It's Lib Dem conference this week. I can't be there this time, but as you'd imagine it's not getting a huge amount of coverage in the media. We've been reduced from nearly sixty MPs to eight, and we're fourth in ... Continue reading →
That's the headline on an article on the website of Varsity, which styles itself "cambridge's leading student newspaper". Looking at the Boundary Commission proposals for the Cambridge constituency, its author Harry Curtis says: If enacted, they would introduce voters in the Queen Edith's ward in the south of Cambridge - which contains Homerton College and Addenbrooke's Hospital - and the Milton ward, northwest of the city to the constituency. Local election results from the newly added wards suggest that the proposed boundaries will change the balance of power in the city's politics. Current Labour MP, Daniel Zeichner took the seat ...
Sun 18th
19:52
MP Philip Dunne to lead Ludlow "Question Time" debate on local health facilities and services
Health service and council budgets are under unprecedented pressure. Ludlow Town Council and the Ludlow and Clee Local Joint Committee (LJC) will be hosting a public debate on 29 September on health and public services. Health minister and Ludlow MP Philip Dunne will join a panel for a "Question Time" style debate on the future... Continue reading MP Philip Dunne to lead Ludlow "Question Time" debate on local health facilities and services →
Despite our differences, I hope we can agree that there is nothing - absolutely nothing - as funny as a man dressed as a nun driving a motorised piano. There was other stuff at Arts Fresco. No doubt I shall show it to you one day.
Another good performance last night by Tim Farron at the party rally in Brighton. He talked about Europe and how we will continue to put the case passionately for a liberal, outward looking, pro-European internationalist outlook. We are now the only party doing so. A standing ovation after his speech.
This is my first video from conference in Brighton. The Leader always carries out a tour of the exhibition stands. It's always a bit of a rugby scrum. I edit Parliamentary Campaigner for the Lib Dem Parliamentary Candidates Association and managed to grab this very short interview with Tim Farron at the PCA stand during the tour.
Second paragraph of third chapter:He kept his head lowered at first, and saw little apart from the soldiers' boots. Under the dust and dried mud they still shone like polished jet. He could see the muzzles of the soldiers' long guns.A story about the Doctor and Ace visiting twin planets and freeing the population of one of them enslaved by the other. All fairly standard, though there is some gruesome offstage violence, torture and sexual assault. Ace gets to have a little fun but both she and the Doctor are thinly drawn. I see other reviewers on the net complaining ...
Sun 18th
15:01
Four Season Birkdale a project for people with learning difficulties to help them prepare fro gettin...
The Four Seasons Garden Centre on Liverpool Rd in Birkdale is well established. Recently it has become the focus of a scheme which provides training and work opportunities for people with learning difficulties. It was a great pleasure to meet the trainees, volunteers and staff at the project. They have developed some exciting opportunities in the garden centre and café. This week they opened a new enterprise - a shop -on the same site to help raise money for their work. I was shown around by the trainees and saw the horticulture work. That day they were potting up bulbs ...
I reckon that I've been to over 30 Lib Dem conferences in my years as a member, so missing the odd one usually isn't a hardship. But I am absolutely gutted that I am missing this one in Brighton. I really wanted to be there to support the excellent Mending the Safety Net motion that stems from the policy working group I was a member of. It was a first time for me to make the commitment and apply to join a working group but as someone who has spent my whole professional career working with people in hardship, for ...
I am told that when Madness played this, their new single, in Hyde Park last week they dedicated it to Keith Vaz. I can't think why.
Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. 741 party members responded – thank you – and we're publishing the full results. This afternoon, the Conference will debate whether they want to have a Deputy Leader elected by the membership, or to continue with the current system of having a deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Commons elected by the MPs. This is something that is a genuine choice for Conference. There is no "recommended" solution. ...
it's almost two months since the British electorate voted by a slim majority to leave the European Union, but even though the new Prime Minister Theresa May emphatically declared "Brexit means Brexit", no-one seems any the wiser what Brexit will entail — least of all the three men who have been chosen to deliver it: [...]
Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. 741 party members responded – thank you – and we're publishing the full results. There have been many conversations about the possibility of parties on the progressive side of politics working together against the Tories. We asked whether people liked that idea and, if so, what forms of collaboration would they tolerate. Do you think that Labour, SNP, Greens, Plaid Cymru and the Liberal Democrats should work together to oppose the Conservative ...
