< [IMG: Featured on Liberal Democrat Voice] /> 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 ...
Exciting news from the Mercury: Leicester's first cat cafe will open in Francis Street, Stoneygate, next month. Read more on the cafe's website Cats, Cakes and Coffee.
By Lib Dem Future ALTER is the party's Associated Organisation that deals with Land Value Taxation and Economic Reform. Questions were asked of both to express their views on subjects which were of interest to ALTER. This allows a judgement to be made about which is more favourable to the ideas of implementing Land Value [...]
The Social Liberal Forum Conference ended yesterday with a 90 minute hustings between Tim Farron and Norman Lamb. Both men turned up dressed in very similar clothes. As I tweeted at the time, if they had been women, we'd never have heard the end of it. It was a lively event, not least because they did allow questions from the floor that hadn't been submitted in advance – and they allowed supplementaries. The candidates were both put under more pressure than they had been at any other event I'd seen so far. There is nothing wrong with vanilla ice cream, ...
Inspired by a newspaper report that it may be converted to a hotel, I visited Leicester Central yesterday. This was the city's station on the Great Central line to Marylebone. It opened in 1899 and closed in 1969, having for the last three years been an unstaffed halt on the diesel multiple unit service from Rugby to Nottingham Arkwright Street. It must have been an eerie place to catch a train in those days. The main building survives, though minus its clock tower, and is now home to a number of car repair businesses. (I did ask before taking a ...
Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 421st weekly round-up from the Lib Dem blogosphere ... Featuring the seven most popular stories beyond Lib Dem Voice according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (-, 2015), together with a hand-picked quintet, you might otherwise have missed. There may be one or two from the week before, as the Dozen didn't appear last week. Don't forget: you can sign up to receive the Golden Dozen direct to your email inbox — just click here — ensuring you never miss out on the best of Lib Dem blogging. As ever, let's start with the ...
[IMG: Lib Dem 2015 leadership election ballot paper] More details from party leadership candidate Norman Lamb on his plans for reforming the Liberal Democrats: Inspiring, engaging and motivating members will be a priority of the Lib Dems under my leadership. It is critical that new members are enthused and involved as quickly as possible after they join. I will ask the Membership Department at HQ to set up a regular Member Engagement Day on at least a quarterly basis. Members will be able to sign up to come to London to find out more about the Party HQ, tour the ...
My review of the Social Liberal Forum conference, held in July 2015.
At the next Council Meeting Erica and I are proposing 3 resolutions. The first has been done jointly with Steve Radford and relates to the Liverpool City Region. This is one that we have put down relating to Sefton Park ... Continue reading →
Sun 5th
16:34
Alistair Carmichael wants Orkney and Shetland to control their share of the Crown Estates
[IMG: st Andrews flag saltire scotland Some rights reserved by Fulla T] Alistair Carmichael has tabled an amendment to the Scotland Bill which would devolve control of the Crown Estates revenues to local level for Orkney and Shetland and, interestingly, the Western Isles. The Independent has the story: Mr Carmichael said that the SNP administration is "in practice and instinct a highly centralised government" and did not want "devolution downwards". Under his plan, the islands would have their own commissioners deciding how Crown Estate land is run. He added that the Crown Estate owns and manages the seabed, which is ...
[IMG: Poll piechart] The latest quarterly update to my spreadsheet of opinion poll data since 1943 is now up at: http://www.markpack.org.uk/opinion-polls/ You can also sign up on that page to get email notifications about future updates. Aside from another three months of data, this update includes numerous additions and corrections to historic data, especially from the 1950s and in large part thanks to Stephen Fisher who kindly shared his research with me. Enjoy!
Lindsay steadily improving since her nephrectomy 9 days ago, and she managed to get the district nurse to come in and change the dressings today. The main exit wound via which the kidney was extracted is still a bit sore but the nurse said it was OK. She has gone out for a gentle walk in the park with her friend Mary. I'm also making satisfactory progress three days post angioplasty. Discharge note reads: 'Elective admission for left leg angioplasty - critical limb ischaemia, ulcers and rest pain, due to SFA occlusion. Angioplasty performed to good effect, patient discharged the ...
