Further good news for Dartmouth Road has come from a successful funding bid by SEE3 – the high street innovation team for the Forest Hill, Sydenham and Kirkdale area: £113,000 has been awarded by the Greater London Authority to improve the public space by Forest Hill Library and Louise House. The money comes on top [...]
The Liberal Democrats have won praise for delivering on environmental policies in government in the face of opposition from the Conservatives. The Independent on Sunday newspaper, which has a strong record of campaigning on green issues, agreed with Edward Davey – the minister in charge of the Government's policies to tackle climate change – that [...]
The full set of Liberal Democrat policies for the 2015 general election will appear in the party's manifesto, which is due to be published shortly. However, the front page of the manifesto, setting out the top Lib Dem policy priorities, has already been released. Alongside the main front page, there are variations for use in Scotland and Wales, reflecting how their devolved institutions mean politics works differently there from England. Here's the full set of front pages, setting out the Lib Dem policy priorities for the 2015 election: [IMG: Lib Dem 2015 manifesto cover - revised] [IMG: Scottish Liberal Democrat ...
Read more about bottle-kicking.
A.E. Housman once wrote: Clunton and Clunbury, Clungunford and Clun, Are the quietest places Under the sun.But he clearly hadn't seen this video from the Shropshire Star.
[IMG: secretrobot] 'Ed's Secret Robo Plot' is going to take a lot of beating as both the best and most disappointing headline of the election campaign. On first sight, one might think it refers to Ed Miliband having a secret plot to build robots (probably to carry out nefarious socialist plots that will sap the precious bodily fluids of good healthy News International customers), but instead it's merely the news that he'd rehearsed and made some notes before the leaders' debate. I'm expecting that by the end of the campaign, his visiting a hospital will be described as how his ...
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Andrew Hickey Explains What's Happening With The Hugos this year (tags: ) A note to those who say ad- blocking is immoral (tags: ) [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
Mon 6th
20:56
Why are police forces getting away with misogynistic, victim blaming rape prevention campaigns?
I was horrified to hear this afternoon that Sussex Police are launching a campaign to encourage women to stay together to avoid the possibility of rape and sexual assault.This is what they tweeted last week: Friends who play together, stay ... Continue reading →
Mon 6th
20:54
Why are police forces getting away with misogynistic, victim-blaming rape prevention campaigns?
I was horrified to hear this afternoon that Sussex Police are launching a campaign to encourage women to stay together to avoid the possibility of rape and sexual assault. This is what they tweeted last week: Friends who play together, stay together. On a night out don't let your mates leave with a stranger or go off alone. pic.twitter.com/U3Hk3QCndu — Sussex Police (@sussex_police) March 31, 2015 So, now your friends come above the perpetrator of any crime when there's blame to be handed out. * Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings
British public votes person who told the most provable lies in leaders' debate "most honest" Truly we get the politicians we deserve (tags: ) Nigerian gay rights activist has High Court asylum bid rejected - judge doesn't believe she is lesbian (tags: ) [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
Today is a big day for hardworking taxpayers - because from today, you will keep more of your hard-earned money.When we came to office, you could only earn £6,475 tax-free. But from today, you can now earn £10,600 before you pay any income tax.That's a tax cut for over 26 million people - and it means we've taken over 3 million people out of income tax altogether.To find out how much you'll save, use our tax cut calculator today.Lower taxes are making our country a better and fairer place to live - where those who put in, get out; where ...
I have another first person column in the Leicester Mercury today. First Person: The danger now is that Leicester and the county will grow apart The eyes of the world were on Leicester as we reintered Richard III, but one of the best parts of the week of celebrations was good precisely because it did not just involve the city. Taking Richard's bones to the site of the Battle of Bosworth and to the villages associated with it seemed an odd, almost primitive, idea when it was announced. But it turned out to be a triumph. What we saw on ...
Nick Clegg takes the Cosmo quiz - his handwriting is horrific but his answers are quite good (tags: ) [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
Assuming you are British and have access to antiretrovirals. Even with these caveats, what my friend Benjamin Krishna set out in a post about antiretrovirals is still impressive: ...the life expectancy of a patient who is HIV positive, who is receiving antiviral treatment in the UK, is the same as anyone in the general population. The [...]
