White Whale were unhappy with the Turtles, and the feeling was mutual. The Turtles were White Whale records' only successful act, but their most recent album, Turtle Soup, had been a massive flop. The band had brought in Ray Davies of the Kinks and recorded an album that was equal parts the LA sunshine pop [...]
"Quick question: Which of the two Liberal Democrat leadership candidates was a member of the SDP? The correct answer is, of course, Norman Lamb." Nick Barlow shows that The Economist does not understand the Liberal Democrats. Matthew Green reviews "The 20% strategy: building a core vote for the Liberal Democrats" by David Howarth, and Mark Pack. John Sides tells the real story about how data-driven campaigns target voters. The government's latest plans are sucking the life out of higher education, says Joanna Williams. "If you thought that Harvey Nichols or Topshop were the epitome of a London fashion department store, ...
I like to think Eynsham's ground looks like this David Cameron is a patrician Conservative from a land-owning and banking background. Like most such politicians he is a pragmatist and not greatly interested in ideas for their own sake. He is on record as saying that he wanted to be prime minister "because I think I'd be rather good at it". You sense he went into politics, like many sons of the gentry, to (as they would put it) stop Labour ruining everything. George Osborne is a different animal: urban (he went to St Pauls' rather than Cameron's Eton) and ...
Sat 11th
19:22
Hillary minds her left flank - while Jeb stacks up the money (but is it in the right place?)
There's a lot of those internet/Facebook quizzes going round, as usual. One of them asks several questions to show you which US presidential candidate one comes nearest to, in terms of policy. Strangely enough, I and most of Lib Dem friends come out nearest Bernie Sanders. "Who he? – Ed" – was the first thought that ran through my mind, when that answer came up for me, although I had vaguely heard of the junior senator from Vermont. Is the US the only country where a 73 year-old can be described as "junior"? And is it wrong that whenever Vermont ...
Sat 11th
18:39Guy Verhofstadt tears into Greece/Alexis Tsipras in the European parliament - and the reply
Newshound covered this on Thursday, but here's a second chance to view Guy Verhofstadt, Member of the European Parliament and leader of the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, telling Alexis Tsipras very precisely and passionately what Greece has to do. It's a real zinger of a speech (and much better than Nigel Farage's foghorned nonsense). If you haven't seen this, it's well worth looking at. It's the one commentary on the Greek situation which, for me, has made real sense: And this is Mr Tsipras' reply, delivered with a smile: * Paul Walter is a ...
[IMG: Final leadership hustings - Farron, Lamb and Tope] No mentions of Malta from the leadership candidates. Disappointing but redeemed by one of the audience talking about going on holiday to Malta. Hello, Sutton Lib Dems http://t.co/ioNOW0i24e — Mark Pack (@markpack) July 11, 2015 For some other more substantive policy points, see the answers to my question on economic policies from earlier today. 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 ...
The Liverpool Echo has the story – see link above. This is a follow up to the raids in Liddell Avenue, Melling of a couple of days ago.
When Liberal Democrat councillors at County Hall initiated a 'scrutiny' into the scope and efficiency of the Hertfordshire schools repair and maintenance programme, little did they expect to learn that the county's schools are in such bad condition relative to other education authorities. Evidence given to the councillors by the county's officers included the government [...]
Sat 11th
15:20Dangling on a rope, pulling pints, catching the tube - photos of Nick Clegg by the party's official ...
[IMG: nick clegg with diver 17th April 2015 Photo by James Gourley from Liberal Democrats CCL Flickr photostream] James Gourley worked for Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats as our official photographer until May. He's put up some super photos on this blog post. Nick is seen at Go Ape where he famously went during the election, on the campaign bus, behind the scenes at Conference, sitting on the Government benches in the House of Commons, feeding a sea lion, waiting to catch a tube. He was even smiling when he was doing that! You can see him delivering leaflets, ...
