A glimpse of the Stamford to Seaton shuttle and Morcott station in 1966, the last year of the line's operation. You can find some recollections of those days on the Rutnet site: My family moved to Morcott early in 1960 when my father became Rector of Morcott and South Luffenham, and almost at once, the railway became part of my life. Previously, we had lived a few miles south of Northamapton, close to the main line from Euston to Scotland, and there, I had developed an interest in trains. Now, I was to travel every day to school in Stamford ...
Remember Lynton Yates? He was the Ukip parliamentary candidate and Leicestershire county councillor who put out a leaflet calling for people on benefits to be banned from driving. The party suspended him, but today comes news that he has been reinstated and will stand for Ukip in the Charnwood constituency at the general election. Thanks to Mum Juice for the image of the leaflet.
Barbara Potter, who used to be the whip of the ruling Labour group on Leicester City Council, has been found guilty of intending to pervert the course of justice. This Leicester Mercury report gives a flavour of the case: Leicester Crown Court heard that Potter, of Winslow Green, Netherhall, drove to the city's Keyham Lane police station and told officers her car had been spat on when she left it outside a friend's house in Steins Lane on August 8, 2013. Potter said she had just seen Mr Taylor, with whom she had split up with in 2010 after an ...
Lord Bonkers continues his survey of Liberal Democrat prospects at the coming general election. Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey Whilst our own Danny Alexander is known elsewhere as a champion of austerity, things look rather different when looked at from his own constituency. There is not a corner of this chunk of the Highlands that has failed to benefit from government largesse. There you will find ski lifts, subsidised fuel and the electric broadband internet. Above all there is the new railway with its solid gold carriages. Its name, if I recall correctly, is the Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey ...
Thu 19th
21:23
SNP branch encourages its members to take pictures of Labour canvassers and put them on social media
Something very rare happened to me on Sunday afternoon. So rare that it hasn't happened at all in the almost 15 years I've lived in my house. That it happensd at all is indicative of a jitteriness in politics. Yes, a Labour canvasser turned up on my doorstep. Clearly they are feeling that they have to try after years of just assuming that the votes will pile up in their favour. That is probably a good thing. Mind you, the one who came to us will have to do something about the look of sheer incredulity on his face when ...
Liberal Democrats in government are proud to have kept the environment on the agenda. In government we have planted a million trees in England and are introducing a 5p plastic bag charge to help clean up our environment and protect Britain's natural habitat. We want to build on this by bringing forward a Nature Act and prioritising the environment in the next Parliament. Our plans include a package of measures to protect bees and oceans, and a commitment to put the Natural Capital Committee on a statutory footing so it can provide advice to Government and ensure that nature is ...
In recent years Northamptonshire's Conservative MPs have been drawn chiefly from the fruitcake wing of that party, which presents something of a challenge to Ukip. How do they find a fruitcake who is even fruitier? Easy. Step forward Jonathan Munday, the Ukip candidate for Wellingborough. Dr Munday, who is a GP, has already came to wider notice last month after accusing a Twitter user of contributing nothing to the NHS except piles and STDs. Now he has called a public meeting at a school in Irthlingborough and accused the Conservative and Labour candidates for Wellingborough of cowardice for declining to ...
Ludlow is set witness a lively debate in on 26 February when the Ludlow and Clee Local Joint Committee (LJC) will be hosting a discussion on the future of the Ludlow Museum Resource Centre. The councillors and officers planning the changes will be at the meeting to explain current plans and the options for the [...]
None of the items below is sexy, but I think they are all necessary and will have a surprising effect on accountability, efficiency, the quality of the services we receive, and the amount of tax available to pay for them. Welfare policy Whatever the words employed, current welfare policy is about demonising and impoverishing claimants. We want a society where everyone who is not working, either because there is no work, or because they are too ill or disabled to work, is guaranteed a decent minimum without fear of constant harassment. Civil service capacity We've been outsourcing busily for thirty ...
[IMG: Would it have been terrible to wait until 2012 for this election?] Would it have been terrible to wait until 2012 for this election? After my 'what if Nick Clegg loses his seat?' post the other day, I was thinking more about the various party leaderships after the election, given that regardless of how well they do in their constituencies, at least one of Cameron, Clegg and Miliband will be out of a job as party leader after it. Defeated leaders quitting after elections is something that's become an entirely natural and regular part of British politics. The last ...
Travis Perkins plan to move away from their current Cheadle site (off Lime Grove) towards the end of 2015, relocating to Sharston. [IMG: Selection_268] Although there have been lots of rumours flying around as to what might happen to the site, or what might already have been discussed, that's really (as far as we know) all there is to tell at the moment. It's likely Travis Perkins will want to sell the site and no doubt get full commercial value for it, but they probably won't do anything until they actually move out. TP haven't approached the Council and there ...
