Obviously, I don't have a dog in the increasingly curious fight that is the contest for the Labour Party leadership. Indeed, it isn't important to me who wins, although the views they advance will be of interest in due course. But the emerging fears amongst those within the Labour Party who are stepping forward to condemn Jeremy Corbyn seem to demonstrate something that I've suspected for some time, i.e. that there is a divergence between some senior Labour figures and their membership base. It doesn't take a genius to spot that, here in Suffolk, most of the buzz is pro-Corbyn. ...

Posted by Mark Valladares on Liberal Bureaucracy
Wed 22nd
22:09

Soggy Syriza???

The phrase coined by Danny Alexander and blogged about here regarding a supposed 'danger' of the LibDems becoming a 'soggy Syriza' is revealing. Syriza came to power in Greece on a wave of great hope and expectation that this (supposedly) radical government would tell the ECB, the IMF and the Germans where to stick their crippling austerity measures. After a nearly two-thirds vote against a ruthless package of cuts in Tspiras' referendum, the Syriza government turned round and then themselves stuck two-fingers up at the Greek people before meekly accepting even harsher cuts imposed by the ECB/EU than was the ...

Posted by James on Badly Drawn Llama

Freedom of movement is one of the pillars of the European single market, something that is not only good for business and the economy but good for individuals as well, as a majority of younger people in this country understand. Yet the Conservative government, egged on by the more repulsive elements of the right-wing Press, [...]

Posted by jonathanfryer on Jonathan Fryer

If you read some commentators, you'd think that in less than a week of leadership, Tim Farron had virtually turned us all into revolutionary socialists. Matt Dahan wrote a story for the Independent which suggested that Nick Clegg would be "shaking his ... Continue reading →

Posted by caronlindsay on Caron's Musings

The Government has ignored Electoral Commission advice and brought forward changes to the way we register to vote. Individual electoral registration was brought in during the last Parliament, but electoral registers would have contained existing data until 1 December 2016. They have now moved this forward to 1 December this year. Liberal Democrat peers didn't miss this announcement sneaking out as MPs and Peers head off for Summer recess and they have laid down motions in both houses of Parliament to try to defeat it. The Guardian has the details; The Electoral Commission had advised the government in June to ...

Posted by Caron Lindsay on Liberal Democrat Voice

I picked this up one day in a bookshop under the mistaken impression that the writer was a Nobel Prize winner (I think I mixed her up with Elfried Jelinek). It's pretty awful. The narrator is a New York psychiatrist who is in love with his lodger, having a love affair with one of his colleagues, and untangling family secrets of his own (not that exciting) and his lodger (a bit more exciting). There are lots of old letters written between Norwegian forebears, and traumatic memories of 9/11. It did very little for me.

My political co-ordinates. 11.1% Right, 72.2% Liberal. I think previously I've been put slightly on the left. Must be moving rightwards with age!

Posted on Martin Petts

During the leadership campaign, Tim Farron's stock hustings speech and question answers (except on one notable occasion) started with extensive praise for Nick Clegg and repeatedly talked up both what the party had achieved in coalition and the benefits of being in a future coalition. That was smart tactical positioning for the campaign because Farron knew that those more critical of Clegg and coalition would almost certainly vote for him anyway in a choice versus Norman Lamb, whilst those more warmly disposed to both could be won over by such comments. However, as Tim's comments since he won the Lib ...

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

Jeremy Corbyn. Wow. Seriously what a run this is. This is a bit like the time Michelle McManus came from a 50/1 outsider to storm through and win whatever Simon Cowell show she won, was it Pop Idol? He got on the ballot in a blaze of MPs feeling guilty and wanting to have a proper debate about where the party were and where they were going. Now he is third favourite but coming in at a rapid pace on Betfair and indeed in the first poll (YouGov/The Times) it was predicted that he would actually win the Labour Labourship ...

