In my post on the remains of the Church of the Annunciation in Leicester I mentioned the story that it was believed the body of Richard III was found there in 1935. It turns out to be true. The press cutting above is borrowed from LiveScience.
This video covers the line from Huddersfield to Marsden, including stations like Golcar and Swaithwaite. A wide variety of freight and passenger traffic is shown. There are also comparisons with the 1980s, which now have period interest of their own,
Wed 14th
19:23
The county's planning system creaks back into life but underinvestment by Shropshire Council continu...
"I've given up. I don't care any longer to be honest." I was shopping at the Co-op on Foldgate Lane earlier in the week when Mr S collared me in an aisle to make his views known about delays to his planning application. It was no surprise to me that he was frustrated, only that [...]
In case you missed it, here's Nick Clegg talking on last night's Newsnight about the EU referendum. When asked whether hope or fear would win the day for the In campaign, he said that the simple fact was that it was in our national interest to be part of the EU. He also said that he regretted sitting next to David Cameron at PMQs for five years, saying it looked like we were passive rather than architects of many aspects of the government's programme. While we're talking about Nick, here's the Daily Politics film from Lib Dem Conference where members ...
If you haven't already done so, watch this video, and count how many times the players in white pass the basketball to each other - both aerial passes and bounce passes. I hope you watched the video through to the end. This book is about how we are not as observant, or indeed as smart, as we think. We think we are fully aware of our surroundings, but in fact one of the things that we aren't aware of is precisely the extent to which we are not aware of our surroundings. We think we can remember specific events in ...
Remember Jeremy Corbyn's kinder, more caring politics where there will be no personal abuse? He said in his Labour conference speech: I want a kinder politics, a more caring society. Don't let them reduce you to believing in anything less. So I say to all activists, whether Labour or not, cut out the personal attacks. The cyberbullying. And especially the misogynistic abuse online. And let's get on with bringing values back into politics. To be fair to Corbyn, at least he said it. However, some of his party weren't listening. You just need to look at the Twitter feed of ...
It's a political jungle out there and at the moment the Lib Dems are getting eaten alive, as we only have 8 MPs, and thus very little coverage about policy announcements. In one part it's nice not to have daily attacks on us but the much more worrying issue is our messages have less chance of getting through to the electorate It requires more creative use of social media, so it's good that's something that Tim Farron, our leader, and his team are very good at. The story is great because it's evidence based, in line with Lib Dem values ...
The Federal Policy Committee (FPC) is presently in the process of a major review exercise called 'Agenda 2020' to consider, The challenges that the United Kingdom will face over the coming years, (economic, social, environmental, political), and, in the light of it, to prepare, A statement of the distinctively Liberal Democrat approach and, A map of the policy development that the FPC needs to carry out in order to achieve it. Given what happened to the party in May, it is now more important than ever that we assert our own identity and project to the electorate what it means ...
Today's Telegraph contains details of a rather disturbing ruling by the Investigatory Powers Tribunal that MPs do not have special protection from having their communications monitored by Britain's spy agencies. A challenge by Green MP Caroline Lucas sought to establish that the so-called Wilson Doctrine, designed to stop intelligence agencies tapping MPs, is enforceable in law. However, the tribunal ruled that it has no legal basis. As the Telegraph outlines, the Wilson Doctrine was introduced in 1966 under Harold Wilson, the then Labour prime minister, to ban the tapping of MPs' and peers' phones and was later extended to cover ...
Generally, the status quo has the upper hand in referenda. However, in the wake of the global financial crisis and subsequent recession, the anti-incumbency trend might not just be contained to first-order elections, with voters punishing governing parties of all stripes for letting economic misery occur on their watches. It could be that this trend extends to the far more fixed and aggregate level. For example, in the Scottish Referendum, Better Together warned against Labour voters acting on this anti-incumbency impulse to end Tory rule permanently, as opposed to just temporarily at Westminster General Elections. However, for a voter it ...
This is how you keep a pledge, however hard it might be. He promised to run naked along Whitehall if Lib Dems were cut to 30 MPs in #ge2015. So did @stephentall deliver? https://t.co/A1kcBdVBgH — DailySunday Politics (@daily_politics) October 14, 2015 Stephen has also done a Storify thingy of the event and the tweets he received which you can read here. I must confess, we had assumed that he would be filming this on a Sunday morning when there was nobody about, not a busy Tuesday afternoon. We at LDV have subjected poor Stephen to some ribbing about this, but ...
