Actions that carry a maximum sentence of five years in prison: From http://www.thelawpages.com/court-cases/maximums.php Trading in firearms without being registered as firearms dealerSelling firearm to person without a certificateRepairing, testing etc. firearm without a certificateFalsifying certificate etc. with view to acquisition of firearmViolent disorderFemale circumcisionUnlawful woundingAssault occasioning actual bodily harmAbandonment of children under twoAcquisition by or supply of firearms to person denied themDealing in firearmsSetting spring guns with intent to inflict grievous bodily harmFailure to disclose information about terrorismChild sex offence committed by person under 18Abuse of trust: sexual activity with a childAbuse of position of trust: causing a child to ...
Life is full of choices. In aidworkerlife, they're particularly stark The big one: 'field' or 'HQ'. HQ means a normal life, with friends and a partner and a home and the ability to plan more than six months ahead. It's pretty awesome. But on the other hand, the work is pretty dull and bureaucratic, you're living on an NGO salary in the UK, which means that you're always skint, and you spend your day telling field people to do things that waste their time when you know they're working 24-7 'Field' in this context means 'not HQ'*. 'Field' has advantages: ...
When I got of the train at Canterbury West I found the platform was thronged with bishops. That's what you are entitled to expect when you arrive for a stay in the city. It turned out that were coming away from the consecration of Rachel Treweek as Bishop of Gloucester. She had become the most senior woman bishop in the Church of England. Despite being rather a High atheist, I thoroughly approve of women bishops.
An article in the Independent the other day revealed that Vince Cable, Norman Baker and David Laws will all be publishing books soon: After the Storm: The World Economy and Britain's Economic Future by Vince Cable (Atlantic, due out in September) Against the Grain by Norman Baker (Biteback, due out 18 September) Coalition by David Laws (Biteback, due out spring 2016)The article also revealed that Nick Clegg kept a diary while deputy prime minister but is not going to publish a book any time soon. "I just think its a bit unseemly if I was going to start immediately lifting ...
I am trying to watch Life in Squares but am overpoweringly reminded of the parody of Bloomsbury in Alan Bennett's Forty Years On: Of all the honours that fell upon Virginia's head, none, I think, pleased her more than the Evening Standard Award for the Tallest Woman Writer of 1927, an award she took by a neck from Elizabeth Bowen. And rightly, I think, for she was in a very real sense the tallest writer I have ever known. Which is not to say that her stories were tall. They were not. They were short. But she did stand head ...
The next Cheadle Area Committee is at 6pm on Tuesday 11th August 2015 at the Ladybridge Residents Club, Edenbridge Road, Cheadle Hulme. As always, all are welcome. At the August Area Committee: Planning application 57891 – outline application for a house in the back garden of 14 Lynton Vale Avenue, Gatley. An outline application normally agrees the principle of the property being built and the location but not the design details – a further application would be needed for that before building could go ahead. Planning officers recommend we grant the application. Planning application 58373 – build 14 affordable homes ...
Meols ward councillor John Dodd, who has led the campaign against the introduction of car parking charges said "I am over the moon that Cabinet Member, Councillor Fairclough has decided not to proceed with car parking charges. His decision is great news for the 1,000s of people who visit the park and for the volunteers who do a fantastic job making the Botanic Gardens Southport's jewel in the crown." Councillor John Dodd added "The decision is also great news for parents who use this car park to drop off children for Churchtown Primary School and will continue to give the ...
Visit to the GP this morning revealed a lung infection, for which she ordered a chest X-ray. As we were due at King's for a visit to the pain clinic at 13.30 it was convenient to walk into the X-ray unit and cardiology afterwards. The day's work added to the arsenal of pills I'm already taking.
[IMG: Sandgate Sea and Food Festival 2015 Flyer] Fireworks from the beach on the evening of Saturday 29th August The the Sea Festival market on Sandgate Granville Parade on Sunday 30th plus the Sandgate Arts and Crafts Fair in the Chichester Hall from 11am - 5pm and offers from shops and businesses up and down Sandgate High Street all day. More information here. Published and promoted by Tim Prater, 98a Sandgate High Street, Folkestone, CT20 3BYPrinted (hosted) by Prater Raines Ltd, 98 Sandgate High Street, Folkestone CT20 3BY
Bill Dunlop, Female Wits (1991 - thanks from publisher) John Toland, eds Philip McGuinness and Richard Kearney, Christianity Not Mysterious: Text, Associated Works and Critical Essays (1998) David Boothroyd, The Politico's Guide to the History of British Political Parties (2001) G.K. Peatling, British Opinion and Irish Self-Government 1865-1925: From Unionism to Liberal Commonwealth (2001) Michael Emerson and Nathalie Tocci, Cyprus as Lighthouse of the East Mediterranean: Shaping Re-unification and EU Accession Together (2002)Nancy Soderberg, The Superpower Myth (2005) Marc Houben, International Crisis Management: The Approach of European States (2005) Charles Stross, The Jennifer Morgue (2006) Thammy Evans, Macedonia: The Bradt ...
