And then there's Devon, Bedfordshire, North Lincolnshire, East Sussex, Leicestershire and Herefordshire.

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

The two things Ed Miliband likes about David Cameron are both laws the Lib Dems secured: 2 things EdM likes about the PM are both Lib Dem policies, equal marriage and uk aid law #BattleForNumber10 pic.twitter.com/GRNQrUtCR4 — Liberal Democrats (@LibDems) March 26, 2015 And of course there's one Lib Dem who has been both minister for equalities and then for international development. Basically Ed Miliband is saying he likes Lynne Featherstone's record.

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

Lib Dems Believe Wordle 8

Sad and shocking news: A Liberal Democrat candidate has been suspended after he was arrested over allegations of child sex abuse, leaving the party's battle to win a key target seat in tatters. Jason Zadrozny was running in the Ashfield and Eastwood constituency in Nottinghamshire, currently held by Labour front-bencher Gloria de Piero. She won the seat over him with a tiny majority of 192 and Nick Clegg's party were eyeing it up as one of the rare gains they are looking to win in 2015. Although Ashfield was not on many people's political radars, the party's chances of winning ...

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack
Thu 26th
20:55

Haematology

Blood results last 6 months 25.03 2.03 21.01 24.12 26.11 29.10 Normal Hb 98 98 101 104 109 100 130 - 180 WBC 3.15 3.36 3.52 4.0 3.02 3.1 4.5 - 10.0 Neutrophils 1.57 1.78 1.6 1.8 1.16 1.43 2.0 - 7.5 Plt 369 449 494 551 391 427 150 - 450 Platelets well inside normal range. They deal with clotting and if they get too high they cause thrombosis. Haemoglobin rather low but hydroxycarbamide dose, now 500 mg 5 days a week, stays the same. If it was lowered it would tend to improve Hb, but possibly reverse the ...

Posted by Eric Avebury on Eric Avebury
Thu 26th
20:38

Lualua TV

Interview with Lualua TV http://bit.ly/1FXwRKZ

Posted by Eric Avebury on Eric Avebury

[IMG: Malcolm bruce glasgow 2014] Today a valedictory debate for retiring members took place in the House of Commons. Members whose service totalled several hundred years bade farewell to the Commons. Three of them were Liberal Democrats and we'll be publishing their speeches in full. First up is Sir Malcolm Bruce, MP for Gordon for the last 32 years. Today we have David Heath, MP for Somerton and Frome for 18 years. You can read the whole debate, with speeches from long-standing and distinguished MPs such as Gordon Brown, Joan Ruddock, Sir George Young and Elfyn Llwyd, here. I entered ...

Posted by The Voice on Liberal Democrat Voice

Recent proposals for biological deterrence shouldn't spoil the 40th birthday party of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention. But they serve as a reminder of the need to guard against the creeping legitimization of biological weapons. Today marks the 40th anniversary of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BWC), which entered into force on 26 March 1975. This disarmament agreement, which now binds 173 countries, prohibits the development, production, stockpiling acquisition or retention of biological and toxin weapons. The convention is an imperfect tool, rushed and gutted in its creation in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and devoid of ...

Posted by James Revill and Caitríona McLeish on Political science | The Guardian

Graham Greenhalgh and the Lib Dem team have worked with the council to free up ten new parking spaces for short-stay parking in Cheadle village, with more to come. The Lib Dems have been working on ways to free up parking spaces for short-stay visits in Cheadle village. Cheadle has over 400 spaces in its car parks, but with the village centre becoming busier they're getting taken up and people sometimes struggle to find somewhere to park. It hasn't been an easy problem to solve. The initial thought was that more people were parking all day, perhaps to go elsewhere, ...

Lynne Featherstone. Known to most as a fantastic grass roots campaigner and a passionate women's rights activist. Known to me as someone who stopped following me on twitter (boo...). Yet still I'm not bitter, a load of Lib Dems have stopped following me on twitter including the DPM and the @LibDems account themselves. What have I done to you guys...? Still lets not talk about the distinct dislike that other Lib Dems have for me on social media, lets look at Lynne Featherstone and whether she's going to be representing the people of Hornsey & Wood Green for another term. ...

Posted by neilmonnery on The Rambles of Neil Monnery
YouGov

The Equality and Human Rights Commission have published guidance for political parties and candidates about how equality and human rights law relates to election campaigning. A copy of their guidance can be found here:www.equalityhumanrights.com/electoral-guidance or downloaded from the ALDC website here.