Posted by neilmonnery on The Rambles of Neil Monnery

[IMG: Ben Rich] Smart move by Tim Farron appointing the person who masterminded his leadership campaign, Ben Rich, as his interim Chief of Staff. Smart for two reasons. First, Ben Rich played a very effective role before and during the leadership campaign – and I've filed away a few of his emails in the 'classy messages to be used for future inspiration' file. Second, although he has not been high profile in the party in recent years, his roots in the party run back decades, including as a student activist and a stint working in the policy team at party ...

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack
YouGov

[IMG: Police-new1] The 2012 Police & Crime Commissioner elections in England and Wales caused much heartache in the party. Whether to stand candidates, to stand aside or most controversially of all to support other (perhaps independent) candidates. ALDC was consistent throughout that is was the responsibility of local parties to stand Lib Dem candidates. The mantra "always stand [...]

At the AGM of the APPG on Dalits on July 6 I was re-elected as vice-chair, Jeremy Corbyn and Richard Harries remaining as co-Chairs. The Group arranged to pepper the Government with questions to pin down their intentions about the legislation agreed as long ago as April 20013, to add caste to the listed characteristics in the Equality Act. The Government are now arguing that the case of Tirkey v Chandhok is a precedent for cases of caste discrimination, but the judge in that case said the court was addressing the particular circumstances of the case, and the determination wouldn't ...

Posted by Eric Avebury on Eric Avebury

If you read some commentators, you'd think that in less than a week of leadership, Tim Farron had virtually turned us all into revolutionary socialists. Matt Dahan wrote a story for the Independent which suggested that Nick Clegg would be "shaking his head" in "uncomfortable dismay" at Tim Farron's bid to "form a Lib/Lab pact" to oppose welfare cuts. The former deputy prime minister has been left sitting on the backbenches in the House of Commons, where he is forced to choose between toeing the party line or causing what would be a major rebellion in a party of just ...

Posted by Caron Lindsay on Liberal Democrat Voice

[IMG: The Three-Body Problem (Three-Body, #1)] The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin OK, as usual for a book that's going on my Abandoned shelf, I'm not rating this. I have tried so hard to read it, but I just cannot get into it at all. I don't care about any of the characters, and even were I to start to care, there's so many of them and they appear or disappear entirely at random (or so it feels to me). There's just nothing hooking me into the story. I am reliably informed that the story is good, and I'm sure ...

[IMG: opposition]

Posted by Iain Roberts on Keith, Graham and Iain

A new, but still preliminary, tranche of analysis is out from the British Election Study on why the 2015 general election polls were so wrong: We previously identified five possible explanations: 1) "don't knows" shifting, 2) a late swing among voters, 3) Shy Tories, 4) problems achieving a representative sample and 5) differential turnout... The post-election data immediately casts doubt on two of the theories. In our campaign wave, 7% of people said that they "don't know" who they would vote for. In the post-election survey (when we can see how undecided respondents ended up voting), we find a very ...

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

Catherine West became the Labour MP for Hornsey and Wood Green in May this year. I spoke to thousands of voters before the election on behalf of Catherine's opponent, the sitting MP Lynne Featherstone (Lib Dem). The voters who told me they were supporting Catherine West said they felt it was the only way to stop the Tories.

Regular readers of this blog (if there are any) will know that I am a great admirer of the systems thinker John Seddon. He remains a controversial, even embattled figure, but I'm sorry he is no longer writing his furious e-newsletter about public services. I suppose, if you have not been well, it makes sense to calm down a little. But it always raised the blood pressure to read it; goodness knows what it must have been like to write it. Seddon's great insight is the existence, in any system, of what he called 'failure demand' - the avoidable pressure ...

Posted by David Boyle on The Real Blog

Sally Hamwee has been writing for Politics Home about her attempts to have Cannabis legalised for medicinal use. She firstly outlined the need: Medicinal herbal cannabis is very effective for many people (not all) suffering from some very severe and debilitating conditions, the spasms and cramps associated with multiple sclerosis and spinal cord damage, Parkinson's Disease and some of the symptoms of cancer and of the treatment of cancer among them. It is available in 23 states of the USA, Canada, Israel and Netherlands from where it is exported to several other countries of the EU. But not - legally ...

