[IMG: Can you spot that little drop? That was the pound losing 11% of it's value overnight.] Can you spot that little drop? That was the pound losing 11% of it's value overnight. And when you point out the fact that, actually, alot of the pre-vote warnings about economic damage has been right, something weird happens. But sterling is doing really badly? Grow up, it's not THAT bad. What about the loss of AAA rating? Well, now you're just being a sore loser. Aren't you worried that many economists now predict a recession? Stop talking down the economy. But what ...
Includes a nice photo of Manchester Central before it became, er, Manchester Central.
Welsh Assembly seats are a mix of regions and traditional constituencies, but our last Assembly campaign focused too much on constituency battles. The decision to focus on the 'big four' of Brecon & Radnorshire, Ceredigion, Cardiff Central and Montgomeryshire essentially meant that other constituencies were left to their own devices, with very limited financial and human support. The loss of four list seats brutally illustrates the tactical flaw in this approach and points to a pressing need for a greater regional focus as we attempt to rebuild both the Party and a core vote. In every Assembly election since 1999 ...
UPDATED DETAILS. Independent seat. Cause: Death. No LD candidate.
UPDATED DETAILS. Labour seat. Cause: Resignation. LD candidate- Penelope Appleton.
UPDATED DETAILS. Conservative seat. Cause: Death. LD candidate- Jon Neal.
A story from the new Private Eye: As the other two parties went into meltdown, senior Lib Dems took to the phones to sound out members on whether the time was ripe to ditch Tim Farron and replace him with, er, Nick Clegg.The organ goes on: In last July's leadership contest, Clegg allies came out firmly for former minister Norman Lamb, the standard-bearer for the party's libertarian right. When Lamb lost by a wide margin, one former Clegg special adviser told colleagues the Cleggies should wait 18 months for Farron to fail, then depose him and "Bring back Nick".I hope ...
Simon Calvert from NO2NP on the controversial scheme that will give every Scottish child a state guardian We don't hear about it much in England, but north of the border, in the corridors of Holyrood, politicians are under pressure over plans to implement a controversial Named Person scheme. Health visitors, teachers, children's groups, social workers, Police Scotland and parents have all expressed serious reservations about the scheme. Yet the Scottish government is ploughing on regardless. What is it? From August, every child in Scotland will be appointed a Named Person. These are state guardians who will be tasked with looking ...
Shropshire Council has been consulting on reducing library hours across the county. In Ludlow, it wants to close the library on Friday nights and Saturday afternoons. I think this consultation is too soon. We need to sort out the future of the library as a community and service hub first. I also believe that the... Continue reading Ludlow Library should remain open on Saturday afternoons →
Following the news about Paddy Ashdown, this time it is Vince Cable: Evening sunshine warmed the grand interior of Westminster's Emmanuel Jall on Tuesday night, where over a thousand people had gathered to discuss the need for "Post-Brexit Alliance Building"... According to the assembled politicians - Shadow Defence Secretary Clive Lewis, Green Party MP Caroline Lucas, the SNP's Tommy Sheppard, and the Liberal Democrats's Vince Cable – there is now an urgent need to reach out to those who feel politics has failed them. And who may have voted Leave as a result. Vince has been a mini-production line of ...
Plenty of people have been saying that the triggering of Article 50 by the British government leads to the inevitable departure of Britain from the EU. Either a deal is reached under which Britain leaves or two years expire, after which Britain leaves anyway according to its time limt. There is a caveat to this about how rules can be changed mid-course if there is the political will. But more importantly, this account glosses over Article 50(3), as Andrew Lodder and Belinda McRae in the New Statesman have pointed out: By virtue of Article 50(3), the other members of the ...
[IMG: Election candidate Carl Cashman braving the wild winter conditions a while back.] Election candidate Carl Cashman braving the wild winter conditions a while back. This is mad but it made me laugh..... The Liverpool Echo has the story – see link above Carl is a great young man with a bright political future ahead of him; pleased to count him as a friend of mine.
