Proper post tomorrow (probably a Batpost). Links now. Bitcoin is broken Sarah Brown on the government's trans equality report Why Florida will have to rethink its approach to executions Tim O'Neill on Bowie Paul Magrs is going to be editing ... Continue reading →
A handy piece of political advanced warning regarding Wales: The incumbent MP, Huw Irranca-Davies (LAB), was last month selected as a candidate for the Welsh Assembly elections. He is likely to win. — Britain Elects (@britainelects) January 13, 2016
[IMG: Jonny Oates on ID cards] The Palace of Westminster is quite disorientating. There's an escalator that goes from the bright modern Portcullis House into Westminster that I always call the Time Machine because it really feels like you go back 300 years in 30 feet. This afternoon, if you'd wandered into the House of Lords, you might be forgiven for thinking you'd gone to sleep and woken up in 2005, because here were Labour and Tory peers trying to bring back ID cards. And just like 2005 (who remembers Police, not Plastic), it was Liberal Democrat peers cutting their ...
UPDATED DETAILS. LD sitting as Independent seat. Cause: Resignation. LD candidate- Gemma Massey. To help, please contact Nick Pentney (01566 772734, contact@northcornwalllibdems.org.uk).
TWO SEATS. LD candidates- Paula Bullen and Kirk Denton. To help, please contact Nick Pentney (01566 772734, contact@northcornwalllibdems.org.uk).
Thanks to the Shropshire Star for leading me to this video.
Today's publication of the Transgender Equality Report by the Commons Women and Equality Committee should lead to some big improvements to services and better rights for transgender people. It has some useful recommendations around health services – ensuring, for example, that GPs have sufficient training in how they should treat transgender people. The Committee certainly seems to have listened to many of the concerns put to them. Their approach to the spousal veto question was more cautious than I would have liked. They basically said that it needed more consideration but didn't recommend doing away with it, even though they ...
Thu 14th
21:22
What do you get when you take a dog for a walk with a bottle of Pinot? Excellent service from A&...
We often hear bad stories about A&E services, especially at this time of the year. I have good story to tell and I'd like to share it because of the great help I was given by West Midlands Ambulance and Hereford County Hospital's emergency team. It is story that begins with a moment of folly... Continue reading What do you get when you take a dog for a walk with a bottle of Pinot? Excellent service from A&E →
Thu 14th
21:02
I have been blocked by Nick Rushton, Conservative leader of Leicestershire County Council
How very strange! On Tuesday I reprinted Nick Rushton's statement in full. (He explained that his Twitter account had been taken over by a hacker who had misused that access to follow a number of risque accounts and Harborough Conservatives.) Today I find I have been blocked by him. What is the point of issuing a statement if you don't want people to reproduce it? I would have thought that, following the saga of their previous leader David Parsons, Leicestershire Conservatives would have realised the imporance of open government. But even if you not been blocked, this is what you ...
So it appears that some people (probably based in the south) have considered that having a full day Saturday and ending Autumn Conference on a Tuesday is going to safe people money on accommodation. As someone who many times has travelled from the northern reaches to the southern coast I beg to disagree. Travelling from Scotland or locations up north the later start on the Saturday often allowed people the option of travelling on the first train or plane in the morning on the Saturday and if they wanted to getting to those consultative or training sessions that take place ...
The Home Office will work with nine areas to help better understand gang-related violence and exploitation, and share effective ways of dealing with local challenges. See link above for the headline details. The nine new areas to receive support from experts are: Basildon, Grimsby, Harrow, Hastings/Eastbourne, High Wycombe, Medway, Sefton in Merseyside, Southampton and Swindon. The injection of Home Office funding to try to help tackle gang related violence must be welcomed of course but we sure wish we did not have to welcome it! Surely this move must be on the back of the number of gun crimes ...
