Since becoming Labour Leader, Jeremy Corbyn has been a waste of space. His utter failure to capitalise on the Iain Duncan Smith resignation illustrates the point. In recent weeks he seems to have finally realised that he is Leader of the Opposition, taking some initiative in responding to the Steel crisis and making the most of Cameron's tax difficulties. Credit where it is due on these issues. On the issue of the EU referendum, however, his response has been maddeningly apathetic. If he genuinely believes in our continued EU membership then he needs to pull his finger out and make ...
Residents who live near the Co-op on Parr Lane will be aware that there was a very bad road traffic accident right outside the store this morning, just before 8am. The Manchester Evening News reports that four people have been seriously injured, with one of the injured taken to hospital by the Air Ambulance which landed nearby. Photos from passers-by (thank you to Jacqui Lomas and Brian Clarke) show that a red car appears to have crashed into a Warburtons bread delivery lorry which was parked on the double-yellow lines (facing oncoming traffic). In certain circumstances, delivery vehicles are allowed ...
Take a look at these houses. It looks like just another Victorian terrace in Leicester, apart from the oddly bodged ground floors. The reason for those is that there used to be a gap here. Until 2002 that gap was the entrance to Leicester City's Filbert Street ground - a wonderful symbol of how professional football used to fit into working-class life. Go round the corner into Filbert Street itself and you will find the former ground is largely a wasteground. There is, of course, a block of student education - "Filbert Village" - but much of the land remains ...
Back in 2004 The Guardian encouraged its readers to write letters to American voters with an aim of swinging a key state away from George Bush. It seems that the average American Jo(e) didn't appreciate being a foil for a virtue signalling Guardian It didn't work This time, via Owen Jones, it looks like they are back to try & influence another Presidential election. Based on past form it's time to put your money on Trump!
[IMG: Alex Cole-Hamilton Edinburgh Western] A few days ago, Edinburgh Western's SNP candidate took to the Evening News to take a swipe at the Liberal Democrats, accusing us of being negative before lobbing a few insults our way. Alex Cole-Hamilton, who hopes to regain the seat for the Liberal Democrats, wrote his own article for the News. He writes: Toni, I'm sorry you've been offended. But I don't think that drawing attention to the failings of your government or your local representatives should be viewed as underhand, I'd view it as the democratic duty of a healthy opposition. When the ...
The starting gun has been fired for the race to become Bristol's second directly elected Mayor and to fill 70 places for councillors. It's the first time since 1999 that all of Bristol's councillors are being elected at the same time. We will have to wait until 2020 before we go to the polls again [...]
Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 454th 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 (3-9 April, 2016), 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. How happy should Lib Dems be with ...
Oh frabjous day! I discovered yesterday that the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency has released enough information to enable me to map the District Electoral Areas, used for local government elections, onto the existing parliamentary constituencies. Election results in Ireland and the UK are not released with the granularity you get in other countries, where it's not uncommon to publish how many people voted for each candidate in a given polling precinct or even village (Dixville Notch being the classic case). If, as I do, you're sometimes in the business of aggregating vote statistics from an election at one ...
We're all quick to criticise the Daily Mail, or the Daily Express, or The Sun, for writing derogatory articles about women, but I've been surprised at the lack of comment about this story by The Independent.* To give a quick summary, Samantha Cameron has hired a taxpayer funded Special Adviser. The newly recruited SpAd is former CCHQ staffer Rosie Lyburn, who has followed a pretty standard path from MPs office, to party HQ, to Government special adviser. Nothing wrong with that so, sounds pretty normal, especially to someone who trod a similar, though not identical, path. Except that The Independent ...
In the 2015 local elections in England, the Liberal Democrats stood only half the number of candidates that the Conservatives stood (50% to be precise) and 61% of the number which Labour stood. This year those numbers are up – from 50% to 68% for the Lib Dem versus Tory comparison, and from 61% to 67% for the Lib Dem versus Labour comparison. English authorities, candidates standing: LAB: 2,586 CON: 2,580 LDEM: 1,721 GRN: 1,482 UKIP: 1,411 TUSC: 296 IND: 275 (OTH): 212 — Britain Elects (@britainelects) April 8, 2016 That is a very welcome recovery, although there is still ...