Posted by NewsHound on Liberal Democrat Voice
Wed 22nd
13:04

Haematology

Blood results last 10 months 22.07 3.07 17.06 9.06 27.05 25.03 2.03 21.02 24.12 26.11 Normal Hb 100 104 107 93 96 98 98 101 104 109 130-180 WBC 3.19 2.85 2.25 2.55 2.91 3.15 3.36 3.52 4.00 3.02 4.5-10.0 Neutrophils 1.2 1.16 1.17 1.14 1.3 1.57 1.78 1.6 1.8 1.16 2.0-7.5 Plt 325 249 232 296 342 369 449 494 551 391 150-450 Hydroxycarbamide to be 3 times a week. Hb increased in June following a transfusion, but it could be expected to dip below 100 now, even with the low dose of hydroxycarbamide.

Posted by Eric Avebury on Eric Avebury
eUKhost

[IMG: Screen Shot 2015-07-22 at 08.23.03] Lib Dems will be familiar with the many petitions launched by 38 degrees attacking us during the Coalition years in which the iniquities of the changes to benefits was a constant theme. Given that 38 degrees have frequently said that they do not support the Labour Party, it might have been expected that they would have something to say about Labour's extraordinary decision to abstain in the vote on the Welfare Reform and Work Bill on Monday evening- but they have been silent. The nice balance - 184 Labour MPs abstaining with a Govt ...

Posted by Simon McGrath on Liberal Democrat Voice

In July 2013 the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government [SSCLG] issued a Written Ministerial Statement [WMS] providing that Traveller Appeals in the Green Belt [GB] would no longer be decided by independent Inspectors but were 'recovered' - that is, decided by the SS himself. Rather than being issued around 8 weeks after the hearing, these recovered Appeals took literally years. Two Travellers, Mrs Moore and Mrs Coates, challenged the WMS in Court and on January 21, 2015 Mr Justice Gilbart allowed both of their Judicial Review applications. The judge said: "I have found that the challenges based ...

Posted by Eric Avebury on Eric Avebury
Wed 22nd
12:00

Get set for freshers

[IMG: Freshers Fairs are fast approaching] If you've got a university, further education or sixth form colleges in your area, then now is the time to be preparing for freshers' fairs in the Autumn. In many places there are already active Liberal Youth branches who will often take the lead on these, but it's important to give these groups as much [...]

[IMG: chapmansilly] Somewhere in Labour HQ this morning, a junior apparatchik is frantically scouring the party constitution and rulebook, attempting to find a Graham Chapman Rule that allows the party's NEC to step in and declare that the leadership election is over because it's all getting too silly. I'll admit that my own party's leadership election has been occupying my attention for the last couple of months, so I may have missed some developments in Labour's but it does appear to have gone particularly silly over the last few days, culminating in a poll that shows Jeremy Corbyn could actually ...

Posted by Nick on What You Can Get Away With

There are a set of council by elections this week with Lib Dem interest. In the south there is a contest in a ward that is currently held by the party in Long Ditton. In the north there are two contests against Labour. In Blackburn with Darwen the party in fighting for the Mill Hill [...]

Posted by libdemviewseditor on libdemfuture

Nick Clegg has been spending a lot of time in his constituency recently. He was there regularly as Deputy Prime Minister, but now he unconstrained by office, he can afford to get up there during the week. He spoke to the Star: The 'trappings of power' have gone, with a security team reduced, the ministerial Blackberry returned and fewer staff - it is a big change from striding along the corridors of power in Whitehall to campaigning on tree felling in Sheffield. As it happens I'm really enjoying having more time to work in the constituency again," insists Mr Clegg. ...

Posted by NewsHound on Liberal Democrat Voice

[IMG: Early selection has helped Portsmouth weather the storm] After a long period of success, the last two years have been tough for Portsmouth Lib Dems. Like many others, it has been hard to keep voters on board and several council seats have been lost narrowly. As part of Portsmouth's fight back, early selection of candidates for next year's local elections was a must [...]

