Here's another local scheme seeking your support in the Tesco "Bags of Help Scheme". [IMG: ALT Community Farm flyer small]
It was meant to be a quiet and fairly quick walk with Mel the Collie. With a few extra minutes available, we diverted our usual night route to cut across Gallows Bank. That's always a bit of a risk after rain as darkness falls. I've ended up getting a muddy butt a couple of times... Continue reading A stupid idiot tried to set fire to Gallows Bank in Ludlow tonight - why? →
Embed from Getty Images One of the causes closest to Norman Baker's heart, both as MP and minister, was the reopening of the railway from Uckfield to Lewes. The project is now the subject of heated political debate, judging by this report from the Sussex Express: This week Lib Dems have attacked what they perceive as inaction from the Tories since last year's general election following the progress secured by the former Lewes MP and ex-rail minister Norman Baker. Baroness Randerson, the Lib Dems' transport spokesperson, is set to question the Government on what action is planned between Lewes and ...
I couldn't resist writing this headline, because it seems so unlikely, but the official opening of Consett's New Leisure Centre and Academy was delayed by three hours when HRH The Duke of Gloucester's helicopter was unable to set out to the North East this morning. After the initial disappointment – probably as keenly felt by the parent who I met helicopter-spotting at 9.50 as any – the event passed off smoothly. As well as hearing from HRH the Duke himself, it was good to see Sadie Walton being presented to the Duke in recognition of her decades of service to ...
[IMG: Shaffaq Mohammed] The Liberal Democrat candidate for the forthcoming Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough Parliamentary by-election is Shaffaq Mohammed: The city councillor for the Ecclesall ward launched his campaign for the parliamentary seat earlier today (Wednesday, March 2). The seat has been vacant since the death of the late Labour MP Harry Harpham in February. Coun Mohammed said: "It is time Labour stopped taking local people for granted. "I have fought for Sheffield to have a liberal voice all my life. Labour has failed the people of Sheffield by being anti business, our city is open for business and welcomes ...
Wed 2nd
19:41
Electoral Commission reveals how media doesn't have a clue about electoral registration data
A footnote to my post Why you should ignore all the news reports about the size of the new electoral register. It's not only me who has concluded of the electoral registration data which has generated headlines about 'millions lost from electoral register', that in fact when you look at what the numbers really say, "no-one has a clue what they really mean. What we do know is that the total number of entries on the electoral register has fallen. But what we don't know is either context or meaning." So too the Electoral Commission, who also points out that ...
Gone are the days when councils had lots of money to splash about, or were able to do everything we want to on their own. But we can still do great things for our borough by working together in partnership. Here are four ways that partnership working is delivering results for Lib Dem-led Stockport Borough: Stockport Together is a partnership between the Council, GPs and hospital. By pooling our money and spending it more effectively we are cutting the number of vulnerable, elderly people who need to be admitted to hospital, improving their lives and saving money at the same ...
The Liverpool Echo has the story – see link above This sadly is an issue oft covered on this blog site – oh how I wish it were otherwise. At face value Merseyside Police seem to be getting on top of the problem but my feeling is there is still a long, long way to go to get guns off the streets of Merseyside.
[IMG: A set of false teeth. CC0 Public Domain] Dentistry is booming in Hungary: Between 2000 and 2008, the number of dentists in Hungary per capita increased by 56 percent. Hungary has more dentists per person than any other country. The reason? Foreigners travelling to Hungary to get their teeth done using a dentistry service better in terms of price, quality or both than in their home countries: Medical tourism [has] become widely accepted by policymakers as unique tool for economic development. Its promise was almost magical: tourism for countries that had not been gifted with beaches or mountains, or ...
All those of you who have been telling me for ages I should watch it were totally right. My GOD, complex ambiguous characters, treating women as people, queer stuff treated as matter-of-fact... Yeah, there's some bi-erasure, and yeah, there's some horrible stuff happens but HOLY CRAP this show is amazing. I'm about half way through season two, and am DEEPLY in love with Red, Miss Claudette (she comes back, right? No, don't tell me), Sophia (OMG the trans lady teaching the cis ladies about lady anatomy was just fabulous), Poussey, Big Boo, Daya and John (so sweet)... I'm not liking ...
