Our next election leaflet arrived from the printer today. It is an 8 page full colour Focus. Delivering it is certainly going to build up the biceps! Some areas have already started to put it through doors. Most will be delivered over the next three days.
The great man has another project underway with Unbound: The Plagiarist In The Kitchen is a recipe book which is also a paean to the avoidance of culinary originality (should such a thing exist), to recipe theft, to hijacking techniques and methods, to the notion that in the kitchen there is nothing new and nor can there be anything new. Anyone who claims to have 'invented' a dish is dishonest or delusional or foaming. The very title is lifted, without permission and with the gracelessness that infects Cooking World, from Julian Barnes's The Pedant In The Kitchen (plenty more to ...
This is the second in a series of posts attempting to answer questions and comments put to me by family and friends around the General Election. The focus this time is on education. Two friends asked very similar questions, which can be summarised thus: What's your take on the education policies of the major parties, and [...]
Tue 14th
21:46
Willie Rennie loses patience with the Conservatives, saying they put party before country
Let me take you back to 7 am on 19th September last year. In Scotland, we're emotionally drained after a brutal 2 year referendum campaign. After some real fears that the result might go the other way, No campaigners were relieved rather than triumphant. Then David Cameron comes out of Downing Street and starts picking a fight with Labour, trying to paint the opposition as anti-English and talking about English votes for English Laws. That was the moment that you needed a Prime Minister to bring the country together, not exacerbate divisions. Since then, the Tories and the SNP have ...
Arnie Gibbons remembers Leicester's Professor Bob Pritchard, who died at the weekend. "So much for London's much vaunted mixed communities - this is social cleansing by another name." Rachel Holdsworth says that the Conservatives' new housing policy will be a disaster fromt he capital. In his chapter from a new book, Stephen Tall explains why evidence-based policy is a "Yes, but..." way forward. "What modern makeovers are doing, without us even noticing, is stripping maturity away from girls' heroines and aspirations." Samira Ahmed on the significance of Lady Penelope's makeover. "This whole place was once characterised by the warren of ...
Cheadle Area Committee (the nine councillors for Cheadle & Gatley, Cheadle Hulme North and Heald Green) met at 6pm this evening to a packed room, with three contentious planning applications on the agenda. it was also Cllr Pam King's last area committee and last council meeting before she steps down at the election. We had a presentation from Stockport CAB on the work they do. £452.92 was awarded to All Hallows Church on Councillor Lane – they applied for funds to pay for equipment for their new youth group. Cheadle Golf Club's application for £1000 to develop "Foot-golf" on the ...
No not my idea of perfect housing but a South American Favella Sometimes you oppose a policy because you just disagree with it. Sometimes you oppose it because it has been incompetently produced and will not be capable of being ... Continue reading →
For my Patreons, the latest chapter in my untitled supernatural-historical-thriller has been posted. As mentioned before, I'll be doing one chapter a week (mostly — I reserve the right to skip any weeks when the entire universe jumps on me, like last week) on Tuesdays until the novel's completed, for Patreon subscribers only. The rest [...]
Lib Dems Believe Wordle 26
Katie Barron tries to canvass a particularly self-righteous suburban mum on behalf of the Liberal Democrats. Here is one side of the conversation.... This is completely unacceptable calling round at this time. Saturday afternoon is family time. No she hasn't won anything, George. She wants to win something, that's why she's coming round disturbing people. It's not a daffodil, Maisy, it's a rosette. It doesn't grow in the ground, darling, it's made of cloth. She wears it to show which party she's from. No you can't go to the party, it's not that sort of party. It's a political party. ...
Warning: post contains lots of numbers Whenever politicians start talking about the details of tax policy, I suspect the eyes of most of the electorate glaze over. Understandably. All they want to know is what it means for them and that it instinctively feels fair. But the politics of tax is open to a lot of misrepresentation. Parties can use subtle ways of raising or cutting taxes that are not immediately obvious. The classic example of this was when Labour abolished the 10p lower rate of tax for low earners, effectively doubling their tax liability overnight as they were dragged ...
