[IMG: headley road east woodley] This is Headley road east in Woodley, Berkshire. Woodley is a town of some industrial units and much housing just outside Reading. I have driven along this road many times. Many people do. And I am sure most people do not think twice about the area. It's a dormitory town. But some of the road names give a little clue to an exciting local history: Hurricane way Lysander close Victor way Nimrod close Spitfire way In fact, this road is on the edge of the former Woodley aerodrome, where 6,000 civil and military aircraft were ...
Last week I took a look at the Council's day-to-day spending for the coming year. A few years ago the day-to-day spending would have dwarfed our investment spending, as it did for nearly all councils nearly all the time. We would spent hundreds of millions in revenue and tens of millions in capital. That's all changed in Stockport. Our revenue spending is falling with the government's spending cuts, but the amount we're investing in our borough is rising. For 2015/16 the day-to-day spending we have control over (our "cash limit" in the jargon) will come to £168 million. The amount ...
Back in November, developers submitted plans for 137 houses off Foldgate Lane. Now the Highways Agency has said Shropshire Council can't make a decision on the plans until the agency is satisfied that the proposed T-junction on the A49 is viable and safe. This could be a major stumbling block for the developers. Archaeologists have [...]
One of the big green developments of the Lib Dems in government has been the creation of the Green Investment Bank. It starts with £3.8bn to lend to promote green investment. Some councils have taken green loans to upgrade all their street lighting to LED lights. Savings of 80% in electricity and all the commensurate CO2 reductions are not to be sniffed at. The LED lights also produce a much brighter white light in the process. TfL plan to replace 35,000 of its street lights by 2016. So lets get Southwark Council and Lambeth Council to do the same. Borrow ...
Lord Bonkers continues his survey of Liberal Democrat prospects at the general election. Today he offers a short but optimistic post. Hazel Grove She is a delightful woman and I have no doubt she will hold her seat (wherever it is). Lord Bonkers was Liberal MP for Rutland South-West, 1906-10. Earlier this week in Lord Bonkers' Diary "Top Secret: Burn Before Reading"The mint cake workers of KendalThere can be no doubt that he was Terribly SorryThe Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey RailwayArmed with pitchforks and flaming brandsHe was never one to resort to underhand methods
Welcome to the 412th Golden Dozen, and our xxxth 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 (15-21 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. A shocking lack of campaign activity ...
A Sunday music video that is shot on a preserved railway. I think we have reached peak Liberal England. I have chosen two Joe Jackson tracks before: the wonderful It's Different for Girls and the quasi-classical Nocturne no. 4. Breaking Us in Two comes from his 1982 album Night and Day. It was a bigger hit in the US than the UK. I have always regarded it as a companion piece to the uptempo Steppin' Out on the same LP. The railway is the Keighley and Worth Valley. More than that, the video was shot at Oakworth , which was ...
It seems that UKIP are now beating Labour for activity in the ground war in the Gateshead ward of Lobley Hill and Bensham, though we are well ahead of both in terms of the literature we have put out. It does however seem that this ward is something of a UKIP target though it is also a ward in which we are interested. Labour have held the ward for decades but their vote came down with a thud
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 36% 32% 10% 9% 7% 4% 13-15/2 Phone Ashcroft 30% 31% 9% 16% 8% -1% 13-15/2 Phone MORI 34% 36% 6% 9% 7% -2% 8-10/2 Phone Opinium 35% 33% 6% 15% 7% ...
Cornwall Council to introduce Annual Community Recognition Awards following an agreement at Full Council on 17 February 2015. The idea of the scheme is to recognise those in our communities who make an outstanding contribution to the lives of others and deserve local recognition. The scheme will be funded through the Chairman of the Council's Civic budget. The criteria and details of the scheme are to be agreed by a cross party group of Cornwall Councillors but I wanted people in St Just and Pendeen to start thinking of people they feel make an 'outstanding contribution' to our community. It ...
[IMG: 7 ver 4 full] Many thanks to the 14,700 visitors who dropped by Lib Dem Voice this week. Here's our 7 most-read posts... The Times: The Lib Dems are "great survivors" (51 comments) by The Voice The Independent View: Commons must debate Medical Innovations Bill before election (59 comments) by Dominic Nutt Guardian's coverage of Lib Dem election campaign accentuates the negative (52 comments) by Caron Lindsay Willie Rennie MSP writes...You wouldn't put UKIP in charge of Europe, so you wouldn't put the SNP in charge of the UK (20 comments) by Willie Rennie MSP Paul Tyler reminds the ...