Liberal Youth (soon to be the Young Liberals) has called for places to be reserved on party committees for its members, citing the success of this approach in Scotland and Wales. In an open letter to the Federal Executive, published on the Libertine blog, LY co-chair Charlie Kingsbury said: ...it feels obvious now that Liberal Youth, now being the largest voting bloc in the party, to be intimately involved in the decision-making process of the wider party. This is already the case in both Scotland and Wales, where appropriate executive officers of the relevant state organisations of Liberal Youth (Ieuenctid ...
[IMG: Tim Farron by Paul Walter] Tim Farron has written a note about tax on his Facebook page. As party leaders publish their tax returns, (including Willie Rennie, that's 5 minutes of your life you won't get back if you choose to read this unremarkable document), he says that it's actually the system you need to change. He'll publish his in the next few days, but that is not really the point. Here are his comments in full: The politics of envy helps no-one, but trust in politics does. I have no desire to poke around in the Prime Minister's ...
I will go out into the community and listen to and talk with local people I will go out into the community and listen to and talk with local people of all political persuasions The leading politician of an area ... Continue reading →
Commenting as he published his most recent tax return, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie said: "Compared with certain other party leaders my tax returns are rather dull but here they are anyway." Dawud Islam is the editor of libdemhame.org
UKIP are hardly in the news now except where plots, rival campaigns and divisions are concerned. They seem to have collapsed from the party that as promising to win 100 seats at the last General Election and got just 1. An example of this is in South Thanet, which was meant to be their top target at the General Election, with party leader Nigel Farage MEP as candidate. They no longer appear to be taking the seat seriously. In your top target area you would expect to contest every election vigorously throughout the Parliament, even Town Council by-elections. Some might ...
The Panama Papers have led to protests and political upheaval in two Western European countries — Iceland and the United Kingdom. But the outcome of these protests is already very different. It's difficult to see what separates the accusations levelled at Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson and David Cameron. Neither is accused of illegal behaviour, although Gunnlaugsson's activities through [...]
Local residents are fighting to stop, or at least mitigate, Government plans to construct the High Speed 2 railway under Kilburn and South Hampstead. In particular, the construction of a vent shaft at the junction of Alexandra Place and Loudoun Road could be a nightmare, with up to 100 HGVs per day inching round and [...]
[IMG: 7 best] Many thanks to the 10,000 visitors who dropped by Lib Dem Voice this week. Here's our 7 most-read posts... It's time for the Lib Dems to set some external goals, strategy and tactics (70 comments) by Antony Hook Is it Game Over for David Cameron? (29 comments) by Caron Lindsay Laws on Osborne v Duncan Smith (24 comments) by Joe Otten Book Review: Charles Kennedy: A tragic flaw by Greg Hurst (8 comments) by Paul Walter Ethnic minority pupils outclass white British pupils (41 comments) by Mary Reid What Cameron and Osborne said bout Vince Cable's proposals ...
St Laurence's, Church Stretton On Wednesday I blogged about Shropshire Council's decision not to contest the judicial review of their decision to move Church Stretton Library to a less central location in the town. The mighty Andy Boddington, a Liberal Democrat member of the authority, tells us what happened next: We had a high court case over libraries last week. The council withdrew and lost the case. Since then it has launched a vitriolic campaign against the local campaigners in three press releases. Late on Friday, the chief monitoring officer and chief executive slammed a gagging clause on all councillors. ...
The fact that David Cameron had to have clarity over his tax affairs effectively dragged 'kicking and screaming' from him over the past 7 days shows that the default position for those at the top of government and wider society is to conduct their financial affairs hidden behind a cloak of secrecy and to assume [...]
