We have lots of email addresses of residents in the Birtley and Lamesley wards of Gateshead as a result of our campaigning. Plenty to make it worthwhile doing an eFocus for the 2 wards. So here is our first edition. I'm currently writing the next edition of eFocus for the Whickham area. This one will be the 95th we have done since we launched eFocus in Whickham in 2004.
A late post today because I've been out for most of it (in London seeing The Commitments, if you want to know) so perhaps not been given the election my full and undivided attention. We'll start with today's dip into Election Leaflets which also gives us the first (and no doubt last) instance of a new feature: Candidate Nominative Determinism Of The Day. This is won by the Conservative candidate in the Highland constituency of Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey, one Edward Mountain. I expect the 'Winner Climbs Mountain' headlines are already drafted for the post-election coverage. Further south, long ...
There's a little meme doing the rounds on my Facebook where people are posting up lists of the five worst bands to have had major success. I thought I'd join in. The danger of this, of course, is that you peeve a lot of people who consider these bands to have secured that success deservedly. [...]
Phil Ochs, who died in 1976 aged only 35, is a forgotten figure of the counterculture of the Sixties. Crucifixion, says Wikipedia, is about the way the public makes, breaks and deifies its heroes. Ochs wrote it in 1965 while touring Britain.
[IMG: ram roast]
I didn't take part in Chuck Wendig's flash fiction thing last week because I was having the week from hell, but this week's challenge was just to write an opening sentence. I came up with a few: The journey between the walls of Ilyria and the gates of Bastandion is over five thousand miles, yet [...]
Sun 12th
19:59
SNP candidate says: "Politicians are a fair target for community justice" - and why that scares me
There's an article in today's Telegraph which details the febrile political atmosphere in Scotland at the moment. Andrew Gilligan describes being out on the campaign trail with Labour's Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland While she was canvassing voters on ... Continue reading →
I got the last of the current batch of letters and Focuses delivered today in Marley Hill, the next village up from Sunniside where I live. There I encountered Poppy the hen, wandering around in her garden. She was hatched in my incubator last year and was raised by one of my brooding hens. She went to her new home a couple of weeks ago to be company for another hen (and a rabbit). The children
Electioneering was in full swing yesterday, with local Liberal Democrat Focus Team members talking to shoppers at Yate Shopping Centre. "Would you like a balloon?" seems to be a very good conversation starter.
Tony Blair is right on Europe – Jonathan Calder makes some wise points on how a referendum on Europe would be a disaster for this country. Try, try again – Why forcing tests on children and telling them they're failures repeatedly, isn't good for them. Mediocre Failures – Another take on why expecting some children to be branded as failures is a terrible idea. Is the future of America a crummy service job stamping on a human face, forever? – When Presidential candidates from both sides seem to think nobody is complete without a job, is there another way? 'Distraction ...
No Pier Pressure is, in effect, the latest Beach Boys album. Much like Al Jardine's 2010 "solo" album A Postcard From California, it features so many contributions from other Beach Boys, along with various guest stars, that thinking of it as a solo record makes no sense. If anything, this sounds far more like the [...]
When racism hits home it is an extremely upsetting and sad experience. It has brought home to me the irony of of watching race in the guise of immigration being high on the agenda of the election and across Europe (Charlie Hebdo, Pergida, Marine Le Pen) and then, suddenly, finding out that a member of your close family has become a victim of this racial charge across Europe. My Asian family are often mistaken for being Muslims. They, like me, are Anglican Christians but should that matter at all? How widespread is racism across Europe and how do Asian people ...
Sun 12th
18:25
Electoral Commission issues films warning voters about postal vote fraud and other offences
The Electoral Commission has issued a set of public information films warning voters about electoral fraud, which is a very welcome move give the high profile concerns over fraud in some places: The films are also available in Gujarati, Punjabi and Urdu – again a sensible move given some of the communities where concerns over postal voting fraud and intimidation have been highest. The content of the films does, however, go a little further in some cases than the Electoral Commission's own Code of Conduct on what is, and isn't, acceptable. (For example, what the Code in 2.3 says is ...
From Reddit (click on the image to go to the actual thread): [IMG: Voter announces on Reddit that they've joined the Lib Dems] You can join the Lib Dems online here.
Sun 12th
17:51
Poll: Will arrival of PizzaExpress in Ludlow chip away at historic character of our town or bring gr...
I can never think PizzaExpress without recalling love affairs, tangled, sometimes complex, occasionally eased over a well stretched pizza. Now PizzaExpress is coming to our town. I'd like to know your views on whether this is good for Ludlow. Way back in the late 1970s, marauding hoards of archaeologists young and old met in PizzaExpress [...]
More comedy genius from Australia's Clarke and Dawe:
A journalist observing the 2013 Conservative conference noted that: In and of itself, there is no virtue in working, much less working hard. Tory ministers appear to disagree. The Conservative party conference was plastered with the phrase "hardworking" - "For Hardworking People", the legend boasted from the platform - and a host of frontbench speakers [...]
