I've been thinking about possible scenarios for the future following the Brexit vote. None of them looks particularly appetising. Anyone concerned about the risk that the discontents driving much of the Leave vote might take more violent form, if expectations are not met, would be right to be worried. The problem is that those expectations were, and are, never likely to be met. This is where I got to: Scenario 1. Brexit doesn't really mean Brexit, but EEA- or something similar. This scenario appears to be favoured by some of the leaders of the Vote Leave campaign, but it does ...
Most suggestions for resolving the "What the (insert expletive of choice) do we do now?" conundrum tend to involve various degrees of access to the Single Market or a General Election. Few are brave enough to suggest that Parliament simply declines to invoke Article 50. Until now. Professor A C Grayling, Master of the New College of Humanities in London, has written to all MPs telling them that they have a responsibility not to support any such motion. He lists several reasons, not least the paucity of the campaign, the likelihood of the break up of the UK if we ...
[IMG: 7 best] Many thanks to the 43,500 visitors who dropped by Lib Dem Voice this fortnight. Here's our 10 most-read posts... Vince Cable writes...Birth of the 48 movement (122 comments) by Vince Cable A message from Tim Farron (90 comments) by The Voice 1000 new members join Lib Dems as Farron says "We will keep the vision of an open, optimistic, hopeful Britain alive" (28 comments) by Caron Lindsay How did our constituencies vote in the EU Referendum? (6 comments) by Duncan Brack Sir Graham Watson writes...Is there a way back from Brexit decision? (48 comments) by Sir Graham ...
Last Saturday I went out to Thorpe Langton seeking balm for the soul and came back with some reassuring photographs. But every village has its darker side...
Embed from Getty Images No one but a fool would try to forecast political events in Britain at the moment, so I am willing to give it a go. There will be no coronation for the new Conservative leader. Two names will be put to the party's leadership. Those names will be Theresa May and Andrea Leadsom. May will win the ballot, but it will be no walkover - say 56 to 44 per cent. That will not be the end to the Tories' troubles but the start of them. Because they have no clear vision of what Brexit will ...
Campaign, the trade magazine for the advertising industry, has been talking to some of the agencies who were asked to contribute to the Remain campaign in the recent referendum. Its conclusion from the exercise is that a clear picture emerges of an ineffectual, unfocused and strategically barren process led by a disjointed committee of cross-party middleweights.One agency told the magazine: "We were simply called upon to provide creative window-dressing, not political strategy. And because Stronger In had no political strategy, we had nothing to say. Of course we struggled to get our message across, because the real art is working ...
The stretch of Stroud Green Road near Wall Court (opposite Tesco) is notorious for dreadful drainage, with huge pools of water long after it stops raining.
Sun 3rd
19:52
Debate in Ludlow has paved the way forward for Ludford Bridge - including no ban on HGVs
Last Thursday, our area committee met to discuss the closure of Ludford Bridge earlier in the year. The bridge had been closed for more than ten weeks after being hit by a reversing truck. The closure damaged trade in the town and, at times, strained relations between Shropshire Council and local parish and council representatives.... Continue reading Debate in Ludlow has paved the way forward for Ludford Bridge - including no ban on HGVs →
Some months ago, my suggestion that Teresa May was likely to emerge as Prime Minister following the outcome of the referendum was met with howls of derision. 'Rubbish!', came the retort. The perceived wisdom was that Boris Johnson would win, having narrowly lost the Leave campaign, but gaining the favour of the Tory backbenchers for having given it a go. How wrong they all were. Whilst I'd never anticipated Gove's knife, I held firm in the belief that even Tories recognised that Government was not a game; not a leisure pursuit for overgrown Etonian School boys, but the hard graft ...
Second paragraph of third chapter: "-back! Go back, go away, do not go down there, you must help me, go back!" I gave up on this one after fifty pages; it's a rather routine mil-sf story about a soldier with wonderful technological device working to overthrow the invader, clunky in style, and obvious where it was going from the first few chapters. Was the unread sf book which had been longest on my shelves. Next on that list is The Host, by Peter Emshwiller.
Labour MP Diane Abbott is being roundly mocked in various parts of the internet because of a question she asked as Shadow International Development Secretary, a position she held until last week when she was promoted to Shadow Health Secretary. She asked: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps she has taken to assist people in the Indonesian province of Province of Davao del Norte affected by the drought in that province. The reply was crushing: There is no province called Davao del Norte in Indonesia. Actually, there is a place called Davao del Norte suffering ...
