Spending a gloriously warm, sunny late summer afternoon indoors in a lecture theatre is maybe not everyone's idea of fun, but those people who signed up for the New Europeans' debate on A New Deal for a New Europe but didn't come this afternoon really missed a treat. Three major political groups from the European [...]
Welcome to Broxtowe Enews, brought to you by the Liberal Democrats and edited by David Watts, on behalf of the Lib-Dems in Broxtowe. May I give a special welcome to the new readers that we have this week. I'm sorry that there was no newsletter last week but I was in Bournemouth for the Liberal Democrat conference. Whilst there I heard one of the best expositions of what it means to be a liberal ever made, during the speech by Tim Farron. I have put a copy of his speech on my website at www.davidwatts.org.uk and would encourage everyone to ...
I've been mulling over Labour's latest plans to "renationalise" the railways. Regular readers and friends will know that I'm not the type instinctively to support state ownership of services unless there is a compelling specific reason that regulation alone is insufficient to get the best service. A Private Eye Classic On the railways, though, I've always been more sympathetic to renationalisation. Maybe it's just that when I was reading The Railway Stories as a child, the post-nationalisation Fat Controller seemed a more jovial chap than his Fat Director predecessor. It does seem to be the case that fares outstrip general ...
Frank Tyson, the former England fast bowler, has died in a Queensland hospital at the age of 85. It is odd that the two English bowlers most feared for their sheer speed, Tyson and Harold Larwood, chose to settle in Australia when they retired from cricket. Anand Vasu interviewed Tyson last year: Tyson would only play 17 Tests, picking up 76 wickets at an average of 18.56. No bowler since he played has managed more than 20 wickets at a better average. To measure Tyson in cold numbers, though, is to do him a disgrace, for here was a man ...
Sun 27th
20:00
#RefugeesWelcome: The Shropshire Council (non) debate last Thursday leaves me saddened
Unfortunately, a scheduled debate at Shropshire Council on the refugee crisis was pulled at the last moment on Thursday. I am still very upset about this. Three weeks ago, the Lib Dem group put a motion forward for a meeting of the full council. It called for the council to lobby the government and local [...]
This message from a parish priest in Cornwall, concerning the refugee crisis, is absolutely spot on and appropriate. It puts the Christian message concerning refugees very powerfully and aptly. It is written by Rev. Tony Windross, the Incumbent of the the Benefice of the Week St Mary Circle of Parishes. You can read the article in its original setting here, and I reproduce it in full here below: We live in interesting times! What is the world coming to, with leftwingers queuing up to join the Labour Party - and the Church saying that it's on the side of the ...
Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 432nd weekly round-up from the Lib Dem blogosphere ... Featuring the seven most popular stories beyond Lib Dem Voice according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (20-26 Septmber, 2015), together with a hand-picked quintet, you might otherwise have missed. Don't forget: you can sign up to receive the Golden Dozen direct to your email inbox — just click here — ensuring you never miss out on the best of Lib Dem blogging. As ever, let's start with the most popular post, and work our way down: 1. Lib Dems still in denial by Dan ...
New World were an Australian group who enjoyed modest success in Britain in the early 1970s. This song was written for them by Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn, the most prolific hit makers era. Most of their songs were dross, but Chapman later redeemed himself by producing Blondie's Parallel Lines. Rooftop Singing reached only no. 50 in the UK in 1973, but they had reached no. 6 in 1971 with Tom Tom Turnaround". The Seekers had been huge in Britain in the 1960s, so I suppose Chinnichap thought it was worth taking a punt on another folky Australian vocal group. ...
[IMG: 7 ver 4 full] Many thanks to the visitors who dropped by Lib Dem Voice this week. Here's our 7 most-read posts... I agree with Nick: I have left too (86 comments) by Michael Cooke Jeremy Corbyn is not just unelectable (79 comments) by Joe Otten IN FULL: Tim Farron's speech to Conference today (14 comments) by Paul Walter IN FULL: Tim Farron's Conference rally speech: Labour aren't interested in standing up to the Tories (71 comments) by The Voice "Wow, that was the best leader's speech in just under 50 Lib Dem Conferences" (43 comments) by Paul Walter ...
Sun 27th
16:25
Find out how D66 recovered from coalition disaster in next edition of Lib Dem Newswire
[IMG: Alexander Pechtold and Ingrid van Engelshoven at a D66 Congress (CC BY-SA 2.0, courtesy of The next edition of my monthly email newsletter, Liberal Democrat Newswire, is going to be a special edition looking at how the Dutch liberal party D66 recovered from electoral disaster in coalition. D66 has become the favourite example to be quoted by Liberal Democrats, with frequent mentions by Tim Farron and their MEP Sophie in 't Veld speaking at the recent Bournemouth conference. But how did D66 do it? The next edition of LDN will include a detailed portrait of the party's road ...
Of the three Unionist parties, it has fallen to the Liberal Democrats to save encircled Scots fending off the militant hard leftists of the SNP frontline infantry. The Conservative and Unionist Party is useless in Scotland, and the once-paternal Labour Party has gone from noble guardian angel to patronising champagne socialist to near-death this May. Unionists have a ramshackle current incarnation: one MP per Unionist Party. SNP high command could not have believed their luck in May by not getting the grand slam all Scottish seats landslide; with three MPs, one from Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrats, the "bad things ...
