I hope that the Government are watching the weather... The sense of horror as Hurricane Patricia bears down on the Pacific coast of Mexico is terrible to behold. A storm which is thought to be the worst ever - and any storm which measures 8.3 on a. 8-point scale must be up there - is going to do some serious damage. Hopefully, DfID are already preparing to send help... English Candidates Committee isn't really helping, it seems... As a Returning Officer, you like to have control over those things you can control. However, you can hope that those responsible for ...
The second session I attended at the Battle of Ideas was on children's literature. What I chiefly remember from it is an extract from a film of Lewis Carroll's Jabberwocky made by the Czech animator Jan Svankmajer - not least because I belong to a generation that was made to learn that poem (but few others) off by heart. That extract was shown by Dr Thomas Karshan from the University of East Anglia, who led the session. I think the video here gives the full version, Svankmajer later annotated the whole of Alice and you can find clips from that ...
Michael Meacher enjoyed a remarkable 45 year career as an MP. The most generous tribute to him was that by John Vidal in the Guardian: Michael Meacher was a remarkable environment minister because for six years, at the start of the Blair government, he almost single-handedly fought to defend the natural world from road-building, the first generation of GM crops and rampant industrialisation. While junior environment ministers usually accept the Treasury or No 10 line without question, "the Meach", as he was widely known, stood up to Tony Blair and Gordon Brown and possibly saved the administration from political embarrassment ...
So writes Ed Davey for The Guardian: In the past three months, for the first time in our history, Britain produced more electricity from renewable sources than it did from coal. Between 2010 and 2015, Britain's renewable power capacity trebled, with over £40bn invested into onshore and offshore wind farms, solar PV and biomass. But that massive progress in clean energy is about to slow dramatically, thanks to policy changes brought in since May's general election. Without Liberal Democrats in coalition, the new Conservative government is slashing the low-carbon energy investment Britain needs if we are to tackle climate change ...
A monk yesterday From the Leicestershire Police website: A man has been issued with a nationwide Criminal Behaviour Order (CBO) after being convicted of harassment. Damon Jonah Kelly, 53, formerly of Millais Road, Corby, Northamptonshire, was sentenced today (Friday 23 October) after pleading guilty to harassment at an earlier hearing. He appeared at Leicester Magistrates Court he was sentenced to a 12-month community order and issued with the CBO ...The conditions of the order are [that he will not]: Distribute unsolicited material about religious, sexual or reproductive topics to any residential, commercial or academic address in England and Wales Call ...
While reading a recent article in the Peterborough Telegraph entitled "Peterborough City Council teams up with website to offer home compost bins", I had to have a bit of a chuckle! Why? Well, the article claims the Tory controlled City Council has now "teamed up" with Getcomposting.com to "..offer home compost bins from £9, and there is currently [...]
This short piece on Liberalism was prompted by by a question from an acquaintance who asked me this very question:- Liberals by their very nature are people with inquiring minds who want to know as many facts as possible about whatever it is we are considering. You will rarely see a Liberal reading say the Daily Mail or Daily Mirror because they are little more than propaganda sheets to us. We don't like our news filtered, we want clear information (not biased opinions) so that we can make up our own minds as free thinking individuals. We try not to ...
A young girl, no more than five years old, plopped herself next to her parents at the hotel restaurant. Her plate consisted of two doughnuts, a croissant and a brownie. ... Continue reading →
Notice from the county council NOTICE is given that the Hertfordshire County Council intend to make an Order under Section 14[1] of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984, to prohibit all traffic from using that length of Camp Road, St Albans from its junction with B691 Stanhope Road south eastwards to its junction with Ulverston [...]
Well done to Andy Halliday last night in Keynsham South byelection. An interesting ward and it is difficult to make any comparisons with other results due to the differing nature and the different range of candidates and the numbers of places being elected to but what is undeniable is that Andy's result saw a dramatic improvement in the Liberal Democrat vote in Keynsham South last night. The Town Council is now as was with 13 Conservative Councillors and 2 Labour. Result from last night:- EDWARDS, SIRILUCK 300 38% The Conservative Party Candidate ELECTED DAVIS, CHRISTOPHER JEFFERY 234 30% Labour Party ...
