This evening Twitter is alight with news that the new biography of David Cameron by Lord Ashcroft and Isabel Oakeshott alleges that, when a student, the prime minister did something unsavoury with a pig's head. It's interesting how the people on my timeline who normally moan about the 'Daily Fail' are happy to believe it tonight. Anyway, I posted the photograph above when I first heard news of the planned biography. Somewhat prophetic, it turns out. I posted it because Oakeshott's previous book had been a collaboration with Vicky Price. And look how that ended up. I also wonder whether ...
Federal Conference today voted to support cutting tax on tourism. Eluned Parrott, moving on behalf of Welsh Liberal Democrats, pointed out that 25 of 28 EU member states had taken advantage of a concession on VAT to reduce the tax on tourist accommodation and attractions. Backed by parties from the four corners of Britain, she pointed out that hospitality employed people at many different skill levels, unlike most of the newer industries, and had a good record in career development. Cutting VAT to 5% would initially hit the overall tax take, but would start to pay for itself after three ...
So great to see a beach clean as part of @LibDems #Libdemcof #Bournemouth pic.twitter.com/X60EpWaL1z — John Russell (@john4london) September 20, 2015 Here's Michael White's verdict on Tim Farron's Sunday appearances: As he fielded [party members'] questions (unlike Corbyn at PMQs they got to read their own) Tim played to his strengths: funnier than Clegg, more relaxed than Kennedy, less bossy than trained killer Ashdown, less tentative than the gallant Sir Ming. He's a natural... To the dismay of the media Tim was infuriatingly judicious on Sunday. He was kind about owner-occupiers as well as tenants, he is a friend of ...
Sunday All is well again at St Asquith's. The Revd Hughes is back in the saddle for this morning's service of Thanksgiving for England's victory in the Ashes, having returned from his missionary work amongst the tribes of the Upper Welland Valley. Farron, meanwhile, has gone off to London to lead the Liberal Democrats - or what remains of them. The Revd's suggestion that we all pray for him hits Just the Right Note. Lord Bonkers was Liberal MP for Rutland South West, 1906-10. Previously in Lord Bonkers' Diary... Tuesday: Straight Outta Nick Compton Wednesday: "Row Splits Liberal Party" Thursday: ...
Just so you know I've not abandoned the site. I'm just still working on the California Dreaming book, adding in the extra stuff that didn't appear on the site. It's turned into a much bigger task than I ever imagined when I first Kickstarted it — I suggested then that it would be about 50,000 [...]
Not everyone cares for the music from Steve Winwood's extraordinarily successful solo career in the 1980s. Take J. Temperance: Winwood's vacuous hymns to hedonism and the "finer things" the aging rich can afford are, in their way, nearly as offensive and excoriating as the hallucinatory violence Bateman imagines visiting on the world of superficial splendor within which he has imprisoned himself. This is music that can only be enjoyed by someone who is dead inside.Winwood maintains that his music in that decade did what he has always done - bring together influences from the blues, folk, jazz and beyond - ...
Sun 20th
17:56
Ludlow bus fare rise is not fair - but typical of the secretive way Shropshire Council works
Tomorrow, 21 September, the fares on the 722 bus service in Ludlow will be hiked upwards by up to 25%. This sudden price leap astounds and angers me. Have fuel costs gone up by 25% in the last year? The cost of fuel is down. On 31 March 2014, diesel was 136p a litre. A [...]
The response to my last newsletter and online posts on the refugee crisis has been overwhelming positive. Most people want Shropshire and Ludlow to provide a safe haven for refugees. There have of course been those that do not agree. They say we should look after ourselves before others. They say the refugee crisis is [...]
It's a must-have item from the Lib Dems - a Lib Dem mug! Now on sale from the Lib Dem Sunday market with Tim Farron leading the sales drive. In an attempt to keep production costs down and variety at a minimum, the Lib Dem Mug Company Ltd are providing mugs bearing only the faces of current MPs or David Lloyd George. They make excellent raffle prizes at local party social events. Get them
Very good news for the In Campaign, involving my former Blue Rubicon colleague Craig Elder: Britain's main pro-EU campaign group has hired the digital strategists who ran the Conservatives' general election social media campaign that reached 17 million people a week. The In Campaign hopes that Tom Edmonds and Craig Elder, who were praised as the "secret weapon" of the Tories, will help it target middle-ground voters who will then swing the referendum. [The Guardian] For more on why this is good news, see How digital campaigning helped the Tories win in May.