Sun 3rd
15:56Ludlow's Four Rivers Nursing Home is put out to tender - we need a local solution not a multinationa...
Without so much a press release - we unitary councillors had asked for one - Shropshire Council has put the running of Four Rivers Nursing Home out to tender at a price of £24 million over ten years. Shropshire Council is not trying to save money. It is simply fanatically wedded to the idea that... Continue reading Ludlow's Four Rivers Nursing Home is put out to tender - we need a local solution not a multinational →
Join us here at St George's Hall to proclaim your faith in a multi-cultural, outward looking European, modern Liverpool On Tuesday 5th July I will be addressing a meeting on the steps of St George's Hall with the Mayor of ... Continue reading →
In an emotional and angry speech to Hammersmith and Fulham Liberal Democrats on Friday night, Nick Clegg set out his fury at the result of the EU Referendum. He emphasised how funders of the Leave campaign had their own interests for a low-regualation economy resulting from Brexit: He says that we need to hold on to that anger – while anger can be destructive, it's also an important and powerful emotion, he said. David Cameron and George Osborne do not escape his wrath either. How dare they have thought they could risk our kids' future to settle a dispute in ...
Add New As a Liberal Democrat, I'm obviously a believer in equality, and during my time in local politics I've always made an effort to encourage women in the city to get involved and help make a difference. But, sadly, despite the year being 2016, and 88 years since the Equal Franchise Act of 1928, [...]
There is a whole host of political analysis around at the moment, and I must admit that even as someone who lives and breathes politics I haven't been able to keep up. However, great events often lead to greater coverage and analysis and that is definitely the case here. So if you're looking for some reading material this Sunday to try and make sense of everything that has happened, I'd suggest you start with the following: Tim Shipman for the Sunday Times on the Week of the Long Knives in the Tory Party.Jonathan Freedland in The Guardian reminds us we ...
Paddy Ashdown and Tim Farron have both suggested in recent days that those on the progressive side of politics need to work together to oppose the Tories and deliver change. Of course, a defining part of Paddy's leadership of the party was his desire to see closer co-operation on the left. The Tories need to be beaten, now more than ever, even more than in the 1980s. Their destruction of the country then almost pales into insignificance to the damage they have done with their self-indulgent EU related civil war. How do we achieve it, though, while retaining the integrity ...
Sun 3rd
13:17
Here a musical suggestion you won't get elsewhere: look into the works of Birdie Hilltop
A very good friend of mine died less than a year ago in rather tragic circumstances. He was the one who first introduced me to the works of Birdie Hilltop, a singer/songwriter from Pennsylvania who has several albums to his name. I loved Birdie's music from the very first minute I heard it – somehow languid and engaged at the same time; an incredible sadness under pins the best tracks, but a sadness that is pure and not stained by any pretension. My friend loved Birdie Hilltop's music so much that he put several of his songs in a film ...
[IMG: Tom BRake speaking on pavement Two Chairmen pub London 2nd July 2016 #marchforeurope] After yesterday's March for Europe in London, some Liberal Democrats repaired to the Two Chairmen pub in Westminster. As I approached, I became aware of a speech taking place. It was Tom Brake MP (right), on the pavement outside the pub, giving an impromptu view of the EU situation, and answering questions. It was, in many ways, a return to old-fashioned democracy. Certainly Tom gave a fascinating commentary on what might happen next. Thanks to my colleague Joe Otten, who videoed most of the speech, I ...
Tim Farron has set out why the Liberal Democrats will fight for those EU citizens who have made their homes in Britain to be allowed to stay post-Brexit. Both David Cameron and Theresa May have only guaranteed their future to the conclusion of the negotiations. How awful, how unfair would it be if people who had settled, worked hard, married, had families here were forced to leave after the goalposts changed? How cruel is it to put these people through years of uncertainty? Tim said: There is real, and legitimate, upset and worry from European citizens across our country about ...
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A song to suit these troubled times. It is the title track from Leonard Cohen's 1992 album The Future.
Article 50 of the EU treaties, the one that sets out the terms for leaving the EU should perhaps have been read and understood by those arguing for Brexit, because a lot of rubbish is being spoken by people who ought to know better. The full text is here 1. Any Member State may decide to withdraw from the Union in accordance with its own constitutional requirements. 2. A Member State which decides to withdraw shall notify the European Council of its intention. In the light of the guidelines provided by the European Council, the Union shall negotiate and conclude ...
I was so shattered by last week's EU Referendum outcome that I haven't been able to write my blog, but yesterday's March for Europe in central London lifted my spirits. An estimated 50,000 people congregated at Hyde Park Corner, before marching to Parliament Square, waving UK and EU flags and holding aloft hand-made signs, many [...]
