After photographing the former Black Boy pub last Saturday I wrote: I get the impression that most Labour councillors would be entirely content if the city consisted entirely of newly built supermarkets and blocks of student accommodation.The truth is worse than that. The city council's policy is to see historic, characterful buildings demolished and replace by student accommodation. At the end of last year the council voted to allow developers to demolish the oldest buildings on London and replace them with a seven-storey block of, you guessed it, student accommodation. According to a Leicester Mercury report at the time: The ...
Welcome to Broxtowe Enews, brought to you by the Liberal Democrats and edited by David Watts, on behalf of the Lib-Dems in Broxtowe. 1. Waste Recycling Centres A new scheme aimed at reducing the amount of waste at the county's recycling centres will help save the County Council £200,000 a year in waste disposal costs. Under the scheme, Nottinghamshire residents, who wish to use one of the Council's 12 recycling centres will first have to complete a free one-off registration to continue using the sites as they do now. The simple registration process can be completed online from 21 March at ...
This afternoon, as I do every Sunday, I went over to my mother's house to cook her a meal. I generally listen to the repeat of Choral Evensong on Radio 3. The music is sublime and the Old Testament lessons often barking mad, so it's great entertainment all round. Today, after it was over, I switched to Five Live to see how Spurs were getting on in their attempt to catch Leicester City. But Spurs were not on Five Live. You needed their Sports Extra channel to listen to that game. Five Live itself had the Manchester derby - the ...
Yesterday England won their first grand slam for 13 years. Their team contained a product of my old school in Market Harborough, now called the Robert Smyth Academy, in the shape of Dan Cole. Back in 2003 it did too - the captain, Martin Johnson. That is quite an achievement for a small-town comprehensive. In my day the best sportsman in the school, a couple of years below us, was a footballer. That was Andy Peake, who went on to play for Leicester City in the old first division.
Very glad to say that I have found someone who can't attend Mancunicon due to family illness, and is selling me their membership. Very sorry not to see this particular person there, but look forward to seeing the rest of you!
Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 452nd weekly round-up from the Lib Dem blogosphere ... Featuring the seven most popular stories beyond Lib Dem Voice according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (-, 2015), together with a hand-picked quintet, you might otherwise have missed. Don't forget: you can sign up to receive the Golden Dozen direct to your email inbox — just click here — ensuring you never miss out on the best of Lib Dem blogging. As ever, let's start with the most popular post, and work our way down: 1. Still a Lib Dem by Jennie Rigg on ...
Scottish Liberal Democrats leader has told campaigners in Glasgow today that the government needs to make a 'sea-change' in its drug policy. His intervention comes after new analysis showed that 1,000 people in possession of drugs for personal use have been imprisoned in the last five years instead of being sent for treatment or education. [...]
In the Middle Eastern state of Badia, some high school students spray anti-government slogans on walls in the city of Adar. The regime, notorious for the brutality of its control and its favouritism towards the Ray people from whom its president hails, cracks down hard. Far from bringing the incident to an end, the regime's [...]
I am disappointed and rather angry that a planning inspector has allowed a solar farm to go ahead above Neen Sollars, near Cleobury Mortimer. I don't think that this appeal needed to have been lost. The Neen Sollars decision follows the approval by another planning inspector of a solar farm at Acton Scott. A decision... Continue reading We should not be losing solar farm appeals in South Shropshire →
[IMG: Katy Gordon - Lib Dem candidate] Liberal Democrats in East Dunbartonshire have announced Katy Gordon as their Scottish candidate for the Holyrood election. Katy has campaigned alongside Jo Swinson for several years and was her campaign manager for 2015. She also has over 20 years experience working in careers guidance and project management and is currently employed as head of the careers Service at Strathclyde University. Ms Gordon said: "I am pleased to accept the Lib Dem nomination for Strathkelvin and Bearsden. My number one priority in this campaign is about raising educational standards as well as delivering more ...
[IMG: drugs] Willie Rennie has called for a sea-change in drugs policy after new analysis showed that 1,000 people in possession of drugs for personal use have been imprisoned in the last five years instead of being sent for treatment or education. The figures, compiled by Scottish Government analysts at the request of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, revealed an average of 200 people in Scotland were incarcerated for drug offences between 2010 and 2015. In contrast, an average of just 55 Scots per year were handed drug treatment and testing orders. Our manifesto for the Holyrood election proposes to end ...
Letters to your local newspaper are a great way to get the IN message across. You may even be able to persuade the editor to print a full article making the case. Effective writing in a typical local paper needs to be punchy, direct and local. Short words in short sentences and a local angle on the bigger picture. It also helps to tell a story. Start with where we were, then where we are now, followed by where we could go if the reader joins this great adventure. My view is the key points to make are Peace, Prosperity, ...
