So, now that the HSBC scandal appears to have transmuted itself into a contest to see who can pin the blame for the way HMRC operates on whom, it looks as though the general lack of interest in how the Civil Service functions has finally come home to roost. This stuff is important. How you organise a state determines what it can deliver and how it does so. That's why constitutional reform (yes, I know you're bored already, but bear with me) is important, and why doing it piecemeal appears ineffectual but isn't. And, the sinews of day to day ...
Last week I blogged about the exciting news that the Pentabus Theatre Company is planning to put on a play called The Lone Pine Club by Alice Birch. The project has a JustGiving page, which tells you more about it: 'SCUSE ME, WHAT IS THIS PROJECT ABOUT? We've put together an adaptation of the Lone Pine Series. We are a registered charity and are producing this play in order to reach young people with quality theatre. We want to share with them a tale of adventure and daring and empower them to be brave in exploring the countryside on their ...
The safety barrier in the centre of Riverside Drive nearly Discovery Point has been damaged by a vehicle - see below :I contacted the City Council about this and the Roads Maintenance Partnership has confirmed repairs are now planned for later this week (17th - 18th, weather permitting).
Heather Kidd, the Liberal Democrat councillor for Chirbury and Worthen, has been making waves in the Shropshire Star. According to the paper, she has: accused the authority of overlooking the county's hillier rural parts where the recent snow had lingered once the ice had melted in towns. She said in particular the village of Priest Weston had not seen a school bus for three weeks due to a combination of roadworks and a lack of arrangements to grit the roads. ... Councillor Kidd said: "The recent blast of wintery weather came and went quite quickly for most of the county. ...
In "As you like it", Shakespeare wrote about the Seven ages of man. Well, he missed one out. As the result of much sorting through of a senior citizen's belongings recently, I can say that old Will missed out the age, somewhere between the fifth and the seventh where you hoard loads and loads of sheer rubbish.
[IMG: The sea] Oh this is very, very good:
Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 411th 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 (8-14 February, 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. The full leaked list of seats the ...
[IMG: commons3] BBC2 are running an excellent series called Inside the Commons. Michael Cockerell and his team were allowed unparalleled access to the House of Commons. They have produced a fascinating record of the behind-the-scenes goings on there. In the latest episode there is extensive coverage of Andrew George as he pursues his private member's bill, the Affordable Homes Bill. During the proceedings, my eye was caught by this Honourable Member (blue box) on the Conservative benches, who is looking, ahem, rather relaxed and in what might be called "baying mode" as a bill on a possible EU referendum is ...
via Facebook
Some things I've been in to this week: An exhibition: I managed to find a little bit of time this week to visit the brilliant exhibition at Sheffield's Graves Gallery: The Great Outdoors – Paintings by Stanley Royle. Stanley Royle is one of Sheffield's greatest painters and this exhibition brings together paintings from the city'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 32% 34% 7% 16% 4% -2% 11-12/2 Online ComRes 31% 30% 8% 17% 7% 1% 23-25/1 Phone ICM 30% 33% 11% 11% 9% -3% 16-19/1 Phone Ashcroft 34% 31% 9% 14% 6% 3% 6-8/2 Phone MORI 34% 36% 6% 9% 7% -2% 8-10/2 Phone Opinium 33% 35% 8% 14% 6% ...
[IMG: 7 ver 4 full] Many thanks to the 16,600 visitors who dropped by Lib Dem Voice this week. Here's our 7 most-read posts... Lib Dem spin doctor feels "disenfranchised" (44 comments) by The Voice Liberal Democrats publish their General Election manifesto front page (59 comments) by The Voice Nick Harvey: 'If you think we are going to spend another five years being shafted (this time) by Labour, you've got another think coming' (113 comments) by Paul Wlalter It would be fabulous if Julian Assange sued Nick Clegg (53 comments) by Caron Lindsay What might happen after May 7th (87 ...
There's a lot of talk in Westminster about how interesting this election is going to be. It's true - it is shaping up to be the most unpredictable general election in recent memory, and not just in terms of who ends up prime minister in May. The SNP-Labour fight in Scotland; how UKIP will do; how many seats the Lib Dems can hold on to; where the Green vote goes. Problem is, there's not a whole lot of exciting stuff happening in politics just this second. I know there's some stuff happening: the HSBC thing, Ed Miliband v Lord Fink, ...
He helped to define that odd era in the Eighties when pop stars wore suits, but Robert Palmer had been around for a long time. In particular, in the early Seventies he had been a member of the highly regarded band Vinegar Joe along with Elkie Brooks. This song made no. 16 in the UK charts in 1982. It was a complete reworking of the original song by the The Persuaders, clearly carried out by someone who had listened to a lot of Bowie. Robert Palmer died in 2003 aged only 54.
[IMG: House of Lords - Some rights reserved by UK Parliament] Earlier this week, a Guardian editorial called for a pre-election pact between the parties on the size and proportions of the House of Lords. The piece complained about the cost of the peers and the size of their House. The Commons itself is very large. But the size of the Lords is the real problem. There is no other bicameral legislature anywhere in the world in which the upper house is larger than the lower house. The case for change is overwhelming - morally, democratically and on every other ...
[IMG: Credit card] Here's an interesting twist on the trend towards dropping comment threads from websites: keep comments, but charge for them. Tablet magazine announced in a blog post yesterday that they'll be taking an unusual step to deal with sometimes unruly commenters: charging readers who want to submit — or even view — comments on their site. There are more details over on NiemanLab about this particular move. One thing not mentioned there is that we sort of have this already, in that when a newspaper goes behind a paywall then – depending on how it is done – ...
