This is a clip from a 1993 show called A Stab in the Dark that Michael Gove hosted alongside David Baddiel and Tracey Macleod. I have the feeling that Chris Morris watched it closely. Tracey Macleod remembered it for the Guardian today: It was pretty clear from the first week that the show was a turkey, with any humour that may have appeared in our monologues stifled at birth by a shooting style that exposed the presenters as three sarcastic students shouting in an underground car park.And she remembered Michael Gove in particular: David and I did share the occasional ...
A milestone reached tonight: Optimistic, forward thinking, welcoming, committed, open-minded. What's not to like? #LibDemFightback @LibDems https://t.co/djVbALSdem — Katy Morgan Williams (@katymorganwills) July 5, 2016 This is a 10 year high for the party. Party President Sal Brinton said: Only the Liberal Democrats are left to make the positive case for Britain remaining in the heart of Europe. We respect the result of the referendum but the Leave campaign failed to present any kind of plan for post-Brexit Britain. For the sake of British jobs, services and the freedom of young people to live, work and study across Europe, Britain ...
Courtesy of Sky News: This strikes me as a very sound analysis on all counts. Interesting that Sky headlined his comments about Theresa May rather than his much more damning analysis of Michael Gove. * Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings
There is now a perverse incentive for May to organise for 40 of her core supporters to vote for Gove on Thursday. It would certainly exclude the much more threatening Leadsom from the party members' ballot.
The figures for the first round vote in the Conservative leadership race are in: Theresa May 165 Andrea Leadsom 66 Michael Gove 48 Stephen Crabb 34 Liam Fox 16 – eliminated Adding up the other 4, we see they have 164 between them and May has an outright majority. Given that only a third of the vote is needed to ensure a place in the all member ballot, we may see some tactical movement in later rounds towards May's preferred opponent for that ballot. Add your comments below, sticking to the issues, please. And, as always, don't assume that anybody ...
Again this summer, I've received a couple of complaints from residents in parts of the Gunthorpe area, about motorcycles speeding around the area and even travelling along some footpaths. I must say that for all my years representing this area, I've never personally seen a police motorcyclist patrolling the area. Have you? The reason I [...]
Embed from Getty Images When leadership candidates appear from almost nowhere, it is often an idea to cast a sceptical eye over their CVs. Iain Duncan Smith, for instance, originally claimed that he had attended the University of Perugia in Italy. A Newsnight investigation revealed that this was a considerable exaggeration. Now some people are questioning the picture that Andrea Leadsom has allowed to be painted of herself. Was she really a City high-flyer before she turned to politics? Robert Stephens politely suggests she was not: Her job at Barclays/BZW 1993-1997 was a largely administrative one, "Financial Institutions Director" meaning ...
Second paragraph of third chapter: The Doctor was making his way around, prodding at things with the tip of his umbrella, wiping his finger along the pipes and grimacing at the grease. He'd not been very forthcoming about where they had landed. All Ace knew is that it was London and the 1950s. This is the culmination of the arc of Seventh Doctor novels by Mike Tucker and Robert Perry, the previous stories being Illegal Alien, Matrix, Storm Harvest and Prime Time. I really enjoyed this, as I really enjoyed them all, and I've realised that this sequence is one ...
[IMG: recruiting website] We have been really impressed at ALDC at the numbers of new members recruited as well as the ability for so many campaigners to get back out on the doorstep straight after the Referendum result was announced. Of particular interest has been the work from the team in Manchester. In Manchester Withington, 70% of local [...]
[IMG: Leeds NW at Kickstart] For decades, ALDC have delivered unparalleled weekend of training at their Kickstart weekends giving local campaign teams the opportunity to build and develop. In this uncertain political climate it is vital that local campaigners get the skills they need to fight on the ground and respond to local residents as effectively as possible. Kickstart pulls together the top trainers from around the Country delivering a weekend of mentoring sessions and training, allowing teams to go home with a plan for winning their seat next time. Kickstart is a packed residential weekend aimed at Lib Dem ...
