It is hard to believe that it is now nearly five years since my gallant, but ill-fated, attempt to become the District Councillor for Stowupland ward, but I found myself on familiar territory this weekend, delivering leaflets for the Remain campaign. After all, a majority of those who actually turned out that day voted for parties that support our membership of the European Union, and if Ros and I don't get a pro-European message out, who will? Funnily enough, five years ago, there was controversy over plans to build some new housing association properties, and now, the hedges and windows ...
The European Commission has published an enjoyable list of Euromyths. Each one is accompanied by a link taking you to the truth on the subject.
Researching the Saddleworth air crash of 1949 and the later death of Michael Prestwich, I came across this video of his father winning a motor race before the war. It presents a wonderful picture of motor racing in the 1930s - all cigarettes and no safety precautions with commentary by Mr Cholmondley-Warner. Henry Bryce Prestwich was a cotton merchant. A forum post on the Autosport site says: He was born Henry Bryce Stadelbaur or Stadelbauer at Altrincham, Cheshire, England in 1911. Both spellings appear on documents. His father was Otto Stadelbau(e)r, a British subject from a Saxony family. However, like ...
While the geeks were watching a rerun of the election night coverage from 1966, I outgeeked them by watching the final round of the Candidates chess tournament in Moscow. The tournament was held to find who would challenge the world champion Magnus Carlsen for his title in a match in New York this November. In today's final round the leaders were playing one another: Sergey Karjakin had white against Fabiano Caruana. A draw would give Karjakin victory in the tournament, but Caruana needed a win. (By a quirk of the tie-break system that situation could have been reversed if Vishy ...
I have tonight criticised the City Council's administration for its complacent attitude towards tackling parking problems in the West End of the city. At tonight's City Development Committee, I moved the following motion : "Committee notes with concern that, following the consultation exercise in 2012 in part of the West End Ward relative to a possible residents' parking scheme, the parking situation for residents and local businesses in the area concerned has worsened. Committee therefore instructs the Executive Director of City Development, during the 2016/17 financial year, to undertake a further consultation with community groups, local residents, the business community ...
Embed from Getty Images In the days when I was an agent or produced election leaflets I discouraged the idea that we should rebut the claims of our opponents in the literature we put out. My reasoning was that it was much better to concentrate on our own positive messages. If that wasn't enough then we were never going to win away. Some support for this position comes from psychological research discussed in a 2007 Washington Post article - thanks to @sundersays for tweeting the link this morning. The Post describes a study by the University of Michigan social psychologist ...
The Government sneaked this out on Maundy Thursday: MOD Cheadle Hulme is to be closed and hundreds of houses build on the site. The MOD Cheadle Hulme site is actually just over the border in Cheshire East, between Woodford and Handforth Dean. That brings the total houses planned for the Cheshire near the Stockport border to around 5,000 – and still no plan on how to deal with the traffic, need for school places, doctors' surgeries etc. Yes we need more homes, but they have to be properly planned with the infrastructure to cope or it's just more cars clogging ...
In the face of Brazil's firm refusal to accept former settler leader Dani Dayan as Israel's new Ambassador to Brasilia; Israel has today admitted defeat and named him as its next Consul General in New York instead. The government of Dilma Rousseff has been one of the strongest supporters the international recognition of Palestinian statehood [...]
The centenary of the Easter Rising has been being celebrated today. I spent the day travelling from Manchester to Antwerp, so my mind was on otehr things, but I did download and read the New Statesman's ebook of its own archive pieces from around that time. There are just ten of them, one of which is a classic of world literature in its own right; the others don't actually reflect all that well on the New Statesman's ability to report and analyse. The eyewitness acount provided by an anonymous correspondent reflects only the situation around St Stephen's Green; the reports ...
I marvel at the broad coalition of beliefs that co-exist within the same political party. In the case of my own, Orange Bookers, Social Liberals and Social Democrats exist in an uneasy alliance that is forged out of necessity, to give it the critical mass needed to contest elections in a first past the post electoral system. Under a proportional system, such alliances would perhaps be unnecessary. I've always felt that the Orange Book and Classical Liberal wings of the Liberal Democrats would be more at home in the Tories. We may have common ground on personal freedom and the ...
