The final video in this series takes us to Hanwell and Brunel's final engineering project. There is much more about the Three Bridges on Disused Stations. Watch part 1, part 2 and part 3.
1985 saw the Beach Boys making their first album in five years, but the band making it was very different from the one that had recorded Keepin' the Summer Alive. In the intervening years, both Brian and Dennis Wilson had hit lower points in their mental and physical health than either had hit before. Brian's [...]
"This new phenomenon seems to be sweeping the party at present and it is a great vehicle for introducing new members in particular to the other activists in their area in an informal way and without being tied down by agendas and 'matters arising from previous minutes' which can sometimes seem tedious and offputting for energetic new members keen to get involved in hands on activity and lively discussion about policy." Dawud Islam praises 'Lib Dem Pint'. Teddy Wayne on the rise of the microcomplaint. A Clerk of Oxford re-examines a story every schoolboy used to know: "It's ironic that ...
In a Shropshire Council by-election last night the Liberal Democrats came third in Shrewsbury's Belle Vue ward with 21 per cent of the vote. The last the ward was fought was in 2013, when we did not field a candidate. So the result in 2009 is more significant. Then - before we were in government, remember - the Liberal Democrats finished in fourth place (the Greens came third) with only 7 per cent. Shropshire Lib Dems have made some notable gains in recent years and it may be that the result in Belle Vue was the fruit of a tremendous ...
Fri 13th
17:49
Go to help Jane Brophy in Oldham West and Royton or Paddy will be coming after you....
Last week I wrote about the three reasons you should go to Oldham for your own good. I said: If you're looking for ways to invigorate your campaigning locally, a busy by-election is the place to be. The most up to date campaigning tricks and techniques will be there for you to see. Also you might learn about things as simple as ways to organise your delivery rounds or canvassing. If you're in the office doing clerical work, learn from how it's managed. You can pick up tips on all aspects of running an election that you can develop and ...
This is another brilliant collection of short stories by Canadian Nobel laureate Alice Munro, as usual grabbing you by the guts and concentrating character and plot into exquisitely distilled doses of everyday life. A lot of them seem to have been published first by the New Yorker and are still online there - I particularly commend Dimension and Free Radicals, which are both about death and murder but in very different ways. Well worth getting hold of.
After several reports and far too much discussion – but no actual decisions – the Transport for Greater Manchester Committee finally got to the point today where the proposal for a limited trial of allowing dogs on trams would be voted on – something the Lib Dems have been pushing for for some months now. The idea has the support of the public – TfGM's own surveys showed more than 70% supported it. The proposal was modest – that dogs be allowed on trams only in secure containers that could be carried. Unfortunately, that wasn't enough. The proposal was voted ...
The Guardian reports: Aung San Suu Kyi has won Myanmar's landmark election and claimed a staggering majority in parliament, ending half a century of dominance by the military and providing the symbol of a decades-old democracy movement with a mandate to rule. The government's election commission in the capital of Naypyidaw said the National League for Democracy (NLD) party had won 348 seats across the lower and upper house of parliament, 19 more than the 329 needed for an absolute majority. In the latest standings, the incumbent military-backed Union Solidarity and Development party (USDP) has taken just 40 seats across ...
The LibDems recently ran an essay competition on the theme "What it means to be a Liberal Democrat today". Results of the competition are not out yet, and I have no idea when they will be. Here is my effort, for what it is worth. ________________________________________________ I am a Liberal Democrat because I have a sense of justice. Justice means everybody getting a fair chance without the playing field being tilted against them throughout their lives. Justice does not mean everyone being treated the same all the time. Equality before the law is a sine qua non, but equality before ...
Each week (starting with this one) I review the five best and two worst things happening in and around the party over the past seven days. The verdicts are, of course, only my personal opinion: GOOD Jane Brophy & The Oldham West By-Election: The excellent Liberal Democrat councillor for Timperley has galvanised a spirited campaign... More 5 Good – 2 Bad: My Review Of The Lib Dem Week
Tim Farron has been in Yorkshire twice this week. He spoke at Yorkshire and the Humber (note, the name of the region is right this time) Liberal Democrat conference on Saturday and he was back for the Annual Dinner in Greg Mulholland's seat on Wednesday. While he was there, he spoke to the Yorkshire Post and was not impressed by the Conservative's model of devolution: One of the reasons the northern powerhouse is a sham and a failure is because this Government are now so obsessed with making sure that we reduce the size of the state that we are ...
As the government attempts to blackmail the medical profession into accepting a new deal which is against decency, evidence and common sense, and strike action comes nearer, the opposition must decide whether they will support or oppose strike action.
The latest news on sex-by-deception cases yesterdays sentencing of Newland to eight years on three counts of sexual assault. There are a few points worth addressing, which I'll go through one by one: Firstly, while the case might persuade future judges it does not set much of a precedent. There are caveats and it does depend who you ask, but in general any case initially heard by the Crown Court is not considered binding in future court cases. This means that yesterday's judgement is relevant only as far as it relates to thought processes that the judge will go through ...
