[IMG: Blogging is fun] Following up a similar post at Liberal Democrat Voice earlier today, Jonathan Calder at Liberal England has reflected on what he has been blogging about on 19th October all the way back into the mists of 2004. He invited others to do likewise. It feels a bit retro, but I've had a go. I've had a look back through the – slightly shorter in my case – archive and discovered that I don't post frequently enough to hit 19th October regularly. But I have usually posted a day or two one side or the other of ...
Part 1 traces part of the old Green Ayre Line which connected Yorkshire to the city of Lancaster and the seaside town of Morecambe via Lancaster Green Ayre Station. We begin our journey at Lancaster Green Ayre and travel east to the village of Caton, looking for traces of the lost railway along the way.
Camilla Batmanghelidjh may well do good work (I don't know) but I always find her views incoherent #newsnight— Jonathan Calder (@lordbonkers) February 7, 2011 Why did Camila Batmanghelidjh enjoy such a high reputation for so long? As Gaby Hinsliff pointed out back in August, one reason for her success was that she appealed to both the political right and left. To the Conservatives, she embodied their dream of the Big Society. And you can see its appeal. Government services can be impersonal and bureaucratic, their staff can sometimes seem most concerned with their own interests. (The obligatory political radicalism of ...
Something to look forward to next week in the Lords The Parliamentary Party in the Lords increases by two next week, as Shas Sheehan is introduced on Monday, and Jonny Oates on Tuesday. I really ought to write about this for Liberal Democrat Voice, oughtn't I? On this day... in 2007 Is it really eight years since the Clegg versus Huhne leadership contest got underway? It must be, because I was getting ready to chair the first public hustings in Newbury the next day. As usual, I was somewhat undecided. Luckily, I had Ros to keep in on the straight ...
Liverpool City Council makes MI6 look open and transparent! I have been struck recently by just how bad Liverpool is at answering Freedom of Information requests. This was particularly brought home to me by the problems that Audrey O'Keefe had ... Continue reading →
19 October 2012 Liberal Democrat Voice has chosen five of its own posts from 19 October in different years. Back in the old days, in the noughties, when the internet was in black and white, on for only three hours in the evening and closed down at 10 sharp with the National Anthem, these memes were the lifeblood of blogging. In those days we were interested in other bloggers just because they blogged, and we took ourselves a little more seriously. So join me as I journey back in time to see what Liberal England said on 19 October. 2014. ...
haker Aamer is the last British resident held in Guantanamo Bay, which still stands as an icon to the Iraq War, a war which only the Liberal Democrats, led by Charles Kennedy, were brave enough to stand up against. Shaker has been held for the last thirteen years without charge or trial. He has been cleared by two successive US Presidents and yet is still held captive. Baroness Ludford correctly said in 2012 'the continued existence of Guantanamo is a stain on the record and reputation of President Obama'; it is truly depressing that Guantanamo continues to be used to ...
The 84 bishops of the Church of England who wrote to the prime minister offering to lead a national campaign for the welcoming and settlement of refugees from war-torn Syria were not grandstanding, as I believe the Daily Mail suggests, but making a constructive appeal for a humane response to a humanitarian crisis. Their purpose was not to embarrass the prime Minister, as they initially wrote privately, more than a month ago. They published their letter only when, other than a formal acknowledgement, they had received no reasoned reply, though one had been promised. The essence of their offer was ...
Belinda Brooks-Gordon represents the East of England on the ALDE Congress. She's asked us to share the report she gave out to members in her region. Please note the looming deadline of this Thursday for amendments to motions to be discussed at the Congress in November. Belinda Brooks-Gordon represents the East of England on the ALDE Congress. She's asked us to share the report she gave out to members in her region. Please note the looming deadline of this Thursday for amendments to be discussed at the Congress in November ALDE Report The post of President and five, possibly six ...
Watch the new videos from Amnesty International UK:
[IMG: poll-tracker-seat-projections] I've written here a couple of times about the upcoming Canadian general election, and now it's finally here. Canadians are voting today for the 338 members of their new Parliament after a rather long election campaign, though unlike ours there's been plenty of variation in the polls during the campaign (with the same level of doubt as to whether that will reflect the result). The Liberals have kept, and possibly extended, their lead over the last week of the campaign, while the Conservatives have wavered up and down and the NDP continued to slip. (My finger in the ...