Thu 26th
16:41

Alcohol duty

Osborne has reduced alcohol duties in this budget to the tune of £920 million over the next Parliament, on top of the much bigger loss of revenue from the earlier cancellation of the alcohol duty 'escalator' see bit.ly/19UxnOf. Not only do these concessions have to be paid for by equivalent cuts in public services, but they also increase the burdens on the health service and criminal justice system. It is the height of fiscal irresponsibility to encourage the consumption of alcohol when it already costs society £19 billion a year.

Posted by Eric Avebury on Eric Avebury

Hidden away in the pages of last week's budget details was a very significant measure, which has received precious little public attention. The Guardian reports: The UK is to establish the world's largest continuous marine reserve in waters around the Pitcairn Islands in the Pacific, the government has said. While not mentioned in chancellor George Osborne's speech, the budget published on Wednesday confirms that the government will go ahead with designating the ocean around Pitcairn - famous partly as the island where the mutineers of the Bounty settled - as a marine protected area (MPA). The zone is expected to ...

Posted by Paul Walter on Liberal Democrat Voice

Today has been my first day back at work after a fortnight's paternity leave. By and large, I've gone politics 'cold turkey', instead focusing on the intricacies of feeding times, nappy changes, and working out how you manoeuvre flailing limbs through babygrows (kit them out in clothes that are too big for them is my current pro-tip). However, the news - broadcast, print, online — has been constantly in my peripheral vision. It's been a monotonous blur of trivialities... Debate about the televised debates (the media loves nothing better than the excuse to obsess about itself), possible post-7th May deals ...

Posted by Stephen Tall on Stephen Tall

[IMG: bercowlook] If you haven't yet heard, the Government's hastily introduced motion to change the way the Speaker is re-elected was defeated in the Commons by 228 votes to 202 after a debate of around an hour.It was quite an extraordinary debate to watch as one watched William Hague floundering to explain why the Government had suddenly decided that this matter had to be discussed at short notice while a range of MPs from all parties stood up to query the process. When Hague looks back on his Parliamentary career, he may be tempted to pretend that it finished on ...

Posted by Nick on What You Can Get Away With

[IMG: Centre Forum aviation] The debate over airport expansion, particularly in the South East, has been raging for decades. Later this year, it is due to reach a crucial moment as Howard Davies and the Airports Commission publish their final report. Ahead of this, CentreForum has published a report looking at the liberal case for aviation and explaining how genuine concerns over environmental challenges, noise and regional growth should be addressed. Though not directly concerned with Liberal Democrat policy, the report does raise questions over the wisdom of the party's current position. The pre-manifesto commits to "carefully consider the conclusions ...

Posted by Tom Papworth on Liberal Democrat Voice

It's mid-afternoon on a typically sultry day in the Mumbai suburbs, and most of my family are taking an afternoon nap. And, given the circumstances, it is good that they are, for it has been a difficult week for the Valladares family. On Saturday, news reached us that Sinclair, my father's younger brother, had been seriously injured in a traffic accident - he had been crossing the busy road between Mahim and Bandra and had been struck by a motor-cyclist. Tragically, it quickly became apparent that he wasn't going to make it. Suddenly, unexpectedly, in Auckland and Toronto, London and ...

Posted by Mark Valladares on The view from Creeting St Peter

According to Mansfield and Ashfield Chad, Jason Zadrozny has been arrested today over historic child sex abuse claims. Jason is a Nottinghamshire county councillor and also serves on Ashfield District Council. He has today withdrawn as the Parliamentary candidate for Ashfield, and has been suspended from the party. Jason says: I am in full cooperation with the Police and vehemently refute the allegations. Comments on this post will be moderated.

Posted by The Voice on Liberal Democrat Voice

I very much welcome the decision of the Supreme Court that letters written by Prince Charles to Ministers should be published. In essence their ruling underlines the fact that because of his position the heir to the throne cannot act as if he were a private citizen. He is not and never has been a private citizen. That much is clear from the influence he is able to exercise in Government and beyond. More importantly, the court has also re-established the principle that an unelected person should not have undue influence on elected Government Ministers without that influence being subject ...