(First of all, a quick apology for my absence for so long. My health has been appalling recently, and for most of the last week I also didn't have a functioning computer...) For someone as interested in the music of ... Continue reading →
Three town councillors in Winsford face by-elections after the courts ruled that their nomination papers were invalid as they were signed by people from outside the ward: Winsford Town Council ward members for Over, Gina Lewis, Margaret Dolphin and Graham Cawley were respondents in the election court trial held in Winsford last week. It was claimed their nomination forms for the May 7 elections were invalid as they were seconded by people who did not live in the Over ward. Honour Judge Saffman upheld the petition raised by former Lib Dem councillor Charles Parkinson - who lost his seat in ...
[IMG: Teacher In Classroom] In 2010 Michael Gove, acting before the ink was dry on the Coalition agreement, rushed the Academies Bill through Parliament. Governors were free to turn their school into an Academy Trust, without canvassing parental or local opinion . This being a little high-handed, I moved an amendment during the Commons debate requiring school governors to consult parents – particularly important as the government were pressing on with this radical change during the school holidays. Gaining the support of Ed Balls, then Labour party Education spokesman, I pushed it to the vote and divided the House. We ...
You should have received an email from Sal Brinton last week inviting you to give your views on the consultation paper on the governance review. The deadline is TODAY!! So if the weather is keeping you at home you could do worse than spend a few minutes reading the consultation document and sending in your views on it. You do need to click on the button on the email that you received, so we can't direct you to the survey from here. The feedback at this, the second stage of consultation, will help to determine the proposals which will be ...
[IMG: Eastleigh HQ leaflets] I've never been one for negativity. I'm all for realism, however stark - provided that one is permitted to also consider how to change one's circumstances if the current ones are dire. This is one of the many reasons why the Lib Dems attracted me as a party - evidence-based policy, and a 'well, let's fix it' attitude to tackling problems, offering solutions and alternatives instead of simply complaining. The membership surge after last May's elections, and the ensuing #LibDemFightback have been extremely heartening. Outside the comfort zones of the Liberal Democrat community, the evidence for ...
Embed from Getty Images David Higgerson writes on his blog about the Liverpool Echo's attempts to investigate the actions of a local academy that has announced it will no longer offer A levels: The school, Halewood Academy, appears to consider itself above scrutiny and refused to talk to the Echo, instead referring to a statement online. The local council, Knowsley, shrugged its shoulders as well it might - it has no say on what goes on at Halewood, despite the fact its borough will have no A-level provision. Tom was pointed towards regional schools commissioners who are apparently responsible for ...
[IMG: People watch videos all the time, including on the move.] People watch videos all the time, including on the move. Given it's from the Google, the piece How political ads and video content influence voters in the US understandably rather concentrates on Google's own platforms but the principles are more widely applicable too: Election micro-moments happen when voters turn to a device to learn about a candidate, event, or issue. Today's voters want a quick way to catch up on the latest elections buzz and they've found it in online video. Since April 2015, people have watched more than ...
A major poll of over 1,000 voters aged 60 and over in yesterday's Sunday Post showed support for the Liberal Democrats as high as 23% in some of the Holyrood 'regional list' areas and in double figures in three of the eight regions. The backing from this age group, which shows no significant dropping off [...]
A full copy of the manifesto can be downloaded at http://www.richardkemp.org.uk On May 5th there are three elections taking place on the same day. I am standing for the post of Elected Mayor, Chris Carubia is standing for the post ... Continue reading →
Syrian Teenager Who Pushed Sinking Boat To The Coast Plans To Compete In The Olympics - BuzzFeed News RT @OxyOxspring: Allow me to present another example of the hypocrisy and sexism inherent in our culture: The only people who aren't penalized for promoting diversity at work are white men - Quartz BBC iPlayer - The Women's Football Show - 2016: Episode 1 RT @sallyhorrox: For those who went to bed last night here's new BBC Women's Football Show on IPlayer. Thanks @BBCAnnaT @FAWSL Ukip-backed Brexit campaign employs EU migrants to rally support | Politics | The Guardian I guess a ...
