Embed from Getty Images I wanted to write something about the murder of Jo Cox, but it is hard to say anything beyond how desperately sad it is. For a good tribute from a slightly unexpected source, read Andrew Mitchell: What was so striking about that was that here was a newly-elected Labour MP who had so little time for the petty aspects of party-political life of Westminster. At the time, her party leadership was against military intervention in Syria and mine was in favour, which meant the atmosphere around the issue was quite heated. But she was completely uninterested ...
From BBC News: Official figures released today by the Forestry Commission show that the government is falling far short of its own tree-planting targets. The Woodland Trust says that the "drastic decline" in new woodland planting is "appalling" and could have serious environmental consequences. It accused government of missing its target in England by 86%.The report goes on to quote Austin Brady from the Woodland Trust: "These figures are all the more shocking against the backdrop of the growing evidence of the importance of trees and woods in tackling air pollution, improving water quality and offering scope to deliver natural ...
UPDATED DETAILS. Independent seat. Cause: Death. LD candidate- Kate Sayer.
Shortly before the Council meeting began this evening the shocking news that Jo Cox had died was confirmed. At the beginning of the meeting my Chaplain Rod Garner movingly included her in his prayers along with the victims of the shootings in Orlando. I had planned to say something about the events at Orlando but news of Jo Cox death could not be ignored, This is what I said : 'In a moment I will ask you to stand for A MOMENT as a mark of respect for Jo Cox and the victims of the Orlando killings. These two crimes ...
Market Harborough's Nobel laureate William Henry Bragg now has a monument in the town. His early home on The Square has been given a plaque. Called Catherwood House in Bragg's day, it was for many years occupied by Lloyd's Bank and is now home to our branch of Caffé Nero. I am pleased to see this, though I do think the plaque would have looked better somewhere higher up the building. Perhaps they couldn't find a ladder? You can learn all about Bragg in one of Melvyn Bragg's (no relation) In Our Time programmes.
Lydiate and I suspect many other local communities had a real cloud burst this afternoon. Here are a few shots of it across Lydiate:- [IMG: Cars negotiating floods on Southport Road] Cars negotiating floods on Southport Road [IMG: Seafore Close becomes a lake.] Seafore Close becomes a lake. [IMG: Topping up the Leeds Liverpool Canal.] Topping up the Leeds Liverpool Canal.
I never met Jo Cox, but I was very much aware of her warmth, energy, talent and total commitment to standing up for the most vulnerable people in our world. She made a massive impact in the political world and was admired across parties. I'm sitting here in shock, as many of you reading this will be, at the brutal and violent way in which her life was taken as she was going about her work. We had all taken for granted that she would be making the headlines for decades to come. Every week, MPs get out there into ...
The position of the UK as a member of the European Union has been a persistent question since the inception of the ECSC in 1957. Nevertheless the general view is that the in/out referendum is as much the product of short-term political calculation as of any great vision for the future for the place of the UK in the world. David Cameron's decision to use the vote to attempt to unite his party and create a platform for a bigger majority in 2020 may prove to be a massive miscalculation. A referendum is only occasionally about the issue on the ...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-england-leeds-36543180 Batley and Spen MP Jo Cox dies after shooting in Birstall. In a democracy it always has to be a huge tragedy when an elected person is attacked and in this case sadly killed. Whether she was of your political persuasion or not the fact remains that she had been elected to serve her constituents in Parliament. Anyone who attacks an elected person is attacking our democracy. Of course it has happened before and sadly it may happen again but we must ensure that our democratic processes are robust enough to cope with such attacks. RIP Jo Cox MP. ...
Second frames of the third pages of part I and part II: (First frame: Sofie's mother says, "AHA! Madam is home!") I'm always on the lookout for good Flemish graphic novels, given that Belgium's tradition is generally strong and not entirely Francophone, and I think this counts as a decent find. De maagd en de neger comes in two parts, the first telling the story from the point of view of the father of Flemish student Sofie of his unhappy accommodation to her relationship with Togolese refugee Abou, and the second with Sofie, years later, telling her side of the ...
Having seen at first hand how the European Union works, and the benefits that it delivers for science, society and our security, the choice on 23 June is clear My father-in-law, Charlie George, died last week. He was 98 and a very fine man; someone our country could be proud of. He fought in the second world war, and his memories of those desperate times remained vivid until the end. But the European Union changed all that; we've had peace in Europe for over seventy years by cementing our relationships through trade, cooperation and shared values. We all have a ...
