This remarkable pile is the original Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon. Built in the 1870s, it burned down in March 1926. Some of its structure survives and now forms part of the Swan Theatre, which stands next to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre.
Cicero's Songs explains what nationalism is doing to Scotland: "The centralisation of the police force and emergency services was done, not to deliver better or safer services, but to reinforce the power of nationalist politicians in Edinburgh against the perceived threat of London." Councils are powerless to stop housing development yet everyone says we need more houses built. Shaun Spiers offers an explanation of this paradox. "When Andrew was 15, the medications caught up with him and he suffered a rare complication from one of them, Seroquel. One Friday he was well enough to go to school; on Sunday he ...
Tomorrow in Fort William Jim Wallace, leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords, will give the inaugural Charles Kennedy Memorial Lecture as part of Lochaber Ideas Week. The title of his lecture is "A Highland Style of Politics: How Charles Kennedy's Highland heritage shaped him, his politics and his life". More on allmediascotland.com.
On Wednesday evening in the House of Lords, Liberal Democrats played a key role in defeating the Government, giving 16 and 17 year olds across the country a voice in the EU referendum. Following the victory, Tim Farron, Leader of the Liberal Democrats, said: "This is a victory for democracy, we will give over a [...]
More comedy genius from Australia's Clarke and Dawe:
Speech prepared for Save Hardship Funding motion for the Welsh Liberal Democrats' 2015 Autumn Conference. Conference, The purpose of this motion is to say clearly that the Welsh Liberal Democrats want to ensure that everyone can not only gain access to University, but are supported to succeed in University, too. As a party we agree [...]
Another of the books that I identified as potential Retro Hugo material, originally published in Spanish in 1940, by a protégé of Jorge Luis Borges (who contributed a foreword). I'm pretty sure that this is a novella. The English translation has 350-400 words per page, and of the 100 pages, several are taken up by Jorge Luis Borges' introduction and several more by Norah Borges' illustrations (see her map of the book's setting). So it's unlikely to be be over 40,000 words, and the same probably goes for the original Spanish text. It's worth chasing down, as an example of ...
A press release from the Liberal Democrats brings the news... Liberal Democrat peers have tonight played a key role in defeating the Government, giving 16 and 17 year olds a voice in the EU referendum. Following the victory, Tim Farron, Leader of the Liberal Democrats, said: "The Liberal Democrats have been fighting for this for decades, and we are winning the argument. "This is a victory for democracy, we will give over a million people a voice on their future. "In Scotland 16 and 17 year olds proved that they have they not only have the knowledge but also the ...
Wed 18th
17:45
Updateed: Votes at 16: Paul Tyler's speech in the Lords debate - and Government defeated 293-211
The Liberal Democrat members of the House of Lords have done some fabulous work. It's not just the tax credits vote recently, but the work they did in very difficult circumstances during the last government to challenge terrible Tory ideas. Add to that their campaigning work in the run up to the General Election and their constant visits to local parties (over 100 since the General Election) to help with the #libdemfightback. Today is no exception. They are playing a blinder in the EU Referendum Bill debate arguing for votes at 16 and as such showing themselves to be far ...
Wed 18th
17:32
Ludlow gas main farce as National Grid Gas says disruptive work it planned is unnecessary
It was an urgent job, we were told last December. Town centre gas pipes are old and are becoming dangerous. So urgent, the work would have to commence in April. When National Grid Gas missed that date, it announced that it would dig up King Street and High Street in July - a decision that [...]
Wed 18th
16:53
Maghull – Public exhibition about the new Maghull North Station – 24th November, Maghull...
Glad to see things are moving forward here following the Coalition Government giving Merseytravel around 90% of the money to build this long campaigned for new station. [IMG: image002] Please click on the image to enlarge it I wonder how long it will be before Labour tries, yet again, to make out they are getting this station built? They tried something similar over the Switch Island – Thornton link Road (Brooms Cross Road) which was, like Maghull North Station funding, given the green light by the Coalition Government (NOT by Labour) and was campaigned for by the people and Parish ...
