Sat 15th
23:12

Six of the Best 634

Britain's need to attract large flows of foreign capital to keep it functioning limits are freedom of movement in foreign and industrial policy, argues Duncan Weldon. Stephen Evans says the demonisation of Louis Smith for 'mocking Islam' is illustrative of a troubling return of the concept of blasphemy. Nottingham's parking levy has paid for two new tram lines and railway and bus improvements, reports Charlie Sorrel. The Dulwich Raider celebrates the micropub revolution. "Brilliant and sometimes maddening, "Jerusalem" is Alan Moore's monumentally ambitious attempt to save his hometown, Northampton, England - not to rescue it from the slow economic catastrophe ...

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

Embed from Getty Images Triangle ABC is larger than triangle DEF. How do you think triangle DEF feels about this?It's a joke from an old Punt and Dennis radio show,but I thought of it when I read that some 'soft' subjects are no longer to be offered at A level. According to the Independent, these include History of Art, Statistics, Classical Civilisation and Archaeology. These strike me as perfectly valid areas of study for a sixth-former: Statistics is one of the many subjects I wish I knew more about. More fundamentally, as the joke above shows, any subject can be ...

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

Last night Swalwell Community Centre had their pie and pea supper and quiz. I decided to go but as I normally bomb out of quizzes, I wasn't expecting to win any prizes - sport, entertainment and mucis rounds are usually killers for me. I was on a team named the Goat Lovers (not my idea!) along with my David, my brother Andrew, his friend Matt and Whickham North Councillor Sonya Hawkins though

Posted by jonathanwallace on Jonathan Wallace

Cardiologist Malcolm Finlay has left Labour and is backing Liz Leffman in the Witney by-election. He had a go too at handing back his Labour membership card to the visiting Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn: Cardiologist doctor, @mcfinlay, tried to hand back his Labour Party membership card to Corbyn today now that he's backing @lizleffman! pic.twitter.com/1G47kxH27O — Nassar Kessell (@nassar_kessell) October 15, 2016 Meanwhile, Liz Leffman has also won the backing of the European Movement: Witney has the opportunity to show that pro- Europeans cannot be ignored. For a committed pro-European such as Liz to win the seat formerly held by ...

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

This case has been reported in the media today. I have linked to the judgment for the case. To give a summary of the recent timescales: On 18th August 2016 Mrs Teresa Kirk was sentenced to a 6 month suspended sentence for not signing over a man in his 80s to an anonymous council (one presumes in England or Wales given the jurisdiction of the court). She was arrested on Sunday 25th September at

Posted by John Hemming on John Hemming's Web Log

Billy Ocean has this year released a very strong version of "A Simple Game". This great song originates as a Moody Blues 1968 track, written and sung by Mike Pinder. My favourite version is from the Four Tops from 1972. It is one of my Top 20 favourite songs. I think it is the Four Tops' best track. Really exceptional. Here are all three versions for you to compare: Share

Posted by Paul on Liberal Burblings

[IMG: witney-mosaic] Hundreds of supporters have been flocking to the Witney Lib Dem HQ this weekend. I was there earlier today and delivered a whole village. It was fantastic to see our hub throbbing with activity. One of the main things hapening this weekend is the delivery of a constituency-wide newspaper, the West Oxfordshire Chronicle. Liz Leffman has been thanking supporters for the fantastic work done so far and asks for an extra push in the final days before polling on Thursday this week. You can help Liz in a variety of ways, both at home and in Witney. Visit ...

Posted by Paul Walter on Liberal Democrat Voice

It is wonderful when residents attend Council meetings to give their views on how their Council taxes are being spent. What is sad though is that there are too few people attending meetings because the process seems to not want people to have their say. The Liberal Democrats are the only party in Ealing Borough to be proactive to want views and act up on them, raising these matters in Council meetings. A great example of this is where the Labour party cut the number of local ward meetings (where local issues are discussed) from 4 to 2. The Southfield ...

Posted by Gary Malcolm on Councillor Gary Malcolm

'Not all men' is one of those phrases that has become a shorthand for something wider. In this case it is the tendency of discussions of women's experiences to be derailed by men wating them to be about their response to it: ...the people saying ['not all men'] aren't furthering the conversation, they're sidetracking it. The discussion [...]

Posted by Mark Mills on Matter Of Facts

Lib Dem Peer Jeremy Purvis recently visited Lebanon, an already struggling country which has taken so many refugees from the conflict in Syria. Here he writes for the Scotsman about his experience. The scale of the flow of refugees into Lebanon cannot be understated. Amnesty International puts the figure at more than 1.5 million. The flow of refugees into the country is proportionately the equivalent of the US taking most of the population of Mexico (little good a Trumpian wall). The number of refugees that the UK has accepted pales into insignificance by comparison. Driving along the Syrian border area ...

