For six months now I've been misreading what is happening in the party. So it's time I fessed up to what I know I don't know. Until a few months ago I thought I got the Labour Party. I'd spent the best part of a decade fighting elections against it and therefore had by necessity [...]
Earlier today, the West End Christmas Fortnight Shoppers' Prize Draw took place at Blackness Library. Ann Prescott of the Community Council and Christmas Committee (see right) and the library staff kindly took part in drawing the winners - and also the winner of the Children's Window Spotting Competition. The winners will be publicly announced later this week once we have notified them - and many thanks to the hundreds of people who participated! The Rosebud is winner of the public vote for the best dressed Christmas shop window in the West End and here's Dilly Milne of the Rosebud outside ...
[IMG: IMAG1259.jpg] Had a fantastic weekend getting to know some of the Friends of Alexandra Park, and volunteering on their stall on the farmers market over the weekend. The Friends work to promote and protect Alexandra Park - the grounds around Ally Pally.
[IMG: Laura Davies] Congratulations to long-standing Liberal Democrat member Laura Davies who starts in the new year in the new role as Director of People. This new post is part of the HQ restructure and her area includes the membership work for which departing Austin Rathe used to be responsible. "Director of People" is an amusingly illiberal title if taken literally... what it means in terms of the Liberal Democrat HQ restructure is a responsibility for areas such as membership, volunteering, training and diversity, rather than campaigning, policy or press. "Director of People" is the sort of job title which ...
Our household has recently obtained one of these and we've discovered an interesting thing: The amount of froth you get depends very much on where you get the milk from. We'd been looking at getting one for a while - [IMG: [personal profile] ] matgb for his coffee, and me for my sinister milky drinks - but were reasonably puzzled that pretty much every one had wildly variant reviews. We think this explains it. And we probably never would have noticed were it not for the fact that we tend to pick up milk ad hoc from whichever shop we ...
I retweeted this 1912 press cutting yesterday morning and immediately wondered whether I had been taken in by a hoax. But it does appear to be genuine. It comes from the Braidwood Dispatch Mining Journal, which was published in New South Wales. So take it as a reminder of how well established the science behind fear about global warming is. The agreement on the climate signed in Paris was immensely welcome, though I fear some governments will expend considerable energy on trying to wriggle out of what they agreed to over the coming years. And the controversialists and backers of ...
[IMG: Lindsay Northover] The election of a member of the party's Federal Executive by the Liberal Democrat peers has had rather more attention than usual recently. But for this year at least the excitement is over with the news that the Lib Dem peers have elected Lindsay Northover to be their rep. Glad to have been elected – unopposed in fact! – as @LibDemLords rep on the Party's Federal Executive Committee. I look forward to this. — Lindsay Northover (@LPNorthover) December 14, 2015 Lindsay served as an international development minister and many years before that was a Parliamentary target seat ...
I posted about the public consultation event held at Maghull Town Hall last month on this blog site. My original posting (and a follow-up one) can be read via the links below:- After the event I filed in a Merseytravel consultation form with a few ideas on my own and those brought to my attention by residents. The responses of Merseytravel to the issues that I commented on in my submission are below:- Dear Mr Robertson Thank you for your suggestions for Maghull North station following the recent public information event. I am pleased to hear that you ...
A set of humane and sensible essays about America, Christian traditions, tolerance and learning. A useful antidote for a time when the crazy side has been getting a lot of airtime.
This is news hot off the press. The Liberal Democrat group in the House of Lords have elected a new representative to the party's Federal Executive. Given that the committee is meeting this evening, in about 7 minutes' time, that's pretty fortuitous. Imagine the drum roll.... It is..... [IMG: Baroness Lindsay Northover] Baroness Lindsay Northover, our former International Development Minister. From her biography on the Liberal Democrat website: Lindsay Northover was educated at Brighton & Hove High School and St. Anne's College, Oxford University, where she received an MA in Modern History. She went on to study at Bryn Mawr ...
Drone squad to be launched by Tokyo police https://t.co/ClJGVuZUgG — Blue Rubicon Digital (@BlueRubiconDigi) December 14, 2015 Here is the technology in action:
Previously...Last time, the first classic monsters of the classic series; this time, the first unforgettable monsters of the new series. Introducing... The Weeping Angels, aka the Lonely Assassins, aka statues that move when you are not looking at them. So don't blink. Ten Reasons To Watch "Blink" (warning: spoilers) It's a haunted house story - we open with a dark and stormy night as our heroine explores the creepy, abandoned house: Wester Drumlins. It's a house full of ghosts, the victims of the monstrous Angels who live here. But it's also a whole story about how time haunts us, plays ...
