Seriously, I'm not joking. See for yourself. A snapshot of the audience reaction to Willie Rennie #leadersdebate https://t.co/3HZRKyV7kU pic.twitter.com/WSHc1G2uyt — The Daily Record (@Daily_Record) May 1, 2016 I thought he would do well, but I wasn't quite expecting cheering, and rapturous applause for him. On this occasion, it was his answer to a question on a second independence referendum which got the audience on his side. He said that the Parliament and Government needed to concentrate on the neglected issues like health and education, to concentrate on making Scotland the best country in the world again. You can't do that, ...
I've always wanted to influence the environment I am in. At university I was involved in the Student Union and my JCR but couldn't find the right party – there was always something I agreed with but equally something I disagreed with. That was because I am a Liberal Democrat and, rather fortunately, there is [...]
Welcome to Broxtowe Enews, brought to you by the Liberal Democrats and edited by David Watts, on behalf of the Lib-Dems in Broxtowe. May I apologise for the non-appearance of the newsletter over the last few weeks. Unfortunately, a number of different things have stopped its preparation (including my 50th birthday last week). Normally there wouldn't be a newsletter this week because of the bank holiday but I thought we ought to get back into the rhythm of producing one. 1. Attenborough Nature Reserve Attenborough Nature Reserve and I are the same age, to within a few days. I had the ...
I've written two letters today about the car accident that happened last Friday outside the Co-op store on Parr Lane. The first letter was to Bury Council's Traffic Management Department, in which I asked them to do more to enforce the double yellow lines outside the Co-op, install a temporary 20mph zone around that section of Parr Lane (which the council can do, due to the proximity of a local school) and thirdly to re-open the consultation into the proposed permanent 20mph zone which we are due to have installed around Sunny Bank Road, Randale Drive and Chadderton Drive. The ...
As of the 14th April 2016 I have officially been a member of the Liberal Democrats for one whole year. And did I renew my membership? Of course I did! It's safe to say it has been an eventful and rewarding year. So much has happened in the past twelve months that has made me [...]
Another video from Londonist. I remember crossing the bridge at Belmont by bus on the way to see my mother's aunt in Wealdstone.
Today I was upset to see significant damage to the safety mat/tiles that were installed beneath the swings at the playground on Sunny Bank Road, next to the Community Centre. Almost a third of the safety mats have been ripped up and left strewn all over the park. I have reported this to Bury Council but in the meantime I would recommend that local residents do not use the equipment until the council have repaired the flooring. I anticipate this may be some time, but I will ensure that the Council does not forget about the playground and will check ...
There is nothing I want to say right now other than the following: AAAAARGH IT ITCHES! NO IT REALLY ITCHES! YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND QUITE HOW MUCH IT ITCHES AND I CAN'T SCRATCH IT BECAUSE IF I DO THE INK MIGHT BLEED OUT BUT OH MY SWEET CTHULHU IT ITCHES. I CAN'T EVEN SOAK IT IN THE BATH FOR ANOTHER NINE DAYS BECAUSE YOU CAN'T SOAK A NEW TATTOO! ARGH ARGH ARGH! Thank you for you concern in this matter. ( TMI under the cut ) So yeah. ARRRRRGH IT ITCHES. [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
With the local elections, just days away, don't forget that it was the Conservative controlled city council who decided to charge hard up pensioners and other residents extra to collect your brown bin! And please remember that at the council meeting that discussed the plans, both Liberal Democrat councillors for the Gunthorpe area – myself [...]
"People who are not very bright have this terrible tendency to pick a side in major intractable geopolitical conflicts, and support it as if it was a football team." Dan Davies offers a fair-minded account of Labour's problem with antisemitism. John Blake puts Ken Livingstone right on Hitler and Zionism. "The evidence built into a startling indictment of South Yorkshire police, their chain of command and conduct - a relentlessly detailed evisceration of a British police force." David Conn on the lessons of Hillsborough and the longest inquest in British legal history. The Shropshire Star collects local residents' memories of ...
Elect me on Thursday and I will put all my passion, energy and experience to work on behalf of the City and its people Thursday marks the end of an appalling election in Liverpool. It will not be appalling in ... Continue reading →
Pericles, Act 4 Scene 5, in its entirety. Mytilene: a street before the brothel. Enter, from the brothel, two Gentlemen First Gentleman: Did you ever hear the like? Second Gentleman: No, nor never shall do in such a place as this, she being once gone. First Gentleman: But to have divinity preached there! did you ever dream of such a thing? Second Gentleman: No, no. Come, I am for no more bawdy-houses: shall's go hear the vestals sing? First Gentleman: I'll do any thing now that is virtuous; but I am out of the road of rutting for ever. Exeunt ...
From speaking with local residents who live along Fulbridge Road in recent weeks, its seems that the issue of traffic remains a major concern for local residents. You may have noticed that the Vehicle Activated Sign that had been erected the other year, has now been removed, and I've not heard yet from the Council [...]
