Alongside the Witney and Batley & Spen Parliamentary by-elections, twelve council by-elections have also taken place this week. Here's what we know so far, with turnout in Witney higher than the pessimists speculated: Provisional #WitneyByElection turnout 47% – slightly below average for a Tory seat, but nothing like some of the rumours suggested... — NumbrCrunchrPolitics (@NCPoliticsUK) October 20, 2016

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

Embed from Getty Images I do not have clear memories of the day Aberfan happened - I was six at the time - but in my lifetime there has been no British tragedy that comes close to it in enormity. As Huw Edwards' documentary made clear the other evening, the slide of the tip above Aberfan was foreseeable and foreseen. That programme owed a lot to the work of Martin Johnes and Iain McLean, who wrote a book, Aberfan: Government and Disasters, on it in 2000. In a new article for this week's 50th anniversary - The Political Aftermath of ...

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

The Witney Gazette is carrying live updates from the Witney by-election count here. Turnout is said to be low and a Tory majority is expected. Estimates of the Lib Dem vote are currently around the 25% mark, which would be a fantastic achievement given we started as 50/1 outsiders, fourth with 6.8% of the vote. This great success has been the result of wonderful teamwork led by a superb candidate, Liz Leffman. Just today we had 400 activists in the constituency, 300 people making calls from home, 10,000 doors knocked on and 13,500 phone calls made. I reported for duty ...

Posted by Paul Walter on Liberal Democrat Voice

LD Leigh Frost 362 [69.1%] Labour 162 [30.8%] LD Gain Turnout 15.3%

Many congratulations to Leigh Frost and team on winning a seat on Bodmin Town Council in St Leonard's ward. The by-election was caused by the resignation of a Conservative councillor, and was hotly, but unsuccessfully, contested by the Labour party. Bodmin TC, St Leonard ward: LD (Leigh Frost): 362 Labour 162. Cause: Con resignation #winningthere #LibDemFightback — Nik Alatortsev (@ldnik) October 20, 2016 * Paul Walter is a Liberal Democrat activist. As part of the Liberal Democrat Voice team he helps with photos and moderation on the site, as well as occsionally contributing articles. He blogs at Liberal Burblings.

Posted by Paul Walter on Liberal Democrat Voice

A YouGov poll in August asked voters how much they would be willing to pay to reduce European immigration. The most popular answer, endorsed by 62 per cent of respondents, was Nothing. Yes there are those who would pay to reduce it, but by the time YouGov got to the most expensive option - paying 5 per cent of your income - only 15 per cent of respondents were left in favour. Leave based their campaign on a false prospectus: the idea that we could leave the European Union and be better off. See the photo above if you doubt ...

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

Labour seat. Cause: death LD candidate: Malcolm Paul Adcock To help please contact Chris Nelson. Email: chris@chrisnelson.org.uk

Con (69.3%, +6.3) LAB: 30.7% (+10.5) Conservative hold

Labour seat. Cause: resignation.

Conservative seat. Cause: resignation LD candidate: Robin Vaughan

YouGov

Conservative seat. Cause: resignation LD candidate: Steve Bolter

LD candidate: Ellie Hudspith 916 [56.9%] Con 388[24.1%] Labour 193 [12.0%] Green 98 [6.1%] UKIP 16 [1%] Majority 550 LD hold

Labour seat. Cause: resignation LD candidate: Elliott Sabin-Motson

Conservative seat. Cause: resignation LD candidate: Rob Colwell To help, please contact Simon Wilson on 01485 570697

Labour seat. Cause: resignation LD candidate: Malcolm Paul Adcock To help please contact Chris Nelson. Email: chris@chrisnelson.org.uk

Con [69.3%] Labour [30.7%] Conservative hold.

UKIP seat. Cause: resignation LD candidate: Isabelle Cherry

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 27th October. 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.

