Embed from Getty Images The infamous letter which Liam Byrne left for his successor as chief secretary to the Treasury is in the news. (You can read it in the photograph above.) David Laws, who made it public after coming to office in 2010, is receiving demands that he hand it over from both the Treasury and the National Archives. I am all for preserving our national heritage, but I can't help feeling it would have been better if Laws had burnt it when he first saw it. First, there is an established tradition of ministers leaving joking notes for ...
Important news from the Rutland & Stamford Mercury: A pair of cyclists believe they spotted the elusive Rutland panther while out for a ride yesterday evening. Tim Bateman and son Harry, 16, were on the road between Teigh and Market Overton when they saw the mysterious beast prowling in a field. It was black, had a long tail and was seen chasing a pheasant at great speed through long grass. Tim, who lives in Market Overton, said: "At first I thought it could be a deer, or perhaps a dog, but it was so fast and agile I'm convinced it ...
Peterborough's very own Tory MP hits out at our Tory run City Council after they granted planning permission for a traveller pitch in Crowland Road, Eye on Tuesday 27th 2016. During the interview... He describes the planning committee was a kangaroo court, Claims the Tory chairman, Cllr Harper, is really just a front man, for [...]
Second paragraph of third chapter: After the liberation of Vera Cruz, Miracle Of The Green Earth (in beauty and truth lives his name forever) saw that the people needed to break with the past. He sent each one a dream in which a yellow dog whispered, 'Break down the storehouses, burn the food, the world begins today.' When the people woke up they piled all their food in the streets and burned it. Then they ran to destroy groceries, silos, even the crops waiting in the fields. When they had finished they stood swaying in the morning rain, listening to ...
[IMG: 2015-9-mayor-official-picture-sept-2015] Nominations have closed for members to serve on the ALDC Management Committee, 2016-2018. Mayor Dave Hodgson has been elected as the next Chair of ALDC. Dave Hodgson has been the Liberal Democrat Elected Mayor of Bedford Borough since 2009. Dave was previously a Councillor on Bedford Borough Council, having first been elected in 2002, and [...]
Last week, the Daily Telegraph's chief reporter Robert Mendick enjoyed sharing with the country the Home Secretary's safe-sex poem from back in 2008, before she became MP for Hastings & Rye. This week local Liberal Democrats seek to switch the focus back to the issues of gender inequality and teenage pregnancy for [...]
If you had to boil down Matthew Seyd's Black Box Thinking: Marginal Gains and the Secrets of High Performance to four words it would be the fairly unexceptional sounding 'learn from your mistakes'.
Every year in November it is possible to get a professional will made in return for a donation to charity. The solicitor will not charge for the will, nor are you committed to give a specific donation to charity – though not to make a donation would be out of keeping with the principles of the scheme. Some facts: Last year the government received £8 million because people died without a will nearly two thirds of people aged over 55 don't have a will Most people know that their family would have an easier time on their death if they ...
Una Voce Opera Company was founded by the McAulay Family and Friends on 26th September 1996 with the mission of: Bringing Opera to all and all to Opera at affordable prices and in accessible venues whilst educating and entertaining the public and giving singers a platform to express their art and demonstrate their voices. Civic Guests with Una McAulay founder of Una Voce The organisation marvellously achieved their objective on Saturday evening when the brought together a group of soloists to perform at the Sacred Heart School in Crosby. Their music ranged from opera through to songs from the shows. ...
Embed from Getty Images I can tell you the exact moment I became a member of the Liberal Democrats. It was the 11th May 2015. I had identified with the ideals of the Liberal Democrats for a long time, but waking up on election morning with an extremely sad and defeated looking Danny Alexander on my TV truly summed up how I felt about the election result. A conservative majority government, now in power and able to introduce right wing policies, without a coalition partner to restrain them; the Lib Dem wipe-out was even more terrifying than the "yellow surge" ...