What is Liberalism? I should say it means the acknowledgement in practical life of the truth that men are best governed who govern themselves; that the general sense of mankind, if left alone, will make for righteousness; that artificial privileges and restraints upon freedom, so far as they are not required in the interests of the community, are hurtful; and that the laws, while, of course, they cannot equalise conditions, can at least avoid aggravating inequalities, and ought to have for their object the securing to every man the best chance he can have of a good and useful life. ...
An article on the Scientific American website reports on research by psychologists into why some social media content gets shared and shared and shared again.. Let me cut to the chase: The take-away message from this work is that if you want your video, press release, news story, blog post or tweet to reach as many people as possible, there are specific things you can do to increase its chances of being widely shared. Make it emotional - ideally triggering emotions like anger, anxiety or awe that tend to make our hearts race; and if you can, make it positive. ...
[IMG: london2brighton] Old friends and long-term readers of this blog will remember that I spent the summer of 2006 walking from John O'Groats to Land's End to raise money of brain tumour research. This was in memory of my brother Simon, who died from a brain tumour in 2005. Now that walking bug has caught on with some other members of my family who are taking on a different walking challenge. Although I walked over a thousand miles in total, the most I did in a day was about 30 miles and that was partly thanks to me not realising ...
[IMG: ek focuses2] Last night some of you may have been watching 'Code of a Killer' the story of the first murderer to be caught through DNA fingerprinting, pioneered by Dr Alec Jefferys at Leicester University. Professor Robert (Bob) Pritchard, the man who set up and recruited him to the Genetics Dept at the University passed away over the weekend after a long period in a vegetative state. As well as being a notable scientist he was a prominent Liberal activist for over two decades. Alec Jeffreys said that as soon as he met Professor Robert Pritchard, who founded the ...
Recorded exclusively for Liberal Democrat Newswire's 'I'm Voting Liberal Democrat' Facebook event, Julian Huppert explains why he's voting Liberal Democrat: [IMG: Lib Dem MP Julian Huppert explains why he's a Lib Dem] If you agree with Julian, remember to sign up to the Facebook event here – and you'll be the first to see the other exclusive videos that will be coming out during the campaign.
Earlier today the Conservative Party tweeted this: This caused me to reflect that there's something strange about the way people opposed to inheritance tax discuss it: it's rather absolutist. If you think income tax should be cut you'll probably argue 'it discourages work' or if it's VAT you are unhappy with you'll probably say it 'reduces [...]
Some of us have received an email from HQ asking us for 30 second videos describing our funniest canvassing story. It included links to some 'Here is one I made earlier' videos and this is our favourite so far: You only need a mobile phone so I'm sure you can do better. If you have a story to tell, send your videos to Al Ghaff on Al.Ghaff@libdems.org.uk.
Tue 14th
16:44
2015 General Election Day 16: After a Tory victory, this blog will be sold off at half price
Another day, another Tory policy announced and ends up spinning off the rails before lunchtime. I'd seen mention of extending Right To Buy to housing associations last night, just after we were getting over the momentary excitement at the thought of Hampstead and Kilburn's election being delayed then finding out it wasn't, but even then it seemed like a silly idea. True to form, like just about everything they've tried for the last week, it turned out to be full of flaws, but it's yet to reach the terrible interview stage. Sajid Javid got to be floored by Jo Coburn ...
Tue 14th
16:30Opinion: Is a Minority government good for a progressive agenda and good for governance?
Most political commentators believe that the chances are that after the next election no party will have a majority. As we approach the election some people are suggesting that perhaps a new coalition government isn't the best answer to promote progressive policies. The experiences of the Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition, and to a lesser extent the Labour/Plaid Cymru coalition that ran Wales from 2007-2011 have shown that a left leaning party has to make too many compromises when in a coalition. Some people are actively discussing that perhaps a new coalition government isn't the best answer to promote progressive policies. The ...