[IMG: Willie Rennie speaking at Lib Dem Spring conference, Liverpool 2008] It's two years since the Scottish Independence was held and Scotland chose to stay in the UK. Within hours of the result, David Cameron had trashed the fragile victory by banging on about English Votes for English Laws. Whatever the merits of the case, that really was not the time. Willie Rennie MSP, speaking to activists at the party's federal conference in Brighton, has said that David Cameron "does not deserve our respect or fond memory" as he slammed the Tories for entrenching division following the independence referendum in ...
I am at Liberal Democrats conference in Brighton. It is our best attended gathering ever and people are upbeat on the back of 15 local council by-election gains this year so far including some significant wins in Labour strongholds. Later today our only government minister, Kirsty Williams will be answering questions and then giving a speech. It is easy to imagine that we are on a roll. And yet there is still a long way to go to claw our way back to national significance. Although the media have turned up and are reporting the conference, it feels like those ...
This is an encouraging chart to wake up to on a Sunday morning. I could stay in bed for the rest of the day I suppose, especially as I didn't get much sleep last night ... but, onwards and upwards! If you've not yet sponsored me to walk all over cancer during September, my donations page is still open. ... The post 10,000 steps a day – days 16 & 17 – easy like Sunday morning appeared first on ten pence piece.
Yet another depressing headline from the Liverpool Echo – see link above There is every danger that we are accepting that guns on our streets, here on Merseyside, are a fact of life that we simply have to live with. I hope not as that is the road to ruin.
The enthusiasm of politicians to give me money is bizarre. They love bundles of tax policies that make me better off. They nearly all consider the fact that I can afford a place of my own in London is a reason to give me an extra tax cut (thank you, council tax discount). And almost as many think the fact that my home has gone up in value thanks to no effort of my own at all, but rather a school moving to the area, is something which should solely credit my own balance sheet. At times politics feels like ...
Embed from Getty Images This week I had the chance to talk to Caroline Lucas, newly elected co-Leader of the Green Party of England and Wales, about the book "The Alternative." She co-edited the book with Labour MP Lisa Nandy and her erstwhile 2015 Liberal Democrat opponent Chris Bowers. The three will be taking part in a fringe meeting at Conference TODAY at 1pm in the Buckingham suite in the Hilton Metropole. The event is organised by the Social Liberal Forum. Part 1 is available here. I wondered if the sense of solidarity that exists between women across politics, partly ...
[IMG: ALDC's Campaigner Awards recognise innovation and excellence in local Lib Dem campaigning] The winners of the ALDC Campaigner Awards 2016, sponsored by Midshires, were presented at the ALDC AGM held in Brighton at Federal conference by Willie Rennie MSP, celebrating the best campaigning teams from across the Country. This year's winners and runners-up are: Overall Winner – Liverpool Runner-up: Portsmouth Best By-Election Campaign – Mole Valley Runner-up: [...]
An update about Riverside Community Sports Club : Riverside Community Sports Club was formed in 2009 and is based in the West End at Riverside Football Pitches on Riverside Drive. They are a quality mark Community Standard club run by volunteers which provides boys and girls with the opportunity to play football from age 5 upwards supported by suitably qualified coaches at all levels. This year promises to be another exciting year for the club with 5 boys teams playing 7 a-side (2005-2007); 4 boys team playing 11 a-side (2004-2001); and an adults amateur team playing in the Premiership Division ...
Whether you are physically in Brighton or are following what is happening from home, this is your place to talk about the public face of the Conference – in other words, all the debates and speeches that are going on in the main auditorium. Please use the comments below to add your reports on policy and constitutional debates or to draw readers' attention to ones in the pipeline. You can read the agenda in full, including the text of amendments, here. We will be running a similar thread each day, so please confine your comments today to what is actually ...
All the bad news the Government has tried to bury this week, from disability cuts to Saudi Arabia arms sales ICYMI (tags: ukpolitics ) Solitude, Space Junk and Sea Monsters: the Eerieness of Point Nemo Wow. (tags: maps space eldritchhorrorsfrombeforethedawnoftime )
Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. 741 party members responded – thank you – and we're publishing the full results. So, here are the results of the Brexit jury. We broke our readers in gently by asking them how they voted in the Referendum. The result will surprise nobody: Remain: 94.06% Leave: 5.94% We wanted to gauge feeling in the party towards the elements of Tim Farron's Plan for Europe: First of all, we asked if members supported ...
Marvel Music, Miserable Kids and Masses of Being Mean to Liam Fox Britain is woefully unprepared for the thing I told it to vote for, says Liam Fox (Newsthump) "Describing other people as 'fat and lazy', Fox criticised Britons for not doing anything like enough to mitigate against the consequences of his actions, and said he [...]
