Writing for PolitcsHome, Lib Dem MP Mark Williams says: Omran Daqneesh is not the most relatable of names to Western media. It is hard to pronounce and its origins are foreign. However, on August 17th Omran Daqneesh's face became a symbol of suffering and lost innocence in perhaps the world's most terrible current conflict, the civil war in Syria. Instead of an unrelatable name, media outlets and regular people the world over saw a face of a small boy, estimated at 5 years old, covered in blood and dust after an air strike... It is Hassan Rouhani's Iran that has ...

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

In March of this year, I blogged here about the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework strategy, in particular, that the combined authorities of Greater Manchester had put out a 'Call for Sites'. The spatial strategy will be a joint plan that identifies land to provide the new houses, jobs, infrastructure for the future - an estimated 225,000 new houses are proposed for the next 25 years. The call for sites has been asking landowners, developers, interest groups and others to identify sites that they think may be suitable for development in the future. All of the sites received through the call ...

Posted by Steve Middleton on Steve Middleton

The council has got itself into an awful mess due to a failed road repair in Bleasdale Close, Unsworth. While residents were initially pleased that the council's highways department was finally filling in the numerous potholes in the small cul-de-sac, that pleasure soon turned to horror when highways had finished the work. A couple of years ago the Council purchased new road surfacing machines at a cost of £100,000 unfortunately it seems like they forgot to purchase the user manuals (or at least sort out some training for their highways staff) as the spray injection patching machines (also known as ...

Posted by Steve Middleton on Steve Middleton

On 20 May 1981 George Foulkes, then a Labour MP and now a member of the House of Lords, introduced a bill to give local authorities powers to control Space Invaders machines: That is what is happening to our young people. They play truant, miss meals, and give up other normal activity to play "space invaders". They become crazed, with eyes glazed, oblivious to everything around them, as they play the machines. It is difficult to appreciate unless one has seen it for oneself. I suggest that right hon. and hon. Members who have not seen it should go incognito ...

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

[IMG: Comemos Deli Cafe, Sandgate High Street] Coming Soon... Comenos Deli Cafe. The Spanish themed Deli Cafe will be at 104 Sandqate High Street (just next door to Old English Pine) and looks ready to open in the near future with the final works on fitting out and decoration under way. Comenos will feature a delicatessen counter selling cold meats, cheeses, olies, salads etc to takeaway, as well as a range of tinned and packaged products from local Kent suppliers and direct from Spain. Additionally there will be a licenced 28 cover cafe open until 6pm Mondday to Thursday, 9pm ...

Second speech of third scene (Act 1 Scene 3): [Faustus invokes Mephistopheles] FAUSTUS: Sint mihi Dei Acherontis propitii! Valeat numen triplex Jehovae! Ignei, aerii, aquatani spiritus, salvete! Orientis princeps Belzebub, inferni ardentis monarcha, et Demogorgon, propitiamus vos, ut appareat et surgat Mephistophilis. Quid tu moraris? per Jehovam, Gehennam et consecratum aquam quam nunc spargo, signumque crucis quod nunc facio, et per vota nostra, ipse nunc surgat nobis dicatus Mephistophilis! ["Be propitious to me, gods of Acheron! May the triple deity of Jehovah prevail! Spirits of fire, air, water, hail! Belzebub, Prince of the East, monarch of burning hell, and Demogorgon, ...

[IMG: surgery] Most local Councillors have open public meetings where you can meet your local Councillors and ask them questions about the Council and its policies, or raise concerns about problems in your area. These are usually called 'Councillor's Surgeries'. Surgeries are a good way of giving residents face-to-face contact. Surgeries are usually held in a [...]

Posted by Claire Halliwell on Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors

Yesterday's announcement of Stronger In's rebranding as Open Britain pushing for greatest possible openness, and greatest retention of the benefits of EU membership post-referendum has divided opinion. Statements like this one Despite being drawn from different political parties, all of us campaigned proudly and passionately for Britain to remain in the European Union. The result was not the one we wanted, but of course we respect the democratically expressed verdict of the British people. The UK may have voted to leave the EU, but the certainty ends there. What does Brexit actually mean? Europe will continue to be our biggest ...

Posted by Joe Otten on Liberal Democrat Voice

[IMG: cullodenfeaturepic] Highland Liberal Democrats are fighting a by-election in the Culloden and Ardersier ward on 6th October and have selected local campaigner Trish Robertson as their candidate. Trish lives in Ardersier and is an active leader in the community and Chair of the Ardersier and Petty community council. She has shown great commitment and determination campaigning [...]

