I can be a grumpy so and so. I can be even grumpier than usual in the mornings. The phrase "not a morning person" could have been invented with me in mind. I get particularly grumpy if two of my favourite possessions – an old cereal bowl and much newer Eeyore mug – aren't available for my use. There's a ... The post My favourite possessions: a cereal bowl and mug appeared first on ten pence piece.
[IMG: Ch3h32hXAAA95L3] Click on the chart to enlarge it Well clearly the Lib Dems were the winners in terms of council seats gained last Thursday although a rather worrying UKIP upward trend can be seen too. There was only one Council still left to declare its results (Bristol) when this chart was put together.
Sun 8th
19:44
Plans for a new retail unit on Lower Galdeford, Ludlow are set to be rejected unless they are improv...
Strong objections have been lodged to a new retail unit beside the former South Shropshire Glass building and the BT exchange (16/01156/FUL). The application has been submitted by McCartneys on behalf of Morris Bufton. The internal area of the new building will be 835 sq metres (nearly 9,000 square feet).[i] The intended retailer is unknown.... Continue reading Plans for a new retail unit on Lower Galdeford, Ludlow are set to be rejected unless they are improved →
"A Crosby-ified Toryism can eke out victories against average opponents, but it is no guide to winning well or winning at a time when the capitalist system is being questioned; when Thatcherite and Reaganite orthodoxies are being questioned or when, in such places as Scotland (and now London), the Conservative brand is weak and needs rebuilding." Tim Montgomerie on the defeat of Zac Goldsmith. Lenore Skenazy condemns the use of parents' fears for their children as a marketing tool. Tony Broadbent rediscovers a murder that scandalised postwar London: the shooting of Alec de Antiquis in 1947. "As you visit the ...
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie MSP today called on Nicola Sturgeon to end the constitutional division and focus on the job of governing Scotland as MSPs prepare to return to the Scottish Parliament. Commenting, Mr Rennie said: "Liberal Democrats set out our priorities clearly during the election campaign and we will work at Holyrood [...]
We've seen some small but important signs of recovery this weekend. Sadly, some members of our Liberal Democrat family, particularly in Wales and London, are enduring the same heartbreak we faced together a year ago. I don't want to get into lengthy descriptions of how bloody awful this day was a year ago. If you really want to put yourself through it, you can read the whole tale of woe of the election results as they happened here. It was later in the morning, though, that Nick Clegg made his amazingly powerful resignation statement. "We cannot and will not allow ...
Second frame of third page: Wiske: "Lambik! Sh! I heard something!" Lambik: "Probably the guard. You know very well that I don't believe in ghosts." First published in 1948-1950, this was the 150th album in the long-running Suske en Wiske series, which is still going strong. It is justifiably regarded as one of the classics, the first of the Blue Albums printed in Kuifje, the Dutch language version of Hergé's Tintin magazine. Suske, Wiske and their friend Lambik investigate ghostly goings-on in the museum where Brueghel's Peasant Wedding is on display, and are approached by the shade of a Spanish ...
The Times's Red Box email brings the news: Police have been asked to probe claims of electoral fraud during elections in Leicestershire last week amid concerns about the falsification of postal votes. Andy McWilliams, the Ukip election agent for Leicestershire, said he went to the police on Friday after a large number of postal votes in the election for police and crime commissioner were thrown out because the signatures on the votes did not match those in the official records. Separately, senior Conservatives are set to make a complaint to the Electoral Commission about what they claim is a suspiciously ...
Watch the latest video from the Britain Stronger in Europe campaign: Want to know what Brexit means for you and your family? New analysis from the Treasury shows a vote to leave the EU would hit the UK economy and cost every household £4,300 a year. If you'd like to know more about the wider topic, see my other European referendum posts, and in particular Nick Clegg's demolition of the anti-EU case.
A great Liberal MP, John Bright used to say, "I believe in faith, hope and canvassing. And the greatest of these is canvassing." Canvassing makes a difference. Being canvassed by a party or cause increases the chance you will support them and increases the chance you will come out to vote. You can canvass on a street stall or on the phone. You can do it online. Still the most effective way, in my view, is going door to door, seeing people in person. We are going to win this referendum. We are going to win it by a big ...
The perils of live broadcasting. Mark Devenport and I had agreed that once more than half of the Assembly results were in, we would take off our jackets in the hot studio. But just as Mark Carruthers began to ask what we would take off when three-quarters of the results came in, we were interrupted... 'Results blackout' as power fault interrupts @MarkCarruthers7 and @markdevenport in the middle of live coveragehttps://t.co/hbPXdcdJtj — BBC News NI (@BBCNewsNI) May 6, 2016
Below are the brilliant results from Southport. Never before throughout the whole history of the borough have we won every seat. That goes back to the granting of the borough's charter in 1858! Lynne Thompson Liberal Democrats 1713 42% Elected Jamie Halsall Conservative Party 1149 28% Not elected Mhairi McLeod Johnstone Doyle The Labour Party 729 18% Not elected Duncan Browne United Kingdom Independence Party 394 10% Not elected Barbara Ann Dutton The Green Party 133 3% Not elected Birkdale - resultsElection CandidatePartyVotes% Richard Ronald Hands Liberal Democrats 1443 46% Elected Ged Wright The Labour Party 717 23% Not elected ...