Posted by NewsHound on Liberal Democrat Voice
YouGov

[IMG: Julian Huppert MP] Julian Huppert has written a powerful piece on Open Democracy. He writes: The Investigatory Powers Bill is sneaking up on the final steps before it becomes law - something that should terrify all of us. Some of the powers in the Bill are deeply intrusive, and with very little possible justification. All of us want to be safe, and protected from terrorists and the like - but the evidence that these powers are all needed is thin indeed. However, the cost to all of our privacy is huge. For example, a power the state never had ...

Posted by Mary Reid on Liberal Democrat Voice

ASD in girls: Gender stereotypes have made us horrible at recognizing autism in women and girls — Quartz RT @stavvers: Gender stereotypes have made us horrible at recognizing autism in women and girls Theresa May's Brexit war cabinet - POLITICO It's almost as if she went "who are the worst possible ppl for the job?" I mean GRAYLING FFS. And nobody from NI/Sco Liberal England: A warning for the Tories: Chasing public opinion can end in tears 20+ Terrifyingly Pawsome Halloween Costumes For Dogs | Bored Panda Trying to decide which ones for Spike & Roxy The Ched Evans trial ...

The timing of the decision by Lord Elis Thomas to resign the Plaid Cymru whip and sit as an independent in the Welsh Assembly came as a surprise to me, but I suspect it was a body blow to Plaid Cymru and Leanne Wood's stuttering leadership. Plaid Cymru can no longer claim to be the official opposition. Their negotiating power over the Welsh budget in particular has been severely diminsihed. Carwyn Jones now has another option to get his budget through and it will be much cheaper than meeting demands from Leanne Wood's party, assuming that Plaid are able to ...

Posted by Peter Black on Peter Black

In recent decades, residents living along Gunthorpe Ridings have had Conservative councillors, they've had Labour councillors, they've had Independent councillors, they've had UKIP councillors, they've even had a Liberal councillor ..... But what they've not had are their concerns on road safety heard. Just 5 months after electing a hat-trick of Liberal Democrats, our track [...]

Posted by Cllr Darren Fower on Cllr Darren Fower

The Liverpool Echo has the story – see link above 'This lavishly-illustrated book tells the story of the emergence of the city's docks in the early 18th century, their huge growth in importance during succeeding centuries - including their key role in the transatlantic slave trade - and the docks' steep decline during the 1900s. The book brings the saga right up to date with the docks' later restoration following decades of neglect, including the opening of the cruise liner terminal and last year's Cunard Three Queens spectacular.' to quote the Echo article. As someone interested in local history ...

Posted by Cllr. Tony Robertson on Sefton Focus

This undated photograph below shows the north side of Perth Road, Dundee, looking west and left from the south end of Springfield. The hairdressing and shampooing rooms at No. 37 belonged to John Fisher & Son, listed as 'hairdresser and perfumer' specialising in ornamental hair. He lived at No. 56 Magdalen Yard Road. No. 41 was William Moffatt, bookseller, stationer and tobacconist. Nos. 43 Perth Road was Mrs J. M. Robertson's West End Livery Stables, listed in the Dundee Directory as Nos. 45 and 57 too. She lived at No. 1 Strawberrybank. The company stables were at No. 32.5 King ...

[IMG: nhs-logo] The Liverpool Echo has the story – see link above We all know the NHS is in a deep crisis through lack of funding and here's some local evidence of that crisis c/o a report in the Liverpool Echo. Those Brexiters who promised an extra £350m per week for the NHS need to make good on that promise and quick too.

Posted by Cllr. Tony Robertson on Sefton Focus

Embed from Getty Images Our second (belated) update from the LDV Fantasy Football League. The season's now eight weeks' old, but already England is on its second manager... though retaining our usual international form. Congratulations to Alain Desmier, our Manager of the Month for September. His Mountgrove Maulers romped an impressive 280 points, ahead of Mark Jewell's Preston West End (259) and Christopher Morgan's Last year's man (235). That result is enough to see Alain topping our overall league table: [IMG: ldv-ffl-8] There are 192 players in total and you can still join the league by clicking here. * Stephen ...

Posted by Stephen Tall on Liberal Democrat Voice

OK, before I start this, I want to make one thing clear: I am not, N-O-T NOT going to tell you how you should use your vote. It would be presumptuous, arrogant, and absurd for me to think I know ... Continue reading →

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