This popular short piece by Sir Peter Maxell Davies, who died last month, is taken from The Yellow Cake Revue. This was a collection of cabaret-style pieces that he performed with Eleanor Bron, as part of the 1980 St Magnus Festival, in protest at plans to mine uranium ore in Orkney. Farewell to Stromness is played here by Ezra Williams. George Mackay Brown said Stromness "is but a tumbling stone wave, a network of closes, a marvel of steps from the seaweed up to the granite of Brinkie's Brae". I've been there and he's right.
Commenting on the latest developments in the controversial memorandum of understanding with Chinese companies. Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie said: "The intervention of the Norwegian corruption report author and Transparency International shows that concerns are real and current. The ongoing casual manner of the SNP about these serious concerns is alarming. "There are [...]
Embed from Getty Images Things have changed since my last post on this. Last time, I thought it was relatively certain that Trump would be the Republican US Presidential nominee. I am not so sure now. First, we had Mitt Romney's extraordinary, unprecedented excoriation of Trump. Then we had that unheard of event: the Trump gaffe machine gun finally fired a round which rebounded on him – I refer to his rapidly recounted suggestion that women who have abortions should be punished (which, lest we forget, was followed by a casual grunt to confirm that he thought it inconceivable that ...
Two friends of mine have suffered strokes this month (and it's only the 10th) - both women of about 40, living in Belgium. I'm glad to hear that cygny is recovering, but Keni has been taken from us far too soon. Everyone, remember FAST: Facial weakness: Can the person smile? Has their face fallen on one side? Arm weakness: Can the person raise both arms and keep them there? Speech problems: Can the person speak clearly and understand what you say? Is their speech slurred? Time: If you see any one of these three signs, it's TIME to call emergency ...
Baldur's Gate Developer States They Will Change Trans Character and Remove GamerGate Joke - CraveOnline RT @nkjemisin: Baldur's Gate Dev States They Will Change Trans Character & Remove GG Joke Another company effectively pro-GG. Why people believe they can't draw - and how to prove they can | Video I liked this TED talk very much, especially the ending. And yes, what you learn in 15 minutes of TED talk is limited. But it shows how learning is possible. Twitter RT @CloveHitched: Gosh, what a nice lady who totally isn't trying to avoid inheritance tax or anything like that she's ...
This week, Edinburgh Western candidate Alex Cole-Hamilton took part in a debate on Scotland 2016 on tax. Here are his highlights. I think my favourite was the "magic tractor." Scotland 2016 Tax Debate Last night Alex Cole-Hamilton took part in the Scotland 2016 Tax Debate. If you missed it – catch the highlights below, including John Swinney's magic money tractor and our plan for education: Posted by Scottish Liberal Democrats on Wednesday, 6 April 2016 You can see the whole debate here. * Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings
We had a high court case over libraries last week. The council withdrew and lost the case. Since then it has launched a vitriolic campaign against the local campaigners in three press releases. Late on Friday, the chief monitoring officer and chief executive slammed a gagging clause on all councillors. The gagging memo is phrased... Continue reading Once again Shropshire Council censors councillors and blocks me blogging →
The UK scores worst in electoral integrity in Western Europe. Here's why – Good analysis by Democratic Audit of all the flaws in the UK's electoral processes. It's Confederate Heritage Month! Day 1 – For as long as I've been blogging, David Neiwert's Orcinus has chronicled the dark underbelly of the American Right. This is an excellent post (with images that some may find disturbing) of the history of lynching in the American South. Tories & Communists – Chris Dillow on the connection: "Conservatism and Communism have much in common. Both support inequalities of power which deny autonomy and self-determination ...
A fascinating set of talks from the Liberal Democrat History Group's spring conference meeting back in 2013: For a variety of YouTube clips of Lloyd George himself, take a look here.
Sun 10th
09:54
Kirsty Williams: We go into this election as the smallest opposition party which has delivered more ...
