Good news from the East Midlands that few really expected tonight. A good GAIN of a Parish Council seat in Burbage along with a District Council GAIN in Westone, Northampton. Westone (Northampton) result: LDEM: 49.7% (+36.4) CON: 27.2% (-28.7) LAB: 23.0% (-7.6) — Britain Elects (@britainelects) July 21, 2016 A 33% swing! Blimey! This is the second time representing the seat for new/old Cllr Brian Markham, who originally won the seat 23 years ago and represented the area until 2011. I actually remember that first by-election win back in 1993! Welcome back, Brian, and well done to all the team! ...
Congratulations to Brian Markham and the team in Westone, Northampton on their stunning result.
I know, in Internet time a review of a film that came out at the beginning of last week might as well be talking about the Epic of Gilgamesh as far as timeliness goes, but I was unwell last week ... Continue reading →
From the Total Swindon site: Swindon 175 cordially invite you to the grand opening of Richard Jefferies Halt and The New Coate Water Railway Loop Extension - Swindon's brand new railway station! Please arrive early as the first train will be stopping at Richard Jefferies Halt at 12:05pm. This family fun packed day will see the first official train stop at the new station with a ribbon cutting and an unveiling of the new sign to mark the official opening of Richard Jefferies Halt. Children's activities at the museum, a brass band and a steam traction engine to keep you ...
Conservative seat. Cause: Death. LD candidate- Sue Brooks.
UPDATED DETAILS. Labour seat. Cause: Resignation. LD candidate- Russell French.
Plaid Cymru seat. Cause: Resignation. No LD candidate.
UPDATED DETAILS. Conservative seat. Cause: Death. LD candidate- Stephen Fenn.
Labour seat. Cause: Resignation. LD candidate- Ed Veasey.
Conservative seat. Cause: Death. LD candidate- Celia Ann.
UPDATED DETAILS. Conservative seat. Cause: Resignation. LD candidate- Brian Markham.
UPDATED DETAILS. Conservative seat. Cause: Death. LD candidate- Marylyn Rayner.
UPDATED DETAILS. Labour seat. Cause: Resignation. LD candidate- Mark Cole.
UPDATED DETAILS. Labour seat. Cause: Resignation. LD candidate- Ed Veasey.
Conservative seat. Cause: Resignation. No LD candidate.
I was taken with these two lions on Saturday. They guard the entrance to the churchyard at St Andrew's, Tur Langton, and appear to be gravestones too. St Andrew's is a Victorian brick church designed by Goddards of Leicester and funded by the Hanbury Charity. It is uncompromising and incongruous in a picturesque village, but I rather admire it. Tur Langton Manor now has a cafe and some retail units, which makes it easier to view the fragment that remains of the village's Medieval church. I found it being conscientiously guarded by alpacas.
A shocking report from BBC News: A group of teenage boys who entered an underground cave network to search for Pokemon got stuck 100ft below ground. The "glum and embarrassed" foursome had to be rescued after entering the complex, known as the Box mines, in Hawthorn, Wiltshire. They had entered while playing smash hit smartphone game Pokemon Go, where users search real-life locations for digital creatures.Except, isn't that what we rather want teenagers to be like? Getting out of doors and exploring their surroundings? I'm sure Baden-Powell would approve and I suspect Malcolm Saville would too. The NSPCC certainly does ...
It's only a couple of days since the Liberal Democrats launched a policy consultation with party members as part of the manifesto preparations for a possible 2016 general election.
A resolution proposed by Ribble Valley Liberal Democrat Council Group Leader, Cllr. Allan Knox, that condemned racism, hate crime and xenophobia has been passed unanimously by Ribble Valley Borough Council. Speaking in the debate Cllr Allan Knox said: "Brexit may mean Brexit. However, Brexit should never allow hate crime to become acceptable. "Between June 16th and June 30th this year 3,000 hate crimes were reported, a 42% increase on the same period in the previous year. "This national phenomenon is being repeated locally; with one resident telling me that their child was told that their views did not count as ...
Second paragraph of November chapter in Diary of a Wimpy Kid: A Novel in Cartoons: I do feel a little bad, because it looked like it was gonna take a long tin to clean up. But on the bright side, Gramma is retired, so she probably didn't have anything planned for today anyway. Second paragraph of November chapter in Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules: Rodrick was upstairs in my room bugging me, and Dad went into the bathroom. A couple seconds later, he said something that made Rodrick stop cold. Young F was really into these books a ...