Good news via the BBC: Police will be told they need a judge's permission to access journalists' phone records, the Home Office has said. A temporary measure means officers must follow the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 and get legal permission to obtain any communications data. The move comes after strong criticism of the way police were using the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (Ripa) to access journalists' sources... Calls within government for the change had been led by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg.
2013/14 several East Dulwich residents applied for Cleaner, greener, Safer Capital funding for secure Bike Hangers cycle parking in East Dulwich. An initiative pushed by Southwark Cyclists and one I whole heartedly support. Each hanger can store up to 6 adult bicycles taking the space of less than one car space. Ideal for streets with flats and people have little or no space to park a bicycle securely. [IMG: Bikehanger] Several were approved for funding – 30 Heber Road, 24 Matham Grove, 50 Ulverscroft Road. Shortly residents are going to be consulted about them being deployed outside the homes of ...
Angus Liberal Democrats have launched a petition calling on the sale of so called Legal Highs to end immediately. Following the news that the Montrose Evape-o-lution shop has been broken into for a second time, concerns have been raised that dangerous drugs are finding their way onto our streets. The petition calls on the owners of the shops in Montrose, Arbroath and across Tayside to stop selling Novel Psychoactive Substances with immediate effect. The petition can be found online by clicking here. If you want to share the address of the petition, Citi is http://bit.ly/StopLegalHighs [IMG: Montrose Legal High Shop ...
The deadline for new or additional written representations is 9 March 2015. Tesni Properties has appealed the decision by Shropshire councillors to turn down a planning application for 215 homes off Bromfield Road and the A49 (13/03862/OUT). A three day planning inquiry will be held in the spring or summer (APP/L3245/W/14/3001117). This post is for [...]
Sun 22nd
12:50
Parliamentarians "gorging" on a maximum of one and a bit chocolate bars a week? I don't think so.
[IMG: chocolate] You have to wonder who thinks up freedom of information questions like "How many chocolate bars do the catering outlets in Westminster sell?" But the Sunday Times (£) reports that somebody has asked precisely that question and that the number of chocolate bars bought in 2013 and 2014 totals just under 200,000. This leads them to conclude that our MPs and Peers are "gorging" their way through some massive chocolate stash. It's like we're meant to see them as some sort of court of Henry VIII busting out of their breaches. In fact, I was surprised that the ...
Such Fun as Miranda Hart would say. Seriously if put all these ingredients together, you will get the most epic TV. Put on the most charismatic and opinionated manager in the game, less than 24 hours after his team had been screwed by a series of terrible decisions, throw in the fact the company Sky got both barrels over their handing of the Diego Costa 'stamp' in the Liverpool Carling Cup semi-final, then sprinkle in a bit of fairy dust in the form of two presenters, neither of whom have a journalistic background and aren't used to teasing out answers ...
More comedy genius from Australia's Clarke and Dawe:
I've always felt that the Labour Party would be much more effective if they could put their energies into fighting the problems the country faces rather than fighting each other. We all remember the schism between Gordon Brown and Tony Blair from Day 1 of their administration which overshadowed everything they did. Do you remember the time when they decided to show everyone what good friends they were in the run up to, I think, the 2005 election, sitting together uncomfortably on the GMTV sofa. Today the Sunday Times (£) shows us that toxic factionalism is still alive and well ...
It seems that whilst UKIP are confident that they can win the Great Grimsby constituency at the next General Election, the retiring Labour MP, Austin Mitchell is not so sure. He has dismissed the rival party's chances of winning the Great Grimsby constituency at the general election, saying that Labour would win the hotly contested seat "even" if it had selected a "raving alcoholic sex paedophile" as its candidate: The long-serving Labour MP, who is stepping down at the election, has represented the constituency in north Lincolnshire since 1977 and Labour has held it since 1945, but Nigel Farage's party ...
There she goes! #NewWalkCentre #demolition #demolished pic.twitter.com/S2rcC5RkRn — LeicesterCityCouncil (@Leicester_News) February 22, 2015 With thanks to the Leicester City Council.
The Liverpool Commonwealth Association Has pleasure in inviting you to a Multi-Cultural, Multi Faith Service to publicly launch the Liverpool Commonwealth Association and to receive a message from H. M Queen Elizabeth II at the Liverpool Parish Church of St ... Continue reading →
Bahrainis insist on political change Press conference held under the auspices of The Parliamentary Human Rights Group Four years ago the people of Bahrain flocked to the streets in their thousands seeking fundamental political change after decades of dictatorial rule by the Alkhalifa clan. They were repressed by the regime which adopted reprehensible tactics including systematic torture, extra-judicial killing, revocation of citizenship and collective punishment. The UK Government has chosen to defend the regime turning a blind eye to its bleak record of human rights. It is time for UK to change direction on Bahrain starting with designating it a ...
