[IMG: Policy Unpacked] For this podcast I am joined again by Ken Gibb to discuss housing policy ideas emerging from the political parties in the run up to the General Election. We review some important discussions over the future direction for aspects of housing policy in Scotland, and reflect on the development of policy competition between the Edinburgh parliament and Westminster. We also consider one or two policy proposals emanating from other commentators. (Running time: 50′ 05") If you fancy subscribing to my podcasts you can find me on iTunes and Soundcloud. In both cases, searching for either Policy Unpacked ...
Wed 8th
23:05
Fancy that! Woman who switched to Labour during tv debate bears remarkable resemblance to woman at L...
I have to credit my eagle eyed friend Peter for spotting this one. Last night during the STV Scottish Leaders' Debate, a woman in the audience said she'd been undecided before but Jim Murphy had persuaded her and she thought she was going to vote Labour. Wasn't that nice? But the woman in question bears a remarkable resemblance to a woman seen earlier at a Labour photo-opportunity. Have a look. [IMG: Labour switcher] They could be twins, of course... Wouldn't that be a coincidence? * Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings
So what do you make of the Greens boy-band broadcast? I love the idea. It's something a bit different. However, it is not fair to put the Liberal Democrats in the same group as Nigel Farage and UKIP. I really object to that. I don't like being lumped into the establishment with Tories and Labour, but Farage is going too far. Lumping any of us in with a party whose leader thinks demonising people with HIV as part of his "be shocking and awful" strategy is really unfair. We can be sure that everyone's going to watch it. I suspect ...
I've just finished watching the Scottish leaders' debate on the BBC. I missed last night's, but from what I saw on Twitter and in newspaper commentary, tonight's had some similar themes. Compared to the UK-wide, 7-way leaders' debate last week, there were some very striking differences. The first was the general tenor of the debate: for the [...]
Cheadle and Gatley has far less graffiti than most other nearby areas – not because it never happens, but because we stay on top of it and report it. Reporting graffiti in Stockport is simple. If it's on public land or on a green Virgin Media comms box then it should be painted over or cleaned off within a few days (faster if it's obscene). Step one: make a note of where the graffiti is and whether it's obscene. Step two: report it here. Step three: the Council will sort it out.
The first programme in the new series of All in the Mind interviewed the psychologist Professor Colin Davis - the interview runs from 2:00 to 7:30 in the recording. He talked about his research on TV election debates and the influence of the on screen 'worm' used to show what a group of undecided voters think about what's being said throughout the debate. Colin Davis's paper Social influence in televised election debates: A potential distortion of democracy can be found online. Its conclusion: In sum, our data indicate that viewers exposed to the worm are subject to social influence processes ...
There's room for more platforms at Leicester The Leicester Mercury flags up some of the improvements proposed under Network Rail's East Midlands Route Study. Among them are the provision of extra platforms at Leicester and even the quadrupling of the track through Market Harborough. You can find the study on the Network Rail website - that page also gives an email address for comments on the proposals.
I did have a lot of stuff planned for the blog over the last few days and the next few — the next Batman post, some more California Dreaming, a review of the new Brian Wilson album, the next novel chapter for the Patreons, Chuck Wendig's latest flash fiction challenge, the rest of that Pratchett [...]
Yesterday, it was feeling like this election campaign was going to be a long haul of staged photo opportunities and announcements of policies that we'd already heard dozens of times before. As John Lanchester discusses here, thanks to knowing when the election would be for years everything was feeling very flatlined, with some quite ridiculous attention being paid to polls fluctuating within the margin of error. Four more weeks of that without even a full-scale debate to distract us on the way was starting to feel like a bit much. Then last night things got interested. Labour launched a policy ...
This blog site is happy to support the campaign of Maghull resident, St Andrews School lollipop man and campaigner Dave Hughes to remember those who lost their lives at Hillsborough by displaying a red carnation during the 2015 Aintree Grand National. Great campaign Dave. [IMG: images]
The image above is a Klan membership application form. It dates from the 1920s. The organisation would send them out unsolicited to people who'd been recommended for membership by a friend or associate who was already a Klansman. Even today one apparently still fills out an application in order to join. Though according to Slate's Brian Palmer: The [...]
