With Leicester City five points clear at the top of the Premiership, the club will be attracting a lot of new supporters - particularly former Manchester United fans from Surrey. So the Leicester Mercury is timely in producing its 'A glory-hunter's guide to supporting Leicester City': "Interesting fact for you," tweeted Jason Manford. "As a rule of thumb, if you can't place someone's accent, they're from Leicester." Unplaceable it may be, but it's there. Even though the council tried to kill it off it the 1950s with elocution lessons in schools. It's arguably the first proper accent you hit when ...

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

Clarendon Park: a shining city on a hill The Homophobic Monk was back in the Leicester Mercury on Friday: A 'monk' who delivered homophobic leaflets to homes in Leicestershire has had a ban that curbed his activities overturned. Damon Jonah Kelly (54), had earlier pleaded guilty to harassment after a married lesbian couple objected to him putting a leaflet through the letterbox of their Clarendon Park home in October, 2014. He became aggressive and abusive when the women challenged him about the leaflet's content, saying: "We used to burn people like you. I'm doing God's work." Although the wording of ...

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

Cameron's ComRes favourability ratings drop sharply in latest ComRes online poll for IoS S Mirror. pic.twitter.com/ZFQyhQSioy — Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB) February 13, 2016 On the Liberal Democrats, the overall party rating is instructive as when it comes to people having an unfavourable view of the party, the Lib Dems do better than Labour, the Tories or Ukip. However where the party currently falls down is that although fewer people rate the party unfavourably, everyone else is much more likely to say 'neither' than 'favourable' for the Lib Dems. In other words, the party's challenge isn't people thinking they hate it, ...

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack
Sat 13th
19:10

Sell George Osborne

If George Osborne ever hits a target, it will look something like this... Thanks to Jeremy Corbyn and the rabble around him, George Osborne must think himself invulnerable. Hence his trip to California at the expense of Google to watch the Super Bowl. But it is noticeable that in recent weeks more articles critical of the Chancellor have been appearing in Conservative newspapers. At the end of January there was a vicious piece in the Sun: George Osborne's hopes of becoming PM have been severely dented by the Google tax shambles, Tories claim - as a senior minister branded him ...

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

When I visited the John Dee exhibition last week, I managed to get a decent picture of the horoscope that he had drawn in the margin of his copy of Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos: It's a nice clear example of the astrological text. Starting at the left, and going clockwise (therefore backwards through the zodiac), I interpret it thus: The Ascendant (the part of the Zodiac on the horizon) is Leo ♌ 4°2', and Saturn ♄ at Leo ♌ 12° is about to rise.Jupiter ♃ is somewhere in Cancer ♋️.Venus ♀ is at Gemini ♊ 12°.The Sun ☉ and Moon ☽ are ...

Long, long ago, in 1991, I was researching the medieval textbook Liber de arte astronomice iudicandi by the late twelfth-century English astrologer Roger of Hereford, which survives only in a dozen or so manuscripts. Various indications led me to try and compare his text with the earlier twelfth-century translation by Hermann of Carinthia of the ninth-century Introduction to Astrology by the ninth-century scholar Abu Ma'shar, written when Baghdad was the centre of learning of the medieval world. Fortunately, the University Library in Cambridge had two copies of the Hermann translation. It has been out of print for some time; the ...

[IMG: Conference meeting room] In writing about the debate amongst the Liberal Democrats over all-women shortlists and whether or not having a male-dominated Parliamentary Party matters, I've made reference a few times to Vince Cable's work when in government to improve gender diversity in the boardroom, in which he frequently cited the evidence that a more diverse team in the workplace is also a more successful one. But it's been a while since I looked at the relevant academic evidence, so here is a new paper from the Peterson Institute for International Economics. As it documents, the senior levels of ...

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

[IMG: emergency] Figures released by the Department for Health shows the Conservative Government is planning a further £3,437,113 cut to the public health budget in Lancashire. The budget pays to help improve people's health - and stop them getting ill in the first place – so there is less pressure on the NHS. Work undertaken by public health budgets include encouraging people to exercise more, give up smoking, drink less, come off drugs and drink and avoid sexually transmitted diseases. "This cut will mean that local residents are less likely to make good decisions on their health, and when they ...

Posted by allanknox on Allan Knox

At the beginning of the year, I had an unexpected but pleasant communication from the Carmarthen Journal, looking for new contributors to help expand their Welsh language content. I've always had a great enjoyment in writing. Indeed, if I could have my time again I may have done a post-graduate degree in Journalism instead of plumping for the safe choice of history which I eventually choose. But due to my political activity over the past decade, the opportunities for me to write freely have been limited. One of the few opportunities that I have had in that time was when ...