[IMG: Spring Conference Agenda 2016] In just 9 days' time, Liberal Democrats will be gathering in York for Spring Conference. The agenda is available here. What do you think of the motions on offer? Could any of them be improved? If you want to submit an amendment, you need to persuade 10 members or your local party or SAO to back it and get it in by 1pm on Tuesday 8th March. From the agenda: Amendments and emergency motions must be signed by 10 party members; OR l submitted by one or more of: a local party, state party, regional ...
I've Had a Cyberstalker Since I Was 12 and there's no legal recourse RFC 7725 - An HTTP Status Code to Report Legal Obstacles RT @mnot: 451 Unavailable For Legal Reasons is now an official status code, congrats @timbray and all who helped! #censorship Yorkshire warned about overnight snowfalls - Brighouse Echo RT @Brighouse_Echo: Yorkshire warned about overnight snowfalls: Yorkshire is bracing itself for the first significant snowfalls of... Closures of Mental Health Services for LGBT+ People Due to Austerity Is Devestating This Guy Photoshops His Dog To Make It A Giant KFC Apologizes for Firing Transgender Woman, Cans Bigoted ...
[IMG: The LGA Lib Dems support Liberal Democrat council groups across the country] LGA Lib Dems and ALDC at the York Lib Dem Spring Conference Please see the attached flyer for more information on our events and come and see us at stands 2 and 3 in the exhibition area! Town and Parish Councils - referendum information The Government has had the power to impose a referendum limit [...]
At the Hay Festival last year I acquired a tome by Anthony King and Ivor Crewe that seemed designed for a political anorak like me. The shame is of course that 'The Blunders of our Government' does not have a much wider audience for, in its lucid and instructive rendering of the story of many government cock-ups such as the Millenium Dome, the poll tax, tax credits and individual learning accounts, it offers lessons both to politicians and civil servants as well as a guide to the voting public of what really goes on in Whitehall. I understand that a ...
In another of the consultations on cuts, the council is asking for your views on how to save money on the One Stop Shops and customer services it provides. The ruling Conservatives' preference is to close the Thornbury One Stop Shop and replace it with a "digital by default" option. This despite previously saying that the council was committed to retaining a presence in the town. The alternatives suggested are keeping Thornbury open part-time and making either Yate or Patchway also part-time or cutting more staff from the customer service team. Anyone who has struggled to get through to the ...
I'm generally supportive of the diversity motion introducing all women shortlists (AWS) at the next federal conference in York, (this argument is particularly persuasive), but will AWS permanently solve the problem of our party being too male and pale? If the proposals are passed and are successful, we might look in the Westminster bubble like we have addressed the gender disparity, however, as a party that relies on its local activists and councillors we ought to embed this cultural change more broadly. As Mark Pack has pointed out, we don't have enough women councillors, council candidates and local party officers ...
[IMG: 2016 Election Essentials Blog image 500 x 375] We all know how important running a good polling day is to the outcome of an election. Here is ALDC's pack of templates you need for the elections on 5th May. For the different versions for Police and Crime commissioner as well as two candidates and three candidates, please look at the PagePlus versions as [...]
[IMG: The 1952 Democratic Convention - the last major brokered convention] The 1952 Democratic Convention – the last major brokered convention If there's one thing that gets US political geeks fired up, it's the prospect of there being a brokered convention to choose a party's Presidential nominee. Every four years, professional and amateur pundits look over the field of candidates and proclaim that there's no way someone is going to get 50% of the delegates and seal the nomination, leading to a brokered convention where the nominee only emerges after a series of ballots. Every four years, these predictions are ...
[IMG: Kirsty Williams AM] A new poll by ICM for BBC Wales suggests that health is the biggest issue for voters in the run up to this May's Assembly election. The news should be welcome to Liberal Democrats because the party's campaigning on health and the passing of Kirsty Williams' nursing bill gives us some really good material to [...]