[IMG: Kirsty Williams on Radio Wales] Kirsty Williams came in for some pretty aggressive questioning from BBC Radio Wales' Jason Mohammad the other day. He was not interested in giving her any opportunity to explain what she stood for. All he wanted to do was to talk about how badly the Liberal Democrats were doing in all sorts of elections. She handled it all very coolly, talking about how Brecon and Radnorshire was now lumbered with a Tory MP who was perfectly happy to vote for cuts to tax credits and disability benefits. She talked about what the Liberal Democrats ...
Liberal Party and the Economy 1929-1964 by Peter Sloman Like many academic books it is ridiculously expensive, it is advertised on Amazon for £58 . I recall a meeting of the Liberal Party Standing Committee in 1979 which was drawing up the Election Manifesto. We reached the item on the agenda marked economic policy. There was a silence until Richard Moore spoke: 'I joined the Liberal Party in spite of not because of its economic policy 'he told us.Many people hold the opinion that our party gives economic policy a lower priority than say the environment, reform of government, foreign ...
Hopes that the Tory Government has learnt lessons from the crisis in UK steel making have been dashed by the latest news that Sajid Javid has drawn up secret plans to sack up to 40 per cent of his department's staff. The Telegraph says that leaked documents have revealed that detailed proposals from the management consultancy McKinsey suggest firing more than 4,000 civil servants over the next four years to save money. They add that the revelation that Mr Javid, the Business Secretary, is considering such deep cuts while facing accusations the department is failing to cope with the steel ...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-35725299 The BBC magazine has the story on the BBC web site – see link above [IMG: Pacer] I have covered the campaign to get rid of these trains a number of times previously on this blog site but this bit of history is interesting. One of my previous postings on the subject can be accessed via the link below:-
One of the lost arts of the digital age is the end of the roll photograph. These were the pictures taken, almost at random, so that a film could be developed before the significance of the events captured in the earlier frames was forgotten. These are some of my favourite examples from my father's archives. The market cross in ... The post The lost art of the end of the roll photograph appeared first on ten pence piece.
Here's Tim Farron telling Sky News on Friday that he is going to release his tax return, regardless of whether anyone else does. He said he made his decision because he thought that people had "a right to have their confidence in their leaders enhanced and not further diminished." Tim Farron: "I'm Going To Publish My Tax Return""It's up to him. I'm going to." Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron on whether David Cameron should publish his tax return. Posted by Sky News on Friday, 8 April 2016 And so, David Cameron has now published his tax return. It doesn't really ...
DUNDEE CITY COUNCIL - WEEKLY ROAD REPORT REPORT FOR WEST END WARD WEEK COMMENCING MONDAY 11 APRIL 2016 Fleuchar Street (Eassons Angle to Blyth Street), Blinshall Street (Lochee Road to Douglas Street) and Scott Street (City Road to Glenagnes Road) - closed for 19 weeks for SSE cable renewal works. A90 Perth Road (west of Swallow roundabout) - overnight (7.30pm - 6.30am) northbound nearside lane closure on Tuesday 12 April for gully resetting works. You can read the weekly road report for the whole of Dundee here.
A large portion of the Conservative Party is up in arms over the idea that £9.3 million of public dosh is set to be spent on a leaflet promoting the idea of Britain remaining in the European Union. Even some very passionate pro-European Tories are decrying the move, saying Cameron may have endangered his premiership by doing this, whatever the outcome on June 23rd. I have a slightly different take on the whole thing: why the hell is the whole enterprise costing so much exactly? My point of reference is the AV campaign. The Yes campaign spent around a million ...
Lunch with the FT: Nigel Farage A very entertaining read. (tags: ukpolitics ) Obama can appoint Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court if the Senate does nothing Interesting thought! (tags: uspolitics ) Sowing History: A Gardener's Tale @UrsulaV goes outside. (tags: writing ) Phil Collins Reshot All His Original Album Covers for the 2016 Reissues Cool! (tags: photos ) Molenbeek, Maalbeek, Schaarbeek. How many beek? Belgian toponyms! (tags: Belgium maps )