So the Tories are out to "destroy" the Liberal Democrats? So reported the Telegraph on Monday. Well, there's a surprise. When have they ever done us any favours? Or the other lot? Our gains have been made by grit, sweat and community based campaigns run on a shoestring. The Tories are pouring resources into its target seats. They have obscene amounts of money and aren't afraid to spend it. Many individual seats have got their crowd-funding sites up now. My bank balance is suffering accordingly. Chief strategist Ryan Coetzee is in no mood to stand for this. Whether his latest ...
Hard on the heels of a resubmission of proposals for the Whitton solar farm, plans have been announced for a 5MW solar farm off Squirrel Lane, between Lower Ledwyche and Henley Hall. Today, Kronos Solar wrote to Ludlow and Clee unitary councillors announcing that the planning application for a 13 hectare "solar park" has been [...]
The increasingly bewildering debate about non-domiciled individuals and their taxation has dominated the past twenty-four hours or so. Bewildering because, for the most part, those doing the arguing only have a vague idea as to the technicalities involved. Now, before anyone jumps to the conclusion that I'm being somehow patronising, I should point out that this part of the UK tax regime is pretty complex, as are the implications. So, perhaps a little context would help... I'll start with the simple stuff. If you are domiciled outside of the UK for tax purposes, then any income you receive outside the ...
I popped down to Church Green this morning to collect the large bag of weeds pulled from the flower beds last night. I managed to drag it into the land rover and took it off to the allotment to feed the hens. They had a major feast. And it saved the council having to dispose of the weeds.
Wed 8th
17:14The two most talked about things from last night's Scottish Leaders' debate and two things the press...
At Wimbledon, you generally, if you're lucky and it hasn't been raining, get a day between matches. This isn't the case for Scotland's political leaders. After a two hour marathon on STV in Edinburgh last night, Nicola Sturgeon, Jim Murphy, Ruth Davidson and Willie Rennie head to Aberdeen where they will face another hour of debate, joined by the Greens' Patrick Harvie and UKIP's David Coburn. The moderator will be BBC Scotland's James Cook, who took a bit of a pasting from cybernats for daring to suggest that he's had SNP sources tell him that a Tory Government would be ...
Kudos to @GuitaringLancey, who aced it on last night's BBC Radio 1 Newsbeat election debate:
One of the highlights of the Guardian's election coverage over the weekend was the group of 'blind dates' between opposing politicians they set up - Caroline Lucas with Vince Cable, Danny Alexander with Stella Creasey and so on. One of these was an unlikely pairing between Natalie Bennett and the ultra-Tory Jacob Rees-Mogg, and it was here that he was quoted as explaining the basic two categories of Liberal Democrats: "The Lib Dems have two strains: the classic liberal strain, which is essentially Peelite and quite conservative, and the Social Democrat strain, which is closer to Labour; so they could ...
Watch the new, and very moving, video from Amnesty International UK:
There's a new monthly Youth Cafe session in Yate for young people aged 14-19 who identify as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans or Questioning. It will run at the Armadillo from 7pm to 9 pm on the last Sunday of every month, starting on Sunday 26 April.
The way the parties approach digital campaigning is examined in today's Times (£), which is very complimentary about the Liberal Demcorats' operation, saying that it is closest to the gold standard in this area, the Obama campaign. Thanks to their strong ground intelligence, the Liberal Democrats have been able to come closest to the "micro-targeting" of individual voters pioneered by Team Obama. Yet data protection issues and lack of money present stumbling blocks for British parties as they try to match his campaign's success. Soon-to-be Marathon Man Austin Rathe is quoted: Closest to the Obama model are the Lib Dems, ...
Sue Carpendale and Kathy Pollard, Babergh District Councillors In this edition A12 update National recognition for quality of life in Babergh More from the Suffolk Housing Survey Food enterprise zones Brantham Regeneration Area and the Ganges site at Shotley "All-out" elections at Babergh A12 update The road works are scheduled to continue for a while longer - the latest prediction is sometime around the end of May. After many complaints from residents and from the County and District Councillors, the Highways Agency offered us a guided tour of the overnight diversions. A key aggravation has been the unpredictable closure of ...
