Click on the still above to go this short silent film from the BFI's Britain on Film collection: This is a lovely portrait of York in the, much less busy, early sixties, illustrating well the city's great history and many cultural attractions. Among the highlights is footage of the 1963 production of the York Mystery Plays and the York Regatta. This film was made by York photographer and filmmaker May Webb, who, with her husband Frank, ran a photography business in York, as well running the York cine club, the Apollo Film Unit.

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

Each week 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 FORGET MAOISM, IT'S JAINISM THIS WEEKEND: For the third week in a row the Oldham West By-Election takes the top spot with this excellent... More 5 Good – 2 Bad: My Review of the Lib Dem Week

Posted by dawudislam on LibDemHAME

[IMG: Tim Farron on HIGNFY] It's almost 9pm and time for this week's hotly awaited Have I got News for You. Have you got your popcorn and glass of wine ready? We're about to be off... So Tim's on Paul's team.. If you are only just seeing this now and haven't watched the programme, you can do so here on iPlayer. First question is about the Russian jet shot down by Turkey. Ian's already had a bit of a go at Tim "It's ok for you to have an opinion, you're not going to be PM for a while." Bit ...

Posted by The Voice on Liberal Democrat Voice
Fri 27th
20:56

Nick Clegg in Oldham

Up for the by-election, Nick Clegg has been interviewed by the Oldham Evening Chronicle: "I think Jane's getting a really positive response on the doorstep and I am very confident that she is going to do a lot better than we did in the General Election. "We have got to rebuild like any party, like any individual that takes a hard knock. You have got to lick your wounds a bit but move on and dust yourself down. "The party's finding its zeal and fighting spirit again. In a constituency like this where we haven't traditionally been competing at Westminster ...

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

From the Leicester Mercury: Six men who say they were sexually abused by former Leicester MP Greville Janner are expected to submit a claim for up to £2.5 million in damages. Lawyers acting for the men, who claim the 87-year-old committed the offences against them decades ago, indicated the scale of their potential damages claim at the High Court in London on Tuesday. Details of the claim are to be formally served on Lord Janner's legal team, which must happen before the end of November. Lord Janner, who was MP for Leicester West for 27 years from 1970, is accused ...

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

Great news that the Welsh Liberal Democrats have decided to contest all four of their Police and Crime Commissioner elections next year. Leader Kirsty Williams said they were still opposed to PCCs but felt they had to put up candidates to promote an "open, free and tolerant society". "We won't stand by and allow the other parties to encroach on our freedoms and diminish our liberties," she said. [BBC] Expanding on the reasoning on the Welsh Liberal Democrat website, Kirsty Williams added: Welsh Liberal Democrats will be standing in these elections as the only party with an effective, liberal, community-based ...

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

And it looks like it's going to be a good one. Laurabee was in the audience and this is what she had to say on Twitter: You should watch Have I Got News For You tomorrow at 9pm on BBC1 because I'm in the audience and it was really funny #shamelessplug — Laurabee (@justlaurabee) November 26, 2015 And there's more: I think my next political crush is gonna be @timfarron after that episode — Laurabee (@justlaurabee) November 26, 2015 And you can tell she has standards. That is Justin Trudeau in her profile picture, taken at Canada House in London ...

Posted by Caron Lindsay on Liberal Democrat Voice

[IMG: 414585868_2c8513d269_n] The full ramifications of George Osborne's pronouncements on housing during the Autumn Statement will no doubt take a while to emerge. Some of the rumours of nasty surprises proved to be unfounded. There were some surprises that were broadly positive – such as the increase in stamp duty on Buy-to-let and second homes. And there were some policy changes that didn't take quite the form that commentators had guessed they might – notably the transfer of the LHA mechanism from the private rented sector to the social housing sector. Members of the housing blogging community have already been ...

Posted by admin on Alex's Archives

I confess that I haven't seen any of the films based on this book, but this is still a very interesting read (or rather reread; I had first bought it around thirty years ago). Of course, the reversal of human and ape is meant to make the reader reflect satirically on what it means to be human, and on how we treat other species; some of those points are well-aimed. But at the same time, for a French writer of 1963 fresh from the national traumas of Algeria and Indochina, it's pretty obvious what is meant and feared by the ...

OK, so I'm sure most of you know this story well by now (at least, the adult among you - children stop reading now!), but I thought I'd write the basics out for anyone who doesn't, just because Christmas is coming. I was also prompted by this story, in which Noddy himself suggests that "People think I live in a cave all year and come out in December, shouting It's Chriiisstmaaasss!", as if we didn't all know the truth. A long, long time ago, back in the late 1960's, Santa was a very happy legendary creature. He had a nice, ...

