Three weeks ago, Ros and I were in Bottisham, where a by-election caused by the resignation of the recently elected Tory councillor was the impetus behind a well-organised campaign to win back a seat we had lost last year. At the other end of East Cambridgeshire though, a County by-election had been called due to the unexpected death of the Tory councillor, coincidentally in a division part-held at District level by Laura Dupré, the Regional Party's administrator and now leader of the Opposition on East Cambridgeshire District Council. Naturally, having been invited to come and help, it would have been ...
We have reached the second Uncertain Truth programme. This video is the first half of that programme. This time Popper is in conversation with John Eccles. Watch part 1. Watch part 2,
I came across this notice in a park in sunny Rothwell this morning. How long have the authorities felt themselves free to use such totalitarian imagery? When I was a child I acquired the idea that not having to have an identity card was part of our reward for winning the war. As a teenager it seemed almost a moral duty to read Nineteen Eight-Four to learn about the sort of society Britain Was Not Like. Today we have lost this instinct for defining ourselves by contrasting Britain with tyrannies. The Soviet Union has gone, while drawing parallels with Nazi ...
[What does it mean to be a Liberal Democrat today?] Or tomorrow, for this must be about lasting values. Above all, to be a Liberal Democrat is to serve liberty. Some are satisfied liberty is won if the state does not interfere in their lives, no matter how much over-mighty corporations or bullying conformity may [...]
Sat 30th
20:01
The registrar service in Ludlow will have fewer hours but no promises of better premises
At the end of last year, Shropshire Council proposed cutting the Ludlow Registrar service by eight hours a week. Bishop's Castle would lose its service. Oswestry would get extra hours. Alternatively, these offices could close altogether.[1] Fortunately, the council has now come its senses on this very sensitive matter. Ludlow's registrar office is to remain... Continue reading The registrar service in Ludlow will have fewer hours but no promises of better premises →
Caroline Pidgeon is on a mission to prevent Londoners' health being harmed by pollution on the capital's streets. She has just unveiled a pretty radical plan for the congestion charge, raising it for all vehicles and even more for diesel vehicles. Also, she wants to have a peak-time charge. From the Guardian: A new report by the party's mayoral candidate Caroline Pidgeon recommends a rise in the daily charge collected by automated payment from the current £10.50 to £13 with a higher automated charge of £19 on vehicles entering the zone "at the height of the rush hour" in order ...
There are some remarkable graves in Bishop's Castle churchyard in Shropshire. One of them, as this video from the Shropshire Star shows, is currently the cause of controversy: A wood and perspex cover protecting the Grade II-listed "African grave" may have to be removed as it does not have permission to be there. But the locals who made the cover and put it there to save the 200-year-old monument say action needs to be taken now to stop it eroding further. The grave belongs to a man only identified as ID, who is said to be a native of Africa ...
Speaking at the party's North East Scotland Regional Conference this morning Willie Rennie told members that over the last five years it has been the Liberal Democrats that have been the powerful guarantor of civil liberties in the face of the illiberal SNP, and that will continue in the next Parliament. This is the latest in a series of strong messages that Willie has been laying out in the last couple of weeks. The party has put a massive emphasis on civil liberties and education (what a surprise for a liberal party) in this Parliament and has an admirable record ...
Today is the first of what is expected to be an annual event: the Global Day of Support for Palestinian Rights. In London, this was marked by a seminar this afternoon at the P21 Gallery in Camden, "Targeting Dissent: Israel's Crackdown on Palestinian Citizens", organised by Middle East Monitor. The plight of Palestinians in the [...]
[IMG: Muswell_Hill_post_office.jpg] Today I've been out campaigning to save Muswell Hill Post Office. As reported in the Mirror - both Muswell Hill and Crouch End Post Offices have been put up for franchise - and face closure if one isn't found.
This morning I received my copy of Equal Ever After by Lynne Featherstone. As one of campaigners from the LGBT+ community from one of the political parties that pooled resources to achieve great things in the arena of same sex marriage I wasn't going to hang around to get reading this book. Of course I have great praise for Lynne and the role she had in making same-sex marriage happen in England and Wales, but her telling of the tale omits one very important part of the tale both of her party's and the nation's move towards that goal. The ...