The possibility of a vote in Parliament on bombing Daesh (also known as ISIL/ISIS/IS) in Syria is coming with talk in the news of which Labour MPs might back it, in a potentially close vote. I think we need to debate this too. It is likely to be a free vote or one with significant rebellions on all sides. Should our MPs be whipped? The difference between attacking Daesh in Iraq and Daesh in Syria seems to be a legal one not a moral one. The former is in support of Iraq/Kurdish Iraq at their request, and the latter would ...
I've written a piece for the New Statesmen on the latest instalment in the ongoing Lord Rennard saga which has been giving the Lib Dems very public grief for almost three years now. They asked me to write it on Monday — at a time when it looked like the party was going to end up split down the middle on the issue with neither Rennard nor his opponents seemingly prepared to back down — and I wrote most of it that evening. At that point I had no idea how to conclude the piece: if neither blinked, the party ...
Wallington High School for Girls are holding an event for residents seeking your views on their proposals to extend the use of their Sports Hall to make it available for community use. This will enable the school to promote sporting activities in the local area, as well as generating vital revenues [...]
Wed 18th
16:10Votes at 16: Jonathan Court: 16 and 17 year olds are affected by Governments - we should have a say
Ahead of tonight's vote in the House of Lords on giving 16 and 17 year olds the vote in the EU Referendum, Liberal Youth member Jonathan Court, who's 17, explains why the issue is so important to him. I missed the 2015 election by 15 months. Though all my friends around me could vote in the last election, I was stuck without a say. During the campaign I listened to debates, campaigned with other locals and met numerous politicians like Sadiq Khan and Nick Clegg. 16 and 17 year olds aren't stereotypical drug-taking layabouts that have no interest in the ...
The Coast Path route is nearing implementation. I am generally in favour of the route through Blyth, but I know some people have worries about the actual route through the area. There is to be a drop in session to give information at the Dave Stephens Centre, on Wednesday 2nd December , from 10 am to 1 pm . Details are on the attached poster ( Apologies for the standard of the picture, I have had to convert it to a format that this blog program accepts )
Our Party is all about campaigning. It is what saved the old Liberal Party from extinction and what sustains us in difficult times. I know local parties up and down the country are running campaigns on many different issues, but we lack some important national ones. What about Europe I hear you say, or the Human Rights Act? Well, yes, the EU and human rights are important issues and we do have to campaign for them, but they are not high on people's list of concerns. Apart from Europe, we have individual initiatives launched by the leader or an MP, ...
[IMG: key_ashburn_holder] Ashburn Holder was our parliamentary candidate for Ilford South this year. Ash approached us at Autumn Conference to let us know about a youth justice campaign he had been running. The campaign focuses on the problems many young people aged 18-24 have when being interviewed by the Police. On some occasions, young people report being [...]
As if provoking his defence spokesperson by appointing Ken Livingstone as co-chair of Labour's Trident review team was not bad enough, Jeremy Corbyn achieved a double whammy for his party today, through the way his chosen appointee subsequently conducted himself. According to the Telegraph, Mr. Livingstone responded to criticism by Kevan Jones MP, who has won plaudits for the way he spoke out about his experience of depression, by saying that Mr. Jones "might need some psychiatric help": Mr Corbyn is under mounting pressure from leading Labour MPs to sack Mr Livingstone just hours after it emerged he had got ...
[IMG: Cllr. John Dodd] Cllr. John Dodd Cllr. John Dodd the Lib Dem member of the Merseytravel Committee (appointed by Sefton Council) which oversees our local rail network has been asking questions about how our local rail network in north Merseyside and West Lancashire can be improved and it seems that if there are are to be any significant improvements Burscough will be at the heart of things, at least as far as Merseytravel is concerned. This is what John was told:- The enhancement of the Ormskirk-Preston Line is identified as one of the packages of improvement contained within the ...
I wasn't planning to announce this, but today the press asked me which school I am a governor of. The truth is, I was a school governor when I wrote my blog, but am one no longer. It changed yesterday lunchtime. Unfortunately the advice of the Head of Legal & Democratic Services at the county council led me to conclude that if I moved the motion at council to withdraw the proposal to cut teaching assistants' pay I might be seen to be breaking the code of councillor conduct. Obviously that could threaten any debate of the motion itself, particularly ...