Lib Dems Believe Wordle 18 The chunky font here reminds me of the old Democrat Sans. ' 90s nostalgia!
What do the Liberal Democrats stand for? Freedom and fairness - it's overused and trite, but it's why I joined the party. Labour's surveillance state is terrifying, and the Tories would do nothing about it but for Liberal Democrats being involved. I have lived in the USA, so I treasure the notion of social justice as the centre of our tradition, along with a genuine opportunity to be involved in decision-making. The Liberal Democrats are in tune with the kind of Britain voters want to see. People want to be sure individuals are respected, communities are balanced and the vulnerable ...
[IMG: Liberal Democrat Newswire logo] Liberal Democrat Newswire #60 came out last week, sporting a new logo and amongst other stories looking at how the Liberal Democrat campaign is going in marginal seats, the collapse of Labour's organisation in Scotland and who has filled a set of key Lib Dem party posts. You can also read it below, but if you'd like the convenience of getting it direct by email in future, just sign up here. It's free! Since #60 came out, three of the stories have moved on a little: Philip Smith has been selected in Ashfield Ibrahim Taguri ...
[IMG: 321px-Sileby_railway_station_in_2010] HS2 is the high-speed link which will run from London to Birmingham and then divide, one side going to Manchester (and potentially then to Glasgow) and the other through Sheffield, Leeds (and potentially Newcastle and Edinburgh). The economic case is overwhelming. The latest figures I've seen suggest that, over the next 30 years, this will cost £32bn to build and generate £43.7bn of economic benefits and £27bn in fares. Those figures are conservative: after 30 years the income will continue, but the building costs will have been covered. On top of this, what they can't readily include is ...
After discovering that the University library had Biteback's 'Why Vote 2015′ books on the shelves, I thought they might be interesting to read to get an idea of the parties' policies and presentation before the official manifestos come out. This plan was somewhat scuppered by the library not having a copy of the Green book (which seems to have been produced after the others, possibly when they started rising in the polls), and the UKIP book having already been checked out for the Easter vacation by someone else. Still, that left me with three books to look at, and the ...
Everyone's arguing today about who is responsible for the raising of the tax threshold, a policy the Conservatives railed against at every opportunity but are now trying to claim as their own. This has been around as a Liberal/Liberal Democrat idea for a very long time. Malcolm Bruce told me last year that he had introduced it as a policy way back in 1997. Its current incarnation came to fruition in 2009 thanks to Liberal Democrat member and (then) Women Liberal Democrats Executive member Lizzie Jewkes who persuaded the leadership to adopt it as policy. It was passed at Conference ...
Mon 6th
14:34
An unfortunately rather rare sight: all the Lib Dem posters being waved the right way up
It's a diamond. With writing on. So it's pretty obvious how it should be held up, right? Alas not to everyone... so full marks to Ed Davey's campaign in Kingston for a full house of correct poster holding: [IMG: General Election 2015: Nick Clegg's campaign tour arrives in Kingston] Regular readers will also know how much I dislike the 'lonely person in the distance, possibly pointing at something' genre of political photographs, so here also are two nice examples from Nick Clegg's visit to Kingston this morning that illustrate how crowds and being closer in makes for much better photos, ...
The leaders debate last week brought some, but not much comment on the most important, but least talked about, issue affecting the UK. This is the fact that over the last 30 years the government, of both colour ties, has sold off the family silver in order to provide return and profit to shareholders and their friends in the city. Nationalised companies can't fail The UK's utilities network, of just gas and electricity alone, consists of multiple companies running small cut up sections of the country. How could we cut the whole of the Midlands (say) off gas if a ...
It sounds really silly, but it is my first, well maybe second today, thought on waking. Only second today as I was concerned I had not heard my grown up son come home last night. He had, he was just quiet. As I sit in the garden, on the first day of real sunshine, listening to the Watford fans singing their hearts out I am grateful I have tidied my garden, reseeded the grass and it is a pleasant place to relax and reflect. My thoughts are all mainly around after the op. How will I do the silly stuff? ...
