The Byrds were clearly splitting up. There was a three-way split in the band, as summer 1967 reached its peak. On one side was David Crosby, who believed himself the real talent in the band. Crosby's most recent contribution to the band had been the flop single Lady Friend, but he still thought himself the [...]

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

Thanks to Dirty Modern Scoundrel for pointing us to this video. It dates from 1984. As the blog says: The documentary itself is a rather straightforward forerunner to his more complex classics such as A Century of the Self and the Power of Nightmares. It's lacking his voice (it's narrated instead by reporter David Jones) and his trademark crazy soundtrack but otherwise many of the Curtis tropes are here: suspicion of those in high places and the whiff of institutionalised corruption and conspiracy. But the style feels more like an episode of Panorama rather than his later authored pieces. Still, ...

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

John Hemming (Birmingham, Yardley) (LD): I refer the House to my entry in the Register of Members' Financial Interests. It contains an entry for JHC, which stands for John Hemming & Co., a company I founded in 1983. It currently employs about 260 staff and has a turnover of £20 million. I have declared in the register an income of around £180,000 from that company. I attend a meeting once a

Posted by John Hemming on John Hemming's Web Log

I read in the Leicester Mercury last week: An iconic symbol of Leicester's industrial past and radical working class traditions has been given listed-building status following a campaign to preserve it. The former Boot and Shoe Operatives Union Building, in St James Street, off Humberstone Gate, has been designated as a Grade II-listed building. It follows a campaign by the Leicester Group of the Victorian Society. The 103-year-old building, designed by city architects Harrison & Hattrell in the final year of Queen Victoria's reign, survives largely intact. Dr David Holmes researched the city's boot and shoe industry as part of ...

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

© Ashley Dace I have long argued that there is no prospect of Nick Clegg losing his seat. Most recently here: I am not worried that Nick Clegg will lose Sheffield Hallam. This is not so much that I believe Nick is immensely popular as because I cannot picture Labour winning a prosperous suburban seat like this.More recently still, Lord Bonkers has scotched the idea. Now I have come across an exhaustive analysis of political geography of Sheffield Hallam that supports my view too. It is on the All That's Left blog: Sheffield Hallam is far from the highrise towers ...

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

I received this letter by e-mail yesterday and have to say that it raises an issue that is far too often swept under the carpet. I am lucky having not suffered mental health problems but let's face it we all know someone who has and they probably didn't get the support from the NHS they needed. ***** Hi Tony, I've had mental health problems and I'm not ashamed to admit it. These problems became worse when I went to university. I'd been struggling with my health and had been seeing health professionals for some time. When I went to university ...

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

Just in case we needed another reason not to vote for the Conservatives, the Environment Secretary provided us with a good one yesterday. She told us that if her party wins the General Election then thousands more badgers will be shot, allegedly to protect cattle from tuberculosis. Her evidence for this nonsense is that bovine TB has reduced in Gloucestershire and Somerset following culls. However, she fails to mention that the culls in both these counties failed to meet their targets and as such the attempt to eliminate the wildlife reservoir of TB was unsuccessful. It follows therefore that the ...

Posted by Peter Black on Peter Black

While I was out and about photographing Derby's bridges a couple of weeks ago, I came across this rather splendid ghost sign opposite St. Helen's House on King Street. The rest of the sign reads: Tastes as good as it smells Lodge Lane Derby The heart of Lodge Lane is just a five ... Continue reading »

Never let it be said that Liberal Democrat councillors avoid hard work. When a skateboard park in his ward was damaged, Aberystwyth's Councillor Ceredig Davies (also our group leader on Ceredigion County Council) arranged to get down there and fix it. Some local people didn't see it that way. What they saw was a random man taking a sledgehammer to a local facility, as the Cambrian News tells us: Three police cars rushed to respond to reports of a man wielding a sledge hammer in Aberystwyth's skateboard park, only to find a town councillor demolishing damaged ramps. Town Cllr Ceredig ...