Posted by Peter Black on Peter Black

Christmas Day flashback: 26th March 2015 makes it ten years to the day since Christopher Eccleston first took Billie Piper by the hand and, with one word- "Run!" -changed television for good. So in celebration of that first episode of the gloriously successful return, here's a look at the most recent... "We are such stuff as dreams are made on..." I normally count Christmas Specials as the first episode of the new season, but "Last Christmas", the point where the Doctor and Clara stop lying to each other and run away together, feels properly the conclusion to Season 34 (8). ...

eUKhost

Taunton Deane MP Jeremy Browne, who announced last year that he would not be seeking re-election having served in the House of Commons for nearly 10 years, took the opportunity of the debate following last week's budget to make what was his final speech in the House. He used it to praise the coalition's "vision" in its determination to solve the country's weaknesses and to pay tribute to his constituency. He also returned to the theme of his book, Race Plan, calling for a less timid, more ambitious politics in order to prevent the UK becoming ever more irrelevant on ...

Posted by The Voice on Liberal Democrat Voice

Our core message: The Liberal Democrats stand for the freedom to live your life enjoying the rewards for your own endeavour, governed by your own choices - with equality before the law; without harming others. How Liberalism works in ever-expanding circles, starting with the individual, but linking to family and community and wider and wider to the whole world and the next generation: The Liberal Democrats stand for freedom. Freedom from poverty, ignorance and conformity. Freedom for every individual, family, group, community, society or nation. Freedom from inheriting the financial and environmental mistakes of earlier generations. Freedom to live your ...

Lib Dems Believe Wordle 7

Our friends at the Liberal Democrat Education Association have released a briefing for PPCs on education policy, including key messages, criticisms of the Labour and Tory approaches, and case studies showing the real difference that Liberal Democrat eduction policies are already making to the lives of millions of children. The summary, and sections on current [...]

Posted by Craig Whittall on Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors

I've have had a number of residents contact me from East Dulwich and neighbouring areas living in Southwark Council street properties with rotten windows. I've even had neighbours of such properties contact me. These ancient sash windows are rotten, without locks, victims of burglary, breezy from ill fitting, wet from condensation, stop residents heating their homes because the heat blown straight out of the home. I've tried working with council officers but they're stuck. When Lib Dems ran led Southwark Council we replaced such windows. Last night I asked the Labour councillor in charge the following question: "Why is the ...

Posted by James Barber on James Barber » James Barber

I give off a bad first impression. I always have, I suspect I always will. If you were ever to somehow source my school reports then they all follow the same pattern, teachers generally thought I sucked and was lazy in the first half of the year but by the end of the year they would lax lyrical (well maybe not that far) but they would say I was much better than they had written a few months before. Why this is I have no idea but I have always been slightly individual. I have rarely cared how I come ...

Posted by neilmonnery on The Rambles of Neil Monnery
Thu 26th
11:15

New light on the issue?

In the ongoing discussions with the county council over the removal of lighting between Consett and The Grove, Councillors Hicks, Watson and I met this morning with the independent road safety auditor and a Highways officer to go over the original risk assessment. We were able to bring to the table a couple of bits of information which the road safety auditor had not had available to him at the time he did the assessment back in 2013, and we're hoping that this might just help to ease the way towards a solution of a problem which is causing concern ...

Posted by Owen Temple on Owen Temple & Margaret Nealis

Many of the young men who went into battle in World War I were poets, either established or as a way to express themselves and fill the hours of waiting to go over the top. As an act of remembrance to those that never returned to their civilian existence on centenary of the day that they fell I will publish one of their poems. Today marks 100 years from the passing of Julian Grenfell who as a Captain in the Royal Dragoons on the 13th May had been standing talking to fellow officers near Ypres when a shell landed near ...

Posted by Stephen Glenn on Stephen's Liberal Journal

The Sentinel reports from Newcastle-under-Lyme on the departure of the Ukip council group leader: Group leader Derrick Huckfield and fellow councillors Eileen Braithwaite and David Woolley, together with former Newcastle branch chairman David Nixon, have all left UKIP following a long-running internal row. The three councillors are now sitting as independent members of Newcastle Borough Council. Mr Huckfield, who is also a county councillor, said the four had not attended branch meetings in eight months after being 'sacked' as officials... Mr Huckfield said... "People from the party came in and told us our leaflets were rubbish and we had to ...

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg has said that Prince Charles' letter to government ministers should not be made public - less than half an hour after the Supreme Court ruled they should be. Speaking to LBC this morning, Clegg said "Do I think that when Prince Charles sent those letters he's entitled to assume that they would remain private? I think he probably is. I think there's a perfectly legitimate role to say at a certain point that correspondence like that, since it was intended to be private, should remain private." However, minutes prior to this, the Supreme Court decided ...