[IMG: 7 best] Many thanks to the 20,700 visitors who dropped by Lib Dem Voice this week. Here's our 7 most-read posts... Undeclared Conservative election expenses unearthed by Channel 4 News (20 comments) by The Voice Nick Clegg tells the inside story of how the Conservatives put party before country (17 comments) by Caron Lindsay Willie Rennie gets the biggest cheer of the final Scottish leaders' debate (13 comments) by Caron Lindsay Caroline Pidgeon elected in London (30 comments) by Mary Reid Kirsty Williams stands down as Leader of Welsh Lib Dems (16 comments) by Mary Reid The new Liberal ...
Not only did Ukip slip back into fourth, behind the Liberal Democrats, in the 2016 local elections but the party's vote share fell yet again: [IMG: Ukip local election vote share] If you're wondering how come Ukip therefore gained a small number of seats this time round, that's because most of the seats in 2016 were last up for election in 2012, prior to the party's big 2013 surge in support. But in 2017 Ukip won't have that to fall back on, and with 2013's set of seats up for election again its declining local election vote share means it ...
This morning the newly elected Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said that, in order to win a general election, Labour needed to become a broader church, appealing outside its core support. He's right of course, and what he said this morning is a fairly clear attack on Jeremy Corbyn's political strategy, which is very much aimed at appealing to a fairly narrow set of voters. Cprbyn's supporters have jumped on last week's results as a demonstration that, at the ballot box, a Corbyn lead Labour party does much better than people predict. That's true insofar as they did do better ...
[IMG: It's on a screen in Charter Hall, it must be official.] It's on a screen in Charter Hall, it must be official. As I get older, I'm definitely not as good at recovering from late nights as I used to be, and Thursday was a very late night. By the time I got home from the election count it was almost 7am and I'd only had to walk across Kings Meadow from Leisure World. I don't envy those who had to drive home after the overnight count in there, nor those who had to be back a few hours ...
Last week's elections in England overall were rather encouraging, with a modest but heartening rise in the number of councillors and the gain of Watford Council. But one relative black spot, in which the Liberal Democrat decline of recent years continued unabated, was London, where Mayoral candidate Caroline Pidgeon polled less than five per cent in first preferences - a third of the average vote in the country. That is no reflection on the quality of Caroline as a candidate. No-one could have worked harder and many non-LibDems said they thought she performed the best among all candidates at hustings. ...
There are just three days left to take part in two major consultations on Liberal Democrat policy – one for the working group on liberty and security, and the other for the group looking at working-age social security. Lib Dem social security consultation This is a consultation from the party's policy working group on working-age social security. We want your feedback on social security for working-age adults and children. What should the aims and priorities of the welfare system be? What changes should be made to the system? Could support be better targeted? How could the delivery of benefits be ...
The annoying thing about election campaigns is that they clash with exam season. In Scotland, Higher English happened on polling day, which is just great if you have or are a stressed out teenager. Just the other day, I was talking to someone who combined university finals with a general election campaign, often balancing his books on the riso as he wrote essays. Being a campaign foot soldier is a hard enough job if you are in the middle of such exams, but what about if you're a candidate. Edinburgh Central candidate Hannah Bettsworth is in the middle of her ...
Excellent news. Nicholas Pentney, the son of Ruth, who was Adrian Sanders' long time agent and who sadly died last year, has won the Tormahun by-election in Torbay. It's unusually to get this sort of news on a Sunday morning, but the result has just been declared: Terrific news from the Torbay by-election – @NicholasPentney GAINS from the Conservatives. https://t.co/d88JUk13yJ — Liberal Democrats (@LibDems) May 8, 2016 Congratulations to all the team. This is the second by-election victory in Torbay in recent months. Adrian Sanders, former Liberal Democrat MP for Torbay, won Ruth's seat in the by-election following her death ...
And so, Ros and I set off for Baylham yesterday morning. The sun was shining and the Gipping Valley was resplendent, with fields full of oil-seed rape in Liberal Democrat yellow (mere coincidence, I assure you), and the foliage that shade of green that you get before the summer sun starts to fade it, crisp and lush. I was reminded that May is my favourite time of year in these parts. Baylham is a village of about four hundred people, in the south-east corner of the ward. Until 2005 or so, it was in the Gipping Valley county division but ...