Waiting for me on my doormat this morning was my Blaydon freepost leaflet, kindly delivered by the Royal Mail, along with the rest of our post - a copy of Radio Times and a holiday brochure. A holiday now would be lovely. Sadly it will have to wait until after 7th May. Indeed, after May as, regardless of the outcome, we have lots to do to keep our "good life" going. Pinkie our goat is due to
Just got home at 15.30 from St Thomas's where I had a cataract operation on my left eye, having had the right eye done a few weeks ago. It took about 30 minutes, a bit longer than the previous one because the surgeon was instructing someone. The eye feels a bit sore as is natural, and so far the sight from it is blurred, though I dare say that will improve over the nest few days. No other engagements for the rest of today.
I am twenty-three years old, a politics graduate and a political activist. I am a Liberal Democrat and I have volunteered with the local party. Several issues spring to mind when I think about the Liberal Democrats: equality, civil liberties, pro-Europe and of course working towards a stronger and fairer economy. Whilst studying Politics at university, I was really happy to say I was from a marginal constituency because I felt like it made the general election a little more exciting as opposed to other constituencies. Since graduating I have been actively involved with local politics by trying to encourage ...
Tuesday: This is an ultra-quick skim through the prospectus of our erstwhile Coalition partners. Like Labour's effort yesterday, it has lots of pretty pictures. The Tories' offer presents as very progressive, full of pro-active "our plan of action" bullets, promoting policies as positives (even when they aren't). There are perfectly decent things. Unsurprisingly these are mostly lifted unblushingly from the Liberal Democrats: no income tax on the minimum wage; single tier pension and triple lock; apprenticeships; more women on boards; even "gay" marriage (a clue they still don't get "equal marriage"). But the more you read, the scarier it gets. ...
Everyone's putting out their manifestos this week, so I decided that I would review the Greens version. Why not Labour, Tory, Lib Dem, UKIP even? Lots of people are going to do that. Not many are going to give the Greens some serious analysis – it's that darn Westminster elite, plotting against the Greens and conspiring to make them look bad. Well, I won't be a part of that, no sir. Now I realise many of you, particularly Green Party activists and supporters, will bring up the fact that I've been kind of mean to the party on occasion. I've ...
What a very fine choice of items to print off: [IMG: Lib Dem posters: what the party has achieved in coalition] Of course their literature usually features rather more of Layla Moran, whose campaign you can volunteer to help or donate to here. (If you want your own copies of the What have the Liberal Democrats achieved in government? poster, there's versions suitable for both online and offline use here.)
SCIENCE Matters is a series of interviews organised by the British Science Association with six Science spokespersons. Here is Julian Huppert doing us proud.
Tue 14th
12:34
Conservative plans for 'right to buy' are bonkers and will mean we lose a large proportion of counci...
The Conservatives have announced plans to force councils to sell off the most expensive 210,000 council houses and use the money to pay for a national programme of 'right to buy' for housing associations right across the country. For Winchester this will be a catastrophe! Why? First, nearly half (48%) of all councils have sold off or transferred their council housing to housing associations. Only around have of all councils actually have any council housing at all, and only the councils that do will be paying for this national programme: Winchester is one of them. This unavoidably means that sales ...
The Liberal Democrats have published the detailed costings for their 2015 manifesto here. Ahead of the manifesto launch tomorrow, the document shows how the party will close the deficit in a fair way (50% through spending cuts, 50% through tax adjustments), while providing the funding needed by the NHS and ring-fencing spending for education from 2 to 19 years old, science and 0.7% of GDP on international development. Thanks to Mark Pack for producing the document in question with his usual unerring efficiency. * Paul Walter is a Liberal Democrat activist in Newbury and West Berkshire. He is part of ...
