Last Saturday night I saw Red Ladder Theatre Company's production of The Damned United at Derby Theatre. The play has been adapted from David Peace's 2006 novel by Anders Lustgarten. You know that you're probably going to be impressed by a play when the attention to detail starts before you enter the auditorium. The Match Day Magazine and Programme echoes ... The post The Damned United at Derby Theatre appeared first on ten pence piece.
Embed from Getty Images The Welsh Liberal Democrats have announced plans to help hill farmers, recognising the difficulties they face in farming challenging terrain. They include £20 million package for hill farmers and plans to enable farmers to be able to improve their resilience and competitiveness. They say they are passionate about protecting Wales' proud farming tradition and that farmers in Wales produce some of the greatest produce in the world, but too often they are not getting the support they need from an out of touch Labour Government. Every member state of the EU and each of the UK ...
A Whole Scene Going must have been quite a programme, Last year I posted a feature on the Spencer Davis Group that it broadcast on 16 March 1966. The week before it had shown this profile of Lalla Ward, who was only 14 at the time. She grew up to be an actress, writer and artist. She played Romana the Time Lady in Doctor Who, was briefly married to Tom Baker and is now married to Richard Dawkins.
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie today said that SNP policing reforms have undermined links between the national force and the communities they serve as he met volunteers with the UK Civil Air Patrol, an organisation who provided air search support for the police until 2013. Speaking after completing a training flight with the Civil [...]
That should strike fear into the heart of anyone who has ever driven with Willie! Or maybe it's just that I'm ultra cautious on the road. Today, Willie went on a training flight with the UK Civil Air Patrol, who provided air support to Tayside Police prior to the SNP's disastrous merger of Scotland's Police forces. .@willie_rennie prepares for his training flight with the UK Civil Air Patrol #SP16 pic.twitter.com/tfd1dLGGX1 — Scot Lib Dems (@scotlibdems) April 12, 2016 The point of his visit was to outline what he would do to restore accountability to the Police service. The party would ...
Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff today denounced what she said was an attempted coup against her — and accused the Vice-President (who is from another party) of being one of the "plotters". Yesterday, a Congressional committee voted in favour of her impeachment and a motion to that effect could be put to the whole House as [...]
Embed from Getty Images There was something close to a shrine to James Taylor in the pavilion at Leicestershire's Grace Road ground before he left for Nottinghamshire and made his England debut. His international career took a while to revive after that, but by the end of last year he had played 7 tests and 27 one-day internationals. He look set to build on that substantially, perhaps particularly in 50-over cricket. There his thoughtful approach was a counterweight to the headless, everyone thrash and get out for 15 tendency that is the flipside of England's new positivity. So the news ...
By next Tuesday, we'll have a new parliamentarian, a new hereditary member of the House of Lords. A House of Lords by-election is being held following the death last month of Eric Avebury, who is already very much missed. I'm not going to lie, that doesn't sit terribly comfortably with me. The idea that you could get a place determining the laws we all have to live by just because you were lucky enough to be your parents' firstborn son is the first big problem. The second logically follows on – it's an all male electorate deciding from an all ...
Tue 12th
19:26
7 candidates, 6 manifestos, 3 voters - latest on Parliamentary by-election the Lib Dems are going to...
Last month I wrote in Lib Dems set to win Parliamentary by-election (yes, really): 100% turnout expected, alternative vote being used and a Liberal Democrat set to win... Yes, it's the House of Lords election to elect a new Liberal Democrat hereditary peer to have voting rights following the sad death of Lord Avebury. The candidates list has now closed, and there are seven runners. Which rather outnumbers the electorate, who are a full glorious three (the current Liberal Democrat hereditary peers). Former MP John Thurso is one of those seven and, despite being one of the frontrunners, is the ...
More comedy genius from Australia's Clarke and Dawe:
Tue 12th
17:48
Legacy: A Collection of Personal Testimonies from People Affected by the Troubles in Northern Irelan
First paragraph of 2 March entry: John McAnespie - I live in a little village here in Tyrone - Aughnacloy. I had lost a son here some years ago, it was in '88. He was shot going to a football match on a bright, summer, February morning. He was someone that had got a lot of hassle from the so-called security forces. A lot of my hope was taken away the Sunday that my son was shot. This was a collection of short radio pieces broadcast at the rate of one a day throughout 1999, the year after the Good ...
[IMG: Up in Smoke] Our friends at Liberal Democrat HQ have released several templates on the Environment – one of the issues on which the Lib Dems made the biggest difference in the last government. Now the Conservatives are doing their best to reverse all the hard-fought progress we made. If there are areas in your area where the environment [...]
