In 2010-11 while I was running the Yes to Fairer Votes campaign I approached the UUP (who were somewhat receptive) and the DUP (who were less so) about introducing a fairer voting system for Westminster elections. The system that we were offering in the referendum was AV using a preference voting system to elect a single member to each seat. One of the key arguments that I used to those who would listen to me (which included the now leader of the UU), Mike Nesbitt) was that in Northern Ireland with multiple parties it would mean the MP would have ...
Launceston Town Council tonight voted against moving forward with a neighbourhood plan. I regret that decision which I believe was taken following incorrect assertions and which will leave our town prey to developers. A neighbourhood plan is a locally devised and legally enforceable document which allows a community to decide what sort of development it wants to see and where that development should go. There isn't complete freedom of decision. The neighbourhood plan has to be 'in conformity' with the Cornwall-wide Local Plan which, in turn, has to be in conformity with the National Planning Policy Framework. Both of these ...
When I blogged a list of the 10 oldest surviving England test cricketers last month, I said that I must write more about the man in third place. So I was sad to read today of the death of Bob Appleyard, but I will keep my word and pay tribute to him here, Appleyard's story is simply extraordinary. His development was held up by the Second World War, with the result that he did not make his debut for Yorkshire until he was 26, playing a few games at the end of the 1950 season. The following summer, in his ...
My memory of general election campaigns goes back to February 1974, but the 2015 campaign will be a first. It will be the first election the Liberal Party or the Liberal Democrats have fought with an unpopular leader. Jeremy Thorpe, David Steel, Paddy Ashdown and Charles Kennedy were all wildly popular with the voters, even if it was sometimes possible to wonder why. The one leader who was not popular with the public, Ming Campbell, was defenestrated before he could fight an election In 2010 Nick Clegg was popular, even if the Cleggmania engendered by the first televised leaders' debate ...
Ah 'hard working families' – they are the important ones. Hard working single people, fuck them. Stay at home parents, fuck them. People that work but don't put in a full shift, fuck them. Unemployed people, fuck them. You get my drift. It is a buzz term that has taken off and indeed has got to a point where even Labour don't seem to want to represent anyone who don't fulfil the hard working families criteria. Speaking in The Guardian, Shadow work and pensions secretary Rachel Reeves says that Labour are not the party for people on benefits. 'We are ...
[IMG: The new Moovit app] The new Moovit app A smart new app has been launched in Greater Manchester – Moovit – promises not just the standard route-planning and train-time-reporting type functions but also real-time information on buses, trains and trams to tell you just when the next one is going to pull up, even if it's the number 11 and it's been sitting in a traffic jam. How does it get that whizzy info? Where GPS data is available it uses that, but otherwise it relies on other users of the app, sitting on the bus or train, who's ...
During my two and a half year absence from the Welsh Liberal Democrats I did, albeit briefly, contemplate joining the Liberal Party. I even got as far as exchanging emails with their Party President, Steve Radford, about the party's policies and their Welsh presence (for the record, non existent). On reflection, I must have been temporarily insane to have even considered it. It thankfully came to nothing, not least because I had concerns about some of the bizarre electoral arrangements that they had entered into with other parties in previous European elections. Unholy alliances between alleged liberals, militant socialists and ...
We bet you never thought you'd see that title on Liberal Democrat Voice, eh? We salute Eric Pickles for his comments today on LBC, reported byPoliticsHome: The Communities Secretary said he had dropped his previous "narrow minded" view after visiting gay friends and seeing how happy they were. Mr Pickles was asked about Domenico Dolce's comments about children from IVF being "synthetic" as he appeared on LBC Radio. He replied: "I find it beyond offensive. The idea that people that have got a stable relationship can't adopt ... seems to be utterly anathema to me. "I have to say, a ...
(I've not posted much fiction here for a while, as my fiction-writing has mostly been for the second novel, which is slower going as it's required a lot of research. So I thought I'd take up Chuck Wendig's latest flash fiction challenge. He said to use a random cocktail generator to get a title, and [...]
Over the last decade and alongside delivering FOCUS newsletters, organising and undertaking Resident Surveys, and developing a strong on-line presence, the other way I've maintained contact with local people is by holding regular monthly ward surgeries. These take place: The first FRIDAY of each month, between 6pm and 7pm, at the Village Community Centre on [...]
