This series of posts has become a bit longer than I intended, I'm afraid. It turns out that a question like "what is music?" is a bit more complicated than it sounds. Here's part one and part two. There'll be ... Continue reading →
I spent yesterday exploring to pleasant suburban shopping streets in the south of Leicester. They were the Stoneygate shops and Queens Road in Clarendon Park. Though the former has probably seen better days, there is something pleasing about finding quality shops set in a red-brick terrace. One reason for going to Stoneygate was to try The Real Ale Classroom. A write up in the Leicester Mercury last year began: Two teachers have taken inspiration from the classroom and mixed it with booze to create a new educational ale house in Stoneygate. Steven Tabbernor, 40, from Clarendon Park, and Ian Martin, ...
[IMG: 7 best] Many thanks to the 48,294 visitors who dropped by Lib Dem Voice this week. Here's our 7 most-read posts... Report into the 2015 General Election by James Gurling. 66 comments. Do you have questions about the Electing Diverse MPs motion? by Caron Lindsay. 82 comments. Was Vince Cable proved right on austerity? by Nick Thornsby. 20 comments. Farron: We should shoulder Labour out of the way and reclaim the Beveridge consensus by Newsmoggie. 27 comments. Six key points of the General Election Review by Caron Lindsay. 25 comments. Leaving Europe so we can adopt Aussie-style immigration rules ...
This is not one to miss! The Leader of Shropshire Council, Malcolm Pate, will be visiting Ludlow later this month to discuss the future of public services in the town and county. The Ludlow and Clee Local Joint Committee (LJC) will meet on Thursday 25 February at 7pm in the Elim Hall, Smithfield, Ludlow. Prior... Continue reading Council leader Malcolm Pate to face the public - Ludlow 7pm Thursday 25 February →
Sunday: A correspondent informs us that today is National Sticky Bun Day. This is OBVIOUSLY nonsense. EVERY Day is sticky bun day! However... who am I to stand in the way of newly invented marketing opportunities, er, traditions... ...and so, in honour of all things EUROPEAN, today's buns are Belgian Buns. Yum yum.
Embed from Getty Images Commenting on Boris Johnson's announcement that he will campaign for a "leave" vote in the EU referendum, Tim Farron said: This is a deeply cynical move from a deeply ambitious politician who is using an in-out referendum as a back door to Number 10. It is a selfish move to put personal ambition before the jobs, security and prosperity of every Londoner. Boris has had more positions on Europe than the Kama Sutra. It reflects years of bitter infighting within the Tory party that even the Mayor of London won't campaign to stay in Europe. He ...
Well, thank goodness Cameron has achieved t his EU deal, has, as predicted, announced it as a triumph, and off we go for four months of wrangling before we, the public, decide whether to stay in or out. Cameron has got off to a good start. Whatever the merits of the deal, (more of which later), he has gained a justified reputation for dogged determination in the negotiations, and has already used his undoubted PR skills, or maybe those of his team, by coining the words "special status" to define our future position in the EU if we vote to ...
Consider the following statistic a sequel to What do the academics say? Delivering lots of leaflets works: During the six weeks of the [2015 general] election campaign, a typical target voter would receive at least eight personalised messages from the Conservatives. (Taken from the excellent The British General Election of 2015 by Philip Cowley and Dennis Kavanagh, who also record this about Ed Miliband's failure as Labour leader: "According to one Shadow Cabinet member: 'The view in Ed's office was: "once you've said it once, it's been said". But that's not good. You have to say it again, and again, ...
Now on the Nebula shortlist (where it's second among Goodreads, third on LibraryThing) this is one of the most buzzed novels of last year. I very much enjoyed the world-building, both the existence of a minority with powers of manipulating rock and other elements, and the politics of how that works out in practice. I was less excited by the plot and characters, and lost track once or twice. If it gets onto the Hugo ballot I shall give it another try.
It was inevitable that, having secured his deal, David Cameron was going to come back to the UK and set the referendum date as early as possible. After all, this is one vote he does not really want and the last thing he needs is open warfare amongst his own cabinet for an extended period of time. However, in setting the date for 23 June the Prime Minister has effectively crashed other people's parties. His decision means that for the next four months all the media will be talking about is Europe. Those of us in Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland ...
Sun 21st
12:56
"Leave" campaign must outline a cohesive and detailed vision for the UK outside of the EU
Embed from Getty Images Andrew Rawnsley has an excellent column in the Observer today, entitled: "This can't be left to the Tory party – it's everyone's country at stake". He hits the nail on the head with this paragraph: The black hole at the heart of the Out campaign is this. After all those years of demanding this referendum, they can't agree on what the UK would look like if it chose to self-eject from the European Union. And because they can't agree, they struggle even harder to reassure the uncertain voter that it would be worth the risk. This ...
Last Friday BBC4 broadcast a documentary on The Easybeats to AC/DC: The Story of Aussie Rock. You can watch it for on BBC iPlayer for the next three weeks. You can see The Easybeats on this blog, and the documentary was so thorough that you saw Angus Young when he was in long trousers. AC/DC's first lead singer was Bon Scott, who was found dead in his car in East Dulwich in 1980. The Guardian once did its best to turn it into a mystery along the lines of Brian Jones' death, but the cause was clearly acute alcohol poisoning. ...