Scottish Liberal Democrat candidate for Edinburgh Central Hannah Bettsworth is the latest Lib Dem in hustings action this evening (Tuesday) when she lines up as part of the panel at Murrayfield Church Hall from 7.30 pm. She will be taking on the SNP's Alison Dickie, who was very much second best to Martin Veart last time [...]
Much like schoolchildren, Peers have returned from the Easter break this week. We're now within a month or so of the end of this parliamentary 'session', and so there will be lots of battles as the government attempts to secure the last parts of its legislative agenda for this year. Looking at the business ahead, on immigration, on housing and on trade union legislation, I don't envy the task of our team leaders and whips. They've got to decide which are the crunch issues on which we can bring together a coalition of peers to beat the Government in votes ...
We've received several complaints that people working on the Barnes Hospital site are parking on the South Park Road Estate. We have contacted the council, and a formal email has now been sent to the Barnes developer pointing out that this is breaking the law as the estate is "no entry except for access". Hopefully this will resolve the situation, but we'll continue to monitor.
Tue 12th
14:05
Tim Farron visits refugee camps in Greece - "Real people in desperate circumstances fleeing war"
Hearing stories about families fleeing war and persecution makes me believe we must do more to help pic.twitter.com/zh9kMM2Lvh — Tim Farron (@timfarron) April 12, 2016 The news is constantly full of big numbers, thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions of people heading to Europe to escape war and destruction. Tim Farron is in Greece today, talking to some of them. What's very clear is that behind those big numbers are individual people and families, just like ours, who had been living peaceable lives, getting on with their jobs, sending their children to school, just like the rest of us. They have ...
Liberal Democrats on Bury Council were last week successful in getting Bury Council to take a stand against the Investagatory Powers Bill (sometimes referred to as the 'Snoopers Charter'). Lib Dem councillors proposed a motion, which raised serious concerns about the Bill. This was then supported by all Labour and some Conservative councillors and has now been successful in becoming the policy of Bury Council. There are three issues that particularly concern us: – the Bill would require all communications companies (e.g. Internet Service Providers Councillor Tim Pickstone
April 2016 commemorates 400 years since the death of William Shakespeare. To mark this, the Archive Department along with Bury Libraries have organised a number of events and activities. This includes a competition – open to people all ages – where the winner will receive a £30 book token. The competition centres around a collection of props featured in five of Shakespeare's most famous plays. These are in a display cabinet at Bury Library - but images of the items, competition questions, rules and entry forms will be distributed to other libraries in the Borough. In addition to the competition, ...
As 17 schools in Edinburgh remain closed, here's the statement Lothians and Edinburgh Western Lib Dem candidate Alex Cole-Hamilton made over the weekend: Our first priority in the PPP1 schools debacle is to ensure pupil and teacher safety. Nearly 10,000 ... Continue reading →
With Liberal Youth passing a series of significant motions and amendments and moving towards a clearer stance for campaigns, it would be easy for us to sit around congratulating one another on a job well done. We have adopted policy on five key liberal areas; free trade, welfare, free speech, education funding, and civil liberties, [...]
canalrivertrust.org.uk/our-towpath-code I found this recent campaign from the Canal and River Trust interesting and of course they are right to point these things out. Having said that is not the whole code they are promoting a matter of common sense anyway? [IMG: Looking through Pilling Lane canal bridge at boats moored outside Mersey Motor Boat Club. Canals are not for rushing.] Looking through Pilling Lane canal bridge at boats moored outside Mersey Motor Boat Club. Canals are not for rushing. Well yes it is but we seem to be developing into a society where we need to be told how ...
Local Elections take place across Bury this year on Thursday 5 May 2016. If you're not going to be able to vote that day, but would like a postal vote you still have time to sign-up. The deadline for this May's elections is Tuesday 19 April 2016. [IMG: Screenshot 2016-04-12 12.38.08] You can print out the form here, or if you need us to drop one off let us know – organiser@burylibdems.net. People who already have postal votes should have already received a notification of the postal vote card from the Council.
[IMG: warmer homes] A few weeks ago I wrote on Lib Dem Voice about the full throttle attack that Lib Dems in the Lords are undertaking on the Housing and Planning Bill - one of the shoddiest pieces of legislation put before Parliament for well over a decade. Yesterday the votes began and the Government was defeated twice – a sign of things to come. Getting this controversial bill through may prove Cameron's toughest legislative battle yet. The bill fails to tackle the affordability crisis in housing. What the Tories think is affordable, simply isn't affordable for most people. It ...
Two new planning applications have been received in Holyrood Ward as below: Application Number: 59920 Registration Date: 23/03/2016 Location: 26 Brooklawn Drive, Prestwich, Manchester, M25 2GS Proposal: Non-material amendment following grant of planning permision 59718 for two storey extension at side and single storey extension at rear to incorporate existing outbuilding, front porch/single storey extension, loft conversion with rear dormer: Removal of window in the side with the addition of new window in the rear elevation Application Number: 59690 Registration Date: 14/03/2016 Location: 23 Tamworth Avenue, Whitefield, Manchester, M45 6UH Proposal: Certificate of lawfulness for proposed single storey side extension Please do not hesitate to get in touch ...