Warmth shared values support Inclusive combing the beach together The Glee club vocal marathon catharsis Editor's note: Traditionally haiku were written with the format of 5/7/5 syllables per line. However contemporary haiku do not need to conform to this format. * Jane Reed joined the Liberal Democrats during the last General Election and is active in Oxford West and Abingdon
More comedy genius from Australia's Clarke and Dawe:
There are many articles advocating Parliamentary reform and there are many points in them which I agree with. However all of them have called for the House of Lords to be replaced with an elected second chamber. While I agree that it requires significant reforms, I think that replacing it would be a huge mistake. However it is set up, a system with two elected chambers inevitably ends with a power struggle between them, of which the Italian and US Senates are some of the best examples. Legislation is used for pointscoring or outright blocked, not due to flaws or ...
The Spectator has the text of a talk Jonathan Meades gave at the Edinburgh Festival about the writing of his memoir An Encyclopaedia of Myself: I wrote of my father's lifelong friend Osmund Edwards: Uncle Os lived far away beyond the Severn; he owned a pub surrounded by orchards and hop-yards. I have a very strong memory from the age of about three and a half of that place, of a bright day, of a line of trees - limes maybe - beside a dusty dappled road. That was, I believed, the first time I registered dapple. My memory was ...
The rather lurid claims abouit the Prime Mnister and his youthful antics at Oxford that were circulating last week may or may not be true, but what seems to be beyond question is that the University was home to some rich and very posh people whose antics have become something of a legend in their own lunchtime. It is unlikely that anybody will actually know for certain what went on but the Independent has taken a good stab at establishing the truth. They have looked at contemporary accounts of events as well as various books written by participants, all of ...
If anyone is still interested in mulling over the results of the General Election, this is some analysis that helps to answer two questions: which parties did 2010 voters choose in 2015? And the subtly different question: who had 2015 voters chosen in 2010? I am looking at the proportion of each party's total vote in each case. (Thanks to David Howarth for pointing me towards the underlying data, following my previous column on this topic). Firstly, where did the 2010 voters go? This reveals that Conservatives and Labour held onto a very similar proportion of their voters (75-76%). At ...
[IMG: Lib Dem 2015 leadership election ballot paper] What did you think of the Lib Dem leadership election? I'm running an online survey, the results of which I'll feed into the party's governance review. It'd be great to get the views of as many party members as possible – and please do share it on too: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/7JZR8C5
From the excellent Times Redbox email comes this news of the impact of Ukip winning only 1 MP at the general election and then falling into a series of internal controversies: [IMG: UKIP membership]
The W4MP website has news of not one but 3 opportunities to join Tim Farron's constituency team in a spectacularly beautiful part of the country. Here are details of the posts: CASEWORKER FT: To assist with the provision of a confidential casework service to the MP in response to advice surgeries and constituents correspondence, telephone calls and emails. CONSTITUENCY ASSISTANT FT: To assist the Communications Officer and Casework team and the MP to encouraging active engagement with the people he represents. Engagement will be through media work and communications with constituents that are electronic, written, verbal and activity based CASEWORK ...
Seen from the tow path of the Leeds Liverpool Canal through Maghull at the end of a garden:- [IMG: Ditton Junction in Maghull r] [IMG: IMG_0001] Click on the photo and/or map to enlarge them Ditton Junction Station was on the main Liverpool to Runcorn line just to the west of Widnes. The scan of the Ordnance Survey map of Liverpool from 1958 shows the station location. It was the first to be closed by Railtrack following the privatisation of British Rail in 1994. Ditton Railway Station is one of two stations where Paul Simon reputedly composed the song "Homeward ...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34336951 The BBC has the story on its web site – see link above I must say I was surprised by Liverpool being so low on the scale. It just does not fit with my view of the City and its suburbs. Surely a City with a history of producing so many comics can't be so unhappy with its lot, can it?
Sun 27th
08:30
Whatever happens at Labour conference this year, it will be an improvement on the last one almost gu...
Some Labour people have speculated to me that this year's conference in Brighton could be ugly not just in terms of atmosphere, but could actually become downright violent. I think the association is with the 80's when Labour conference actually could be physically intimidating (apparently - I'm not that old). I think they're over-egging the pudding a touch here and will make this prediction: there's no way this year's Labour conference can be as bad as last year's edition in Manchester. In fact, if it's anywhere near it, then Labour really do have epic problems. The last time Labour conference ...
The Alexander Wilson photograph below shows the eastern portion of Dundee's City Churches, with the south at the centre, the Steeple to the west and left, the east at the right. The Mercat Cross (a 16th-century column surmounted by a replica of Scott Sutherland's Unicorn) stands inside the railings. Today it is slightly further west, midway between the Old Steeple and the current Overgate shopping centre. The carriages are at a 'cab stance' (the precursor of the taxi rank), which started at the north end of Union Street (which led south to Tay Bridge and Dundee West railway stations). Fares ...
[IMG: ACH in GUU debate] It still feels surreal and wrong to be attending a Charles Kennedy Memorial anything, but on Friday night I headed to Glasgow University Union to see the debate set up in his honour. After a gin and tonic in the beer bar, which, unlike in Charles' day now plays intrusive music, I headed up to my seat in the gods. The floor of the chamber was filled with people in their bling and black tie who had been lucky enough to get tickets for the dinner which was to follow the proceedings. The motion was ...
Brexit risk will force Bank of England to keep interest rates low for longer, warns UBS Poll: Jeremy Corbyn 'honest but poor leader and Cameron better in a crisis' Blackpool's Political chiefs fear Monster Raving Loony Party's conference is the only one they can attract Why women don't win science book prizes If you have to resort to animal cruelty to make your "joke" it's not actually funny enough to be worth doing Light Relief time: 22 Objects People Have Actually Lost In Their Ass - number 10, man, number 10. My current reckons on Tim Farron and the Lib ...