It was mid Saturday afternoon before the identity of the 108 MLAs who will take their seats in the Northern Irish Assembly were known. This is because the 6 members returned for each of the 18 constituencies were elected by STV (Single Transferable Vote) counted by hand not expensive machinery as some warned us about 5 years ago. However, some of the tales of this year's election were already known before the end. Firstly all 5 of the parties who made up the Executive at the start of the previous Assembly saw a drop in their first preference vote share. ...
I should have chosen this Beltane anthem last week, but I saw so taken with my discovery of Billy Fury singing David Bowie that I used that straight away. This comes from Jethro Tull's 1977 LP Songs from the Wood. As I once blogged, when it came out I thought it was just about the best one there had ever been.
Instagram Day 7 of @mjrutell's #pfsixwordchallenge - prompt: chocolate #ink #inkyfingers #fountainpen... Instagram Day 7 of onicahanby's #quotedmay2016 - prompt: awaken #ink #inkyfingers #fountainpen #quotes... Instagram My instagram buddy has a sale on her handmade greeting cards cos Boro have been promoted People are actually noticing that the tories bought the election now RT @indy100: ICYMI, the Tory general election expenses scandal is growing [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
Yesterday I visited the Battlefield Line in the west of Leicestershire. Some heritage lines are preserved and polished to within an inch of their lives: this one is not like that. Its slightly homely nature gives you an idea of what branch lines must have been like in the last days of their operation.There were no steam locomotives running yesterday - just a couple of ill-matched diesel multiple unit cars. For that reason I recommend a visit to the Battlefield Line. It will also take you to within a short walk of the Battle of Bosworth visitor centre. It was ...
[IMG: Southport councillors 2016] In Southport last Thursday we did something no party has ever done before in Southport's history- won all the council seats by healthy margins. Not everyone knows where Southport is but its on the northern tip of the Merseyside region on the Lancashire coast. On Thursday I was puzzled when contacted by the press department expressing worry about the defection of one of my councillors. It turned out it was a bloke in Stockport who had defected. Easy mistake to make if you are from London. Southport is part of Sefton MBC which has big wards ...
I have spent the last few days coming to terms with what happened in the early hours of Friday morning. I have had many messages of support from so many people both on Facebook, Twitter, via text, on the phone or in person. It has helped to ease the pain of my loss. Yesterday I went to Skewen to fulfil a commitment I had made as an AM to help launch a new book by the Skewen Historical Society about their community during World War One. The book is a remarkable testament to the sacrifice, heroism and commitment of all ...
More educative entertainment from Tom Scott: At Culham Centre for Fusion Energy the camera's being held by a robot. Well, not really by a robot. It's being held by a man called John. It's... complicated.
[IMG: Sal Brinton at Demo for Democracy] Today's excellent Make Votes Matter demo outside parliament was both well attended and fun. A range of bodies, such as Unlock Democracy and the ERS joined with the Make Votes Matter group to urge us into action to make sure that the politicians don't forget we still need PR for Westminster as well as for local government in England and Wales. All the major parties were represented - even the Conservatives - but neither the Tories nor Labour have signed up as parties. We, of course, have, as well as the Greens, UKIP, ...
The City Council's City Development Department has advised of its programme for roads and pavements upgrades for this new financial year - 2016/17. In the West End Ward, these are as follows : Adopted pavement improvements : • Perth Road - north footway - Duncan of Jordanstone to Springfield• Perth Road - north footway - Speedwell Bar to Sinderins junction• Smellies Lane• Guthrie Street - Pizza Hut to Horsewater Wynd• Ashbank Road (where part of the east footway is sunken and needs reinstatement) Unadopted pavements : • Magdalen Yard Road - south side (new 2 metre wide footpath round north ...
Whatever some of the Left might tell you, last Thursday was for the most part a very good day for the Tories. They became the official opposition in Scotland, something that would have been totally unthinkable even a couple of years ago. This is one of those achievements that will reverberate through British politics for decades to come. Scottish politics now becomes Sturgeon v Davidson even more than it had been previously, and it will be a hard binary system to break. In Kezia Dugdale, Scottish Labour also have their only presentable leader – if she is sacked or decides ...
The Liverpool Echo has the story – see link above You know you have a serious gun problem when you keep having gun amnesties. The Liverpool Echo has the story – see link above
[IMG: This is the front page of the booklet produced to celebrate of the opening of Kingsway Tunnel in 1971 when my family walked through it the day before it opened.] This is the front page of the booklet produced to celebrate of the opening of Kingsway Tunnel in 1971 when my family walked through it the day before it opened. Kingsway Tunnel rewire has begun 75 miles of cable- the equivalent distance of Liverpool to Leeds - will be installed as part of a major £7.5million project to rewire and replace the lighting in the Kingsway (Wallasey) tunnel. The ...