Tue 12th
12:17
Still life in Proportional Representation despite our love of a ridiculous electoral system?
Now it can be no surprise that an old Liberal like me thinks we should have a fair electoral system and yes I know that probably two thirds of you readers would probably rather stick with a demonstrably unfair one. There got that bit off my chest but stay with me for the hell of it. The link above is to an interesting Huffington Post article which rehearses many of the arguments for PR/Fair Votes. It also makes it clear that what we were offered in that odd referendum (remember it in 2011?) was not PR/Fair Votes. To be ...
I'm in the process of completing a diversity survey of the Liberal Democrats approved candidates, I trust that by being asked to complete this I have been retained (although I have yet to have official confirmation of my post election review). My first gripe was the first question, where it asked for DOB in the format mm/dd/yyyy when like me you have a repeating number (nine) you have rattled this off from an early age. To have to think when answering a UK based survey before you start, to transpose into American format is not a good first impression and ...
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie said yesterday that new reports which warned a downturn in the Scottish economy may be intensifying underline the case for urgent investment in skills training. The Bank of Scotland's latest PMI indicated output in the private sector declined last month, while the amount of new business continued to fall. Purchasing [...]
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie yesterday challenged the Prime Minister to work with Scotland's next First Minister to end the scandal of companies who do not fulfil their tax obligations receiving large government grants. Mr Rennie had previously challenged the Scottish Government to end payouts to large firms who do not pay their [...]
Jeremy Corbyn's office 'blocks Ken Livingstone from appearing on TV' | UK Politics | News | The Independent RT @alexwilcock: Corbyn's consigliere wakes up to find a newt's head next to him: Twitter RT @reddeviljp: 'Why Corbyn is so popular' by Frank Cottrell Boyce - Best analysis yet, imo. Twitter RT @portraitinflesh: Why do we refuse to believe what oppressed groups go through without "experiments" like this? Fitness for work assessors 'mock the disabled' while earning up to £20,000 a month - Mirror Online RT @C4Dispatches: Tonight at 8 on @channel4 @adeadepitan investigates #PIP: Dogs demand rational explanation for farts ...
It isn't the done thing here to link to opinion pieces in the newspapers by Labour politicians. So much that I'm not even sure what category to use. We have LibLink for links to articles by Liberal Democrats, and we have the slightly oddly named "Independent View" for articles by non-members. But sometimes, hang the taxonomy, this is important enough to link to anyway. David Miliband steps away from arguments over the costs of membership and Brexit, of whether we could get back the agreements on trade, policing, etc, that Brexit would tear up, the implications, if any, on immigration. ...
Chris White has condemned Hertfordshire County Council for not being able 'to give a damn' over their repeated failure to restore traffic calming in Albert Street. Chris said: 'When the street was resurfaced a year or so ago the County Council contractor failed to restore the humps. 'I have pursued this ever since and have [...]
A couple of weeks ago Unsworth residents received the leaflet attached below from Bury Council. I've been meaning to post this for a while, well here it is now. On the one hand, it is a nice message – well done, we are quite good at recycling.... maybe we should be all pleased to receive a pat on the back from the Council. But really, is it that difficult to deliver the right leaflet in the right area? I mean, if 8 out of 10 people can put the right recycles in the correct coloured bin, then is it too ...
Local councillor Chris White has condemned the plea by Govia to commuters to travel outside the rush hour. Chris said: 'People have to work for a living. They can't just drift in half way through the morning. Well they can – but some would find themselves on the return train home carrying a P45. 'Govia [...]
Each April, I compile a list of openly trans politicians standing for election in the UK. This year, elections involve a number of local councils as well as devolved Assembly, London Assembly and Police and Crime Commissioner elections. The returning officers have almost all now declared who is to on the ballot, so it's time to publish the list. The current situation is that there are two out, full-time trans people holding publicly elected office at a principal local authority level or higher: I sit on Cambridge City Council for the Liberal Democrats, and Zoë Kirk-Robinson on Bolton City Council ...
Area Committee meetings in election periods tend to be shorter – the rules say councils are meant to avoid taking contentious decisions so items often get pushed back. This is the last area committee before the location elections. It's on Tuesday 19th April 2016, 6pm at the Ladybridge Park Residents Club, Edenbridge Road, Cheadle Hulme and – as ever – all are welcome. What's coming up: Petition for residents parking from Greenbank Road, Gatley All Hallows Church on Councillor Lane is applying for £1,000 towards upgrading their kitchen (total cost of the project is £13,802). Planning application 60950 – two ...