This Leaflet leaflet being distributed in South Thanet is bloody terrifying. (tags: ) Mary Robinette Kowal is offering supporting memberships to Worldcon for free to good homes - and is collecting links from other people doing so too. (tags: ) Andy Coulson perjury trial delayed until after general election - oh what a surprise. (tags: ) What Ukippers say vs. What they mean (tags: ) Labour's tax and spend plan in full (tags: ) [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
When I turned up to help at the excellent Team 2015's volunteer centre in London I turned into a dolt. Ringing possible volunteers to persuade them to help on polling day was very fruitful, but I persistently failed to end phone calls successfully. Either I put the call on hold or switched off the phone. Hence my reaction when I managed to finally do a simple hang up successfully: [IMG: Mark Pack celebrates hanging up a phone] All supporters are very welcome to turn up and help. The Team 2015 centre is very near to Bank tube station – 6 ...
Our friends at Lib Dem HQ have prepared a briefing on the detail of the latest Conservative election announcement on the 'right to buy'. ALDC members can also download a copy of this briefing in MS Word format from our File Library, here. For full access to the ALDC File Library, and our entire range of [...]
ACT UP London are asking for signatories to a letter concerning Nigel Farage's claim about HIV 'health tourism'. The proposed letter contains a helpful fisking of that claim. You can sign the letter here and this is the fisking text: During the leaders' TV debate on 2nd April, Mr Farage claimed: "Here's a fact...there are 7,000 diagnoses in this country every year for people that are HIV positive... 60% of them are not British nationals." Mr Farage is entitled to his own opinions, but he is not entitled to his own facts. Each claim is false. Public Health England's most ...
The Conservatives have announced an extension of the right to buy. It is an important, populist idea, but it carries within it a serious flaw. Enacted in the right way, it could be liberating. Imagine the shift in power if this was applied to private tenants too. Enacted in the wrong way, it will be inflationary, tyrannical and destructive. So, instead of dismissing the idea out of hand, let's think about how something along these lines might be achieved, as it should be. Because the record of politicians over the past generation has left us a housing legacy so toxic ...
Someone in the Lib Dem campaign team is a fiscal sadist. Every month, as we have approached election day, they have found more and more enticing ways of getting us poor members to part with hard-earned cash. They got me hook, line and sinker with the January wheeze. That was the "we've found three stinking rich donors who will match any money you give" wheeze. Then they got me with the "just a small donation this time" matched funding wheeze. I didn't expect to give any more to the party before the election. But then the sadistic bastards really got ...
Nick Clegg has said that he would not enter coalition with the Conservative party again after May's election if the party insists on introducing its proposed £12bn of social security cuts. [The Guardian] Good, but not quite the full story. The Lib Dem manifesto costings I wrote-up yesterday include some curbs on welfare spending, particularly extending the 1% cap on increases in welfare benefits (excluding those for people with disabilities, which aren't capped) for an extra year. I think these are just within the bounds of what's reasonable and given the huge deficit still to sort a regrettable necessity. They're ...
Back in 2010, the Tories made a big play of how they would transform the country through localism and the Big Society. Localism would free communities from the dead hand of Whitehall controlling everything, while the Big Society would encourage a new era of civic involvement, getting people involved in community organisations, allowing them to really make a difference. If the first leaks from their 2015 manifesto are anything to go by, both those ideas have been thrown into the bin, which has then been set on fire and the ashes scattered to the four winds to prevent any prospect ...
[IMG: 8182240298_f9770a9cbe] Rumours have been circulating in the housing policy ether for several months now. Given the housing policy influence of the Policy Exchange at No 10 those rumours should have been, and were, treated seriously. And now it looks like those rumours are well-founded. They've only gone and done it. The Conservative manifesto pushes the Policy Exchange line that local authorities should be forced to sell high value properties in order to fund building new properties in lower value areas, and, if elected, they are proposing to extend the Right to Buy to housing associations. This opens up the ...
Tue 14th
08:58
A quick lesson on the difference between debt and deficit: Ed Balls hopes you don't know the differe...
I recall being at a panel event given by a think tank a few years back in which a journalist from a well known newspaper asked about how quickly George Osborne was shrinking the debt. One of the panellists, an economist, told the journo that Osborne isn't shrinking the debt, nor is even trying to - he's simply attempting to shrink the deficit. The man who asked the question looked stunned. I took it from his look that the difference between debt and deficit, never mind what debt to GDP ratio means, was not something he grasped. Given what Ed ...