MediaMasters has a cracking interview on Labour and political communication with Gordon Brown's former spin doctor Damian McBride. "Recess is a lot more than just a free break for kids to play after lunch period. That free, unstructured play time allows kids to exercise and helps them focus better when they are in class. Now a school in Texas says it took a risk by giving students four recess periods a day, but the risk has paid off beautifully." Elizabeth Licata brings news from Fort Worth. Lion & Unicorn on cautious welcomes. "It's time we authors were paid, not in ...
The weather is set to get even colder in the next few days so help us make sure that Wallington is ready for the potential frost or snow. Hopefully many of you will have taken advantage of the free grit offer and have your supply on standby to grit your driveways and footpaths. Please help [...]
You have to be fair to Labour MPs, they are happy to take the pain they want to inflict on others, in this case, the mansion tax proposed by both my party and theirs. The Guardian reports that John Mann, who represents Bassetlaw, has suggested that Labour Party members who own property worth more than £1m should be charged a membership fee of £1,000: Writing on his website, Mann said: "Hidden from the discussion of Labour's big increase in membership is any analysis of who has joined as fee-paying individual members, but a deeper examination will show that it is ...
The only two real contenders for the Liverpool Mayoralty in May. Like most full council meetings yesterday's achieved very little. A load of political diatribe and waffle and pointless political posturing. There was one very interesting motion about the ... Continue reading →
Embed from Getty Images I have come across two reactions to the death of David Bowie that take us well beyond the world of music. Stumbling and Mumbling - written by Chris Dillow and always interesting - quotes Danny Finkelstein before rightly taking issue with him: He [Finkelstein] writes: David Bowie - undoubtedly one of the artistic geniuses of the past 50 years - was the great product and great producer of consumer capitalism...He was subversive because capitalism is subversive, overturning the status quo, restless, and profoundly democratic. I disagree. It is markets that are subversive; capitalists would much rather ...
[IMG: The Chichester Memorial Hall, Sandgate High Street] Need to hire a hall? There's no need to look any further. Sandgate has a room to suit your needs. Chichester Memorial Hall Old Fire Station Reading Room St Paul's Church Hall Tower Theatre Sandgate Library & Parish Council Office Whether for a party, business meeting, music evening, club meeting or annual general meeting, Sandgate has a room for you with space to accommodate from 10 to 300. To see if there is one to suit your needs, email the date(s) and number of attendees to david@davidcowell.net - he'll do the rest. ...
There are no Doctor Who books, other than novelisations of the TV stories, featuring the Seventh Doctor and Mel Bush. (Though there are eight Big Finish audios starring McCoy and Langford.) I think Season 24 is the only season of the entire history of the show with no spinoff novel set within its continuity. So my internal chronology order reading of the PDAs and Telos novellas featuring the Seventh Doctor starts with this 2002 novel, set immediately after Battlefield, involving alien invasions, UNIT and an old people's home. There is a decently complex alien behind it all, and a nifty ...
[IMG: Sorry Not In Service - Challenges in bus service provision] On Thursday 14th Jan, our colleague in the House of Lords (and former ALC Secretary) Tony Greaves questioned the government on cuts to financial support for local bus services across the country. Lib Dem HQ have created a template press release for localisation and use in applicable areas, which ALDC members can download below. Accompanying [...]
There's a lot going on in Stockport over the next few months. In addition to the usual Utility works that pop up all over the place, there are big improvements as part of the Investing in Stockport programme. While every effort is being made to minimise the disruption, there are some cases where there will be delays while work is being done. You can track the roadworks online here – so check first and don't get caught out.
Do you think that landlords should have to make sure the properties they rent out are fit for human habitation? Doesn't seem like too much to ask, does it? But our Conservative MP disagrees. Mary Robinson voted down an amendment to the housing bill which would have put this very basic duty on landlords. We agree with Shadow Housing Minister Theresa Pearce on this issue, when she said The majority of landlords let property which is and remains in a decent standard. So it is even more distressing when we see reports of homes which are frankly unfit for human ...