Friday: David Cameron is tearing down the British constitution before our eyes. The Conservatories, apparently HIGH on the ARROGANCE of victory, have taken their WAFER-THIN majority to be a sign of DIVINE RIGHT and are rapidly moving to use any means, no matter how dubious or illegitimate, to extend their hegemony. They've got the House of Lords in their sights. But if they are so keen on the SUPREMACY of the House of Commons then they should remember that it was the House of Commons that voted to keep the Powers of the House of Lords EXACTLY AS THEY ARE. ...
Liberal Democrats have tabled a motion in the Lords to scrap Cameron's tax credit plans which would leave three million low income people £1,000 worse off. Zahida Manzoor, our Work and Pensions spokesperson, is calling for the House not to approve the regulations and, if that is passed, the Government will have to come up with a revised version of their proposals. The Liberal Democrats will alsosupport Labour peer Patricia Hollis' amendment calling for transitional protection, but we don't believe this goes far enough. LibDems say that the Government's changes to tax credits are unacceptable. David Cameron explicitly ruled them ...
Just in case you missed it... The good news for @timfarron is he has a whole page piece in @TheSun. The bad news is they've got his name wrong: pic.twitter.com/1rC4cwt2NF — Chris Mason (@ChrisMasonBBC) October 22, 2015 Tim cheekily replied: "It's my pen name." The article itself was about the Government's policy of criminalising parents who take their children out of school for a holiday during term time. Tim has spoken out against this several times recently. He said earlier this week: Punishing parents financially for taking holidays with their children in term-time will not improve our education system. Instead ...
I have aways been a bit averse to Bob Dylan. I have recognised him as being one of the best songwriters ever, but not the best singer of his own songs. This situation changed yesterday. I listened to Andy Kershaw's sublime documentary "Back to Highway 61" about the making of Highway 61 Revisited. It is utterly fascinating. I then listened to the whole of Highway 61 Revisited on Spotify and, guess what? I actually enjoyed it. A lot. Indeed, so wowed by it was I that I am thinking of getting a T-Shirt with "Desolation Row" on it. They do ...
I am looking forward to receiving high quality answers to these questions at Full Council from this gentleman!! As the Mayor of Liverpool cannot be challenged in any way within the council, and rarely goes out to pre-advertised, pre-arranged meetings ... Continue reading →
Liberals around the world are cheered by the Canadian Liberals' emphatic victory this week. There are many serious lessons we can learn from Justin Trudeau's party, both in terms of grassroots organisation and messaging. Not for the Liberals any talk of "we're not them and we're not them so vote for us". For months there was a clear message of #realchange. The Canadian Liberals are a bit like Liberal royalty. They can be pretty establishment, but they managed to show that they wanted to reform politics and Canadian society in a way that resonated with people. This video from May ...
Fri 23rd
13:10
Tim's new chief of staff and a hangover after a late spring evening drinking with friends
It's not what you think. Tim Farron recently introduced his new Chief of Staff, Ben Williams, on these pages: Ben was the standout candidate and brings a wealth of experience at all levels of the party from council campaigner to Head of Liberal Democrat Whips' Office and latterly a Special Adviser. Everyone who has worked with him knows his skills and how brilliantly he works under pressure. There were many points over our years in government when I saw Ben, at first hand, make sure the government kept delivering liberal policies under tremendous pressures. He is exactly what our party ...
Nick Clegg has a new regular Evening Standard column and in the latest edition, he talks about housing. After a look at the history and importance of housing associations, Nick writes about how he and Danny Alexander secured assurances that housing associations would receive support to continue building more houses for rent. These assurances have now been trashed now the Tories have a majority: Five years ago I dissuaded the Conservatives in Coalition from fiddling with social rents to cut the housing benefit bill because it would have had a disastrous effect on the ability of housing associations to raise ...
Enjoy computers? Enjoy drama? Then watch Mr. Robot! Amazon have got the UK rights and you can watch it as part of their Amazon Prime service. If you don't already have Prime and not had it for the last year you can get a 30 day trial in which you can binge all ten episodes. Alternatively you can by the show for £16.99 in HD and episode 1 is available to watch for free. I want to rave about how great it is, but don't want to spoil a thing, other than the final scene of episode 9 was so ...
Public Health England says a sugar tax and other measures to reduce our consumption of sugar would reduce the nation's health bill by a whopping £500 million. The NHS is facing a spending crisis, and this would be a great way to relieve the pressure. The extra revenue could be spent on bailing out the overspend already incurred by CCGs.