Posted by Cen Phillips on Liberal Thoughts
YouGov

There are three huge defects in the Chancellor's autumn statement 1 Technical The Chancellor fundamentally believes that the government budget can and should be balanced, or even run in surplus. This basic accounting assumption drives his whole thinking. But facts prove him, and the traditional thinking of the whole financial establishment, wrong on this. He has been unable to eliminate the deficit. He will not be able to eliminate it. In modern high technology, high productivity economies, deficit is inevitable, and manageable. There's a huge problem in thinking here. The Chancellor approaches economic policy like an accountant, rather than as ...

Posted by Geoff Crocker on Liberal Democrat Voice

Small Business Saturday is an initiative that supports small local businesses by encouraging their communities to 'shop local'. It is an opportunity for small businesses to showcase themselves and to grow by demonstrating the quality and value that it can give to its customers and how it differentiates itself from its larger competitors. This year [...]

Posted by jaynemccoy on Diary of a Sutton Councillor

On Tuesday I asked: "Which piece of ground in the UK has had the most parliamentary by-elections?". I genuinely didn't know the answer to that question when I wrote that post. We had to employ Mounted Police to deal with the deluge of replies to the question. Thanks to Tim Hill for showing interest. Prompted by Tim's enquiry, I did a bit of research and came up with the following tentative answer. The Oldham wards of Crompton, Lees and Shaw have had more parliamentary by-elections, spread relatively frequently over two centuries, than any other part of the UK. Those wards ...

Posted by Paul Walter on Liberal Democrat Voice

[IMG: englandjigsaw] Over on CityMetric, Jonn Elledge writes that devolution is meant to be about practicality and delivery, and wonders why questions of identity are mixed up in it. I think there's a problem with phrasing the debate in that way because both sides of it are ignoring a key third factor in delivering workable devolution: accountability. Both sides of the practicality vs identity debate have strong cases through looking at different sets of existing facts. The economic case points out that the way regional and local economies work rarely pays much heed to existing political and cultural boundaries and ...

Posted by Nick on What You Can Get Away With

Nine principal council by-elections were held yesterday. There Liberal Democrats in Wiltshire (CC) were unable to hold the party's seat in Salisbury St Edmund & Milford division, with the Conservatives polling 36% to secure the gain. The Lib Dem vote share dropped by 20.8% from 2013 as Greg Condliffe finished 163 votes adrift of the Tories. [...]

Posted by Michael Powell on Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors

[IMG: John Pugh MP] Good to see Southport MP John Pugh taking the opportunity in Parliament to press for improvements in the Southport – Wigan – Manchester Line – see the link above for the full story. My recent posting about Burscough holding the key to some rail improvements in north Merseyside and West Lancashire may also be of interest for further background:-

Posted by Cllr. Tony Robertson on Sefton Focus » Sefton Focus

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-34879194 [IMG: nhs-logo] The BBC has the story on its web site – see link at head of this posting. 'Overspending by NHS trusts in England has risen to £1.6bn this year as concerns about financial problems grow. The official figures for April to September mark the half-way mark of the 2015-16 financial year – and mean the deficit has grown from the £930m posted in the first three months. Regulators have described the problems as the "worst for a generation". The figures cover 241 trusts running hospital, mental health, ambulance and some community services. Between them they account for ...

Posted by Cllr. Tony Robertson on Sefton Focus » Sefton Focus

Next week the fate of the world is going to be decided. That is a statement that we have rarely, if ever, been able to say with any certainty. But the consequences of another year, five years or decade without a global climate change agreement in the form of a legally binding treaty on all major global polluters could see the progress of degradation accelerate to a point where any further action would be mostly damage control. That is the solemn mandate of the Paris Cop21 Climate Conference, co-operate or face consequences, consequences that will be more tangible than ever ...

Posted by Guy Russo on Liberal Democrat Voice

Wednesday's Autumn Statement was full of bold headline figures, but already we can see that all is not as good as it may initially seem, according to local Liberal Democrats. Cllr Stephen Giles-Medhurst (Central Watford and Oxhey), Leader of the Opposition on Hertfordshire County Council said, "This is a politically clever statement that may at [...]

