are fellow sufferers others are just people who I allow in, they are the inner circle and thanks to their small but elite number I probably can be thankful that I am still around today. ...
[IMG: Time to talk 2015] University, for many, is a truly liberating, exciting experience. University gives you a chance to be independent for the first time, to get away from home, to meet new people from a range of backgrounds and a chance to throw yourself into new experiences in a new place in a different part of the country. However, for many to start with, myself included, it can also be extremely daunting. I still remember seeing all of my belongings sitting in my front room ready to be carted off. Before then, I had been putting it off ...
Having failed to engage any of the five political parties through twitter on the subject of lifelong learning and what their policies might be, the next stage of my quest has led me onto their websites and the search capabilities that they offer. The first problem I encountered with this approach was that both the Conservative Party and UKIP don't appear to have this rather important function on their websites. (This is 2015 and not 1995, right?) I can only assume, at least, until their 2015 manifestos are formally published, that they have no policies in this area that they'd ...
What is that? It's a day aimed at de-stigmatising mental health issues. As we've heard from Nick Clegg and Norman Lamb, as many as 1 in 4 people suffer from mental health issues. Most people are too afraid to mention them to anyone - they are afraid it will jeopardise their relationships, lead to their employers firing them (as happened to one worker), or make things worse and make them feel judged by colleagues or friends. No-one would feel embarrassed and refuse to deal with or acknowledge a broken wrist, an upset stomach or a migraine - so what makes ...
It was a Monday in November 2000 around 11am at work. My boss put his head round the corner: "Have you got a moment, please Paul?" "Yes, sure", I replied. I followed my manager, another Paul, to a room where a member of our Human Resources group was sitting. The long and the short of it was that they wanted me to take a week off work as paid leave and arrange for free counselling for me. I agreed. Boss Paul, bless him, drove me home in his posh BMW and waited around for my wife to come home so ...
[IMG: Time to talk 2015] My name is Sarah and I am diagnosed with depression. I guess the diagnosis didn't come as a surprise, I've always felt, well, kinda sad. I have been on medication now for over a year and sometimes I wonder if I will ever beat this thing. It makes me angry when people tell me to "cheer up", or "get over it" yeah how about you try "getting over" diabetes or a broken arm. My illness might not always have physical symptoms and it might be "all in my head" but it doesn't make it hurt ...
The worst day of my life was January 12th 2012. I got up in the morning feeling nervous like every day for months on end. I had been prescribed Citalopram for depression, but it wasn't really cutting it and I was terrible at taking it anyway. I went into work as normal. My job was to teach 15 year olds who had been expelled from school. I taught at a Further Education College in Kent. I was due to be moved to another department soon because I had said I wasn't coping. My manager had spotted the self harm scars ...
[IMG: Time to talk 2015] Regular readers will be used to me banging my drum on these pages about the work that Lib Dems are doing in government on mental health. Mental health has been disadvantaged within the NHS for far too long, and changes like legislating for equality for mental health, introducing the first access and waiting time standards, and – in particular – confronting the poor state of children's mental health services in many places are all incredibly important. But something just as important has been happening here on Lib Dem Voice today. I wrote here about Time ...
Here's my latest Muswell Flyer article – also available here. Since I wrote this article, unemployment has dropped even further to 2.6% – halved since 2010! Having a job is so important - it gives us a purpose and means we can provide for ourselves and our families. And for Government - helping people into work should always be a priority. Before 2010, in the midst of the recession, unemployment rose and young people found it difficult to start their careers. But things are looking up - unemployment in our constituency of Hornsey and Wood Green has now dropped to ...
[IMG: Time to talk 2015] I am a Lib Dem supporter (most of the time), who has been commenting below the line on Lib Dem Voice for a few years and I have suffered from severe anxiety and depression. I still have anxieties that affect me every day, but they are reducing and I find that doing something new, even a small act such as submitting an article on here, helps me to recover and move on. It is hard to talk about mental health, but perhaps you will find that there are more people willing to listen than you ...
District Council press release – Chris White is not responsible for its content Council listens to residents' concerns and agrees to fund ten units of temporary housing in St Albans St Albans City and District Council is making money available to address the need for more accommodation for people finding themselves temporarily homeless. The intention [...]
A little over over a century ago, back in 1906, Ivy Lee dispatched the very first press release. The communication challenges he faced back then – which caused him to invent the press release – are actually ones that sound very familiar today. The press release was born after a major railway accident on the Pennsylvania Railroad in the US. In a desire to head off the spread of inaccurate rumours, Ivy Lee put together a written statement – the first press release. He distributed it promptly to journalists and even laid on a special train for them and their ...