A couple of things have prompted this post. Firstly, Idris Elba's fantastic speech on diversity, in which he referred to the issues of black characters in scripts, and the difficulties in being cast for other non-'black-specific' roles as a black actor. Secondly, Ross Putman's recent work in highlighting the dreadfully sexist way in which female characters get described in scripts. This set me off on a train of thought about some of the things that really irritate me in the way that films and television use (or, more particularly, fail to use!) characterisation and character in scripts, depending instead on ...

Posted by Cen Phillips on Liberal Thoughts
YouGov

The Welsh Liberal Democrat Assembly Member for South Wales West, Peter Black, has condemned the decision by the Welsh Labour Government to withdraw funding for the Disclosure and Barring Service checking of those involved with children's' sports and activities. The Welsh Government presently funds the Wales Council for Voluntary Service to provide a free service to clubs and charities in Wales who need to make sure that people who volunteer to work with children and vulnerable adults in all kinds of sporting and other settings are properly vetted by the Disclosure and Barring Service. This funding is being withdrawn as ...

Posted by LD Neath on Aberavon & Neath Liberal Democrats

Here are the highlights of the Lib Dem In campaign launch from earlier this week. Who do you recognise? #INtogether This is Britain's time to lead, not leave. See the highlights from our #INtogether launch, and join our campaign! Posted by Liberal Democrats on Friday, 12 February 2016

Posted by The Voice on Liberal Democrat Voice

Double Deckers - To the countryside Episode 6: Summer Camp First shown: 17 October 1970 (US), 4 February 1971 (UK) Director: Harry Booth Writers: Harry Booth and Glyn Jones Appearing apart from the Double Deckers: Melvyn Hayes as Albert the Street Cleaner Betty Marsden as Millie Hugh Paddick as Gerald George Woodbridge as Farmer Giles Plot Albert and the gang go camping, much to the annoyance of a couple camping in the next field, but entirely witht he approval of the local farmer. Japes ensue when their donkey misbehaves, and the it rains overnight. Soundtrack I've put the French version ...

The Yorkshire Post reports Nick Clegg's evidence to a parliamentary committee looking at Party funding. He accused the Tories of trying to rig the system in their favour. Mr Clegg said: "I just think this is fundamentally wrong to do this in such a partisan way." The Sheffield Hallam MP said he was no 'sepia-tinted romantic' when it came to trade union and Labour links as he had personally suffered from 'appalling' use of funds for political purposes in his 'own Sheffield backyard'. However he said he was alarmed that Conservative proposals are directed at one party and as Deputy ...

Posted by The Voice on Liberal Democrat Voice

[IMG: 10987391_514611765381456_4156173185824351302_n] I have mentioned this grouping a number of times in my posts about rail related challenges that Southport faces particularly with regard to the Southport – Wigan – Manchester line. If you would like to follow what this excellent group is up to in their campaigns here is a link to their Facebook page:- www.facebook.com/southportrailtransportforum/?fref=nf

Posted by Cllr. Tony Robertson on Sefton Focus
Sat 13th
09:30

Following the money

The influence of big money donations in British politics continues unabated. We have not yet got to the situation in America where elected politicians spend huge amounts of their time raising donations, where lobbying companies dominate legislation and where PACs and Super PACs are able to by-pass funding rules in elections, but you do get the feeling that unless we introduce some rationalisation of the system here, it is only a matter of time before we catch up. The latest revelation is in the soon to be axed Independent newspaper, who report that a right-wing think-tank secured a dramatic shift ...

Posted by Peter Black on Peter Black

The other day Sheila and I were invited to Roy Connell's 70th birthday party and a lovely do it was too in the Derby Arms in Aughton. But one of those great coincidences of life popped up because amongst the guests was a certain John Kitson who had been a member (and I think Chairman of) Lydiate Parish Council in the late 1960's and early 1970's. [IMG: Roy on the left was a Lib Dem Maghull Town & Sefton Borough councillor for Maghull for many years. John (on the right) was a Ratepayer member of Lydiate Parish Council in the ...

Posted by Cllr. Tony Robertson on Sefton Focus
Sat 13th
09:15

Too smug by half

Deadpool's fundamental flaw is that it is inordinately pleased with itself. It is so excited about being the superhero film that makes dirty jokes and includes bloody violence, that it has lost sight of the basics. Character, plot and action are crushed under a heap of severed limbs and gags about wanking. A puerile sensibility is grafted onto what is otherwise [...]