Embed from Getty Images As if Scottish and UK politics aren't enough, I've long had a curiosity, a voyeuristic fascination with politics and elections in America. It's not just that elections there really matter and have an impact well beyond the US domestic border. It's also the energy and enthusiasm (no matter how superficial or manufactured) that I've found infectious. It's why I, along with my best mate (and 2016 Holyrood candidate) Alex Cole-Hamilton, went to help Obama's first campaign in 2008. We did our little bit to help the Democrats win Virginia for the first time in a presidential ...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAwGTx-MDWQ A video to explain what the Lib Dems are all about under Farron's Leadership. Go on have a gander at it, you know you want to.
Yet more evidence in the Times that a lot of peers in the House of Lords are out-of-touch with ordinary people with the claim by former Tory treasurer, Lord Farmer that the public would support higher pay for peers if the House of Lords had better spin doctors: In a debate on improving the official House of Lords press office, the founder of the RK Capital Management hedge fund said that better understanding of the work of the upper house could lead to "public support for higher daily allowances". Suggesting that the allowance compared favourably with the daily rate for ...
The impact of The Future of Socialism on its publication in 1956 should not be underestimated. Although the left and the right of the Labour Party had been in open war since Aneurin Bevan's resignation in 1951, Crosland's text was ... Continue reading →
[IMG: members forum wordle] LibDemVoice has two parallel sites. The first is our public blog, the thing you're reading now. The second is our private members' forum, which only current Lib Dem members can access. If you're a member and want to chat with fellow party members about any issue that's on your mind, then why not sign up? In addition, you'll be included in our regular surveys' of party members' views. Here's some of the most active discussions this past 10 days: Things that cheer you up; Tables are turned in the Lords; Labour and Conservative parties both set ...
So I set myself the challenge of building an app for Roku, and thought it couldn't be too hard to get either TVCatchup or TVPlayer working could it. Turns out that TVCatchup is pretty simple and within 2 hours I had a working example built. However their selection of channels isn't great and I wanted Dave as we don't get that with Freesat and have no aerial on the house for Freeview. [IMG: tvplayer-channels] TVPlayer have at least some level of protection around their stream URLs, however after watching traffic within Chrome and also over the mobile app I worked ...
[IMG: The street light in Partington Close should be unexceptional. Alas, getting it repaired turned out not to be.] The street light in Partington Close should be unexceptional. Alas, getting it repaired turned out not to be. Ah, the joys of Islington Council. Only took an official complaint, an escalated complaint and then a series of further emails to the Chief Executive's office to get this fixed. With the curious discovery along the way that correspondence which says "please treat this as an official complaint" does not always get treated as a complaint. Which makes the veracity of the official ...
The Manchester Evening News reports that Liberal Democrat peer John Roper, who retired last year, has died at the age of 80: Lord Roper started his career as an economics lecturer at the University of Manchester before standing for Parliament in High Peak, near Stockport, for Labour in 1964. He was elected Member of Parliament for Farnworth in 1970. He sat as a Labour Co-operative MP from 1970 to 1981 and for the SDP for the following two years. His Farnworth seat was subsequently abolished, and he contested Worsley at the 1983 general election, finishing third in a three-way marginal. ...
Sat 30th
13:53
The Beach Boys on CD: Mike Love, Bruce Johnston, and David Marks of THE BEACH BOYS Salute NASCAR and...
And so we come to February 1998, the worst month in the Beach Boys' history. Mike Love and Alan Jardine had, over the previous few years, grown increasingly distant, to the point where it was almost impossible for the two ... Continue reading →
[IMG: Dorothy Thornhill at Bournemouth] Last Tuesday, Dorothy Thornhill, Mayor of Watford, made her maiden speech in the House of Lords. She spoke in the debate on the Housing and Planning Bill. Here it is in full: When I mentioned to my noble friends that I was excited but concerned about my maiden speech, finding my way around, not knowing the protocols and thereby making a gaffe, I was told that everyone would be very helpful and extremely friendly and to stop worrying. And that has indeed been the case. The police, attendants and the famous doorkeepers seem adept at ...
Sat 30th
12:15
A 30 second video which sums up why Hillary Clinton will be the next President of the United States ...
Embed from Getty Images This post carries the normal proviso that I don't know what the heck I'm talking about so anything I predict is likely to be pure nonsense. I've just done something which I very occasionally do. I last did it in February 2007. I put a modest little wager on who will be the next President of the USA. I put money on Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton. OK. It's the misty-eyed old Liberal in me. I got a thrill from betting on Obama the day he declared as a candidate for the President. (I also got a ...