Thu 19th
16:15Nick Clegg on the Liberal Democrats' vision for a world class early years education system
Nick Clegg has made a major speech on early years education and child care to the Pre-School Learning Alliance. He pointed out that as a result of Liberal Democrat input, an extra £1 billion has been put into child-care in this Parliament and that only the Liberal Democrats would protect that level of spending in the next Parliament. In contrast, the Conservatives would cut it, at a cost of £625 per child. Not only that, but welfare cuts would affect low income families. Here are the main points of his speech: Over the last five years, we've made it one ...
Last week I noticed that Jeremy Browne had said something that seemed to piss off some folk. That is all I noticed as I didn't investigate further as it just passed me by. Well last night whilst sitting in the Chinese waiting for my beef with fried rice and slightly too overdone Chicken Balls (chicken balls need to have very soft batter, crispy batter is a no-no in the Neil Chinese takeaway world) I was reading the newspaper and the paper laying there was Friday's edition of the i and in it was an article about Jeremy Browne's 'controversial' interview ...
This report makes interesting reading: In touch period 11 2015
Cabinet Office Minister Mr Francis Maude visited the Armadillo Yate Youth Cafe on Thursday, February 12 to look round and to meet Yate councillors and young people to learn about youth engagement in the area. MP Steve Webb also attended the visit to the social space for young people aged between 11 and 19, and was shown a short film made by young people from the cafe called 'Yate is Great', a documentary promoting Yate. Mr Maude was clearly impressed. He described the Armadillo as a "fantastic place" and said how important it is for towns to have social enterprises ...
A Conservative housing policy is likely to exacerbate London's housing crisis because it proposes to sell more social housing. If we can sell homes at a discount of 70 – 80% of the 'market value', then what does that say about the market? Simply put: London's housing market is over priced - most likely by similar amounts. At the University College of London's seminar: "How Should we Respond to Rising Inequality" last month, political economist Will Hutton, David Goodhart and Sir John Gieve discussed reasons behind rising housing costs. They talked about the impact of unmanaged markets, lack of supply, ...
The best of ALDC content from the last week, including: • New LDHQ Bulk Buy Switch Mailing • ALDC-Team 2015 Phone Bank • Chinese New Year • Candidacy FAQs in Ask ALDC • Facebook Update ALDC Blog Knock Clever With Flowchart Scripts Tips for using Voter ID Flowchart Scripts and Connect for more effective door knocking. ALDC-Team 2015 Phone Bank: Off to a Flying Start! Party President Sal Brinton joined members from Hazel Grove, Cheadle, Oldham and Bury for the inaugural Phone Bank at ALDC HQ last week. The next session is tonight from 6pm and will be running every ...
Acocks Green's Claimant Unemployment fell by 3 to 679 in January. This is a fall of 288 over the past year, reducing the claimant rate from 7.4% to 5.2% in that time. The level of long term unemployment fell by 5 to 255 and the number of youth claimants also fell by 5 to 145. These are unadjusted figures, which normally rise in January, so a fall, however modest, is an impressive outcome for the month. Across the UK, the seasonally adjusted claimant level fell by 38,600 in January, to stand at 823,000 or 2.6%. Meanwhile, the total unemployment level ...
Thu 19th
13:25
With three simple sentences Paul Strasburger demolishes Theresa May's regular defence of snooping
Theresa May propaganda repeatedly says UK spooks always obey the law. We now know 2 ways they broke law for years. How many more are there? — Paul Strasburger (@LordStras) February 18, 2015
Yesterday's monthly update from the office for national statistics shows unemployment down 97,000 in the last quarter of 2014 and by 486,000 on a year earlier. The chart above shows the dramatic fall in unemployment over the last year, alongside drops in youth unemployment (which had been rising between 2002 and 2011) and long term unemployment. I have written before on this and now the picture is even clearer. How has this happened? A credible plan to bring down the deficit, that investors will have confidence in; investment in skills through 2 million apprenticeships, university technical colleges and city deals; ...
Ah this is fun. It has been a while since I've had a tit for tat in the blogosphere and all these politics posts. I need to write about why Robbie Savage is rubbish or something to appeal to my non-political audience. So many (well about three people in the world) will have seen my blog which has been described as 'witheringly sarcastic' that I wrote on Tuesday night about the staggering news that Blenheim Park is a two horse race between the Tories and Labour, no other candidates had declared 79 days before the election and that meant it ...
This really caught my eye from Lord Ashcroft's latest polling in Conservative-Ukip seats: [IMG: Ashcroft campaign activity levels] No-one quite knows how people's recollection of party campaigning matches up with actual party campaigning. It's certainly likely to under-report it judging by figures in Lib Dem seats in the past where I've been able to compare reported recall with actual delivery and canvassing levels. But even with that caveat, and especially compared to the contact recall in other seats, these figures are shockingly low given that three of the four seats are extremely marginal (with the Tories 1 point ahead in ...