This shot was taken during the storm that hit the Sefton coast on 21st October 2014. It looks like a black and white photo but that's because it was such a grey and stormy day. It makes you feel cold just to look at it. Just a seagull, who happened to pop into the shot, and the Iron men lift the gloom:- [IMG: rsz_iron_men_&_a_seagull] Click on the photo to enlarge it. The photo is amongst my Flickr shots at:- www.flickr.com/photos/86659476@N07/
Thu 5th
15:00
Paul Burstow MP writes...We must transform mental health services for young people #timetotalk
[IMG: Time to talk 2015] From day one of this government, Lib Dems have prioritised mental health, so long neglected and overlooked by previous governments. In 2011, I published the Coalition Government's mental health strategy, No Health Without Mental Health. Four years on, that strategy has been translated into action by a succession of initiatives. Investing in expanding the adult talking therapies (IAPT) programme, building from scratch a children's IAPT programme, putting in place liaison and diversion services investing in liaison psychiatry, the first ever waiting time standards for mental health and Nick's announcement of an ambition for zero-suicides across ...
Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande are in Kiev today and tomorrow will move on to Moscow — all in aid of trying to mediate a peace deal between the Ukrainian government and Russian-backed rebels on Eastern Ukraine. They are to be congratulated for confronting head-on the most serious threat to security in the European Union's [...]
Our local libraries have a range of fun activities planned to mark National Libraries Day on Saturday 7 February. As well as events and activities all library members who visit their local library on the day can: reserve up to two items from the LibrariesWest catalogue free of chargehire a DVD for half priceenter a free prize draw with the chance to win a tablet computer, a £25 voucher for a well-known online retailer and a range of bestselling books if they borrow at least three physical itemsIf you're not a member yet, why not join? The council is also ...
The Churchill's Scientists exhibition at the Science Museum is well worth a look, especially for this: [IMG: CORA conditioned reflex analogue device] [IMG: CORA explanation - Science Museum] The free exhibition is on until March 2016.
[IMG: Time to talk 2015] I've always been a really healthy person, well on the outside anyway! During my adult life there has probably only been half a dozen years when I haven't either been under the care of the community mental health team, receiving some sort of talking therapy or taking medication for mental health conditions. As a child I was always the one who struggled with emotions, my dad was the same and two of my daughters display similar traits. It turns out that we have a chemical imbalance in our brain which makes coping with stress a ...
A science park in the Thames Valley has been in the cards for a while, with planning permission first granted back in 2010. I'm really looking forward to seeing it made real. I've been living and working in the "Thames Valley tech corridor" along the M4 since the year 2000, but the original research and development work has always tended to be done elsewhere. The new park is putting its plans on display today.
Those of us who use social media learn very quickly that it is a law unto itself. You cannot control it, you just have to be careful what you post and hope for the best. And if what you post has any traction then you will attract followers. That lesson does not seem to have to have filtered through to the Tory Party who, according to the Independent are reportedly spending more than £100,000 a month, or well in excess of £1 million a year, on its Facebook presence. The paper says that while the Tories see the money as ...
'Labour and Lib Dems to hit joint total of 339 seats, study predicts' headlined The Guardian this week, summarising the mathematical model of Professor Paul Whiteley at the University of Essex forecasting Labour would win 291 seats and the Lib Dems 48. I'd love to believe the Lib Dems would retain 84% of our seats. But I don't. However, if it should come to pass the two parties would have plenty of material for a coalition. I highlighted last summer the 21 areas where Lib Dems and Labour agree. Today, CentreForum and the Fabian Society have published a new pamphlet, ...
An attempted child abduction in East Cheadle has sparked over 30 reports of suspicious activity, but none suggest any further crimes have taken place. The initial incident from 13th January has sparked interest through social media and the press that exacerbated the issue. An attempt to quell the anxiety and provide some reassurance was made and the MEN published the attached on their site on Tuesday. The messages from the Police are: – we have received 34 calls reporting suspicious activity across Stockport – they have all been thoroughly investigated, and so far we have nothing to suggest any further ...
[IMG: Time to talk 2015] Hi, my name is Alex. I'm an 18 year old who loves travelling, ABBA and wearing waistcoats for no apparent reason. I've also got a mental illness. The psychiatrists aren't quite sure what it is. For a while they thought it was Bipolar Disorder, now they are starting to think it's Borderline Personality Disorder. I'm a bit of a curious case. I suffer from intense emotions: anxiety, anger, sadness, happiness etc. I have too much of all of them and switch between them at the drop of a hat. It makes me unpredictable and sometimes ...