Posted by Mark Mills on Matter Of Facts
Sat 13th
09:02

From Your Valentine

A letter sent from a prison cellWhere even hope darkness quellsSuch a bright, divine light, this loveAs swift and sweet as any doveEmperors, dictators and warlords fallWhile Love, that universal callBurns on, despite brutality and fearAnd we remember every yearNot the hatredNor the painNot the tyrantBut the nameSigned and sealed, the heart's final lineWith love, from your Valentine Primrose (means first rose)

Posted by Trisha xx on ripplestone review

[IMG: Shirley on Victoria Derbyshire] On Thursday, her last day in the House of Lords before her retirement, Shirley Williams spent 20 minutes talking to Victoria Derbyshire. You can watch the conversation, which covered women in politics, social media (she thinks that "the cruellest people in society" shouldn't be given a voice), how some were bemused by her specialism in fields not traditionally done by women, such as nuclear proliferation, how we should take thousands of refugee children and relived the previous struggle over Ugandan refugees in the 70s when she stuck to her guns. She says Jeremy Corbyn is ...

Posted by Caron Lindsay on Liberal Democrat Voice
eUKhost

Residents have complained to me that the zig zag safety markings and yellow lines outside Blackness Primary School in Pennycook Lane are badly worn - see right. I brought this to the attention of the City Council's Head of Roads and Transportation, who has responded as follows : "I will ask the parking team to include this location in next batch of yellow lining remarking. It will be later this year that this can be undertaken as the temperatures are too low and road surface too wet to undertake at this time of year."

There's no change at the top of the table, with Mark Widdop's Midtable Obscurity (1,445 points) continuing to lead the LibDemVoice Fantasy Football League after Week 25, just ahead of Paul Revell's Sock Monsters (1,435) and Edward Douglas's Use Your Ed (1,424). But let's also hear it for a couple of players outside the top 10: James Ludley's Ludley's Line-up had the best week's performance, with 94 points, with Andrew Wiseman's Wiseman Wanderers not far behind on 87 points. [IMG: ldv ffl 25] There are 219 players in total and you can still join the league by clicking here. * ...

Posted by Stephen Tall on Liberal Democrat Voice

Manufacturing companies have been working round the clock for decades. The bosses normally work Monday to Friday during the day, and the workers work shifts to cover either 5 days of 24 hours, or 7 days of 24 hours. In the heated debate on the junior doctors hours and pay, it is clear that doctors [...]

Posted by williamhobhouse on William Hobhouse

The World Isn't Less Free Than It Used To Be @fivethirtyeight summarises @FreedomHouseDC. (tags: politics democracy ) We Are Hopelessly Hooked Why we can't stop being online. (tags: internet psychology ) The Onion on Jeb Bush Cruel but hilarious. (tags: uspolitics ) Independent and Independent on Sunday print closures confirmed Not very surprising. (tags: ukpolitics media ) Why I Just Dropped The Harassment Charges [against] The Man Who Started GamerGate A tough read. (tags: sexandgenderandsexuality games )

How Portability Ruined the Telephone - this article has one major flaw When you phoned someone on a landline, you never knew if they would be there to answer it. This article would make total sense if, and only if, people would sit by their landlines waiting for them to ring all the time and never (for instance) nipping to the shops or going to the loo. Farewell Philae *salutes* Brain Scans Reveal Why Love Makes Us Stupid (warning, autoplaying noisy advert) When life gives you lemons, make science - contains my favourite graph I have seen on the internet ...

North Wales Lib Dem Assembly Member Aled Roberts has called on the Welsh Government to hold round table meetings with the main retail banks to find out if community banking services can be set up to replace closing branches. In an Individual Member Debate in the Assembly on Wednesday Aled said: "Access to banking services is key, not only to small businesses and retailers, but to individuals, voluntary and charitable groups in communities throughout North Wales. "According to the Campaign for Community Banking Services, community banks and banking centres offer a cost effective way to sustain a branch presence in ...

Posted by Freedom Central on Freedom Central
Sat 13th
04:31

My tweets

Fri, 07:53: Give a little thought to what a GOP campaign against Bernie Sanders might look like https://t.co/pRJ7uaTf4k via @delicious Fri, 10:45: Give a little thought to what a GOP campaign against Bernie Sanders might look like https://t.co/oqmkvTnJTq You ain't seen nothing yet. Fri, 12:56: Putin is a bigger threat to Europe's existence than Isis - George Soros https://t.co/LcvsrF1o9b Yup. Fri, 15:30: Tik-Tok by John Sladek https://t.co/MF8AAzX26f Fri, 16:05: The World Isn't Less Free Than It Used To Be https://t.co/jyaJRPYfCr @fivethirtyeight summarises @FreedomHouseDC. Fri, 20:48: We Are Hopelessly Hooked https://t.co/j1GFETDWOY Why we can't stop being online. Fri, 22:14: Friday reading ...