[IMG: Ashfield candidate Philip Smith with Lib Dem MP Tim Farron] Following Jason Zadrozny pulling out as the Lib Dem candidate in the hyper-marginal Ashfield seat, local councillor Philip Smith has now been selected to replace him. Good luck Philip.
Read the Guardian report.
Wed 1st
21:37
Some thoughts on zero hours contracts - Liberal Democrat record in government is better than Labour'...
Zero hours contracts have taken up a lot of bandwidth and airwaves today. There is a narrative that goes something like: "There might not be mass unemployment but the jobs created under this government are all zero hours contracts". That is nonsense. The proportion of the workforce on zero hours contracts is actually very small. It's only about 2% of all jobs. If exploitation is going on, even if it's only a handful of people being exploited, it needs to be stopped. There's no doubt about that. And Liberal Democrats in Government have stopped the scandal of exclusivity, the practice ...
From the Curator of Museum Services of the University of Dundee : The Zoology Museum will re-open to the public over the Easter weekend, showcasing D'Arcy Thompson's amazing collection of animals from around the world, as well as fascinating models and other teaching aids and striking artworks inspired by D'Arcy's work. This Easter we're aiming to have a particular focus on family visits, so please bring your kids along to see us! The museum has recently been accredited as the University's first learning destination for the Children's University - this seeks to "cultivate the imagination of pupils, as well as ...
Earlier this evening, I attended the April meeting of Community Spirit Action Group - the community group for the "north" part of West End Ward, covering Pentland, Tullideph, Ancrum and the Cleghorn area. We had an excellent update from Sergeant Laura Wilson, our local police community sergeant, about the new community policing arrangements for the West End. Laura also highlighted the excellent Police Scotland "Beat Doorstep Crime" campaign to stop residents being the victim of bogus callers and rogue traders. At tonight's meeting, I highlighted an assurance I have had earlier today about improving the road surface at the City ...
Here are the five posts on this blog that recorded the most hits between January and March 2015: Uncertain terrain: Issues and challenges facing housing associations (11th May 2013) Why is Owen Jones so annoying? (4th July 2013) Economists and their politics (11th Jan) The political classes lagging not leading on housing (29th Jan) The Tory £12bn and manifest inadequacy (28th March) So the two hardy perennials reassert themselves and head back to the top of the charts. Economists and their politics wasn't too far behind, but couldn't quite topple these two evergreens. As I noted at the end of ...
[IMG: Opinion poll commentary, too] Opinion poll commentary, too Some really shocking news to start the election today, as the Telegraph does huge amounts of original research gets an email from Tory HQ and reveals the news that rich businesspeople, some of whom are Tory members of the House of Lords, think we should all vote Tory. My only shock is that someone at the Telegraph thought April 1st was the best day to lead with this as a headline, and also that the Tories are going for the 'vote for us or the economy will collapse' message this early ...
[IMG: Will & Tim friends again] An intern working in Catherine Bearder MEP's office has been declared the 'winner' of April Fools' Day by the Huffington Post website. Intern Tim Reynard cooked up the prank over breakfast, and texted Oxford West & Abingdon Organiser Will Griffiths the following message: Will, really sorry to do this, I've been working for Nicola (Blackwood, the Conservative MP) since leaving Odeon, and the opportunity of an internship with the Lib Dems to compare parties was too good not to apply for. Wish u all the best but I'm a Tory at heart and am ...
The thing that most irritates me about Labour's leaflets is the rubbish about subsistence. As I made clear on this blog earlier I stopped claiming subsistence in April 2009 - as my contribution to reducing the deficit. However, the local Labour MPs did not stop claiming subsistence. Furthermore Jess Phillips has not been obvious in her absence from the annual council dinner. So we are paying
Here's the leaflet Labour is having to put out in Lib Dem MP Greg Mulholland's Leeds North West constituency, along with paying £2,000 in legal costs: [IMG: Leeds North West Labour apology leaflet]
Lib Dems Believe Wordle 13
My first political memories are of shouting at bullies. I didn't think of this as political until a long time later, but that's what it was. With the fearlessness of the very young, I saw much bigger boys being mean and thought it wasn't fair, and told them so. I didn't do it often, but it stuck in my head because it seemed to be the right thing to do, standing up for the underdog. Luckily, a small boy shouting at them usually shamed them rather than getting my head kicked in (aged four and naked on a beach, I ...