Posted by NewsHound on Liberal Democrat Voice

Some Lib Dem activists are asking when resignations should be handed in to get a by-election on the same day as the general election May 7th? When an election is in your control (ie a potential Lib Dem resignation), sadly, you can't decide which day the election will be called for, at least not completely. The actual date of the election is always at the discretion the Returning Officer. Once the election is "called" by two electors of the borough she/he has a maximum of 35 working days and a minimum of 26 working days by which time the election ...

YouGov

The next meeting to the ALDC Officers Group is a phone conference: FRIDAY 27 February 2015 at 1.00pm 033 0336 0036 – If you're happy to pay the phone bill (4.3p a minute) 0800 022 9009 – If you want ALDC to pay the whole bill 87373 – If you're calling from a mobile (12.5p a minute) Your pin is 085815 Committee membership: Claire Hudson, Isobel McCall, Anood Al-Samerai, Christine Tinker, Sarah Boad, Kath Pinnock Agenda 1 Apologies 2 Minute of the Officers Group 23 January 2015 (below) 3 Matters Arising 4 Report of the Chief Executive (a) Operational Update ...

Posted by Tim Pickstone on Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors

I'm now eight weeks into my New Year's resolution to spend my Fridays campaigning with some of our fantastic target seat candidates across the country. One thing that has struck me on the doorsteps is that it is not the high politics of opinion polls, votes in Parliament and endless speculation on personalities that matter to people. What actually matters is local issues - from their kid's school to the shops on their local high street. With that in mind, I recently lead a debate in the Lords on concerns expressed by 93 councils in England and Wales over the ...

Posted by Tim Clement-Jones on Liberal Democrat Voice

The decision was perhaps inevitable but that makes it no less shameful. This morning Shropshire Councillors voted by 43 votes to 23 to keep back more than half a million pounds of government money due to town and parish councils around the county. The votes was on party lines with Labour and the independents voting [...]

Posted by andybodders on Andy Boddington

Update for ALDC Management Committee, Regional Reps and key partners. More detail on the elections aspects of our work will be in a separate February 'Elections Update' shortly. Office Priorities Our main priorities over the last month have been: – The G8 postal vote scheme. This is now totalling almost 450,000 postal voter packs. All processes are in a system with the printers who are working through proofs and printing. The first batches were delivered to local parties 10 days ago, and as soon as we have final sign-off on proofs local parties can expect the packs in around three ...

Posted by Tim Pickstone on Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors

I read an interesting article on Nick Barlow's blog a few days ago, posing the question, "What if Nick Clegg loses his seat at the election". In the natural order of things, the Deputy Leader of the Parliamentary Party, the RT Hon Sir Malcolm Bruce MP would become "acting leader" until the party could set up and run a full leadership contest. But the problem, staring us all in the face is that Malcolm is standing down at this election. Come May 8th, the Lib Dems may well not have a Leader or a Deputy Leader. In light of the ...

Posted by Angela Harbutt on Liberal Vision

Labour appear to be saying they would entertain the idea of putting the SNP in charge of Britain in a government and that's in my book just not going to happen. In the same way I'd never put UKIP in charge of Europe, I'd certainly never put the SNP in charge of a country that they would basically want to rip apart. This is what Nick Clegg said about the SNP in today's Call Clegg. It builds on an article written by Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie on here last week. Willie said: We'll always be asked by the ...

Posted by Caron Lindsay on Liberal Democrat Voice

[IMG: Voters use Facebook] PS If you're both a Facebook user and support the Lib Dems, sign up here.

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

In some welcome news, it has been announced today that the General Medical Council (GMC) have dismissed a long-running case against Richard Curtis, a London-based doctor specialising in trans healthcare. The case had been due to be heard next month, but the GMC have decided that it does not even warrant a hearing. The final case, before it was dismissed, had been reduced to two allegations failing to follow an older version of the WPATH Standards of Care that was out of date by the time of the complaint and two of providing "misleading" information when referring for surgery that ...