Having been inspired by Mark Pack, Stephen Glenn and Jonathan Calder's posts about their five favourite bridges, I've also decided to join in with the latest meme that's sweeping the world of Liberal Democrats who blog(*). The additional challenge I set myself was to find all five of my bridges within the City of Derby, as that's home. The photographs were all taken yesterday, so unfortunately the light wasn't particularly good. 1. The Bridge That Isn't There [IMG: East Street, Derby, 14-02-2015] I admit that this is an unusual way to start. It's a view of East Street and there's ...
[IMG: less_memory_4] The legions of the Decent Left are on manoeuvres again. Armchair Generals Denis MacShane and Nick Cohen have both been criticising the Government for its lack of moral fibre foreign policy involvement. It's pretty much Decent Left boilerplate bloviating, all assuming that what the world really needs is Britain throwing its weight around and the only people who can truly understand and advocate for this great cause are members of the Eustonite media-political complex. What is interesting in these columns is the complete inability of both MacShane and Cohen to understand why a British government of any colour ...
Nobody trusts political parties, and everybody's judgement is biased. Therefore, every General Election, a number of sites appear which tell you which party to vote for, based on their policies or some other blind, seemingly unbiased test. Choosing Policies As a test: based on these policies, which of these parties would you choose between? Party [...]
The truth about Andrew George's efforts to scrap the bedroom tax can be seen on a BBC programme, Inside the Commons, It portrays the difficulties he experienced in getting his Private Members Bill (to scrap the "Bedroom Tax" and support affordable homes) through Commons procedures. It shows how a small minority of (Tory) MPs were able to frustrate progress and defy the clear and expressed will of the majority of MPs in Parliament. Is this democracy? Locally the Labour Party are pedaling a lie that Andrew abstained from a vote that could have got rid of the bedroom tax. ...
Lib Dems being out campaigning is such a normal thing – we have always been proud of our all year round work ethic. So what have our councillors and candidates been up to this weekend? It seems to have been lovely weather everywhere: Martin Horwood and his team were out in his Cheltenham constituency: Sunny morning & warm response on the doorstep this morning in #Leckhampton @cheltlibdems pic.twitter.com/nPtFerFqNU — Martin Horwood (@MartinChelt) February 14, 2015 * Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings
There's an interesting discussion going on a number of Lib Dem blogs about the declining number of Lib Dem blogs. Mark Valladares has collated some figures on the number of active blogs on the aggregator site Lib Dem blogs. He finds this peaked at 235 in 2011 but is now down to 109. This is [...]
The Guardian reports: Vince Cable has privately clashed with the Tory justice secretary, Chris Grayling, over an alarming drop in the number of sexual discrimination cases being heard at employment tribunals since the government attached a fee to seeking legal redress... In a letter to Grayling, Cable wrote: "The fair and effective operation of the employment tribunals system is vital to the successful enforcement of employment rights for which my department is responsible. "The quid pro quo of my party supporting the Conservative proposal to introduce employment tribunal fees was that we should conduct a rigorous review within a year ...
I was pretty patronised by Labour's now infamous pink bus, until I read the actual article in the Guardian and realised there were far bigger worries on that front than simply the colour of the transport. Such as the fact Labour appear to think women are to be found "around the kitchen table" and has "decided" our priorities are "childcare, social care, domestic violence, equal pay and political representation". The stereotypical 'caring' aspects of politics to match women's stereotypically 'caring' roles within society. [IMG: HarrietHarman] I found this particular quote incredibly worrying. Lucy Powell, one of Labour's general election co-ordinators ...
A response to Peter Tatchell on "Free Speech" vs "Freedom from Criticism" (tags: ) [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
Ease yourself gently into Sunday with this video of Nick Clegg helping Oxfordshire schoolchildren with their woodland craft class. He was there on Thursday with Oxford West and Abingdon candidate Layla Moran ahead of the manifesto front page launch. Ok, so there's no hard policy, but it's pleasant and the kids seem to know quite a lot about him.
[IMG: Ashuk Ahmed] Luton on Sunday reports: A well known community worker has been chosen as an election candidate for the town's Liberal Democrat party. Ashuk Ahmed MBE will contest the Luton South seat... He said: "Luton has been good to me. The town has been a good home to me and to my family, has given me many valuable friendships and I am proud to live and work in the town. "I have always tried to put something back into the community and have been privileged to be able to work with so many good people in organisations striving ...
As tomorrow is a school holiday (mid-term), my usual ward surgeries do not take place but I can be contacted at any time at home on 459378 or by e-mail at surgery@frasermacpherson.org.uk. My surgeries resume on Thursday - Blackness Primary School at 6.15pm (in the staff room, ground floor).
Ceredigion's Welsh Liberal Democrat MP Mark Williams has raised his concerns about the provision of mental health services in rural areas, particularly when a lack of beds and services can mean those suffering with mental health issues are being kept in prison cells as a last resort. In a debate in Parliament this week on Mental Health Care in the NHS Mark Williams highlighted this issue, having received increasing representations about the lack of provision of mental health services in Ceredigion following the closure of the Afallon ward. Commenting Mark Williams said; "I raised this matter with the acting chair ...
The Hope not Hate blog records that the UKIP leadership has cast aside their selected candidate in Coventry South and imposed one of their favourites instead. This new candidate has a sting in his tail however. They say that Reverend George Hargreaves is a former music producer and songwriter, who promoted 80's pop acts Sinitta, Yazz and Five Star amongst others. His biggest claim to fame was writing Sinitta's hit records "So Macho" and "Cruising" which both became gay anthems in the 1980's, making George Hargreaves a millionaire from the royalties and which saw him later move to The Isle ...
They say you sit in seat D4 of the Lyric Theatre in the Lowry Centre listening to a performance of My Favorite Things at a comedy show twice in your career... The first time was a month ago, when I and eight friends (yes, I do have eight friends; admittedly one of them was my [...]