Another graphic novel that I bought as a potential Hugo nominee, in particular given that it's a first volume and had attracted some commentary when it first came out. It didn't really grab me, I'm afraid; I'm not hugely invested in the concept of Thor in the first place, and so am not that bothered if Thor is male or female, especially if all he or he does is go around biffing things.
There's a really good article today by Helen Lewis in the Guardian with the straightforward headline: Yes, there is one great contribution men can make to feminism: pick up a mop. She quotes an IPPR report to summarise the practicalities of her argument: "On most key issues, the route to modern feminist goals must pass through fathers. Men should work more flexibly, take greater responsibility for caring for their children and their homes, and have the right to reserved parental leave." This hit home today for two reasons. The first is my partner, who's been on maternity leave for the ...
The Liberal Democrats' manifesto last year called for an end to indefinite detention for immigration purposes, building on the end to child detention that Nick Clegg insisted upon as part of the coalition agreement. Today, a review of welfare in detention of vulnerable people conducted for the Home Office by Stephen Shaw has been published. In it he makes 64 recommendations, including that alternatives to detention be sought. Some of the changes he wants to see are so basic that you are shocked that they are not done already – the provision of even basic mental health treatment, for a ...
The Enemy Within The enemy within our very self,It's creeping, growing, gnawing at our flesh,It's creeping, growing, gnawing at our world,It's taking down our ordin'ry, and best.It cuts prime lives. Who next? Perhaps myself.Perhaps another hero, maybe yours.Perhaps a family member, or loved one.It cares not who it wastes away to rest. But it can never steal our will to fight,Our resolute desire to stop its track.How ever many suffer from its blight,We'll beat it, so it's never coming back.So, Cancer, listen close, and never scoff:The time WILL come when you WILL just fuck off. Note: The picture above has ...
I joined the Liberal Democrats in July 2015 after many years as a Labour supporter and member. There were a number of reasons for this, including Labour's inability to offer a realistic alternative to the austerity agenda, and the issue of union influence, which Ed Miliband attempted to address, largely unsuccessfully in my opinion. I feel that the Labour Party as it is now is no longer a home for centre-left people like me, even more so now Jeremy Corbyn is leader. The country needs an opposition (any opposition) to the Tories, and the Labour Party are currently too busy ...
Towards the end of the year 2000 I was working in a pub, and we had a regular customer who always came in after work, and sat in the corner with a book. We used to talk about books lots. He tended towards the SF&F side of things, and was fun to chat to. One time he came in and the book he was reading had a bright red and yellow cover, and I said to him "isn't that a kid's book?" and he gave me the CS Lewis quote. The book was Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. ...
Embed from Getty Images I'd like to clarify a few points raised in the LDV comments thread related to the Doctors strike and Tim Farron's remarks about it. First, I will state my potential conflict of interest: I'm a doctor (retired) a life-long member of the BMA (yes, I do still pay my union subscription) and my daughter is also a junior doctor. The strike is happening because Jeremy Hunt has stated that he will impose a new contract on juniors against their will in August 2016. Negotiations, which have been conducted over the last three years with the BMA, ...
Federal Conference Committee (FCC) chair Andrew Wiseman has announced plans to end this autumn's Liberal Democrat conference on Tuesday rather than on Wednesday when it is held in Brighton this autumn. Part of the plan is to make bigger use of the Saturday. This means the party can preserve the total amount of debating time for motions whilst reducing costs for people coming to conference by concentrating it in a shorter time period. Keeping down the costs to the party is also a factor in the minds of some of those who were debating the proposal. Way back, conference used ...
Over the Christmas break I had a couple of photographs taken of me that I like for completely different reasons. The first is one that was taken by a professional photographer, James Brokensha, and was part of a surprise present given to Jane and me by our daughters. Without us knowing, they'd hired Jim to take some family portraits of ...