Flashback: Steve Webb and team celebrating the go-ahead for Yate cinema Our popular former long-serving MP Steve Webb, who was narrowly defeated at the 2015 General Election, has announced he will not be seeking re-selection. Instead he will continue his local work as part of a new candidate's team. Thornbury and Yate Liberal Democrats have just announced that they will select Steve's successor as Parliamentary Candidate on 15th July. With speculation mounting about a possible snap election, Steve said "It has been a huge privilege to serve the people of this area for eighteen years. In that time, I have ...
The 1992 British general election is firmly lodged in the political opinion polling hall of shame alongside 1970 and 2015.
[IMG: WEb story approval image] Those areas with local elections next year will be well on the way (or have already) selected their council candidates for their key council wards. However for those of you who have yet to start, there are some useful materials available in the members' area of the ALDC website. Even if you are simply looking [...]
Sad news about Steve Webb, who was one of the most successful Lib Dem ministers and rightly called the best pensions minister in a generation: Liberal Democrat Mr Webb, who was defeated by Conservative Luke Hall in the 2015 General Election, has decided not to put himself forward for selection and said a new candidate was needed to lead the community and try to rebuild the country. Mr Webb, who served as the area's MP for 18 years, said: "The country is going through massive trauma, which will have huge effects on our lives here in Thornbury and Yate. "With ...
Embed from Getty Images One of the lies that didn't survive a day after the referendum result was that there would be £350m a week to spend on the NHS. My suspicion is that this number was widely understood to be untrue but was still highly effective. Now it would have been quite easy for Leave to say that there would be £136m a week to spend on the NHS, and although it is a lesser number, do we really think the political impact of £136m is going to be all that different to £350m (were it true)? Or to ...
Lib Dems call for new Clean Air Act on 60th Anniversary The Liberal Democrats have called on the UK government to introduce a new Act to tackle poor air quality and ensure vital pollution limits are not watered down post-Brexit. [IMG: pollution] Today marks the 60th anniversary of the Clean Air Act, which was introduced in the 1950s to tackle deadly smog affecting UK cities. In a letter to Secretary of State for the Environment Elizabeth Truss – signed by the Liberal Democrat Environment Spokesperson Kate Parminter, Transport Spokesperson Jenny Randerson and MEP Catherine Bearder – the government is urged ...
Merseytravel approves its contribution to Ainsdale Station re-build Merseytravel's contribution to the re-build of Ainsdale Station has been confirmed this week, with work on the project due to start later in the year. Merseytravel directors approved the allocation of £800,000 to the £2.5m scheme for the Merseyrail station which is also being funded through the Government's National Stations Improvement Programme (NSIP), and Network Rail. The scheme, due for completion in summer 2017, will see the existing station building demolished to make way for a new booking hall and passenger waiting area with improved information facilities including Wi-Fi and USB charging ...
A leading 'sack Corbyn' MP, whom I assume is on the right wing of that Party has seemingly waved the white flag over the EU. A sad situation for a supposedly progressive party of the left!
Far Cotton is an area of terraced housing just to the south of the river in Northampton. As at least one street name reflects, it was built for workers employed by the LNWR. A tight grid of streets presided over by the inevitable late-Victorian church, it reminded me a little of Oxford's Jericho. Far Cotton has also managed to hold on to at least some of its shops, though many seem to be niche business with no necessary connection to that part of town. I was taken with the wool shop though: it could have come straight out of 1962. ...
Studies suggest it takes four minutes of direct eye contact for strangers to fall in love. So we decided to conduct a simple experiment: refugees and Europeans sat across from each other and looked each other in the eyes.
Embed from Getty Images 12000 new Lib Dems in 7 days. Wow. That's a lot of angry people. Just the tip of the iceberg though: there are millions more angry people marching to Westminster and angry people venting on Facebook. Tim Farron is resonating with them. Why?... because he and we are all angry. On 24th June 2016 we woke up in a country that is no longer tolerant, open, progressive or friendly. Love not Leave: we want our country back. But... Although this is about the EU for the angry mob, we are about so, so much more than ...