Posted by Zoe O'Connell on Complicity

[IMG: A few wind turbines] This morning I announced the results of the first auction for green energy generation. The results are impressive – more clean energy at lower costs. Thanks to this first renewable electricity competition of its kind, I have offered contracts to 27 renewable energy projects across the UK. Enough to power 1.4 million homes and save the equivalent carbon emissions of taking 2 million cars off the road. The projects include offshore wind and onshore wind and solar, and will create thousands of green jobs. What's even better are the lower prices our green competition achieved. ...

Posted by Edward Davey MP on Liberal Democrat Voice

[IMG: con home cartoon] Here's my final The Other Side column for ConservativeHome, published here on Tuesday. Some time ago, ConHome's editor Paul Goodman and I agreed that the column should cease in the run-up to the election; and besides I'm going to have other distractions over the next few weeks. It's been a fun gig, though. Time to end where it all began. It's three years since — in a political exchange visit with this site's founder Tim Montgomerie — I penned my first column for ConservativeHome, answering the question, "What would I do if I were in your ...

Posted by Stephen Tall on Stephen Tall
eUKhost

Network Rail are doing track maintenance. However, you can come by bus: the 122, 176, 197, 185 and 356 all serve Forest Hill.

Posted by margotwilson on Up in Forest Hill

This coveted award is won by the Spectator, who obviously weren't paying attention to the alternative-Earth origins of the sub-editor who thought the beginning of this article made any kind of sense in our world: Had the public been asked, before Monday morning, to identify two MPs who stood for honesty and decency, the names Jack Straw and Sir Malcolm Rifkind would have been prominent among their replies. Unfortunately, we are not yet able to offer guided tours to the world where Jack Straw stands for 'honesty and decency', but we're assured it's a very interesting place.

Posted by Nick on What You Can Get Away With

The issue of politicians and their tax returns has been in the media once again recently, sparked in part by increased scrutiny of tax avoidance measures. The prime minister has said (via the chancellor) that there are no plans to publish his returns, while the man who would like to be in his shoes, Boris Johnson, said on a trip to the US last week that other UK politicians should follow his lead (and those of their US counterparts) in publishing their returns. Here. the Voice's Nick Thornsby and Paul Walter debate the issue. Please do share your thoughts in ...

Posted by The Voice on Liberal Democrat Voice

Labour's plan for winning the General Election in May has a special [IMG: NHS] place for the NHS. They are seeking to "weaponise" it, and promote themselves as the only party that can be trusted to run this great British institution. And yet their NHS policy has deep flaws. Now the Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition government has come up with a plan to integrate health and social care budgets in Greater Manchester. To maintain the warlike metaphor, this looks like surgical strike on Labour. In fact the story arose from a leak in the negotiation process, and seems to be the ...

Posted by Matthew on thinking liberal

I've just been listening to Natalie Bennett's car crash interview and rather wish I hadn't. It reminded me uncomfortably of some of the radio interviews I've done myself over the years. I don't think very well on my feet - one of the reasons I write this blog instead of talking too much. I write too much instead. But I've been wondering afterwards what her mistake was, precisely. As leader of a party with one MP, she doesn't need to use the meaningless language of Westminster discourse. There was no need to put a figure on the number of homes ...

Posted by David Boyle on The Real Blog

Believe it or not this is a genuine question. It is occasioned of course by Sir Malcolm Rifkind MP making it clear that he couldn't live on such a low figure. My query is how could you spend that much ... Continue reading →

Posted by richardkemp on But what does Richard Kemp think?

Small to medium size enterprise businesses (SMEs) in South Gloucestershire may be entitled to take advantage of the Government's Broadband Connection Voucher scheme. The scheme has been extended to include eligible SMEs within South Gloucestershire who have until the end of March this year to apply. Applications for the scheme can be made now and the benefits include a connection voucher worth up to £3,000 towards faster, better broadband. Upgrading to superfast broadband brings real business benefits, offering better services to more satisfied customers and enhancing the way businesses communicate and collaborate online. Hundreds of UK businesses are already benefiting ...