The first photos from Tim Farron's first conference Q&A are hot off the press - or rather just uploaded to Flickr from the memory card. The hall was crowded. I didn't have a seat so whilst Tim was extolling the virtues of Prefab Sprout, I was prowling the floor looking to take shots at unsuspecting victims. I did manage to shoot a particular reptile of the media.
Here at Lib Dem conference we get to vote on which emergency motions will be debated later in the week. There are 6 tabled and 3 need to be chosen. There's one about the Conservative government relaxing the ban on certain insecticides which are believed to have been very damaging to honey bees. As a beekeeper I've been drumming up support for the motion but voting closed at 1pm and I'm not yet
Second paragraph of third chapter: Now, with time on my hands, the relationship [with first wife Jane] blossomed as I worked hard at my career as an actor and supplemented my income by working as a stage hand with the London Festival Ballet, at the Royal Festival Hall on the South Bank. With my knowledge of scenery I was put in charge of the 'flies' - the area directly above the stage where the backcloths and other scenery are stored on counter-weighted pulleys and lowered or raised as required. This was physically demanding but required little other than the discipline ...
....the Cafe Terrace in the Exhibition Centre. Expect to wait ages in the queue. Watch staff in slow motion and remember to groan when the person in front of you asks for a cappuccino - that adds another 5 minutes to the wait. I suggest you get your overpriced tea and sandwiches eslewhere.
Click below to see last night's "standing room only" conference rally. The sequence of speakers is: Party President Sal Brinton (don't worry – the image of Sal appears after a bit) New member, Amy Stuart, from Bristol London Mayoral candidate, Caroline Pidgeon New member Zack Polanski London International Gospel Choir Tim Pickstone Party leader Tim Farron * Paul Walter is a Liberal Democrat activist in Newbury and West Berkshire. He is part of the Liberal Democrat Voice team and blogs at Liberal Burblings.
Sal Brinton, President of the Liberal Democrats, suggests in today's Independent on Sunday, that there should be a retirement age of 75 or 80 for membership of the House of Lords. Its my 87th birthday in a week's time, and there are three other LibDem Members who are 87 in October - Dick Taverne, born October 18; Bill Rodgers, born October 28, and Geoff Tordoff, born October 11. Maybe the House could manage without us, but I made a public declaration on my 80th birthday that I was never going to retire. If its any comfort to Sal, I expect ...
[IMG: key_Norman_Lamb] The Guardian has this most worrying of stories – see link above
[IMG: image] A new format hit conference yesterday. At the end of Saturday's session, we had a "Policy Pitch" section. This is a new idea whereby members submit ideas to the conference commitee and three of those ideas are accepted for discussion at the conference. The chosen members gave a short speech outlining their policy proposal. Then they sat down in a comfy chair on stage with three "assessors", who were: Julie Smith, Jeremy Hargreaves and Willie Rennie. There was then a little interviewing of each proposer from the three assessors. The three policy pitches yesterday were: Elaine Bagshaw – ...
Great speech from D66 MEP on Britain in Europe. UK should be in and not afraid of saying so. The reasons for staying in Europe are many and the reasons for leaving are false. [IMG: Speaking at Bournemouth sept 2015] Speaking at Bournemouth sept 2015
Sun 20th
12:00
'Going to the south coast once a year and putting your hand up should not be the only way to contrib...
[IMG: Autumn 2012 conference - Some rights reserved by Liberal Democrats] The quote above came from Lorna Dupré at the policy making process consultation On Saturday morning, conference got off to a flying start with a consultative session on the party's policy-making process. This followed the publication of this document. The session was organised and led by the Federal Policy Committee, which is the leading body for policy making in the party. Tim Farron is the chair of this committee. The session was chaired by Julie Smith, with Gareth Epps and Jeremy Hargreaves heavily involved in facilitating the discussion. Duncan ...
Peter Black fears that the Liberal Democrats' election post mortem is being written by the usual suspects and will miss the point. Seth Thévoz has conducted for the Social Liberal Forum a detailed study into the effectiveness of the Interim Peers Panel System for electing Liberal Democrat nominees to the House of Lords. You can download the whole report from the SLF website. "One suspects that in today's online world, Fischer's paranoia and personal flaws would have tripped him up long before he became champion." Kenneth Rogoff, once one of the world's best young chess players and now a leading ...