A TOP LibDem official has taken personal command of Danny Alexander's election campaign in a last-ditch bid to save the party's biggest scalp north of the border. Scottish convener Craig Harrow, who is also vice president of the UK LibDems, has moved into Alexander's Highland seat to act as his election agent. So says the Sunday Herald in an article that goes on to outline the graveness of the threat against Danny and all the other Lib Dem seats in Scotland in the manner of every other article about the Lib Dems these days. The truth is rather less sensational. ...
I was talking this morning to our Parliamentary candidates for Wavertree and Wallasey. I asked them how many community based hustings meetings they had been invited to. In the case of Wallasey it was one and in the case of ... Continue reading →
Note: As expected, this example shows that letters to FCO Ministers about important human rights issues from several weeks before general election purdah started will not receive substantive answers. From Lord Avebury P1501032 March 1, 20015 Dear Tobias, A new law has been enacted in Saudi Arabia with effect from February 1, 2015, The Penal Law for Crimes of Terrorism and its Financing (Royal Decree No. 44 (12/2013). The effect of it is a. To criminalise any conduct that "disturbs public order" (a charge used frequently against dissenters and human rights activists) and anyone aiming to "infringe the interests of ...
[IMG: Nick clegg on Last Leg] As David Cameron rolled out another Tory tax cut for the wealthiest in society, Nick Clegg showed where the Liberal Democrat heart lies by setting out Liberal Democrat plans to deal with the deficit without causing more hardship for the poorest. On welfare, the party intends to make £3.5 billion worth of cuts but these will be targeted at the wealthiest pensioners with the withdrawal of Winter Fuel Allowance and free tv licences from households with a higher rate taxpayer. He said that you have to look at who pays to see where a ...
Here are the latest national voting intention figures from each of the main pollsters. To put the numbers into longer context, take a look at my database of polling figures going back to 1945, which is updated quarterly and remember the warning about individual polls. Polling company Con Lab LibDem UKIP Green Con lead Fieldwork Method ComRes 33% 35% 7% 16% 4% -2% 11-13/3 Online ComRes 34% 33% 12% 12% 4% 1% 7-8/4 Phone ICM 36% 35% 8% 9% 4% 1% 13-15/3 Phone Ashcroft 36% 34% 6% 10% 7% 2% 27-29/3 Phone MORI 33% 34% 8% 13% 6% -1% 8-11/3 ...
Lib Dems Believe Wordle 24
Liberal Democrats believe that we can make the world fairer than it is. None of us chooses the family we are born into. None of us is born onto a level playing field. We believe that education sets you free and enables you to reach your potential. We believe that you should be free to decide what is best for you right up to the point where your exercise of freedom makes someone else less free. We believe that power should be in the hands of the many, not the few. And we believe that a committed bunch of Liberal ...
Volunteers in Cornwall highlight plastic litter polluting our seas at a huge event of over 200 people from across Cornwall. On Saturday, I and Cabinet member Joyce Duffin travelled to Whitsand Bay and helped carry more than 1km of plastic down the winding cliff path and across the beach. [IMG: Cllrs Duffin and James at Whitsand Bay] Cllrs Duffin and James at Whitsand Bay highlighting the harm of plastics in our seas [IMG: Stretching line of plastics] Stretching line of plastics coming onto the beach from the top of the cliff Andrew George, parliamentary candidate locally for the Liberal Democrats, ...
I'm now living in one of the most remote rural parts of England and in a safe Tory constituency. As a result I feel more detached from the General Election campaign than in 2010 when I was resident in Canada. So, my experience of the election campaign is almost entirely through TV and the internet [...]
Sun 12th
10:39
LibLink: Jo Swinson: Shared Parental Leave is an important step to the wider cultural change that th...
Jo Swinson has been writing for the Huffington Post about what the Liberal Democrats have done on child care and parental leave. Liberal Democrats in the coalition government have taken important steps to support parents with childcare costs despite the challenging economic situation. We extended free early years education to 15 hours a week for three and four year olds, and introduced 15 free hours for four in 10 two-year-olds – those from the most hard-pressed homes. We are also introducing Tax Free Childcare to save working families up to £2,000 per child per year from September. But there's more ...
Temporary Closing of A4147 Catherine Street, St Albans NOTICE is given that the Hertfordshire County Council intend to make an Order under Section 14[1] of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984, to prohibit all traffic from using that length of A4147 Catherine Street, St Albans from its junction with Adelaide Street south eastwards to its [...]
[IMG: Pink padlock] No jokes about dodos, please. With a hung Parliament looking so likely, a quick recap of the Liberal Democrat process for deciding what to do in the event of negotiating with other parties may come in useful, especially given the media's weird penchant for describing unearthing the process as requiring investigative journalism. It's known as the 'triple lock', despite originally having four parts, and was amended after the generally good, but not flawless, experience of how it worked in 2010 along with a ruling by the party's Federal Appeals Panel. You can read the full history of ...