I was very pleased to accept an invitation from Cllr Pat Keith to attend the MacMillan Coffee morning at St Patrick's in Marshside, and not just because I knew if Pat was involved the cakes would be excellent-and they were. We all know what an excellent MacMillan cancer care does in our communities and it was good to see so many folk turn up to support Pat, Sue and their friends who put on the event. This morning Pat posted an update: A message from Pat Keith...Well done everyone for making our Macmillan Coffee Morning such a great success. Thanks ...
First thing Saturday morning I was at the Southport Convention Centre to open the Catholic Women's League Conference. Southport is clearly a favoured venue for faith groups to hold their conferences. I have already opened a gathering of the Salvation Army and the General Assembly of the United Reform Church I learned all about the Leagues activities including the Presidents project to support Women's refuges and fund-raising for Water Aid
Embed from Getty Images On a recent Question Time there was an excellent debate on the future funding of the NHS and social care. Norman Lamb, the former Care Minister and Lib Dem MP made a passionate plea for greater investment in the NHS and in particular on mental health. Tory MP, Jacob Rees Mogg, unsurprisingly, countered that the UK cannot pay more tax. Even the usually more Conservative Julia Hartley Brewer nodded in agreement when Lamb outlined how little we spend on health as a proportion of GDP, which by the way is less than other European countries including ...
As our NHS crumbles before our very eyes, as social care for the old and the vulnerable crumbles with it, as our world gets dangerously more warm by the day, the national debate (as presented to us by the press) often seems to be about far, far less pressing issues. The colour of our next passport, whether we should recommission the Royal Yacht Britannia, the troubles of TV's Bake Off and how we can keep out anyone from the UK particularly if they have anything but white skin and can't speak the Queen's English. Without doubt the UK is taking ...
Embed from Getty Images Warning: this article contains an overuse of the word 'progressive', a buzzword that doesn't buzz. On 24th September the Independent published a list of The Top 10 most popular zombie bad policies. The list included the usual suspects, rail nationalisation, the death penalty, and so on, but to my consternation Jon Rentoul also included this one. 4. Proportional representation. It's a matter of opinion, but I think it gives disproportionate power to small parties, and it is not obvious to me that Ireland, Germany or Italy are more democratic, better governed or more engaged with politics ...
Thursday saw me at the Merseyside Independent Business Awards at the Titanic Hotel in Liverpool. Award ceremonies can be a tad self congratulatory but I thought this event served a very important purpose and was well done. The event was hosted by the Philips Family (Father and daughter) and the entertainment came from Danielle Louise Thomas -whose former school I visited on Saturday where they were singing her praises, but more of that later..... Independent businesses employ a very large proportion of the workforce. The days are long gone when large corporate employers dominate. For our economy to thrive we ...
After attending the both the smallest Lib Dem conference and the smallest Labour conference I have ever been to, I was preparing myself for a mammoth Conservative Party conference – all of the corporate interests and political energy has to have somewhere to go, right? But I still wasn't ready for what I've found here in Birmingham. British political commentators post-Corbyn like to talk about the emerging "one party state". But it's one thing to talk about it in the abstract – quite another to come face to face with it. In Liverpool there was barely any security at all; ...
[IMG: Dave Page Hilly Mathies broken down by motorway] Yesterday, Dave Page, one of the Sarah Browns and I came down from Manchester to help the by-election fight in Witney. It was very good of Dave to do all that driving especially when, on the way, he had to deal with a minor car breakdown, on the side of the motorway...(see right) Undeterred, we were soon back in the car and made it to Witney and the HQ. But only for a few minutes - as Dave said, it's a great feeling to come into a well-run by-election HQ, but ...
