Doing the bisexual community info outreach stall in Sheffield last weekend, one of the conversations I had with quite a few stall visitors was about the Bisexuality Report. What was it; why it was useful; how it came about. Each time I started along the lines of, "think back to 2010 after the Coalition Government was formed? One of the good things was, because it was a formal coalition, they laid out on paper what they were going to do. On LGBT issues there was an LGB&T Action Plan. It was incredibly helpful for people outside Westminster, outside the well-funded ...
[IMG: Blog] Alex Tabarrok posted yesterday on the relationship between the economics blogosphere and academic economics. He identifies three contrasts between economics blogging and publication in academic economics journals: Blogs are fast, journals are slow Blogs are open, journals are closed Journals reward cleverness, policy requires wisdom He notes that blogs play a key role in policy debate not simply because it is possible to conduct the debate on a timescale that is relevant to policy (fast not slow) but also because blogs allow you to do things that journals don't value. The journals worry about the logical consistency and ...
Another question from the "Where do they stand" website. As well as yesterday's question about Abortion, they would like to know about assisted suicide: What are your views on assisted suicide? (Do you support efforts to change the law in this area?) Once again, the title I've chosen for this article probably gives away the answer to the question. I fully support the efforts of the various campaigners to change the law so that those afflicted by degenerative conditions can make their wishes clear ahead of time. Cases such as that of Tony Nicklinson highlight the sheer inhumanity of the ...
After my surgeries this afternoon at the Mitchell Street Centre and the West Park Centre, I took part in tonight's City Council committee meetings. At City Development Committee, I welcomed the proposed street names for the waterfront area and in particular the fact the northern boulevard is to be named Thomson Avenue after James Thomson, former City Architect and City Engineer. I mentioned that James Thomson's grand-daughter Trixie, now in her 90s and still living in the West End, will be delighted at the recognition of her grandfather's huge legacy to Dundee, which includes the Kingsway (the country's first ring-road), ...
This video looks at the second dig that took place at Leicester's most famous car park. Some time after the bones of Richard III were discovered, University of Leicester archaeologists went back to the site to find out more about the friary in whose church Richard was buried. I suspect this interested them more than finding the king.
From the old brute's Diary a year ago: From time to time I am asked by the leaders of our party to entertain a fellow at the Hall. "Give him the best of everything," they tell me. "Bacon and eggs, shooting, Auld Johnston and so forth. Treat him right and he is good for a cool half million."
The Loughborough Echo reports that Nick Morgan - secretary of state for education and the town's MP - has written a children's activity non-fiction book about Loughborough during the Civil War. Good for her, but it's the book's publisher that interests Liberal England. In 2011 we blogged about the Bretwalda Books title "Britain - A Post Political Correctness Society" by Bill Etheridge. You can see its cover here. When he wrote the book Etheridge was a Conservative, but he left the party after he and his wife were photographed with golliwogs on their Facebook page. Today he is a Ukip ...
Good news for Stephen Lloyd: Don't all rush to the bookmakers at once...
Former Dr Who Colin Baker (@SawbonesHex) will play the lead in a film about the discovery of #RichardIII's remains #RIIIP — Channel 4 (@Channel4) March 23, 2015 There is been a lot of interest in this tweet today, but as far as I can tell it is old news. Because Channel 4 is talking about the film Finding Richard. This was first mentioned on Liberal England in February of last year and we posted the trailer here in December. This certainly seems a more likely theory than the confused one The Version has: The film will shoot this week and ...
Lib Dems Believe Wordle 5
Mon 23rd
18:56
On comparing Lord Ashcroft Polling, Iain Dale predictions & odds for Lib Dem seats - Part I
Lets look at a few of the seats where Lord Ashcroft has done some constituency polling and compare them to how Iain Dale thinks that the seat will go before throwing in the latest odds for the seats. Politicos seem to think that Iain Dale is pretty darn good and believe his predictions are pretty accurate. We know the pitfalls of Ashcroft polling (it doesn't name the candidates and for sitting MPs of all parties – this is often to the detriment of the sitting MPs) and well you never see a poor bookie, do you? I'll be using the ...
