I first paid tribute to the former England cricket captain Mike Brearley in 2007: When Brearley became England's captain in 1977 it was almost as though Jonathan Miller or Michael Frayn had been put in charge. Brearley was a representative of liberal North London in an age when cricket was still run by the Establishment. He was part of a more enlightened tendency within the game which embraced such figures as John Arlott and the Revd David Sheppard and had its finest hour when South Africa objected to the selection of Basil D'Olivera for England's 1968-9 tour. Cricinfo describes Brearley's ...
It may feel like the last scandal but four, but it is time to catch up with the accusations against Cyril Smith. Back in March 2013 I quoted an account of Smith at work: Cyril Smith sat next to a 14 year old boy (I deliberately kept him away from the young girls after his lewd comments). He bantered with anyone - old, middle aged or young... and then his left hand moved onto the groin area of the 14 year old boy. The boy jumped sky-high! My late hubby saw it and moved in very quickly (he sent me ...
Tried this one tonight. No idea where I got it from - it was in my recipes folder from several years ago. 20g flour 1 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon black pepper Curry powder 1 kg shoulder lamb chops, boned 2 medium onions, chopped 2 stalks celery, chopped 500 ml chicken stock (NB - I used much less) Rind of 1 lemon, finely shredded 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger 20g seedless raisins 3 large firm bananas 1 lemon juice 30g butter, melted 20g light brown sugar Hot cooked rice Oven: 175°C Cut the lamb into 2cm chunks. Combine the flour, salt, and ...
"The current Lady Bonkers"? The sly old dog: I had no idea! Monday The telephone is brought to me and on the other end of the line is someone telling me what a fine fellow Norman Lamb is and what a poor specimen Farron is. Lamb, it transpires, is in favour of people being allowed to end their own lives and of equal marriage. Farron, by contrast - or so I am informed - is Fundamentally Unsound. I draw a long breath: "I have no doubt that what you say is true Grant, or whatever your name is, but I ...
Phil Reilly remembers The Siege of Cowley Street: "Going into government was a hell of an adjustment for Cowley Street staffers like me who joined a party that had been out of office for 70 years with no expectation that we would be bucking that trend now. Becoming full-blown hate figures, savaged in newspapers, mocked on late night comedy panel shows and, now, raged against by the angry mob, felt like an out of body experience. We were supposed to be the nice guys." Britain's global influence will fade if it turns itself into an Atlantic Singapore, argues Lucy Thomas. ...
Mon 10th
19:55
Just how vile do comments have to be before they stop being upvoted on the Daily Mail website?
Alas, this experiment didn't find out the answer as all their published comments were upvoted: As a social experiment, @DMReporter and I wanted to see what level of support the comments would get if we took some famous pieces of Nazi propaganda and changed the word 'Jew' with 'migrant'. For disclosure, a few of the comments we made were blocked by the Mail's moderators however most of them made it through... At the most recent count, we had a total of 480 up votes (and rising) against 16 down votes, across eight adapted Nazi comments. It seems the migration debate ...
Monday: My Lords, Labours and Gentlebeans, please be upstanding for THE SONG: The People's BEARD is sort of WHITE, And gives the PARTY such a FRIGHT; It looks like AUTHENTICITY, But it's economic FANTASY! So raise the BEARD and SANDAL here,With policies of YESTERYEAR;We'll NATIONALISE the railway TRAINS,And CRASH the economy AGAIN! We'll tax the WEALTHY for their GREED, And PRINT the money that we NEED; And RANT against AUSTERITY, For LEFT-WING CREDIBILITY! So raise the BEARD and SANDAL here,To Facebook LIKE and Twitter CHEER;The Social Media and Owen Jones,Will DROWN out anybody's MOANS! But if you choose to DISAGREE, ...
Monday: For those of you who don't speak "geek" (are there really such people reading my diary?!) "The Corbomite Maneuver" is that episode of "Star Trek" where Captain Kirk threatens to blow himself and his ship to bits rather than admit that he can't win. Of course, it's really a BLUFF, as the miracle element Corbynite does not truly exist... (It ISN'T one of the ones where they travel back in time to the Nineteen Eighties... but it COULD be.) On the other fluffy foot, the enemy captain, the balloon-headed Balok, turns out to be an empty sock puppet too. ...
Over the last two years members have made it clear that they feel that the party is out of touch, often unaccountable and our complex structures unintelligible to all but those heavily involved in them. Reform was a key issue raised by members in the Presidential campaign in 2014 and again in the Leadership campaign earlier this year. In answer to this, I promised during my Presidential campaign that I would be a reforming President, tackling the difficult issue of party governance head on by carrying out a full review of the party's governance, followed by a root and branch ...
Sorry for the continued lack of posts. I've been very unwell for several weeks, and have often been sleeping ten or eleven hours a day (normally I get about five...) The cause of the illness is being narrowed down, and it looks like it will be treatable, but I'm not going to commit myself to [...]