Stockport's outstanding and extraordinary citizens were honoured at the 'Proud of Stockport' awards in the Town Hall on Thursday 22 October. The awards were set up by the Council to encourage a stronger sense of pride and community spirit in the borough. The awards recognise individuals, groups or teams who go out of their way to make Stockport a better place. People from all over Stockport were able to make nominations by posting forms and completing online application forms on the awards' website www.stockport.gov.uk/proudofstockport And at the ceremony, all the winners and highly commended award winners were presented with a ...
Fri 23rd
11:40
Tim's new chief of staff and a hangover after a late spring evening drinking with friends
It's not what you think. Tim Farron recently introduced his new Chief of Staff, Ben Williams, on these pages: Ben was the standout candidate and brings a wealth of experience at all levels of the party from council campaigner to Head of Liberal Democrat Whips' Office and latterly a Special Adviser. Everyone who has worked with him knows his skills and how brilliantly he works under pressure. There were many points over our years in government when I saw Ben, at first hand, make sure the government kept delivering liberal policies under tremendous pressures. He is exactly what our party ...
I have blogged previously about the House of Lords holding up Cameron's tax credit cuts. In my region we have estimated that 12,300 families in Swansea, 7,600 families in Neath Port Talbot, and 8,200 families in Bridgend and Ogmore will lose out under these Conservative plans. Figures produced by the House of Commons Library show over three million low-income working families currently in receipt of tax credits will see their entitlement reduced UK-wide. The change will mean a total loss of £31.2m to families in the three council areas in South Wales West with the average family losing £750 a ...
There were six principal council by-elections on Thursday 22nd October, but sadly none with results of note for Liberal Democrats. An active campaign in Hampshire's Chandler's Ford was stymied by a UKIP collapse, most of which went to the Tories. This is something worth watching in the future as the government's anti-immigrant and anti-EU rhetoric continue [...]
To go with a Mayor of London candidate and a set of London Assembly list candidates and the first two GLA constituency candidates, the Liberal Democrats now have the following constituency candidates in place: Zack Polanski (Barnet & Camden) Delighted to be selected this evening as the Liberal Democrat candidate for Barnet & Camden. 28 weeks to campaign hard! #libdemfightback — Zack Polanski (@ZackPolanski) October 22, 2015 Michael Bukola (Lambeth & Southwark) As a council tenant, it is very unlikely now that I will ever own my own home, particularly in such an inflated market like London. Clearly we need ...
Norman Baker writes of 38 Degrees (who ran that rather curious campaign around Lib Dem conference in 2012): [IMG: Norman Baker on how 38 Degrees operates] From Norman Baker's very readable new political memoirs, Against the Grain which I'll be reviewing in the near future. To make sure you don't miss the review, sign up for my blog digests by email: Email* Name First Last What would you like to receive? Liberal Democrat Newswire: monthly newsletter Official Lib Dem news stories from party's website Blog posts (all topics): max 1 email per day Blog posts (technology and media only): max ...
This is my first weekly diary over at LibDemVoice today... Heidi Hi The maiden speech of Heidi Allen MP, Tory successor to Andrew Lansley in South Cambridgeshire, received acclaim this week for its outspoken attack on her party's plans to slash tax credits for 13 million households. "To pull ourselves out of debt, we should not be forcing working families into it," she told the Commons. Columnist Matthew d'Ancona lauded it as "remarkable... one of the defining texts of compassionate conservatism", while the SNP's working-class hero Mhairi Black congratulated her "on her honest and, if I may say so, rather ...
Radio 2 recently ran down the Top 100 guitar riffs as selected by their listeners. This is less a "riff" and more a solo. Between 1'56" and 2'38" on this record, is the rawest, most grungey, most primeval, gutsy flight of consciousness which has ever been translated into sound from an electric guitar:
Fri 23rd
09:53
Police will once again be based at Ludlow police station from January - good news indeed
Yesterday afternoon the West Mercia police commissioner announced the very welcome news that Ludlow will once again operate as a police patrol base. The announcement came just hours before deputy commissioner Barrie Sheldon was to appear at a public meeting of the Ludlow and Clee Local Joint Committee dedicated to community safety and crime. It [...]