[IMG: mahabis slippers] If you compare (a) photos of myself, and (b) photos of people in the Mahabis marketing materials, it would appear that I have absolutely nothing in common with their idealised customer save for sharing the same number of heads. But in response to a Facebook ad* I got a pair of Mahabis slippers recently and love them. Super-comfortable and the clip-on soles for quick forays outside work great too. Plus great customer service. Really recommended, and you can get 15% off your first purchase from Mahabis** here. * Yes, they do work. ** Or rather, 'mahabis' because ...
One of the most positive aspects of life in Estonia is that the average level of education is so high that you get used to people making good quality decisions. Intelligent, well-thought out government services, innovative and interesting technology and so on. This is why, when one does encounter Estonian examples of stupidity, it can be rather shocking. There are small examples, such as allowing graffiti to get out of hand, which in the end creates far bigger and more expensive problems than an early zero tolerance policy does. There are bigger examples, such as the Estonian Conservative People's Party ...
I picked up on this story because of an experience I had this summer. Whilst gardening I was bitten/stung twice, one on each hand and it hurt like hell for a few hours. The following day it had all but gone and been forgotten about, but a week later my hand and wrist swelled and went red. I called into a chemist who sent me off to see a GP. The GP put me on antibiotics for a week and things cleared up. However, the GP was clearly concerned about Lyme Disease being a possibility and he questioned me ...
There has, quite rightly, been much attention paid by many people recently to 'unseen illness' - mental illness, cancer, sarcoidosis, etc., etc. - the many, many conditions that are not immediately visible to others. They vary in severity, of course, but can sometimes be underestimated in terms of the impact that they have on the way a person is feeling simply because they are 'invisible'. Some of them can even occasionally be dismissed in a kind of 'get over it' attitude, and I think it's right to repeat the oft repeated, 'you wouldn't say that to someone with a broken ...
We read the Daily Express, so you don't have to you. Yesterday, the Express quoted Lembit Opik on what happens when an MP loses their job: Basically resent it for three years, become almost insolvent and then be grateful to be able to afford a pint. We suspect there may be an element of auto-biography in Lembit's remarks. * News Meerkat - keeping a look-out for Liberal Democrat news. Meerkat photo by Adair Broughton
Christmas at Abbotswood was a big success last year - let's make it even bigger this year! Fun family event on Saturday 28 November from 4.00 pm. Christmas Fayre from 4pmSanta arrives at 5pmAbbotswood and Wellesley school choirs at 530pmBig Christmas Lights switch-on (Santa and the Mayor of Yate) at 6pmFollowed by music from Westerleigh Brass BandPlease come and join us!
There was a very sensible debate on the family friendliness or otherwise of the House of Commons earlier this week. The press seems to have latched on (sorry) to the issue of whether women MPs should be allowed to breastfeed their babies in the Commons chamber itself, although the debate was much more wide ranging – and we'll have more about those other aspects later. The debate was brought by Jess Phillips ,the MP for Birmingham Yardley who recently took such a battering on Twitter for daring to suggest that Parliament might have more important priorities than have a special ...
[IMG: Lib-Dem-logo] With depressing predictability, many people's response to the concerns a lot of Liberal Democrat members have raised about the return of Chris Rennard to the Federal Executive has been 'aren't there more important things to worry about?' It's also interesting to note that 'shut up and deliver leaflets' has now evolved into 'go and do some phone canvassing'. This is of course mixed in with 'don't you know there's a by-election on' and 'talking about this just gives us bad publicity' to try and shut down any debate by blaming everyone else for the bad things. It's an ...
Fri 13th
10:25Paddy Ashdown on snoopers' charter: Politicians in a democracy must guard our freedoms
Paddy Ashdown took part in a Guardian Live event the other night, talking to Andrew Rawnsley in Bristol. The subject of the new Investigatory Powers Bill, son of Snoopers' Charter, came up. Paddy knows about this kind of stuff. He said: We charge the intelligence services with keeping us safe, so of course they want the maximum amount of power. But the job of a politician in a democracy is to be jealous about giving away those freedoms, and to do so only when it's necessary. You have to make judgments as to how much infringement of the liberty of ...
So today the lovely [IMG: [personal profile] ] sassy_scot informed me that the Daily Fail have used some of my words. Agin my better judgement I went to look. You can read the piece here without giving the Fail your clicks if you wish. It's also on page 4 of the actual printed newspaper, although I'd rather you didn't actually BUY it on that basis. Giving the Fail money goes against my ethical shopping principles. You'll note that while the piece contains a hefty lift from my blog post from yesterday, I am uncredited - despite my name being in ...
