Byron Dawson's watercolour of a Lancashire village The chairs were being put out in readiness for a school visit when I went into Southport's Atkinson Art Gallery. The new exhibition 'Recording Britain' was on loan from the V&A. This wartime project was designed to capture the landscape and architecture of Britain at a time when many feared it was about to be destroyed by war. There are watercolours and drawings of the smoking rooms of pubs, of churches and chapels as well as landscapes featuring disused Cornish Tin Mines, Welsh slate quarries and the like. Many of the pieces ...
Our latest email newsletter to Lib Dem members in Gateshead was published tonight. You can read it on this link.
News that it could take decades and several billion pounds of our money to restore the Houses of Parliament provides our country with a great opportunity – but I doubt that any of our leaders are bold enough to take it. My plan? Our politicians should hand over the site to English Heritage to be run as a tourist attraction. ...
Few will make it through the first 10 paragraphs of the New Statesman interview with Kate Hoey, published yesterday. I wouldn't advise it and I'm not entirely sure why I persevered. But I was rewarded at the end by this little snippet of info in paragraph 11 - entirely unrelated to her views on Europe...
My last posting from the Southport Liberal Party newsletter of the 1960s made it to second place in LibDemVoice Golden Dozen of most read blog entries. This extract is by far the most interesting. Pacts in the north in the 1950's and 1960's were not unheard of-Arthur Holt in Bolton West and Donald Wade in Huddersfield West are the two best known. But there was another one in the north, in Southport and it was with Labour not the Tories. This developed into a strict pact which extended to helping in each others by elections. It is also interesting to ...
Here's the latest data from MORI: [IMG: MORI EU referendum]
Earlier this month Homes for Haringey (HfH) wrote to local residents in sheltered housing, informing them of possible increases to their service charges. HfH is an 'arms-length management organisation' that manages housing for Haringey Council. It's proposed increases - of up to £8.95 a week - are part of an on-going consultation into how they provide services.
There have been may occasions in our history when the armed might of the state has been used against "ordinary people." The Peterloo Massacre of 1819 is but one example, and I'm sure proper historians can think of umpteen more. However from the end of the Second World War in 1945 the spirit of "all in it together" more or less prevailed and, on the whole, by and large and in the main, governments of whatever stripe coped reasonably benevolently with people who disagreed with them. Demonstrations were allowed, albeit perhaps with a few unjustifiable arrests. Strikes happened and were ...
Keith Holloway and the Lib Dem team are campaigning for new Cheadle station on the Mid-Cheshire line, with more frequent trains stopping there. We need your help. We know Cheadle needs a station, but we've got to persuade Transport for Greater Manchester, the Government and the train companies if we're to succeed. We can only persuade them if they know there's strong local support for the plan. Please sign our petition and ask others to sign it too. The Lib Dems want to see an orbital Metrolink line with stops at Cheadle and Gatley. A new station and improved train ...
The excellent Andy Boddington, blogger and Liberal Democrat councillor for Ludlow North, wrote a post the other day, poking fun at the secrecy surrounding Shropshire Council's troubled private company ip&e: I wanted to tell you that ip&e was created ******* **** ** **** and it is ********. It sees an opportunity in ***** ******** with their ******* ** ******* ******-*** ***** ****. But alas, council leader's Keith Barrow's cabinet has censored this message by making the business plan exempt.Today, via the Shropshire Star, comes news that this post has upset the powers that be in Shrewsbury. The story says: He ...
News that it will cost more than £5bn to restore the Palace of Westminster only confirms my view that the answer is to move the whole operation to Arkwright's Mill in Cromford and allow the old pile by the Thames to fall to ruin. Will anyone have the courage to take up my idea? I doubt it, We are governed by mediocrities.
The New Statesman is doing a series of features on membership of political parties. They feature Lizzie Jewkes, who was responsible for the current incarnation of the policy of raising the tax threshold. "Meet the ordinary political party member who will cost the Treasury £4 billion a year" says the headline: She was in the auditorium during Nick Clegg's first conference as leader of the party, in 2008. He mooted that £20bn of savings could be spent on reducing the rate of standard income tax. "We all duly voted for this," Jewkes explains. But discussing Clegg's idea with a friend ...