Everyone is invited to the General Election hustings at St Mary's Church, Cheadle on Tuesday 21st April 2015 at 7pm.
[IMG: sturgeon] (You can read Europe and the Election (1): Blair's back, but wrong here.) Nicola Sturgeon has taken some stick today for hinting the SNP might call for another independence referendum in their 2016 Scottish parliament manifesto, despite Alex Salmond having previously said last September's vote was a once-in-a-generation opportunity. Cue critics taunting the SNP for pushing a 'neverendum' of plebiscites until they get the result they want. But there is a perfectly principled reason why Nicola Sturgeon might want to insert a commitment to a future referendum — it's contained within Donald Macintyre's (excellent) article in today's Independent: ...
[IMG: dacorum] Young adults in school sixth forms across Dacorum have been finding out the importance of registering to vote by 20 April in order to have a say in the upcoming elections, thanks to awareness sessions. From 5 to 30 March, the Electoral Services team spoke to around 600 students who will be 18 by the time of this year's 7 May local and general elections. 120 students registered to vote during the sessions. Those who want to vote in May's elections must be on the electoral register by Monday 20 April. Online registration is quick and easy online ...
[IMG: Deadline warning] 4pm, Thursday 9 April – that's the deadline for nomination papers to be submitted. Miss the deadline and there's no candidate on the ballot papers.
[IMG: blair bicycle] (You can read Europe and the Election (2): In defence of Nicola Sturgeon here.) Europe, until yesterday, was the dog that hadn't barked in this drab election campaign — a campaign in which, for all the media-saturation, journalists seem content to remain as process-obsessed, poll-watching by-standers. But then Tony Blair spoke up, presumably as Europe is one of the few issues on which he can wholeheartedly back Ed Miliband's handling of the issue as Labour leader. His speech is notable for actually dealing with a Big Issue in a mature way: fluently setting out arguments, which are ...
Liverpool Liberal Democrat candidate Paul Childs had been thinking of speaking publicly about his HIV status and was inspired by Adrian Hyyrylainen-Trett's powerful interview last week to do so. Nigel Farage's horrible comments about the NHS treating foreigners with HIV in last week's debate finally made up his mind and he contacted Buzzfeed. He talked about how it felt when he was diagnosed: I was never expecting it to happen. I remember being at work, sitting in a corridor and bursting into tears. I started shaking and getting really scared." He went back to the hospital the next day. The ...
In just over 24 hours nominations will have closed for the local and general elections on May 7th. If you leave it too late then there won't be time to fix any mistakes and you won't be able to stand. Don't forget that the absolute final deadline is 4pm, tomorrow, Thursday 9th April. Returning officers [...]
Lib Dems Believe Wordle 20
The principle of Liberalism is trust in the people, qualified by prudence. The principle of conservatism is mistrust of the people, qualified by fear. I hope it may perhaps possibly be my privilege and honour to assist in procuring for you some of those provisions of necessary liberation from restraint; but beyond that, it is your own energies, of thought, and action, to which you will have to trust. I was brought up to hate and fear liberty. I came to love it. That is the secret of my whole career. The basis of my Liberalism is this... I am ...
As the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate for Guildford, I get to do a range of things, some of them quite remarkable. Being a candidate is an amazing opportunity, and I'm incredibly grateful to the huge team I have behind me in Guildford; including our Executive and Campaign team, our Councillors, our organiser and a myriad of volunteers. But there's some things you just can't prepare for when you look at standing in a General Election. I doubt any other voluntary role (except maybe a UN ambassador) affords anyone as much fun, strange experiences or feelings of fulfilment. Here's some of ...
Lib Dems Chris White and Sandy Walkington have this morning expressed jubilation that the application to turn part of Buongiorno Italia into a residential unit has been turned down. Chris, who is county councillor for the area, and who called the matter into committee, said: 'I am glad that common sense prevailed. We cannot afford [...]