Sun 1st
18:15
WATCH: Tim Farron on the Sunday Politics: Progressive, centre left voters are turning to us
[IMG: Farron on Sunday Politics] Tim Farron was interviewed on the Sunday Politics today ahead of the local elections. Andrew Neil gave him a hard time, as you would expect, but he came out of it quite well. You can watch the whole thing here. He highlighted how Norman Lamb prevented the Junior Doctors' contract being written and commented on what a shame it was that Labour's internal wranglings had knocked that story off the front pages.
As usual, I will be covering as many of the nominated works in the Hugo Awards as I can here. Like last year, several categories in the awards have been destroyed by the Nazi troll "Vox Day" managing to persuade ... Continue reading →
Obama's rocked all of his 8 speeches at the White House Correspondents' Dinner. This year is full of occasions that will be his last in the White House. It took me a while to warm to him, but he's certainly been one of the best US Presidents of my lifetime. He hasn't got it all right, by any manner of means, but his tenacity in getting his healthcare reform through despite everything the Republicans threw at it was particularly commendable. Anyway, this speech doesn't quite have a Lion King moment, but the bit where he has a go at Prince ...
Having a former Mayor locked in a disabled toilet whilst journalists shout questions through the door about what he thought of the younger Hitler* might, you think, be the most absurdly farcical moment Labour was able to conjure up last week. But you would be wrong, as The Times's Red Box email reports: [IMG: Naz Shah] There is a serious point in all this, as being Prime Minister (or indeed party leader) means having to juggle numerous different issues competently, quickly and with little clear time to concentrate on just the one thing. That was partly Gordon Brown's undoing, because ...
I'm starting to wonder if we need police patrols outside some local schools after receiving further complaints from residents relating to improper parking by a handful of parents. The Lib Dem FOCUS Team and myself have campaigned for more parents to walk to school with their children and in this area we have many who do. However, there [...]
This week, Lib Dem Home Affairs spokesperson Alistair Carmichael put down an Urgent Question to the Home Secretary after she all too casually said that the UK should leave the European Convention on Human Rights. It's clear that ,whatever the result of the Referendum, the Tories are desperate to have a big bonfire of all of our most basic rights. What they could object to about things like the right to privacy and freedom of expression is beyond me. Anyway, Theresa May didn't bother to turn up to face Alistair. She sent Attorney General Jeremy Wright instead. He didn't really ...
[IMG: 7 best] Many thanks to the 11,400 visitors who dropped by Lib Dem Voice this week. Here's our 7 most-read posts... Inquest verdict: the 96 were unlawfully killed (73 comments) by Joe Otten Could Trumpland reach Britain? (35 comments) by Lord William Wallace Poll boosts for Kirsty Williams and Eluned Parrott in Wales (5 comments) by Caron Lindsay WSTCH: Tim Farron on the Andrew Marr Show (8 comments) by Caron Lindsay Missing the civility of coalition (27 comments) by Nick Thornsby We shouldn't just be the party of remain, we should be the party of reform (30 comments) by ...
Thanks to Liberal Democrats, no-one in Peterborough pays any income tax on the first £11,000 of their earnings, so many pensioners and low earners pay no tax at all. Thanks to Liberal Democrats, Primary schools like Gunthorpe, Norwood, Welbourne and Werrington have received hundreds of thousands of £'s to help them raise the attainment of disadvantaged pupils [...]
Episode 14: Man's Best Friend First shown: 12 December 1970 (US), 5 February 1971 (UK) Director: Harry Booth Writer: Melvyn Hayes Appearing apart from the Double Deckers: Melvyn Hayes as Albert Note: sorry to have missed a couple of weeks. To be honest the last few episodes are more difficult to be enthusiastic about. But there are only three more after this one. Plot Albert is collecting tinfoil to raise money for a guide dog for the blind (a "seeing eye dog", as Sticks helpfully explains to American viewers). The gang put on a comedy and dance show for local ...
It's a sign of how quickly music developed in the 1960s that Billy Fury and David Bowie seem to belong to quite different eras. But here (played by Danny Baker yesterday morning) is an early Bowie song recorded by Fury. Anorak Thing explains its genesis. Bowie's manager Kenneth Pitt: managed to convince Billy Fury's manager Larry Parnes that Bowie had something to offer his client. By 1968 Billy Fury's hit days were long gone. Despite a switch from Decca to Parlophone in January 1967 he hadn't scored a hit on EMI's label. Game for a chance at anything Parnes agreed ...
Liberal Democrats should denounce Ken Livingstone's antisemitism but our own record on dealing with out of order grandees is pathetic. The Labour Party appears to have an Anti-Semitism problem. Many of its own members say so. That fact was hard to dispute even before Ken Livingstone's intervention. But a former mayor of the nation's largest [...]
Scotland 2016 held its final election debate, on housing, earlier this week. West of Scotland lead candidate Katy Gordon represented the Liberal Democrats. She put forward the Lib Dems' plan, which takes in mental health, addiction and prison services as well and confronted SNP Housing Minister Alex Neil on his government's failure to keep its promises and deal with a very real housing crisis in Scotland. As always, Katy was full of practical detail and put in a very thoughtful and engaging performance. You can watch her here. <iframe width="560" height="315" style="border:none;overflow:hidden" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowTransparency="true" allowFullScreen="true"></iframe> You can see ...