Ahead of the Lords vote on allowing 16 and 17 year olds the vote in the EU Referendum, Liberal Youth member Isabelle Cherry, who's 17, says why this is so important to her. A 16 year old says: "I think we should remain in the EU because membership gives us a say on how trading rules are set up", to which a 46 year old replies: "you don't know what you're talking about because you're 16". If the 16 year old's argument was said by an older member of the community, the point would be scrutinised and debated, and ultimately ...
I first published this post in August 2014. Subsequent events make these lessons rather timely again and still very pertinent. To recap, four ancillary lessons I think the Liberal Democrats need to learn from the events around Chris Rennard are: Don't judge Presidential candidates by their TV appeal: "voting in the current circumstances for a new President that you're not sure can do the internal administration part of the job really well is asking for deep trouble for us all". (2015 update: Sal Brinton has certainly shown she has the necessary skills and interest in the administration part of the ...
[IMG: Reading Liberal Democrats on the campaign trail] Last month, our colleagues in Reading experimented with using paid-for social media promotion to drive engagement with a local campaign. We asked James Moore to give us his thoughts on how the campaign went, and what ALDC members could learn from Reading's experience: We started running a petition to save Tilehurst Library. As well as [...]
Please see link here.
This year, I've decided to write my review of the ALDE Party Congress in sections, given my decision to publish it here rather than at Liberal Democrat Voice - I can write at greater length and cover more ground. Having set the scene yesterday, I start with a summary of some of the policy resolutions up for discussion... Economics Reclaiming Liberalism: a liberal response to digitalisation This rather lengthy resolution springs from a seminar held earlier in the year and can be broken up into six elements;maximising the potential of digitalisation - creating effective regulatory environments, promoting a competitively priced, ...
[IMG: St. Luke's - Liverpool's famous WW2 'bombed-out' church.] St. Luke's – Liverpool's famous WW2 'bombed-out' church. www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-34615832 The BBC has the story on its web site – see link above. [IMG: St Luke's catching the setting sun] St Luke's catching the setting sun This has to be a very welcome initiative. Liverpool has numerous historic buildings which help make the city so special and attracts more and more visitors to the City each year. Celebrating our historic buildings rather then demolishing them to replace with characterless modern warehouse type structures has to be the way forward. [IMG: Liverpool's world ...
Blood results 18.1 21.10 5.10 18.09 10.09 3.07 17.06 9.06 Normal Hb 87 107 95 106 81 104 107 93 130-180 WBC 1.76 1.8 1.95 2.53 2.39 2.85 2.85 2.55 4.5-10.0 N'phils 0.46 0.57 0.87 1.05 1.02 1.16 1.17 1.14 2.0-7 Plt 221 202 225 2.41 2.41 249 232 296 150-450 October 21 Neutrophils were incorrectly recorded and they have now fallen below 0.5, a warning sign. Consultant decided I shouldn't take a holiday from Hydroxycarbamide for the next three weeks and then review the results again. He thought Hb might also recover a bit, an opinion I don't share. ...
Labour councillors in Gateshead had been rather quiet on the issue of their new Leader. No outward expressions of joy at the onward march of the people's revolutionary collective, no socialist slurping of champagne at the arrival of Comrade Corbyn, no burblings from the brothers and sisters of socialism welcoming statements that everything they have fought for over the past 20 years was trash.
[IMG: A few wind turbines] Today the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Amber Rudd, will give a speech to update us all on the Government's energy policy. What she will say has been widely trailed and it contains some seriously bad news. The last six months have seen a relentless and systematic unravelling of the excellent work done by Ed Davey to develop the green economy. The Government is now going one step further to deprioritise decarbonisation as a main goal, in favour of making energy security its number one priority. It does not seem to realise ...
Let me tell you a story. It's a story of someone deeply disturbed. He's the former mayor of London and he believes it's perfectly okay to lash out at health concerns of people who disagree with him.... oh wait... that's you. I was 18 when I was diagnosed with depression. The following couple of years [...]
One of the issues that regularly comes up for the Lib Dem team is parking problems outside schools. It's a nationwide issue, and not an easy one to crack, so we keep at it. We recently asked for an update from the Council's parking enforcement team, so here it is. Every school and college in Stockport has parking problems, and all get regular visits from the traffic wardens several times a year. In the last half term 10 Penalty Notices were issued to vehicles stopping on school zigzags. The visual presence of traffic wardens at a school leads to a ...