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie today called for a transformational investment in education to boost our economy and warned that failing to support schools and colleges could leave Scotland facing a crippling skills gap. Speaking as he met businesses in Inverurie with Aberdeenshire East candidate Christine Jardine, Mr Rennie highlighted a UK Commission for [...]
The psalm (62) set for Easter Monday in Thomas Cranmer's 1559 Prayer Book contains the words (1559 spelling*) ". . .their delyght is in lyes; they geue good woordes with their mouth, but cursse with their harte." The original psalm was probably composed over a thousand years ago and written in Hebrew, but it could easily apply to our present government, so skilled in saying one thing and doing another. viz: They say they believe in devolution to local government, but take away provision of education, one of local government's main functions; they said there would be "no top down ...
Mon 28th
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A longer read for the holiday weekend: The tangled path ahead for Liberal Democrat pacifists and non...
Embed from Getty Images Lib Dem pacifists and non-interventionists will no doubt have had difficult adjusting to the decision to assist the government in supporting the coalition that is currently intervening in Syria and Iraq. Here, I will provide a few simple suggestions for how we can keep to our principles, but also avoid irresponsibly divisive behaviour. No Irresponsible Dissent Disagreeing with the decisions a party makes is perfectly reasonable. And criticism, per se, is not inadmissible. But criticism of one's own party is not the same as criticism of individuals and organizations outside one's own in-groups. Even if party ...
Cllr Keith Holloway has called on Cheadle's Conservative MP to oppose Government plans to force all schools to become academies, whether they want to or not. "The Government seems to honestly believe that there's some officer in Town Halls handing down orders to head teachers. That's not been true for 30 years! George Osborne wants to force outstanding Stockport schools to go academy against their wishes – something that will cost a lot of money and distract away from giving children a good education," said Keith. So far Cheadle's MP Mary Robinson has come out firmly in favour of the ...
The Guardian newspaper has the story – see link above This in many ways is an extraordinary story with unbelievable consequences for UK tax payers. It's as though this new power station is to be built at any cost and what a cost it will be too! With thanks to my spotter Roy Connell.
Now this is another odd story. You see at the March meeting of Lydiate Parish Council we had a report from Sefton Borough Council about their assessment of the quantity and quality of sports pitches in Lydiate that formed part of a Borough-wide assessment that is done every few years. The assessment covers schools and private sports grounds I would add, not just Council owned/managed facilities. [IMG: Oakhill Park bowls pavilion and greens] Oakhill Park bowls pavilion and greens When it came to Lydiate's Oakhill Park on Liverpool Road, Sefton Council had renamed it Oakhill Cottage Lane (name of the ...
It's kind of an open secret in Westminster these days that Labour MPs whom after this week we could slip into the categories labelled "hostile" and "core group negative" (and perhaps those 17 MPs who didn't even get categorised at all by Corbyn's crew) are serious about attempting to defenestrate Jeremy after the EU referendum. The idea is that the local elections in England, the Scottish parliamentary elections and the Welsh Assembly elections go as badly as expected in early May, the groundwork is then laid so that after the European sweat is out of the way, the resistance stages ...
DUNDEE CITY COUNCIL - WEEKLY ROAD REPORT REPORT FOR WEST END WARD FOR WEEK COMMENCING MONDAY 28 MARCH 2016 Perth Road (Arnhall Street to Farington Street) - temporary traffic lights for 2 weeks for footway works. Perth Road (at Springfield) - off-peak temporary traffic lights on Tuesday 29 March for BT network upgrade. Forthcoming Closures Fleuchar Street (Eassons Angle to Blyth Street), Blinshall Street (Lochee Road to Douglas Street) and Scott Street (City Road to Glenagnes Road) - closed for 20 weeks from Monday 4 April for SSE cable renewal works. You can ready the weekly road report for the ...
The Octopus That Ruled London Victorian tentacles! (tags: historyofscience )
The news that the UK Tory Government has decided to turn every school in England into an academy school has caused consternation, not least amongst teachers. Education Minister, Nicky Morgan had a particularly torrid time at the NASUWT conference if this report is anything to go by. As a politician working in a nation where education is entirely devolved to the Welsh Government, I can only watch and be thankful that Wales is not being subjected to the same treatment. Except of course the Welsh Conservatives have already announced that they want the academy school experiment to be brought in ...