[IMG: ippr] It is time to put some holy constitutional cows out to pasture. The traditional liberal reform agenda remains necessary, but it is no longer enough to reanimate our democracy. Too many of its solutions remain insensitive to how class and demography intimately shape how our political system operates; structural political inequalities in who participates and has voice will not end with a codified constitution and a more proportionate electoral system. Liberals of all party stripes and none need a new political agenda squarely aimed at reversing ingrained political inequality, a phenomenon that threatens the integrity of British democracy. ...
The church I attend in Leeds runs free classes in English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) for migrants, refugees and asylum seekers, of which there are quite a lot in the area. We have one professional leader and about half a dozen volunteer teachers, of which I am one. Student numbers are irregular but we have about 70 on our books and I take the Tuesday session with an "intermediate" group of about a dozen. The topic last week was "holidays ": perhaps not the most tactful to choose for our clientele, but it was the next one in ...
I appreciate my blog has been rather dominated by one issue for the last few days, and it'll stop very soon, but I just want to say this publicly. I am a cishet white man, and as such my opinion is not necessarily the one you want to be listening to when it comes to [...]
In 1998 I lived 500 yards from Mick Philpott who was later convicted of killing 6 of his children. I'd met him on one occasion and was told even then he was an odd individual. Never did I expect to see him on the telly, but, having lived in that area, hearing what he had done did not surprise me. There used to be little hope in humanity in a place like Allenton, Derby. In 1998 I'd left with no qualifications, was living in a caravan and had lost my second job in three weeks working in the local bakery. ...
Here's the new film from the Liberal Democrats: And remember: [IMG: Liam Byrne's farewell note - There is no money left]
The Lib Dems are more of a family than a political party. When one of our number is going through hard times, we all feel for them. It was incredibly sad to see from Twitter this morning that Charles Kennedy is mourning the loss of his father. Ian Kennedy died last night. Due to the death of Charles' father, Ian Kennedy, Charles will be taking a few days off from campaigning. Thank you for your understanding. — Charles Kennedy (@charles_kennedy) April 6, 2015 We send our love, sympathy and thoughts to Charles and all of his family. I'm sure it's ...
I was invited on a podcast last night by Jack Graham, the blogger who does Shabogan Graffiti, the Marxist Doctor Who blog. The subject was the Sad and Rabid Puppy slates, the neofascist scum who've taken over the Hugos, and whose droppings I keep having to clean up from my comments section (as they can't [...]
This is from Table 241 from DCLG. Social Housing is important. For example families with disabled children cannot get adaptations to private rented property. Average number of completed properties. periodprivateregistered social landlordcouncil 1980-1997 (Conservative)159,49521,95324,415 1998-2010 (Labour)161,06824,800487 2011-2013 (Coalition)108,47330,2432,563 On average the coalition
All the news about pensions today focusses on the new freedoms ushered in by Pensions Minister, Steve Webb. As the Telegraph reports more than half a million savers will make the pension reforms a success by prudently withdrawing small amounts to spend on holidays, home improvements and their grandchildren. They say that the first detailed study into how savers will use the new freedoms indicates that fears of pensioners blowing their savings on fast cars or frivolities are unfounded as just one in 10 will withdraw their entire fund in the first year: In the vast majority of cases, those ...
It is an opportune time to take issue with some of the key planks of the Conservative campaign. Mr Crosby, who likes simple messages, has primarily put forward just two. The first is that the Tories have a long term economic plan. The second is a clever cartoon presenting Miliband as a puppet in Salmond's pocket. It might perhaps be argued that George W Bush, who repeated endlessly that Saddam Hussein was in league with Al-Qaida, was the original inspiration for the "Long Term Economic Plan" campaign. Surveys showed that a majority of Americans came to believe a story known ...
I remember an article that ran in the NME during the late 1990s entitled "Is football the new rock and roll?" No one is calling football the new rock and roll these days, or indeed the new anything, nor is anyone describing anything at all as the new rock and roll. Footballers are a robotic bunch in the modern era – or at least that's what it feels like to me. But it wasn't always so. Here are the five footballers who at one point or another have plied their trade in this country, down through the ages, who collectively ...
Grayling: the Lord Chancellor who told the High Court to disregard the Rule of Law – Jack of Kent on the latest decision of Chris Grayling's to be overturned by the courts. This time, he believes that because he makes the law, he can ignore it. Why Henry George had a point – When the Economist is praising the idea of a land value tax, you begin to wonder if things might be shifting somewhat. The many faces of Tatiana Maslany – Interesting interview/profile of the Orphan Black star and her acting process. Tales from the Trenches: I was SWATed ...