During the Spring 2015 Liberal Democrat Conference, the LGBT+ Liberal Democrats moved an amendment aimed towards extending the Memorandum of Understanding on Conversion Therapy—which effectively prohibits the use of sexual orientation conversion therapy on the NHS—to transgender people. Originally, the amendment was a much larger policy motion, but after it fell at the Federal Conference Committee due to time concerns, the motion was repurposed into an amendment. The original mover of the amendment was LGBT+ Chair Dave Page, who switched with Sarah (Elizabeth) Brown to allow her to move the amendment, with the summation waived by Dave to me. The ...
[IMG: Mark Argent 1] I was surprised when I saw the promotion of mental health emerging Liberal Democrat policy. Its effects are far more widespread than people like to admit, but mental health is so stigmatised that it seems a long way from being a vote-winner. Like entering the coalition, championing it seems like something important, but where we might have to pay a price in terms of popularity. It is a difficult area to write about. Among my own circle of friends there are a number of people whose lives are badly affected by mental health issues. The area ...
In the likely event that we wake up on Friday 8th May to another hung Parliament, what should the Liberal Democrats do? For me there are three 'needs' that inform my answer to that particular question; the need for a stable government in the context of a fixed term parliament; the need to implement the Liberal Democrats' policy agenda; and the need to rebrand, reinvigorate and rebuild the party after a bruising five years of association with the Tories. Unfortunately, none of the options available to us would allow each need to be addressed in equal measure. Here are some ...
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, [...]
A phrase progressives increasingly use in debate about language, behaviour, traditions, is 'cultural appropriation'. The form is typically: "they shouldn't do that, it's cultural appropriation." The basis is that a culture, race, or nation, can 'own' an idea, style, word, or language – and that others shouldn't 'appropriate' it. The implication is that cultural appropriation is bad, and that if something involves cultural appropriation then it, too, is bad. Let's start at the beginning: without cultural appropriation most of us would still be living naked in caves. Rewind history and consider how detrimental to humanity it would be without cultural ...
David Tredinnick, Conservative MP for Bosworth, purchaser of astrology CDs on expenses, campaigner for the NHS to use astrology, believer in the full moon stopping blood clotting, advocate for switching cancer drug funds to alternative medicine and Conservative Party pick to be a member of the Health Select Committee, was welcomed by this poster at a recent hustings in Bosworth: [IMG: Special poster welcomes David Tredinnick to his election hustings]
Every so often here at The Rambles of Neil Monnery we (well what I mean by that is me, myself & I) we get e-mails from companies wanting to advertise on the blog. I take these approaches on a case-by-case basis depending on the type of article that they want written and the type of site/business they want advertised. I was recently approached about a piece for an online bed retailer. No harm, no foul I thought and that £40 they were offering for an article could be put towards something that I didn't need on eBay so I agreed. ...
The Independent reports: Thinking outside the box can do wonders for disadvantaged pupils, according to evidence from schools about how they are using the Government's pupil premium to improve performance. In one case, the simple act of buying a pupil a football kit and providing soccer coaching, as his parents were unable to afford it, dramatically improved his performance, Schools minister David Laws told The Independent. "It got him taking part in lessons and attending again," said the Liberal Democrat. On Wednesday the Pupil Premium awards will highlight those schools who are making the most of the extra funding and ...
Mon 23rd
15:13
Lib Dem Candidates for SW Herts and Hemel Hempstead Urge Action on Local Hospital Services
[IMG: nhs doc] Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidates Rabi Martins (Hemel Hempstead) and Nigel Quinton (SW Herts) have met with the interim Chief Exec of West Herts Hospital Trust Jac Kelly MBE to highlight their concerns over the uncertainties regarding provision of hospital services in Hemel Hempstead and South West Herts. Speaking after the meeting Rabi Martins said he was disappointed that Ms Kelly was unable to give any details of plans for the moribund Hemel Hempstead hospital buildings or give any details about a long-term plan for the area even though she did acknowledge that much needed to be done ...