Embed from Getty Images So, huge sighs of relief and trebles all round. Michael Gove will not be Prime Minister. Phew! So, the next Prime Minister, and presumably the country's future direction with it, will be chosen by the 0.2% of the population in the Tory party from amongst Theresa May and Andrea Leadsom. So we'll get our second female Prime Minister. The rest of us, the 99.8%, eavesdrop on the process for the next two months, with our hearts in our stomachs. What a disgraceful way to choose the country's future direction! For what it's worth, Andrea Leadsom was ...
Second paragraph of chapter three: On the same October Thursday the Houston Oilers toiled in practice in the nearby Astrodome, the American balance-of-payments deficit soared to a twenty-year high, three more corporations decided to flee New York City and a man in Boston died of mercury poisoning after eating codfish cakes.This book is going for a penny plus postage on the online used book store of your choice, and I recommend you buy it now before the rush later this year. Written in 1972, anticipating the 1976 election, it concerns the story of Eddie Quinn, an obscure former Congressman and ...
... and we don't get to choose, the membership of the tory party gets to choose. I'm sorry, what did you say? All sound is being drowned out by the roaring flames of hell, and this handcart has incredibly squeaky wheels. [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
[IMG: David Rendel at Anti-Iraq war demo 15th Feb 2003 Some rights reserved by Paul Walter] David Rendel at the 2003 London march against the Iraq war. David described voting against the Iraq invasion, in the House of Commons, as his proudest moment. Last Monday, a memorial event was held for former Liberal Democrat MP, David Rendel. This was at the Corn Exchange theatre in Newbury. Family, friends, colleagues and former constituents of David filled the hall to overflowing. The tributes started with a film of David's life put together by Rachael Clarke, Deputy head of policy of the Liberal ...
Sheffield Full Council yesterday was met with a large pro-EU rally with speakers from all parties and other groups, including Sheffield Lib Dem group leader Shaffaq Mohammed. [IMG: Sheffield Stay] The debate continued in the chamber, on item 10, which was moved up the agenda in response to the demo. Sheffield is one of those councils that has this kind of debate quite regularly in full council, the business of running a council being decided in cabinet. Whether this is a good use of everyone's time is questionable, but it is how we do things. I think it is fair ...
In the press and broadcast media so far there has been conflicting information from Conservative leadership candidates, Labour and UKIP about the future of the Freedom of Movement of EU citizens if and when we leave the EU; the status of EU Nationals already here in the UK and UK citizens already living and working in other Member States. The latter is open to interpretation as so far it would appear to address the individual works and lives in one single Member State. One group of people appearing to be forgotten are the "Cross-Border Workers." No-one as yet has mentioned ...
A visit to the Foxfield Railway in Staffordshire recently, where I came across a preserved steam locomotive that used to work for the NCB on Merseyside, made me start to wonder where else you can see (or possibly not see) preserved examples of the now so called Liverpool City Region's heritage and historic railway stock. Let's start this first of an occasional series of postings on this subject by looking at the National Coal Board 0-6-0 loco and the 502 3rd rail electrified unit that is presently being rebuilt in Burscough. The colourful but powerful former National Coal Board (NCB) ...
Julian Astle — one time adviser to Paddy Ashdown and more recently a senior Lib Dem policy advisor in the coalition — has just taken up an appointment as Director of Creative Learning and Development at the RSA. Julian's been writing over on the RSA blog about the real lessons from the referendum: The moment Britain leaves the European Single Market will be the economic equivalent of stepping off a travellator onto terra firma - a decelerating jolt, followed by the realisation that you now have to move a lot faster simply to travel at the same pace. So how, ...
As Her Majesty's Official Opposition continues to fall apart in front of the whole Country I have been pondering on what will happen to Angela Eagle MP if she does decided to stand against Jeremy Corbyn. Here are some links to a Facebook posting, the Guardian newspaper and Wirral Globe newspaper. Taken together you would not put Angela Eagles chances of surviving an attempt to deselect her very high:- This more and more looks like a fight to the death for the soul of the Labour Party with the Red Tories desperate to stop the Party becoming ...
