I have been somewhat distracted of late. The unexpected loss of an uncle in Mumbai, combined with a pre-planned break, meant that I was absent for a fortnight in total, covering the initial stages on a General Election campaign. As a result, I don't really feel attuned to what's happening around me, which in itself feels a bit odd. Nonetheless, life goes on. So, what have I been up to? Last week was about travel, but the week before was all about family. I've already covered the key events in sufficient detail, but having reflected a little, I should note ...
The inconvenient truth is that the majority of the electorate has no idea what the Liberal Democrats stand for and, whilst the Cleggbunker's 'middle ground anchor' rhetoric perpetuates that in the current campaign, it has probably always been the case. It is a depressing conclusion, but an inescapable one that the Party must address in the long term if we are to survive as a political force. Social Liberal Forum's Naomi Smith recently summed up the folly of the current centrist message on Facebook as being "defined by those at other ends, not those who claim to be it. It's ...
Plaid candidate for Ceredigion Mike Parker has compared English incomers to the area to the Nazis and "gun-toting Final Solution crackpots".: Disgraceful comments from Plaid Cymru candidate pic.twitter.com/YGnbjqa1ge — Welsh Lib Dems (@WelshLibDems) April 7, 2015
Today would have been my nan's 98th birthday. I was reminded of this by Google calendar - I am RUBBISH at remembering birthdays and anniversaries and things, so all the important ones have been saved in some sort of calendar software since the nineties; somehow, although it's several years since Nan died, I can never bear to take her birthday off. My nan shares her name with a world champion hang glider pilot, apparently. I expect shed find that highly amusing. She was a pretty amazing lady herself, mind, and had a lot of influence on me. She was a ...
After I had paid my respects to Richard III, I found myself with some unexpected free time in Leicester. It was a lovely sunny morning and the city seemed to be rather enjoying its importance. One of the sites I visited was St Mary de Castro, recently denuded of its spire on safety grounds. I have to say it looks rather fine without it. Below you can see some photos of this church with and without its spire and with it being taken down. There is something about the light around Leicester Castle that makes for lovely colours.
When Tony Blair stood down as prime minister in 2007 I blogged: Today's media consensus is that the public has undergone a long process of disillusionment with Tony Blair. My own experience has been the reverse. When he was first elected it seemed obvious to me that he was an actor more than a statesman - and a terribly bad actor at that. All those speeches with his voice thick with unshed tears - the best known is his reaction to the death of the Princess of Wales, but there were many more - were so palpably insincere that I ...
Tue 7th
19:52
Old Ordnance Survey Map of Liverpool in 1958 – Maghull & Lydiate & the Cheshire Lines ...
I came across an old Ordnance Survey map of Liverpool the other day in the most unlikely of places – Bewdley Station on the Severn Valley Railway. The map was published in 1961 but in reality the last full revision of it was in 1958. Oh, and it was sold for Five Shillings & Sixpence. Having scanned the Maghull/Lydiate section of the map it is worth looking at not least because it shows that the Southport and Cheshire Lines Extension Railway was still active as far north as Altcar. Here's that part of the map:- [IMG: Maghull 1958] Click on ...
Paul Brant, Labour Candidate April 7th 2015 Dear Paul, When you stepped down from the council about 18 months ago I write a blog praising you for your intellect passion and commitment. I said that your departure was a loss ... Continue reading →
We've heard the sad news that Cllr Colin Hall, the Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader of Sutton Borough Council, died last week after a short illness. He was only 53. Tributes have been paid to him on the Sutton Liberal Democrat website. Go below the cut to read a beautifully crafted and heartfelt obituary by his old friend Ed Fordham. Council leader Ruth Dombey said: Colin was a wonderful colleague and a good friend. He was passionate about the borough and dedicated to his work as a councillor. His particular interest was the environment and how to make Sutton a more ...
[IMG: People who were born after this poster was used are eligible to vote in this election] People who were born after this poster was used are eligible to vote in this election When Margaret Thatcher went back on to the campaign trail in 2001, they managed to link it to The Mummy Returns, which was in cinemas at the time. Unfortunately for Tony Blair – but fortunately for us – no one's yet come out with a series of Daddy movies, and none of the movies currently in cinemas really work for him. I very much doubt he'd want ...