The problems caused by one-party states are many, but the behaviour of Rotherham Labour in failing to their residents by running a council that was simply "not fit for purpose" shows one of the worst possible examples. The lack of political challenge to Rotherham Labour resulted in a council that lacked even the basic ability to serve local people. It stands as one of the clearest examples of the failure of the current English council elections system. Eric Pickles has already announced that Rotherham will move to all-up elections from 2016, but this is insufficient to change the underlying problem ...
Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums in partnership with UNISON, Community Hubs Network and Newcastle City Council held an event to celebrate LGBT History Month on Monday at the Discovery Museum. As a member of the TWAM joint committee I was invited and popped in to look at the history display and listen to a number of speakers who talked about how laws and attitudes about sexual orientation have
I recently attended the Policy Forum for London's seminar on Infrastructure Planning in London. The future for London presented by representative's of the Mayor's Office was of an increasing concentration of business and economic growth in central London, with outer London seen as domiciliary boroughs housing the pool of people who will be employed by [...]
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[IMG: Time to talk 2015] It was a Monday in November 2000 around 11am at work. My boss put his head round the corner: "Have you got a moment, please Paul?" "Yes, sure", I replied. I followed my manager, another Paul, to a room where a member of our Human Resources group was sitting. The long and the short of it was that they wanted me to take a week off work as paid leave and arrange for free counselling for me. I agreed. Boss Paul, bless him, drove me home in his posh BMW and waited around for my ...
Thu 5th
10:36The Independent View: Analysing the common ground between Lib Dem and Labour policy positions
Today sees the release of a combined piece of work between the Fabian Society and CentreForum that details what the policy overlaps between the Lib Dems and the Labour Party are, according to the most up to date data. The report is entitled "Common Ground? An analysis of the Liberal Democrat and Labour programmes", and can be read here. By extension, the paper sets out what the discussion might look like should the two parties find themselves negotiating a government after the general election in May. The report does not recommend such an arrangement; it only seeks to outline where ...
Fact #1 now reads a little archaically, but Fact #2 (save for the use of "man") still resonates: [IMG: Smatterbooks No.27: 100 Facts On The Liberal Party (c.1949)] From Smatterbooks No.27: 100 Facts On The Liberal Party (c.1949).
Thu 5th
10:11
The great irony of this parliament may turn out to be that the Tories would be on course for victory...
I don't mean to drudge up the good ol' Alternative Vote anew, but let's think back a bit to early 2011. AV, although it seems amazing to think of it now, was ahead in the polls against the retain First Past the Post bunch. The Conservative Party was at a cross roads: should it let whatever was going to happen happen, or should they slide in hard against changing the voting system? None of us need reminding what path they chose. This was before the UKIP surge, which may have made them think twice (I stress, may have - never ...
Labour seat, death Liberal Democrat candidate- John Ahern
Several projects have come to fruition recently at Lilliput Park. Dodington Parish Council and local young people have been celebrating the success of projects in the local community. SAY - the Social Action Youth Project - has involved young people working with residents to enhance the local area. Around 15 young people from Chipping Sodbury School consulted local people about enhancements to Lilliput Park, and then they designed and painted benches which have been sited near the play area, and created a mosaic as a new entrance feature for the park. Other young people have been working with residents in ...
MPs Are Worried About Losing Their Verified Ticks On Twitter Due To The Election - BuzzFeed News This is why, many moons ago, @matgb and I advised various LD MPs not to have MP in their handle. *smugmode* (tags: ) Work continues to grow to help the town blossom - hurrah for @digforbrig (tags: ) Chuck Wendig on meninists "Men who think they've been victimized by feminism are like burglars who sue the homeowners they were burgling because they stubbed their toe on a fucking coffee table." LOL go Chuck (tags: ) LEGO Doctor Who range launched - waiting to ...
Thu 5th
08:56Opinion: Mental health problems in the workplace: prevention is better than cure #timetotalk
[IMG: Time to talk 2015] It is good to see that increased openness about mental health issues is leading employers to become more accommodating towards people who have such issues. However, there is one policy issue which needs more consideration, and that is the question of how we prevent working conditions and management practices which cause mental health issues in the first place. Stress and anxiety are some of the most common triggers of mental health problems: the demands of many jobs and detrimental management practices, sometimes combined with an unhealthy work-life (im-)balance, are often a trigger for such problems. ...