It is 200 years since the birth of 'a story to speak to the mysterious fears of our nature and awaken thrilling horror'. Why are we still so interested in the story of Frankenstein? As far as anyone can tell, today marks the 200th anniversary of Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin getting up after a sleepless night and declaring: "I've found it! What will terrify me will terrify others. I need only describe the spectre which had haunted my midnight pillow". She had hit upon the idea that would become Frankenstein, the Modern Prometheus, the cautionary tale that has provided a vocabulary ...
A huge aid convoy to Calais is being banned by French border police in Dover. The 250 vehicle mercy mission has been planned for months and is now facing a last minute ban by the French border controls that exist at the ferry port in Dover. Campaigners are calling for David Cameron to intervene so [...]
Yesterday, an entirely farcical event took place on the Thames in London, as a stunt by the Brexit campaign, designed to highlight the concerns of fishermen, turned into a scuffle carried out with water hoses, sound systems and rude gestures. Soon, twitter and news sites referred to a 'naval battle'. Today, I came across this map. [IMG: Naval battle of the Thames. A skirmish in the great Brexit debate of 2016.] Naval battle of the Thames. A skirmish in the great Brexit debate of 2016. It is entirely without source - a Google reverse image search reveals that somebody very ...
Farage and his overtly racist poster I don't normally comment too much on those whose views I disagree with. The only exception being, of course, Joe Anderson!! And I wasn't going to in this campaign either but one thing that ... Continue reading →
Doing over 50 debates, speaking for the Lib Dems and Remain, in the past few months I have seen that our arguments are more solid than Leave's and win over undecided people. A problem is that the points that people like me at a regional and local level, and Tim Farron nationally, are using are not the same as the less effective points being emphasised by Cameron. You have to argue "the EU is good" not simply "I'll make it less bad" or "disaster if we leave" as the PM has done. A factual point that has a big impact ...
Lydiate's Gores Charity goes back many years and it supports the needy in the Lydiate community and also assists students with the cost of educational books. A link to the Sefton CVS page that details its charitable work is below:- It looks like this charitable trust is about to update itself as its assets continue to grow despite the grants that it makes. I understand that Lancashire & Merseyside Community Foundation will be assisting in this process. Cllr. Edie Pope is the representative of Lydiate Parish Council on the Trust's managing committee and I am sure we will hear ...
Not a meeting of the real people of course but strange none the less. Sat in our usual watering hole recently old chum Keith and I fall into conversation with Alan a chap we have known for some time from visiting Aughton's Derby Arms. We knew Alan was a amateur actor but had not realised he does more than just tread the boards locally. In fact he has been an extra in some TV dramas and even played Harold Shipman in a TV ducu-drama a few years ago! Our conversation inevitably went on to other notorious criminals and it leads ...
Next week voters across United Kingdom will go to the polls to decide on our country's future relationship with our European partners. This decision could not be more important and I urge you to make sure your voice is heard on Thursday 23rd June. For my part, I wanted to set out why I am passionately in favour of the UK remaining in the European Union. As an internationalist, I see the European Union as an opportunity for us to punch way above our size on the global stage. Through our membership of the European Union, businesses in Orkney and ...
Looking at data about the election expense returns for the 2015 general election, I've reported before about how key election expenses paperwork is set to be deleted early in 1 in 5 constituencies thanks to (Acting) Returning Officers not meeting their legal duties and the really quite bizarre (Acting) Returning Officer error. But there's no doubt that what candidates and their agents get up to with election expense returns is much more important than those (Acting) Returning Officer errors. The data I've got via a Freedom of Information request to the Electoral Commission is not good. The Commission samples a ...
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Good politics like good religion should seek to break down barriers not build new ones and encourage...
My Chaplain during my year as Mayor is Canon Dr, Rod Garner . His most recent column in the Southport Visiter explains why he will being voting to remain in the European Union. THE QUESTION OF IDENTITYIt's 25 years since Dr. Helen Sharman became the first British female astronaut to go into space. In a recent radio interview she was asked if the original journey felt a long time ago. Without hesitation she replied that it was all still wonderfully fresh and real. The enthusiasm in her voice left me in doubt that this was so. In particular she recalled ...
[IMG: Pledge card01] Last week the referendum pledge challenge was launched. We threw down the gauntlet to local parties, setting them the challenge to get voters in their area to pledge to vote REMAIN. In return, local parties could earn themselves up to £3,000 during the last three weeks of the campaign! Take up of the challenge has been fantastic - local parties up and down the country have thrown themselves into it and have got behind the scheme. This was a chance for us as a party to try a new way of campaigning and to really influence the ...
Former Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg MP will today say that Scotland could make a crucial difference to the referendum vote as he urges Remain voters to make their voices heard in the final week of the campaign. Speaking before a public meeting in Edinburgh, the former Liberal Democrat leader said Scotland has the opportunity [...]
