There are plenty more of these slideshows on this blog.
The Liverpool Echo has the story – see link above This may not be the surprise announcement from Government that some may think that it is because the land on which the 'temporary' prison sits was only leased for 10 years from Merseycare NHS Trust. It was a surprise though to read that the Echo still thinks the prison is in Maghull when it is actually in Melling. It was also a surprise back in 2006/07 when it was opened without so much as a by your leave by the last Labour Government in response to a prison population ...
Conservative seat. Cause: Death. No LD candidate.
Conservative seat. Cause: Death. No LD candidate.
UKIP seat. Cause: Resignation. LD candidate- Hugh Warner.
Just what sort of people inhabit the United Kingdom it seems to me that if the media are right and Cameron and Osborne are also correct then everything just comes down to a few pounds per annum or whether the economy grows by one or two or three or four or 5 percent. The European remain campaign appear to believe that we are all totally without any principles, freedom, sovereignty, count for nothing. However forget money, forget migration (the other cliché), how about the petty but sinister intrusion into our lives by the European Union which now believes that suppliers ...
This morning I had the pleasure of welcoming some of the members of the U3A from Formby to the Mayor's parlour in Bootle. I travelled down on the train with most of them. I think it fair to say that they were not to clear what they were going to see and their expectations were not that high I am pleased to say that we confounded their presupposition. Thanks to the Craig, the Mayoral attendant, they had a great morning and freely confessed that they had not expected to have such an interesting time. It was enormously helped by their ...
Thursday "There are no jellyfish in the Lake District," our own Tim Farron told the prime minister the other day, displaying a strange lack of knowledge of his own constituency. Cameron, you may recall, told everyone to holiday in the North of England following the recent floods, before jetting off to Lanzarote himself. Last time the PM was there he was stung by a jellyfish - I presume it had been reading about his welfare policy. Incidentally, if stung by the feared Rutland Man o' War when swimming in Rutland Water, the consensus is that one should urinate upon the ...
Last night, Sal Brinton hosted an online meeting for party members on the subject of refugees. Also taking part were Baroness Shas Sheehan and Bradley Hillier-Smith, who have been on several visits to the refugee camps and Liberal Democrats for Seekers of Sanctuary's Suzanne Fletcher who, among many other things, has campaigned successfully to end the appalling "red doors" for asylum seekers policy. Suzanne was recently awarded a Lifetime Achievement award from ALDE. I consider myself reasonably well informed on the Refugee Crisis, but I found that I learned things during the webinar. The panel outlined a series of things ...
Apologies if I am late to the party, but I have not seen this reported anywhere in the media or the Lib Dem blogosphere. The new Liberator reports that Jasper Gerard is the Liberal Democrats' new head of press. The magazine sources the news to an email to party staff by its communications director James Holt. Gerard will be remembered as the party's candidate in Maidstone and the Weald at the last election. This is a historically safe Conservative seat, but Peter Carroll had got a good result there in 2010. Because of that we convinced ourselves that Gerard stood ...
Thank heaven we have had no major crises while our Government is weak and split. The lordly predecessors of the present set must have turned in their graves when Cabinet responsibility was temporarily abandoned, in defiance of historic practice. The ghosts should then have howled when leading Tories began to spit insults at each other and denounce the supposed lies of their colleagues. Yet we are stuck with this Tory Government, in or out of the EU. This collection of sophisticated predators, who systematically promote the interests of their own kind and seek the further enrichment of the moneyed classes ...
Social media has seen a complaint about the English student finance system go viral. Simon Crowther, a recent civil engineering graduate from Nottingham, was shocked when, on receiving statements from the Student Loan Company, it transpired his student finance arrangement was not what he thought it was. He accused the Government of having "misled" him and other students when it came to the student loans system. He took-out a student loan in 2012 under the scheme introduced under the Coalition Government, which overhauled completely the way Universities and student maintenance was funded by government. What changed in 2012 The key ...