First Day in sunny Bournemouth went well. Good training session on raising media profile including creating video content. Excellent debate on the refugee crises and then the rally to start the conference. great speech from new member Amy from Bristol on why she joined, great music from the London International Gospel Choir and then Tim's first speech as Leader. Good content and good commitments and confidence about the fightback from May's results. [IMG: First Leaders speech at Bournemouth] First Leaders speech at Bournemouth [IMG: London I nternational Gospel Choir] [IMG: New member Amy from Bristol] New member Amy from Bristol ...
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I am sitting in a hotel here in Belgrade eating my breakfast. It's Serbia so meat is the dominant feature. But I have just walked around the corner of the block to the hotel where they are issueing the accreditation to volunteers stewards who are marshalling the Pride March today and in the course of that short journey I have passed over 200 riot police (I stopped counting). The roads are closed and the streets ghostly quiet. I am fairly confident here and know Serbia pretty well – but I found myself nervous, uncertain and even tearful as I walked ...
I've written before about my belief that the Liberal Democrats should contest the Police and Crime Commissioner elections (PCC) – better a liberal than a non-liberal in post, and if we want to build a larger loyal Lib Dem vote, saying to voters "we refuse to let you vote for us" is no way to do it. Building a core vote for the Lib Dems: the 20% strategyA strategy for rebuilding the Liberal Demcorats more This time round the mood music from the party centrally is rather more positive about fighting the contests, though quite how many is not clear ...
Sun 20th
10:30Conference Extras open thread: LDV's fringe on foreign policy, Vince, bees, equality and peers' ears
We hope you've spotted the open thread on the action taking place in the main auditorium today. In comparison, this thread is for you to talk about fringe meetings, the exhibition and all the other things going on around the main business. Today's Highlights It would be wrong if we didn't shamelessly plug our own Fringe Meeting. Join William Wallace, Nick Tyrone, me and others for a discussion on how we forge a liberal foreign policy in these challenging times. It's at 7:45 in Bayview 2 of the BIC. There is plenty wine on offer. I know. I had to ...
I was the official photographer at the Parliamentary Candidates Association reception last night. If you were there, and you want your pic, click on the above, thumb through til you find your photo and download.
Sun 20th
10:10
It shouldn't happen to a press officer at a party conference, part one: Lee-man Brothers
Lib Dem party conferences are often overshadowed by events elsewhere. When we came together in Sheffield in spring 2011, for example, the Fukushima nuclear disaster took place. Jeremy Browne, who was the foreign office minister covering south east Asia at the time, ended up getting more airtime than the entire party conference did. At my [...]
What do the Twelfth, Twenty-second, Twenty-fourth, Twenty-fifth and Thirty-second amendments to the Irish constitution have in common? They don't exist.
Preliminary studies have begun into opening a new rail line to serve a new station at Skelmersdale. [IMG: The old Skelmersdale Station - now long gone in the name of progress!] The old Skelmersdale Station – now long gone in the name of progress! Lancashire County Council, Network Rail and Merseytravel are looking at the issues, which will continue through Network Rail's GRIP Stage 3 (Governance for Railway Investment Projects, Option Selection). Network Rail has advised Lancashire County Council that the GRIP3 work alone will cost as much as £4 million, and has suggested these key dates: * GRIP3 concluded, ...
The Liberal Democrat conference in Bournemouth is reportedly the best-attended ever, and certainly the traditional opening rally last night was packed, including many new faces. One of the thousands of new party members, a 19-year student from Bristol called Amy, followed party president Sal Brinton as a speaker, describing her own journey into membership. In [...]
The Independent reports: As president of the Liberal Democrats, Lady (Sal) Brinton, 60, daughter of a Conservative MP, the late Tim Brinton, is in charge of overhauling the party's convoluted, bureaucratic structure. In Bournemouth, she must also rally the troops, a small army of 62,000 that has nevertheless grown from around 45,000 since that near wipeout four months ago. Lady Brinton says that the "obvious frustration" of having so few MPs has been tempered by "astonishing" council by-election results this summer, which have included gains in Wrexham, Sussex, and Powys in mid-Wales... About half of those new members are aged ...
[IMG: An election count - ballot papers being counted] You've probably noticed I quite often write about how British elections are run, how election law is changing and controversies that have kicked off. However, not all the stories appear on this blog or in my main Facebook/Twitter accounts. For a fuller range of stories (or if you just are interested in them and want to skip the pieces about toilet signage in Pizza Express and what Tim Farron has got up to), take a look at my UK Election Law news Facebook page or follow @UKElectionLaw on Twitter. If you ...
