Thanks to Made in Newcastle for tweeting the link to this remarkable video. The World Unicorn was launched from Swan Hunter's Wallsend shipyard in 1973. Those terraced streets have long gone. They may even be the same ones you can see standing empty in a video of the excavations to reveal Segedunum, the Roman fort. And as the commenter there says, you have to respect archaeology in flares. But then it was shot in 1975.
World Wide Words is a great site for anyone interested in the English language. In 2012 it discussed 'whataboutery': It's associated particularly with the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Bitter arguments by one side about terrorism were often countered, not by reasoned argument, but by accusations of similar atrocities by the other. In 2000, The Scotsman attributed the coinage to the former West Belfast MP Gerry Fitt, and gave this example: "Aye, the IRA might be bad, but what about ...". That makes clear it's what about turned into a noun. The Belfast Telegraph used it on 29 September: "Both sides ...
Friday A telephone call summons me back from a meeting of the Trustees of the Royal Opera House, Oakham. When I arrive at the Hall I find a ground floor window in the East Wing broken and a number of precious items missing: a signed photograph of Googie Withers (signed by Desmond Banks, I might add); a 1906 Wisden that lists every Liberal victory at that year's general election including, as it happens my own; an early prototype of the shuttleworth press, which I have offered to more than one museum; and much else besides (whatever my insurers may later ...
[IMG: Lib Dem member survey on European referendum] (Note the popularity of Nick Clegg with party members.) Sign up to back The In Campaign here.
Last night the council debated what it could do in response to the refugee crisis. Unanimity broke out, I am pleased to say. We all agreed that we would welcome our fair share of refugees and do what we could to help them, including by providing information for residents on what they could do. Churches Together asked a question about the issue too. The debate was on a motion I submitted. Keith Baker was the other speaker. It was good that all in the Council chamber agreed, and that the Conservatives seconded the motion. Here is what I said: "Sometimes ...
Every political party has its own narrative. In the last decade we have moved from being a popular party of opposition to an unpopular party of government. Our ambition is to be a popular party of government. Our success in doing so will be influenced by the direction of travel in other parties. Labour is manifestly on a strange journey but we should be hesitant about drawing parallels or making comparisons. Blairites in reforming their party took that party to massive electoral success. Orange bookers in endeavouring to re-direct the Liberal Democrats took us to electoral wipeout. It is tempting ...
Blood results last 9 readings 18.09 10.09 3.07 17.06 9.06 27.05 25.03 2.03 21.02 Normal Hb 106 81 104 107 93 96 98 98 101 130-180 WBC 2.53 2.39 2.85 2.25 2.55 2.91 3.15 3.36 3.52 4.5-10 N'phils 1.05 1.02 1.16 1.17 1.14 1.3 1.57 1.78 1.6 2.0-7.5 Plt 241 267 249 232 296 342 369 449 494 150-450 Haemoglobin is back where it was on July 3 and platelets within normal range. So last week's blood transfusions were as effective as could be expected, though it also looks as though further transfusions will be needed at intervals of six ...
ITV News wins Headline of the Day. It also tells us that the crabs have been taken to the Blue Reef Aquarium in Tynemouth.
Yes, I know it's Lib Dem conference week – but don't let that distract you from your essential fantasy football team management responsibilities... Congratulations to Lee Medlicott, whose Disco's Dopughnuts lead the LibDemVoice Fantasy Football League after Week 5 with an impressive haul of 297 points – that puts him at 1,110th in the global league of 3.4 million players! Lee's just ahead of Paul Revell's Sock Monsters and Joe Harris's Fer-Fer-2. Lee's performance was the best in Gameweek 5 (75 points). But let's also hear it for three players outside the top 10: Alain Desmier's Highbury Hill Heroes, with ...
Jeremy Corbyn's decision to appoint a convict should not be denigrated, but praised. Especially as Watson's crime was committed long ago, he served his time, and he has rejoined civil society and worked in the private sector successfully for almost a decade with no apparent recurrent desire to set fire to the curtains.
Fri 18th
17:15
Conference Countdown 2015: This is where you can keep up with all the conference news, views, gossip...
Since July 10th, we've published over 30 posts about the Bournemouth Conference here on Liberal Democrat Voice. These have included views on key motions being debated as well as more gossipy items such as ones about the Lib Dem Disco and Dr Who. You can read all those posts and all the ones coming up in the next week by clicking on our Conference category here or on where it says "Conference" after "posted in" at the bottom of any of our posts about the Bournemouth gathering. Additionally, you can click on "Reportage" at the top of each conference post. ...