Whilst we wait with baited breath to see who will be governing us in a few months time and indeed, if there will be an opposition worth its name to hold them to account, this piece on the National Archive blog reveals who has really been running the country since the 1800s. They say that for the last 200 years or so, there has been a secretive group of government employees who have been given free range over Whitehall, allowed to stroll into Ministers' offices during the most sensitive of conversations. They have been paid out of the public purse ...
Former Liberal Democrat leader Lord Ashdown has called for a progressive platform to bring together politicians from different parties... The peer said he was not proposing a new party but, like current Lib Dem leader Tim Farron, he refused to close the door on the idea. Instead, Lord Ashdown has backed a grassroots organisation that would allow politicians to sign five pledges they have in common... The Sunday Times reports that the current leader was aware of Lord Ashdown's new initiative, which also has received the backing of some Labour MPs. [Politics Home] You can read Paddy Ashdown's article over ...
Set in the late 16th century, SJ Parris's Heresy follows the travails of a novice English spy, Giordano Bruno, on his first mission - to hunt out a Catholic conspiracy at Oxford.
I have had several requests through facebook from voters on both sides of the EU issue on how to find a healthy, positive way forward. As deeply upset as many of us still are, it is difficult to think in positive, helpful terms when there still so much anger about this referendum taking place at all. But I have put some thought into this and wish to share some ideas. In conflict resolution and mediation, lot of weight is placed on listening. This is a deep kind of listening, not one in which words are heard and then our point ...
Saturday: Not in Cheadle, but joining many thousands marching on Parliament to show support for the European Union, and to remind people that democracy means listening to the minority not just doing what the victors demand. Liberal Democrats will give the 48% a voice that will not be silenced. I'm marching today with thousands of others for a better future and a better Britain than we've seen in the last few weeks. Because standing together is better than splitting apart. I'm marching because the best of British means never giving up. When you've taken a knock, to get up and ...
Further to my previous updates on the Scottish Water work planned for Perth Road (east of Sinderins) and Nethergate (west of Marketgait) - including the notice I published on 30th June about the bus arrangements - the notices below are a reminder from Scottish Water that the work starts tomorrow :
A picture tells a thousand stories:- [IMG: CmYu2fiVUAA5ixA] Thousand come together yesterday in London to try to start the process of healing the deep divisions caused in the UK by Brexit leaders – Gove, Johnson and Farage. Tim Farron, Lib Dem leader, addressed the campaigners who stand against hate, racism, division and isolation. Proud to be a Lib Dem today.
I always enjoy a visit to the Palm House in Sefton Park; it is a magnificent building. [IMG: Sefton Park Palm House r] I was there in my usual role as roadie to flute player Jen Robertson on 25th June, as Maghull Wind Orchestra were playing their usual summer concert at the venue. Of course the concert was excellent and there was a standing room only audience for it. Indeed, Sheila and I did not get a seat until late in the concert, but stood by a door my eyes lighted upon this makers plate for the Palm House. An ...
Sun 3rd
07:46The move for Tory MPs to rubber stamp May as prime minster, bypassing the membership, might backfire
I'll declare an interest right off the bat: I very much prefer Theresa May as the next prime minister. I can't believe it has come to that, but there you are. She is far and away the least bad option here. Compare her to Michael "come meet the psychopaths I'll be working with" Gove, and Stephen "Jesus told me to do it" Crabb, never mind the severely untested Leadsom and well, Liam Fox, and this becomes clear. But for now I stick to my prediction that Gove will be our next prime minister for a few reasons. One is that ...
Europe can't rescue Britain. It's too busy trying to save itself A sober and sobering analysis. (tags: ukpolitics eu ) On Brexit: Stabbed in the Eye "What I'm sad about is the damage to Britain's moral core. We've poked out one of our eyes. We now look uglier to the rest of the world, we've become more blinkered, and our vision is that bit more one-dimensional." (tags: ukpolitics eu )
As Iceland is playing another game in the European championship we shall yet again see the international media struggle with Icelandic names. The typical newspaper article talks of say, Kolbeinn Sigthorsson (Sigþórsson) or Aron Gunnarsson, and then just call them Sigthorsson and Gunnarsson in all following instances throughout the article. This is normal practice for people with first names and family names, but of course, that's not quite how Icelandic names work. As somebody who studies ancient Greece, I am always a bit chuffed to be reminded that there is one small island holding out where most people still have ...