Our panel for this Thursday's #bbcqt – @TomTugendhat Charlie Falconer @SalBrinton @georgegalloway and Ian Hislop pic.twitter.com/6ASK8UC95f — BBC Question Time (@bbcquestiontime) July 6, 2016 Sal has been brilliant on Question Time every time she's been on. Just after she became President, she was on with the annoying David Starkey. Then earlier this year, she took UKIP to task for their horribly racist broadcast about Turkey. Tonight's programme should be brilliant with Sal and Hislop having a good go at Falconer and Galloway. There have been many times when there have been no Lib Dems on the panel in a week ...
I went to a Planting Up Whickham committee meeting recently. I had been send a parcel of goodies by Miracle Gro (amazing what a good gardening blog can do for you!). In it was a couple of big bags of wild flower seeds for attracting pollinators. I have given one to the Whinnies Community Garden in Sunniside to plant there but I took the second to PUW in the hope I could interest them in
Our membership surge in Gateshead prompted us to hold a meeting for all members last night to discuss the EU, Brexit and where we go from here. There was a good turnout and it was great to see lots of new members attending. We had a panel of speakers (one of them was me!) There was a good debate with many new members contributing. The aim now is to turn them into activists. In addition, I gave a
Cthulhu launches late bid for Conservative leadership - The Daily Belter The Iraq war inquiry has left the door open for Tony Blair to be prosecuted What Cultural Appropriation is NOT miss_s_b | "Far from Satisfactory" posted "Far from Satisfactory" on #dreamwidth How Elizabeth Wilmshurst's evidence exposed ministers' contempt for the law | Afua Hirsch | Opinion | The Guardian RT @tallgeekychap: Her evidence to #Chilcot reported here: The betrayal of Dr David Kelly, 10 years on - Telegraph RT @KateSB: Remembering David Kelly today: the man driven to suicide for questioning the case for the #IraqWar #Chilcot Charles Kennedy ...
Wrong, because they are based on what a political scientist sat at their own computer can see, rather than on what political parties actually do.
Sir John Chilcot has published his report into the Iraq war. Responding, Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron said:"Blair was fixated in joining Bush in going to war in Iraq regardless of the evidence, the legality or the serious potential consequences."Daesh has arisen from the complete absence of any post conflict planning by the government."Charles Kennedy's judgment has been vindicated in every respect. I hope those in the Labour and Conservative parties who were so forceful in their criticism of him and the Liberal Democrats at the time are equally forceful in their acknowledgements today that he was right. An absence ...
Saw somebody on twitter referring to Andrea Leadsom as "Margarine Thatcher". It may or may not have been intended to refer to this: ... but that's certainly what it made me think of. You're semi-evil. You're quasi-evil. You're the margarine of evil. You're the Diet Coke of evil. Just one calorie, not evil enough. [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
Thu 7th
10:25
Speech: Jim Wallace - Progressives must come together to work to heal our fractured country
Jim Wallace delivered this speech in the House of Lords on Tuesday. We thought readers might wish to read it in full. My Lords, as I expressed during our discussions last week, I was devastated by the result of the referendum. I, along with many Noble Friends and many Liberal Democrats, have a profound and deep-rooted commitment to partnership with our European neighbours. Internationalism is in our very DNA. Our commitment is not to an institution in a particular form; rather it is a commitment to the beliefs and ideals of the wider European undertaking- of a peaceful, prosperous and ...
What is a liberal? It's a question that we need to answer, and answer now. The public have known for some time, or thought that they've known, what the Conservatives and Labour are. For years these parties fitted nicely in to easily defined boxes, but that's changing. Are Labour the Corbynite members on the left? Or the more centrist, so-called Blairites that hold the PLP? And in the Tories, is it the moderate pro-European majority, or the Eurosceptic, UKIP-flirting right? My great grandfather was a prominent Communist Party member in his community, who went to Spain to train the Republican ...