Mon 10th
16:11
British Politics is in a constant battle with the youth and the Lib Dems should be on the frontline
As a party we have, despite recent results, a lot going for us. We have thousands of enthusiastic members, a huge amount of dedication and heaps of potential. Potential is the key word. The key values that the Liberal Democrats stand for are: liberalism, freedom and equality for all. These match very closely with what today's young believe. So why in the last election did UKIP (10%) and the Greens (9%) perform better with the youth vote than the Lib Dems (8%)? We are living in a liberal age. People have internationalist, democratic and progressive views. Yet the Lib Dems ...
The avalanche of books that came out last year to mark the centenary of the beginning of the First World War concentrated mainly on the causes of that hellish conflict, which consumed millions of young lives during the more than four years that it ran. The assassination of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Archduke [...]
It has now been confirmed that Whitefield Ambulance Station is closing. As we understand the 'HQ function' (offices) that have been there are going to Bolton. One ambulance will be based at Whitefield Fire Station, in Bury New Road, while the other will now be based at Bury Ambulance Station in Birch Street. The changes will happen in the next few weeks. There are plans by the North West Ambulance Service to close the building by the end of the year and sell it. They say: "Whitefield Ambulance Station is a 1950s building and the structure is showing extensive signs ...
Mavarine Du-Marie 10th Aug '15 – 9:57pm Mark Valladares 10th Aug '15 - 7:36pm - @ Mavarine, "I did think about replying to this on your blog, but you don't appear to allow comments..." Just like to say thank you Mark for the consideration. On my own blog, most would reply with a private comment.... More Liberal Democrat Voice editor replies to Lord Greaves
Mon 10th
14:55Good thing that getting interest rates right isn't anything important where experience may help
From the Parliament website: Following the worst financial crisis in a century and the longest downturn on record, the Bank of England cut its official interest rate (known as the Bank Rate) to 0.5% in March 2009, the lowest level in its 320-year history. The rate has remained unchanged ever since. None of the nine members of the Bank's interest rate-setting body, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), was on the MPC the last time interest rates were changed. Good thing it's so well known that experience is a hinderance then...
I am really pleased that Tim Farron won the leadership election, because of his energy, commitment and strong sense of social justice - and I am really impressed that Tim went to Calais to see for himself what is going on there – but I do have some concerns about where the Party may be heading. Of course, it is early days, but over the summer the coverage of the Lib Dems in the media has been mostly around 'fringe' issues such as Tim's comments about the SNP and his faith perspective. That may fit in nicely with the media's ...
[IMG: 11401436_898511206889439_8365562444036744778_n] For this week's build up blog I took some time to interview Councillor Andy Kelly on his recent success of regaining his seat in Rochdale. We chat about coming back from election defeats, fighting Labour in the North of England and some of the work Andy gets up to as a Liberal Democrat Councillor. Let [...]
When I did my maiden speech in 2005 I had some research from the House of Commons Library about the Yardley Constituency. There has, in fact, been a constituency of Birmingham, Yardley since 1918. I think I have uploaded the maps prior to Yardley joining Birmingham (1911). From the 1832 Reform Act Yardley was part of East Worcester constituency until I think 1885. I have scanned and uploaded
[IMG: Daily Mail] If you've glanced at the front page of the Daily Mail today, you'll have seen that those scheming, sneaky foreigners are at it again. This time, according to the Daily Mail, "foreigners charge NHS for care in their own country." The full report is here, but let me summarise it for you. A Hungarian journalist living in Hungary - and working for the paper - lied and used a forged tenancy agreement to obtain a UK-issued European Health Insurance Card (EHIC), to which she had no legal entitlement. An EHIC allows residents of certain European countries to ...
[IMG: Last year's overall winners were Kirklees Lib Dems] The ALDC Campaigner Awards embody excellence in campaigning and we don't give out awards to just any local party - the winners are the best of the Liberal Democrat campaigners across the Country. Categories this year include: Best Member engagement campaign Best Literature Best Community Campaign Best By-Election campaign Best Digital Campaign Best [...]
At some point within the next couple of hours I'll have a shower, get dressed and walk the 100 metres or so to Thorpe Bay Railway Station and hop on a choo choo into town to do some food shopping. Not that exciting you might think (and you'd be right) but you see when I go to the railway station and pay my £3.60 for a day return to Southend Central, the money won't be going to the government but to a private company (c2c) who have paid the government for the right to run trains along this train route. ...
[IMG: haringey lib dems] The campaign in Hornsey and Wood Green this year to keep the wonderful Lynne Featherstone as MP was the biggest we in Haringey have ever fought. One of the really gratifying aspects of the campaign, despite the disappointing results was the way in which other North London parties came to help. Whether it was knocking on doors, writing blue envelopes or running fundraisers for Lynne, the support from our neighbouring parties was fantastic. After Lynne's defeat came the depressing task of closing down the constituency office and laying off staff. The local party looked hard at ...