Posted by Peter Barrett on Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors

Members of the Nuclear Weapons Working Group are presenting their personal views as part of a wider consultation process into the party's future policy on nuclear weapons. The full consultation paper can be found at www.libdems.org.uk/autumn-conference-16-policypapers and the consultation window runs until 28 October. Party members are invited to attend the consultation session at party conference in Brighton, to be held on Saturday 17 September at 1pm in the Balmoral Room of the Hilton. 1945, August 6, 8.15am. Slicing through the clear blue sky, a previously unknown "absolute evil" is unleashed on Hiroshima instantly searing the entire city, Koreans, Chinese, ...

Posted by Kevin White on Liberal Democrat Voice
YouGov

Someone said to me the other day that an institution so hard to leave as the EU was wrong. I wasn't so sure, as I thought of several associations that are hard to leave - i.e. hard to leave or not take part in without significant downsides. Trade bodies being one, or adhering to international standards. We've also entrenched EU membership into a lot of our internal agreements, and hence in a way have "done this to ourselves". So, what next? Joseph Stiglitz on Today this morning was remarkably upbeat about the prospects of coming to a "rational" agreement with ...

Posted by Louise Ankers on From one of the Jilted Generation...

Embed from Getty Images I appreciated the large response to my post-referendum blog on the 48 Movement. The Bank Holiday Sunday press reminds us that this issue will very soon return with a vengeance as the politicians come back from their holidays. The Brexit hardliners in the Tory party are already preparing their narrative of betrayal by Remainer ministers and sabotage by civil servants. When I wrote my note there was agreement on many points, not least the negative impacts which still await us, but two things I said triggered a negative reaction. One was my argument that the result ...

Posted by Vince Cable on Liberal Democrat Voice

The Liverpool Echo has the story – see link above This Liverpool Echo article is interesting especially as an easily accessible M&S in Bootle was axed to facilitate this new inaccessible one! My previous posting about the closure of M&S Bootle is accessible via the link below:-

Posted by Cllr. Tony Robertson on Sefton Focus

The Guardian has the story on it web site – see link above Leaving the Single Market without clearly knowing what a credible alternative trading strategy will look like could well destroy our economy. It's alright for Brexiters to say oh just leave all will be fine when they have no idea whether it will be or not! Do we really want mass unemployment, a collapsing economy and no money to support vital public services? If not then we all have to see all the options before us before we go wandering off another cliff. Thanks to Roy Connell ...

Posted by Cllr. Tony Robertson on Sefton Focus

[IMG: 124-132 Sandgate High Street Hourdings] Fresh back from my summer holiday, I had my attention drawn to a board on the hoarding on 124-132 Sandgate High Street advertising that it will shortly be sold at auction by Clive Emson. Having had a look at the sale particulars online, I have today sent Shepway District Council's Planning Depertment the following email. I await their response with interest! "There is a plot of land at 124-132 Sandgate High Street currently being advertised for auction by Clive Emson for a September sale: http://www.cliveemson.co.uk/index.php/properties/188/59/ You'll note the the particulars seem to suggest that ...

For someone who was supposed to represent a new politics shorn of gimmicks, Corbyn sure resorts to a lot of gimmicks. His latest one is a particular portion of today's "digital democracy" speech. Most of the speech is actually okay, surprisingly enough. He talks about how it is unfair that parts of the country have serviceable access to the internet while others have virtually none. You don't need to live in rural Somerset to know the pain of this first-hand – try completing any piece of work that relies on a decent 3G connection while travelling cross country on a ...

Posted by Nick on nicktyrone.com

miss_s_b | The Blood is the Life for 29-08-2016 posted The Blood is the Life for 29-08-2016 on #dreamwidth Instagram You know you're accepted as a guest in my house when this happens @DHLinton Twitter RT @hesgen: As another @StrongerIn campaign leader, I endorse this message... [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments

About this time of year the world's central bankers converge on Jackson Hole, Wyoming for a conference. This is an opportunity for many to think about what this important set of government officials should be doing. To judge by the coverage in the Economist, one of the main topics is whether the developed world's leading central ... Continue reading Should central banks raise their inflation targets? →

Posted by Matthew on thinking liberal

We need to talk about Labour. Specifically, we need to start talking about us and Labour. Not the bit of the party that Jeremy Corbyn gets to keep after its leadership election - the trademark and some very shouty people - but about our attitude to, and relations with, the c.170 MPs who will likely decide that that they need another vehicle to jump into when Owen Smith loses, and who would then enter the next election as some mutated strain of Labour. They will be attempting something quite difficult, and it will be messy. With grand scale election defeat ...