Twitter RT @julesmattsson: The new season of Black Mirror has really given up on subtlety hasn't it Racist Social Media Users Have A New Code To Avoid Censorship - BuzzFeed News RT @rebecca_roache: Donald Trump's racist supporters are using what little brainpower they have to devise secret ways to be racist. Paralympics Star Ben Rowlings Reveals 'Tories Stripped Disabled Athletes Of Mobility Vehicles' | Huffington Post RT @gemini2359: #CPC16 Tory Britain The Reality>> Paralympian reveals 'Tories stripped disabled athletes of mobility vehicles'. May speech makes it clear: We're leaving the single market RT @IanDunt: If you can keep your head ...
Around 3 years ago, I proposed to the Sunniside History Society that a project be set up to explore the history of the Fugar/Washingwell area of Gateshead. The project has been up and running for over a year and we got a grant of £10,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund to fund it. On Saturday, an event was held at Sunniside Social Club to gather people's memories of the Fugar area. I popped in
You have to hand it to the Tories for their choice of words. Dubbing the parliamentary bill to undo the legislation that took us into the EU the Great Repeal Bill is very clever. It links it in our minds with the Great Reform Bill of 1832, which was one of the unsteady steps towards improving our democracy. (There are still many more to take). In reality this will be a Great Retreat Bill: the first time as far as I'm aware when Britain has taken a step back from engaging positively, even if sometimes mistakenly, in World affairs, and ...
Theresa May (Photo: BBC) Finally, at last, Theresa May has shown us what she's all about. I'm not sure I'm pleased to say it, but she's proved me right. For a while I was having my doubts - I thought, perhaps, she was genuinely aware of the delicate nature of the situation and was attempting to act in a way that could both unite the country and provide a balanced and open approach to give the UK the best possible options during the pending negotiations. I shouldn't have given her so much credit. My initial instincts were absolutely correct. We ...
Welcome to the latest in my series of tips and advice for Liberal Democrat members, which appear first in the email bulletin run by London Region for party members. Letter of the Lords There's a huge amount of great work done by the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords (now led by Dick Newby) – and all the more so now that there are many fewer Lib Dem MPs and a single-party majority in the Commons. They don't catch the headlines as often as MPs, but that doesn't mean their work isn't interesting and important. So if you want ...
Embed from Getty Images At Conference we agreed a policy motion, "Mending the safety net", on ways of stopping people from falling into poverty caused by problems with social security nets. Leaving aside the heated arguments for how this would best work, how about involving those we are talking about in having a needle and thread too ? Whatever the ways we have of mending the safety net, those who need it must be able to understand the letters that they are sent from the officials concerned. I am not blaming the officials, they don't necessarily know how what is ...
For those who thought that Nigel Farage's appearance at a rally with Donald Trump was a one-off, the Independent reports that the former UKIP leader is alive and well and in the US offering informal advice to the Republican nominee. The paper says that Farage is expected to be in the audience at the second election clash next Sunday at the invitation of Donald Trump. Farage has apparently been advising Trump not to get into a cat fight with Hillary Clinton but to address voters directly. Some would say that is part of the problem. Trump's late night tweets to ...
Back in July, I advised that, following concerns from residents, I had contacted the site agents about the state of the area around the privately-owned empty industrial units at Hawkhill Court at the north end of Mid Wynd - see right : I am pleased to advise that I have now been informed that : "... the Administrators have instructed the site clearance to be completed and will advise you once this has been completed."
Dalai Lama does impression of Donald Trump Truly we are in the end times. (tags: buddhism religion uspolitics ) Whatever is actually in Trump's tax returns is worse than what the New York Times says Yep. (tags: uspolitics ) Don't be fooled: May's big EU law announcement is just admin Yep. (tags: brexit ukpolitics eu )
Community councils were set-up by Lib Dems when they led the council in 2002. Simple idea that power should be exercised as close to residents as possible. Community councils decided local planning applications, traffic schemes, devolved budgets around investing in local areas, devolved revenue spending to help create new projects, and generally gave local residents the power to directly influence local councillors in decisions about their neighbourhood. Sadly not everyone wants to make local decisions. Community councils were stripped of making local planning decisions when Labour took control of Southwark council. They then dramatically reduced the number of meeting down ...