Sometimes it's the smaller things that are important to those affected by them. A little while back the Lib Dem team had a request from a resident for a seat to be installed in the bus shelter on the Cheadle side of Gatley Road, near the Kingsway junction. We lobbied TfGM and are pleased to report that the seat was installed on 27th March.
Here's the new film from the Liberal Democrats:
From the Economist: Lauren Rivera of Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management interviewed 120 recruiters from American law firms, management consultancies and investment banks. Their principal filter was the applicant's university. Unless he had attended one of the top institutions, he was not even considered. "Evaluators relied so intensely on 'school' as a criterion of [...]
Tue 7th
15:55
Shirley Williams on the campaign trail: Vikki Slade is a worthy successor to Annette Brooke
Shirley Williams may be approaching her 85th birthday, but she is putting a massive effort into campaigning around the country and her energy puts most of us to shame. This is a very good thing as she's still one of the country's most popular political figures. Last September, she wowed Dunfermline and, for me, one of the most poignant moments of the referendum campaign was when she took the hand of a Yes campaigner in the street. She spoke at Tim Farron's adoption meeting recently and last week was at the other end of England, endorsing Vikki Slade's Mid Dorset ...
After a weekend of writing Focus leaflets and celebrating the 30th birthday of Focus in the Whickham area, today we went back into the ground war determined to deliver, errrrrr, yet more Focus newsletters. My colleagues kindly gave me the largest patch in the whole of Whickham, the Watergate Estate, complete with 370 doors. I did it in an hour and a half.
The Telegraph asked members at our recent Liverpool conference to sum up the Liberal Democrats in one word. Here is the video they made which features, among others, Paddy Ashdown, the LDDA's Gemma Roulston, Scarborough PPC Mike Beckett, Hinckley and Bosworth PPC Michael Mullaney and Ealing's Joanna Dugdale. What would your word be? Mine would be radical to reflect that we are anti-establishment reformers at heart. * Newshound in training. I'm sweet and full of mischief, just like my stories.
Nicola Sturgeon gave a speech on tackling poverty today. In it, there is much that I think many Liberal Democrats could agree with. The First Minister announced that SNP MPs will use their influence after May's election to: · Push for child tax credits and child benefit to be uprated instead of frozen as the Conservatives plan. · Promote action that supports in-work families by calling for an increase in the minimum wage to £8.70 by the end of the next parliament. · Support an increase in the work allowance - helping those in work benefit from their earnings. · ...
Lib Dems Believe Wordle 19
I sort of half-knew this already but had never worked out the numbers, and when you see them in print, they're really quite striking: More than one way to get into Number 10, as many PMs have discovered #BBCGoFigure http://t.co/H4434lnSEh #GE2015 pic.twitter.com/Nzbu8Cr0Dt — BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) April 4, 2015
Simply put, Liberal Democrats believe in Liberty. For a young man to be free from the stigma attached to mental health issues; for a family to be free from the pressure created by an acute housing crisis; for members of all communities to be free to seize opportunities and pursue their life in a fair and tolerant society: these are just some of the issues I fight for on a daily basis in my constituency and throughout the country. Liberty is something that I have been personally denied. I have been denied it in the literal sense through my five-year ...
It is no thanks to Shropshire Council and huge thanks to the energetic team at Bus Users Shropshire for getting a better service between Ludlow and Leominster from May. The 492 service to Hereford was withdrawn by Herefordshire Council in September 2014 as part of bus service cutbacks. The replacement 490 from Leominster only ran [...]
It was with a certain degree of shock that on Thursday 2 April, I read the opinion article "We should be alert to this threat to Europe!". How was it possible that the concerns expressed in it about the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership – which echo what many segments of Europe's radical left have been peddling – could be given credibility from within one of Europe's most influential liberal parties? After some consideration, I concluded that clearly the anti-TTIP propaganda war is proving to be very successful and that there is still much work to do to counter those ...