Mon 23rd
14:32
Opinion: Liberal Democrat alternative budget is no answer to Osborne's opaque way with the numbers
Several years ago there emerged into public discourse one of those phrases that becomes ubiquitous solely on the basis of its banality – 'joined up thinking' – and which could be deployed to allow people with more of an agenda than a plan to escape the scrutiny of the serious observer. This article's purpose is not to explore the decision making process behind the alternative budget presentation, except to ponder that those Lib Dems who wanted the coalition to have the impact of us being taken seriously as a potential party of government can hardly be satisfied at how we ...
I am against fracking here in North-East- Somerset and the rest of the UK. Fracked gas is a fossil fuel. Climate Change remains the biggest environmental threat to our globe and we must move away from coal, oil and gas to renewable energy generation. The only argument in favour of fracking is that fracked gas [...]
Homes cost a fortune, and rents are through the roof, because there are not enough homes for people. Governments have been talking about building more homes for years. It hasn't happened. The Lib Dems are committed to building 3 million new homes in 10 years. We need a proper national building plan and government needs [...]
The Monkees were at a crossroads in their career. The second series of their TV show had been just as popular as the first, but as with the records, they'd wanted more control, and so by the last episode Micky Dolenz had been writing and directing, they'd brought in several of their LA scene friends [...]
HAT TIP: Dan Hodges has written an interesting article in the Telegraph, identifying that Lib Dem HQ is throwing many Lib Dem seats to the wolves in an effort to "survive" – funneling central money into only those constituencies it deems "winnable". The Telegraph article states that hard-headed Lib Dem HQ has ceased funding to a vast raft of seats, employed a US based analytics company to develop a system for micro-targeting key constituencies, and plan to ramp up Nick's profile massively in the coming weeks. The Lib Dem leader will be "asked to "walk through the flames" one MP ...
[IMG: west briton front page] Visiting Falmouth last weekend, I became aware of something extraordinary, the news of which I had missed earlier. A local PC called Andy Hocking recently passed away at the untimely age of 52 years old. As a tribute, a friend organised a memorial walk to "Walk the beat (of PC Hocking) one last time". This was done through social media and led to between 5,000 and 6,000 locals turning out. That's about a quarter of the town's population! A week later, virtually every shop had a "Thanks Andy" poster in its window, with the picture ...
[IMG: respublica_logo_hi_res] 1 in 10 households in the England are in fuel poverty. This is national scandal which we need to address. The coalition has made progress, improving the energy efficiency of over a million homes, but as the proposed 'Green Homes Bill' in the Liberal Democrat manifesto recognises, much more can be done to cut energy bills for the fuel poor and help bring an end to our cold homes crisis. The current energy efficiency scheme aimed at the fuel poor, ECO (the Energy Company Obligation) in its current form is not up to the job of responding to ...
The Liberal Democrats are working to build a stronger economy in a fairer society, enabling everyone to get on in life. We believe people should be able to take charge of their lives and fulfil their potential in a free, fair and open society. But to achieve this we need to create both sustainable growth and equality of opportunity, and so anchor Britain in the liberal centre ground between the extremes of left and right. That's what we are working in the Coalition Government to achieve and that is what we will continue to campaign for at the next General ...
[IMG: And she still hasn't got her new maternity unit, either.] And she still hasn't got her new maternity unit, either. The two major referendums we've had during this Parliament – 2011's on AV and 2014's on Scottish independence – were both very different, but I think the after effect of both of them has been quite similar. In both cases, it was expected by many that the rejection of change would be the end of the issue for a long time, and things would go back the way they'd use to been. The issues that had led to the ...