Sat 11th
14:22
Osborne's Budget is another nail in the coffin for comprehensive and high quality public services
People have different ideas on what makes public services viable. If you take the purpose of services such as the NHS to be meeting the needs of the population, then it is almost inevitable that, at times, they will run at a deficit, as government funding lags demand. This is certainly true of many NHS [...]
The Confederate Flag came down for the last time yesterday at the South Carolina State House. It's worth watching this speech below from South Carolina Representative Joseph Neal (thanks to Taegan Goddard's Political Wire). It is a moving and dignified speech, which well explains the significance of the Confederate battle flag finally being consigned to a museum. He made the speech during the debate in the South Carolinian State legislature on the subject of the flag. Matthew Teague writes an excellent article about the event over on the Guardian, concluding: The crowd vibrated with emotion, both contentious and euphoric, making ...
Sat 11th
12:20Two ways to find out more about the Ethnic Minorities Liberal Democrats Leadership Hustings
[IMG: cropped EMLD logo] Last week, Ethnic Minorities Liberal Democrats held a very good hustings event in London where Tim Farron and Norman Lamb were put through their paces. You can listen to the whole thing here on Soundcloud. You can also read Lester Holloway's report of for The Voice here. TWO MEN hoping to become leader of the Liberal Democrats have both backed affirmative action to fast-track race equality as they made a last-ditch bid to win over black party activists. Tim Farron and Norman Lamb, the contenders to replace Nick Clegg who resigned after his party suffered humiliating ...
This week marks the 20th anniversary of the worst genocide in Europe since the Second World War. The death toll in Srebrenica was more than 8,000 Bosniak men and boys, gunned down by the Bosnian Serbs under the generalship of Ratko Mladic, who remains on trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia for [...]
Lib Dem Future is a conglomerated blog for members of the Lib Dems. There are a number of such blogs, sometimes linked to particular ideologies or interests and sometimes of a more general nature. The objective of Lib Dem Future is to be a non ideological blog for members. We promote all forms of liberalism [...]
Sat 11th
10:55
Spotted in the wild: leadership candidates' economic policies - along with more housing detail
Yesterday I ran the answers from Norman Lamb and Tim Farron to my question about Chris Rennard's future role in the party. Today it's the turn of the long lost economic policies of the candidates, along with housing. On economic policy, it's great to see both put a big emphasis on productivity – something which I've argued (successfully) for on Federal Policy Committee. Productivity needs to become a priority for our policy making as it's one of the country's major challenges, yet also an area where current policy is rather thin. As you might be able to guess from the ...
Today, July 11th, is Srebrenica Memorial Day, "when we pay tribute to the victims of the Genocide, sending a clear message to future generations to say 'Never Again'". Those words are taken from the website of the organisation Remembering Srebrenica who had a stand at our Liverpool conference last March. There have been events marking the 20th anniversary of the massacre all over the country this week, and they will culminate today. Here is a list of the events across the country. This genocide happened in Europe "on our watch". It is just appalling to contemplate the cold-blooded horror of ...
The podcast versions of the California Dreaming posts on Never Learn Not To Love and Frownland are now up. Proper post later.
A tweet from the Labour leader of Newcastle City Council won the internet yesterday. It shows the candidates for North West Durham in the 1992 election. Labour's Hilary Armstrong represented the seat from 1987-2010, but her opponents in 1992 were interesting. There was one Theresa May for the Conservatives looking like she was about to leap out of the photograph and eat you if you disagreed with her and a very youthful Tim Farron. He was just a month shy of his 22nd birthday when he stood in that election. Thanks to my dad's pile of old newspapers, here are ...
The Liberal Democrats famously blocked Tory plans to equalise UK Parliamentary constituencies in retaliation for them blocking the reform of the House of Lords, but now that Cameron has a majority he can go-ahead and do it anyway. The question is, will he? According to the Independent, delivering this reduction in the number of MPs is going to be no easier now than it was with a coalition government. They say that the move to reduce the number of parliamentary seats from 650 to 600 risks a rebellion among Tory MPs who believe the House of Commons should remain at ...