The Liverpool Echo has the story – see link above Maybe its because I come from Nottinghamshire mining stock, maybe its because I am a life-long trade unionist or maybe its because as a Liberal I smell injustice. It's probably all 3 so is it not time this scar on the industrial relations landscape of England was independently looked at in some detail?
I have been away from this site for a bit. Something called an election got in the way of finding time to post. For my first post-election piece, here are some extracts from the comments I have sent in about the planning application to build a multi-storey car park at Carnival Pool. The application includes moving the bowling alley to the ground floor of the new car park, building a large extension to Carnival Pool for other leisure uses, removing Southgate House (the blue-gray office block on Wellington Road), removing the cadets' building, and putting in some shops and up ...
Since the General Election arguments have raged over whether we, or particular people in the party, are centrist, left of centre or right of centre, and, if so, how much left or right of centre. I think we are getting this wrong. It is not a linear issue. If I am a kind person, am I left of centre or right of centre? If I am selfish, am I left or right of centre? Why do we limit ourselves by a linear construct? Rather than see liberal values, and the placement of Liberal Democrats on the political map, as linear, ...
[IMG: Photo by Liberal Democrats Charles Kennedy] Photo shows former Lib Dem Leader Charles Kennedy at the Conference Rally, Bournemouth Sept 09. Credit Alex Folkes/Fishnik Photography Six days after his highland burial, Glasgow University holds a memorial service for Charles Kennedy this evening at 7pm in its Bute Hall. Charles had a long association with the university as undergraduate, Glasgow University Union President and, until recently, Rector for two terms. In fact, as we reported soon after his term ended, he said that he missed being Rector of the university more than he missed being leader of the Liberal Democrats. ...
They say that 'travel broadens the mind'. Well mine has certainly been expanded somewhat by some of the discussions that I have had with Mayors and other political leaders in the two recent travels I have made to the Middle ... Continue reading →
I have already blogged once about the £3 billion bill to restore the House of Commons to a usable state. This is an issue that has been faced head-on in Canada where their Parliament are effectively decanting MPs in stages so as to completely renovate a considerably younger building at a substantial cost over a number of years. Back in the UK, MPs don't seem to be able to grasp the nettle at all. The Independent reports that Chris Grayling, the Leader of the Commons, has told his fellow MPs that he does not want to see them evacuated to ...
Wednesday: I was lucky enough to attend the Liberal Democrat leadership hustings in London, and to meet both candidates. Going in I was leaning more for Farron, and the Tim Lord did indeed play a blinder: full of that old-time Liberal religion. And his last word - "it's my job to get Norman back into Government" - was the best line of the night. But Norman was consistently impressive throughout as the one who put thought into his answers. He made it very much harder to choose. And that's got to be some kind of victory for the Norman Conquest. ...
Next Saturday the LGBT community will celebrate Pride in London. There has been a kerfuffle about whether UKIP should be allowed to attend. Of course they should. In this country the LGBT community is strong enough to be inclusive, to involve all sorts of minorities. Moreover several hours in which to challenge the absurdity of being an LGBT member of UKIP - preferably through the media of song and interpretive dance - is a gift too good to be spurned. This year the march will be led by Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners; an organisation of which many young ...
It may interest the twelve or so of you that read this that I'm running for Liberal Youth Treasurer. Below you can find my manifesto, as well as a compilation of some questions and answers from Liberal Youth's Chatbox. Q: What do you want the next treasurer of Liberal Youth to do for ordinary members? 1) [...]
Through the grief and bereavement of last month's election results, I have been trying to make some logical deductions about the future not just of the Lib Dems but the progressive forces in British politics. Try my logic and see if it works for you. There may be about 8-12% of those who vote who are willing to support Lib Dem candidates (excluding protest votes). That percentage is fine as long as there's PR. If there isn't, we will struggle to have any influence, certainly at national level. The only way we can get PR is if we have a ...
In one of the biggest shocks in the history of the world, the BBC in one last desperate bid to keep one of the their biggest assets relevant have turned to the man they always turn to Chris Evans. He is like the John Reid of the BBC, parachuted in when he's widely not wanted to try and fix things. His denial saying that him taking over the show was, '100% not going to happen' is shall we say rather hilarious considering he's been announced as the main presenter and indeed will be the executive producer of the show, which ...