Cambridge City Council today debates a motion supporting the European Union – you can read the full motion on the council's web site. My contribution to the debate is below – the debate is still ongoing but the balance of speeches so far suggests the motion should pass comfortably. Mr Mayor, Like many others in this chamber, I appreciate the hard-won advances in equality that have been secured by the UK's membership of the EU. Advances such as Equal Pay for women and men; employment protection on the basis of religion, belief, sexual orientation and age; and vital progress towards ...
Thu 26th
15:48
Alex Cole-Hamilton's maiden speech: EU is most important charter for freedom the world has ever seen
There is a reason I have spent so much time and energy over the past decade trying to get Alex Cole-Hamilton elected to the Scottish Parliament. I hope the video of his maiden speech this morning will help you understand it too. I had pretty high expectations, if I'm honest. The subject, the EU, is one of his strong points. Last year he won best speaker in the Charles Kennedy Memorial Debate on our continued membership of the EU. Alex managed to exceed even my lofty expectations today. He paid tribute to his immediate predecessor and to Margaret Smith, who, ...
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Since I have got myself a proper job, I can afford the odd little luxury. One of the pubs I used to work in was the local posties' pub of choice, so I have a fondness for posties and keeping them in work. Thus I started getting some subscription boxes. This is the third in an occasional series of me reviewing them. None of these are paid reviews, I haven't had special freebies, and I don't do sponsored content. WYSIWYG. Today I am reviewing: tails.com dog food. What do they offer? Dog food tailored to your pooch. What do you ...
Wednesday, 18 May 2016 The beginning of my Mayoral year Daughter Katie and grandchildren Sarah and Lily join me in the Mayor's parlour after the ceremony Last night I was installed as Mayor of Sefton at a meeting of the council held in Southport town hall. I am going to use a blog to record all my comings and goings as mayor which can be found at : http://themayoralblog.blogspot.co.uk/ and so the Birkdale FOCUS will not have any more postings from me for a while. At a reception held afterwards in The Atkinson I had the chance to thank my ...
In Dutch government and politics, it is a rare occasion indeed when the reigning monarch makes a clear political pronouncement. He only can do that with full political backing by the prime minister and his Cabinet, and that implies that the pronouncement reflects a very broad national consensus. Usually, speeches by the Dutch monarch contain diplomatic and political platitudes; when it gets more specific the Dutch nation sits up and takes notice. The Dutch constitution contains an article: "The King is immune; the government is responsible"; there have been occasions where cabinet- or prime ministers threatened stepping down if a ...
The Liverpool Echo has the story – see link above I don't suppose it is any surprise that the recent demolition failure of a Seaforth's tower block has to be investigated by the Bootle based Health & Safety Exec' but let's hope that the process is got right for the tower block that is soon to be demolished in Bootle. It is presently being stripped out ready for the big bang so to speak – see photo below:- [IMG: Before (2) r] Click on the photo to enlarge it. 3 shiny modernised tower blocks surround the doomed one. The ...
Thu 26th
11:55
The Strangest Elevator In Italy: the Ascensore Castello d'Albertis-Montegalletto, Genoa
More educative entertainment from Tom Scott: An Italian lift that switches direction from horizontal to vertical. And honestly, until someone pointed it out to me, I could not figure out how this could possibly be done safely. In hindsight, it was kind of obvious.
On 18th May the 2016-17 Parliamentary session officially started with a somewhat thread-bare Queens Speech. It was well noted by Lord Fowler (Conservative) in the first day of debate that; The most significant words in the Queen's Speech yesterday were that, 'other measures will be laid before you These are often the most important part of the "Gracious Speech". One of the GREAT omissions from the gracious Speech is of course the issue of Party Funding. Fortunately for Ministers I am happy to provide them with some private enterprise assistance in this matter. As many of you will remember I ...
Even though he's already put his foot in it enough to amuse us all, Andy Burnham wishing to become mayor of Manchester in the first place is interesting in and of itself. He's shadow home secretary for a start, albeit within an opposition that is going nowhere fast. But in the wake of Sadiq Khan becoming mayor of London, I can see many other MPs wishing to flee the Commons to become mayors as well. It could well become a trend, particularly within the Labour Party due to the twin factors of Corbyn's unlikelihood of gaining a parliamentary majority combined ...