Posted by chriswhite on Chris White » Chris White

If anyone thinks that there are easy answers to dealing with the problems of Syria and the Daesh group which lays claim to parts of Syria and other Countries then they are either ill-informed or stupid. I can understand the ... Continue reading →

Posted by richardkemp on But what does Richard Kemp think?
eUKhost

Sheila Thomson has been elected Convener of the Scottish Liberal Democrats. She beat Perth Councillor Willie Wilson and gained a spooky 666 votes. Sheila has been Conference Convener for the past 3 years and was previously a Councillor in Aberdeenshire. In the other Scottish internal elections, the following were elected: Executive Alan Reid Allan Heron Christine Jardine David Green Dawud Islam Emma Farthing-Sykes Galen Milne Graham Garvie Jacquie Bell James Harrison Jenny Marr Paul McGarry Policy Committee Barbara Mills Elisabeth Wilson, Euan Robson, Ewan Hoyle, Jacquie Bell Conference Committee Sandy Leslie David Green Graeme Cowie Callum Leslie Paul McGarry Ross ...

Posted by The Voice on Liberal Democrat Voice

George Osborne, and the Tory Party for that matter, are lucky so and so's – even jammy, as they used to say where I come from. The goings on in Parliament yesterday illustrate perfectly why the government can make itself virtuous by not doing what it said it would only a few weeks ago. Not only are Tax Credits safe for the time being (although how long we the tax payers should continue to subsidise employers is debatable); but also Police Budgets are to be protected, thanks to the £27bn the Chancellor has suddenly found from somewhere. We can speculate ...

Posted by John Marriott on Liberal Democrat Voice

This is my latest weekly diary over at LibDemVoice today... Spending Revue Reviewed 'You make your own luck,' goes the saying. In which case, and only in this respect, George Osborne truly has started a "march of the makers" because he's one hell of a lucky Chancellor. Had the independent Office for Budget Responsibility not lavished on him a £27 billion fiscal (and notional) windfall, this week's Autumn Statement would have been far more wintry. As it was, he was able to play out the role of Santa, albeit a very Tory version: snatching away fewer of the kids' presents ...

Posted by Stephen Tall on Stephen Tall

Tim Farron has welcomed a review in the rules for blood donation which currently stop gay men from giving blood within a year of being sexually active. He said: I very much welcome the review of what I believe are the discriminatory rules on blood donation in the UK. In 2015 I cannot see why we can't support an evidence based approach. The current law which bars sexually active gay men is scientifically and socially outdated, deeply and unjustly stigmatising, and urgently needs to change. I hope today is the first stage in that process. This was an issue Tim ...

Posted by The Voice on Liberal Democrat Voice

[IMG: Trans* Candidates and Elected Officials Around the World] Panel for Trans* Candidates and Elected Officials Around the World discussion Earlier this month, a number of trans and other activists met in the Houses of Parliament in London to discuss the release of a new and (to the best of my knowledge) unique report. It collects together a list of trans politicians who has stood for or been elected to public office, and it well worth a read. You can download the full report, in PDF form, from the LGBTQ Representation and Rights Initiative who are based at the University ...

Posted by Zoe O'Connell on Complicity

You can read all the articles that have caught my attention this week here: https://delicious.com/stephentall Below are a selection... For Everyone Who's Actually Still In Love With "Love Actually" Pretty much this (bar #12) > For Everyone Who's Actually Still In Love With "Love Actually" http://bzfd.it/1MGjCkF British Future Interesting proposal from @britishfuture: a Comprehensive Immigration Review http://bit.ly/1LBkWBA YouGov | Mog's 'calamity' is helping Sainsbury's challenge for Christmas advert crown The power of Mogg: Sainsbury's level with John Lewis http://bit.ly/1NdqlUJ Cameron is letting oil-rich Gulf bullies dictate his foreign policy | Ken Macdonald | Comment is free | The Guardian Ken ...

Posted by Stephen Tall on Stephen Tall

Think about the surrealism of the last week in British politics. A Tory chancellor does a huge U-turn on a large set of cuts, mostly because enough of his own party have turned against him on the issue. He gets up to deliver his Autumn Statement, having to dish this out to the House, and the reply of the shadow chancellor contains not a stinging rebuke of the Statement or indeed even a pithy quote about U-turns, but rather a......well, you know what it contained. I can't bring myself to write about it again. If you really don't know what ...

Posted by Nick on nicktyrone.com

Spending Revue Reviewed 'You make your own luck,' goes the saying. In which case, and only in this respect, George Osborne truly has started a "march of the makers" because he's one hell of a lucky Chancellor. Had the independent Office for Budget Responsibility not lavished on him a £27 billion fiscal (and notional) windfall, this week's Autumn Statement would have been far more wintry. As it was, he was able to play out the role of Santa, albeit a very Tory version: snatching away fewer of the kids' presents in order to re-gift them to their grandparents. For this ...