Lord Ashcroft has released some new polls in six Liberal Democrat/Conservative marginals and two Liberal Democrat/Labour marginals, including Nick Clegg's seat. In all but two of the seven Lib Dem held seats, the Liberal Democrats are gaining ground. In Cambridge, Julian Huppert has pulled head of his Labour rival. He has gained ten points in six months to have a 9 point lead. There is absolutely no room for complacency, though. Dan Rogerson (North Cornwall), Andrew George (St Ives), Adrian Sanders (Torbay) have slight leads and have gained ground since the previous polls.. Ashcroft emphasises that it's all very much ...
We received the following email about the new Abney Court care home in Abney Hall Park: Back in October you received an email from Gary Bell, my predecessor, which provided information on our Home and the expected opening date of February 2015. Unfortunately due to the Builders, GB, going into Administration, the opening of Abney Court has been further delayed and we are now planning to open the beginning of September 2015. Once open, Abney Court will offer the highest levels of care in modern, luxurious surroundings. We will be providing residential and short-term respite care, as well as specialist ...
The new election broadcast being broadcast right now on BBC1 moves from the open doors theme of the last two to emphasising the moderating influence of the Liberal Democrats. It's that centre ground theme again that we've seen in the posters launched last week. Remember that few of us reading this will be the broadcast's target audience. There is a Scottish version with a different soundtrack to incorporate the SNP.
Our third set of election artwork template batches. To see our earlier batches click here for Jan batch 1 and February batch 2 In this batch we have: Record of Action A3 A record of action, a promise of more" has been one of the mantras of the party for years that has been copied [...]
Suki Kim is a woman with an experience worth reading about. She must be one of a handful of outsiders to have lived and worked in North Korea whilst having regular contact with reasonably ordinary locals "Essay" was a much-dreaded word among my students. It was the fall of 2011, and I was teaching English [...]
[IMG: Embedded image permalink] I should say that I have a fair bit of experience with zero-hour contracts. First up, the negative. After my wife was made redundant from a technical support job, she managed to find some employment working as a junior graphic designer for a national company (which I won't name). In spite of it being a leading business within the industry, not only she but all new staff were given zero-hour contracts. In addition to regular hours, staff were expected to do extra work at weekends and evenings, often at very short notice. Such basic entitlements as ...
Yes, that headline is correct. The BBC reports: Ed Miliband said a future Labour government would guarantee zero-hours workers the right to a formal contract after 12 weeks of regular work, a move which he said would reduce economic insecurity but which was criticised by employers. <snip> The proposal, which has been welcomed by the [...]
I don't talk about this much because it is really not much of a big issue in my life any more. When I was young the doctors, they weren't sure that I'd ever really you know, walk. Yet I did and whilst I may have fallen over a whole lot I could walk and run (and fall over a lot) and I got on with things. I didn't know any better or any different. My arm was just as bad as the leg but you can get by with one working arm far easier than one working leg. In 1991 ...
Wed 1st
15:09
On Lord Ashcroft Polling, Iain Dale's Predictions & Odds - Sheffield Hallam Special Edition
STOP THE PRESSES. The Big Cheese is going down. After a dramatic new poll Nick Clegg's defeat in Sheffield Hallam is all but certain. Yes in the biggest shock since me going through a whole Marks & Spencer food shop without anyone looking down on me, Clegg is going down in one of the most affluent constituencies in the country to a Labour Party who aren't even campaigning, are generally hated in that part of the country and aren't trusted to run the economy. You'd have thought well-off people would care about this kind of thing but apparently not. Go ...
This story in today's Birmingham Mail is proof that there is a justiciable right under ECHR Article 14 for Discretionary Housing Payments. I have said for some time that the law would require this. It is good to have the confirmation.
Such an incredibly important concept to understand. Everyone should read this. http://t.co/CfMo1x1JaN #immigration pic.twitter.com/2SNMatKOTu — Zack Kanter (@zackkanter) March 30, 2015
It is crucial that the government stick by the commitment given during the debate earlier this year. I will work to ensure this happens.
