One of the best so far. Not that there was anything wrong with Devon, Bedfordshire, North Lincolnshire, East Sussex, Leicestershire, Herefordshire, Hampshire, Cumbria, Cambridgeshire, Kent, Lincolnshire, Cornwall, Rutland. Northumberland, Shropshire and Suffolk.
Norman Lamb's support for assisted dying legislation has assumed a strange importance in his campaign for the Liberal Democrat leadership. I presume this is because his supporters believe this view will be popular with Liberal Democrat members - and also believe it is country into which Tim Farron will not be prepared to follow him. G.F. Watts: Love and Death In view of this, it is a surprise to read the more measured tone Norman adopted when talking to the Eastern Daily Press in March of last year: People who are terminally-ill and suffering should have the right to end ...
With LGBT civil rights in the news, Georgina Voss argues that science institutions need to extend their equality initiatives to queer scientists When Sir Tim Hunt's comments about women in science broke, one element in particular jumped out at me. Hunt was, he said, in favour of gender-segregated laboratories as a way of sidestepping the mess arising from scientists in love. The notion that same-sex groups would limit romance seemed rather odd, as the first woman I ever dated was on the same molecular biochemistry degree course as me. We never worked in the same lab - who knows what ...
I've voted for Tim Farron. It was a pretty easy choice - Tim clearly understands a different direction is required. One that builds from the grassroots up. In contrast Lamb is campaigning as if we narrowly lost out in the election and with a bit of refining our messages, government is again around the corner. But strangely if the party had just narrowly lost out and some of the party's big guns had held on - Steve Webb, Ed Davey, Lynn Featherstone etc - a leadership contest would almost certainly have been held involving one of more of them, Tim ...
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The recent UK general election was the most unproportional UK election of all time. When only 66% of the electorate bothered to vote and just 36% of the people who voted, voted for the winning party. It is hard to stomach radical changes from a political party with only 24% of the total electorate voting for them. In fact just 16% of UK voters say they trust us politicians. I'm pretty tired of hearing "you politicians are all in it for yourselves", "you're all the same", etc. For the record we're not. Most politicians I've met are really decent public ...
Shropshire Council is busy transferring many of its staff and services to its wholly owned company, ip&e. This company still must respond to freedom of information requests, in almost the same way that Shropshire Council does even if those requests are 'bizarre' in the eyes of council leader Keith Barrow. Every organisation subject to freedom [...]
I am very much looking forward to this programme on BBC Radio Five Live tomorrow evening at 9pm: Two of England's most successful captains, Michael Vaughan and Mike Brearley, talk about the art of captaincy.In fact the two best England captains of the past 40 years. View image | gettyimages.com
I've decided to vote for Norman Lamb as the next leader of the Liberal Democrats. It's not an easy choice. Tim Farron has many qualities and if the party as a whole opts for him, I'm confident he will inspire us to bounce back. He's a strong orator and an energetic campaigner. I'm particularly enthused [...]
Just because there are only two candidates for the Liberal Democrat leadership, that's no reason not to have an election bar chart. So I give you one via LDV: [IMG: Bar chart - Lib Dem leadership] Keep up with news on the Lib Dem leadership race Sign up for Liberal Democrat Newswire here, and Sign up for the Facebook event for the contest (where Norman Lamb and Tim Farron are regularly answering questions from members).
This post originally appeared on Lib Dem Voice. On Thursday, Patrick McLoughlin announced what many of us had feared but were hoping would never happen: electrification of the train line between Manchester and Leeds was to be postponed, and possibly cancelled. The lynchpin of the Northern Powerhouse was pulled out and the plan predictably fell apart at the seams. Three months ago, the Conservatives promised that £38 bn would be invested in the national rail network, mostly into electrifying the old diesel lines. This was so important to the Tories, we were told, that it was at the top of ...
Lord Ashdown's call for 'progressive forces' to collaborate before the next election does not go far enough, especially now there is talk about Labour never winning again. He rightly talks about Lib Dem collaboration with Labour and the Greens. But there can be no 'progress' without prior electoral reform: the alternative is the old see-saw, but worse – Labour's Scottish amputation has moved the pivot. 'Progress' demands the rout of the Tories and their money, and that can be achieved if all other parties gang up on them. That sounds unsporting, but the Tories know well that this is no ...