Bombs, bread or blind-eyes? Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Iraq, Yemen... there's a long list of countries where international military intervention is likely to continue during the 2015 Parliament, even without factoring in the likely impact of events, dear boy, events in adding yet more countries to the list. So how are the foreign policies of each party shaping up when it comes to intervention overseas? How do you stop the extreme right? France's National Front gained a few seats but flopped when it came to making a big breakthrough in the latest French elections. What are the lessons parties fighting Ukip ...
Terry Pratchett's final Discworld novel due out in September (tags: ) Love Men With Beards? We Ranked Beards By Dateability, Because Not All Bearded Bachelors Are Created Equal (tags: ) Why Does Stubbing Your Toe Hurt So Damn Much? (tags: ) I'm not taken with the Smith, but the Capaldi is MAGNIFICENT - has a whiff of Spike from Buffy (tags: ) Top 10 Actors We Want To See In Bruce Campbell's THE EXPENDABLES Of Horror | (tags: ) Parent of a disabled child justifiably angry about how the Camerons keep using Ivan (tags: ) Surviving a Police Encounter in ...
...as this infographic from Richard Morris reminds us. It definitely deserves a wider audience. pic.twitter.com/7wKG91nunH — Richard Morris (@richardmorrisuk) April 8, 2015
In his pivotal contribution to the US-Iran nuclear negotiations, Ernest Moniz, US Secretary of Energy, offers a role model of how to integrate science and politics. He has been called President Obama's "secret weapon" and a "rock star", and his long hair has garnered comparisons to the distinctive coiffure of Javier Bardem, who played a psychotic assassin in the 2007 movie "No Country for Old Men." I write, of course, of Ernest Moniz, the US Secretary of Energy, who has played a pivotal role in the ongoing negotiations with Iran over its nuclear programme. Watching Moniz, we can learn a ...
[IMG: duck] Following on from our April Fool's Day prank a large yellow Duck has appeared in the Abingdon HQ for the Oxford West and Abingdon Liberal Democrat Campaign. Already he has become a big hit with the activists. Typically for Lib Dems, a discussion ensued as to what to call the duck. A quick internet poll was held, and we now have the results: Duck a L'Orange (write in suggestion from Neil Fawcett): 69% Shirley Williams: 15% Paddy Ashdown: 8% Evan Harris: 8% Lembit Opik: 0% Result: Duck a L'Orange gain. Majority: 54% On hearing the news, the newly ...
Out on the campaign trail yesterday, the prime minister gave an interview to the Daily Telegraph. During the course of it, he made a plea to those thinking of voting UKIP to "come home" to the Conservative Party. This is actually what he said specifically: "They can see the tougher approach we've taken to immigration. They can see the changes we've made. And I think it's the time for Conservative voters who went off to Ukip - it's the time to come home. On the basis that the real choice in this election is economic mayhem and chaos under Ed ...
I've had three reports recently of serious and illegal flytipping along both Blue Ball Lane and Simister Lane in the 'rural' part between Simister village and Bowlee. I have asked both waste management and the flytipping team at the Council to look into these issues urgently, but I would be really grateful if people could keep me up to date with any new incidences as they occur so we can try to tackle this problem. Many thanks! Tim
First Manchester have confirmed new timetables which take effect from 12 April 2015. For a large part we have already reported on these changes, which largely affect buses on the Bury New Road corridor, but there are also some other changes which will affect other people: [IMG: Screenshot 2015-04-08 08.33.49] This information is from FIRST MANCHESTER. New timetables are available on their Forthcoming Timetables page. Service X35 – stand change at Shudehill interchange Manchester – Bury – Ramsbottom – Edenfield – Walmersley Afternoon journeys from Shudehill Interchange will depart from stand E. Service 92 – daytime service withdrawn Bury – ...