[IMG: Isn't she a bit old? David and Victoria Beckham's four-year-old daughter Harper was seen walking with her father in West Hollywood on Friday, while holding a dummy in her mouth] The silly season is upon us. What with the Labour leadership campaign, more and more refugees arriving in distress and the closure of kids company the nation has been asked to ponder upon whether Harper Beckham, aged four, should still be using a dummy. I used a dummy until i was 4.5 and i protested when i was forced to give it up when my school told me i ...
Waaaaaaaay back in the mists of time I was very active in Harry Potter fandom. Bear with me, because there is a point to this. The official Harry Potter website forums had a very active mod team and a very restrictive policy on what was suitable for posting on a forum aimed at children*. After some degree of protest about this, a quite large group of us went and set up our own forums. I did most of the building and running of those forums. Some time after that, and after much growth of the site I was running, a ...
The SNP secured a clean sweep in last week's five principal council by-elections, successfully defending four seats and picking up a gain from the greens. Three of the holds came in Glasgow (UA) in Anderston/City, Calton and Craigton wards. Meanwhile, the Lib Dem fightback's struggle for a foothold in Scotland continued, with the party's candidates picking up 2.2%, [...]
[IMG: Underdog] If you've tuned your telly to Channel 4 recently, there's a good chance you would have seen a dog in a suit, interviewing Channel 4 stars about the virtues of the channel. You can see the 'Underdog' advert here. The underdog hears from the likes of Adam Hills and Jon Snow about how Channel 4 is able to offer alternative views and take risks, because of its not-for-profit status as a publically owned station. So why does Channel 4 feel the need to advertise to justify its own existence? The privatisation of Channel 4 is a genuine worry ...
Mon 10th
10:07
How Corbynmania demonstrates that young people can be as backwards looking as anybody else
Jeremy Corbyn, should he become prime minister of Great Britain, wants to re-open the coal mines. Before you rightly point this out as yet another beautiful example of socialism and the green movement coming into conflict with one another uncomfortably for those hoping to pass them off as inexplicably linked, let's look at how Jezza attempts to cover his backside on that issue: "....if there's to be substantial coal fire generation it's got to be clean burn technology, it's got to have carbon filters on it, it's got to be carbon neutral. I've looked at it, I've discussed it. It's ...
Wilfred Watson, the Liberal Party candidate for Hampstead in 1950, finished third with 14.6%. Winning the seat was the Conservative, Henry Brooke, who went on in the 1960s to a remarkably unsuccessful period as Home Secretary, leading to him often being picked as one of the worst Home Secretaries of the 20th century and being a regular target of savage satire in the path-breaking show That Was The Week That Was. Given the eulogising of supposed past golden ages of politics is so popular, it's worth noting how little ideology there was in Watson's opening pitch: elect me because I ...
[IMG: The LGA Lib Dems support Liberal Democrat council groups across the country] Our colleagues at the LGA have announced the line up of this year's LGA group: [note: this is a re-post, following formatting problems on the original announcement on July 28th] LGA Liberal Democrat Group 2015-16 Leader Gerald Vernon-Jackson Portsmouth Deputy Leaders Dorothy Thornhill Watford Chris White St Albans & Herts Chair Ruth Dombey [...]
With the Britain In Bloom judging fast approaching, there will be a tidy-up starting from outside Dundee Science Centre this Wednesday - 12th August - at 2pm. All welcome if you are able to help!
The Holy Book versus the bank book Tales from the Coffee Shop on form again. (tags: cyprus ) Brian Aldiss: pioneer of British sci-fi About to turn 90; great interview with @telegraph. (tags: sf )
Moving my digital life was harder than shifting countries More data on gender and literary prizes from @nicolaz - none of it surprising, really, but still depressing I don't think very many people would mind (or notice) if @libdemvoice replaced the current comment system with this ... and it'd save over-entitled whining peers complaining that they are being censored when actually, they just can't be trusted not to treat people with sneering contempt. Lady scientist misgendered in reports of her achievments Anti-Piracy Group Hits Indie Creators For Using the Word 'Pixels' - D'Oh! Time May Change Me - David Bowie ...
Trump is genteel British slang for fart. So when he says "Trump for a stronger America", we all think you guys are going to be forcefed beans. I mean, you lot thought it was bad when we giggled like schoolchildren at Randy BumGardener (sp?) because Randy means sexually voracious over here and BumGardener... well, it's not entirely the most heterosexual name, and we Brits are very childish. Basically, what I'm saying here is, if you elect Donald, expect to hear gales of laughter wafting across the Atlantic every five minutes for his entire tenure, and all the horrific fart jokes ...