[IMG: Liberal Democrat Newswire logo] Liberal Democrat Newswire #61 came out at the weekend, a special mid-month update with the latest election news including rather promising figures on candidate selection, showing how the party has improved its diversity significantly. 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! Welcome to the 61st edition of Liberal Democrat Newswire, a special mid-month update with general election news and analysis from the last week. [IMG: 0% sign] Statistic of the week: 0% – the proportion of ...
Tue 14th
08:52
Election issues: the NHS. None of the parties are credible on funding. Labour would create more chao...
After the economy the biggest issue in Britain's General Election is the NHS. This comes top, or near to the top, of most voters' lists of concerns. Labour want to make the most of these worries, while the Conservatives want to muddy the waters. Two things seem to worry voters in particular. The first is pressure on Accident & Emergency services, which is knocking on to other parts of the system. This gives a general sense of the system failing. The second is the effect of NHS reorganisations of local services. This is often associated with outsourcing. Whether the public ...
Now I imagine that anyone who reads a political blog like ours will have made sure that they are on the electoral register. But all activists need to know how to advise a voter on registering. Simple, you just go to www.gov.uk/register-to-vote, enter your personal details including your National Insurance number and all will be sorted. But what if you have lost your National Insurance number or you are away from home and can't get hold of it – does that mean you are disenfranchised? Believe it or not, there is a website whose sole purpose is to answer that ...
I have today launched my update to the April meeting of West End Community Council that takes place tonight at 7pm at Logie St John's (Cross) Church Hall in Shaftesbury Terrace - all residents welcome. The update covers the following issues : • Unadopted footways programme - 2015/16 • Norwood Crescent pavements • Hillside Terrace - road condition You can download the update here.
[IMG: An L&Y electric train at Waterloo] Click on the photo to enlarge it. Not to be confused with London's Waterloo Station this is Waterloo on Merseyrail's present Northern Line from Liverpool to Southport. The old Lancashire and Yorkshire electric rolling stock is from a very different era. A fascinating glimpse into the past. The undated photo was purchased by me recently and is originally from an old postcard. The photo is amongst my Flickr shots at:- www.flickr.com/photos/86659476@N07/
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-32292297 The BBC has the story – see link above. Even I, as someone who has long complained about Merseyside's gun crime problems, was surprised by this act of madness. Our democratic processes gain nothing from this kind of behaviour. Electors often complain that politicians don't turn up on their doorsteps enough so trying to derail contact between voters and those who decide how the Country is run can only be a bad thing no matter how much we may dislike a particular brand of party politics. Yes you do meet the mad and the bad when canvassing on the ...
Left Unity, which despite its name has a bit of a problem with unity, has had another split. This time it is in Simon Hughes's constituency of Bermondsey and Old Southwark, with Left Unity member Steve Freeman standing as a Republican Socialist in the election even though Left Unity has backed Kingsley Abrams in a joint ticket with TUSC. Ah well, at least it's an excuse for this:
Is that the best Cameron can do, extending the 'Right to Buy' to social housing tenants? Faced with an acute shortage of affordable and social housing, the Tories' solution is to sell off what's there, allegedly replace sold property with 'like for like' replacements and build 400,000 new homes over the life of the next Parliament. It all points to one outcome: a reduction in good quality social housing for those who cannot afford to purchase their own home. They will be left with the dregs. It will compound social disadvantage, exacerbate the worst effects of the spare room subsidy ...
Georgina Voss: Which fiction books offer us useful and powerful ways to engage with the politics of science and technology? 'Words are important. And when there is a critical mass of them, they change the nature of the universe.' (Terry Pratchett, Going Postal) Last week, Rebekah Higgitt put out a call at The H word for an alternative 'best 13 books about science' for the general reader. Looking beyond out-dated, historical, and male-dominated texts, Higgett asked for books which did more than just describing the content of science to offer tools which could help readers understand and navigate wider issues ...