On the day that the Coalition Government's flagship Enterprise Zone programme hits the 15,500 jobs landmark, Redcar MP Ian Swales praises Lib Dem ministers for delivering a boost to the local economy. Figures released today show that the Tees Valley Enterprise Zone has created roughly 1020 jobs so far, providing a real boost to the local economy in and knock-on benefits for the community, including improved infrastructure and new business opportunities. Across the country, the Coalition Government's 24 Enterprise Zones have now created more than 15,500 jobs, attracted over 480 businesses and over £2.1 billion in private investment.The growth has ...
Last night Paul Givan on the Nolan Show had the audacity to say that LGBT rights in Northern Ireland were of higher value than Christian Rights. Therefore I have finally agreed to accept his argument on this and believe that the DUP should forthwith reintroduce equality between LGBT individuals and Christians. Here are the list of bills that need to be introduced in Northern Ireland: Marriage Bill (Northern Ireland) Christian Place of Worship Amendment - Christians shall not be allowed to marry in any location in Northern Ireland. All Christian meeting places shall no longer be allowed to carry out ...
Thu 19th
11:55Willie Rennie MSP writes...You wouldn't put UKIP in charge of Europe, so you wouldn't put the SNP in...
If you ask me about coalitions and the SNP, I will keep it simple. Just as you wouldn't put UKIP in charge of Europe, you would not put the SNP in charge of Britain. It's not going to happen. Anyway, the SNP leader at Westminster told an interviewer from the New Statesman last week that he wasn't interested. So, it's definitely not going to happen. I know from long years in politics that parlour style discussions about hypotheticals and coalitions don't translate onto the doorsteps. We're in the Liberal Democrats because we want to build a stronger economy and a ...
Here's the new film from the Liberal Democrats:
A rare photograph of a troll's keyboard. pic.twitter.com/L8W3IZ4u8p — Alex Andreou (@sturdyAlex) February 6, 2015
The BBC report that Welsh councils broke data protection laws 100 times in 2014, but this is a fall compared with the previous year. They say that breaches include a list of addresses being lost in the street, personal data sent to the wrong address and records being found by a member of the public: The law was broken 135 times in 2013 and 60 times in 2012. Powys recorded the highest number of breaches in 2014 with 41 while Anglesey, Bridgend, Ceredigion, Merthyr Tydfil and Neath Port Talbot had none. BBC Wales submitted a Freedom of Information request to ...
OK... just to make my position *QUITE* clear, since it appears some people are under some serious misapprehensions: I do not, as I hope my post the other day made clear, like transphobic bigots at all, even a little bit. I also do not, as I thought I wouldn't ever have to make clear, but [...]
The standoff between the Greek government and most other EU governments continues. The other governments are happy to extend loan facilities, but only if Greece stands by the conditions it had previously agreed. For the Greeks that is anathema, because it means holding to austerity. Many observers here in Britain seem to sympathise with the Greek side. And they offer a middle way: reform without austerity. Three columns in the FT make the case. I have provided links, but beware – the FT operates a paywall with a very limited number of free goes. First was the weighty (intellectually) Martin ...
Do we need more scientists and engineers in government? The question is a tough one. Of course it's easy to find examples of scientific illiteracy in parliamentary debate, and it can be frustrating for followers of politics to see policies adopted seemingly without any framework to test their efficacy in a structured and unbiased way (though there has been some progress in that area). On the other hand, MPs without science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) backgrounds can be great advocates for science and engineering, and are perfectly capable of debating technical issues with great insight and sensitivity - Conservative ...
Labour seat, death No Liberal Democrat candidate
Lib Dems in Consett said it, and now the government appointed inspector says it about the County Durham Plan, the Labour run County Council's flagship policy. It's not a plan for County Durham, it's a plan obsessed with Durham City. The inspector couldn't be clearer. the County Durham Plan must examine a different spatial strategy alongside a more probable lower growth scenario to protect the interests of the rest of the County (my bold) and to protect the City from harmful development. Interestingly he also devotes a whole paragraph to Project Genesis's submission, probably still the key to Consett's future. ...
Kingsman imitates old fashioned spy movies and in the process demonstrates why they went out of fashion in the first place. I was really looking forward to Kingsman. It had an impressive cast, I'd enjoyed the directors turn making an x-men movie and the trailer made it look like enormous fun. That, however, just set [...]
'The Lib Dems have admitted that they are now relying on the first-past-the-post voting system to save them from a wipeout in May.' (The Times) '... the Liberal Democrats will be saved from wipe out by the first-past-the-post system.' (The Guardian) It's a meme I've seen repeated a lot. Oh, the irony!, it goes, Those Lib Dems banged on about electoral reform all those years and now they're going to be saved by the voting system they wanted to change. Haha! It's rubbish, of course. According to UKPollingReport's rolling poll average, the Lib Dems are currently on 7% — that's ...