Thu 21st
16:45
EURef: Science already suffering - but how do we explain to Leave voters this matters?
[IMG: microscope] I spoke for Remain at about 50 debates during the campaign. Whether they were in village halls, church halls, schools or pubs, I mentioned science. The EU sensibly allocates its science funds by competitive bids and for years a lot has come to universities and research companies in Britain. The benefits for a society in which there are a lot of scientists and science work go beyond simple economics. There is a cultural benefit too from having more people in our community who think with the logical, disciplined mind of a scientist. If the Leave vote is followed ...
With thanks to The Times, for a headline I never thought I'd write here on LDV: There are lots of reasons why the Liberal Democrats were wiped out at the general election. To the long list we might now add that the world never got to see Nick Clegg's version of a pop music video in which he pretended to be Tom Hanks. In the weeks before polling day last year the deputy prime minister spent several days, and almost £8,000 of party funds, starring in a shot-for-shot re-creation of the video for I Really Like You by Carly Rae ...
Meols Ward Lib Dem Councillors John Dodd, Nigel Ashton and Jo Barton are holding their next advice centre in Churchtownn We will be at BoxTree Kitchen for Queenscourt café, Manor Road/Cambridge Road, roundabout, from 10:30 to 11.30am on Thursday 28th July, We will be there to meet you and discuss any Council problems you may have. No appointment necessary. Just pop in. We also hold a monthly advice centre in Crossens, at St John's School, Rufford Road, Crossens every month (except August) on the second Saturday of the month from 11:00 am to 12:00.
Seeing the City Region as a 'semi nation state' is part of our offer. But Tom Maguire is already ahead of us!! Strange times bring stranger activities. The severe difficulties which will affect our City Region must make make us ... Continue reading →
Tim Farron has rightly taken a stand against the upsurge of race hate crimes post-Brexit, but as a party Liberal Democrats need to develop a coherent response that does more than state how repellent racism is or how much it jars with liberal values. The issue is not likely to disappear soon. Just yesterday Scotland Yard's deputy commissioner Craig Mackey reported that race crimes in the capital had doubled. The projection of all society's ills on migrants and foreigners is nothing new. Yet the Leave result appears to have taken the cork off emotions around immigration, Islamophobia and paranoia over ...
I thought I would share these two photographs which I took some 15 months apart. The changes in Bootle and Seaforth's dockland area in this short period of time is striking. April 2015 [IMG: Mouth of the Mersey] July 2016 [IMG: Mouth of the Mersey II] Click on the photos to enlarge them Both photos are amongst my Flickr shots at:- www.flickr.com/photos/86659476@N07/
I've had the opportunity to go out to Cleveland, Ohio to campaign for Hillary Clinton for the next two weeks. My friends Ryan and James are out there working as campaign fellows and I thought that it would be fun to go and join them. It is great fun at the moment - I've met loads of friendly people in the office and out at events. The Republican National Convention is downtown right now, as you'll all probably know, and we were trying to register voters around the area. Ryan and James got a few, but I'm still learning the ...
In Crystal Palace Park, in South London, are 150-year-old dinosaur models: the first ever full-size replicas of extinct animals. But they're... well, they're a bit wrong, and they likely always will be. Here's why.
[IMG: Shepway District Council Sandgate Parking Consultation Notice on Granville Parade] Over two months after the close of the official "consultation" on the proposed new parking controls on Granville Parade and Castle Road, Sandgate, no decision on the proposals has been published by Shepway Council. Shepway received hundreds of objections to the proposals to ban parking for longer than 2 hours in those areas (between 8am-8pm every day of the year) to anyone not resident in those roads. Despite that, as of today, they are saying that there is no formal report written yet on the consultation and the proposals. ...