Six books, nearly all fun to read (expect perhaps one that is rather technical, with more in the way of regression equations than memorable case studies) and all packed full of useful election winning and party rebuilding advice. [IMG: The Unfinished Revolution - Philip Gould] The Unfinished Revolution: How New Labour Changed British Politics Forever by Philip Gould New Labour may seem a more obvious hate figure for Liberal Democrats than something to learn from, yet the basic challenge Labour's modernisers faced is the same as that faced by the Liberal Democrats now. How do you make the public think ...

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

[IMG: The LGA Lib Dems support Liberal Democrat council groups across the country] Our colleagues at the LGA Lib Dem group have prepared a template press release and figures on the replacement of student maintenance grants. ALDC members can download the template as an MS Word file and the figures as an MS Excel spreadsheet from our File Library. If you're not currently an ALDC member, but would [...]

Posted by Craig Whittall on Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors

Flashback - Paul Hulbert and Tony Davis at the Abbotswood junction Proposals are being developed to reduce accidents and hazards at the Rodford Way / Abbotswood junction and the offset junction between Shire Way, Rodford Way and Sundridge Park. Ideas on the table at the moment are as follows: Prohibiting U-turns on Rodford Way near the Abbotswood junction, with a short length of central island being put in the mouth of Abbotswood (to reduce the near-misses between U-turning traffic and vehicles continuing along the road)An advisory 20 mph limit on Rodford Way near the Kelston Close junction, marked by flashing ...

Posted by Paul Hulbert on Focus on Sodbury, Yate and Dodington

On Monday night, Paddy Ashdown took to Reddit to take questions from Liberal Democrat members and supporters. Here are some of the highlights: Power to the people: Hi Paddy, How do you think the State should be reinvented? Which parts of the State would you shrink, and which part would you grow? Which Departments and bodies should the party seek to abolish, and which ones should we expand or create? An Example would be the Scotland Office. Should we abolish it or should we merge it with the Wales and Northern Ireland Offices? And what about Departments such as BIS ...

Posted by Caron Lindsay on Liberal Democrat Voice

Welcome to the 1950 general election and the Bury St Edmunds constituency. The Conservative candidate, William Aitken (nephew of Lord Beaverbrook and father of disgraced Conservative MP Jonathan Aitken), gathered 18,107 signatures on his nomination papers. Only 10 were required. When it came to polling day, he secured 22,559 votes – a healthy margin of victory and also only a small margin beyond the nomination signature tally. This is an extreme example of something that used to be common: having a large number of nomination signatures as a show of strength and making a fuss over their submission. With political ...

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

On April 3, 1982, the then leader of the opposition, Michael Foot, gave what has been rightly identified as one of the great speeches in the House of Commons during the last century. "I must tell the House that the Falkland Islands and their dependencies remain British territory. No aggression and no invasion can alter that simple fact. It is the Government's objective to see that the islands are freed from occupation and are returned to British administration at the earliest possible moment." Foot then went on to allude to the idea that perhaps Thatcher would go easy on the ...

Posted by Nick on nicktyrone.com

[IMG: hellyes] This was the response of the political party that used to say it represented the the poor and dispossessed. Those Red Tories must be felling very proud of themselves. With credit for the slogan above to 38 Degrees

Posted by Cllr. Tony Robertson on Sefton Focus » Sefton Focus

July days are full of Hollyhocks Day lilies Crocosmia Roses Shady corners Big blue skies and lots of Weeding, deadheading and watering...

Posted by Trisha xx on ripplestone review

The Ministry of Justice is consulting on the future of courts services in the North West of England. (Similar consultations are happening throughout the country.) The proposals as they stand are that a large number of courts would close, with their work transferred to a smaller number of courts (e.g. Manchester). Courts proposed for closure include both Bury Magistrates and County Courts, and also the County Court at Bolton, and both Courts in Oldham. We are being invited to have our say on this consultation by 18 November 2015. Details of how members of the public can have their say ...

