Also known as the Innocent Railway, this line is now occupied by a cycle path.
I blogged about this ambitious plan last August. Here's the link to it:- [IMG: The old Skelmersdale Station - now long gone in the name of progress!] The old Skelmersdale Station – now long gone in the name of progress! Well the Southport Visiter newspaper is carrying an update:- Looks like things are progressing although it is fair to say that what could well end up being a £100m+ project is thought not to be a runner in some circles simply because of that price tag. The theory goes that such a huge amount of money spent elsewhere ...
[IMG: Lib Dem membership 60009] Two days still to go if you want to join in time to vote in the Lib Dem leadership contest.
The Independent wins Headline of the Day (though I can't help thinking that the traditional truncheon would have been more fearsome. An honourable mention to BBC News for: KFC sues Chinese firms over eight-legged chicken rumours.
This used to be a regular feature on Liberal Democrat Voice, but it faded away as blogging became less fashionable. My cheeky offer to take over the Golden Dozen having been rebuffed, I thought I would revive it here. Ryan Cullen has kindly sent me a list of new or revived blogs that have recently been added to his LibDemBlogs aggregator. I hope to make this a regular feature, but whether it will run every month or less frequently remains to be seen. If you have a new blog that you would like to appear, please add your blog to ...
[IMG: gerardclegg] My Masters dissertation is on the role and strategy of the Liberal Democrats in the British party system, so as part of that I've been looking at various academic and non-academic texts for background information. Today I plunged into Jasper Gerard's The Clegg Coup , which may well be one of the worst books ever written about British politics. It fails on multiple levels: for a start, Gerard's writing style is rambling and unfocused with chapters, paragraphs and even sentences ending up in miles away from where they started. The book doesn't have any focus, jumping between biography ...
[IMG: House of Lords chamber] Our team in the Lords have today announced their Lib Dem spokespeople. They will, of course, take on a greater role now that the Commons team is so depleted and we will be hearing more from them over this Parliament than we may have done in the past. Here is the full list: Business, Innovation and Skills Team Lord Stoneham of Droxford - Principal Spokesperson Baroness Garden of Frognal - Spokesperson for Higher and Further Education and Skills Lord Clement-Jones (jointly with DCMS Team) Lord Palmer of Childs Hill Civil Service and the Public Sector ...
Mon 1st
17:05
Opinion: We made Mental Health an issue - now we must lead the fight to make it possible
Having worked as a frontline mental health social worker for the past 15 years, there was no-one prouder than I was to see Nick Clegg and Norman Lamb push mental health care (and its place within the NHS) up the political agenda . There is no doubt that without the determination of our gutsy Party, we would not have seen, over the course of the General Election, the other political parties try to associate themselves with our work: securing more funding for mental health care (particularly child and adolescent mental health care) over the last Parliament. But as any social ...
The full list of Lib Dem spokespeople in the House of Lords has been announced today by Lord (Jim) Wallace of Tankerness, Leader of the Lib Dems in the Lords. The new principle spokespeople will lead a strong team of Lib Dem Peers, operating in Parliament, the media and across the country. Lord Wallace said: [...]
Proposals before Sefton Cabinet to close down Day Care places at Chase Heys, Churchtown, rather than at Brookdale, Ainsdale, seem to be just a different way of cutting down the service,says a Southport Councillor. Liberal Democrat Adult Health and Care spokesperson, Cllr Tony Dawson says: "As before, the total number of places available will be reduced but the Council claims that there will be increased provision because a massive increase in efficiency which they say will happen. "I have asked the Cabinet Member, Paul Cummins, for any documents which might show how this increase in efficiency is remotely possible. Are ...
Liberal Democrats turned a heavy emphasis on local campaigning from a necessity into a core part of our identity. That led us to misunderstand our appeal. If one year ago you had asked me to predict where I would have watched the results of the General Election come in, I would certainly not have guessed [...]
... are many and varied. Perhaps for their knowledge of party systems and what needs to change. Perhaps for their ability to present a compelling case for liberalism to the world. Perhaps for their endurance and stalwartness. What I don't understand is people passionately declaring their allegiance for one or the other based on a particular policy position. Much as the media would like to believe otherwise, policy is not made at the whim of the leader in our party. Yes, the leader has some advantage in publicising what their policy priorities might be, and yes, the leader can pick ...
The Lib Dems could and should be the party of small business at the next general election and we must not wait another five years to realise it. We cannot allow Labour to clumsily win back liberal minded voters from the Tories as they did in 1997. Lib Dems in Government create economic prosperity and security, that is an irrefutable fact of the last five years. Now we need to find enough messengers to carry this story to British enterprise. I run a financial technology startup and I've now lost count of the number of sympathetic texts and emails I've ...
Queen's Speech The cross-party LGA response on the proposed Bills in the Queen's Speech can be found here. In addition, the LGA Lib Dem Group have added the following comment on the Right to Buy for Housing Association stock: "The Tories are proposing to raid council housing stock to pay for a raid on housing [...]