Knowing that you will receive the best care possible means the world to everyone who finds themselves or their loved ones in need of social care. That is why I made it my first priority as Care Minister, and together with Norman Lamb – our current Care Minister - and other Lib Dem colleagues we have worked hard to reform our badly out of date care system and drag it into the twenty first century. Today, that work reaches a major milestone with the Care Act coming into effect. As the independent health charity the Kings Fund put it, on ...
Teaching opportunities are available in Peterborough to graduates who train under a scheme run by Peterborough City Council. The Peterborough Teacher Training Partnership, in partnership with the University of London, is looking for graduates to train to become a teacher in schools in Peterborough. The Teach East scheme has been training teachers for over a [...]
Newly updated for 2015 is my poster summarising the key elements and origins of the Liberal Democrat political philosophy. Click through for a larger version, including a handy A3 poster for printing off and adorning an office wall: [IMG: Infographic showing the Liberal Democrat principles and philosophy] As with earlier versions of the poster, the 2015 version of What the Liberal Democrats believe isn't aimed at the mass electorate but rather the new member, the interested helper, the student who wants to know more about the party or the particularly interested voter. More one for social media and for members ...
The London borough of Newham is the most diverse community in the United Kingdom, which made the holding of most of the 2012 Olympics there particularly apt. In the streets one is likely to hear every language of the globe and a majority of the people are either brown or black. So it's not surprising [...]
I was pretty grumpy on Monday when I was watching the rolling news coverage. First of all, the BBC had live reporting from Westminster, the only place in the country you wouldn't find any politicians following the dissolution of Parliament. Ok, so they did find Simon Hughes, but they could have headed a couple of miles down the road to go to him. Then there were people reporting from Downing Street long after everyone had departed to ht the campaign trail. But what made my blood boil was the aerial shots of Buckingham Palace broadcast as David Cameron and Nick ...
Being the record of the most popular posts on this blog in the first few months of this year, set down in accordance with both time-honoured ritual and whatever way I feel like showing them. This has been the busiest three months since I started blogging again which each month getting more visitors than the last, so I'm either getting the hang of it again or there's some big news story coming up that means people want to read more political ramblings. You decide. Anyway, here are the most read posts over those three months. Not quite making it to ...
We're pleased many of you enjoyed our little prank today. To maintain the joke we kept all most of the comments in moderation, but have now released them, so you can go back and see who fell for it. For some readers the penny only dropped when they read our new comments policy for today. Here is a round-up of some other April Fools that we liked across the media: The Guardian tried to get us to believe that Jeremy Clarkson had turned environmental campaigner. Pink News told us that Nick Clegg had joined Grindr for the duration of the ...
Wed 1st
11:24AIDS organisations and Elton John support Liberal Democrat candidate Adrian Hyyrylainen-Trett over H...
On Monday, Liberal Democrat candidate for Vauxhall Adrian Hyyrylainen-Trett told Buzzfeed about his HIV status which means that he's the first openly HIV positive candidate to contest an election in the UK. Yesterday, as Buzzfeed reports, Sir Elton John and his husband David Furnish praised his courage. After hearing about the story, Elton John and his husband David Furnish contacted BuzzNews News with a heartfelt message of support for Adrian. "Elton John and David Furnish applaud Adrian Trett for his courage and bravery in publicly acknowledging his HIV+ status," the statement said. "He is a fine example that HIV+ people ...
How does change happen? Because God knows, we need it - and I speak as a supporter of the coalition. Nobody should believe the coalition, ground-breaking as it has been, ought to be the sum total of radical Liberal ambitions. Do they? I've been asking myself this after a fascinating Guardian Long Read by Giles Tremlett about the rise of the leftist Podemos political movement in Spain, a combination of the New Left circa 1983 and anti-globalisation protest movements, with a dash of Latin American populism. Podemos is the brainchild of a politics lecturer turned media star, Pablo Iglesias, who ...
[IMG: ballot-box] Somehow - in spite of now having fixed-term parliaments and five years to prepare for it - the media still seems woefully unprepared for this election campaign. Oh, sure, there's loads of quick-fire reaction to the furore de jour. Will today's letter from businesspeople endorsing the Tories boost them? Will actor Martin Freeman's election broadcast for Labour boost them? Who's standing at which podium in Thursday night's seven-way leaders' debate and what does that mean? Et cetera, ad nauseum. And we're drowning in polling numbers, with journos re-inventing themselves as pseudo-social scientists desperately trying to amp-up movements within ...