Following on from my visit to Birtley last Friday, I returned again to the south of the constituency today. This time it was to visit Kibblesworth and Lamesley. The main reason for the trip was to get some photos for our forthcoming Birtley eFocus but also to chat to a few people as well. While passing Lamesley Church, I called in to check on my grandfather and great grandfather's grave.
Got this important message today from the Jospice at Thornton [IMG: Latest photo taken today 17th March of developing junction with Brickwall Lane.] Latest photo taken today 17th March of developing junction with Brickwall Lane. You will have probably read in the press about a further delay in the completion of the new Thornton relief road. This is due to frost and heavy rain in the early part of February. Whilst the stretch of road MIGHT be ready by the end of March, we have been working closely with Balfour Beatty and feel that for Health and Safety reasons it ...
When I clicked through the conference agenda last week, my eye was caught by an exhibition stand entitled "Remembering Srebrenica". When I got to Liverpool, I made a beeline for that stand and went back again the next day. From their website, this summarises the role of Remembering Srebrenica, bearing in mind that this year is the 20th anniversary of that massacre: Remembering Srebrenica is a British charity. It recognises that we have achieved a lot in terms of building a cohesive society here in the UK, but discrimination, promotion of hatred, extremism, and exclusion persist, and we must play ...
[IMG: Don Foster - Some rights reserved by Department for Communities and Local Government] When I first started going to Lib Dem conferences, we had fewer MPs than we have now. So, those MPs that we had were run ragged charging from fringe meeting to fringe meeting to speech to TV interview, as they were rather thin on the ground. It always seemed to be our Don Foster who was really doing loads of stuff. I did wonder how he kept going. At the Liverpool conference, last weekend, Don appeared at this fringe meeting: CentreForum Will the electorate ever love ...
Democracy Club has been in touch. I think it is run by the people who operate theyworkforyou.com. They have set up a site for candidate CVs so I've posted mine up. You can view it on this link. Sadly I am the only one of the 5 candidates in Blaydon so far to post up my CV. So come on Dave, Ali, Paul and Mark, get your stuff up there and let everyone in the constituency know what makes you tick.
The Southern Daily Echo reports: A Basingstoke councillor who was arrested over allegations of theft has resigned from the UK Independence Party. As reported previously Matthew Ellery, who is a UKIP councillor for the Brighton Hill South ward on Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council, was arrested on suspicion of theft from Squirrels Collectors Centre in New Street last month. The antiques shop is owned by Ellery's father, Alan Stone, who is the Basingstoke UKIP branch leader and the party's candidate at the General Election in May... In an email sent to the party he said: "I will no longer be ...
Liverpool was my first conference as a member of the Federal Conference Committee (FCC), having been elected at the end of last year. The experience confirmed my impression that Liberal Democrats do conference really rather well. FCC is responsible for all aspects of the spring and autumn federal conferences, but the day-to-day management is carried out by the very efficient conference team at HQ, headed up by Lucy Hope, who is about to take maternity leave. The committee sets the strategic direction, and approves the final decisions about venues and registration fees, but the bulk of the work is done ...
Wales Online reports: The national minimum wage will go up by 20p an hour from October. It will be the biggest real-terms rise in seven years with 1.4 million low paid workers set to benefit from the 3% hike while rates for younger workers and apprentices will also go up. The rates were recommended by the Low Pay Commission. [Liberal Democrat] Business Secretary Vince Cable is planning to launch a national minimum wage accelerator - an online tool which will make it easier to compare rates of pay across regions, sectors and occupations. It will take data from the annual ...
There is an intriguing article on the UK Business Insider website about how we see the world and how radically different our view is to that of our ancestors. The article says that until relatively recently in human history, "blue" didn't exist, not in the way we think of it: As the delightful Radiolab episode "Colors" describes, ancient languages didn't have a word for blue — not Greek, not Chinese, not Japanese, not Hebrew. And without a word for the color, there is evidence that they may not have seen it at all. In "The Odyssey," Homer famously describes the ...
It's always a delight at this time of year to dig out the old, round sweet tin I keep my seed packets in and have a root through to see what I'm going to sow for this year. I had almost forgotten the ornamental purple cotton seeds that had taken my fancy last year. Plus the 'oak leaf' lettuce and basil for the windowsill. I found an unused packet of cornflowers from a multi-pack that is still in date and some carnivorous fly-catcher seeds from Chelsea that must be used by SEPT 2015! (No putting it off any longer then.) ...
