This morning, Caroline Pidgeon took part in LBC's first mayoral debate alongside UKIP's Peter Whittle, the Greens' Sian Berry, Tory Zac Goldsmith and Labour's Sadiq Khan. I know I'm not unbiased, but if I had listened as an undecided voter, I'd have thought that Caroline would be the best Mayor. She had facts to back up what she was saying, she understood the key transport, housing, policing and childcare problems and talked like a Mayor. This is in contrast to her Labour and Conservative opponents, who sound more like Stadtler and Waldorf from the Muppets every time I listen to ...
50 fabulous photos of Walmgate in years gone by https://t.co/9NKBRAqJ88 pic.twitter.com/MSBF32jZMM— The Press (@yorkpress) February 26, 2016If I had to choose a favourite newspaper columnist I think it would be Ian Jack, who writes for the Guardian every Saturday. His most recent column, occasioned by an exhibition of old photographs of Glasgow, is a meditation on the strangeness of having lived a long time. He writes: This week, at the opening of a[n] ... exhibition at the Barbican in London, I looked at many pictures that might easily have included me in their monochrome scenes: as a baby in a ...
As Stephen Tall rightly says, the announcement in the Budget that all schools will be obliged to become academies amounts to the nationalisation of education. And as John Elledge shows, that nationalisation includes the biggest appropriation of Church land since the Reformation. What is going on? I think I put my finger on it back in 2007 when I reviewed Reinventing the State - the social liberal riposte to the Orange Book - for the Guardian. I suggested that Liberal Democrat activists would: appreciate the way Huhne's vision of a rich diversity of local provision contrasts with the Tory idea ...
On last night's Newsnight Evan Davis ambushed Nicky Morgan with the facts about who will suffer from the government's attempts to reduce the deficit.
[IMG: gender pay gap] I have written before about how the debate on the gender pay gap irritates me. It is lazily reported in the media as if the whole problem is down to evil companies flouting the 45 year-old equal pay act and refusing to pay women the same as they pay men for equivalent work. Now, I'm not about to deny that doesn't ever happen, doubtless it does; but it's increasingly rare and has little or nothing to do with the continuing gender pay gap, a much more ingrained problem which we are still nowhere near solving. The ...
Tue 22nd
17:42
£340m Liverpool Rail Improvements/Investments – but lets cut the Blair type re-announcem...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-35860388 The Liverpool Echo and the BBC web site have the story – see links above [IMG: Liverpool Lime Street Station] Liverpool Lime Street Station Two differing takes here on some welcome rail investment news for Liverpool/Merseyside, but you do get the impression, especially from the BBC article that a lot of it, like in the Blair years, is re-announcing what has already been announced to big up the overall picture. [IMG: Site for the new Maghull North Railway Station. Photo taken looking north from School Lane road bridge. The former Moss Side Hospital site is to the right ...
I'd love to know who is advising the Tories and Nicky Morgan with respect to much of what is contained in the education white paper. What I sense overall is panic. They are terrified that we will not have the skilled individuals to make us globally competitive. So they are embarking on a series of measures that they think will give more flexibility in the education system and modernize it in terms of structure and accountability, on the one hand, but rigidly defining what children should learn, particularly at primary level, and sticking with archaic, sudden death-style examinations for GCSE ...
The latest terrorist attacks in Brussels made me sick to the bottom of my soul. Targeting modes of transport — Zaventem airport and the city's metro system — is the worst kind of random killing as well as an attempt to scare people away not just from the Belgian capital but from travelling altogether. Freedom [...]
One of our proudest achievements as a party is the success of our unwavering advocacy of devolution to Scotland and Wales. Without us, and without the pressure of the Scottish Constitutional Convention, it is likely Tony Blair would have abandoned the project. And some of our party's first successes in government were as part of the partnership agreement with Labour in Holyrood, where I was proud to lead the first Scottish Executive alongside the late Donald Dewar. Political developments in Scotland since might lead some to say that devolution has been dangerous for the Union. I disagree. It is bad ...
Tue 22nd
14:41Southport – Merseytravel should be leading the fight to save Southport – Manchester Picc...