The UK science community has been left reeling by the implications of the referendum result. Today, the House of Commons science and technology committee launches an inquiry to help identify a way forward Like me, many in the science and innovation community were fervent Remainers and will have shared my shock at the outcome. Others will be Brexiteers. You may still have been shocked. Most will be directly affected by EU funding, collaboration or free movement implications of the negotiation which is coming and must be deeply anxious in the face of this personal uncertainty. I understand that and share ...
Where The Tory Leadership Candidates Stand On Human Rights - RightsInfo RT @rights_info: New: Where each of the Tory leadership candidates stands on human rights and equalities "Boris demands post-Brexit plan" RT @davidschneider: In other news, arsonist demands better fire doors on house he burnt down. Immigration Raids in London — FOI Data — Medium RT @neuromincer: 80% rise in immigration raids in London in the last 5 years. Hate crime against disabled people rises 41 per cent in one year | UK | News | The Independent RT @cdaargh: Disability hate crime rose 41% in 2014-15, in spite of ...
I am not convinced Angela Eagle is the answer to Labour's problems, but I do remember her and her sister as junior chess champions in the 1970s. In last Saturday's Guardian Leonard Barden recalled those days: Angela Eagle, who is set to challenge Jeremy Corbyn for the Labour leadership, was the 1976 British girls under-18 co-champion and an England junior international. She also represented Oxford in the annual varsity match. The Wallasey MP still takes a keen interest in the game and in 2011 was photographed with Garry Kasparov and Nigel Short at a Chess in Schools meeting hosted in ...
Dutch EU Commissioner Timmermans: For me, the British still belong inside Europe On the day Nigel Farage abandoned the UKIP ships captaincy, with the UK ship still not negotiating the EU harbour exit to go and "rule the waves" (so all Kippers hope), Dutch top politicians, and official spokesmen from both Dutch liberal parties (The LibDems-like Social Liberals of D66, and the Free Market & automobile-loving Liberals of the VVD) made pronouncements which in effect support what the British Liberal Democrats have said all along since the Brexit Referendum result became clear. First VVD party leader and coalition prime minister ...
I met Andrea Leadsom for a meeting once. I had arranged it with her on a policy topic I can't now recall, and was delighted when she agreed. Her very tall researcher picked me up from Central Hall and took me into the Commons. He was charming and I felt relaxed about the meeting ahead. Until I sat across the table from Andrea. Then I knew it wasn't going to be nice from then on. She launched instantly into a strange attack on the Alternative Vote and asked me to defend the voting system the country had rejected a few ...
Taken from the new book I've co-edited with Darren Lilleker, Political Marketing and the 2015 UK General Election, are these words which we I wrote well before the referendum happened...
The long-awaited Chilcott report will be published tomorrow. But how much light can filter through 2.6 million words and 12 volumes? It is almost as if the report has been designed to hide answers to all the key issues. The big question of course is whether the decision to go to war was legal or not? The Guardian though, says that the legality or illegality of the Iraq war was never a question Sir John Chilcot was asked to deal with in his long-awaited inquiry: Two days before the unveiling of the Chilcot report, a 2m-word document six years in ...
Photo from the Courier when it featured this story in January Back in January, I contacted the Chief Executive of NHS Tayside that : "I have received a complaint about the parking meters at Ninewells Hospital A&E. A constituent had to visit A&E late at night and found on arrival he had no small change on him to use in the parking meter - only notes and his credit card but Indigo's meters at A&E only take coins. Could I ask if NHS Tayside can request of Indigo, its parking operator, that parking meters are upgraded so that they take ...
Everything you need to know about Article 50 (but were afraid to ask) Andrew Duff in depth. (tags: ukpolitics eu )