The headline targets of the Paris Agreement on climate change invite hypocrisy from policymakers The 21st UN climate summit (COP21) found a happy ending on December 12, when delegates from 195 countries adopted a set of decisions and the so-called "Paris Agreement". As usual in diplomatic negotiations, the final document contains very vague language on many crucial aspects. But this kind of 'constructive ambiguity' often is the only way to get a deal done. The actual meaning of many paragraphs will develop over time, not so much as a result of the most sophisticated interpretations but as outcome of ongoing ...
Looks a no brainer doesn't it? After the way the independence referendum jolted younger people into the importance of politics, then there seems no reason for anyone who be against 16 and 17 year-olds being given the vote, certainly for such an important referendum such as the European in/out one that is being planned for 2017. There is one caveat in my mind though, I struggle to believe that we can view young people as adults or as children at the same age depending on what we are discussing. Can someone at the age of 16 gamble in a betting ...
Having put together this list, I thought I might as well post it as a blog post too. It has no particular relevance, of course, and I as usual claim no particular expertise other than being a lifelong music obsessive who always tries to take in as much new music as possible every year, but for what it's worth here it is. I originally did this in no particular order, but having had to order a 'top 10' for something else I thought I might as well try to put the whole thing in some kind of sequence. I make ...
Firstly, we do need to ask if Keynes did suggest that. There are arguments either way on this point. Keynes' view unfolded and developed starting in the bleak 1920's in Britain. There was no 'roaring twenties' for the UK economy as the government deflated the economy to try to fit the Pound back on to its pre-war Gold Standard. Keynes then did argue that governments should run deficits if private spending declined and reduce those deficits when future growth was strong enough. This has been interpreted by many that his intent was that the budget was to be more or ...
The Liberal Democrats achieved a hold and a gain in principal council by-elections last week. In Huntingdonshire (DC), Stephen Greenall polled 45% to gain a seat from UKIP in Huntingdon East ward. The Lib Dem vote share went up by 17% from this May as the party won with a 248 vote majority as UKIP slipped to third [...]
Liberal Democrats believe that the state exists to serve and enable individuals to live their lives to the full. Our starting point is the individual. We want to find ways of enabling and encouraging each person to fulfil his or her own potential. We believe that men and women have an immense, largely unrealised capacity for self-direction, self-cultivation, self-understanding and creativity. People are not sheep to be flocked, cattle to be herded or oxen to be led; it is inhuman to reduce people to the status of objects to be manipulated, directed or discarded. It is the right of every ...
In an interview with the Institute for Government, the minister who secured same-sex marriage, Lynne Featherstone, explains the unintended roles that Michael Heseltine and Andrew Adonis played: Newbie ministers [in 2010 had] a three-hour induction, part of which was probably the most valuable thing that happened to me. Michael Heseltine and Andrew Adonis came to give us a talk, being as they were obviously big and, I won't say old, but experienced beasts of yesteryear. And it is extraordinary actually, because Michael Heseltine basically said - I mean, he put a lot more round it - you are going to ...
Yeah, we're down now but we'll get up. Hey, let's face it we've been down before. Not the first time. Probably not the last. You don't become a Lib Dem because you lust LOVE power, long to clasp it sweatily to you knuckles sprung tensed. Really no. If you just want to be any career politician all face shone power-pull suit gleam tight smile poised and posed for Downing Street and ministry wheels ready for that fat expense account, then Lib Dems probably ain't for you. Try Cameron's lot or Corb... or there again, the person who comes after Corbyn's ...
[IMG: The LGA Lib Dems support Liberal Democrat council groups across the country] Commenting on the Government's consultation over the Freedom of Information Act, Cllr Chris White, Deputy Group Leader of the Lib Dem Group at the LGA, said: "The FOI Act put into law what has always been true, that the public have a right to know what those in power are up to. It has since [...]