The children's clothes recycling scheme is a Community Payback initiative involving the collection, cleaning and distribution of donated children's clothes is helping families in Dundee. The scheme involves asking members of the public to donate good quality children's clothes which are not being used or which their own children have grown out of. Clothes handed into the Criminal Justice Social Work office at Friarfield House, Barrack Street are washed, packaged and distributed to families who need particular types of clothes for young children. Social workers identify children who need this additional support and offenders sentenced to undertake work as part ...
On Monday with the start of the new tax year the Liberal Democrats will have cut income tax for 27 million working people by £825 a year. Cutting taxes by raising the personal allowance to £10,000 was on the front page of our 2010 General Election manifesto. Liberal Democrats in government have fought to deliver this tax cut, something the Conservatives said was unaffordable. On Monday the personal tax allowance will increase to £10,600 meaning that during this Parliament Liberal Democrats will have delivered a tax cut worth £825 for 27m workers. Under our 2015 manifesto plans we will go ...
Labour's Jobs Campaign Pack includes advice on holding events with constituents. Not only is immigration put first in the list of suggested topics related to jobs to talk about, look at how the party's own campaign pack thinks discussion on that point should be kicked off: [IMG: Labour jobs campaign pack]
The Council is currently undertaking a (rather short) consultation on parking in Prestwich and we would like to know your views before making a submission to the consultation. The 'objectives' of the parking strategy are: 1. To provide parking that meets the needs of residents, businesses, shoppers and visitors and ensuring it is appropriately placed. 2. To improve the long term economic viability and accessibility of Prestwich Town Centre. 3. Maintain and improve the condition of local car parks and parking places. 4. Ensure there is adequate on and off street parking in the town centre and other Prestwich shopping ...
Tony Blair's intervention in Labour's election campaign must be causing some mixed feelings for Ed Miliband and his entourage. On the one hand they could do with some of Blair's gravitas and many candidates will be grateful for the money, but on the other the baggage that comes with the former Prime Minister could become too heavy to bear. As Chris Green in the Independent suggests, for some Blair's legacy is toxic, with many voters now simply looking at him and thinking: this is the man who led us into Iraq: Labour are well aware of the political baggage that ...
The Liverpool Echo has the story – see link above. But there are two big problems here. Firstly Labour have not all of a sudden become a party that wants to give power away to local communities so that they can decided what is best for themselves. What Labour means by devolution is that local Labour political barons will be given power to decide what's best for you and I. This is very different from how Liberals see power being devolved to communities and out of the hands of political parties. You can't empower people if all you are ...
A new planning application has been received in Holyrood Ward as below: Application Number: 58566 Registration Date: 20/03/2015 Location: 2 Oaklands Drive, Prestwich, Manchester, M25 1LJ Proposal: First floor rear extension Please do not hesitate to get in touch if you require further information or help with this. The details will be on the Council's website here. Tim
A new planning application has been received in Holyrood Ward as below: Application Number: 58547 Registration Date: 16/03/2015 Location: 2 Brooklawn Drive, Prestwich, Manchester, M25 2GS Proposal: Two storey extension at side/rear and single storey extension at rear; Decking and steps at rear Please do not hesitate to get in touch if you require further information or help with this. The details will be on the Council's website here. Tim
Review of first 3 months of 2015 based on my hopes back in January (Cllr Sue James shares her hopes for 2015 ) After a halt to the process of deciding the future of Cornwall's libraries a consultation is now under way Cornwall Libraries and One Stop Shops are under review The new committee have made a good start to secure Nancherrow Youth Project and I am working with them to smooth the way for the building being secured, essential to funding bids People will have noticed a bay for coaches to park in opposite the bus stop in St ...
Sunniside History Society meeting tonight. I've been a member for years and have missed only a handful of the monthly meetings in that time. With the election campaign into day 8 or 9 or whatever it is, I can now announce I am a winner.......of the History Society's monthly raffle, or rather of one of the 14 prizes. A rather nice box of biscuits. No doubt I'll burn off the extra calories by
We had a Planting Up Whickham maintenance event this evening. Down to Church Green at 6pm to weed the flower beds. All done in an hour. Everyone piled the weeds into a large sack which is still sitting on Church Green. I'll take the land rover down tomorrow morning to collect the contents. They'll be fed to my chickens.