It looks like one of the first measures to be proposed by the new Conservative government will spell the end of Cornwall's push for greater freedoms and powers. The Devolution Bill requires new combined authorities with a directly elected mayor before limited powers will be granted. The new bill is centred around a wish to create city regions based on the model being promoted in Manchester. There, the city council is joining with neighbouring authorities under the title of 'Northern Powerhouse'. They will have an elected mayor and will take on some additional housing, planning, transport and policing powers. We ...
If you are not already a member, you have until 16:00 on Wednesday 3rd June to join the party if you wish to influence the decision on a new leader to replace Nick Clegg. The simplest way to do this is to go to http://www.libdems.org.uk/join Alternatively, you may wish to speak to someone in person. See Huw's widget on the right-hand side of this blog or contact any local Liberal Democrat you may know. People who join after the 3rd June will be just as welcome and will be able to help form policy, but will not be able to ...
Liberal Democrats may no longer be in government but laws we made are still being implemented, reports Caron Lindsay. Last week, Vince Cable's ban on exclusivity contracts in zero hours contracts came into force. It was a punitive anomaly that a company could both have no obligation to provide work and to require that their employees did not work for anyone else. The CIPD, the organisation for HR professionals, wrote about the change on their blog: Employers who do not guarantee staff any hours of work, but prevent them from working for another employer, could face legal ramifications from today ...
Mon 1st
14:05Opinion: It took a day to lose those seats in Parliament - it can take a day to win them back
The following was first submitted to LDV as a comment. The team felt it was worth publishing as a full post. The author gave his permission for this. I write this as a new member awaiting the paperwork. I joined the party because I am pro European (accepting a need for increased reform & democratic accountability), am absolutely appalled with the prospect that a Conservative government might withdraw this country from the ECHR and because I cannot reconcile democracy with government access to personal emails. In addition I was impressed with the Liberal Democrat record in Government and the performance ...
My own recipe, adapted from multiple sources with some, *ahem* suggestions from friends. Multiple flavourings are possible. You will need: 10-12 small glass ramekins (you can buy these in department stores, I use the ones that come with Gu Puds, we've got about 30) For the base: 1 200g(ish) box fine milled oatcakes (I use Nairns which is 218g, I don't personally need to worry about buying the guaranteed gluten free ones which are more expensive, these are made in a factory that also makes gluten products) 125g unsalted butter some sugar: I recommend a couple teaspoons of molasses sugar ...
Two pieces involving the SNP in successive days? I must need my head seeing to... So yes. Alistair Carmichael. What a bleedin' eejit. Authorising the leak of the memo was a very political thing to do wasn't it? The thing is, all politicians brief against other politicians and they nearly always do it on the condition of anonymity. This isn't new and will continue to happen as long as politics is a thing. Denying he knew of it though when in fact he knew perfectly well what was going on, that was foolish and had he been my MP and ...
It seems to me that elections are fought not in the currency of policies but actually perception. I feel that in the election campaign, where we actually talked about ourselves (on those rare occasions) we tried to take credit for the economic recovery. However, given that the Tories have always held that ground, they won that argument before it even began. As a result, voters who wanted a continuation of the past five years didn't think to vote Lib Dem, they instead thought to vote Tory. It shouldn't seem so baffling after all that people who voted Lib Dem last ...
As one of the many who have recently joined the Liberal Democrats, my attention has been drawn to the fight to make sure that the Human Rights Act is not scrapped by the Conservatives. In a recent email from Tom Brake MP, we were reminded of the following rights afforded to us by the Human Rights Act: the right to life; the prohibition of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; the prohibition of slavery and forced labour; the right to liberty and security of the person; the right to a fair trial; prohibition of punishment without law; the ...
[IMG: Liberal Democrat Newswire logo] Liberal Democrat Newswire #66 came out last week, looking at the 10 key factors in the leadership race between Norman Lamb and Tim Farron. 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 66th edition of Liberal Democrat Newswire, and a special welcome to the many new readers who has signed up in the last few weeks, helping push readership up by 43% over the last year.No prizes for anticipating that this edition looks at ...
Some years ago, the idea that a Conservative Government would be leading the battle to deliver some degree of regional elected government would be regarded as laughable. Now, they are out in the lead on this issue. Okay, the structures proposed for super-cities may not be the model we love but metro mayors are the only show in town. It would be absurd for the North East to resist devolution
The Independent reports that the new Tory Cabinet has split for the first time and it is over the subject of human rights. They say that David Cameron has defied two of his top Cabinet ministers by taking the entirely sensible position of ruling out withdrawal from the European Convention on Human Rights. His rather less-than-sensible solution is to pursue a "half-way" house which would see Britain remaining as a signatory of the ECHR, an international treaty signed in the 1950s to protect human rights and fundamental freedoms on the continent and which was promoted by Conservative politicians, but still ...