English votes for English laws. I can't help feeling that it is somehow an excuse for Westminster not to debate devolution of powers to cities. It panders to Westminster's obsession with itself. It expands to fill the BBC's political brain, and therefore ours. But will it change anything very much - apart from making English laws subject to even fewer MPs than consider them now? Listening to William Hague putting forward his proposals has been a particularly miserable business, irritatingly English for all the wrong reasons. It is like so much else of what passes for a UK constitution, the ...
[IMG: Time to talk 2015] As I said last night, we are marking the Time to Change campaign's #timetotalk day today to encourage all our readers to take 5 minutes out of their day to have a conversation about mental health. We have a series of thought provoking articles and it may be that, like last year, some more come in on the day. I'm going to kick off with a brief post along the lines of that covering the themes suggested by the Time to Change campaign. My name is Caron and I have experienced Depression and Anxiety on ...
Another topic I've been asked a lot over the past few days is about Tax Avoidance. This comes via this pressure group website, & all the questions are identical, but it's a good topic nonetheless. The first thing to say about Tax Avoidance is that it is legal (as opposed to Tax Evasion, which isn't). Tax avoidance is a process of arranging your financial affairs to minimise the tax you are liable for. If you have a problem with that (as I do), then don't blame the companies for applying the law. Blame the politicians who made the law that ...
[IMG: Telephone] I've been just a little – just a tiny, tiny tadge – critical of the Interception of Communications Commissioner, but this from the current incumbent is excellent, and follows another good move back in October: Police should not be able to access journalists' phone records unless they are given authorisation by a judge, a major report has recommended. Sir Anthony May, the Interception of Communications Commissioner, said that the current Home Office rules for using the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (Ripa) did not "provide adequate safeguards to protect journalistic sources". The report follows a review of the ...
[IMG: My photo of Mersey Ferry Royal Iris in the usual paint scheme.] My photo of Mersey Ferry Royal Iris in the usual paint scheme. www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-31081468 The BBC has the story on its web site – see link above:- A Mersey ferry is to undergo a transformation into a brightly coloured "dazzle ship" thanks to the man behind a famous Beatles album cover. The Snowdrop will have a new look next month designed by Sir Peter Blake, who created The Beatles' Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band cover in 1967. It will celebrate World War One ship designers who used ...
A couple of things that caught my eye yesterday. First, apparently Prime Minister's Questions was yet again dominated by grown men flinging insults at each other, rather than actually discussing any issues. (I've long thought that the most transgressive thing you could do there is to ask an actual question) It was capped by David Cameron making a huge deal out of Ed Balls forgetting someone's surname, because no other human being in history has ever had a minor memory failure in a public situation. After all, it's not like the Prime Minister once managed to forget the existence of ...
"We are keen to ensure that speeding is kept well under control and that reasonable and intelligent limits are in place in all our villages," says Fiona. Fiona is also pledged to ensure that cycle routes are improved and the provision for cyclists increased. "We must have safe routes for cyclists, especially for children cycling to school and as your councillor this would be one of my key aims." Working with Girton Glebe mum and local Girton activist Belinda Brooks-Gordon we got the speed limit reduced on Huntingdon Road from 40mph to 30mph, and better disabled access on pavements, for ...
In 2006/7 962 offences were committed by young re-offenders in Stockport. In 2012/13 (the latest figures we have) that number fell to just 154. That figure represents a transformation. For ordinary people it means less crime, less anti-social behaviour and less fear. For the young offenders it means getting on the right path, sorting out their lives and not being dragged into a life of crime in which everyone suffers. The latest re-offending rate for Stockport is 30.8%, compared to 34.6% one year ago. The nearest statistical comparable authority is Trafford: 32.9%, down from 37.6% one year ago. The national ...
Following her BBC Hard Talk interview this week, Anne Glover, former chief scientific adviser to the president of the European commission, gives a frank account of the highs and lows of her three years in Brussels I want to summarise a three-year journey that was very rewarding but contained elements of Quixote, Kafka and Macondo. It started with an announcement by European commission president José Manuel Barroso when he stood for re-election in the European parliament on 15 September 2009: "We also need a fundamental review of the way European institutions access and use scientific advice. In the next commission, ...
Figures uncovered by the Welsh Liberal Democrats have revealed that NHS spending on agency nurses has nearly doubled in just a year. Freedom of Information responses from Health Boards show that since 2011 over £60 million pounds has been spent on employing agency nursing staff. Agency nurses are not connected to any single ward or hospital, they are only meant to be used to cover temporary shortages in nurses. Using agency nursing is more expensive and less efficient way of staffing compared to a full-time salaried nurse. In 2013, £12 million was spent on agency nurses, yet in just a ...