[IMG: roadworks] Advance Warning of Road Closure, Hemp Lane, Wigginton Please could residents and users of Hemp Lane be aware that there is likely to be an emergency road closure with very little notice – possibly next week – to enable the utility company to repair a significant water leak. This is likely to break up a stretch of roadway if not attended to quickly. There are several alternative routes from Wigginton to most destinations, which are not too inconvenient. However it might be as well not to use Crawleys Lane for this purpose, it being very narrow.
[IMG: image] My photo of the stage at the replica Cavern Club, The Beatles Story, Liverpool. When we visit a city for a conference, it has a significant positive impact on the local economy of that area. Our arrival is very well flagged up in advance with posters and publicity. Then when we arrive everyone knows we're there due to the extra security presence and hordes of.....well let's just say unusual looking people with yellow badges and bundles of papers wandering around. Much of the time during the conferencee, the representatives are charging around like blue-bottomed flies chasing to the ...
The basic idea – personal recommendations from neighbours – is a good one, even if the Conservative execution of it in this case, with the breathless enthusiasm for not mentioning the party, is poorly done: The letter where Tory MP asks backers "don't mention Cameron!" Story in @eveningstandard http://t.co/N555G6rq5H pic.twitter.com/zOqgpD1rnY — Joe Murphy (@JoeMurphyLondon) March 16, 2015
As these before and after pictures show, the area between Crosspoint House and Sainsburys looks much tidier thanks to the owners of Crosspoint House agreeing to deal with the overgrown shrubbery that was attracting litter in this area following a request from your ward councillors. We have asked the council to now look at improving [...]
Lib Dem ministers in government are making sure that all private sector landlords have to install smoke and carbon monoxide alarms. Responding to the government announcement that regulations requiring this will be tabled before this Parliament ends, Cllr Jeremy Hilton, Lib Dem Spokesperson on Fire Services and Chair of the LGA's Fire Services Management Committee, [...]
[IMG: IMG_1603] Early Friday morning, as others made their way to Liverpool for Conference, I set off to Hereford, following in the footsteps of a large number of my colleagues in the Lords. Our local candidate Lucy Hurds has been hugely successful in getting our Peers out of the House of Lords and onto the streets of Hereford including John Shipley, Jenny Randerson, Nigel Jones, Sally Hamwee, Shirley Williams and Chris Fox. She's clearly been effective in getting others out too and it was great to see a good number of Lucy's campaign team out with us and working hard ...
It's been on the maps since the 1930s. Cheadle MP Mark Hunter and the Lib Dems have campaigned and fought for it for more than a decade, through let downs and cancellations. Finally, work on constructing the A6 to Manchester Airport Relief Road has started, with the road due to open in the Autumn of 2017. [IMG: relief road] Local Council leaders, local politicians and MPs have come together to mark the start of environmental works to prepare the site for the £290 million A6 to Manchester Airport Relief Road. Led by Stockport Council and its partners Cheshire East Council ...
The March Frome Vale Area Forum have given Community Grants to four well known events and organisations: Chipping Sodbury Festival £1500 This grant will support activities that encourage participation by children and young people - the display boards for the Schools Art Exhibition, insurance for schools and other groups in teh Carniva, and a contribution towards the running costs of the Battle of the Schools bands and Music in the Street. Yate and District Heritage Centre Trust - Yate International Festival £2080 Last year this very successful event attracted over 2000 visitors, bringing together many different groups and cultures through ...
It has been assumed by many a political pundit that the Lib Dems are facing an electoral massacre in Scotland on May 7th. Several have predicted that the party will hold only two of their current eleven seats - with some even suggesting that Charles Kennedy will lose his seat, bringing the Lib Dem representation in Scotland to a mere one MP. However, I think, and I stress this is only a theory, that the SNP might actually help the Lib Dems hold on to a few more seats. A good constituency to look at in this respect is East ...
Tue 17th
09:53
Don't expect Liberal Democrat poll ratings to go up during the election just because they always hav...
[IMG: 1992graph] The Lib Dems nearly always do better than their poll ratings said before a general election. As David Boyle wrote in a recent post, anticipating that this will also be the case in 2015. (It's not like David's the first person to say that, and he likely won't be the last, but he happened to say it on the day I felt like writing about the subject.) It's become a truism, often spoken by worried Liberal Democrat activists as a morale-booster to lift the hopes and the spirits as they see another set of polls recording the party ...