Royal Mail's stamp prices go up on 30st March by 1p (first class 62p to 63p and second class 53p to 54p). Remember to buy your election stock of stamps before then.
I was delighted to attend the Marshlink Action Group annual general meeting at Rye Town Hall on Friday evening, chaired professionally as ever by Stuart Harland. I am so grateful for the informed and activist way in which this group of people keep the public transport infrastructure needs of the (East of the) constituency right [...]
Unless you are very into your politics you could be forgiven for not knowing my Lib Dem colleague Greg Mulholland – the MP for Leeds North West – but over the course of this Parliament he has been absolutely pivotal in making sure of reforms to the power of the pubcos across the country and [...]
[IMG: west briton front page] Visiting Falmouth last weekend, I became aware of something extraordinary, the news of which I had missed earlier. A local PC called Andy Hocking recently passed away at the untimely age of 52 years old. As a tribute, a friend organised a memorial walk to "Walk the beat (of PC Hocking) one last time". This was done through social media and led to between 5,000 and 6,000 locals turning out. That's about a quarter of the town's population! A week later, virtually every shop had a "Thanks Andy" poster in its window, with the picture ...
My thanks to our candidate in Hitchin & Harpenden, (otherwise known as 'The Hackney Heroine'), Pauline Pearce, for coming to Hastings at the beginning of the month to share with us some of her experience and views around regeneration issues – in London, and with wider applicability for a constituency like ours. Sadly, not one [...]
It is already being billed as Alex Salmond's Sheffield rally moment, a reference to Neil Kinnock's fatal triumphalism during the 1992 General Election, but it is likely that the fallout from the former SNP Leader's speech at the weekend will damage his potential allies more than his own party. The Times reports that the Scottish nationalists intend to fully exploit their power over a future Labour government by demanding billions in extra spending and the diversion of resources north of the border as well as another referendum on independence: The former first minister, who is running for a Westminster seat ...
Mon 23rd
10:01
The SNP and "progressive" politics: in any Westminster government involving the Nats, it's the Engli...
Alex Salmond was doing the rounds this weekend, talking about the inevitability of a Labour minority propped up by the SNP as the government post-May 7th, and hinting around what that would entail. That's his wont, and I wouldn't expect him to be doing anything else at this stage of the election cycle, the zombie leader of the Nats talking up his side's chances. But I do hate the way he throws around the word "progressive", particularly when nationalism so often stands in the way of progressive politics, even as defined by Salmond himself. Take the way those who are ...
And the last of our round-up from the recent Frome Vale Area Forum, which awarded two grants to local photographic organisations: Photographers with Disabilities £2820 PWD was formed to enable people with disabilities to practice the Art of Photography. They run two regular weekly workshops and every fortnight they have a photoshoot with a model. They welcome both disabled and supportive non-disabled members. The grant will cover half the year's rent of the dedicated studio they need - unlike clubs aimed at non-disabled people, they cannot pack up their equipment and take it away after every session. Sodbury and Yate ...
The Oxford University Department of Economics have just published a discussion paper entitled "Is there a market for peerages? Can donations buy you a British peerage? A study in the link between party political funding and peerage nominations 2005-14". The authors are Andrew Mell, Simon Radford and Seth Thévoz (the latter two of which have written for Liberal Democrat Voice in the past). We've had a succession of "cash for peerages" scandals for over a century. What this study does is to provide a cast-iron scientific, evidence-based case to demonstrate the link between donations and peerages. It doesn't single out ...
I've decided it is time that I asserted my rights as the person who coined the phrase 'virtual currencies', which I'm informed by Wikipedia was not used until 2005 (my Financial Times report Virtual Currencies was published in 1999). You might not entirely approve of bitcoin, with its mysterious, anonymous creator, but that need not stop you understanding that new ideas are out there and being put into practice - especially in the broader field of digital or virtual currencies. There is no longer any need for a city or a nation to be defined by one single unit of ...