Posted by Andrew on A Scottish Liberal

Peterborough businesses are being encouraged to take advantage of a government voucher scheme that pays for the cost of installing superfast broadband. The vouchers are worth up to £3,000 and almost 40 city businesses have already benefitted from the broadband bonus. The grants can be used by businesses to connect to the city's gigabit fibre [...]

Posted by Cllr Darren Fower on Cllr Darren Fower

While negotiations are continuing on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Protocol (TTIP) it is hard to know whether the outcome will be good or bad. As far as I can see, there are arguments for and against it, so I am feeling the need to keep an open mind. The arguments in favour boil down to increased trade and economic stability. This is important because the growth of China, India and Brazil will put pressure on Europe and America: at 1.37Bn people, China has an appreciably larger population than the EU (500 million) and USA (320 million) together. The collapse ...

Posted by Mark Argent on Liberal Democrat Voice

Independent seat, Case: Death. No LD Candidate

Posted by Michael Powell on Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors

Labour seat, Cause: Death. LD candidate: Jane Liaton Please contact Daniel O'Malley on 01334 656361 to help

Posted by Michael Powell on Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors

Labour seat, Cause: resignation. Update: No LD Candidate

Posted by Michael Powell on Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors

SNP seat, Cause: disqualification. No LD candidate

Posted by Michael Powell on Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors

llantwit Major First Independent seat, Cause: Resignation. No LD Candidate

Posted by Michael Powell on Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors

By any standards, the last minute motion to change the rules on Speaker election is pure bad manners. Filed with less than a day's notice when many MPs will already have left Westminster, it asks MPs to approve a secret ballot on the re-election of the Speaker. Up until now, MPs have voted in the traditional manner. The election of a Speaker when there is a vacancy is already conducted by secret ballot. The actual proposal itself is not unreasonable, for consistency's sake and was recommended by the Commons Procedure Committee as the Guardian article linked to above says: Tory ...

Posted by Caron Lindsay on Liberal Democrat Voice
Thu 26th
09:41

My views on fracking

Julian Huppert: "Meeting our climate targets needs to be at the forefront of our energy policy" In recent days a number of would-be constituents have asked for my views on fracking. My opinion on this, as with many other complex policy positions, is to follow the lead of the evidence. For some time I've had an open mind on this - while being instinctively suspicious and harbouring serious concerns about the safety and environmental impacts of fracking, I've been eager to engage with the proponents of hydraulic fracturing. I'm always willing to listen to expertise. I'm also willing to listen ...

Posted by Andrew on A Scottish Liberal

I've always believed that fairy tales have a role in understanding the contemporary world, and therefore of politics. This sounds a little sceptical or satirical, but I don't mean it like that. You can use fairy tales as a positive way of extracting the underlying narrative and taking stark reality by surprise, so to speak. Marina Warner is the great modern interpreter of fairy tales and I'm still reeling from reading her new demolition job on the management of universities in the London Review of Books. Her devastating indictment was summed up most effectively in this letter she received from ...

Posted by David Boyle on The Real Blog

Don't miss the Arts and Craft Fair at the Chichester Hall in Sandgate this Saturday 28th March from 10am to 3pm. [IMG: Sandgate Art and Craft Fair Easter 2015 poster] Great way to start your Easter celebrations and buy those Easter gifts. Jewellery, Easter Gifts, plants & flowers, Easter eggs and cones and much more - especially for the children! Published and promoted by Tim Prater, 98a Sandgate High Street, Folkestone, CT20 3BYPrinted (hosted) by Prater Raines Ltd, 98 Sandgate High Street, Folkestone CT20 3BY

Posted on Tim Prater

Britain's electorate does not choose a Prime Minister in May's General Election. It chooses a local MP. And enough of them have already made up their mind in England and Wales to make that choice a foregone conclusion in most places, so that the real fight is occurring in a limited number of marginal seats. Has the Conservative Party forgotten this basic architecture of British politics? That might explain something that is rather puzzling about the election campaign. The Conservatives are having a good "air war" in the expression made famous by Bill Clinton. That means coverage on general media ...

Posted by Matthew on thinking liberal

Citizens Advice calls for benefit sanctions to stop pending review (tags: ) Photo Gallery: Dogs Left Alone in A Photo Booth - ♡♡♡♡ (tags: ) If you're a construction worker with a beard you need a special kind of face mask (tags: ) New Ordnance Survey OpenData products now live (tags: ) Ukip candiate quits because he's not a racist "Mr Wilson had clearly misunderstood the expectations that Ukip place on all of its candidates" - aye, you're not wrong there. (tags: ) A PARLIAMENT FOR YORKSHIRE? - Good to see the greens adopting Yorkshire Lib Dem policy here (tags: ...