Labour, it is fair to say, is having some problems at present. Bitter infighting, a leader who has decided that parliamentary democracy and the rules that go with it are not his cup of tea, talk of a split – why not throw in the launch of a long awaited report on the Iraq war that will stir the pot even more? You have to wonder if this is exactly what Cameron and Osborne had in mind when they set the date of the report's release. At 2.6 million words, the final Chilcot report is twice as long as A ...
I recently was asked by residents if the playpark at Bankmill Road/Milnbank Road could be improved - see below :The playpark has not had any capital funding spent on it in a very long time and I asked the council if it can be considered for future improvements. The Head of Environment in the City Council's Neighbourhood Services who initially advised me : "I will get one of our staff to have a look at this. In terms of priorities for 2016/2017 we are looking at Dawson and Victoria Park with other sites having minor improvement with Health and Safety ...
A new planning application has been received in Holyrood Ward as below: Reference 60245 Alternative Reference PP-05232451 Application Received Tue 14 Jun 2016 Application Validated Thu 23 Jun 2016 Address Cambashaw Cottage, 130C Simister Lane, Prestwich, Manchester, M24 4SJ Proposal Single at storey extension rear, two storey extension at front and alterations to elevations Please do not hesitate to get in touch if you require further information or help with this. The details will be on the Council's website here. Tim
It isn't very often that two such widely different topics as family history and Brexit can be connected in one of my posts. I knew that one of my ancestors ( on my maternal grandfather's side) had married someone of Italian extraction in the early part of the 19th century. I was researching the Brazzoni family and discovered ( well, found out ) that a Brazzoni invented the speaking doll, about 30 years before Thomas Edison took credit for it. ( Please Google "Brazzoni speaking doll" for more information) Anyway, I emailed someone listed on a site dedicated to the ...
Two new planning applications have been received in Holyrood Ward as below: Reference 60240 Alternative Reference Not Available Application Received Mon 13 Jun 2016 Application Validated Mon 13 Jun 2016 Address 2 Lime Grove, Prestwich, Manchester, M25 3DX Proposal Two/single storey extension at rear Reference 60226 Alternative Reference PP-05220666 Application Received Thu 09 Jun 2016 Application Validated Wed 29 Jun 2016 Address 1A Nursery Road, Prestwich, Manchester, M25 3EW Proposal Demolition of existing bungalow and erection of new two storey dwelling Please do not hesitate to get in touch if you require further information or help with these. The details will be on the Council's website here. Tim
It was Blyth Town Council's Community Grants Committee meeting on Tuesday evening, and the whole of the Community Grants budget was allocated! There were grants of £25,000 each to three Community Centres ( Briardale, Isabella and the Buffalo) . The way that the council defines "Community Centre" means that the South Beach Community Centre is excluded from this grant allocation. Then the £109,000 budget for Community Support was allocated to various applicants. I cannot deny that money is scarce these days, but the grants were mainly to the usual suspects, organisations that get grants every years to support their aims. ...
A prisoner of its past? The future of the Long Kesh/Maze @katyusha13 looks at the contested site. (tags: Northernireland ) Andrea Leadsom Tried To Abolish All Worker's Rights For Small Companies In 2012 Be afraid. Be very afraid. (tags: ukpolitics ) Chilcot report: key points from the Iraq inquiry The brutal summary. (tags: ukpolitics iraq ) The paradoxes at the heart of the Brexit campaign make planning impossible More great stuff from @telegraph. (tags: ukpolitics eu ) Chilcot Report: How Tony Blair Sold the War My former colleague @carneross. (tags: iraq ukpolitics )
I freely admit that I have not read all 2.6 million words of the Chilcott report or even fully perused the 200 pages of the executive summary. So I am grateful to the Independent for getting to the heart of the matter and identifying the five things Tony Blair said about the Iraq War which were completely undermined by Chilcot: 1. Saddam Hussein won't co-operate, we have no choice Chilcot said: "We have concluded that the UK chose to join the invasion of Iraq before the peaceful options for disarmament had been exhausted. Military action at that time was not ...