[IMG: Parking Permit Renewal Letter] Today I needed to renew my annual Shepway Residents Car Park permit (£52 a year - excellent value and a good idea, as I said in Council when they were introduced!). On checking the renewal letter however, it tells me that to pay by credit / debit card I needed to go to the Civic Centre. So, to the Cabinet Member for Customers and Digital Delivery at Shepway District Council - that's you Rory Love) - a question. Why, when there are a host of services I CAN pay for online with my debit / ...
Unbelievable. The Pinkham Way site has apparently been added back into the North London Waste Plan (NLWP.) And according to the Pinkham Way Alliance: "Barnet Council have indicated to Haringey that they wish to relocate their Waste Transfer Station from Cricklewood to Pinkham Way to make way for a housing development at Cricklewood." Read the full story on the Alliance website.
There is to be a by-election in Seaton Valley, just over the border from Blyth. The election is in Seghill with Seaton Delaval ward of Seaton Valley (Parish Council) and will be held on 16th July The vacancy was caused by the resignation of a Labour councillor. The Liberal Democrat candidate is the experienced, and well known, Anita Romer. If you can help, in any way, please contact Penny Reid , at pennyreid@hotmail.co.uk , or telephone 01670 544113
As time has gone by, the message of the 2015 general election becomes even more bleak for the Liberal Democrats. Amid much talk of #LibDemfightback I see a party struggling to cope with the magnitude of the catastrophe that has befallen it. Frankly the policy discussions that are being put together as part of the leadership election campaign are a exercise in self delusion and denial. There is only one discussion and only one policy that can offer the Liberal Democrats any relevance or viability at all: It is the constitutional crisis that threatens to destroy the very fabric of ...
[IMG: Lib Dem Leadership Election Outer Envelope] All members should have either received their ballot paper for the Liberal Democrat Leadership Election or should do so in the next 2 days. If you have not received your ballot mailing by the 1st July, contact Lib Dem Member Services Team on 020 7022 0988 or contact them online at http://www.libdems.org.uk/contact The ballot mailing contains a manifesto from each of thhe Leadership Election candidates, Tim Farron and Norman Lamb. A copy of Tim Farron's manifesto as included with the ballot paper is available here. A copy of Norman Lamb's manifesto as included ...
Last week on Lib DemVoice I remarked that when great social reforms had been enacted liberals had the support of many Christians. I was thinking of Roy Jenkin's Homosexual Law reform,when Michael Ramsay was in the front line of supporters and David Steel's Abortion Act passed at a time when he was regularly introducing Songs of Praise. This was not just a phenomenon of the 1960's you could go back to Josephine Butler's work on the Contagious Diseases Act. My point was that such Christians who are today working to celebrate same sex marriages in churches and for women to ...
[IMG: Gurkha Memorial Stature, Folkestone] Last week saw the "turf-cutting" ceremony and blessing for the new Gurkha Statue and memorial that will be erected in the Garden of Remembrance (by Christchurch Tower) in Sandgate Road, Folkestone. It is expected that the statue, by sculptor Rebecca Hawkins, will be unveiled in early October as one of the final acts of public commemoration of 200 years of Gurkha service to the UK. The statue will mark the 200 years of service to the British Army of the Gurkhas, and has been paid for entirely through donations and fundraising from the public in ...
Tim Farron has been the prohibitive favourite to be the next Lib Dem leader since May 8. Norman Lamb decided to run as well as well so it became a two-man battle. They each got roughly the same amount of 'celebrity' Lib Dem endorsements and many people looked at them to help make up their own minds. I'm not one of them. For you see, I've always been my own man. If someone tells me that I should do something then instinctively I try and go in the opposite direction. Considering I'm not exactly a rebel this is surprising but ...
We have published a number of posts in which the two candidates have answered questions on specific policy areas or for particular audiences posed by our readers: Russia, ISIS, globalisation and the EU - Norman and Tim answer foreign affairs questions Lamb and Farron reply to Lib Dems for Seekers of Sanctuary Liberal Reform interview Tim Farron and Norman Lamb Building a diverse party: the Leadership Candidates respond to Daisy Cooper's questions Now Green Lib Dems have published a series of posts covering a dozen or so environmental questions that they have posed to Tim Farron and Norman Lamb. You ...