I attended a meeting of the Gateshead East branch of the Lib Dems on Tuesday evening in Heworth in my role as Leader of the Opposition on Gateshead Council. One of the items on the agenda was a review of the local elections held on the same day as the general election. The report showed, as expected, that our local vote was significantly ahead of our national vote. But the most interesting
During the 5 years of coalition - it was painfully clear to those of us who opposed much of the Coalition policy that Liberal Democrats had developed a mindset that required us to grasp at every painful nettle that we saw. So it was that Liberal Democrats signed up for vital welfare reform and ended up signing off on the Tory Bedroom Tax. We felt that it was necessary to cut the deficit but this then became a sign off on tory austerity. We wanted to fix the funding gap on defence spending but then became party to wholesale cuts ...
[IMG: Can Tim Farron or Norman Lamb really deliver on their plans for the Lib Dems?] In their pieces for ALDC, Lib Dem leadership candidates Tim Farron and Norman Lamb both gave good answers on how to rebuild the party but also answers full of ideas that have been much talked about in the past. Hence my question to them: [IMG: Mark Pack question to Lamb and Farron] [IMG: Norman Lamb answer] [IMG: Tim Farron answer] You can join the discussion of this on Facebook here. Keep up with news on the Lib Dem leadership race Sign up for Liberal ...
Thu 18th
10:25
For new and infrequent commenters only: What do you think of the leadership election so far?
This is one of our occasional posts where we reserve the comments for those who don't comment very often. Anyone who has made five or fewer comments in the past month is welcome to take part. The subject for debate today is the leadership election. Liberal Democrat Voice is taking an entirely neutral stance and are doing our best to give equal and balanced coverage of the contest. We just wondered what you thought of it all so far. Have you seen the candidates in action? Are they talking about the things that you want to hear about? What do ...
This is a deferred election from 7th May. Two Conservative seats. No LD Candidates
Double Election LD seat, Cause:Death. UKIP seat, Cause:Resignation. LD Candidates- Clare Malcomson and Clayton Wellman For more information please contact Paul Kennedy (07947 430762, paulgkennedy@aol.com)
The ever popular music festival in Kingsgate Park returns this weekend under the new name of Yate Rocks! The big music day is Saturday 20 June, with live music from noon to 8pm. Groups featured are The Mangled Wurzels, Limited Edition, Skeeter, Goodnight Lois, Uncle Buck, Hitshot, Tundra and Progress Is Made. Dance groups Stagecoach, Glitterbugs, Pure Dance, Redds Dance Group and Street Cred will entertain, and there will be arts and craft stalls, a beer tent, a bungee trampoline and fun rides for children, plus demonstrations by local gym clubs and cheerleaders. Sunday 21 June is more of a ...
[IMG: Selection_034] Stockport Borough has launched a new web-based campaign to showcase the breadth and depth of positive news stories, events, people and places across the area. With seed funding from Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council, support from Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce and interested local business organisations and individuals We Are Stockport has gone live this week, designed to provide a 'go to' portal for all things Stockport. Creating its own news and signposting to a plethora of other local websites from I Love Bramhall to Heaton Traders, We are Stockport will link like-minded groups who are keen to communicate ...
The Nuneaton hustings last night was a predictable disaster. Andy Burnham, the acknowledged front runner in the Labour leadership contest, told the assembled that "the party always comes first". Liz Kendall was straight in with: "The country comes first". If Burnham wins, Cameron has a stick to beat him with for the entirety of his leadership. Sorry, enough about Andy – what about dear Jeremy? Burnham wanted him on the ticket as he wished to have someone to his his left who couldn't win. But what if the old Trot somehow managed to pull it off? Anyone who pays three ...
There is an inherent predilection in our political culture towards continual reorganisation. A culture that often holds us back and stops valuable reforms from maturing and embedding. This frustrating desire to manifest difference via perpetual revolution may offer some cautionary tales for our own forthcoming leadership election. I start by saying that I am genuinely open-minded about who it is that should go on to lead our party. However, I am concerned that two issues risk becoming incorrectly linked in the emerging campaigns. That the Liberal Democrats in the last election adopted a 'centring' approach is clear. That the Liberal ...