Posted by prestwichfocus on Tim Pickstone

Bury is being graced with a visit by the William Webb Ellis trophy (the Rugby World Cup) as part of its national tour in the run up to the Rugby World Cup. Bury is one of only four locations in the north west that the Cup will be visiting. The Cup will be on display at the Rock Shopping Centre (outside Costa Coffee near M&S) on 28 July between 8am and 10am. It promises to be a great event. [IMG: sli_rwc_trophy_tour_ukire_11]

Posted by prestwichfocus on Tim Pickstone

As people will know we sometimes share the efforts of local people in our emails – please do let me know if you ever have something that would be usefully shared across Prestwich. "Planet of the Grapes : The Wine Machine." is a second cartoon book from local Prestwich author David Adamson. David Adamson (see author page on Amazon) writes hand-drawn graphic novels in full colour, all drawn without the use of a computer. David tells us his books are not just children's books, but appeal to a much wider audience. younger children like the colourful drawings, older readers will ...

Posted by prestwichfocus on Tim Pickstone

This comes from a Government press release from the Dept. of Environment, Food & Rural Affairs. All well and good but here in Sefton the Labour-run Borough Council is hell bent on concreting over our high grade agricultural land! Government-backed Food Enterprise Zones (FEZ) will create more than 10,000 new jobs, support tourism and inject investment into rural communities across the country. More than 10,000 new jobs are set to be added to the UK's growing food and farming industry as a network of new food hubs takes shape across England with building work expected to begin early next year, ...

Posted by Cllr. Tony Robertson on Sefton Focus » Sefton Focus

Further to my item last week about the overflowing recycling at the Roseangle Recycling Centre, I am pleased to advise that the City Council has now updated me as follows : "I am pleased to inform you that the following works will be undertaken as soon as possible this week at Roseangle Mini Recycling Centre (no later than Thursday 23rd July). • The current large glass containers will be removed and replaced with a smaller 3 chamber glass unit to create space.• One additional plastics container will be installed.• One additional paper and cardboard container will be installed. Appropriate signage ...

Bullish Marshall Islands aim high with UN climate plan Go @MinisterTdB! (tags: climatechange marshallislands ) Alexis Tsipras Transforms Himself The last man standing. (tags: greece eu ) 10 Ways to Fix America's Ailing State Department Some with wider relevance. (tags: uspolitics ) Hillary Clinton is not a great campaigner, but she's a good candidate How she does it. (tags: uspolitics )

The BBC, funding, and why it's worth fighting for What a way to spend my lunch break writing a blog post about @timfarron & the concept of Liberalism. Local lettings agent receives Man Booker Prize for Fiction How to gird your loins in a ballgown Metallica From Inside Of A Guitar - this is gorgeous, despite being filmed in iPhone aspect ratio This twitter advice is described as "extraordinary" but it all seems quite sensible to me What Happens When You Talk About Salaries at Google Life inside Colnbrook detention centre: There are no windows, no wind Rock Star/Astrophysicist Dr. ...

When satire turns out to be truth then we need to start worrying. However, according to the Independent that is precisely what happened last week when a satirical website accidentally broke a real news story. The paper say that a spoof news story on The Onion, headlined "US Soothes Upset Netanyahu With Shipment Of Ballistic Missiles", appeared 24 hours before reports emerged that this had actually happened in real life: Israeli newspaper Haaretz noted the similarity to its own story, published the following day, which carried the headline, "After Iran deal, Obama offers military upgrade to help Israel swallow bitter ...

Posted by Peter Black on Peter Black

Unemployment in the Ludlow constituency is still falling, bucking the national picture where unemployment crept upwards in May. But local wages still trail behind and are only nine-tenths of national wages. Unemployment drops... The number of people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance, or not in work and claiming Universal Credit, in the Ludlow parliamentary constituency fell from [...]

Posted by andybodders on Andy Boddington