Gosh. The articles, blogs and tweets on the agonising death of Cecil the lion have been voluminous (and varied). From hate pieces against the barbarian(s) that caused his death (you might be starting to get a feel for how I feel about this), through the "Twitter mobs are evil" articles and the "You eat meat so don't be a hypocrite!" and out to pieces on the evil of white people and how the trophy hunting industry is a boon to needy Africans. I'm not here to deal with any of that though. There are more than enough foul-mouthed folks out ...
[Lembit on Monday] The Liberal Democrats will have a new leader. Tim Farron MP. By Lembit Opik
I've known Tim since his student days in Newcastle-upon-Tyne back in the early 1990s. He was one of the University's liberal 'live wires' – a trusty and enthusiastic activist of the classical 'doorstep politics' variety. I warmed to him right away. Over the years I've worked with him in many political spheres. I also played [...]
Here at LDV Towers we do get some very odd requests. Many of them are designed for search engine optimisation – using a well visited blog like ours to sneak in links to their own sites in order to push them up the Google rankings. But some are just bizarre marketing. From China: This is XXX from XXX LED Limited proudly introduce a new underwater fishing LED light. This is the most successful fish lure attraction ever invented. Features: 1. Guarantee to catch fish faster and easier due to it's attractive LED light. 2. Capable to function to the depth ...
[IMG: A tired, despairing man. Creative Commons CC0] A not infrequent comment by Liberal Democrat campaigners is: "We should do fewer X and concentrate on higher quality instead", where X is usually leaflets but can cover pretty much any form of campaigning. For a tired, defeated activist in particular it has a certain logic. Do less and do it better. But it gets the quality versus volume trade-off the wrong way round. Low quality leaflets rapidly stop being read. Low quality emails rapidly pile up the unsubscribed. Low quality text messages burn out your mobile phone list quickly. For the ...
There has been a welcome breakthrough in the battle for affordable housing in Shropshire
The breakthrough came in at the high court in London on Friday. Mr Justice Holgate ruled that a coalition government policy to exempt many housing developments of ten or fewer homes from paying a contribution towards affordable housing is incompatible with planning law. That law says the local development plan should guide development but ministers [...]
United Utilities are starting work on the sewers in Rufford Road, Monday 3rd August, and is expect it will take approximately 7 days to complete.
Hachney Taxis are safe, driven by people with knowledge and you know how much you will pay for a ride I have been concerned for some time about the possibility of the UBER 'taxi' service come to Liverpool. I listened ... Continue reading →
Next May, the entire United Kingdom will vote. It will be the first national election since the General Election and will be seen as a test of all parties one year into the new parliament. Police & Crime Commissioner elections will take place in England & Wales, on the same day as devolved elections. If you care about human rights, as Liberal Democrats do, policing is where human rights come into sharp focus. No other civilian agency in entrusted with powers so affecting liberty and so at risk of political demands based on popular misunderstanding. Policing needs checks and balances ...
Austin Rathe has launched a consultation of Lib Dem members on our views regarding the European Union and the forth-coming referendum. I was quick to reply. As a long term supporter of the European Union and its aims and having played an active role in the European election campaign last year I have definite views. The referendum is not simply about what we like and don't like about the EU, but more fundamentally about what sort of country we want to be and what role we seek to play in world affairs. A recent study rated Britain as the world's ...
[IMG: Black cab on a London street. Photo courtesy of DTTSP] I've written before about how the tension between Uber and Black Cabs may be an important issue in the Lib Dem selections ahead of next year's Mayor and GLA elections. But the more fundamental question is: what should the Liberal Democrat policy be? Should Sal Brinton's concerns be forefront? She wrote: Here are 6 reasons why I think we ought to be asking questions: All the adverts about never using non-registered minicabs for personal safety reasons fly out the window because Uber take no responsibility for minicabs being registered. ...
[IMG: Our latest campaign pack features cycling and street safety materials] Whilst we may not all be the next Chris Froome, the demand for safer cycling has never been higher. We all have areas which are known travel black spots and this campaign is about kicking off a consultation process with your local community about what better provisions there should be for cycling. There are a [...]