I have, in recent months, raised with the City Council, the need to improve the road situation near to Verdant Works. My own view is that there is merit in creating a safer pedestrian entrance to Verdant Works by stopping up West Henderson's Wynd outside Verdant Works. The advantages of this are obvious - a safe entrance area for this important visitor attraction (whose visitor numbers are going to continue to increase with the new facility opening at the High Mill), a better meeting point in the event of evacuation of the building due to a fire alarm - and ...
The second 2015 Sunday Bandstand Concert on the Magdalen Green Bandstand takes place this coming Sunday at 2pm. The Dundee Instrumental Band will be playing - more details here.
Part one of a new nostalgia series of occasional postings [IMG: IMG_0006] Click on the photo to enlarge it Set up as one of the original Parish Councils under Gladstone's 1894 Act of Parliament, Maghull (now a Town Council as it decided to have a Mayor as opposed to a Chairperson in the early 1970's) celebrated its centenary in 1994. This decorative flower bed was in the Rose garden at KGV Park. Civil Parishes were set up to separate the power of the Church from the running of very local affairs.
Thu 18th
08:13
Andy Burnham and the NHS – Has his connection with privatisation been brushed under Labour's c...
[IMG: nhs-logo] On hearing that Bill Esterson the Labour MP for Sefton Central is backing Andy Burnham to be the next Labour leader I penned this letter to the Champion newspaper:- Dear Sir, I was just a little taken aback to read in the Champion that Bill Esterson MP is backing Andy Burnham to be the next Labour leader. Bearing in mind the connections between Andy Burnham and privatisation of NHS services whilst he was a Government Minister and the fact that the last Labour Government unsuccessfully tried to impose a privatised NHS services on Maghull I think Bill should ...
27 Gendered Products That Prove Masculinity Is Incredibly Fragile - Inc a camouflage candle LOL By 'eck. Yorkshire accent percieved as brainier than RP (not the focus of the article ;) ) Dating two people at once: why I'm polyamorous and proud (this is an article in the graun, not about me) [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
There has been a welcome drop in unemployment in the Ludlow area. The number of people in the Ludlow parliamentary constituency claiming Jobseekers Allowance, or not in work and claiming Universal Credit, has dropped from 432 in April to 408 in May (6% fall). Nearly all of the fall has been in youth unemployment which [...]
The Welsh unemployment rate has risen by 3,000 over the last quarter, new figures released yesterday show. This is the largest rise in unemployment of any UK region. Statistics published by ONS show that compared to last year the Welsh unemployment rate rose by 0.2%, whereas it fell in every English Region outside of London. Unemployment has constantly been falling across the UK as a whole, but once again Wales is lagging behind. This Labour Government has serious answers to give about why our unemployment figures are so consistently poor compared to the rest of the UK. We need to ...
In this county which claims to be "open for business" there's one area where the council slams the door on people wanting to earn a living. That's people who want to become taxi drivers. In the first four months after they introduced their new "tougher" Knowledge and Locality tests, Durham County Council reduced the number of applicants who got through to just 5% – a swingeing cut from the 65% plus who used to get through. Now I've nothing against improving standards, but I've never come across such a remarkable tightening in a testing procedure and I'm not at all ...
I was a guest on the Anna Foster programme yesterday (17th June) talking abut self-sufficiency and how I am doing in my plans to produce all my own food. You can hear the interview on this link. My bit starts about 39 minutes into the programme.
Sabbatical: time taken off work to listen to and study the music of Black Sabbath. [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
A few seconds of unexpected fame... Today saw the Aviva Women's Tour cycle race come through Suffolk, as Stage 1 took the riders from Bury St Edmunds to Aldeburgh. What I hadn't factored for that I would get such a great view from my office window, as the race swirled down Museum Street, then took a rather awkward little right-hander into Princes Street before turning left again at the crossroads below the office. I was lucky enough to get a good picture with my iPhone, and posted it on Twitter. Within a few minutes, I received a request from the ...