I have posted before about the need for Southport's train service to the east of the Town i.e. via Wigan to Manchester to be upgraded. Yes there are long-term plans to electrify the line but that will not happen for some years. However, there is a shorter term threat that Merseytravel, the public sector transport body for Merseyside, needs to address which I fear it is not doing. [IMG: Merseytravel logo] I refer to the threat to stop Southport trains running into Manchester Piccadilly Station and indeed onto Manchester Airport. The plan by Arriva who will take over the Northern ...
Almost three-quarters (73 per cent) of Londoners polled recently want Britain to remain in the EU. It is the highest number among all UK regions polled. In addition to the normal electorate, who will vote in the referendum on 23 June, some 500,000 EU citizens will also have a vote in the GLA / Mayoral elections on 5 May. In the capital, mark the lack of enthusiasm in the Labour Party for the cause of staying IN, mirrored by its mayoral candidate Sadiq Khan. Zac Goldsmith, the Conservative candidate for mayor is described as a Euro-sceptic, and Boris Johnson is ...
As some commentators are expressing incredulity that Iain Duncan Smith has found himself a conscience over welfare cuts for disabled people, not long after signing off those very same cuts, or are attibuting these events to a phoney war over Brexit, I think there is a more interesting possibility. If we take IDS position at face value, this reveals something about how government works – or about how it did work under the coalition and is now liable to go wrong. IDS position is that his cuts to PIP are defensible "narrowly" – that they are reasonable in the context ...
I am just back from a special meeting of Gateshead Council Cabinet. This all-Labour body met today to decide whether or not to accept the devolution package that is on offer to the North East. It's a package that includes control over skills training, transport, planning and economic development. All areas that need regional direction and control. The price of the devolution package is the
Scottish Liberal Democrat health spokesman Jim Hume has warned that without a change of approach to drug misuse it will continue to cause untold misery in Scottish communities, as figures show a 72% increase in the number of drug-related deaths in Scotland over the past decade. Analysis published today of National Records of Scotland data [...]
For the Journal of Liberal History's special issue on the Liberal Democrats and coalition (Issue 88, Autumn 2015, available to purchase here), I wrote the following piece about why the Liberal Democrats won only 8 seats in May 2015, which I've lightly updated for use online and to add in some extra cross-references. It is a sequel of sorts to my earlier history of Liberal Democrat campaigning, The Liberal Democrat approach to campaigning: the history and debunking some myths. Together with What went wrong with the Liberal Democrat polling and key seat intelligence? these pieces form a painful trio. Unfortunately, ...
Boaty McBoatface instigator 'sorry' for ship name suggestion - BBC News There is nothing more British than apologising for accidentally doing something awesome RT @DogsTrust: This #Easter please consider the dangers of feeding chocolate to your dog or leaving it out for your pet to pinch! bird and moon - Nature Fashion Tips RT @RosemaryMosco: One of the comics I'm proudest of. #sciart Serena Williams, man. She's just awesome Chancellor's Budget giveaways failed to support an all-out assault on poverty | JRF RT @jrf_uk: #Budget2016: Chancellor's giveaways failed to support all-out assault on #ukpoverty RT @kejames: A simple but effective ...
In today's Times, Nick Clegg relates the warning he gave to Osborne over Tory plans for welfare Shortly before the election last year, I privately warned George Osborne that his ambition to cut £12 billion from the welfare budget whilst refusing any additional tax rises on the better-off was a strategic error. Any further savings were bound to hit the working poor — strivers, not shirkers — and the vulnerable and sick. It would confirm the public's worst suspicions about the Conservatives: they would be seen as the party of the rich. The full article is behind a paywall, but ...
It so happened that my post about the 'failure demand' generated by the disastrous attempt to automate universal credit happened to coincide with a fascinating post at the New Statesman blog on the same subject - this time from a claimant at the sharp end (thank you, Brendan!). It transpires that some corner of the Department for Work and Pensions appears to have been drumming up business for its expensive helpline (45p a minute on mobiles) by sending out letters - apparently at random - instructing people to phone up and provide more unspecified evidence. The writer found that one ...
At long last! Labour takes advantage of Tory weakness. Stephen Crabb, the new Work and Pensions Secretary, was subjected to the sort of grilling we haven't seen come from the opposition benches in a good long while. Yvette Cooper and Liam Byrne earn special mention. They ruthlessly went to town on Crabb, asking repeatedly what the "no cuts" pledge actually meant, causing the newbie to fumble several times and equivocate like it was going out of style. Putting aside any party sympathies for a moment, it was really very nice to see parliamentary democracy in full swing again; the government ...