[IMG: West Midlands pastoral care] Diversity is in the spotlight ahead of Spring Conference in York and there are many discussions taking place around the best way to get progress in the party. Much of the focus is on the party's representative bodies and selection processes. However, we need to remember the culture changes and improvement still needed at grassroots level. With the passion that our members and supporters show for campaigning and democracy, it is easy, at an organisational level, to forget a crucial fact. Our party must also be passionate about people. About recruiting them, investing in them ...
After what seems to have been years of fighting against Labour-led Sefton Council's Local Plan, which proposes that houses and industrial units will be built on the highest grade of agricultural land, it seems that Labour and the planners have won and we environmental campaigners have lost. [IMG: Lydiate environmental campaigners presenting former Lydiate Parish Council Chairman Dave Russell with a petition to try to save the Green Belt from development around Lydiate] Lydiate environmental campaigners presenting former Lydiate Parish Council Chairman Dave Russell with a petition to try to save the Green Belt from development around Lydiate In the ...
Watch the new fun (yet educational) video from CGP Grey: For part one (and the controversy over the views in it) see here.
Hi a quick personal update. My period sightseeing round Korea is over. That will definitely lead to a couple more posts. I'm bound to have something to say about the DMZ and will probably want to talk about Seoul too. Today I began working as a Guest English Teacher. I'm going to be based in two middle schools in [...]
They said it was impossible, unrealistic, over-optimistic. No select committee could be expected to produce a report in less than a month Indeed, some Peers even used this as an excuse for not supporting the otherwise infallible Motion before the House on 20th January (full comments). However, the vote was decisive: 327 to 234, an amazing majority of 93 (full division lists available here). Well, we have done it! The Select Committee on Trade Union Political Funds and Political Party Funding has today (Wednesday 2 March) published its report - thanks to some remarkably skilful steering from its chairman, ex-Treasury ...
Last week Scottish Liberal Democrat Conference debated lifting the moratorium on planning and licensing for unconventional oil and gas extraction. It was an erudite debate, and I think that it is fair to summarise the argument in favour of lifting the moratorium as follows: Liberals believe in evidence-based policy making and the scientific method. The moratorium was put in place to allow an independent expert scientific panel to examine how unconventional oil and gas extraction could work in Scotland. Just such a panel published a report in July 2014. The experts say "The technology exists to allow the safe extraction ...
A friend recently cited an article by Michael Gove in the Telegraph as a reason for voting to leave the EU. I'd say it was a reason to stop reading the Telegraph. Here's what he wrote (in italics) and what I think of it. I believe that the decisions which govern all our lives, the laws we must [...]
Wed 2nd
10:16
New Powers Called For By Councils To Combat Lorry Drivers Who Cause Chaos In Rural Communities
[IMG: Scania_tipper_lorry_in_Russia] New powers are being called for by councils to fine lorry drivers who career through rural communities, causing chaos and damaging country roads. The Local Government Association (LGA), which represents more than 370 councils in England and Wales, warns that incidents of reckless driving are not only causing disruption to rural communities but putting lives [...]
This week could be your last chance ever to have your say at an Area Forum, after the ruling Conservatives scrapped them. Not that anyone reading the council press release would have any idea they are being abolished. They talk about everything the public can do there and all the reasons to come along but don't let on what's planned. There is one innocuous looking line: "There will be an update on the future of the Area Forums." That future is gone, because the Tories and Labour recently voted to get rid of them. Why not come along and make ...
We need to protect our City and our Police from right wing (or left wing) thugs Last Saturday we saw some disgusting sights in the centre of Liverpool when a bunch of thugs called the North West Infidels came to ... Continue reading →
[IMG: Greg Mulholland] Leeds North West MP Greg Mulholland has won the charity Brake's Parliamentarian of the Year Award for his campaign for justice for victims of criminal driving. From the Yorkshire Post: Mr Mulholland said: "I am very honoured to have been named Brake's Parliamentarian of the Year. For many years now, I have worked with Brake and its fantastic staff, who have been very supportive of my campaign to get better justice for victims and families of criminal driving. "It has also been a real pleasure to have worked with families and campaigners determined to get that justice. ...