I awoke this morning to two sad, sad stories about that once great Party, the Labour Party. Most important for me is the one about Liverpool City Region. The redoubtable BBC NW political correspondent, Arif Ansari has learned that the ... Continue reading →
This story first appeared here on Liberal Democrat Voice. I feel a bit sad this morning. The reason for that is this story on the BBC which outlines how the physical health of people with mental ill health can be ... Continue reading →
Tim Farron has put up a stonking case for Britain to remain in the EU over on Politics Home and denounced the Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition for their stance on the issue: On my mantelpiece there is an old black and white photo. It's of my Uncle Morris at 14, the same age as my daughter is today. It was taken in 1934 and in six years, he was dead, shot down over Beachy Head. A generation ago there were nuclear weapons pointed at Britain on the soil of countries that today are our partners in the ...
Politics is too complex to be understood just in terms of Left and Right – Some interesting research on the position of party supporters on a two-dimensional scale. Uncovering The Secret History Of Myers-Briggs – I'm sure you won't be surprised to discover that the famous test has a very murky past. Dear Friends – The trials and tribulations of book promotion. Robots are coming for your job. That might not be bad news – "If our economic system defines the basis of human worth as the capacity to do drudge work for someone else's profit then the question that ...
Because I am much more pompous in the privacy of my own brain, than the smiling, occasionally charming individual people see in the street, I have to confess I was a little miffed that I was never asked to contribute to The Orange Book, the notorious collection of wholly unobjectionable essays published 11 years ago. I don't suppose there was actually much chance I would have been asked. Though I was asked to contribute to the riposte, which was - such is the strange shadowy world of modern Lib Dem ideology - actually written mainly by the same people This ...
[IMG: Policy discussions are a great way to engage members and find identify creative solutions to local issues] The Wiltshire Council Group (Wiltshire is a unitary authority) fought the 2013 council elections on the theme of 'six to fix'. Despite the difficult background to the election, they made gains. Looking forward to the 2017 elections, the group decided to consult more widely on the themes to adopt for campaigning over the next 18 [...]
More educative entertainment from Tom Scott: On which topic, The Man Who Saved The World is also well worth watching.
So 'Nick Clegg says his biggest mistake as leader was sitting next David Cameron at PMQs' (article here) - was he right? Well, he might just be slightly underplaying the importance of one or two other issues, like the dreaded tuition fees, for example, but I think he's certainly correct in identifying that this was an important problem of perception. The Liberal Democrats have to recognise this if we are going to build towards a future return to government. The problem does go a little deeper than just PMQs itself, of course. So what am I calling the 'problem' here? ...
[IMG: Terraced housing] Ten Liberal Democrat council leaders, including the party's local government spokesperson Watford Mayor Dorothy Thornhill, have written to the Guardian to call for the government to allow councils to borrow money to build council houses to deal with the "national emergency" in housing provision: As Liberal Democrat council leaders we are outraged at the government's short-sightedness in selling off council homes to pay for the right-to-buy extension to housing associations (PM warns councils over housing provision, 12 October). We have a vast shortage of affordable homes, which constitutes nothing short of a national emergency, and yet the ...
Although only the fourth largest grouping in the European Parliament, ALDE was the most successful in winning votes in the plenary session just ended. The UK's Liberal Democrat representative, Catherine Bearder, is a member of this group. [IMG: Part2-voteswon] More about the make-up of the various groups at http://www.votewatch.eu/.
Well done Michael Gove for persuading Prime Minister David Cameron to ditch the £5.9 million contract to provide training for Saudi Arabia prisons http://bit.ly/1k4eTzE . It should be a general rule that we don't offer training or advice for prisons or judicial systems in countries where these systems are seriously compromised, eg the training in human rights of judges in Bahrain. There will be a test of how effective this training has been when the appeal by Zeinab al-Khawaja appears before the Bahrain court of appeal on October 21, appealing against sentences totalling five years imprisonment for 'offences' such as ...
Today is Jeremy Corbyn's second crack at Prime Minister's Questions. Coming at a time when the Labour Party are having an internal squabble about....well, everything really, it would a grand moment for Jeremy to inflict some damage on the PM. But we are pretty much guaranteed that won't happen. Mostly due to what we saw at Corbyn's first PMQs, which I will now take the time to review. The left-wing press were ever so impressed with Jeremy's efforts (sounding a little patronising in a lot of instances) while the right-wing press very predictably said Corbyn was awful. The way I ...
Countless articles, emails and campaigns have expressed anger about TTIP. This is the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, which would cover over 800 million people in the EU and US, as well as helping determine the shape of future agreements the world over. There are numerous concerns – some entirely misguided, some merely exaggerated – and from reading the literature of campaign groups like 38 Degrees it might be hard to know whether there are any benefits at all from this trade deal. So supporters of free trade need to straightforwardly spell out some of TTIP's advantages. In particular, lost ...
[IMG: 2015 Best Literature image for web] The winners of the ALDC Campaigner Awards 2015 were presented at the ALDC AGM by Simon Hughes, celebrating the best campaigning teams from across the Country. We had many great examples of literature , but the award went to Portsmouth who successfully utilised national templates repeating their local messages and successes but also creating a [...]