Dominic Lieven's well-received study of the outbreak of the First World War from the Russian perspective, Towards the Flame: Empire, War and the End of Tsarist Russia, takes a thorough and well-executed look at familiar events from an unfamiliar perspective: Russia's. [IMG: Towards the Flame - Dominic Lieven] Lieven's basic argument is that the causes and course of the First World War were predominantly Eastern European, an emphasis which has been lost in previous concentrations on western tension over matters such as the British-German naval race. It's more a great book than an enjoyable one, for the blizzard of names ...
At the far end of the Liverpool bound platform of Maghull railway station is this sign:- [IMG: Maghull Station 18 06 15 Samaritans] A sobering thing to see on a railway platform but we can only hope that if it is seen by someone who is desperate and in need of a kind and friendly ear that they do call this number.
[IMG: sfhrsweb5] I'm really chuffed that my expose of shockingly low school food hygiene standards two years ago has crystallised into massive improvements. But their is still more that needs to be done. Southwark's 118 school, nurseries and colleges now have 95 x 5 stars, 18 x 4 stars, 4 x 3 stars and 1 x 2 stars – and that school has asked for a re-inspection and talking to them I think will do much better. Lambeth is now trailing behind Southwark on this with of its 99 schools 85 x 5 stars, 9 x 4 stars, 2 x ...
[IMG: Thetis Memoria at Woodside] [IMG: Thetis Crest] On the riverside near to Woodside Ferry Terminal in Birkenhead there sits this memorial to the submariners who perished in the 1939 disaster. She sank during trials on 1 June 1939 with the loss of 99 lives. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Thetis_%28N25%29 Thetis had been built in Birkenhead at the Cammell Laird shipyard. The photos are amongst my Flickr shots at:- www.flickr.com/photos/86659476@N07/
So this graph from the Economist showing how the distribution of the global population is projected to change is pretty interesting. The stand out facts for me are: 1) Africa is expanding, whilst Europe will relatively speaking decline. In 1950, there were no African countries among the ten most populated countries in the world. By 2050, [...]
Taking one's holiday in England is not the done thing – at least, it's not the done thing if you're middle class. Even holidaying in a cheap and ready Greek resort is more acceptable within English bourgeois mores; the whole concept of the "holiday" means by definition almost, an escape from England. This is nothing new, either. George Orwell wrote in the 1930s about how the upper middle class English all had summer homes in Scotland. To have one in England was practically an admittance of destitution. No, what has changed over the last half century has been where the ...
Last month, I called on mobile phone network providers to take a more sympathetic approach to residential amenity when upgrading mobile phone masts. This follows news that one applicant, Wilkinson Helsby, plans to upgrade a mast in Perth Road near to Glamis Road but replace the current mast which is disguised as a telegraph pole (see photo) with an undisguised mast. I wrote to Wilkinson Helsby asking them to think again about the type of mast to be used and provide one that will not impact adversely on the look of the area. However, in response, the company has now ...
LEGO Dimensions - Doctor Who SDCC Trailer - the Lego Daleks are cute but OMG LEGO COLIN YAAAAAAY Need to know if you're near a spot where a woman made history? there's an app for that. Six Nations to remain free-to-air following Welsh Lib Dem campaign Sikh postman 'wins turban battle with Disney' - You go, Mr Singh. The Time for Britain's 'New Federalism' by @TimFarron - I like paragraph 9 myself. No, YOU would sell your Grandma to get a Sixth Doctor minifig. In which @markpack shows his skill at clickbait headlines - & @timfarron shows why I am ...
The first Conservative budget in nearly 20 years fails to offer the positive vision that Wales desperately needs. This budget fails to offer the positive vision that Wales desperately needs. When today's budget fireworks fizzle out, thousands of public sector workers, families and young people face another four years struggling to get by. The Welsh Liberal Democrats wanted to hear measures setting out how we stop Wales' economy from lagging behind the rest of the UK. We wanted to see plans for a greener UK and policies to help people make the very best of their lives. Sadly, these were ...