I'm on the road this weekend, so no time to finalise my write-up of Happy Haunting, I'm afraid. Instead, please enjoy these extracts from No Official Umbrella, the 700-page autobiography of Glyn Jones, who was the script editor of Here Come The Double Deckers and also wrote or co-wrote many of the episodes. (Five pages of anecdotes about auditions before we get back to Double Deckers:) And that's it, I'm afraid, apart from one or two passing references later on. There is also a little about Doctor Who - along with Mark Gatiss and Victor Pemberton, Jones is one of ...
In a situation that goes from bad to worse, with no end point in sight, there has been one ray of hope. On 18 January, the Upper Tribunal ruled that three unaccompanied minors and a vulnerable young man with mental health problems, from the camp in Calais, had a bona fide case to be allowed to join relatives already resident in the UK. Thanks to a legal challenge coordinated by Citizens UK, the Home Office has been told to immediately allow the three children and one adult to join their families. Hitherto, the Government had been arguing that, under the ...
More educative entertainment from Tom Scott: In Wuppertal, Germany, there's the Schwebebahn: a suspended monorail that carries 80,000 people a day above the streets of the city, and above the river Wupper. It's a wonderful thing: but it wasn't the future of travel, and here's why.
Sat 30th
09:51
Lydiate – A January Parish Council meeting goes around the houses again over a Neighbourhood P...
From the Lydiate Parish Council meeting held on 26th January in Lydiate Village Centre. Each Lydiate Parish Council now starts with a 30 minute pre-meeting about the promised Lydiate Neighbourhood Plan, although it often stretches to an hour or more. [IMG: Lydiate] Now readers of this blog will know by now that I'm sceptical of Neighbourhood Plans not least because it is often the case that folks who promote them seem to think they can achieve far more with an NP than they actually can. Wishful thinking I am sorry to say. I am not saying NP's are a bad ...
[IMG: ALDC Master Logo (for screen)] Just one principal council by-election took place yesterday. Labour comfortably held one of their two seats in Parkfield & Oxbridge ward in Stockton-on-Tees (UA). The Labour candidate won with 52.5% of the vote, whilst Liberal Democrat candidate Drew Durning came fourth with 5.7%, a 0.2% vote share increase from last May. A Town Council by-election was also held this week, with Labour also being victorious in Walsden ward in Todmorden. They made a gain from the Conservatives, who didn't field a candidate in the contest, with 55.7%. Lib Dem candidate Josef Rez came second ...
I have secured a debate at the council's Policy and Resources Committee over fears following Police Scotland's decision to axe Dundee's call-handling operation in June as part of controversial reforms. I have strongly criticised moves to close the facility in Dundee's Bell Street and relocate it to the central belt. I am very concerned by this further centralisation of police resource away from Dundee. The call centre has served Dundee well over the years until the creation of Police Scotland. Police Scotland has said it will "plan to work towards" moving all 999 and non-emergency calls from Dundee to the ...
Shropshire Council is currently seeking a provider to support refugee families under the Syrian vulnerable person resettlement programme. Our county has only limited experience in taking in refugees. A working party of councillors and officers from the council, health, and police and fire services has been meeting to ensure that that we have the necessary... Continue reading An update on #RefugeesWelcome in Shropshire →
When we say "Don't read the comments", even as a joke, we enable a culture where online abuse is normal & expected excellent, simple article If I had the money Is totally by going for the "your dog is a character in the game" options of this My friends keep writing books. It's costing me a fortune. Tesco is ending its 24-hour opening hours at 76 stores to make supermarket more efficient [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
Quality of life in European cities Best: Oslo & Zurich, followed by Aalborg, Vilnius and - Belfast! (tags: eu Life ) The 2016 Hugo Awards: A Few Thoughts as Nominations Open Abigail reflects. (tags: sf hugos )
When the High Court in Ireland ruled last month that Northern Ireland's abortion legislation was "incompatible" with human rights law, I expected there to be some objections. However, with both the Attorney General and Justice Minister lodging appeals against that decision. Now the Justice Minister unlike the Attorney General admits that some change does need to be made to Northern Ireland's abortion laws, his words show a certain bias none the less. David Ford has said: "The judgement from the High Court does not fully clarify the law and potentially leaves open the possibility there could be abortion on demand ...