Friday: Tory: "The Rich will solve all your problems; give tax cuts to the Rich." Labour: "The State will solve all your problems; take taxes for the State." Liberal: "People are the only people who can solve our problems; how do we help everyone?" It is more urgent than ever that the Liberal Democrats put forward an economic platform that will actually liberate people from poverty, as opposed to the Tory position of exacerbating the advantage those with capital have over those without AND Labour's fantasy economic policy of printing and spending money to solve every problem under the sun. ...
Ever wanted to get more involved in how we make policy? Frustrated by the process? Well, now is the time for you to have your say. On Saturday morning (10am in the Dorchester Suite of the Highcliff Hotel) the party discusses possible changes to the ways we make policy. A consultation paper has been published here ca because one obvious analysis of the way we currently make policy is that it optimises opportunity for those who attend Federal Conference, but could be better at involving those who do not. I would particularly encourage those not at Conference to read the ...
As almost everyone who reads this blog will be aware the Mayor spent a lot of time at the last council meeting defending his use of public money to settle his own IT bills. He did so in a part ... Continue reading →
Fri 18th
15:25
Candidate loses despite being the only candidate after even he doesn't vote for himself
[IMG: Iowa. CC0 Public Domain] News from the Iowa School Board: The lone candidate for a northern Iowa school board district seat didn't vote for himself, and neither did anyone else. Preliminary figures from Howard County say only 36 people voted in Tuesday's election for the Riceville Board of Education, and no one voted in District 3, where Randy Richardson was the only person running. Riceville is a farming community of around 500 residents, and the district covers Riceville and McIntire — population 122 — and the surrounding area... Richardson says he's willing to be appointed. The 42-year-old told the ...
Fri 18th
14:48LibLink: Zahida Manzoor: The Government's changes to tax credits will have a severe impact on the li...
In the Huffington Post this week, Lib Dem Work and Pensions spokesperson Zahida Manzoor wrote of the party's opposition to the Government's severe cuts to tax credits for the lowest paid. The Tax Credit system is hugely complicated, made up of various different 'payment thresholds' and so-called 'disregards'. But ultimately the key aspect of the system is the 'taper rate' – that means how much is taken away in Tax Credits for every additional pound you earn. This taper rate is important, because when someone is making the decision about whether to take on more hours, particularly if they have ...
[IMG: Print] The party has written to everyone who owns an email list on the party's email list server with an update on its fate. In case you missed the update we have copied it below for you. A number of ALDC members were concerned about the closure of the list so if an alternative solution can [...]
I left home at stupid o'clock this morning to head to Bournemouth. At 8am, as I passed the Sage in Newcastle, scene of a spectacular Conference row over NHS reforms in Spring 2012. I was already I'm wondering if we were nearly there yet. At the beginning of the week, there was hail and thunder forecast for almost the exact moment I arrive in Bournemouth, but that threat seems to have subsided. This afternoon is about the only chance I have for a wee walk on the beach. Let's hope I get it. This is bound to be an emotional ...
These quotations from Jones's book "The Establishment" in my view encapsulate the dilemma we're in: New Labour's embrace of the Establishment [view that the market reigns supreme] reinforced its sense of invincibility. A compliant media happily goes along with an agenda that furthers the interests of the wealthy as though it were simple common sense to which nobody in their right mind could object. Those policies that challenge the position of the Establishment . . . are dismissed as a recipe for ruin: businesses will leave, capital will flee, tax revenues will collapse, and so on. Opponents of the Establishment ...
Fri 18th
12:55Corbyn signed Early Day Motion attacking humanity as "obscene, perverted, cruel, uncivilised and let...
[IMG: A pigeon. CC0 Public Domain] Bizarre all round: PIGEON BOMBS Session: 2003-04 Date tabled: 21.05.2004 Primary sponsor: Banks, Tony That this House is appalled, but barely surprised, at the revelations in M15 files regarding the bizarre and inhumane proposals to use pigeons as flying bombs; recognises the important and live-saving role of carrier pigeons in two world wars and wonders at the lack of gratitude towards these gentle creatures; and believes that humans represent the most obscene, perverted, cruel, uncivilised and lethal species ever to inhabit the planet and looks forward to the day when the inevitable asteroid slams ...
[IMG: The 2015 Liberal Democrat autumn conference takes place in Bournemouth from 19-23 September] Details of ALDC's fringe events and other useful information for all Liberal Democrats in Bournemouth from tomorrow. Saturday 19 September Annual General Meeting ALDC members are invited to attend our AGM followed by the 2015 Campaigner Awards. We will be in the Bryanston Suite of the Marriott Highcliff from 19:45-21:30. Monday 21 September Sorry Not [...]