Just a quick note to wish local residents both a Happy Easter, and our greetings and best wishes for Passover. The Christian celebration of Easter takes place this weekend with bank holidays on both Friday and Monday surrounding Easter Sunday itself. The Jewish festival of Passover begins this year at sundown on Friday 3 April 2015 and ends on the evening of Saturday 11 April 2015. Can I take the opportunity to wish residents a Happy Easter, and Happy Passover. Best wishes Tim
Silly silly labour (tags: ) Excellent from @IsabelHardman on Westminster sneering at ppl who don't know politics & then wondering why they don't engage (tags: ) Economic Inequality: It's Far Worse Than You Think - Scientific American (tags: ) Generous welfare systems actually make people more keen to work, Europe-wide study finds (tags: ) Full text of a David Cameron 2005 speech - oh how trhings change. Decrying the need for foodbanks and the principle of workfare in there. And then we wonder why people don't trust politicians... :/ (tags: ) On In-Work Benefit Sanctions - which were supposed to ...
"I saw something nasty in the woodshed"- Ada Doom, 'Cold Comfort Farm' by Stella GibbonsThere is some bafflement in the Tory ranks as to why their party isn't shooting ahead of Labour in the polls. David Cameron is very popular. People think Ed Miliband is a "muppet". So why aren't the Conservatives surging ahead? Senior Tory supporter and PR firm boss, Paul Bingle, writing yesterday on Total Politics opined: The Tory Party should be walking this election. Yet they find it difficult to get beyond 35% in the polls and are neck and neck with the Labour Party. The Conservative ...
You will probably have noticed that there is an election coming up! In Bury there are, in fact, TWO elections on 7th May 2015, and every voter will be given TWO SEPARATE VOTES: – a general election vote to choose and MP for this area and who will form the next Government – a LOCAL vote to choose one of your local councillors – someone who will stand up for this area at Bury Town Hall. [IMG: Screenshot 2015-04-01 09.34.58] If you are not registered to vote you can register online up to 20 April 2015 Registerion is online and ...
The application for a new premises licence at Cafe 7-11, 470 Bury Old Road, Prestwich (previously reported here) has been rejected by the Council and the applicant informed. This is due to incorrect newspaper advertising of the application and failure to advertise on the premises as required.
Monday evening, Grant Shapps was interviewed by Evan Davis on Newsnight. Davis pointed out that the Tories' claim that a Labour government would cost every working household £3,028 was incorrect - the TV journalist explained that the £3k figure was actually a five year projection, not per year as insinuated. Also, that the £15 billion figure the Tories are using as the base calculation has been disputed by the IFS. In fact, they think the figure is closer to around £100 a year, per household, all told. The difference between paying £100 more tax a year is quite a bit ...
The Liberal Democrats have committed to spending £3.5bn more on mental health care in England over the next parliament. The money would be spent on revolutionising children's and adult mental health care including: – £250m over five years for pregnant women and mums dealing with depression. This would include eight new mother and baby units providing inpatient care for pregnant women and new mums and 40 new community services helping new mums adjust to life at home with a new born. – New waiting time standards for people in crisis and for conditions like bipolar disorder so that those who ...
In shock news today, April 1st, that is the first of April, it was announced that Nick Clegg or David Cameron or Ed Miliband or Nigel Farage or the other one or the other one or the other one (delete according to political preference) did something that was in some way connected to, or similar [...]
After years of keeping its old parking ticket machines going Sefton Council has finally decided to invest in new ones. [IMG: New Parking Meter] A trial is taking place at Meadows Leisure Centre in Maghull of the one of the new machines although this is likely to prove very unpopular as this car park has not been subject to parking charges before.
A Brief History Of The Yemen Clusterf*ck – A useful primer and historical background to help you make sage and expert comments about the latest flashpoint. The deficit: It's a productivity thing – Failing to acknowledge lower productivity in the British economy isn't helping economic debate make any more sense. My Lib Dem ambivalence – James Graham explains his current issues with the party. Floating voters: How living on a houseboat meant I didn't officially 'exist' – Beyond the issues with registering to vote, there are some very interesting facts in this story about the number of people living in ...