An article from the Guardian yesterday revealed that the Hampshire police are investigating a possible intelligence sharing operation run between Royston Smith, the Conservative candidate for Southampton Itchen who is now that constituency's MP, and Kim Rose, the UKIP candidate in the same seat. The Tory MP has admitted to giving the UKIP candidate advice and even making up leaflets for him to distribute; he denies giving over canvassing data, which is where the criminality, if it exists although this is a grey area which has more to do with ICO concerns than electoral law, is said to be questioned. ...
Stockport's Peel Centre is a popular shopping centre, and rightly so with stores from New Look to Hobbycraft, Toys R Us to Currys. The shops are great, but there's a regular stream of complaints from people who feel they've been unfairly given a parking ticket – they appear in the papers all the time. Just google Peel Centre Parking to see a few of them. What to do? Plenty of people choose to park there – the car park's normally pretty busy and they're even looking to expand beyond the 800+ spaces currently offered. But if you want to drive ...
New members have been asking about Lib Dem organisations that they can join. You are welcome to submit similar items on behalf of other organisations. [IMG: liberator-2] Liberator has been called many things. "A trashy rag run off on a duplicator" (David Steel), "a small bunch of idiots" (Mark Oaten), more positively as ,"long may it continue to interest us" (Paddy Ashdown), and perhaps best getting to the point, from former MP Michael Meadowcroft: "Liberalism needs outlets for its ideas, opinions and polemics; it has far too few. Liberator is a vital regular vehicle for radical opinion." While our pages ...
Ebenezer Howard, the garden city pioneer, used to say that - if something was worth doing - you would be "as old as Methusalah" if you waited for the government to do it. This may not be borne out by the frenetic activity in Whitehall at the moment, as the new government appears to be attempting to achieve everything in their first month of office. In practice, government being what it is - the peculiar UK obsession with graphs - this maybe activity in inverse proportion to what they actually achieve. But, hey, maybe I've become cynical. This is a ...
In the latest edition of Liberal Democrat Newswire I talked about the big impact that endorsements can make on party contests. Tim Farron has had a strong start on that score, with backing from figures such as Willie Rennie, Kirsty Williams and Simon Hughes along with three current MPs (Greg Mulholland, John Pugh and Mark Williams). Now Shirley Williams has joined Lynne Featherstone, Ed Davey and Tom Brake in backing Norman Lamb: In a statement, Lady Williams described Lamb, MP for North Norfolk, as one of the finest MPs and ministers she had met in her "long political life". "He ...
Over in Canada, The Star has been looking at how the Canadian Liberals use technology on the campaign trail – something of particular relevance to the Liberal Democrats as they too use the same NGPVAN database which goes under the name of Connect here in the UK. Gone are the days of volunteers standing on doorsteps with a clipboards and voters' lists, ticking off likely supporters. The modern Liberal canvasser now carries a smart phone or tablet, loaded with the mini-VAN app. It was developed by U.S.-based NPG VAN and used to great effect by Barack Obama's presidential campaigns. Each ...
The medieval 'New England': a forgotten Anglo-Saxon colony on the north-eastern Black Sea coast – A fascinating piece of history: did post-Norman Conquest exiles from England end up establishing a Nova Anglia in the Crimea that lasted for at least two centuries? Lib Dem runners up: Just how bad things are – In case you'd forgotten just how deep the hole is. The case against Directly-Elected Executive Mayors – How the Government's plans for devolution are undermining local democracy. Clapping, as a cure for impotence – Philip Cowley on the SNP's new role in Westminster. Politicians, markets and the Which? ...
Last Friday, Dundee City Council published details of councillors' salary and expenses claims for the financial year recently ended - 2014/15. As in past years, my salary claim was the lowest of all 29 councillors as I have not accepted the last three salary increases, instead donating these (£714 per annum) to charity - the Dundee Festival Trust. I also claim no expenses whatsoever and have never done so throughout my 14 years as a councillor. You can see the full document the council published on all councillors' salary and expenses claims here.
[IMG: 19385_10206598286019032_2781715659372988364_n] Click on the photo to enlarge it.
[IMG: 5th October 1991 at Liverpool Lime Street] 5th October 1991 at Liverpool Lime Street I picked up on this old story via Facebook but none the less it is an important if historical pointer to the failings of the Class 142 Pacer trains that organisations and people such as OPSTA (Ormskirk, Preston & Southport Travellers Assn), John Pugh MP (the MP for Southport) and many others have been fighting to have taken out of service. It seems the battle to have them consigned to history is all but won but they will be around for a while yet until ...
Queensland café owner, I SALUTE you (tags: ) Fifa corruption: Sepp Blatter must take responsibility for what has happened (tags: ) I do like this jacket. (tags: ) These 25 Examples of Male Privilege from a Trans Guy's Perspective Really Prove the Point (tags: ) [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
The local hustings for the Liberal Democrats leadership candidates will be at the Royal Station Hotel, Newcastle, on 19th June The meeting opens at 7pm with tea / coffee, the hustings themselves start at 7:30 Any member of the party at 3rd June is entitled to attend the hustings, and to vote in the election The leadership election is held under the "one member, one vote" principle, and will be held under STV ( single transferable vote )