Expert calls for a moratorium on germline gene engineering are no substitute for richer public debate on the ethics and politics of our biotechnological futures. On April 3 2015, a group of prominent biologists and ethicists writing in Science called for a moratorium on germline gene engineering; modifications to the human genome that will be passed on to future generations. The moratorium would apply to a technology called CRISPR/Cas9, which enables the removal of undesirable genes, insertion of desirable ones, and the broad recoding of nearly any DNA sequence. Such modifications could affect every cell in an adult human being, ...
Like beauty, political influence is in the eye of the beholder. What is really important to one voter can be mostly irrelevant to another voter, so a good to start to answering the 'how much influence have the Liberal Democrats had?' question is the front page of the party's 2010 manifesto. That set out the party's priorities for the election, and was widely publicised ahead of voting. It was followed by two pages setting out what the headlines mean in more detail: [IMG: The four policies on the front page of the 2010 Lib Dem manifesto] [IMG: The Liberal Democrat ...
A friend asked about basic income on Facebook, so here is my attempt to unpack and explain what it is and why I think it's a good idea. PREAMBLE There are various arguments against Basic Income that inevitably come up on the basis that suddenly giving everyone vast amounts of money would trigger runaway inflation, or cause everyone to instantly quit their job or whatever. Any responsible implementation of BI would be done over the course of several years - perhaps a decade! - in order to gradually introduce it. WHAT IS BASIC INCOME A basic income (or universal income) ...
There is no doubt that we are in the midst of the most unpredictable election campaign in recent memory. Whilst the UK media, and indeed anyone with an interest in politics, has become an expert in polling data and marginal seats, we shouldn't forget the real impact that these elections will have on the lives of millions of people around the world. Anyone who doubts that impact should be reminded of Nigel Farage's ridiculous attacks on UK aid spending in the leaders' debate last week, topped off by his heartless comments about access to treatment for people who are HIV ...
Scottish Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie fed a lamb DAYS before David Cameron (tags: ) The policies the parties don't want you to notice this election (tags: ) For a Beard Friendly Britain: 2015 Beard Liberation Front Election Manifesto (tags: ) Press Association time estimates for election results - not liking forward to being up till 5am :/ (tags: ) Elizabeth Bear weighs in on the Hugos mess (tags: ) Cameron's view of UKIP voters effectively being just "Tories on holiday" not supported by polling (tags: ) [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
Britain's Liberal Democrats will do much better in the country's General Election on 7 May than most people expect. That's because expectations are so low. The party is fighting hard in 50-60 marginal seats where they have a base to work with, and that intensive ground war is paying dividends, as shown in last week's constituency polls published by the Ashcroft organisation. But outside those seats the party's predicament is dire. The party used to routinely pick up 10-15% across the country, and lost few if any election deposits (which require 5% of the vote). Now its national poll rating ...
[IMG: Modern hospital and emergency sign] Today's FT carries a front page story (£), based on research by the Health Foundation, stating that the financial 'black hole' facing the National Health Service is bigger than previously forecast. This is a result of a sharp decline in productivity during 2013/14. It is suggested that the NHS will need an emergency injection of cash after the election, whoever forms the next government. This productivity decline follows an increase in the number of agency nurses employed in the wake of concerns about understaffing. It also follows the reorganisation that followed the 2012 NHS ...
Tue 7th
08:56
The most annoying thing about the election campaign so far: the left media's worship of the SNP
People ask me on social media what my dislike of the SNP stems from. I'm not Scottish, nor have I ever lived there; my only link at all to the place is my Glaswegian grandmother, but she has nothing to do with my anti-SNP vibe. It's very simple: I don't like nationalism, of any stripe. I often get this "the SNP engage in civic nationalism, not ethnic nationalism" thrown at me, but that just sounds like equivocation. Nationalism is nationalism as far as I'm concerned. I see nationalism as an anti-progressive force, and I could use copious examples from the ...