Posted by John Dodd on Meols Lib Dems

 

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

Following a statement by SaTH late today (see below), Tracey Huffer, Councillor for Ludlow East, says: "This is great news. The health trusts have solved a problem before it became a crisis. "I don't know why there needed to be any disruption at all. We have known about the bad condition of the older buildings... Continue reading Ludlow maternity unit to reopen - this is great news →

Posted by andybodders on Andy Boddington
eUKhost

It has been a bad couple of years for those of us believing that we lived in a country imbued with a Christian ethos supplemented by the humanity of the Enlightenment. In that time Germany has given a generous welcome to refugees. "We can do this" said Mrs Merkel. True she is now receiving a domestic backlash, but is still odds-on favourite to win her next election. By contrast Britain has renounced our long held reputation for hospitality to those felling hardship and persecution, and is at the back of the queue, having received but a grudging trickle of refugees. ...

Posted by Peter Wrigley on Keynesian Liberal

Your Liberal Britain's latest consultation has just finished, and the full results on what people thinks the Lib Dems should stand for have now been published.

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack
Thu 20th
17:41

Delivering in Ryton

My campaigning job today was to deliver 140 Focuses in Ryton. The newsletter led on the news that dumping at nearby Pathhead landfill site is to stop at the end of January. Also included was a bit about my selection as candidate for Blaydon. We also had a bit in about voting and how many people regret voting Labour since the local elections in May. We had slipped in a bit about the turmoil in

Posted by jonathanwallace on Jonathan Wallace

In 2013, codebreaker and mathematical genius Alan Turing received a Royal Pardon over a conviction of gross indecency in 1952. In order words, he was pardoned for having sexual relations with a man. Now the government, thanks to help from the Liberal Democrats and LGBT campaigners, have announced that they with posthumously pardon thousands of LGBT people for actions that were deemed crimes at the time but no longer are. This a hugely important step, however as I said in 2013, these people never needed pardoning in the first place. The laws they broke and the crimes they committed for ...

Posted by The Mec Journal on The Mec Journal

Baroness Shas Sheehan is no stranger to the refugee camps in northern France, and especially those in Calais. She has been making visits there for a year now, collecting and taking much needed supplies for those stranded there, and finding out for herself exactly what the facts are, what the problems are, and what needs to be done to remedy them. As we know little notice has been taken of the forceful and informed pressure put on by her and the many voluntary organisations, and other individuals and groups that are doing sterling work out there. The issues have been ...

Posted by Suzanne Fletcher on Liberal Democrat Voice

www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-37655697 The BBC has the story on its web site – see link above Words fail me, racists make me sick.

Posted by Cllr. Tony Robertson on Sefton Focus

On Tuesday, Ludlow councillors wrote to the NHS executives that run services at the Ludlow Community Hospital site. We have received a detailed response from Simon Wright, who runs the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH). SaTH runs midwifery-led services in the county. We have also heard from Jan Ditheridge, chief executive of Shropshire... Continue reading Ludlow maternity unit crisis to be resolved in next ten days says health chief →

Posted by andybodders on Andy Boddington

A new poll suggests British people grossly underestimate public support for new energy technologies - is negative news reporting to blame? Back in 2014, David Cameron told the House of Commons Liaison Committee that people are "basically fed up" with wind farms. In 2015, his government then went on to not only cut subsidies for onshore wind, but also make it harder and harder to get planning permission. But politicians are wrong to think wind power is unpopular. Again and again, polls show the UK public are pretty supportive of onshore wind. Our ComRes poll out today, for example, shows ...

Posted by Alice Bell on Political science | The Guardian

The Welsh Liberal Democrats may only have one Assembly Member but the deal that Kirsty Williams struck before accepting the post of Education Secretary is very evident in the Welsh Government's draft budget that was published yesterday. As this BBC article makes clear, Kirsty Williams influence is obvious with a doubling of the pupil deprivation grant for the youngest and poorest learners. This is a £4.5m boost for deprived children in the Foundation Phase, which was a key Lib Dem manifesto pledge. The budget headlines are £111m for apprenticeships and traineeships, a £100m tax cut for small businesses, £10m for ...