People will ask me sometimes on social media why I don't seem to write about the Lib Dems, well, pretty much ever these days. The reason isn't sinister or suspect: there just hasn't been that much to write about from my angle since May 7th, unfortunately. But there is finally something in the news that has made me happy to be a Liberal Democrat again – if only because the party definitely took the right stance, even it meant falling in behind Cameron on something. I am referring to Sunday Trading Laws and the attempts by the government to relax ...
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie slammed the SNP on their record when addressing delegates at the 'Science at the Parliament' event at Holyrood earlier this week, saying that the nationalists are undermining Scotland's scientific reputation. Rennie challenged the SNP for their current 'unscientific' position on GM crops and highlighted the Liberal Democrat record in... More Rennie Slams SNP Over Science
With Storm Abigail currently battering the coastline north of the border it is certainly fair to say that safety concerns over transport links are never far from the minds of those living in our outer reaches, islands and regions. So the news that yet another flight from the troubled airline Loganair had to be diverted... More Lib Dem MSP's Quiz Government Over Loganair Safety
You can read all the articles that have caught my attention this week here: https://delicious.com/stephentall Below are a selection... Chris Rennard elected to Federal Executive by Lib Dem peers And to think some say the Lords is out of touch, eh... "Chris Rennard elected to Federal Exec by LibDem peers" http://bit.ly/1NMvAeJ The inequality paradox in British politics – POLITICO Really good overview from @JohnRentoul on the politics of inequality http://politi.co/1WSvUJq Wanted: a different sort of book review | The Dabbler Mark Pack requests a new genre of book review: for those factual books which pass the test of time (or ...
This is my fourth weekly diary over at LibDemVoice today... Status Quo's winning record Painful though it might be for liberals to admit the fact, Britain is a fundamentally conservative country. Opposition is more often expressed with a tut or a sceptically-arched eyebrow than a revolution. And then things generally revert to how they were before. Which is why, though I'm more careful these days about predicting what will happen next in British politics, I remain sure 'remain' will win the EU referendum. A few years ago, after our AV knock-back, I looked back at the history of referendums in ...
All welcome at Gatley Green, Christmas light switch on at 4.30pm on Saturday 21st November 2015. [IMG: gatley christmas event]
Status Quo's winning record Painful though it might be for liberals to admit the fact, Britain is a fundamentally conservative country. Opposition is more often expressed with a tut or a sceptically-arched eyebrow than a revolution. And then things generally revert to how they were before. Which is why, though I'm more careful these days about predicting what will happen next in British politics, I remain sure 'remain' will win the EU referendum. A few years ago, after our AV knock-back, I looked back at the history of referendums in this country (starting with the first ever UK plebiscite, the ...
From the Curator of Museum Services at the University of Dundee : The Eleventh Annual University of Dundee Culture Day takes place on Wednesday 18th November in Baxter Room 1.36, first floor, Tower Building. This year the theme is People & Place and as always we have a fascinating interdisciplinary programme of talks and drama. Programme 1.30pm - Introduction 1.35pm - Caroline Brown (Archive Services)A Sense of Place: Strathmartine HospitalCapturing different memories of an institution, a workplace and a home. This talk will provide an overview of an oral history project with staff and former residents of Strathmartine Hospital. 1.50pm ...
I take my hat off to Shropshire Council's Outdoor Recreation Team for some excellent repairs to footpaths that cross the A49, Ludlow's bypass. Back in July, Tracey Huffer and I joined council planners and a footpath officer to discuss retaining an informal footpath through the proposed housing development off Cold West Drive. At that site [...]
As if it were not bad enough that our privacy is to be invaded by the Tory Government's Snoopers' charter, the Internet Service Providers have told a House of Commons Committee that the money put aside by Ministers to pay for the measure is insufficient and that they will have to put up the cost of our broadband. A cynic might argue that these big communications companies will use any excuse to make us pay more for their services, but that does not mean that the Government has to give them that excuse via a flawed and intrusive piece of ...
Britain and the Spectre of Geopolitical Irrelevance What James Bond films tell us. (tags: ukpolitics films ) Why Did the 'Twitter Revolutions' Fail? Ivan Krastev draws lessons from 1851. (tags: democratization russia turkey ) It's going to be okay. A mind-blowingly effective short comic. (There's some dust in my eye.) (tags: comics ) EU referendum: could Britain vote to leave? Peter Kelner sees trouble ahead. (tags: ukpolitics eu )
Liberal Democrats embroiled in race row after diversity chief is ejected from party I don't know the ins and outs of this but it doesn't look good on the day Lord Grabbyhands gets elected to FE :/ Councillor who announced closure of public toilets fined for urinating in street PSA: I emailed @salbrinton and @timfarron about Lord Grabbyhands Conservative MP's anti-hedgehog speech hailed as 'one of the best ever' Feedback on Lord Rennard's Appointment to the FE - in which @Kav_Kaushik is consulting members as FE should in which @nickjbarlow asks "What the hell are the Lib Dem Lords playing ...