Infacts has a good short article on why Farage is a fool to crow about the Dutch referendum on the EU-Ukraine association agreement. No doubt he is trying the please Putin, whose regime has funded anti-immigrant / nationalistic / anti-EU parties. The Dutch vote makes the point that getting all the EU states to agree to an association agreement with Britain, if we were to the Leave the EU, might be difficult and is certainly not guaranteed. As Infacts rightly say: Farage and his fellow Eurosceptics like to say that we won't have a problem getting a post-Brexit deal with ...
This past weekend, Polly Toynbee was on the Andrew Marr Show, speaking about the Cameron Panama affair. The crucial thing she had to say during the spot was this: "That's the real story, it's not really about him having done anything abnormal for people as rich as him, it's about simply being that rich — and once it's exposed in that granular way, it shocks more as lots of people have always known Cameron and Osborne — the whole lot of them — are multi-millionaires." Toynbee is not a Labour MP, of course. But her language on the Marr programme ...
The Electoral Commission has just published new guidance on how the rules governing campaigning for the EU referendum may affect businesses. Here it is: Download this document Interested in more stories about how our elections are run? Follow my dedicated election law channels on Facebook or Twitter.
Thank you for your recent email regarding fox hunting. You mention history in your letter. The practice of hunting is indeed an ancient one. The landowner was expected to know every inch of the holding which was in his trust: every stream, vale, hill and thicket. He would have been responsible for the military defence of the area and along with his retinue: hunting with hounds was a very effective method of knowing every nook and cranny of the land. The lives of the area's inhabitants would sometimes rely up both the local geographic knowledge and the retinue's level of ...
Last month Keith and the team consulted residents on a number of smaller road safety schemes. We asked on this website, on Facebook and we delivered letters to every affected house. The results are in, so here's what you told us. Cars going the wrong way along Gatley Green Your general view was that, while painting additional lines at the Tesco end wasn't a bad idea, you think we'll need a physical build-out to solve the problem. We're taking that on board. We'll ask the council to go ahead and paint the lines, as that's quick, easy and cheap. We'll ...
Further to the recent demolition of the former council lock-ups in Glenagnes Street (see right), I asked the City Council when the area will be completed to create parking spaces and to erect the promised fencing between the area and the flats in Blackness Road to the south. I have been advised as follows : "Tayside Contracts has inspected the formation at Glenagnes Street. They have scheduled to commence making good for a parking surface week commencing 18 April 2016. This includes removing the double yellow lines from the south carriageway which otherwise would see residents ticketed. Fencing should be ...
Suddenly we are being inundated with details of politicians' tax affairs. Such transparency is to be welcomed of course, even if it could be classed as slightly over-zealous, but there is a danger that the real issues will be lost amongst all this sharing. The Times picks up on these concerns. They argue that whilst the publication of individual tax returns is probably unavoidable it is also a distraction. They say that politicians should be judged on the decisions they make, not on how much money they have, what their parents did or where they went to school: Although the ...
The advantages of making scientific data available for further analysis are clear, but it could also enable the trawling of data to find significant, or preferred, results. Dorothy Bishop argues that we need a system to keep all those re-analysing data honest For years, researchers squirreled their data away after completing a study. When I started out in research in the 1970s, there were few options for sharing data: there was no email or internet. I have dim memories of analysing data from the 1958 National Child Development Study. The files arrived on enormous disks that I had to take ...
Many of you will have noticed the quiet conversion of the Wildwood at De Grey's restaurant on Broad Street. The De Grey's brand, loved by Ludlovians and tourists alike, has been removed. It's a bit of our history being painted out of Ludlow by signwriters. It seems there was some dispute over whether Wildwood was... Continue reading De Grey's is no more - it's a great loss for Ludlow →
How hot-desking offices can wreck productivity Obvious, really. (tags: work ) This Will Be the Biggest Dam-Removal Project in History Impressive. (tags: geography ) Internet mapping turned a remote farm into a digital hell Location, location... (tags: maps internet ) How the Average Triumphed Over the Median Fascinating! (tags: mathematics ) Brexiteers trade on a myth The Commonwealth chimera. (tags: eu ukpolitics )
I've not said much about the whole Panama/Prime Ministerial tax schmozzle. That's not because I don't have views. But I'm not sure that I've got them entirely straight yet. A few things seem clear. It seems unlikely that David Cameron has done anything technically illegal. When Cameron invested in his father's company he wasn't even engaging in particularly aggressive tax avoidance. And he paid the necessary tax when it was due. Nor would it appear that his mother has done anything inappropriate in gifting him £200,000, even if that £200,000 started out as his father's money. If Cameron Snr bequeathed ...