[IMG: The LGA Lib Dems support Liberal Democrat council groups across the country] We attach a draft press release below for your local area which you may find helpful following the news that the Government is to cut public health budgets. This assumes a uniform cut of 6.2%. The attached Excel spreadsheet shows the cut in column D. If you have more localised information to hand then you [...]
A quick explanation on what an Overton Window is: it is the range of all policies that will be acceptable to the public at any given time. So to take an easy example, in the late 18th century, slavery as a viable and legal concept was within the Overton Window – these days, it is thankfully not. I believe one of the central problems faced by the centre-left at present is that not only is the Overton Window on what is and isn't an acceptable level of public spending shifting ever rightwards, there still isn't anything that's on the horizon ...
The whisper in the Sunday papers was that George Osborne will start the process of selling off the state owned RBS some time today, with an independent investigation into how it might best be achieved and the best timetable - it is far too big to sell all at once. Now, this is a more important issue than it might seem at first sight. The government has an obligation either to get back the money they originally spent bailing it out - or to convert it in such a way that RBS can play a useful role. Small business lending ...
Dear Nick I delayed writing this letter until the leadership election was past, so it didn't get lost in that campaign, but want to write to thank you for your rich contribution to the Liberal Democrats. We owe you a great deal, not least for the wisdom, statesmanship and tenacity you have shown. It is a tribute to you and the colleagues who you led that you stepped into ministerial roles with a naturalness and fluency that belied the fact that we had not formed a majority government in living memory. It is a tribute to you personally that you ...
A cat yesterday Saturday saw the opening of Leicester's first cat cafe and Clarendon Spark was there: I found it interesting that our fellow guests in the café were themselves all owners of multiple cats. On the surface it seems a little eccentric to pay £15 to sit in the same room as some cats when you've got a few perfectly good ones of your own at home. On reflection though, I can see the attraction. It's not just about spending time with the cats, it's about meeting other cat lovers and talking about cats and sharing cat stories - ...
Lindsay Littleson Leisure and Culture Dundee has invited the author Lindsay Littleson to Blackness Library to help celebrate the fun of reading throughout the summer holidays, as part of Record Breakers, the Tesco Bank Summer Reading Challenge for Scotland 2015. This will take place this Wednesday - 5th August 2015 - at 2.30pm. Lindsay won the Kelpies Prize last year for her debut novel 'The Mixed-Up Summer of Lily McLean'. She was also one of the three shortlisted authors for Leisure and Culture Dundee's own Great War Dundee Children's Book Prize earlier this year. Lindsay will talk about her writing ...
Anxiety takes its toll on the rejectionists Cyprus latest. (tags: cyprus ) The Unified Puppy Theory What did the Sad Puppies think they were doing? An answer. (tags: sf sadpuppies ) 10 myths about migrants debunked Some common sense. (tags: ukpolitics migration ) How to Live Wisely New York Times advice. (tags: lifehacking ) Is It Time for Some Facts About Those Migrants? Great stuff from @RobinLustig (tags: ukpolitics migration )
This startup got rid of email, meetings & management, & is thriving Parts of England that are forever Yorkshire ICYMI: Why I hate & detest 50/50 gender representation campaigns, & want the lib dems to stop supporting em Andrew elucidates PERFECTLY how I feel about the current immigration "debate" [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
Why I hate & detest 50/50 gender representation campaigns, & want the lib dems to stop suppo...
50/50 sounds so seductive, doesn't it? It sounds so fair. But it's not fair, and in fact makes marginalisation worse. I have a lot of friends who are genderqueer, or intersex, or otherwise outside of the narrow gender binary represented by 50/50 campaigns. You probably have friends who fall outside the gender binary - it's nothing like a rare as we are traditionally led to think. If you follow a 50/50 gender campaign you are reinforcing the false gender binary, and locking out of power anyone who does not adhere to that false gender binary. That's not just illiberal, it's ...
I recently noticed that we now have something called Lib Dem Future, and was curious to find out what this might be. By means of a little investigating, I discovering that this curious little effort appeared on Lib Dem Blogs under the name of Ed Joyce, a name perhaps familiar to readers of this blog. I'd wondered what had happened to him, after the shambles of a campaign whereby he had been disowned by his own candidate for blaming the loss of Montgomeryshire on the misfortunes of a third party. And now I know, as he is providing a platform ...
So, I've started a new job and last week was my second week of training, and once or twice we've been shown a TED Talk to illustrate a point. I was reminded how brilliant some of these talks are. So, obviously I had to have a bit of a TED talks marathon on Saturday afternoon...