Five principal council elections were held yesterday, all of which resulted in holds. In Haringey (LB), Liberal Democrat candidates Demi Adebiyi and Jenni Hollis both finished second behind Labour in the contests in Noel Park and Woddside wards. The party's vote share from the last elections in Haringey in 2014 increased in both wards (by 0.8% and [...]
Meols Ward Lib Dem Councillors John Dodd, Nigel Ashton and Jo Barton are holding their next advice centre in Churchtown. We will be at Cafe Moo Moo on Cambridge Road (by the junction with Preston New Road, next to Boots) from 10:30 to 11:30 am on Thursday 24th September. We will be there to meet you and discuss any Council problems you may have. No appointment necessary. Just pop in. We also hold a monthly advice centre in Crossens, at St John's School, Rufford Road, Crossens every month (except August) on the second Saturday of the month from 11:00 am ...
Over £7m could be cut from the county council's highways budget in the next five years according to a shock announcement from the Government, reported to the county council's Highways Panel this week. The Government has already announced it will give Herts County Council £500,000 less for each of the next 5 years. Now it says it [...]
We all remember the pain of the General Election. We seemed to lose votes from two major groups of people. The first were people who would not forgive us for working with the Tories in Government. They were tacical voters who voted Lib Dem in 2010 and then voted Labour/Green in 2015. The second group were swing Lib Dem/Conservative voters. Many of them were scared by the Tories into voting Conservative to stop a Labour/SNP government that would wreck the economy and make the UK unsafe. If we are to grow and prosper as a party we need to win ...
A few shots of the lovely sunrise today. [IMG: The sunrise as seen looking over Maghull's Smallholdings off Park Lane/Kenyons Lane.] The sunrise as seen looking over Maghull's Smallholdings off Park Lane/Kenyons Lane. [IMG: Sunrise over the presently farmed land off Poverty Lane, Maghull. I wonder how many sunrises the crops will see in the future as the land has sadly been designated to build hundreds and hundreds of houses on (plus an industrial estate) by Sefton Council despite it being the best agricultural land in England.] Sunrise over the presently farmed land off Poverty Lane, Maghull. I wonder how ...
Fri 18th
11:50
Labour Councillors back Joe Anderson's £89,000 legal fees being paid from the public purse
And here's the latest on this sorry saga. What is it with Labour councillors, don't they get it? It's public money that has been used to pay the bill, money that should, in my humble opinion, have come from either Joe Anderson and/or his trade union. Have you ever heard of a new employer paying the legal fees of an employee associated with a dispute the new employee had with their previous employer? And we are yet to hear why Joe's trade union did not pay the legal fees. Surely he must have been a trade union member?
[IMG: Bristol Lib Dems supporting refugees event] As one of thousands who joined the Liberal Democrats after that fateful day in May, I was wondering if I could make any difference in the rebuilding process. The Bristol Lib Dems were welcoming from the minute I joined. Not knowing anyone at my first meet-up was daunting but everyone went out of their way to make me feel part of the group. When I volunteered to arrange a pre-conference meet up it took an interesting turn. Tim Farron was going to be in town that day. Helen Cuéllar was another new member ...
David Cameron has unveiled a plan to "boost apprenticeships and transform training". No doubt it will have positive aspects, but - as so often - the cheery message hides some issues that should concern us. Organisations are currently incentivised to take on apprentices with Government funding from BIS. For larger organisations in the public and private sector that is about to change. The funding will disappear completely and, instead, they will pay a tax called the "Apprenticeship Levy" to cover the costs. This tax or levy will be hypothecated: companies will get first call on their own money and will ...
Go to libdems.org.uk/join or contact Huw (see side-bar).
Fri 18th
10:25Can you adjust data from Twitter to make it representative of the overall public's views?
Ipsos MORI and Demos have teamed up to produce a really valuable report into the vexed question of how representative Twitter conversations are of the public overall – and how well (or not) attempts to adjust for any differences work out. Here's one of their findings, this one from the field of political opinion: [IMG: Online and offline sentiment for Cameron and Miliband] The whole report is well worth a read, especially if you're interested in using digital listening to understand wider issues. Download this document
UKIP 365 [37.4%] Labour 290 [29.7%] Conservative 211 [21.6%] Lib Dem 91 [9.3%] TUSC 18 [1.8%] UKIP gain from Labour
You can read all the articles that have caught my attention this week here: https://delicious.com/stephentall Below are a selection... Liberal Reform announces new Advisory Council and housing focus Impressive recruits to @liberal_reform Advisory Council: Lamb, Laws, Browne, @greenmiranda, Astle, Randerson, Falkner http://bit.ly/1OgXD6t Lib Dem Leader Says His Party Will Benefit From Jeremy Corbyn's Election – BuzzFeed News Good intvw with @timfarron by @elashton on the LibDem opportunity in the 'New Politics' http://bzfd.it/1OgX9xi Corbyn is doing the job as he understands it – and as his supporters intended – Lord Ashcroft Polls Worth a read: Lord Ashcroft – "Corbyn is doing ...