Instagram Sometimes when Roxy is doing the "are you done in the bath yet, mummy?" face, the light hits her... Instagram Stopped by an absolutely PACKED @LamppostHebden to pick up some pupcakes for the doggies before... Twitter TFW your five day old tattoo has hit the REALLY itchy stage RT @Em_meh: Are you up for this? #pageflutter #6wordstory #may I'm going to be doing it :) More than a million people in the UK 'unable to afford food, heat or toiletries', says new research | Home News | News | The Independent RT @Independent: More than 1m Britons are now ...
[IMG: Ballot box] You've probably noticed I quite often write about how British elections are run, what the Electoral Commission is up to, how election law is changing and controversies or prosecutions that have kicked off. However, not all of those stories about UK elections appear on this blog or in my main Facebook/Twitter accounts. For a fuller range of stories (or if you just are interested in election law and want to skip the pieces about toilet signage in Pizza Express and what Tim Farron has got up to), take a look at my UK Election Law news Facebook ...
I wear glasses. I have never worn contact lenses and am not likely to do so. The thought of putting something in my eye fills me with dread. I am sure that others feel the same. There are exceptions of course but I would guess that this feeling is going to be a significant barrier to Google's latest wheeze. The Independent reports that the internet giant is working on a computer that can be injected into people's eyeballs. They say that a new patent filing shows plans for a device that would stick into people's eyes and correct their sight, ...
A Spell Deferred (the New Republic) by David Hajdu "[Nina Simone's] voice, in pointed contrast to her piano playing, was untutored, informal—blistered and gray. She sounded oldish at twenty-five, and her quivery vibrato gave her music the quality of a haunting. Simone was mocked sometimes for sounding masculine, and the tinge of the transgressive likely contributes, [...]
A couple of polls have suggested that Ruth Davidson's Scottish Conservative Party might just edge ahead of Labour to become the official opposition in the Scottish Parliament. That is a truly horrible thought. Just imagine it, the timid, illiberal, centralising SNP opposed by David Cameron's representative in Scotland. Their leaflets don't push the fact that they are Conservatives. They are trying to make their campaign all about Ruth, as if she is somehow the saviour of the union. That, of course, is an argument that does not stack up, as this video from the Scottish Liberal Democrats shows. It was ...
More educative entertainment from Tom Scott: At the JET reactor at Culham Centre for Fusion Energy, Tom Scott talks to the engineers about fusion power, being the hottest place in the solar system, deliberate disruptions, and about the surround-sound speakers that give a diagnostic test you might not expect.
It was with great sadness that I learned last Thursday of the passing of Len Jamieson, Secretary of the Community Spirit Action Group in the West End Ward. Len was a genuinely lovely man who cared deeply for the local community and for whom action spoke louder than words. In addition to his work with Community Spirit, Len was very involved with many other activities including his love of allotments. He will be greatly missed and fondly remembered. My thoughts are with Hettie and the family at this sad time.
[IMG: Two faced in Ormskirk (two clock faces that is) with both a tower and a steeple on its Parish Church.] Two faced in Ormskirk (two clock faces that is) with both a tower and a steeple on its Parish Church. The market town of Ormskirk (famous for its gingerbread and for having a very rare Parish Church with both a tower and a steeple) nestles in a rather awkward spot sandwiched between Preston, Southport, Liverpool, Skelmersdale and Wigan. And by awkward I mean with regard to its transport connections with surrounding communities. It also has one of the oddest ...
Sun 1st
07:32
A word about the EU referendum polls at present - if you want to understand them, look back to AV re...
I know, I've made a lot of comparisons between the current EU referendum campaigns and the ones fought prior to the AV referendum. Some might say I'm simply trying to graft one experience of nationwide referenda onto a completely different situation. I would respond by saying I really, really did expect this all to feel a lot less like the AV referendum than it has done, I truly did. But the parallels are uncanny. The big difference for me personally is that now I happen to be on the side that's going to win as opposed to the one that ...
The anticipated meetings of Blyth Town Council for May 2016 are:- Tuesday 3rd May - Finance Committee Thursday 12th May - Planning and Development Committee Thursday 19th May - Full Council Meeting Tuesday 24rh May - Events Committee Thursday 26th May - Annual Town Meeting Unless otherwise stated, all meetings are at Arms Evertyne House, and start at 6:30 pm As ever, please check that the meeting is still on beforehand if you intend attending any meeting
Labour's poverty of ambition has held people back from owning their home for too long. Under Welsh Liberal Democrat plans, young people will be able to buy their own home without a deposit. First-time buyers will steadily build up a share in their home through monthly payments equivalent to rent until they own the property outright after 30 years, just like a normal mortgage. The party will deliver at least 2,500 'Rent to Own' homes over an Assembly term. The Welsh Liberal Democrats are the party that will support people's aspirations. For too long Wales hasn't been seen as a ...