When we went into the rally at Conference 9 days ago, there were two bits of paper on our seats. Och, that'll just be Euro campaign tat, I thought. Actually, it wasn't. Tim issued a challenge to everyone in the room. These bits of paper were membership forms and he told us to get out there and recruit two members each by the end of this month. Leaders have made such challenges before and not much has come of them. You see, it needs us to actually make the effort and once the passion of the rally has died down ...
Usually the first piece from a book's serialisation contains by far the most juicy stories, but today's extracts from David Laws's Coalition rather top last week's. Here's George Osborne's attempt to make an electoral pact with the Liberal Democrats: The Tories secretly tried to form a 2015 Election pact with the Lib Dems to keep the Coalition going, according to David Laws. He says George Osborne proposed a so-called 'coupon election' deal with the Lib Dems, whereby up to 50 Tory MPs would have been written off, ordered to make way for Lib Dems. If the deal had gone ahead, ...
Just wanted to say a big thank you to all those who have so far added their support to my on-line petition calling for the luxury that is the Mayor's car to be scrapped! It is my belief that the Council should be instigating new ideas and schemes that will reduce our reliance upon fuel, [...]
With the excuse of the Clean for the Queen campaign the Wallington South ward councillors decided to enlist some local help in tackling some Wallington 'Grot Spots' that were outside of the Council's jurisdiction. We were pleased to be joined on Friday by some local residents as we got to work on the rear of [...]
[IMG: 7 best] Many thanks to the 12,000 visitors who dropped by Lib Dem Voice this week. Here's our 7 most-read posts... Sexual harassment reports from Conference (53 comments) by Baroness Sal Brinton Why culture change is a necessary pre-requisite for gender balance (68 comments) by Rachel Edwards Liberal Leave campaign (50 comments) by Paul Walter Party adopts All Women Shortlists after Tim Farron's plea "The time for excuses is gone" (36 comments) by Paul Walter WATCH: Tim Farron's response to the "sweet and sour" budget (8 comments) by The Voice The party needs to live its values in the ...
Baroness Shas Sheehan went to Calais and Dunkirk with some supplies a few weeks ago. She is going again this week and invites you to help her get supplies together. On her last visit, she spoke to some of those heroic volunteers who have given up months of their time to help the refugees survive the Winter. Here's the video she made. Here is the list of items that Shas wants to take to Dunkirk and details of how to get them to her. What you can do to help A delivery to Calais will take place on Thursday 24 ...
One of Nick Clegg's most quoted comments from the general election campaign trail was that the Liberal Democrats would put 'a heart into a Conservative government and a brain into a Labour one'. Well clearly the two parties respective organs are currently both 'missing in action' but the complete lack of compassion at the core [...]
Sun 20th
10:59
David Laws on Marr: I want to expose how NHS chief was leant on to encourage debate on NHS funding
It's the second week of David Laws' coalition revelations serialised in the Mail on Sunday. This week we have him telling us that: NHS Chief Simon Stevens actually wanted an extra £15-16 billion a year for the NHS but was told by the Tories to halve it Osborne and Cameron wanted to sack IDS 4 years ago The inside story on Theresa May and the Snoopers' Charter How Cameron stormed out of a meeting with Eric Pickles, over getting private landlords to check immigration papers How Michael Gove responded to a pretty blunt email from David's Special Adviser An offer ...
I watched the Marr interview with Iain Duncan Smith this morning. It was pretty electrifying. Whitehall has suffered a critical setback in its war on the poor and disabled. Ten years of rhetoric from Labour and Conservative (and Lib Dem) governments about disability scroungers was corroded into sludge in ten minutes by one of its principal architects. He described the budget as "deeply unfair" and unequivocally opposed the welfare cap. The terms of the UK debate on disability benefits have been changed out of all recognition in the last 48 hours. I do not warm to IDS who, if he ...
Writing about moves to ban tackling in school rugby, I quoted some lines from this song. I have since found this video, so here it is on a Sunday. Wikipedia explains the genesis of "I'm a Boy": The song was originally intended to be a part of a rock opera called 'Quads' which was to be set in the future where parents can choose the sex of their children. The idea was later scrapped, but this song survived and was later released as a single. The song is about a family who "order" four girls, but a mistake is made ...
Although I booked travel and hotel for Mancunicon some time ago, I neglected to check that I had actually bought a membership, and on reviewing both the list of members and my own records it is clear that I haven't. And they are full (which indicates that deciding to go was a good decision which I should have implemented properly). If you hear of anyone who isn't going after all and wants to dispose of their membership - and I will obviously pay today's price, £75 - please get them to contact me on nicholas dot whyte at gmail dot ...