We were very pleased to receive an email from Brian Jenner of the Speechwriters' Guild telling us that Paddy Ashdown's former speechwriter, Professor Max Atkinson, is to receive an award from them in just over a month's time: Dr Max Atkinson is to be awarded a 'Lifetime Achievement' award by the UK Speechwriters' Guild. The award is being made for his outstanding contribution to the theory and practice of speechwriting and public speaking over the past 35 years. Dr Atkinson came to national prominence when he used his academic research into the speaking techniques of top politicians, and applied them ...
Last week model Charli Howard hit the headlines when she wrote an open letter to her modelling agency who had told her that at a mere size 6, she was too big to work. From the Independent: "The more you force us to lose weight and be small, the more designers have to make clothes to fit our sizes, and the more young girls are being made ill. It's no longer an image I choose to represent," she wrote. Howard's letter made headlines globally and comes after a number of models have openly criticised the fashion industry for body-shaming by ...
I increasingly despair about the present Tory Government. Just look at all the massive down sides of Cameron gaining an overall majority:- * Social housing to be sold off when there is a huge shortage of affordable rented housing. * Cutting back on sustainable green initiatives and putting future generations at risk from even greater climate change problems. * Attacking trade unions who brought about many social advances that we all (including Tories) now take for granted. * Trying to reduce your and my rights and in doing so making the state less accountable to us all. * Hitting the ...
Astronomers using the Kepler telescope have noted something odd about star KIC 8462852. It has some very large changes in its brightness. Most likely these changes have random, natural causes, but still amongst the possibilities is the chance that these changes are in fact artificial- that there are space aliens and that they have technology that can harvest energy on a stellar scale. Cosmologists have often speculated on how we might recognise a civilisation beyond our own solar system, and they have applied different criteria to identify the level of development of any intelligence that we may encounter. These criteria ...
Mon 19th
11:56
Nicola and Jeremy are both calling for a kinder, gentler politics. Is anyone listening?
A few weeks ago, Jeremy Corbyn called for a kinder, gentler politics, following an outbreak of red on red unpleasantness. Whilst those of us of a Liberal Democrat persuasion have become used to the sometimes inane criticism of a small minority of 'class warriors' amongst Labour ranks, the general tone from the Opposition benches in Parliament, and especially some of their candidates, hardly established a tone conducive to peace, love and understanding. It was instructive to see how some of them felt when the anger was suddenly directed towards them. Now, as Tim Farron noted in his excellent speech at ...
What makes a great candidate? It can be an incredibly demanding job and I imagine it's lots of things. A strong ability to communicate, to listen, to represent people effectively. To demonstrate generous leadership, to inspire and to continually learn. These are all what I'd consider the headlines. What about fundraising? It's certainly vital - but I'd argue that not only is it not the single *biggest* priority. It's certainly not more important than the above qualities. It's one of the skills that can most often be generated truly as a team effort whilst potentially being most successful when lead ...
[IMG: Digital Silence DS 101A Stereo Noise Cancelling Headset] I'm rather a belated convert to noise cancelling headsets, due to simple lethargy at getting round to trying them – though judging by the number of other people on my recent long flight who looked to be using normal earbuds, I'm far from alone in that. But that flight did now make me a firm convert, and a fan more specifically of my Digital Silence DS-101A Stereo Analogue Ambient Noise Cancelling Headset. For not that much more that you can easily pay for standard ear buds, the Digital Silence noise cancelling ...
In their latest move away from green policies, the Government have cut solar subsidies by 87% see http://bit.ly/1MOy5wt. Four solar panel firms have withdrawn from the market, and job losses may reach 27,000. This comes on top of restrictions on energy efficiency, onshore wind etc. I declare an interest, having installed solar panels on the roof of our house at the end of August, just before the cuts took effect. We just got in ahead of the cuts, and up to now have generated 231 kwh, saving 91 kg CO2 emissions. It may not be much, but the industry was ...
[IMG: Nov 2006 modified LDV front page] We thought it might be fun to take one of our occasional trips down Memory Lane to see what we were writing about on this day in 5 of the 9 years of our existence. 19th October 2006 Pre the Crash, leader Ming Campbell takes Labour to task on poverty and talks about, guess what, a fairer society. Who says we are inconsistent. Worth reading as much of it is relevant now. I am determined to take the fight for a fairer Britain into the mainstream of British politics, and into the heartlands ...