I have had a number of constituent enquiries about the proposed road closure in part of Lochee Road (Tullideph Road to Dudhope Terrace - southbound only) from 20th April for road resurfacing. The Depute Roads Maintenance Partnership Manager at Dundee City Council/Tayside Contracts has advised me of further details as follows : The works involve the resurfacing of a section of Lochee Road as shown below :The two areas identified as phases 1 (blue) and 2 (yellow) shall both be completed as part of these works and are programmed to be undertaken consecutively. The areas are assigned individual phase numbers ...
When people think about Terry Pratchett's work, what they tend to think of is the run of novels he did from about 1989 to about 1998, the period in which he was Britain's biggest-selling author, and in which he was at his funniest. During this time, he created most of his best-loved characters, and fleshed [...]
Aside from the usual April Fool's Day tomfoolery, today has begun with debate over a letter from 100 prominent business people to the Times warning about the impact of a Labour government on the economy. As one would expect, the responses to such a letter are tiresome and predictable. The Tories crow over their economic [...]
Shared Parental Leave is the theme of the day as the big yellow battle bus heads for East Dunbartonshire and a nursery visit.Parents of babies due on or after this Saturday will be able to choose how they share 50 of the 52 weeks of parental leave. The only stipulation is that mothers have to take the first two weeks after the birth. This is a policy that ticks all the stronger economy, fairer society and opportunity for everyone boxes. Nick will be visiting the nursery with the minister who introduced the measure, Jo Swinson, in her constituency. Also in ...
Sefton Local Plan Publication Draft 2015 Consultation response from the three Meols Ward councillors - Cllr Nigel Ashton, Cllr John Dodd and Cllr Jo Barton [IMG: Cllr. Nigel Ashton - This photo was taken during the campaign to try to save the Library from closure.] Cllr. Nigel Ashton – This photo was taken during the campaign to try to save the Library from Sefton Labour's closure plans. General comments 1. We do not consider that the population estimates that underpin the Local Plan publication draft are sound. There are assumptions about sudden increases in inward migration that are simply not ...
Whatever one's view of the Welsh bonfire of the Quangos, there is no doubt that it tackled one particular malaise, namely the tendency of Tory Secretary of States for Wales to rule through unelected placemen and women, most of whom shared political views with those who appointed them. Today's Times indicates that this particular malaise still infects the body politic in England at least, where democratic devolution has not yet been put in place. The paper says that Conservative party donors, departing Tory MPs and journalists close to David Cameron have all been called upon to serve as part of ...
The Liverpool Echo has the story – See link above.
Great news! Just after midnight last night, Tim Gordon, Chief Executive of the Liberal Democrats, sent this message to party members from his Blackberry: Just before midnight we hit our £300,000 match fund target for March and I wanted to let you know as soon as possible. The money we've raised is going to make a huge difference to our candidates in target seats across the country. Thank you so much for your support. That means that the party has been given £300,000 and will automatically get another £300,000 from generous large donors, making a grand total of £600,000 raised ...
[IMG: Computer code] Close observers of the official Liberal Democrat social media feeds will have noticed recently a major shift away from predominantly broadcast messages towards a much higher level of interaction with voters. On the surface, this is just a matter of good social media practice, treating the medium as a conversational one. But behind the scenes it is the first, least controversial, step in a three part plan to import technology from the Canadian Liberals. A sister party of the Liberal Democrats, the Canadian Liberals also use the same election database software as us. It runs under a ...
[IMG: crotpa20002] Following the dissolution of Parliament on Monday, today the terms of the Representation of the People Acts come into force. To comply with those terms, Liberal Democrat Voice is upgrading its comments policy forthwith. The enhanced policy can be read here. There will be a brief, almost indiscernible, pause in comments today while essential technical adjustments are transacted. From now until election day, as per advice in the ALDC Election Law Handbook and in the Agents Manual, all comments by a parliamentary candidate, or by anyone who has campaigned (including telephone canvassing) for a parliamentary candidate, should contain ...