Yesterday was Day One of Lib Dem conference in Bournemouth. The weather was pleasant; always quite key in terms of setting the mood, particularly when a conference is set by the seaside. There is an upbeat feeling in the air here now that Labour has elected Jeremy Corbyn as their leader. But I need to sound a word of caution at this stage to those who think the space in the centre of British politics will just become the Lib Dems' automatically. Because with eight MPs and the party no longer being in government, as we've seen already since May, ...
Whether you are physically in Bournemouth or are following what is happening from home, this is your place to talk about the public face of the Conference – in other words, all the debates and speeches that are going on in the main auditorium. Please use the comments below to add your reports on policy and constitutional debates or to draw readers' attention to ones in the pipeline. We will be running a similar thread each day, so please confine your comments today to what is actually happening today. Tomorrow's instalment will appear at 8.30am tomorrow morning. We will also ...
A School Board was set up in Dundee in 1873 and under its direction a number of new schools were set up, including the Balfour Street Public School - see below. In 1894, there were 23 schools under the School Board, with accommodation for 21,000 scholars. By 1913, the School Board was employing 585 teachers in Dundee.
Shropshire Council is to end its funding for arts organisations, venues and festivals through its Revenue Client Grant Scheme. The Community Arts and Festivals Service is being disbanded and only one part-time arts development officer will remain. The grant scheme was used by many organisations in the county as a seed corn funding to leverage [...]
VW Is Said to Cheat on Diesel Emissions; U.S. Orders Big Recall Appalling. (tags: uspolitics climatechange ) Birmingham council underpaid women for decades Old news, but extraordinary and shameful. (tags: sexandgenderandsexuality ukpolitics ) Doctor Who companions Epic numbercrunching by @telegraph's @MartinBelam. (tags: doctorwho ) Grandmaster of the Great Game Very pro-Obama piece, but very interesting. (tags: uspolitics )
If you consider yourself to be a liberal person then there is only one party in Britain left for you Here's what your choice of pet says about you [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
He may have attracted thousands of new members to Labour but Jeremy Corbin has hardly got off to a dream start. As the Sunday Times reveals, his landslide election as leader of the opposition has triggered despair and, in some cases outright rebellion amongst his Parliamentary Party, whilst the rest of us watch on in bemusement: Earlier on Monday, Corbyn had given a lacklustre performance to his first meeting of the parliamentary Labour party (PLP), in which he had been forced to defend his opposition to Trident and Nato, and his Euroscepticism. He even refused to rule out wearing a ...
Sun 20th
07:30Willie Rennie MSP writes... Trident: We must consider effect of disarmament on our international rel...
Our party has always had a sceptical view of nuclear weapons. Whether we personally adhere to a multi-lateral or unilateral route to disarm, few members feel comfortable with the concept or reality of such a powerful weapons system. There are issues of geo-diplomacy and security and not just party positioning at stake. Although not in power now, we need to consider our policy as if we were in government not just a party in opposition hunting for differentiation. The United Kingdom is a stable partner amongst the nuclear defended nations of the world. The importance of stable partners should not ...
Sun 20th
06:00Farron proposes start-up allowance for new business owners as he focuses on the party's economic cre...
Tim Farron is using the first full day of conference to announce plans for a so-called start-up allowance for entrepreneurs launching new small businesses. The allowance would be worth £2600 over the first six months (£100 a week) after they set up their new business. It comes as part of a leadership focus on building upon the economic credibility won by our five years spent in government. Tim said: Liberal Democrats believe that if you have a dream you should be supported to fulfil it. Those who take the chance to set out on their own and create a business ...
The continued patchy implementation of the Welsh Labour Government's Cancer Delivery Plan is demonstrated by the latest cancer waiting times. While some health boards have seen an increase in the percentage of urgent cancer patients seen within the target 62 days, three health boards (Betsi Cadwaladr, Abertawe Bro Morgannwg and Aneurin Bevan) have all seen declines in these times. Not a single Welsh health board met the 95% target for urgent cancer patients. On a Wales-wide basis, this target has still not been met since 2008. The Assembly's Health and Social Care Committee first raised concerns with the implementation of ...
Do you feel the world is safer today than in, say, 1989? If not, you agree with us, three politicians from three parties: a Scot, a South African Welshman and an Englishman of Welsh and Irish descent. We certainly do not wholly agree with each other on how to make...
Crowds were building this evening in eager anticipation of the conference rally. This beat-the-drum-for-Liberal-Democracy event is something of a conference tradition. Once the doors were finally opened, the members poured in with eager anticipation. I'm not sure if they were expecting to be serenaded by the London International Gospel Choir but it turned out to be something akin to a Lib Dem