Please see below the LGA Liberal Democrat Group Election Results for 2015-2017. Many thanks to all who participated, the turnout rate was 37%. LGA Liberal Democrat Group Elections 2015 – Results Group Leader (unopposed) Vernon-Jackson, Gerald Portsmouth Group Deputy Leaders (unopposed) Thornhill, Dorothy Watford White, Chris St Albans & Herts Group Chair (1 place) Dombey, [...]
Ellie Gauge takes to the Director's chair for My Life as a Hooker After three years putting on award-winning student plays in Durham, the brilliant and talented daughter, Ellie Gauge, is back home in South London and is embarking on what will probably be her greatest directorial challenge yet. She has bravely agreed to attempt to coax a performance worthy of a London stage from a group of reprobate rugby players. The first auditions for My Life as a Hooker - The Play were held at the weekend at Warlingham Rugby Club. The young Miss Gauge held court as a ...
Politics is, or certainly should be, the business of trying to make the world a better place. People disagree about how best to do that, of course, but that is what it is all about - that is why people join political parties, go out campaigning, give their time and money to 'the cause', and ultimately become 'politicians' (or it certainly should be, and I think it mostly is). However, that is quite clearly not the way it is seen by much of the wider public. There is a huge gulf of disconnect between people and 'politicians', and that is ...
Much has been said by many about different bits of the UK's somewhat messy (to say the least!) constitution, the layers of government, the electoral system, and the various devolution settlements. It must be time for us to sit down and think about it properly in an adult way via some kind of 'convention' so that we can arrive at a lasting settlement and system that works for EVERYONE. That, for me, is the big problem with current and most often discussed settlements - they aren't for EVERYONE in the UK. There's this system for Scotland, that system for Wales, ...
This is something I wrote about 6 years ago. Since I've now got a blog, though it's a personal thing and really nothing to do with politics at all, I thought I might as well add it in here! 'If music be the food of love...', I'm always hungry! For many years, as a lifelong self-confessed and utterly incurable musical obsessive, I have searched for something to describe and quantify my own musical taste. It ranges through many genres, and includes forms of music that seem to some to be totally disassociated to the point of incompatibility, and yet to ...
So today, just a day after starting my blog, I find myself with something to say! It's about this news story: "Girl aged 7 hospitalised following dog attack in Montrose Avenue, Welling The youngster was taken to hospital with bite injuries after an Alaskan Malamute attacked her yesterday afternoon (June 25). Police were called to a residential address in Montrose Avenue at around 4.50pm to reports of a young girl attacked by a dog. The seven-year-old, who is expected to make a full recovery from her non-life threatening injuries, was taken to a south London hospital for treatment. The ...
[IMG: Sandgate Quiz Night Poster] There will be a Charity Quiz on 18th July at Sandgate Men's Club on behalf of Sandgate Sea Cadets. Tickets cost £5 per person, with teams of up to four (either bring a team or form one on the night!). To ensure your place, drop into the Mens Club (in the Chichester Hall, Sandgate High Street) any evening after 5pm before the 18th. Cash prizes, free buffet and trophies: event sponsored by Sandgate seamstress and alterations business Acula Creations Ltd. Published and promoted by Tim Prater, 98a Sandgate High Street, Folkestone, CT20 3BYPrinted (hosted) by ...
Deciding exactly where to start a shiny new blog when you have lots of random things to say is never going to be easy. I thought the most logical place to begin is with the very basics of Liberalism itself, what it means to me, and why I consider myself to be a 'Liberal' (and why, therefore, I am a Liberal Democrat). Now I'm not about to go into a long academic exercise of different definitions of the term - there are plenty of places to find such things, and they won't always agree on every detail. This is about ...
Although Liberal Democrat Headquarters had no difficulty in contacting me when sending out numerous requests for money during the General Election campaign, unfortunately I seem to have slipped from thier list when they sent out information on the leadership hustings. Hence I missed the Farron-Lamb dual in Leeds a couple of weeks ago. However, those who witnessed that, and others, tell me that in policy matters there is not much to choose between them. That being the case I have cast my vote for Tim Farron on the grounds that: 1. Farron is by far the better communicator. Lamb, when ...