Scottish Liberal Democrat paid the following moving tribute during the 'Motion of Condolence: Paris, 13 November 2015' at Holyrood Yesterday: "The city of love is wounded by hate. Today to Paris we send our love, to help it heal. Of course we are afraid. We saw the fear of people in Paris on Friday. And... More Rennie's Moving Comments In Paris Tribute
Wed 18th
11:08Votes at 16 LibLink Special: Tim Farron: If you are old enough to fight, you are old enough to vote
Ahead of the crucial Lords vote this afternoon, Tim Farron has written for the Telegraph about why giving 16 and 17 year olds the vote in the EU Referendum is so important: He points out the logical flaws in the Government's stance: It is striking that the same people who argue people that generations of Brits "haven't had a say" on the EU are now opposed to giving 16 year olds the right to vote. They seem to want democracy, but only the kind they like - or think will get the result they want. Sixteen and seventeen year olds ...
Wed 18th
11:00
Updated for 2015: How bullying destroyed my teenage years and affected my whole life: why Anti-Bully...
I first wrote this five years ago, and I share it every year during Anti-Bullying Week. I could write something else, but it took some emotional energy to write the first time and I'm not really up for putting myself through ... Continue reading →
You may have read recently that the Liberal Democrats have challenged the government to end puppy farming in the UK? Puppy farming is the unlicensed breeding of dogs in sometimes squalid conditions that can have a hugely damaging impact on the health of puppies. The dogs are often neglected because they are bred in large numbers [...]
[IMG: Flipchart spotted in a Lib Dem campaign office.] Flipchart spotted in a Lib Dem campaign office. Governing magazine has an interesting piece on what government can learn from the commercial sector – and the lessons are very applicable to political parties too. [Mike] Salvino told the audience at a recent Governing event that when he took over as the group chief executive of Accenture Operations, he had an 87-page strategic plan for how to grow and manage that business. At the end of his first year, nothing had changed, so he scrapped the strategic plan and began to focus ...
Half of people in Oldham West and Royton get their ballot papers in the next few days. Can you encourage them to cast their votes for the excellent Liberal Democrat candidate Jane Brophy? National Campaigns Officer Steve Jolly explains why you should: All the details of how to get there are here and if you can't get there in person, you could always make some calls for Jane or send some dosh. Going to a by-election is great fun. They work you hard, but you never quite know who you are going to meet. You could end up canvassing with ...
Today is another black day. A suicide bomber, expected to be from the militant group Boko Haram, has struck in the Nigerian city of Yola. The bomber attacked the market place and over 30 are confirmed as dead with over 80 injured, many of them critically. As with the attacks in Paris people had been going... More Solidarity To Yola, Nigeria
I heartily dislike the politics of identity. I believe in the politics of values. The creation on a political credo based on some assumed identity is, to my mind an exclusive, dangerous thing. Making judgements of others based on identity very quickly becomes dangerous: national identities create nationalist a nationalist agenda, class identities creates a revolutionary agenda, religious identity - well, we have all seen what that can create. In fact all can quickly lead at best to discrimination and at worst to violence and death. The politics of identity builds walls. It diminishes our sense of collective responsibility. The ...
I have always been fascinated by those social movements that rise and fall, leave their mark permanently, and are then forgotten. I have had a soft spot for the 1920s movement Kibbo Kift as a result. So imagine my surprise when I opened my Guardian last week and found a big feature about them, and their charismatic leader John Hargrave. I dropped everything and read through it immediately. There are three reasons why I'm especially interested in this peculiar mixture of Scouting, Egyptology, outdoor ritual and back to the land. First, because it was an early breakaway from the Boy ...
ALL EYES ARE ON #VENEZUELA https://t.co/FkiyLBZ64W @liberalinternat pic.twitter.com/7wpnNQdhzz— ALDE Group (@ALDEgroup) November 15, 2015 Inflation officially at 68.5% (that is, what it was when the Central Bank stopped publishing the data last December - it may be as high as 700% now), a chicken costing $219 at the official exchange rate, the gold reserves being sold off to pay maturing debt and national GDP thought to have fallen by about 10% this year - not perhaps the ideal circumstances to be fighting an election in if you're the governing party. And it gets worse. The First Lady's nephews have been ...