Posted by Eduardo Reyes on Liberal Democrat Voice
Tue 30th
10:19

The Brexit legacy

One of the biggest impacts of us leaving the European Union is going to be on Higher Education. Universities and other institutoins have long taken advantage of the funding opportunities offered by the EU, both revenue and capital and now face the challenge of replacing that funding. Some, however say that there are inherent dangers in that process, especially in the way we fund research. The Independent reports that scientists have raised concerns about the increasing privatisation of academic research once the UK leaves the European Union, after it emerged two multinational pesticide manufacturers have given millions of pounds to ...

Posted by Peter Black on Peter Black
eUKhost

So it's been reported in the local media, that the Tory controlled City Council have announced the intention to fine people caught illegally cycling in Bridge Street. Apparently, there'll be a "... a zero tolerance approach when council officers receive new powers, currently used by the police, to hand out fixed penalty notices of £50...." What have [...]

Posted by Cllr Darren Fower on Cllr Darren Fower

I am not an uncritical user of our railway system. As someone who actually likes travelling by train - I am known to travel a long way in order to travel a long way by train - I have a pretty good idea as to what I expect, and am quick to tell the various train operating companies if I'm not happy. So, now that we know the fate of the East Anglian rail franchise until 2025, what do we have to look forward to in mid-Suffolk, courtesy of Abellio Greater Anglia? The list of goodies includes;an hourly service to ...

Posted by Mark Valladares on Liberal Bureaucracy
Tue 30th
09:12

Save our MPs

On September 13 we are due to see the deliberations on the proposed boundary review, which will reduce the number of seats at Westminster from 650 to 600. The number of parliamentary constituencies has varied over time; since the split of Ireland in 1922, it has ranged between 615 and 659, but it has not been below that range since the 18th century. [IMG: House of Commons. Crown Copyright applies to this photo - http://www.flickr.com/photos/uk_parliament/4642915654/] In 1921, the UK's population stood at 44.027 million, so, in 1922, there were 71,589 people (not electors), per constituency. Under these propsals, with the ...

Posted by John Bicknell on Liberal Democrat Voice
Tue 30th
08:49

Tall Ships Regatta 2016

This weekend saw one of the largest events in Blyth's history The Tall Ships Regatta was here over the weekend, with (about ) 30 ships, all sailing vessels from all over the world. The crews were excellent, and we owe a huge thank you to them, the organisers and workers, the volunteers, bands who entertained the crowds, the exhibitors - from Blyth Spartans FC to RNLI and many more , but mostly the hundreds of thousands of people who came to support the event. Thank you one and all ! I had a couple of grumbles passed to me, but ...

Posted by Alisdair Gibbs-Barton on Alisdair Gibbs-Barton

A number of people have asked for more information on the story which appeared in last week's Prestwich and Whitefield Guide story about 2,400 new homes proposed for Prestwich. The very important thing to say from the outset is that nothing is agreed. Landowners and developers have been asked to make suggestions about where development could take place. Greater Manchester councils, including Bury, are conceding these and proposals will be made in October. Nevertheless people are obviously very concerned about these proposals. The new build proposals are all be at the eastern end of Prestwich, around Simister and between Simister ...

Posted by prestwichfocus on Tim Pickstone

From Blether Tay-Gither : Our August Blether will be tonight - Tuesday 30th August - at 7pm in Madigan's Food Emporium and Bookshop, Castle Street. The theme this month is FESTIVALS. Hope to see some of you there - all welcome!

Hous of Commons Research Briefing - Brexit: impact across policy areas A level-headed survey. (tags: eu ukpolitics ) Boundary changes could affect up to 200 Labour seats, says analysis Yep. More small seats are Labour; more large seats Tory. (tags: ukpolitics ) Always Go To The Funeral In my humdrum life, the daily battle hasn't been good versus evil. It's hardly so epic. Most days, my real battle is doing good versus doing nothing. (tags: Lifehacking ) Europe after Brexit: A proposal for a continental partnership A dangerously constructive proposal! (tags: ukpolitics eu brexit )

A few days ago, my friend Richard Gadsden suggested to me that I should write something about how Elvis might have had more artistically productive years in him had he lived. As this is a subject on which I have ... Continue reading →

Posted by Andrew Hickey on Sci-Ence! Justice Leak!