Frank Little writes: One of the key issues on which the Liberal Democrats differ from the Labour Party, the increasingly authoritarian Scottish Nationalist Party and, sadly after such a good start, the Conservatives, is that of the rights of the citizen. Yesterday, the Liberal Democrats outlined a Digital Rights Bill which we want to introduce in the next parliament.The Bill would introduce: Prison sentences for companies conducting large-scale data theft and illegally selling on personal data;Beefed up powers for the Information Commissioner to fine and enforce disciplinary action on government bodies if they breach data protection laws;Legal rights to compensation ...
Sun 12th
10:12
The crippling cost of the Tory and Labour obsession with the private finance initiative
The idea of taking capital spending off the Treasury books and handing public sector projects to the private sector was first conceived by the Tories and then embraced enthusiastically by Labour.The vast majority of PFI projects were commissioned by Labour. In theory the cost of funding a project by both PFI and the more traditional method of Government borrowing is compared and assessed and the cheapest option chosen. In reality though the odds were deliberately stacke din favour of PFI. The result is a debt burden that only now the country is coming to terms with. How big that burden ...
Well done @ClaireAgutter for having the least Tory name; suspiciously @Lfeatherstone is apparently the least Lib Dem (tags: ) Autistic and Queer: Coming Out on the Spectrum - via @thequeeralt (tags: ) Oh so much of this. On how (some) male writers think. (tags: ) Somebody who is good at economics explain to me why this wouldn't work? (tags: ) The awful (self-fulfilling) prophecy of sexism Storify - the best tweet in this is the last one "what's amazing is my 6 yo boy is disappointed it's hard to find merch w/his fave female characters. Not grossed out." (tags: ) ...
I voted Yes in the Scottish Referendum. As a card carrying member of the Liberal Democrats this was not the same choice as most of my peers. It would be easy for me to say that I got caught up in the moment and temporarily lost my mind, but I try to never make excuses for my actions. My five years of studying international relations have taught me that small nations can be successful and happy places, but also that there are alternative modes of governing. Voting yes for me was an opportunity to break down the current government structures ...
Nick Clegg, in an interview with the Independent that went out yesterday, said that a Tory minority government would be "chaos". Strong words; I thought I'd try and think about this objectively and see just how chaotic a Tory minority government would actually be – if at all. Looking at the first bit of what Nick said, regarding being held hostage by UKIP and the far right of the Conservative Party, he has at least half a point here. I've said many times before I expect UKIP to end up with the grand total of one seat in the House ...
How does understanding elephants help with political campaigning? The answer came in a talk I gave at the Liberal Democrat spring conference in Liverpool: I was one of a panel of three at the fringe meeting, along with Dr. Tereza Capelos and Dr. Neil Verrall. You can watch their talks too here. The elephants also feature in 101 Ways To Win An Election, where with Ed Maxfield I expand on the point in different ways, and it originally comes from the excellent Switch: How to change things when change is hard.
I have been advised by the City Engineer that, as part of the Unadopted Footways Upgrade Programme, two further streets' pavements in the West End area will be brought up to good standard and adopted by the City Council over the next year. These are Whitefauld Road (south footway) and Middlebank Crescent (north footway). These improvements are to be welcomed and will see more of the very poor pavements in the West End finally brought up to standard. Back in 2007, I asked the council to improve funding to tackle this problem of really poor unadopted pavements and this was ...
[IMG: 11146279_831529933550028_649940069110877763_n] Click on the photo to enlarge it Remember these Liverpool folk? Pierre Head, Albert Dock, Penny Lane, Doc Road, Rock Ferry, Lord Street, Gwladys Street, Ann Field, Victoria Monument, Stanley Park, Phil O'Monie, Clayton Square, Otto Spool, Kirk Dale. This was a great advertising campaign, shame Higsons did not survive
[IMG: images] Supreme Court judges in London will be asked on Thursday to rule that the Government must now comply with ECJ demands that Britain reduce its illegal levels of air pollution. The case, brought by environmentalist law firm ClientEarth calls on Defra to dramatically cut pollution from diesel vehicles – the most common source of nitrogen dioxide pollution. Experts say the ruling could force the Government to ban diesel cars and commercial vehicles from many city centres to cut pollution. ClientEarth sought a judicial review in 2011 focusing on 16 UK towns and regions including London, Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham ...
A new planning application has been received in Holyrood Ward as below: Application Number: 58591 Registration Date: 25/03/2015 Location: Agricultural Building At Mellowdew Farm, Simister Lane, Simister, Prestwich, M25 5SH Proposal: Prior approval for the change of use of an agricultural building to one dwelling 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: 58571 Registration Date: 23/03/2015 Location: 6 Willow Road, Prestwich, Manchester, M25 3DZ Proposal: Two storey extensions to side and 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
Our Dunston Hill and Whickham East team were out on the doorsteps of the Lakes Estate today. This will come as no secret to the Labour candidate who was able to watch Cllr Peter Maughan and Kevin McClurey from the comfort of his car. Sadly I wasn't there for the canvass as I was tied up on other activities. I haven't checked the canvass yet so I've no idea what the figures are though it is fair