Posted by Paul Hulbert on Focus on Sodbury, Yate and Dodington

Yesterday's YouGov poll put the Conservatives on 35, Labour on 33, Lib Dems 6, UKIP 14, Greens 7. The Tory lead is nothing to shout about at this stage; Labour could very well be up tomorrow, such is the nature of daily polling. However, I feel confident enough now to say that what was a key plank in Labour's plan to get back into government in 2015, wooing deserting Lib Dems, has for the most part failed utterly. This isn't to say that many if not most (if not all, possibly) of the seats currently held by the Lib Dems ...

Posted by Nick on nicktyrone.com

Safe seats and second jobs are at the root of the Rifkind-Straw mess - @JulianHuppert (tags: ) British politics isn't so much rotten as past its use-by date (tags: ) Clampdown on cold calls unveiled by government - suspect many politicians will come to regret this. Politicians might see a difference between cold calls from companies trying to sell you things and cold calls from politicians trying to canvass you: the public sees no such distinction. The public will 1, see this as an excuse to scream (more) at phone canvassers and 2, take it as more evidence that politicians ...

There are some more secret elections happening. We feel it's our duty to disseminate the information as widely as possible. Here are the details of the positions available and how to get yourself nominated: All persons elected to these posts will hold office for the calendar years 2015 and 2016. For the election of: One Vice-Chairs of the IRC Three members of the SAO Review Group Two members of the FE Candidates' sub-group (meets with JSCC) One representatives on ALDE Congress Two representatives to the LI Congress The election regulations approved by the Federal Executive in May 2009 are attached ...

Posted by The Voice on Liberal Democrat Voice

[IMG: headtransplant] There's been lots of coverage in the last day for the proposed first human head transplant, which an Italian surgeon thinks he could perform in 2017. Now, I know next to nothing about the medical aspects of it and if it's even remotely possible, but I do wonder about the term 'head transplant'. For me, the term transplant refers to the part that's being replaced from the perspective of the individual receiving the surgery. So if I was to have a heart transplant, I'd receive a new heart, for a kidney transplant I'd receive a new kidney etc ...

Posted by Nick on What You Can Get Away With

It is always easier to stick with your principles when it also benefits you. That is why George Osborne deserves at least passing praise for supporting radical decentralisation of health and social care services to Greater Manchester. A Tory Chancellor moving power away from the Treasury and away from the Tories. But as for Labour, or rather the national Labour leadership... Despite the devolution giving more power to predominantly Labour politicians locally, their national reaction led by Andy Burnham has been one of surly complaint. Not only have they failed to properly welcome devolution, they've done so in the terms ...

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

Further to my previous updates about the new pedestrian bridge at Seabraes, across the rail line to Riverside, I recently asked the City Engineer for an update on progress with the bridge's construction. He has responded positively as follows : "The project is progressing well and is on programme. You may have seen that the bridge steelwork has been delivered to site and is in the process of being fabricated for a single lift into place mid-April. The works‎ are programmed for completion and opening mid May 2015." See photo below of the bridge steelwork :

I commented a couple of days ago about how environmental campaigners in the Sefton Central Constituency have targeted Labour Councillors following them approving a Local Plan for the Borough of Sefton which no one I have spoken to has a good word for. Well the battle lines have really been drawn now as the campaigners, who are independent of the main political parties, are presently delivering the first edition their own newspaper called 'Sefton community Matters'. I continue to stand with these campaigners as indeed does the Lib Dem opposition group on Sefton Council. We share a common agenda but ...

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

UPDATE: having now had a brief chat with a couple of people who know considerably more about Wikipedia than me, I'm now pretty dubious about this chart. Firstly, it's now pretty out of date. Secondly, reverts do not necessarily equate to controversy. They might, for example, represent an editor removing a piece of graffiti. So proceed [...]

Posted by Mark Mills on Matter Of Facts

[A note on sources: Where most of these essays have multiple sources, almost all the information here comes from Alyn Shipton's masterful Nilsson: The Life of a Singer-Songwriter, with a little from Andrew Sandoval's liner notes for the RCA album box set. Whenever I lean heavily on one source, I like to credit it] Harry [...]

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