Mon 29th
12:24
Russia, ISIS, globalisation and the EU - Norman and Tim answer foreign affairs questions
LDV recently put some questions on foreign affairs to the two leadership contenders. Here are their responses. 1. Can you summarise in around 100 words what a liberal foreign policy looks like in your view? Tim Farron: Liberals are proud and passionate internationalists because we believe in the rights of all people - no matter what they look like, what they believe or where they are - to live in peace, free from poverty, ignorance and conformity. We understand that only by working with other countries through strong international institutions can we make that a reality and build a fairer, ...
Chris White has criticised National Grid Gas for the continuing disruption in Hatfield Road. Chris said: 'I saw there were problems last week and asked the county council to intervene. HCC was assured that the worked would be complete on Friday but lo and behold there were huge jams over the weekend. 'National grid are [...]
Watch the new fun (yet educational) video from CGP Grey:
At Thursday's Children's Services Cabinet Panel, 40 angry incredulous HomeStart managers, Chairs, volunteers and clients heard the Conservative members of the Children's Services Cabinet Panel support the complete cut of support to the 9 HomeStart Branches in the county, worth £395,000 per annum from September 2015 as recommended by officers. In so doing they voted [...]
Mon 29th
11:52
Veiled Government threats against RSPCA signals zero tolerance approach to opposition groups
You can always tell when the Conservatives are in government, especially when they have no other party to keep them in check, as the threats to the BBC start to escalate. It seems to be a traditional view of Conservative politicians that the BBC is run by a bunch of lefties determined to do them down. The fact that Labour Ministers, when they are in government, take a similar paranoid view of the corporation indicates that perhaps the BBC has got the balance about right. However, as yesterday's Sunday Telegraph reports, this zero tolerance of opposition by Conservative Ministers is ...
I like working on open source projects—just updated the gameplay description for humanity in Free Orion:Description: Humans are bipedal, clannish and omniverous, with incredible endurance capabilities. Humans evolved tool use in order to better hunt their pray, and would pursue much larger animals for days if necessary in order to bring it down and then eat it. Modern humans still have a strong fight or flight response but any threat an individual cannot handle will be met by a larger group working together to defeat it with overwhelming force. Humans have been known to eat items they know to be ...
Mon 29th
11:13Opinion: The twin intellectual conceits that damned the Liberal Democrats' election hopes in 2015
History has the delightful habit of rendering as fools those who propagate the consensus view of a contemporary event, not because the consensus is ever totally wrong, but because it is comfortable and provides comfortable answers to snuggle up to, rather than looking deeper into the harsh eyes of reality and the bigger truths that are revealed. And so it is with the Liberal Democrat post election postmortem. The consensus view huddles around the notion that it was only tuition fees and anger about the coalition that lost it, but we knew about those from a long way out and ...
This week our campaign to stop the Tories spiking the Human Rights Act has stepped up a gear. Alistair Carmichael has a Westminster Hall debate on the HRA tomorrow (Tuesday), while the Lords will also debate the issue on Thursday. Many of you will be involved with Action Days over the summer and so LDHQ [...]
[IMG: tim farron norman lamb squarish by paul walter] If you haven't been able to get to a Leadership Hustings so far, there is an additional one to consider tomorrow in London. Ethnic Minority Liberal Democrats will be holding one on Tuesday 30th June from 7pm at Elephant and Castle. The theme will be Tackling Race Inequality. Places are free, but limited, so you do need to reserve a place. Full details given on the website.
Blyth Town Council and its Committees have the following meetings scheduled for July:- Thursday 2nd July, Finance Committee Tuesday 7th July , Community Grants Committee Thursday 16th July, Full Council ... preceded by Public Question Time Thursday 23rd July , Planning & Development Committee Tuesday 28th July, Events Committee Thursday 30th July , Assets Committee All meetings start at 6:30 , at Arms Evertyne House
Back in 1999, an emergency IMF loan to Russia of $4.4bn disappeared completely from their central bank within hours of its arrival. You know you're in economic trouble when that kind of thing happens. But I was always fascinated, not so much by the failure of the Russians to rebuild their economy - which they did eventually, after all - but how the ordinary Russian people survived the banks closing and the dwindling of the money circulating around. What Keynes once described as "a perigrination in the catacombs with a guttering candle". They did so partly by growing their own ...
In what has to date been a lacklustre contest to be the next Liberal Democrat leader, in which a number of hard questions may yet need to be asked and answered, I am nonetheless voting for Tim Farron to take the party forwards once again and give the Liberal Democrats a fresh start. My reasoning [...]