From the Council: Contractors working on behalf of Transport for Greater Manchester will be undertaking works to re-cut the detector loops of the traffic signals on Kingsway, Gatley, at the junction of Gatley Road. These works are scheduled to take place on 6th June and 7th June and will require temporary lane closures from 8pm to 11pm only.
Thursday: We are trying a new experiment in VIDEO BLOGGING. Daddy Richard will be doing some news'n'views from his old home town, and for the start he has brought Daddy Alex along to go back to the very beginning, the place where he was born. More to follow, you lucky people! Richard: I'm Richard Flowers - and my husband Alex was born here, at Stepping Hill Hospital. Alex: We both depend on the NHS. And we're both grateful for all the things that they do. Richard: We're glad that the junior doctors have got their agreement - at last - ...
Instagram Smug Roxy is smug #dogs #dogsofinstagram #sheltie #rescuedog #adoptdontshop I've got a northern accent but I'm not working-class. So what am I? Instagram Day 25 of @mjrutell's #pfsixwordchallenge - prompt: unlikely hero #ink #inkyfingers... Instagram Day 25 of onicahanby's #quotedmay2016 #challenge - prompt: key #ink #inkyfingers #fountainpen... EU referendum: White 'thug' poster aimed at BAME voters Nigel Farage says Operation Black Vote are trying to divide society with this poster. I suppose he'd know... politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » How old men being available on Friday nights to do online polls might be skewing results People with strong political ...
Scottish Liberal Democrat MSP Liam McArthur yesterday called on Justice Secretary Michael Matheson to draw a line under the emotive language that has been used on the Offensive Behaviour at Football Act and ensure the flaws of the legislation are fully considered. Mr McArthur was speaking after former Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill defended the Act [...]
Scottish Liberal Democrat MSP Alex Cole-Hamilton called yesterday for an urgent statement from the new mental health minister after a report from the Mental Welfare Commission revealed that one third of the beds at a specialist mental health unit for children are empty due to staff shortages. An unannounced inspection of the Dudhope House child and adolescent [...]
(NB I wrote the first 3000 words or so of this on Wednesday, hence references to "last night" rather than "two nights ago") A little over fourteen years ago, I spent nearly a fortnight's dole money on tickets to see ... Continue reading →
[IMG: Ballot box] On 23 June 2016, Britain will face one of the greatest electoral questions of this decade. Voters will be asked to decide whether or not they wish to see the UK remain in the European Union. Yet as this crucial election draws ever-nearer, there is an important issue which must be contemplated: registering to vote. The deadline to register to vote for the referendum is midnight, 7 June. The party-neutral Bite The Ballot (of which Lord Roberts is Honorary President) is running an innovative #TurnUp campaign in the week approaching this deadline. I urge everyone to support ...
... some of them made campaign videos on good old VHS tapes and sent them to voters, as this example from then Lib Dem MP Brian Cotter shows. And yes, even then Lib Dems rolled out Vince Cable for an endorsement. Watch out too for a brief view on screen of the second ever national (federal) Liberal Democrat website. Thanks to Pete Dollimore and Robin Fenwick for their help in rescuing this footage from an old video tape.
Congratulations to the South Wales Evening Post, which wins our Headline of the Day Award. A sheep adds: Like baa, man.
For many people a reluctance to adopt the latest technology is excusable. After all, who has the time to keep upgrading programmes and as for Windows 10, seriously why would I want to abandon my trusty operating system. There are times though where one assumes that the most up-to-date technology is being used and find an icy-cold shiver running down one's back when the contrary is proved to be true. Such a moment came to me when I saw this article in The Times, in which they report that the Pentagon is still using floppy discs designed in the 1970s ...
Last night, I had the pleasure of attending the launch of Dundee Design Festival which took place at West Ward Works at Guthrie Street. It was a fantastic launch to showcase art and design in the city and was extremely well attended as the first of the photos below shows. The Festival runs until Saturday and you can read more details here. I would certainly urge attending - it is well worth a visit!