Scottish Liberal Democrat economy spokeswoman Cllr Carolyn Caddick yesterday called for urgent investment in jobs and extra support for businesses as new figures revealed a fall in the number of Scots in employment. These figures came as a new report from the Fraser of Allander Institute warned that Scotland came close to recession in 2015 [...]
The Five Worst Things About Being an Immigrant to the UK The Five Best Things About Being an Immigrant to the UK Twitter RT @kayaburgess: UPDATED WITH THEME TUNE: The state of British politics summed up in a clip of a flotilla face-off There's a flaw in our plan to build a space elevator Boooooooooooooo Farage's Brexit flotilla boat involved in £63 million fishing fraud | UK Politics | News | The Independent RT @Independent: Pro-Brexit flotilla boat involved in £63 million fishing fraud BBC Radio 4 - Shipping Forecast - The Shipping Forecast Quiz I got 6/10 on The ...
Any move to use school national assessment to produce league tables will be resisted say the Scottish Liberal Democrats. An education summit in Edinburgh today heard from teaching representatives concerned about the heavy workload for teachers. Commenting after the conference, education spokesman Tavish Scott MSP said: "The Scottish Government have recognised support for Headteachers across [...]
Scottish Liberal Democrat education Tavish Scott MSP today called for new investment to ensure that parents can access early years' education as new figures showed babies living in Scotland's poorest communities are twice as likely to have language difficulties or delays as those from better off households. Commenting on the research from Save the Children, [...]
Responses to a series of parliamentary questions from Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie MSP have shown a billion pounds hole in the SNP finances presented at the recent Scottish election. The hole casts doubt on the SNP's ability to meet their promises on education attainment, childcare and investment in the NHS. The problem that has [...]
I have been digging a bit further into the data behind the story I ran previously about how key election expenses paperwork is set to be deleted early in 1 in 5 constituencies. The issue is the widespread failure by Acting Returning Officers (AROs) to meet the statutory duty to send copies of election expense returns to the Electoral Commission after a general election. I've now been reading an Electoral Commission document (EC41/16) which details what went wrong. It includes: AROs scanning all of the returns for a constituency as one document, with pages out of sequence, or providing multiple ...
On Tuesday of this week, I posted a vision of what life would be like if we voted to Leave next week. It was a terrifying look into a UK taken over by the right of the Conservative Party. But having discussed it with others since, I think I may have actually been a little optimistic when I wrote that article. I painted a picture of a Britain in which the right of the Tories had won, with a move to the UK being a Singapore off the coast of France, with huge tax breaks to keep business interested being ...
A startup backed by prominent Silicon Valley names is moving toward creating a new US stock exchange, one with additional rules for companies and investors designed to reward long-term shareholding and business strategies to generate long-term results. Eric Ries, a San Francisco entrepreneur and author of The Lean Startup, said his team working on the Long-Term Stock Exchange (LTSE) intends to apply to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for approval to operate a new exchange, though declined to specify the timing. The for-profit company behind the LTSE has raised money from investors including venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, tech ...
There are a lot of similarities between the EU referendum and the recent one on Scottish Independence. One is the tedious focus on money, when the issues at stake are much more important that. Another is the difficulty of making an exciting case for keeping things the same. Another is the Leave/Yes campaign's curious belief that, while the politicians in the further away place are incompetent and self-interested, those closer to home are much better (and don't expect that line of argument to continue much beyond 24th June, regardless of which way the result goes!). Then there's the Leave/Yes campaign's ...
I have recently had complaints about the lack of sweeping of the lane in Seafield Road (that runs from numbers 38 to 48) - see right : I contacted Neighbourhood Services at the City Council about this and have been given assurances that this will be resolved with regular sweeping henceforth.
Secrets And Lies Behind The Other Big Election That Will Shape The World Behind the scenes of the UNSG race! (tags: un ) Open Letter to Mr Farage from a small business owner Samantha writes. (tags: ukpolitics eu ) Vajt: Brisel svoje pozicije nije promenio Expert commentary on EU-Serbia relations (by me, in Serbian) (tags: eu serbia ) Brexit polling: Leave is gaining ground. But do not rule out Remain just yet The @Economist puts on a brave face. (tags: eu ukpolitics ) Norwegian PM's message to Britain Don't leave, you'll hate it. (tags: norway ukpolitics eu ) I want ...
This was to have been a Facebook post until the length of it mitigated against that. With only a week to go until polling, I've finally got round to outlining some of the reasons that I've voted to REMAIN in the EU - and why I hope you, and the country, will too. Before I do, though, I'm going to share a few words on the campaign itself and my feelings as the ballot - and the result - approaches. (Note, this turns out to be more than a few words - so please feel free to jump to the ...