I had a good time yesterday at the Social Liberal Forum conference, despite the sauna-like nature of some sessions (who knew that 200 people stuck in a room with only a couple of fans would get so hot?) but there was a comment made in one session that I wanted to address. One of the participants in the session on political pluralism was former Tory MEP Tom Spencer, who talked about how he didn't think the Liberal Democrats should be part of a 'progressive majority' but should be a continental style liberal centrist party that alternated between supporting governments of ...
From one leadership contest to another. Lib Dem members are currently voting for either Tim Farron or Norman Lamb. Both are great candidates, though I've made no secret of who I am backing. I've put a lot of thought into how the next Lib Dem leader should set out our stall, what our key messages should be, how we communicate with voters and turn small 'l' liberals in Liberal Democrat supporters.
After Jeremy Corbyn announced his decision to enter the race for leadership of the Labour party, I blogged about the impact this would have - particularly in terms on who the Unions should back. Corbyn is the natural choice for the Unions - he's standing to keep the old, left-wing politics of Labour relevant (or perhaps, to stop the party moving even further to the right.) But the Union leaders must realise how niche this political approach has become, and the potentially devastating effect of Corbyn's leadership on any upcoming election result....
[IMG: 7 ver 4 full] Many thanks to the 10,800 visitors who dropped by Lib Dem Voice this week. Here's our 7 most-read posts... A small step for trust in the manifesto (126 comments) by Joe Otten Lib Dem Geraldine Locke takes safe Tory seat in Richmond (38 comments) by The Voice Opinion: the twin conceits that damaged the Lib Dems' electoral hopes in 2015 (37 comments) by David Thorpe Opinion: Paddy Ashdown's appeal to Greens and Labour (63 comments) by Roger Lake Opinion: General election 2015 – The rise of UKIP and the Tory decapitation strategy (27 comments) by ...
Sun 5th
12:20The leadership candidates in the Sunday papers: Compassion for migrants to ageing hippies and winnin...
[IMG: sundaypaps] There's quite a bit from Norman Lamb and Tim Farron in the Sunday papers today, all of which shows off our two leadership contenders at the best, challenging orthodoxy with fresh liberal thinking based on principles. The Labour leadership candidates (with the exception of Comrade Corbyn) might like to try that sort of thing sometimes. It really can be quite invigorating. The Observer highlights Tim Farron's call for the UK to take 60,000 migrants as part of an EU arrangement to help these desperate people who have been fleeing horrible circumstances. "We should support this because we are ...
Community politics is an approach that is dear to the hearts of Liberal Democrats. This is because it is both effective and an ideologically sound approach. The core idea is that local activists find an issue, for example the existence of a litter problem in a park. They fix this, which would fall within the [...]
Changes to MP's expenses regime have meant that they can no longer buy properties in central London with taxpayer's money. Instead they have to rent or use a hotel. This has caused some angst for many MPs but also some controversy, with some honourable members letting properties they own whilst renting another one nearby with their allowances. However, at least one politician has found a solution to this problem. The Black Dog column in the Mail on Sunday reports that new Yorkshire Labour MP Jo Cox has taken to living in a cosy houseboat near Tower Bridge. Her problems came ...
ALTER is an Associated Organisation within the Liberal Democrats dedicated to advancing the causes of the Land Value Tax and other economic reforms. We chose to use the leadership contest as an opportunity. We are aware that party policy is not determined by the leader, it is instead determined democratically by members at federal conferences. However, it is our experience that the leader has a large amount of influence in terms of which policies are given priority. So although motions and amendments on the Land Value Tax have been regularly passed at conference with near unanimity, the party has largely ...