The Independent reports: British embassies around the world would be given the power to perform same-sex marriages - even if one partner was not a British citizen, under proposals to be included in the Liberal Democrat manifesto... In an article for Independent Voices, the party's Foreign Affairs Spokesman, Tim Farron, and Home Office Minister, Lynne Featherstone, said it was important that LGBT rights were not just "on paper". "LGBT rights are human rights: we do something about it," they wrote. "This commitment is the culmination of the work that so many in our party have already been part of in ...

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

While I think I was pleased to see the vote by MPs earlier this month, introducing plain packaging for tobacco products, it did also set off faint alarm bells – with me at least. There is something rather drastic about passing a law that requires legally produced and distributed goods to be wrapped in plain card or paper – even if the move was approved by Parliament based on medical evidence. I almost feel it would have been better to actually ban tobacco products altogether. To be honest, obesity is not that far behind smoking as a leading cause of ...

Posted by Judy Abel on Liberal Democrat Voice

So, here's the scene on May 8th: Labour has 295, 300-odd seats; the SNP have done as well as predicted in Scotland, taking north of 40 seats; the Lib Dems have defied the worst predictions and held 35-odd seats. Labour are in a bit of bind at this point. There are two clear roads ahead. One would be tricky but has high potential rewards; the other can only lead to trouble and may even presage Labour's demise as a party capable of getting a majority ever again. Given that, you'd think the tricky but rewarding path would be far more ...

Posted by Nick on nicktyrone.com

On the 40th birthday of the Biological and Toxins Weapons Convention, we look back on an important moment in the history of science, technology and arms control On this day in March 1975 dignitaries gathered at ceremonies in London, Washington D.C. and Moscow to celebrate the entry into force of the Biological and Toxins Weapons Convention (known as the BWC). Entry into force meant the terms of this international treaty, outlawing germ warfare, had now gained legal traction. Today's anniversary is of particular significance as the BWC has been called the world's first genuine multilateral disarmament treaty: it prohibited an ...

Posted by Alex Spelling and Brian Balmer on Political science | The Guardian

[IMG: Yes, John Bercow and I have studied in the same department.] Yes, John Bercow and I have studied in the same department. Like the last day of school, the last day of a Parliament is usually quite a relaxed place with plenty of time given over for retiring members to give valedictory speeches, while the last bits of business are cleared up. Given that we now have a fixed term Parliament and everyone has known for a long time when it would be prorogued, there isn't even much of a rush to get legislation through as the Prime Minister ...

Posted by Nick on What You Can Get Away With
Thu 26th
08:30

Earth Hour 2015

WWF's Earth Hour is a global annual event where hundreds of millions of people switch off their lights for one hour to show they care about our planet. It takes place this Saturday, 28th March. It's about people from across the globe coming together to create a symbolic and spectacular lights out display and asking for change. It happens every year between 8.30 and 9.30pm, with switch offs starting in Samoa and finishing in Tahiti. It's been growing every year, with more and more countries and people signing up - last year an all-time record with 162 countries took part. ...

Zayn Malik's departure from One Direction has triggered a mountain of social media reactions within minutes of the news breaking. It's also a salutary warning against relying on auto-sentiment scoring in digital listening tools as the algorithms are churning out scores showing the story to be dominated by negative sentiment. But scratch under the surface and what is really being said is that millions love One Direction and millions love Zayn Malik. Calling that a negative reaction hinders rather than helps understand what's really going on.

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

I have commented before on the troubles of the Priory Pub in Litherland and the Cabbage Inn Pub in Netherton. The Priory has just been demolished, much to the sadness of the local community who had been fighting for it to be saved. The Cabbage has been empty for some time now and awaits redevelopment. But in between these two pubs, that are just over a mile apart, there are two others, one still surviving but the other well gone and demolished. So instead of 4 pubs in just over a mile one is left! Starting at the closed Priory ...

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

Guido Fawkes quotes a leading paediatric surgeon on the subject of Labour's contentious broken-bone NHS poster: "There are absolutely clear two episodes of violence and possibly the bone bruise is a third... I have run it past a couple of paediatric colleagues are they both recognised this to be very likely non-accidental injury." The poster is misleading because Labour has not committed to the £8bn which health professionals state is needed to save the NHS in England. The Liberal Democrats are the only party to have made this commitment. (Increases in the NHS budget in England will be passed on ...

Posted by LD Neath on Aberavon & Neath Liberal Democrats