The latest South Werrington and North Gunthorpe FOCUS newsletter is now available for people to read on-line! We've just reached edition 99, which means 280,000 copies have been delivered over the years throughout the area! The newsletter, that provides over 6,400 residents in the Werrington South electoral ward with news/updates from myself, Cllr Davidson and [...]
With the help of the Lords Library I have updated the information on the age of current Members of the House of Lords. It shows that since October 2014 the average age has dropped...from 70.12 to 69. Given the large number of new Members this is scarcely earth shattering but I suppose its a step in the right direction. The Prime Minister is very frustrated by the rejuvenated activity of the House of Lords. Perhaps he now regrets allowing the 2012 Lords Reform Bill to collapse. Here are the complete figures: Age; Number of Members Jan 2016; Number of Members ...
Europe's wasted every crisis it's faced: the sovereign debt crisis, the Syrian exodus, and the Paris terror attacks could all have been used to make the case for federated European institutions needed to put an end to this rolling catastrophe. I have written before that those of us who believe in the United Kingdom as a union between nations ought to support a single, European state on the same principle: that nationality can be transcended by common goals and institutions. If one is British, it's not a big leap to be European. But nationalism only persuades nationalists. How to make ...
British citizens at present have visa-free access to 173 countries and territories around the World. But that comes at a cost - currently £72.50 for a new passport, or £82.25 if you use the checking service. But what if your passport came in the post, free of charge, on your 16th birthday, like your National Insurance card? This is my suggestion for a new, distinctive Liberal Democrat policy. Unimpeded travel around the world is something we should encourage, as part of a holistic, internationalist education. I don't doubt that the admin fee is a barrier for less well-off young people, ...
[IMG: Candidates photos 04 11 030] Former Lib Dem Maghull Town Councillor Joan Blackburn, mother of former Maghull, Lydiate and Sefton Councillor Andrew Blackburn, died suddenly last Sunday I am sorry to have to report. Joan was a kindly person who would always put a cup of tea in your hand if you went to visit, together with biscuits and/or a bacon buttie! Although she had suffered various health issues in recent years she was still on the go and out and about. Only recently her family and ours together with that of former Maghull Town Councillor Charles Walker had ...
What if a group of armed citizens seized a bird reserve in the Lake District and proclaimed their right to cut down trees and graze cattle on public land for free? It is actually unthinkable, on so many levels. And yet this is more or less what has happened as a militia group led by Ammon Bundy seized the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon on 2 January. They're still there, as the law enforcement agencies deal with them gently, letting pressure from local residents undermine the occupiers' resolve. Such incidents are rare in the US, but not unthinkable, and ...
Could you become a Community Fire Safety Volunteer with Avon Fire and Rescue Service and The Care Forum? Community Fire Safety Volunteers research, contact and visit local social and community groups. They encourage these groups to sign up for Avon Fire and Rescue's free Home Fire Safety Visits, a free lifesaving service that Firefighters deliver to people in their own homes. This is an important and worthwhile role that helps prevent devastating home fires and, ultimately, helps save lives. You would be providing a valuable life-saving service in your community, gaining skills and using your experience and free time to ...
In the 2011 Holyrood election, the SNP won 69 seats on 45% of the vote, and were able to establish the first majority government under a system that was designed to make that difficult. In the 2014 independence referendum the SNP-led "YES" campaign won 44.7% of the total vote. At the 2015 General Election the Scottish National Party gained just under 50% of the vote and won all but three of the 59 Scottish seats in the Westminster Parliament. There is little doubt that the Nationalist tide has been riding high in Scotland for several years now. The party maintains ...
This is the only conclusion I can reach from yesterday's Cabinet Meeting at County Hall. Try it for yourself. [IMG: A99] This could be very good news – except that the tables prove why the Consett area will be put to the bottom of the heap when it comes to the budget for youth work in the county next year. [IMG: A98] I was shocked when I saw these tables. Shocked, and worried by the old adage. Lies, damned lies, and statistics. That's why I asked to put a question to the cabinet at yesterday's meeting. It was declined because ...