Sun 20th
10:26
Planning permission sought to help young people through landmark expansion of Ludlow's Foyer
Shropshire Housing Group has applied for planning permission to extend Ludlow's Foyer (16/00761/FUL). The plans involve demolishing Harvest House and building a new wing to the existing Marston's Mill building. The extension will be clad in weathered copper shingles. A new reception area will be built on the railway side between the two wings. Marston's... Continue reading Planning permission sought to help young people through landmark expansion of Ludlow's Foyer →
Electronic message writing down the phone line, courtesy of Thames TV in 1984.
I am not sure who advised Baroness Ros Altmann to jump in with a very personal attack on her former boss, Iain Duncan Smith, but it cannot be helpful to either side of the increasingly rancorous civil war that has now erupted in the Tory party. The Independent reports that in a personal statement reported by Sky News, Baroness Altmann said she was "extremely shocked by the news of Iain Duncan Smith's resignation and the way he has behaved": She wrote: "Having worked alongside him as a minister in the Department for Work and Pensions, I have seen that he ...
Second frame of third chapter: F and I went to Brussels Comic Con yesterday, and to be honest it was a bit of a disappointment compared to the Antwerp Convention, which we enjoyed last year and the year before. The cosplay was at least enthusiastic, but otherwise the program items were rather thin and the internal layout bizarre - Jeremy Bulloch and other Star Wars actors, for instance, were jammed into a very narrow but important passage, which rapidly got blocked by autograph hunters meaning that those wanting to go through needed to find a long way round (I got ...
Lynne Featherstone and Lindsay Northover were outstanding DfID Ministers. During their tenure, with the support of Liberal Democrats in both houses, and throughout the party, for the first time, radical commitments such as an to end Female Genital Mutilation by 30% by 2018 were included in UK Government policy. Furthermore, those Liberal Democrat ministers, insisted that commitments to the rights of LGBT people and people with disabilities be central to FCO and DfID policy and programmes. They did so, not just because of our unshakeable commitment to human rights, but because the UK's unique history with the Commonwealth nations and ...
My spies tell me that Highways England have at last addressed the terrible state of the road surface on the M57 between the M62 and Prescot junctions, northbound carriageway inside lane. I can't have been the only person to complain about the appalling way the pot holes have been filled in, seeming by just chucking lumps of tarmac in them and not even rolling the surface flat! And its been like that for a long time, my posting about it is from 30th June 2015! :- Well at least they got around to it in the end! With thanks ...
The Liverpool Echo has the story about the latest local/Sefton shooting in Litherland – see link above. And the shootings go on and on, this time in Hapsford Road Recreational Park in Litherland. Not so long ago we were being told that Merseyside Police were winning the battle to get guns off our streets but frankly the streets of Sefton don't seem much safer when things like this are going on in a children's play area.
From Dundee City Council : Dundee City Council is considering implementing 20 mph speed limits on roads in residential areas throughout the city. The council recognises that 20 mph limits have definitive road safety benefits and these can provide a basis where people feel safer to use more sustainable modes of transport such as walking and cycling. The objective of introducing the 20 mph limit is to improve the local environment in residential areas for all road users, including car drivers, by reducing the number and severity of collisions and casualties on the city's roads, making the city a safer ...
The Assembly's Public Accounts Committee has issued a new report on 'Wider issues emanating from the governance review of Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board'. It is a particular concern to me that the GP Out of Hours Service in north Wales has been singled out by the Committee as not having acceptable coverage. The Welsh Government needs to 'urgently address' the issue. After the elections in May the Public Accounts Committee should continue to monitor progress of this service and of the Health Board as a whole as it faces the challenges of improvement whilst in special measures. The continuous ...
I know many of you out there reading this have, it is fair to say, never been fans of George Osborne. However, spare a moment to consider how quickly the Right have turned on him – for supposedly moral reasons as well. This excerpt from Janet Daley's Telegraph article yesterday sums up perfectly this new, post-budget mode of thinking: "So this has been coming for a long time: this thunderous collapse of the loose confederation between Conservative politicians who believed in something they thought was worth fighting for to the death, and those who had adopted the model of politics ...
Stalin's granddaughter rocks at 44 From Pravda. (tags: russia ) Think Iain Duncan Smith's resignation is a masterstroke? Sadly, he's not that clever "Iain Duncan Smith spent five years in the Cabinet not resigning over cuts to disabled people's payments that did happen, before resigning over that one that won't happen." (tags: ukpolitics ) INFOGRAPHIC: EPP is third largest party at EU summits Very interesting - I had not kept count! (tags: eu ) Irish Fantasy Writers and the Easter Rising Rob Maslen @Fantasy_GU on Lord Dunsany and James Stephens. (tags: sf ireland ) Doctor Who and the Communist: The ...
Today there was another terrorist bomb attack in Istabul, not for the first time in the busy central shopping street of Istiklal Caddesi, which is one of the places I always go when I visit the city, just like I always go to the Grand'Place in Brussels when I am there. The fatalities among today's [...]