[IMG: The Long Dark Tea-time of the Soul (Dirk Gently, #2)] The Long Dark Tea-time of the Soul by Douglas Adams My rating: 3 of 5 stars It was ok. This might be something of a heresy but I found it overly pretentious. The conceit of the story was quite good, but it was overly long for what it was, and a bit too much of it's time. I mean it's not like Adams could have KNOWN about the demise of British Rail or the restoration of St Pancras or handheld TVs never really catching on or all the other ...
Some great photo's here of Liverpool's landmarks being built – see Liverpool Echo link above. [IMG: Liver Building, Liverpool r] [IMG: Liver Building another view r] The photos above are ones I have taken of a certain iconic Liverpool building as it is now. They are on my Flickr page at:- www.flickr.com/photos/86659476@N07/
The Observer reports: Tim Farron has called on Britain to welcome about 60,000 non-EU migrants into the country as part of a joint European response to the growing refugee crisis. Farron, who is fighting former health minister Norman Lamb for the right to succeed Nick Clegg, told the Observer that his party should show compassion by supporting an EU quota system under which refugees would be shared out between member states. "We should support this because we are decent people. Our party should not have a mixed message about this. We should not turn people away," he said. The former ...
One by one, they are leaving. The other day I posted an England team photograph from the 1977 Ashes series. Only afterwards did I notice that three of them (Bob Woolmer, Graham Roope, Tony Greig) have already died. And, because my musical heart is in the Sixties, this Sunday video slot could easily become an obituary feature. So I shall take care that it does not. But Val Doonican is worth noticing for two reasons. First, because younger generations will have no idea how popular a figure he was in his heyday. The Val Doonican Music Show ran on BBC1 ...
This Liverpool Echo story brought back painful memories for me of the failed campaign to try to save Woodend Primary School from closure some years back. I know how the parents and campaigners must feel, their determination to win the battle and the community's feeling of loss should the school close. I went though all those emotions with Woodend and I think it fair to say that my old chum Andrew Blackburn, who led the Woodend campaign, was utterly devastated when the final closure came about. In the modern world the issue of 'bums on seats' is what makes ...
At first sight, this cartoon from the 1950 general election (found in The British General Election of 1950) is rather bizarre: why would people be covering up election posters when the police are passing by? [IMG: Low 1950 election cartoon - Evening Standard] The answer lies in the Representation of the People Act 1948 and has rather striking modern echoes. That act tidied up the rules around election expense controls, with a new, broader definition of the prohibition on campaign expenditure not authorised by an agent or candidate. When it went through Parliament it received little attention and seemed to ...
It's time for Liberal Democrats to get serious about England. Although we are, in theory, a federal party, we certainly don't act like it in practice. In Scotland we stand as the Scottish Liberal Democrats. In Wales we stand as the Welsh Liberal Democrats/Democratiaid Rhyddfrydol Cymru. But in England we just stand as the Liberal Democrats. We have Scottish and Welsh conferences to handle Scottish and Welsh policy but no English conference so our "federal" conference is dominated by policy on England only matters. We have federal committees in the party but they have Scottish and Welsh representatives added on ...
The Beastie Boys broke into mainstream consciousness with their 1986 album Licensed to Ill. It was a somewhat silly and juvenile record in many respects and the group subsequently, in the glare of fame's embrace, played up to the image created by the record: at one point they allegedly destroyed a hotel room by trying to use a shower as a water tank; Ad-Rock was arrested in Liverpool for assault after their 1987 show there descended into a riot; their stage show involved a gigantic, inflatable phallus. But as soon as they had appeared, they seemingly faded back into the ...
From the Curator of Museum Services at the University of Dundee : Specially curated for Print Festival Scotland, this new exhibition features a personal selection of prints from the University's collection made by renowned artist and printmaker Jim Pattison. Now open at the Tower Foyer Gallery in the Tower Building, University of Dundee, it runs until 26th September. Jim is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University. He studied at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art from 1973-79 and taught in Fine Art there from 1990 until 2002. He says: "I was very pleased to be offered the opportunity to ...
Blind Pug adopted by judge. The video at the bottom is <3 <3 <3 How to do an apology by James Robinson *applause* [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