[IMG: Family Fun Day Poster 2016] Come along to the family fun day on the Recreation Ground, Military Road, Sandgate. There will be fun for all the family, with: music from Electric Tortoise; a dog competition; bouncy castles; kite making; circus skills; ...and much more. Entry FREE. Published and promoted by Tim Prater, 98a Sandgate High Street, Folkestone, CT20 3BYPrinted (hosted) by Prater Raines Ltd, 98 Sandgate High Street, Folkestone CT20 3BY
CGP Grey is an Irish American You Tuber and podcaster. He's done some excellent animated YouTube videos which explain complex issues very quickly. I recommend viewing his masterpiece on what would happen if the USA's presidential electoral college is tied, and his corker on the Canadian-USA border. They are both priceless. CGP Grey has now turned his attention to the Brexit options. He talks very fast on this following video. In fact, I don't remember him talking this fast on any of his previous videos. He talks faster than the actors on West Wing. In 6'57" he beautifully explains the ...
We are always being encouraged to report hate crimes when we come across them so kudos to the 39,800 people who have lodged a complaint with the police alleging that Nigel Farage incited racial and religious hatred during the European Union referendum campaign. The tone and content of the Leave campaign's propaganda was not just offensive it was dangerous and insulting to the many immigrants who actively work within their local communities and contribute to this country's economy. As the Independent reports figures released by the National Police Chiefs' Council earlier this month show a 42 per cent spike in ...
Scottish Liberal Democrat MSP Mike Rumbles said yesterday a new law to reduce child poverty will be meaningless unless the Scottish Government matches them with new resources to help families. Mr Rumbles was speaking as the First Minister announced that she would bring forward a new Child Poverty Bill. Commenting, Mr Rumbles said: "Any move [...]
Embed from Getty Images I've mentioned before that Theresa May is, as one might expect, using very careful language on post-Brexit options. In her leadership launch statement, she said: ...as we conduct our negotiations, it must be a priority to allow British companies to trade with the single market in goods and services - but also to regain more control of the numbers of people who come here from Europe. "Regain more control of the numbers" doesn't necessarily mean "stop free movement". There's wiggle room between those two points. In her first PMQs yesterday, there was an interesting exchange with ...
I haven't written a blog post since the referendum because, to be quite honest, I've not really known what to say. It feels like the end of an epoch, but how can I say that, have never seen the end of an epoch before. Globalisation and Its Discontents was a very influential book for me about 10 years ago when I first read it. It outlined, in Stiglitz inimitable style, what globalisation (which I think some call "neo-liberalism") meant and how it was affecting some people that weren't very happy about it. It mainly focusses on the transition as managed ...
As many residents will already be aware, Dundee Community Transport is a local charity that provides an affordable and accessible transport service for Dundee's over 65 community. It has secured funding to trial a wheelchair dedicated service as part of its very popular Community Cars project and yesterday, I was delighted to attend the launch event and official ribbon cutting ceremony at the City Chambers. Amongst the speakers was Jan Goodall (pictured right at the event) - Jan was Dundee Community Transport's first chair when it was formed back in 2005 and she has been a tireless and effective campaigner ...
Thu 21st
08:28
15 Labour MP defy the party whip to back proportional representation for House of Commons
Thanks so much to all those who campaigned & voted for my #FairVotes Bill – gutted we lost 81 to 74 but support IS growing – we'll do it! — Caroline Lucas (@CarolineLucas) July 20, 2016 Two thoughts come to mind when looking at that result. First, how electoral reform shows that there is scope for cross-party cooperation, or even realignment, beyond simply a reaction to the European referendum. Second, how weak the grassroots campaign infrastructure is in favour of electoral reform. I know several people who work for organisations that support PR and they and their colleagues are certainly ...
I'm in Switzerland at present, learning all about how the British Leave vote screwed the Swiss. That's not the only reason I'm here, just to be clear, but it's an interesting aspect of being in Bern at the moment. As some of you may know, Switzerland had a referendum on whether to limit freedom of movement from the EU in 2014, one that decided in favour of limitation. Hold on, some of the more Brexity yet ill informed amongst you might be thinking right now, how did EU freedom of movement rules affect the Swiss who have never been part ...
Brexit Blues John "Londonista" Lanchester is in despair. (tags: eu ukpolitics ) Clinton's Lead Is As Safe As Kerry's Was In 2004 *gulp* (tags: uspolitics ) 'Walking Dead' Creator Adapting 'Chronicles of Amber' for TV OMG! I don't know whether to be delighted or terrified! (tags: sf )