Posted by Peter Black on Peter Black

As the war in Syria enters its 7th year, one wonders how this nation, so broken by almost a decade of internecine and global proxy warfare, might ever hope to emerge from the resultant chaos and destruction and become a functional society again. It is a process likely to take decades, if it is even achievable at all. At some point, once some form of settlement is reached, the issue of justice and reconciliation among the various, warring groups must be addressed. As part of a multi-lateral, internationalist response to the atrocities committed by various actors, it is worth considering ...

Posted by Ciaran McGonagle on Liberal Democrat Voice

The TV cameras whirred as DCC's cabinet voted to convert its £3.8m loan to the Durham County Cricket club into preference shares. They were being packed up by the time the cabinet prepared, "on the nod", to agree to giving banks and financiers a £110m windfall as part of a refinancing package. (Durham county's contribution to the windfall is £12m.) That's the nature of TV news. Is it media-sexy? Can we present it easily in pictures? A run of the mill, contractual exercise where nobody seems to lose isn't news. But it ought to be. Because behind every run of ...

Posted by Owen Temple on Owen Temple & Margaret Nealis

I have decided to take the Proust test now at the age of 24. In all honesty, these questions will be far better answered when I am much older and nearing the end of my life after having many more years of experience. This is why I have decided that every 10 years I will conduct this test and see if there is a major difference in my answers as I get older. I'm genuinely hoping there will be because if there isn't, then I have learnt nothing. What is your idea of perfect happiness? To be published, read and ...

Posted by The Mec Journal on The Mec Journal

It is looking increasingly desperate for UKIP. Despite protestations from Farage to the contrary, UKIP appear to be financially insolvent. Political parties often carry debts higher than the man on the street might think, but UKIP's problem is that they've just been through a series of shambolic incidents that has dented their credibility massively, while it seems that their major donor is none too happy about it all. Why bother to bail UKIP out when you could start something fresh, Arron Banks is almost certainly asking himself. UKIP's death isn't completely certain: Nuttall could become leader, convince Banks of his ...

Posted by Nick on nicktyrone.com

What's the issue? The City Council have now decided that they will not accept a petition that OVER 1300 people added their support to as a formal submission. Therefore, residents who are calling on the City Council to stop their planned action of evicting residents in St Michael's Gate, Parnwell, have launched a petition on the [...]

Posted by Cllr Darren Fower on Cllr Darren Fower

Great old photo of the Mitchell Street School - now the Mitchell Street Centre :

Excellent news of a Lib Dem victory reaches the Voice: Liberal Democrat peer, John Sharkey, whose Private Member's Bill was instrumental in securing a pardon for Alan Turing, has today reached an agreement with the Government which will grant a posthumous pardon to thousands of gay and bisexual men convicted under long abolished sexual offence laws. Those similarly convicted but still alive will also receive pardons if they have successfully applied for a disregard or in future successfully apply for a disregard under the Protection of Freedoms Act. The Government will add their name to the Liberal Democrat amendment to ...

Posted by The Voice on Liberal Democrat Voice

How so much of the world occupies so little of its land Population concentration! (tags: maps ) Azerbaijan: Relentless Crackdown on Critics And #IlgarMammadov still in jail. (tags: azerbaijan )

This week's reviews are up, free for all Patreon backers. Reviews of the new Bendis Iron Man, Faith, Black Hammer, and Astro City. Let me know what you think...

Posted by Andrew Hickey on Sci-Ence! Justice Leak!
Thu 20th
00:09

Whither Witney?

Some photos from a visit to Witney earlier in the week on a glorious autumnal day. A busy weekday morning in the Lib Dem HQ in Corn Street, Witney. The sort of street that Bob and Thelma from the Likely Lads would live in if it was 250 miles North. A military transport plane heads towards RAF Fairford (or possibly Brize Norton?) The sort of idylic rural home that makes producers of TV lifestyle programmes swoon. So how are the Lib Dems going to do? The truth is I have no inside information and what follows is hunch and supposition. ...

Posted by Dan Falchikov on Living on words alone