Immigration is perhaps the main debate area where terminology gets very confused. The Express and Mail get people very wound up about "immigrants". But what are people exactly getting wound up about? Illegal immigrants? Asylum seekers? Legal immigrants? Or people who were born in the UK, and who perhaps have several generations of antecedents who were born here, but just look different to themselves? We have to be very precise about terms or we get into a very emotionally-charged muddle. In an LDV article entitled "Don't talk to me about migrants" Caron noted on here last month that words matter ...
Flying the flag for Europe Lib Dem Council Group Leaders across the Liverpool City Region have today writen to our Labour, Conservative and Green opposite numbers inviting them to jointly campaign in the proposed European Referendum for a Yes vote ... Continue reading →
Tim Farron's phone has been busy http://t.co/neWLJPrr6A — Mark Pack (@markpack) September 17, 2015 Jeremy Corbyn faced a threat of Labour defections today after days of turmoil over his leadership. In a dramatic interview, Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron revealed he has been called since last Saturday's election result by Labour figures distraught about their new boss. Mr Farron told the Evening Standard: "I've had various unsolicited texts, some of them over the weekend, where I felt like I was being an agony aunt rather than anything else. "People who have been members of the [Labour] party for as long ...
I wrote on Wednesday about why it was probably a good idea for Jeremy Corbyn to have sung the national anthem at the Battle of Britain memorial service. I got a lot of grief on social media, of the sort I could have predicted beforehand, about how it was his personal choice, etc. The whole thing reminded me of what scares me most about the age we live in, post-GE 2015. The most basic thing about political strategy, from wherever you are coming from, is don't let your opponents choose the field of battle. If you do that, you've lost ...
I will not be at the closed conference session tomorrow when they discuss the post-mortem report on the Liberal Democrats General Election campaign. I am going to watch Swansea play Everton before travelling down to Bournemouth. However, if the newspaper reports of that exercise are accurate then it has spectacularly missed the point. That is hardly surprising as it has been put together by the usual suspects, some of whom were involved in writing previous post-mortems, documents that apparently did nothing to avert the rout the party experienced in May. The Independent reports the inquiry has concluded that an "utterly ...
This photograph of the north side of Dundee's Nethergate at the junction with Tay Street Lane (below) dates from after 1891, after which point numbers in that section were altered after extensive building works. The image may date from shortly afterwards. As there are no names on any of the shops, it is difficult to date the picture with any greater accuracy. The low building at the right hand side (and east) housed the galleries of J. Gonnella & Co., a family of Italian sculptors, several of them consuls. The corner establishment was the wine and spirits business belonging to ...
In the last four years, I've been to a lot of Lib Dem conferences – though sadly not next week – but I've had a vote at none of them. I was even the mover of an amendment, but I didn't get to vote on it. On Monday the One Member One Vote motion would give me a vote at conference. So why do I think you shouldn't give it to me? I'm not worried about the vast, vast majority of members. But there are a just a few who do worry me. If we decided votes by referenda, I ...
Special Report of the High Representative Republika Srpska "in clear breach" of Dayton Agreement. (tags: bosnia ) Nostalgia, rape culture, thick texts and obsession Roz Kaveney revisits the Rocky Horror Picture Show. (tags: theatre music sexandgenderandsexuality )
Oh this is very funny. Harsh but funny. [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
So far, Tim Farron has got through his pre-conference interviews without creating the sort of media storm that has surrounded previous efforts. Remember "cockroaches" and "2/10", neither of which actually was as bad as it initially sounded to some people. Tim has written for the Guardian outlining the opportunities he sees for us as a party in the wake of Jeremy Corbyn's victory. He talks about Labour MPs (and a Tory) being distraught at the direction their respective parties were taking. He's not breaking any confidences here. Plenty of Labour supporters are having serious fears for their party's future. But ...
The Welsh Liberal Democrats have announced ambitious manifesto proposals to build 20,000 new affordable homes during the next Assembly. In a speech hosted by the Chartered Institute of Housing Cymru yesterday I stated that the party will double the current Social Housing Grant budget of £35million over an Assembly term and set a target of 20,000 new affordable homes over the same period. This would be double the Labour Government's target for the current term. I also announced that the party would make it a statutory requirement for the Welsh Government to set a target for new affordable homes at ...