Today marks the first anniversary of one of the greatest days in my life – not (just) for the first and only defeat of the Coalition Government on legislation. It marks Parliament voting for meaningful reform of the tied pub industry that numbered around half of Britain's 50,000 pubs. More importantly, it marks the sign that Britain wants to see the Great British Pubco Scam ended. One year on, what has happened? Given the inevitable passage of time while legislation is enacted, what can we see? At the moment, we have a Government failing to come to terms with what ...
One of the best moments of the Scottish independence referendum last year for me was in the late afternoon on polling day. I was outside a polling station in Corstorphine watching streams of engaged 16 and 17 year olds, some of them still in school uniform, coming in to cast their votes. At the time, I thought how cruel it would be, after they had been such a positive part of the referendum, for them not to be allowed to vote on their UK Government 7 months later. However, when it comes to the Scottish elections next May, my 16 ...
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 Scottish Water investigation works being carried out HEREBY PROHIBIT the driving of any vehicle in Easson's Angle, Dundee. This notice comes into effect on Monday 23 November 2015 for 5 working days. Pedestrian thoroughfare will be maintained. Alternative routes are available via Fleuchar Street / Blyth Street / City Road / Milnbank Road. For further information contact 433168. Director of City DevelopmentDundee City Council
Much talk since Jeremy Corbyn became leader of the Labour Party has focused on the sudden ascent of the far-left of the party, and furthermore how this group of people are more interested in being victorious regarding internal battles within Labour rather than winning external elections. I've talked about these issues myself. But now I'm actually starting to wonder if there isn't some sort of towel throwing in exercise going on here. In other words, is Jeremy Corbyn intentionally trying to make Labour unelectable? It sounds totally daft to say, however much you dislike Corbyn's politics. But the guy is ...
Congratulations! First same-sex marriage takes place in Ireland Hooray! (tags: sexandgenderandsexuality ireland ) Northern Ireland power sharing saved Hooray! (tags: northernireland ) The Rennard debacle: better to rock the boat than have the tail wag the dog @jamesgraham nails it. (tags: libdems ukpolitics )
In the wake of last weekend's appalling terrorist attacks in Paris the UK Prime Minister, David Cameron, last night stated his determination to get tougher with ISIS, including the possibility of getting parliamentary support for air strikes against ISIS positions in Syria. The UK already takes part in anti-ISIS military action in Iraq, at the [...]
Ten Things You'll Only Get if You Were a 50's Kid by @HickeyWriter on Daily Science Fiction My God. The undercurrents in this are immense. Paris attacks: Hating refugees is exactly what Isis wants you to do Fans push for Eagles Of Death Metal no.1 spot - #EODMforno1 Mass graves of women killed by Isil - this is what we're up against George Osborne's national spider plan - because our Spider start-ups need support. Legislate in haste, repent in leisure says @julianhuppert The Rennard debacle: better to rock the boat than have the tail wag the dog Women in comedy: ...
The Welsh Liberal Democrats have questioned Labour's ability to deliver on their new mental health targets, as new figures show a large increase in the number of young people waiting over the target time for specialist treatment. Statistics released last week show an 11% increase over a month in the number of patients for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) who are waiting more than the target 16 weeks to begin their treatment. 1,766 patients had been waiting more than 16 weeks as of September 2015, 185 more than in August. The number is 55% of all those currently ...
Stockton Borough Council have issued the following press release: REVIEW OF CEREMONIAL BOUNDARY SIGNAGE ACROSS STOCKTON-ON-TEES STOCKTON-ON-TEES Borough Council is asking for residents' views on ceremonial boundary signage. The Council's Place Select Committee began a review in July and as part of this has been gathering information on the boundary signage across the Borough. Now that this information has been gathered, the Committee is seeking views from the public before reporting its findings to the Council's Cabinet for consideration early next year. Leader of Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council, Councillor Bob Cook, said: "The Select Committee has already carried out some excellent ...