A non-factional faction called "Open Labour" has been created within the Labour Party to encourage open discussion between the other factions as to how the left can progress without in-fighting and back-biting. Fine as afar as it goes. It is perfectly obvious to we outside observers that by concentrating their fury on each other rather than the Tories, Labour's leading lights are merely entrenching the Tories in power. They should stop squabbling and get behind their democratically elected leader who has succeeded in catching a progressive wind amongst the electorate. But just how open is this new group within the ...
Embed from Getty Images David Cameron has not been very lucky lately with his letter writing. One letter to a local councillor in Oxfordshire scored own political goal, charges of hypocrisy and ministerial misconduct. Another letter to the president of European Council, did not even warrant a reply. Donald Tusk wrote 'in response' but not back to David Cameron. He addressed his letter to the European Council where he refers to David Cameron in third person. I cannot help noticing the dynamic between our Prime Minister, setting out his outlines for an 'In or Out' referendum, and the European Leaders ...
As news stories go this one is fairly insignificant but stands out due to the level of certainty exhibited by its subject, the Fox news presenter, Megyn Kelly, who not only still believes in Santa Claus but has apparently met him. The Independent says that the comments were prompted by a rather dubious article published on the US website the Slate, entitled: 'Santa Claus Should Not Be A White Man Anymore', which argues that from now on Santa should be depicted as a penguin. It suggests that the confusion caused by assigning an arbitrary race to a fictitious person could ...
I am of course far too young to understand what this is satirising:
'Tis the season and all that, so I thought I would try and catalogue the five worst attempts by the motion picture industry to capture the magic. If this comes across as a little Scrooge-esque – why not the five best Christmas films then? – I will answer back that there is no fun in trying to be positive on this count. The five best Christmas films is bloody straightforward: some combo of "It's a Wonderful Life", your favourite "Christmas Carol" adaptation and "Miracle on 34th Street" and you're there. The worst ones? There's where a joyous conversation can begin. ...
Embed from Getty Images As ever the Liberal Democrats are ahead of other parties when it comes to LGBT equality. That is a quote from an article by Tim Farron in the Huffington Post titled The Tories Are Trailing Behind on Transgender Rights. [Pedantic note: I only allow full capitalisation of headings when they are from HuffPo, or some other American publication] In this post Tim argues that we still have some way to go but that public attitudes have noticably shifted in a positive direction. He refers to this poll in which 68% of respondents "say a person who ...
Mon 14th
08:49
Ludlow Registrar Office cutback decision delayed - it's time to rethink how we deliver the service
A decision on cutting back the hours of Ludlow's registrar service was due to have been made today, Monday 14 December. The cabinet member, Karen Calder, was also set to approve changes to registrar services across the county, including extended hours at Oswestry. The decision would have been made at one of Shropshire Council's secretive [...]
Further to the previous Traffic Order in November at Abbotsford Street, the crane lifting job required here had to be cancelled at that time and so the City Council has now advised : 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 Abbotsford Street (from its junction with Seymour Street to approx. 100 metres east), Dundee. This notice comes into effect on Tuesday 15 December 2015 ...
There was a collective sigh of relief among Europe's mainstream body politic last night when the Front National failed to gain control of a single region of France. Marine Le Pen unsurprisingly blamed the electoral system, but the French model of two-round elections actually served the electorate well, as in many regions the two candidate [...]
Scottish Liberal Democrats Leader Willie Rennie MSP has warned SNP ministers to ensure that all the extra Barnett funding received due to increased mental health spending in England should be ringfenced for spending on the services here in Scotland. Speaking ahead of Wednesday's budget Rennie warned that a failure to invest would lead to vulnerable... More Rennie Warns SNP: 'Don't Fail on Mental Health'
Astronomers Skeptical about "Planet X" Claims Harshing exoplanetary squee! (tags: astronomy ) EU Referendum: a humiliating retreat from journalism @telegraph (and @independent) rubbish as usual. (tags: eu ukpolitics ) DNA links 5,500 year old remains of aboriginal woman in Canada with living relative Linking now with the past. (tags: genealogy biology ) Andrew Duff writes to David Cameron to help out on Brexit Getting technical. (tags: ukpolitics eu ) 15 Autism Myths People Affected by It Want to See Busted Good thoughts. (tags: autism ) The Divorce Colony Sioux Falls' role in feminist history. (tags: uspolitics history sexandgenderandsexuality ) I ...
Fishmen - the only thing that keeps me sane whole shopping at Christmas [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