[IMG: Deryck Murray joins Lib Dems] Good news from Kent as the Mayor of the Town, Cllr Deryck Murray resigns from Labour and joins the Liberal Democrats. Cllr Murray said: I regard the Liberal Democrats as the sensible party with a conscience. Family tradition kept me in Labour. But we must look to the future and I think the Liberal Democrats are the progressive force that can make a difference locally and nationally." My political hero is Vince Cable. He always makes sense and answers questions. He listens patiently and wins the argument." The Liberal Democrats have had a fabulous ...
[IMG: Meccano r] Seen in the Frank Hornby Room at Meadows Leisure Centre, Maghull, Liverpool, UK. The display cases belong to the Maghull based charity the Frank Hornby Trust. This model was made by Jim Gamble of Nottingham, a world expert on Meccano. Frank Hornby lived in Maghull most of his adult life and is the Town's most famous resident. If you are thinking of visiting Meadows Leisure Centre to look at the Hornby items on display please phone the Centre first as the room is multi-use and could well be inaccessible. Best to check first on when it will ...
From the City Council : THE ROAD TRAFFIC REGULATION ACT 1984 : SECTION 14(1) THE DUNDEE CITY COUNCIL AS TRAFFIC AUTHORITY being satisfied that traffic on the road should be prohibited by reason of footway resurfacing works being carried out HEREBY PROHIBIT the driving of any vehicle in an eastbound direction in Blackness Road (from Abbotsford Street to Peddie Street), Dundee. This notice comes into effect on Monday 13th April 2015 for 5 working days. Pedestrian thoroughfare will be maintained. Alternative routes for vehicles are available via Glenagnes Road/Scott Street/Milnbank Road/Rosefield Street. For further information contact 433168. Director of City ...
Which of course reminds me of19 extreme Tory policies the Lib Dems have blocked.
book-cycle.org/wigan Ever since Sefton Council ran into its library funding problem and then seemed to lack the will and imagination to reinvent community libraries around the power of volunteers I have been looking at other places where volunteer library projects were given an opportunity to flourish. Sefton's Labour Council simply turned its nose up at volunteer bids to run Aintree and College Road Libraries if you recall (see many previous postings on this blog site). Instead of encouraging them they were made to jump through so many hoops only then to be told they had failed the test and to ...
Before anything else, I'm going to abuse my editorial privileges on this site to wish my wonderful niece Emma a very happy 18th birthday. Unusually, she has already had her first vote, in the referendum on independence last year. She's an amazing young woman who organised her mum's surprise 40th birthday party last month and made sure that we all fulfilled our roles to her satisfaction. That unfortunate incident when she was a week old and I put an outfit on her back to front has led her to develop quite a perfectionist streak. Did I say she was amazing? ...
The new financial year, from 6th April, marks the largest overhaul of the pensions system in almost a century, giving people the freedom to take control of their own pension. 300,000 individuals a year with defined contribution pension savings will be able to access them as they wish when they turn 55 - subject to [...]
The changes to the personal tax allowance brought in by the coalition government has meant thar 175,000 low paid workers in Wales no longer pay income tax, whilst 1.1 million Welsh taxpayers are £825 better off compared to 2010. It is a major achievement and has come about solely because of the Liberal Democrats presence in Government. It was a pledge on the front page of our manifesto and we insisted on its inclusion in the coalition agreement, despite Tory scepticism about its affordability. That is why it rankles so much to see the Tories now trying to claim the ...
For the last couple of days, through what is mostly an accident of timing, a blog post I did the other day has been getting more traffic than my whole blog often gets in a whole month. It's been being linked all over the place, by all kinds of people, and... I'm kind of uncomfortable [...]
We had a bit of a party today. It is now 30 years since we first produced Focus in the Whickham area. It's the only regular newsletter produced by a political party in the area and it is widely respected by residents and universally despised by the Labour party. Hardly a Gateshead Council meeting goes by without a Labour councillor making a sneering comment about Focus. That suggests to me it
Schools in Forest Hill have received millions of pounds of extra funding to help children from less privileged backgrounds get a better start in life - thanks to the Liberal Democrats. Learning mentors, one-to-one tuition and after school 'booster groups' are just a few of the ways that local schools are using the money. The [...]