Editor's Note: The party is currently running an essay competition for members of the Liberal Democrats, to submit 1000 words on the theme "What it means to be a Liberal Democrat today." The deadline for contributions is 2nd November. If you would like us to publish your submission, send it to voice@libdemvoice.org.uk. To be a Liberal Democrat today is to be tilting at windmills. After decades of being the wasted vote, we broke into coalition government. Then we collapsed. But the need for Liberal Democrats is more pertinent than ever. Ignorance: The Cycle of News Whichever paper I am reading, ...
You can read all the articles that have caught my attention this week here: https://delicious.com/stephentall Below are a selection... Osborne is pretending white is black on tax credits | Red Box Me for @timesredbox on how the LibDems are opposing the Tories' duplicity on tax credits http://thetim.es/1NXjvEt We can't (tax) cut our way out of the tax credit problem – Resolution Foundation Best (only) way for Tories to mitigate their tax credit cuts? Stop the tax credit cuts. @TorstenBell explains why: http://bit.ly/1LPMdEX Women's Equality Party needs a strong dose of Nigel Farage – Telegraph Pointedly thoughtful from Emma Barnett on ...
This week, veteran Labour MP Michael Meacher passed away. The man's politics was not my own, but he was clearly someone who felt passionately about his own positions and often wrote eloquently about them. This has obviously led the way to a by-election to take place in the Oldham West and Royton constituency at a date reasonably near into the future. This is a safe Labour seat – by some ways as well – but it can be difficult to tell how much of a factor the sitting MP was when he's been an MP for a very long time ...
The Hijacking of Anglo Politics Reflections on two sorry states of affairs. (tags: ukpolitics uspolitics ) How Could Volkswagen's Top Engineers Not Have Known? Some of them did know. (tags: climatechange )
[IMG: Project Fear by Joe Pike] Political reporter Joe Pike's first book looks at how the No campaign won the Scottish independence referendum – and the legacy of how its focus on persuading swing voters by making a Yes vote look very risky to them (nicknamed 'Project Fear') came at a cost with the wider electorate, resulting in the SNP's landslide win in Scotland at the 2015 general election. In some ways it is a frustrating book because the top notch sources from inside the Better Together campaign during its various incarnations means the book is laced with lively anecdotes, ...
JRR Tolkien: 'Film my books? Its easier to film the Odyssey' Interviewed in 1968 by @telegraph. (tags: sf tolkien ) How to Spot a Sociopath (with Pictures) I don't think this is completely accurate, but it is helpful. (tags: psychology )
The City Council's Roads Maintenance Partnership (RMP) has advised : "We have now published a copy of our current financial year capital maintenance programme on-line. The following link is accessible from the main 'road maintenance' page of the DCC website. In summary, this webpage extension provides the following information : • Annual Capital Maintenance Works Programme • Information leaflet detailing the RMP remit and extent of activities (revised following receipt of comments from the May LCPP meetings) • Information on the alternate treatment techniques deployed by the RMP • Further enquiry contact details We intend to continue the on-line publishing ...
Pressure on David Cameron to back a tax on sugar is growing following the intervention of Jamie Oliver. He has based his claims on "the evidence of numerous doctors and scientists". One of those scientists is Dr Alison Tedstone, who is the director of diet and obesity for Public Health England. She told MPs this week that evidence suggests that a sugar tax could be effective at curbing childhood obesity. The danger is of course that the price of basic foods go up, thus hitting the poorest familes. After all this is not just about fizzy drinks and sweets. The ...
Sexist remarks in schools 'should be as unacceptable as racism or homophobia' Earth was 1 of the universe's first habitable planets & we're likely to miss chance to meet future alien civilisations Daniel Craig Tells Us What He Really Thinks of Bond - & ticks off interviewer for problematic things too This has made me like Craig much more [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
Heidi Hi The maiden speech of Heidi Allen MP, Tory successor to Andrew Lansley in South Cambridgeshire, received acclaim this week for its outspoken attack on her party's plans to slash tax credits for 13 million households. "To pull ourselves out of debt, we should not be forcing working families into it," she told the Commons. Columnist Matthew d'Ancona lauded it as "remarkable... one of the defining texts of compassionate conservatism", while the SNP's working-class hero Mhairi Black congratulated her "on her honest and, if I may say so, rather courageous maiden speech". The effect was slightly spoiled when it ...