They CoE has put out a letter to its flock this week, urging congregations to vote in the general election. A lot of it, as Conor Burns put very well, is naïve. But that's not the worst of it. It tries to tread a careful non-partisan line for a bit, saying that what is needed from May 2015 is "a new approach to political life that will change the political weather as decisively as did the administrations of 1945 and 1979." So Atlee or Thatcher, either one will do. Then we get this: "The ideals that the Big Society stood ...
'Devolve or watch services collapse' - except combined authorities are NOT devolution. Yorkshire parliament or bust. (tags: ) Hasbro "Have Released Plenty" Of Female Character Star Wars Toys, Has No Plans To Announce More (tags: ) How do I start playing video games? A beginner's guide - love the pics they've chosen for this Two women and a black guy are depicted as the epitome of gamer. I 3 u sometimes, Grauniad. (tags: ) The adventures and misadventures of Dinah, a young dinosaur who has Asperger's Syndrome. (tags: ) Jesus Christ, humanity, can you not stop depressing me? Just for ...
First of all, we had this truly weird video where Benjamin Netanyahu turns up at someone's house to baby sit for them. It took me a while to work out whether it was a spoof or whether it was the real Benjamin Netanyahu. No and yes, seem to be the answers – incredibly: Now we have Sara Netanyahu, his wife, showing a sort of Israeli Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen around the Prime Ministerial home, to prove that they don't live in luxury, as supposed by many. Only, it turns out that the areas shown are used by administrative staff, not the Netanyahus, ...
Maurice Saatchi's Medical innovation Bill has caused controversy and inspired a passionate debate on how doctors and scientists can and should speed up medical advance for currently incurable diseases. The Bill is designed to do two things. First, it will offer clarity and confidence to doctors who want to innovate and move away from standard procedures. When might that be relevant? In most cases standard procedures work and innovation is unnecessary. There is a vast quantity of scientifically validated data which supports standard medical procedures. But in some cases - specially for rare and incurable diseases - there is little ...
[IMG: Peanuts] Lovers of peanut butter could be crucial to the outcome of this May's general election. In key knife-edge marginal constituencies around the country, consumers of the foodstuff that was first patented in the 19th century but has roots back to the Aztecs are on the electoral register in larger numbers than the sitting MP's majority. What is more, anecdotally large numbers of peanut butter fans featured in the surge in electoral registration numbers that took place on 5 February, National Voter Registration Day 2015. With political parties increasingly targeting their political campaigning and messaging using sophisticated databases of ...
Frank and Amanda Following the recent decision of Angus councillors to unanimously back Amanda Kopel's campaign for free personal care to dementia suffers aged under 65, the issue will now come before Dundee councillors. I have received confirmation that my request that the City Council discuss this important issue has been agreed and the matter will be discussed at the Policy & Resources Committee on Monday 9th March 2015. Amanda will address councillors at the meeting. Following Angus Council unanimously agreeing to back "Frank's Law" to recognise the need for free personal care to dementia suffers aged under 65, my ...
Gerda Stevenson From Sheena Wellington : This Saturday 21st February at the Wighton Heritage Centre, Central Library - 11am (coffee available from 10.30am). Gerda Stevenson, singer/songwriter and Kyrre Slind, multi-instrumentalist. Gerda Stevenson trained at R.A.D.A., London, winning the Vanbrugh Award. She has worked on stage, television, radio and film throughout Britain and abroad. In 2014, she was nominated as one the Saltire Society's outstanding women of Scotland. From the Stevenson family of musicians (her father the composer/pianist Ronald, sister composer/harper Savourna, and niece composer/fiddler Anna-Wendy), Gerda is known for her singing in many theatre productions. Kyrre Slind is a brilliant ...
Thu 19th
08:04
Pollution – For how long is Liverpool destined to be excluded from EU sulphur emission rules?
Some time ago, with the help of a local environmental campaigner, I published the posting above. Now moving on to the present day an article appeared in the Times newspaper on 16th February under the heading '£300m port aims to revive Liverpool's glory days'. [IMG: Seaforth Docks and hinterland] Seaforth Docks and hinterland The article was all about the new river berth and the ability of the Port of Liverpool to be able to take the Post-Panamax size container ships. Of course this impacts on the ability of the road and rail infrastructure to and from Bootle/Seaforth to be ...
Over on Patreon, the eleven people who actually give me money can read about the Joker and Donna Loren. The other 7,295,924,760 (as of 1:23AM UK time) cheapskates in the world can read about Zelda The Great on Mindless Ones instead.