I don't know who else had this experience last week, listening to David Miliband on the Today programme, of feeling a sort of nostalgia for the man. There was something about his confidence and relaxed delivery which contrasted rather well with his brother's rather strained, slightly wheedling tone of voice. For just a moment, I said to myself that Ed Miliband's attempt to challenge his brother's right to the leadership of the Labour Party had robbed the nation of a competent politician. This did pass after I thought about it. The great problem, if David not Ed had been preparing ...
Excellent news: The national minimum wage will increase by 20p an hour to £6.70 from October, the government has announced. The changes will benefit more than 1.4 million workers. The hourly rate for younger workers will also rise, and for apprentices it will go up by 20% – or 57p – to £3.30 an hour. [IMG: Lib Dems secure NMW increase] The main national minimum wage increases are in line with the recommendations from the Low Pay Commission but for apprentices the recommendation was just just a 7p increase rather than the 57p increase introduced.
A superior campaign film for the Liberal Democrat candidate for Watford, Dorothy Thornhill. This seat represents one of the party's best hopes for a gain at the the general election. Note that there is only one kitchen in view throughout.
Dorothy Thornhill from Think About It Films on Vimeo. As a resident, a mayor, a teacher and a mum, I've been involved with our town for nearly 40 years. You know me – I can't pull the wool over your eyes, but there's no quick fix and I'm not a miracle worker, but I can be a strong practical passionate woman for Watford in Parliament. Dorothy is currently in her fourth term as mayor of Watford, having been elected in 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2014. Watford is currently held by the Conservatives and is described as a three-way marginal by ...
In my write-up of Liverpool conference I mentioned that: There [was a] commitment made in the amendment I successfully moved to the 'manifesto motion' that once the deficit is cleared, the party wants to return to uprating welfare rates in line with inflation once again. (This was a negotiated compromise over the original 50:50 amendment which also strengthened the policy on protecting public services with taxes on pollution and the richest as well as stronger action on tax evasion and avoidance.) Here are all the speeches in the manifesto debate, including my speech moving the amendment and Sutton councillor Jayne ...
Lagoon power plants unveiled Plans to generate electricity from the world's first series of tidal lagoons have been unveiled in the UK. The six lagoons – four in Wales and one each in Somerset and Cumbria – will capture incoming and outgoing tides behind giant sea walls, and use the weight of the water to power turbines. Tidal Lagoon Power says the six lagoons could generate 8% of the UK's electricity for an investment of £12bn. BBC News carried this story [IMG: John Pugh MP for Southport]
In a truly fair society, no woman or girl would be at risk of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). It is gender-based violence - it is unacceptable and it needs to stop. But over 60,000 girls in the UK are vulnerable. That's why I recently held a conference for North London professionals to discuss working together to end FGM. You can watch a video from the conference here: As you can see, over 100 health workers, social workers, teachers, police and community group representatives gathered at Hornsey School for Girls. It was a great event - with sessions for each sector, ...
Manchester Airport (source: Wikipedia) From Manchester Airport: Runway Closures 2015 During March 2015 we are carrying out maintenance work to the eastern taxiways adjoining Runway 1(Runway 23R/05L); the programme will require five nights of closure. Further work will be required during 2015 and so two dates each month have been identified between May and December. This has enabled a works programme to be planned and to provide advance notice; it is anticipated will be useful for our neighbours. During these nights of closure the routine maintenance tasks, necessary to keep our busiest runway and its' adjoining taxiways in a good ...
Yesterday, The Sunday Mirror published an interview with Norman Lamb, which focused on the experiences of his son: both with mental illness and drugs. Whilst this had been published with the consent of Mr Lamb and his family, it is clear to me that he was bounced into it. Whilst he's never made a secret that one of the drivers of his campaigning on the subject - pushing it up the agenda of both government and Lib Dem policy - was family experience, he had never been so specific before. Indeed, when he mentioned his son's problems in a conference ...
There were various animals sighted at the Lib Dem Conference over the weekend. Here are some that I snapped on camera. Above - dog for the blind. Very cute. Not very aerodynamic parrots - still alive and kicking. Teddies - very cuddly. Reptile - best avoided. Goldfish at the Spice Island restaurant in Albert Dock. Not available with chips.