Posted by Stephen Tall on Liberal Democrat Voice

Last night, as part of West End Christmas Fortnight, we had an excellent community groups' social event at the Vine in Magdalen Yard Road. Some of last night's audience It was a great opportunity for folk from residents' groups, local churches and other faith groups and other voluntary organisations in the West End to meet and discuss their activities. Grateful thanks go to the Vine for their help and to Eddie Small who is gave an interesting and informative talk on "Darcy's Dundee."

Quite remarkably, it turns out that Joe Fitzpatrick, who was then Labour MP Phil Woolas's election agent in 2010, has ended up the chair of the Ukip branch in Oldham. Why 'quite remkarkably'? Because the campaign Joe Fitzpatrick agented included such nasty untrue smears of his Liberal Democrat opponent that Phil Woolas was taken to court and stripped of his election win. Joe Fitzpatrick was agent in election notorious for the smears used The man who helped mastermind a campaign that broke electoral laws and triggered the resignation of a former minister is at the heart of Ukip's push to ...

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

Tim Farron has written a moving, compassionate and persuasive article for Jewish News in which he calls for an initiative to help bring Syrian refugee children to safety in the same way as Jewish children under threat from the Nazis were brought to Britain in the 1930s. In 2014, of the 13,000 unaccompanied children who were registered in Italy alone, 4,000 of them went missing. Refugee and migrant children in these circumstances are incredibly vulnerable, and there is a real risk that these missing children were subject to trafficking, forced labour and exploitation. Europe cannot continue to let this happen. ...

Posted by NewsHound on Liberal Democrat Voice

Yesterday, I took part in the latest meeting of the Harris Academy Project Board, which is overseeing the building of the new school campus on Perth Road. The good news is that the building project is well on course to be completed on time, with the school returning to the Perth Road in August of next year. We were updated on the planning for the move back to the site (which includes the move of both Harris from its decant site in Lawton Road and of Menzieshill High School whose pupils become part of the Harris Academy family from next ...

 

Trump's tirade mocking journalist with disability @steveddaunt reacts. (tags: uspolitics disability ) An EU-wide constituency: Be careful what you wish for! Who really won the 2014 European Parliament election? (tags: eu elections ) Seven Condoms Don't Equal 21 Orgasms, German Court Rules Good to know. (tags: sexandgenderandsexuality germany ) Benefit cap discriminated against disabled people, court rules UK Govt's war on the disabled hits a snag. (tags: ukpolitics disability )

Spending review 2015: Osborne's tricks - and how to spot them Court finds Benefits Cap unlawfully discriminates against disabled people's carers Peter Capaldi, Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat came third in a Doctor Who pub quiz and were mortified Even the Food Standards Agency Could Access UK Surveillance Data Under New Bill [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments

 

Posted by Alisdair Gibbs-Barton on Alisdair Gibbs-Barton

Just when we thought that the Labour Party could not get any more chaotic following the Mao Zedong little red book episode, Jeremy Corbyn throws another spanner in the works. As the Guardian reports, Jeremy Corbyn is at odds with his shadow foreign secretary, Hilary Benn after they adopted sharply opposing views on UK military action against Islamic State just hours after David Cameron argued it was time to extend bombing to Syria: The Labour leader wrote to his MPs saying that the prime minister had failed earlier on Thursday to explain how an aerial campaign would protect UK security, ...

Posted by Peter Black on Peter Black

Tell that to the 40-70 million of his own people who died - which makes him the number 1 killer in human history.

Posted by Carl Minns on Carl Minns - Thoughts from Hull

The Welsh Liberal Democrats are calling on the Minister for Natural Resources, Carl Sargeant, to support the introduction of a Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) in Wales. The system would see customers pay a small cash deposit when they buy a bottled drink, and get the money back when they return the item to a collection point. As well as raising the issue in a debate this week, the we have also tabled an amendment to the Environment Bill which puts provision for a DRS in Wales on the face of the Bill. There are a number of reasons why we ...

Posted by William Powell AM on Freedom Central

About 2 years ago, I persuaded the Sunniside History Society to consider setting up a project to look into the history of the Washingwell area of Gateshead, part of which is in my ward. The society has since then enthusiastically pursued funding for the project to draw out the history of the past 2000 years in the Washingwell area which contains the remains of a Roman fort and medieval manor

Posted by jonathanwallace on Jonathan Wallace