Embed from Getty Images I thoroughly recommend buying and reading the "Big Issue". It carries a very attractive and eclectic range of articles. One of its features is "My Pitch", where the story of a Big Issue seller is related. I find myself reading this feature first – it is always fascinating and heart-warming. I'm now going to raise a topic which was mentioned in "Big Issue" this week in a curious way. Their "Focus" piece was a Q&A with Neil Dudgeon (any relation to Guy Dudgeon who produced "Space Oddity"?-ed). Who is Neil Dudgeon? – I hear you cry. ...
[IMG: The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes - series 1] I've recently finished watching The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes, which was produced by Thames Television in the early 1970s, based on Hugh Greene's edited book compilation and featuring a series of other fictional detectives who were vying for readers at the same time as Arthur Conan Doyle's creation. Although the acting, stage sets and "special effects" are now amusingly dated in places, at the time it was a success, winning a BAFTA and spawning a second series. Its qualities are sufficient to make it still enjoyable to watch, especially if you ...
Instagram I do hope that this is not someone's special mug that I have shamelessly appropriated at LDHQ Instagram Chair, secretary and speaker at LGBT+LD winter strategy conference. miss_s_b | The Blood is the Life for 20-02-2016 posted The Blood is the Life for 20-02-2016 on #dreamwidth Twitter RT @millenniumdome: Lib Dem LGBT+ with @SalBrinton @Juvelad @miss_s_b @zoeimogen @SarahNobleLD @chalmersdavidn and more miss_s_b | Today I are bin mostly.... posted Today I are bin mostly.... on #dreamwidth [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
Sun 21st
09:3720th century support for eugenics by Churchill, Beveridge, Keynes etc - what to make of it?
Embed from Getty Images This week, a couple of LDV commenters mentioned the support of eugenics by Beveridge and Keynes in the 1930s and early 1940s. Such support was widely shared by members of the Fabian society and notables such as George Bernard Shaw, Marie Stopes, Harold Laski – even Winston Churchill (earlier in the 20th century). Debate of this point was not possible on unrelated threads this week, so this article is posted to allow discussion of this interesting, and somewhat disturbing, historic phenomenon. Jonathan Freedland has written an excellent article on this subject and concludes: The Fabians, Sidney ...
Sun 21st
09:26
Ministers are thinking of nationalising planning decisions on fracking - I'm asking Shropshire Counc...
Thanks to the dozens of people who have emailed me a standard letter expressing concerns about fracking. This polluting technology has no place on our small crowded island. It has no role in a world where countries are already being decimated by climate change. I've put forward a motion to Shropshire Council, seconded by Kevin... Continue reading Ministers are thinking of nationalising planning decisions on fracking - I'm asking Shropshire Council to lobby for local decisions →
At a winter strategy conference at the Liberal Democrats party HQ yesterday, LGBT+ LibDems celebrated the real gains made for LGBTi rights during the life of the Coalition government but recognised that more still needs to be done. Though there has been an extraordinary shift in public attitudes in Britain over the past few decades [...]
Dundee Independent Advocacy Support (DIAS) provides services for older people in Dundee including a telephone information line called DIAL-OP (Dundee Information and Advocacy Line for Older People). The team are looking for volunteer befrienders - more information below :
Now that we have the "Gang of Six", the members of Cameron's cabinet who have decided to break ranks and openly support Brexit, one of their ranks being Michael Gove, everyone is waiting to see which side in the EU debate Boris will support. The London mayor has said previously that he will come down with "deafening eclat" on one side or the other in regards to this issue. But the thing is, while it still matters to the relevant campaigns which side BoJo picks, to the future career prospects of Boris Johnson, deals with Cameron aside, it really no ...
Sun 21st
08:17
Network Rail – Tories selling our major railway stations – Will Liverpool Lime Street be...
So it seems that the first 18 major railway stations in the UK are being set up for some form of privatisation but so far we don't know which ones will be in the first tranche of sell-offs. [IMG: Lime Street Station 2r] Click on the photo to enlarge it Will Liverpool Lime Street appear in this or a future list for sell-off? What will be the consequences for the travelling public? Will we find it leads to restrictions about who can access the stations? Will even bigger car parking charges be imposed at privatised stations? More public assets ...
The Liverpool Echo has the story – see link above Would I be right in assuming that Liverpool Airport has a serious problem with the way it treats its customers? Surely putting folk through such hassle is counterproductive and it drives people away from using John Lennon Airport? As an aside and for reasons only known to the press it seems we need to be told in the article such as this that the unfortunate chap involved in the incident is a serviceman and a dad. What on earth has that got to do with the matter at hand? ...
The Opening Number of "Hamilton" In case you are wondering what the fuss is about. (tags: music ) The Subversive Women Who Self-Publish Novels Amid Jihadist War Kano market literature. (tags: nigeria sexandgenderandsexuality writing ) Profile of culinary historian Michael Twitty The African roots of American cooking. (tags: food race ) Here's how to argue with a Brexiter - and win @fromTGA offers one possible line of argument. (tags: eu ukpolitics ) How "Operation Liza" failed The Russian propaganda campaign in Germany that backfired. (tags: russia germany ) Brexit and Northern Ireland As a Unionist politician said to me, "Just ...
[IMG: sundaypaps] Here are a few articles that have caught my eye from the Sunday papers: The Sunday Times (£) leads with "Cameron declares war on rebels", starting: DAVID CAMERON ignited a fresh Tory civil war over immigration last night, warning that those who wanted to leave the European Union were misleading the public by claiming that they could seal Britain's borders. In an interview with The Sunday Times, the prime minister said those who wanted to leave would be forced to accept the free movement of people if they wanted a free trade deal with the rest of the ...