[IMG: Remember remember the 9th of November] There are two six month rules. They often cause confusion as they have same name but entirely different meanings: 1. The first is to avoid unnecessary by-elections. For the last six months of a councillor's period of office no by-election is normally held if they resign or die. The vacancy is held open until the [...]
Teresa May's Immigration Bill should be rejected by Parliament and will be opposed by Liberal Democrat MPs. This is a totally illiberal bill which deeply erodes civil rights and diminishes human liberties by giving immigration officers and the executive extreme powers. It is proposed that immigration officers get powers to enter premises, strip search and arrest, breaching the rights of legal or suspected illegal immigrants. We all know about unconscious bias and BAME people will be adversely affected, bearing the brunt of the proposed legislation. It also extends the powers of the executive in unwarranted ways and undermines the independence ...
I have been contacted by a number of people who work in the Technology Park about the recent National Express Dundee (now Xplore Dundee) bus service changes and how they detrimentally affect services to the Technology Park. As one person put it : "I am currently employed by HMRC at Sidlaw House in the Dundee Technology Park, part of a team of approximately 650 people. Unfortunately recent changes to the bus timetables & routes servicing my workplace have been reduced, and during some times removed. Both myself and my colleagues have been detrimentally affected. I am now concerned about those ...
I feel a bit sad this morning. The reason for that is this story on the BBC which outlines how the physical health of people with mental ill health can be ignored as GPs assume that the reason for all their symptoms is related to their mental state. In a study of medical records over a five year period, researchers found that just a fifth of emergency admissions to hospital among patients with mental ill health were for their mental state. In the final year, for every 1,000 people with mental health problems there were 628 emergency admissions, compared with ...
Legalising cannabis in the UK 'would raise hundreds of millions' - been saying this for years Why gay men get sent to hell 200 disabled people per week are losing their motability cars :( Bah. Laser razor probably a scam. My thoughts on Leon Brittan - I agree with rozk on this Not all jobs are good jobs and not all work is good for you The death and life of the great British pub - very long but very interesting Stop the Jihadi Onslaught Against Atheists and Free Thinkers - @MaajidNawaz is spot on here How Cameron's compassionate Britain ...
Lib Dem leader Tim Farron has revived his 'Tim Talks' format from the leadership contest, with a new video out yesterday. Here it is in full, along with seven points to note about it: Fiscal responsibility gets pole position: Tim Farron emphasised the need for fiscal responsibility during the leadership contest, and he's not changing course now he is leader. In that sense, he's the Continuity Clegg candidate, but it's a form of fiscal responsibility which (like Nick Clegg before him) isn't the same as that of the Tories, because it leaves room to borrow to invest, something the Tories ...
This is a reminder that I welcome guest posts on Liberal England. And as you can see from the list of the 10 most recent guest posts below, I am happy to consider a wide range of subjects. But if you would like to write a "Where do the Liberal Democrats go from here?" post, that would be welcome. If you would like to write a guest post for Liberal England yourself, please send me an email so we can discuss your idea. One woman's view of being a senior citizen - Eileen Ward-BirchThe perfect Christmas gift for a carer ...
I continue to track (ged it?) this long-promised project which I have campaigned for over donkey's years. [IMG: Site for the new Maghull North Railway Station. Photo taken looking north from the School Lane road bridge. The Ashworth South site is to the right and Mersey Avenue to the left.] Site for the new Maghull North Railway Station. Photo taken looking north from the School Lane road bridge. The Ashworth South site is to the right and Mersey Avenue to the left. My last posting along these lines (get it?) of 28th April said:- The latest news from Merseytravel, ...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-34520919 The BBC has the story – see link above My posting of 7th October said:-
A new book argues for less focus on structures and funding for interdisciplinarity, and more on the everyday highs and lows of collaboration. Interdisciplinarity is everywhere. From research funders to journal editors, policymakers to think tanks - all seem to agree that the future of research lies outside firm disciplinary boundaries. The British Academy, for example, is leading an inquiry into "the relevance of interdisciplinarity to innovation" and "how academics can forge a career path in interdisciplinary research." Last month, Nature, arguably the world's most influential academic journal, published a special issue on interdisciplinarity. It's also a concern beyond the ...
Wed 14th
05:52
Newport Lib Dems propose 'No Second Night Under The Stars' policy to replace rough sleeping ban
Newport's Liberal Democrats have made a final plea for the Council to reject proposals to ban rough sleeping in the city centre. Tomorrow Newport Council's Regulatory Scrutiny Committee will make a final decision on the future of Labour's Public Space Protection Order proposals. The plans, which have been criticised by the Welsh Liberal Democrats, Shelter and Liberty, would see rough sleeping, among other things, banned from the city centre. Newport Liberal Democrat campaigner Paul Halliday has brought forward proposals which would mean no second night under the stars for anyone in Newport. Initially this would be supported by the creation ...