Yesterday's Treasury Questions were interesting – I mean, for people who could ever find Treasury Questions sessions interesting, obviously. Osborne found them tough going this week, which is rare these days. But it wasn't because Jon McDonnell had a good week. In fact, even by McDonnell's incredibly low standards this week's edition was stunningly poor. When it came time for the shadow chancellor to ask a question....he didn't ask one. Instead he ranted about – I am giggling as I type this – the bleeding fiscal charter. Yes, that thing that McDonnell said we should sign up to, then changed ...
[IMG: DSCF9418] With just over two months left until Polling Day, there is no better time to plan a bit of a get together for all the helpers, volunteers and activists who are working hard for the election. Here is Hull, I am busy organising our Campaign Launch and even with limited time and resources I believe [...]
The Speaker of the Israeli Knesset, Yuli Edelstein, is due to address MPs and Peers in Parliament today at the invitation of his British counterpart, John Bercow. Nothing strange about that, one might think, except that Mr Edelstein lives in the illegal Israeli settlement of Neve Daniel in the occupied West Bank and declared ahead [...]
Yesterday morning, I had the pleasure of attending a Fairtrade Breakfast at the City Chambers to mark Fairtrade Fortnight. It was an thoroughly enjoyable breakfast with pupils from local schools who are helping to promote Fairtrade in their schools and communities. There was also an excellent presentation from St John's High School pupils. Here's a couple of photos from the event : Presentation by St John's High School pupils Later in the morning, I met with a constituent and two officers from the City Development Department of the City Council to look at road safety for Blackness Primary School pupils ...
I've written quite a lot about the current Liberal Democrat governance review, so interesting to see by contrast the ideas the Conservative Party is toying with: David Cameron is planning to cull hundreds of Tory associations and strip local chairmen of their powers under controversial plans to rein in the Conservative grassroots. The Daily Telegraph can disclose that up to 90 per cent of the country's 650 Conservative associations could be axed... Under the new plans, Tory associations could be merged into between 60 and 70 "multi-constituency associations" based loosely on county areas. These new "super-associations" will employ permanent party ...
Everyone knows there is going to be the all important EU referendum on 23 June. It's the biggest political event of our lifetimes and we need to stay in for peace, prosperity and people. But do you know what will happen on 20 June? England will beat Slovakia to secure their place in the Quarter-Finals of Euro 2016. The final is not until 10 July. So, we will know whether we are going in or out of the EU before we know whether we are going in or out of the tournament. It will be a busy week for hard ...
What Democrats Still Don't Get About George McGovern An impressive argument. (tags: uspolitics history ) A traditional and an alternative explanation of why the European Union cannot communicate @jonworth writes. (tags: eu ) Scott Kelly, back from space, will be NASA's medical lab rat A cheerful news story for a change. #fb (tags: space ) Slovakia's 2016 general election This weekend's voting fun. (tags: slovakia ) Election outcome was political earthquake that never happened A reality check. (tags: ireland ) Obama Didn't Create Trump. The GOP's opposition to Obama did. Insanity generates insanity. (tags: uspolitics ) Have We Been Playing ...
Mental health has been highlighted as a key issue for all of St Albans City and District Council's services especially those working in housing and community safety. A motion setting out the Council's commitment won unanimous approval from all parties at a meeting of the full Council on Wednesday 24 February. It was proposed by [...]
The Times on 29 February had a surprising front page story about the "Rising fury of ministers muzzled over Brexit". The vocal complainant was Iain Duncan Smith, upset that civil servants in his department were being asked to produce "propaganda" to support Britain's remaining in the EU. The snag is that that Times article says they were sharing facts about the levels of benefits claimed by migrants from other EU countries. But with migrants from EU countries paying very much more in taxes than the take out of the system in benefits, this looks a little weak. It gives the ...