On 26th March, the staff team at 38 Degrees posted an image to our Facebook page, attempting to simplify the confusing debate on pledges to fund the NHS. Unfortunately, we got the numbers jumbled up and drew criticism from several different political parties – including Lib Dems on this website. This is an apology and an attempt to explain where we went wrong. Our graph compared NHS funding pledges for 2015-16 from the Conservatives, Lib Dems and Labour, against the additional £8bn of funding that NHS England says it needs by 2020. We ended up comparing apples and pears. Lib ...
One of the more predictable outcomes of the seven-person-slam leaders' debate held last Thursday evening was that Nicola Sturgeon came out of it well. She's a very good public speaker, few in England would have heard her speak, and best of all from her perspective, she's in the party riding highest at the moment, all things considered. On a related note, Ed Miliband's pre-debate notes were found in his dressing room and have been subsequently leaked to the political media. Most of the talk regarding this story has centred on one phrase – "happy warrior" – something the notes make ...
Having recently finished reading a biography of Charles Kennedy, which covered the merger of the Liberal Party and SDP in detail, I pondered for some time on the controversy surrounding the names and philosophy of political parties. In the late 1980s the Social and Liberal Democrats or SLD were lampooned as the Salads, the use of the shorter Democrats was unpopular because it omitted the word liberal, so we ended up with the Liberal Democrats – a title that is now long established. If you look beyond the UK though, the confusion really begins. Japan has a party called the ...
From the Curator of Museum Services at the University of Dundee : As part of the Bodies in Motion exhibition in the Tower Foyer Gallery, University of Dundee - 3D Character Animation Wednesday 8th April, 3pm in Room G8, Tower Building Phillip Vaughan will talk about 3D Character Animation, and demonstrate how walk cycles, run cycles and other animations sequences work in relation to Games, Film & TV. Phillip is the Course Director of the MSc in Animation & Visualisation at DJCAD and has nearly 20 years' experience as a 3D Animator and Producer.
[IMG: battle-bus] As any activist knows, Bank Holiday Mondays during an election campaign are not given to us for fun days out but for extra deliveries and canvassing. In most years, though not all, we get the use of the Easter Bank Holiday Monday as well as the May Bank Holiday during the short campaign. The big yellow battlebus, with Nick Clegg and media on board, continues its journey around the target seats. This morning it will be stopping in Surbiton, home of Ed Davey and his team (including me). There's a large local party, a popular incumbent and experienced ...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-32180934 The BBC has the story – see link above [IMG: key_Norman_Lamb] If only all MP's were like Norman Lamb. His common sense approach to health and care matters is a breath of fresh air.
[IMG: The Blundells] Guildford candidate Kelly-Marie Blundell with her brother, James, and mother, Christina Probably unknown to most Liberal Democrat activists, let alone members, Christina Blundell has though a surname that may ring a few bells as she is the mother of Guildford candidate, Kelly-Marie Blundell. She's also one of the unsung heroes of the election campaign, helping Kelly-Marie get through a fearsome pile of correspondence – typically 50 inquiries from voters each day and as many as 300 on the busiest days. Helping a candidate reply to all the messages they get from voters isn't a glamorous role and ...
Mon 6th
08:17
Merseyside Leaders 'On the Buses' – But would they all want to be Reg Varney (Butler) driving ...
The Liverpool Echo has the story – see link above. [IMG: rsz_bus_009] Yes, great idea. As someone who thought Bus Deregulation was a disaster in the 1980's I find this a positive step forward. BUT could we/would we trust the 6 Labour Council leaders on Merseyside to pull it off? Remember they could not even agree to a name for their new Joint Authority, they bicker in public over matters they should resolve between themselves and they are seemingly not looked upon by Government as being capable of taking on devolved powers like Manchester. Fine in principle but we ...
In case it is not otherwise clear: I am now permanently employed by the Financial Times to write leaders. This means I write about 2400 words a week for the best newspaper in the land, on topics judged to be important enough for the privilege. Just you will not know it is me, and (crucially), Continue reading New permanent role →