[IMG: eric avebury] Liberal Democrat peer Eric Avebury, a great friend of this site, has been talking to the Dignity in Dying website about why he feels so strongly that assisted dying should be an option, to help him avoid a "very terrible" death from his blood cancer. I am committed to campaigning for terminally ill, mentally competent people to have the right to an assisted death. I have an incurable disease, a form of blood cancer called myelofibrosis, where the inside of the bone marrow turns to fibre and it no longer produces blood, so you suffocate. I have ...
[IMG: Chocolate motivational poster] We're meant to be shocked at how much chocolate MPs, peers and their staff have been eating, with the news that shops inside the security cordon at Westminster sold just under 200,000 bars of chocolate a year. There's even a quote from the National Obesity Forum attacking Parliamentarians for, they say, not setting a better example. Time to deploy some simple maths. There are around 1,700 staff working for MPs, just over 2,000 staff working for the House authorities and 650 MPs. That is 4,350 and counting. Which makes 200,000 bars of chocolate in a year ...
Recently, I joked in an article that the next leadership contest within the Labour party could be between Chuka Umunna and a weathered copy of "The Communist Manifesto", demonstrating facetiously my lack of faith in the depth of talent contained within the parliamentary Labour party. However, there is one frontbencher who has of late begun to make me think that perhaps all is not dire for the future of said organisation. Liz Kendall, Shadow Minister for Care and Older People, is one to watch. For a start, she is the only major figure, and I do mean the only one, ...
Abusive feminists are not my sisters - excellent article about TERFdom (tags: ) This week's film pitch from @nickjbarlow is a dystopian scifi biopic of Roger Helmer. Hilarious, as always. (tags: ) Crystal Palace fans sum up how a lot of football supporters feel (tags: ) Speaking while female - damned if you do & damned if you don't (tags: ) [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
[IMG: Black square] Well ok, you can laugh a little at David Burrowes going door knocking on the wrong side of his constituency boundary with his team, resulting in the wife of the neighbouring Labour MP getting wrongly called on as a result. Once you've got that out of the way, the more serious point to ponder is 'how did this happen?' Not the details of whether Burrowes's claim to have taken a wrong turn in a maze of flats but simply this. You can only knock on completely the wrong doors if you don't have any canvass cards with ...
[IMG: Dr. John Pugh Lib Dem MP for Southport] Dr. John Pugh Lib Dem MP for Southport My colleague Iain Brodie Browne has covered John Pugh's recent speech in Parliament – see link above. It is well worth reading especially in times when the majority of us are concerned, no matter what our political leanings are, about those in power not being straight with folk. John sees through the fog of misinformation well.
I'm old enough to remember the last time the World Cup was held in Australia and New Zealand. 1992 was my first year at university, and I remember sitting around late at night listening to games with my housemates. One game in particular springs to mind – the group match between England and Pakistan, where Pakistan collapsed to 74 all out, but England ended up having to settle for a draw because of rain. At that point in the tournament, England were looking like real contenders, while Pakistan were clearly on their way out. I don't think anyone expected that ...
Further to my previous update about the forthcoming Bonnie Dundee AGM, here's a poster about the AGM this coming Tuesday :
Here is the latest FOCUS newsletter from Meols Ward Liberal Democrats, which was recently delivered to residents of Churchtown, Crossens and Marshside.
In its objection to the proposed Rocks Green supermarket, the Midcounties Co-op (which trades at Harry Tuffins) says that there is no case for a new store (14/05573/OUT). If the 25,000 sq ft store was built, it would create more damage to trading and tourism in Ludlow than the supermarket's proponents are suggesting. Only 40 [...]
"Although it is not true that all liberals are funny, it is true that most funny people are liberal." In a feature for the Atlantic, Oliver Morrison asks why comedy seems to lean to the left. He focuses on America where he observes there are few conservative equivalents of the Daily Show and Colbert Reports and that those there are have few viewers. [...]
We had another campaign day today in Blaydon constituency. Some of us were stuffing envelopes for our next direct mail delivery, some of us were canvassing, and some of us (me included) were doing both. We were in Dunston this afternoon for canvassing which threw up a few interesting points: those who receive our email newsletter were much more likely to vote for us and to do so at both the