Dudley Tory candidate Afzal Amin suspended over EDL video claims (tags: ) Jesus Christ @libdems PLEASE tell me this is not what our much-vaunted mental health policy is? (tags: ) FAO my friends at the intersection of LGBT+ and BME - @GuitaringLancey ? (tags: ) Don't blame the BBC for the Clarkson fracas (tags: ) To those that have shall be given more (sport edition) (tags: ) [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
[IMG: City Hall, London] The sensible way to treat a new member of a political party is to welcome them warmly. Yet often the rules of the Liberal Democrats treat new members as second class citizens, automatically lumping them all together into the 'suspicious' category to be deprived of voting rights in internal party contests with the all too frequent provision that you can't vote unless you've been a member for a year. No assessment of individual cases or evaluation of risks in different scenarios; instead for many of the contests everyone new is labelled second-rate and deprived of the ...
It came as a terrible shock to learn yesterday of the passing of Marion Myles, Head Teacher of St Joseph's Primary School, at the age of only 54. Marion was a hard-working, approachable and highly professional head teacher. I first knew her as Marion Lawrence before her marriage and she was a long-serving head teacher at St Joseph's. Marion was always very supportive of community events such as West End Christmas Fortnight. My thoughts are with her friends and family at this very sad time.
I've gone down with Canvasser's Heel. Well, the doctor called it plantar fasciitis: her first question to me after I had described the symptoms were, 'Does your job involve a lot of standing and walking?' The NHS defines it as 'excessive, constant abnormal pulling and stretching of the fibrous bands that support the arch, [which] causes the heel bone to become inflamed and painful. This constant irritation can sometimes lead to a heel spur (bony growth) forming on the bottom of the heel bone. The patient usually complains of pain with the first step in the morning, some relief following ...
Eadweard Muybridge From the Curator of Museum Services, University of Dundee : Tuesday 24th March, 6pm to 7pmMuybridge and Animal Locomotion To accompany the Bodies in Motion exhibition, we celebrate the study of animal locomotion in this special event featuring short talks paying tribute to pioneering photographer Eadweard Muybridge, whose stop-motion images allowed the movement of humans and animals to be recorded and analysed in detail for the first time. Museum Curator Matthew Jarron will give an overview of Muybridge's work and describe his visit to Dundee in 1890 to give one of the Armitstead Lectures. Dr Keith Williams (Senior ...
Stockport has been chosen as one of just 29 locations across the country to develop new models of care as part of NHS England's new care models programme. The aim is to find new and better ways to care for patients. The Stockport together vanguard is an active partnership including: Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council, NHS Stockport Foundation Trust, NHS Pennine Care Foundation Trust and NHS Stockport CCG. The vision for the new model of care builds on the GP registered list and will be integrated around the GP practice at neighbourhood level (20-30,000 population), at locality level (80,000 population) and ...
A trip to Melling last Saturday, to use their excellent hand car wash, (see earlier posting about our holiday on a farm!) brought home to me the number of accidents on country roads. Within less than a mile I came across this mangled metal fence:- [IMG: The former fence now looks more like a modern art installation!] The former fence now looks more like a modern art installation! and then this worrying sight of a car in a ditch:- [IMG: Found in a ditch in Melling r] I stopped to check, but there was no one around or in the ...
We are expecting plans for a patrol station and store on the corner of Bromfield Road and Coronation Avenue to be approved at the April meeting of the South Planning Committee. One of the concerns of the committee was opening hours, with some members feeling it should not be open 24 hours. The people who [...]
Today I received the sad news that my friend and former colleague on Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council, Stan Wilson has passed away..A former Labour Councillor, serving on Redcar Borough Council from 1963 to 1966 Stan became a stalwart member of the Liberal Party in Redcar from the early 1970's.Stan, a real character, whom we had known since he had acted as agent in the Cleveland and Whitby constituency at the 1979 General Election, was almost on our doorstep to greet us when we moved to Redcar in May 1984. As we opened the door on the day we moved ...