[IMG: Iain joins members of GMP and faith communities at the Yeshurun synagogue] Iain joins members of GMP and faith communities at the Yeshurun synagogue I was very pleased to join Christians, Muslims, Jews, Sikhs and Hindus at the Yeshurun synagogue in Gatley, along with my colleague Cllr June Somekh, the Deputy Mayor. The interfaith event was organised by Greater Manchester Police and Chief Constable Sir Peter Fahy spoke in one of his last engagements before leaving the Police to take up a new role at the Retrak charity in Cheadle Hulme. The message from the event was simple: the ...
You don't get many moments when you get a shiver down your spine at events you read about, certainly not in the Sunday Times, but the news that George Osborne is to go ahead with the Chinese deal to build a new nuclear power station at Hinkley Point - not to mention another one at Bradwell - really gave me a cold shudder. It is one of those moments you see the Tiber flowing with much blood, though it perhaps doesn't do to gargle with exactly those words any more. It isn't so much that we are backing such defunct ...
The Herald carried a post yesterday that justifies a broader audience. Not for the first time this summer the paper has drawn attention to the fact that Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) have submitted a dossier to the UN's Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) alleging that the UK government's welfare reforms have led to "grave or systematic violations" of human rights. Yesterday's post reported that not only has the UNCRPD taken note of this dossier but that the allegations were judged sufficiently credible to trigger a confidential investigation. Officials arrived in the UK this weekend to ...
A tale of two things from last week, one good, one bad for the Labour Party. I start with the good news. Some research suggests that 71 marginal seats currently held by the Tories contain significant numbers of people who will be adversely affected by the cuts to tax credits. In a week in which former Tory voter Michelle Dorrell wept on Question Time as she laid bare how she felt lied to by the Tories during the election campaign as a direct result of tax credit cuts being implemented since May, that rarest of things in post-May 2015 election ...
Mon 19th
08:55
No, the Liberal Democrats do not owe Police Scotland £800,000 (or any other sum for that matte...
Get into an argument with any cybernat and, sooner or later, when you've won the argument, you'll have it thrown at you, a bit like a modern Godwin's Law, that the Liberal Democrats should pay their £800,000 bill to Police Scotland. This is all to do with the security arrangements for our conference in Glasgow in 2013. South of the Border, the Home Office picks up these costs. As policing is devolved, the Scottish Government had responsibility and refused to do so. That meant that, apart from a small contribution to cover the costs of accreditation from the UK Government, ...
From the City Council : THE ROAD TRAFFIC REGULATION ACT 1984 - SECTION 14(1) THE DUNDEE CITY COUNCIL AS TRAFFIC AUTHORITY being satisfied that traffic on the road should be prohibited by reason of crane lifting works being carried out HEREBY PROHIBIT the driving of any vehicle in Kirsty Semple Way (between the access road to A & E and the car park for the Mackenzie building), Dundee. This notice comes into effect on Saturday 24 October 2015 for 1 day. Pedestrian thoroughfare will be maintained. This section of road is only available to buses and taxis. Alternative routes are ...
A petition on 38 degrees opposing Stockport Council's decision to "close Stockport Market in its present location, and reverse the decision to relocate it away from the historic market place." has got more than 5,000 signatures in just a few days. There's just one problem – there is no such proposal. If someone at the Council suggested closing down the market in its current location, I would be fighting it tooth-and-nail. In reality, exactly the opposite is being proposed. As I wrote a couple of weeks ago, the plan we have is to improve and grow the market in its ...
So what does Europe really think about the Brexit debate? Mostly accurate! (tags: eu ukpolitics ) 1 Island, 2 Days and 3 Themes to Remember My colleague @steve_salvador looks at the future of storytelling. (tags: internet technology )
The Biphobia Project: a collection of the crap we get for being bi [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
Letter from the Rt.Hon Jane Kennedy, Police and Crime Commissioner for Merseyside, regarding proposed cuts to Merseyside Police.
Just when you thought that Tony Blair's culpability in the illegal war against Iraq could not get any worse, the Independent reveals that as early as March 2002, the former Prime Minister had let it be known to the US Administration that he would support military action against Saddam Hussein if necessary. The paper says that a dossier, written on 28 March 2002 by former US Secretary of State Colin Powell to President George W Bush, said: "On Iraq, Blair will be with us should military operations be necessary. "He is convinced on two points: the threat is real; and ...