[IMG: Wheelchair logo disabled] Generally I don't worry about businesses putting signs outside their shops and businesses, but you've got to be sure they are not blocking the way. A couple of local residents recently mentioned one business to me that was putting three signs on the footpath directly outside their business on Sandgate Esplanade on a very narrow stretch of pavement. The boards completely blocked the pavement: there was no way that you could get a wheelchair or buggy down the pavement without stepping into the road (which is the A259!). A report to Kent Highways later, and I ...
[IMG: Broken bench] A few weeks ago, I raised the poor state of repair of the small kerbside bench on Wilberforce Road just off Sandgate High Street at Sandgate Parish Council. I'm pleased to say that the Council have agreed that it should either refurbished or replaced and we're making progress on getting quotes and agreeing the works. Clearly the bench was placed and paid for in memory of a loved family member and is marked by a plaque, but actually the plaque is about the only remaining peice of the bench still in good order. Hopefully over then next ...
Last week you published a post from me about an elderly prisoner called Bill. In a piece restricted to 500 words some things inevitably get left out which some readers need for clarity. To help Stuart – Mary Reid's helpful comment pointed out that the YOI element at Littlehey opened in 2010. It closed in 2014 to allow the prison to become a full adult prison. Unfortunately the Ministry of Justice website on Littlehey was last updated in April 2013 so doesn't help. However I am sure a phone call to the prison on 01480 335 000 will elicit the ...
Despite my regular complaints about the awful design that disgraces most poll cards, it was only this month whilst reading The British General Election of 1950 that I discovered they were introduced as (relatively) recently as the 1950 general election. Previously political parties had produced their own poll cards, distributing them to voters to tell them when and where to vote, along with their polling number. The Representation of the People Act 1948 changed that, introducing official poll cards and also the ban on anyone else producing imitation poll cards. This was not without controversy, as in the days long ...
Part of the damaged pavement Last year, I highlighted the poor footpath condition on the north side of Perth Road - the slabbed area between Rockfield Street and Hyndford Street. I have continued to receive complaints about its condition and raised the matter again with the City Council. The council's Roads Maintenance Partnership has now advised as follows : "The section of slabbed footway on the north side of Perth Road between Rockfield Street and Hyndford Street is not included in the provisional three year footway resurfacing programme. However, detailed footway scoring is to be carried out city-wide during the ...
Faced with having to either go against what he rather foolishly promised prior to becoming the elected leader of his country, or take said nation to the brink of and possibly over and into disaster, Alex Tsipras decided to fudge it. It was a good fudge, as these things go, I hasten to add: politically, it may turn out brilliantly for him (although the markets this morning appear to disagree). But however it goes, it was a fudge nonetheless. Faced with an impossible choice, he decided to hold a referendum on the matter of Greece's future. I can't decide, Tsipras ...
The Liverpool Echo has the story – see link above. How many of these projects will take off, or if they do, will look as they are represented here is open for debate but one in particular is hugely controversial as it means that the former Futurist Cinema will have to be demolished. The prospect of this has already kick-started a campaign to try to save this interesting building. I took this photo of it a couple of weeks ago:- [IMG: IMG_4914 r] The BBC has this interesting page on the history of the Futurist:- The photo is ...
"Northern Powerhouse" is the phrase of the moment, and beloved of the Conservative government right up to the moment they decided to shelve a whole bunch of important rail projects in the north. But what does it mean? When it comes to cities, size matters. Big cities attract big investment and lots of jobs and prosperity. At 2.7 million people, Manchester's not small, but there are already more than 20 Chinese cities with populations above 4 million and it makes a difference. Big cities have big pools of talent and people with niche skills. In short, there are a whole ...
The Liverpool Echo has the story – see link above – and the moral of the story is that driving down steps leads to a bumpy ride!
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If you think the idea that Greville Janner should face a trial of facts if he is unfit to plead is fanciful, you may be surprised to learn that a former MP faced just such a trial very recently. As Ian Pace reminds us: In 2012, the former Labour MP for Luton South Margaret Moran faced 21 charges of false accounting and forgery of parliamentary expenses involving sums of over £60,000. However, following a psychiatrist's report, Moran was found to be suffering from a depressive illness, with extreme anxiety and agitation, and as such was unfit to stand trial. Nonetheless, ...