It was announced yesterday that MPs are to debate changing the anthem sung by specifically English teams at relevant sporting events from "God Save the Queen" to something else. Hoo-bloody-rah, I say: finally. It should be stated that we have been here before – both 2006 and 2007 saw early day motions on the topic come to nought – but this time, word on the street is that this is a serious initiative that may very well happen. It looks like there will actually be a vote and real change on this front. There are many reasons why England should ...
[IMG: A stone wall, ready for official government use.] A stone wall, ready for official government use. At the start of this week, The Independent reported: The Government will be pressed by ... to publish a heavily contentious report into overhauling the pay and conditions of firefighters. Baroness Bakewell*, a Liberal Democrat peer, will ask the Government why the Thomas Review has not been made public nearly a year after it was completed. She compared the delay to John Chilcot's long-awaited final report into the Iraq War, which is now expected this year. Some opposition politicians suspect the Thomas Review ...
[IMG: lib dem conf voting] Federal Conference Committee is very mindful of the cost of attending conference. The cost of coming to conference as well as the overall length is often raised in feedback from members. As well as keeping registrations rates as low as possible to members, launching the conference access fund and negotiating discounts on travel costs we have been looking at the length of the autumn conference. The main costs of attending conference, for most people, is having to take time off work and the cost of accommodation. Many members are not able to take the time ...
Yesterday, along with the Assistant Area Housing Manager and the local Housing Officer, I had a useful walkabout round the Logie and Blackness areas to discuss a number of local issues. These include tackling the flooding issue on Logie Avenue at the lock-ups (see below), some missing or damaged street signs including the damaged one in Glenagnes Road at its junction with Blackness Road (see right) and fly-tipping at an empty property in Blackness Road. The Neighbourhood Services Department (the new department from 1st January that covers both Housing and Environment) is ensuring that the Logie Avenue flooding issue is ...
I have little understanding of the points of contention in the doctors strike. What I do know is that: 1. Strikes are usually the result of bad management. 2. When there's a 98% vote in favour of the strike, then this is no dispute whipped up by hotheads, but the result of serious and deeply felt misgivings. The government's record on this issue is devious to say the least. The Conservatives promised in their election campaign in 2010 that there would be "no top-down reorganisation of the NHS." This was no "small print" assurance, but was blazoned on large posters. ...
So, more "corrupt coppers" than "everyone was afraid of being accused of racism" then? YAAAAAAY! FAO @winter__Eevee Oxford's Bodleian Libraries board game collection on display - I want to play Suffragetto! Here's What The Robots From "Robot Wars" Look Like Now In which I attempt to revive Weekly Food Challenge 'Pathetic' Labour peers not up for fight against Tories, says Tim Farron Peter Black: Labour abandon their manifesto commitment to 16 and 17 year olds Why You Should Fix Your Inconsistent Sleep Schedule [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
Gendered merchandising: A rant @liwella calls out the @sciencemuseum's lack of women's T-shirts. (tags: sexandgenderandsexuality ) This is what makes Republicans and Democrats so different Repubs believe in (wrong!) ideas, Dems in people. (tags: uspolitics ) Why are Pluto and Charon so different? Pluto stole Charon's atmosphere! (tags: astronomy ) Private messages at work can be read by European employers @LilianEdwards is quoted. (tags: internet work ) When Video-Game Worlds End Experiencing online apocalypse. (tags: internet games )
Today sees publication of the long-awaited Trans Inquiry report from the Women & Equalities committee, which you can read in full here. Sarah Brown has also written about the report, and you can read her views over on her blog. The report is one hundred pages long, but for those reading along at home the important areas have generally been printed in bold or bold-and-italic text. If you want to skim the report, concentrating on those areas is helpful. With that said, lets dive in... First up, this is just a report of a cross-party parliamentary committee of back-bench MPs. ...