[IMG: Gotfried Gyechie] Godfried Gyechie was a Lib Councillor in Lewisham from 2006 to 2010. In a ceremony in Akwamufie in Ghana earlier this month he was formally installed as the Tufohene (Chief advisor) to the Osomanyawa of the Akwamu state. The Osomanyawa is the second in command to the paramount King of the Akwamu. Akwamufie is the capital of the Akwamu state, which was once a great empire and ran from the Ivory Coast, through Ghana to Togo in its height. As the Tufohene, Godfried has the responsibility of settling disputes across the area. He is Head of the ...
I recently received residents' complaints that the ticketing system at Dundee House when waiting for council tax and benefits enquiries is not working properly. I contacted the City Council about this and the Head of Customer Services & IT has updated me as follows : "At present we are experiencing some issues with the self service ticket machine. There is a notice placed on the machine directing customers to reception where staff can provide them with a ticket, where possible we are greeting customers on arrival and then taking them to reception to obtain the appropriate ticket. There have been ...
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie will today announce that his party will go in to the Holyrood election with a commitment to double funding for child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS). The Liberal Democrat plan for CAMHS would see an increase in staff and improve access to mental health services. The package of support [...]
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie MSP has thrown down the gauntlet to the First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, saying it's time for an SNP thaw and for her to use the tax powers coming to the Scottish Parliament. Earlier this year the Liberal Democrats set out plans to invest £475million in education with a penny [...]
LDHQ have published a new A4 leaflet making the case for IN. This leaflet focuses on the specific and very important issue of cost of living. Being IN we have the opportunity to enjoy cheaper prices. [IMG: Leaflet Outside] [IMG: Leaflet Middle] You can order this leaflet at £40 per 1000 including delivery, which is about as good value full-colour printing can go. Orders can be up to 40,000 copies. You need to order by this Friday 25/3/16. But further leaflets and offers to order them will come soon. Well done to the #INtogether staff who have made this possible. ...
Wales on-line reports that opposition politicians have hit out at the new library for Roath and Adamsdown residents calling it a "disgrace"L: Adamsdown Lib Dem Councillor Nigel Howells said he has visited the new temporary facility inside Cardiff Royal Infirmary and has been left sorely disappointed. He said that when he visited the self-service kiosk was switched off, and there was no librarian. He said the number of PCs has fallen from 14 to none, and there are 575 books available. At Roath library there were 18,000. In July last year the council admitted that 10,000 books had been pulped ...
Mars Glorious. (tags: astronomy mars maps ) The Shipping Forecast Very British! (tags: maps uk )
Just to wish all residents at Happy Easter this weekend. All of our local churches have special services and activities over the weekend, including events on Maundy Thursday, many have Easter Vigils and events on Easter Saturday an family services and activities on Easter Sunday itself. There is a Easter Walk of Witness on Good Friday which departs St Mary's Church at 11am walking up to Tesco with a short service outside the supermarket. More information: Our Lady of Grace, St Mary's, both Methodist Churches and the Studio Church. Information on St Margaret's, St Gabriel's and St Hilda's can be ...
As the Tory Party unravels before our very eyes over welfare cuts it is instructive how they found themselves in this situation in the first place. According to the Financial Times the Chancellor thought the Liberal Democrats were going to rescue him from himself: In private, George Osborne admits some policies only made it into the last Conservative manifesto because it was felt the party would not win an outright majority at the 2015 election and would therefore not have to implement them. The chancellor's ambitious plans to cut £12bn from the welfare bill in this parliament and to impose ...
NHS Bury has issued the following information on pharmacies that will be open over the long bank holiday weekend. [IMG: Screen Shot 2016-03-22 at 05.16.52]
The public are invited to participate in a National Commemoration of the Centenary of the Battle of the Somme in Manchester on Friday 1 July. Following a service of remembrance at Manchester Cathedral, there will be a free evening concert in Heaton Park on Friday 1 July 2016 at 7.30pm featuring a national children's choir, film, dance and Manchester's acclaimed Hallé Orchestra. Free tickets need to be booked here. 17thmanchesters.wordpress.com In 1916 Heaton Park was a military training ground for many recruits before they went to the Somme. The evening event will also feature a range of letters, poems and ...
