On Wednesday 26 Oct, I presented the petition, to the Managing Director of Taylor Wimpey Manchester, calling on them to provide a roundabout at the A59 / Pendle Road junction, sooner rather than later and it appears it is going to happen! Earlier this summer, hundreds of people just like you, who believed like I do, that we need a roundabout, signed the petition to have the roundabout built now, not after 50 houses have been built on the Standen estate. At the meeting with the Managing Director, several things became clear. Firstly, the construction of the roundabout, will fall ...
The British Film Institute website - and you can watch the film for free there if you click on the still above - describes The Heart Within thus: Teenager Danny lives in London's docklands and befriends Victor, a Trinidadian dock worker, who becomes the chief suspect in a murder in this low budget crime thriller which cleverly mixes Boy's Own adventure with social realism. It gives postwar Britain's most prominent black actor, Earl Cameron, one of his best screen roles as a man on the run for a crime he didn't commit. This is a departure from other 1950s British ...
Sat 5th
19:50
Labour's Richmond Park candidate: Every hour that Corbyn does not resign means another hour of lost ...
Labour held its selection meeting for the Richmond Park by-election this morning. Reports say many present wanted to discuss the idea of standing down in favour of the Liberal Democrats, but the meeting was not allowed to vote on this option. The candidate chosen was the author and jouralist Christian Wolmar. What policy positions you get from a Labour candidate these days is a bit of a lottery, but he appears to have been against Brexit and to be against a third runway at Heathrow. He has also been a vocal critic of Jeremy Corbyn, having sent many tweets saying ...
The shadow of Brexit hung over the London Liberal Democrats' autumn conference in Hammersmith today, though the mood was far from downcast. Buoyed by a string of local by-election wins across the UK, as well as a very strong performance in the Witney parliamentary by-election last month, London LibDems are gung-ho for the contest now [...]
Our second day with the old brute finds him away from Rutland. Tuesday To London for a meeting of Public School Alumni for Comprehensive Education. It is not an organisation for which I greatly care, but many of my fellow Liberal Democrats are staunch members. The speaker explains that if bright children from working-class backgrounds are able to compete with the products of Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference establishments then the British Way of Doing Things will indeed be under threat. The tone of the dinner is celebratory, as several of the group's members occupy senior positions in the new Cabinet. ...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-37883576 The BBC has the story on its web site – see link above I worry about the BBC and its lack of balls these days. It seems frightened of the right wing of British politics and we should all be concerned about that. The BBC was a poor if not appalling commentator on the EU Referendum failing to expose lies that were told and often ducking the major issues that the electorate wanted to know the facts about by simply saying one side says this and the other says the opposite. Now the BBC has this completely misleading headline ...
I'm liking this new Liberal Democrat membership recruitment leaflet produced in London and featuring several of the party's many new members.
In the Aljarafe region of Spain, there's PS10 and PS20: concentrated solar power towers. They're huge towers surrounded by heliostats: movable mirrors that track the sun and reflect its light onto a giant boiler. They are beautiful, but they're also controversial: here's why.
The consultation starts next week on the proposals for up to 2,600 new homes around Yate and Chipping Sodbury, 1,500 at Coalpit Heath, 1,000 at Charfield, 600 at Thornbury and 2,200 at a new "garden village" at Buckover near Thornbury, along with a range of transport proposals. That's on top of the current plans, South Gloucestershire Council will be holding drop-in events in the five areas most directly affected: YATE/ SODBURY WHERE: Chipping Sodbury Town Hall WHEN: Thursday 10 November, 1 - 7 pm CHARFIELD WHERE: Charfield Memorial Hall WHEN: Tuesday 15 November, 1 - 7 pm COALPIT HEATH WHERE: ...
What's the latest then? I've been contacted by some local residents who were passing by Norwood Lane, after they spotted some severe example of fly-tipping at the said location. Is this a new issue then? Certainly not! As far back as 2011, the issue was making national headlines and it was reported that Peterborough City Council [...]
On the eve of the American presidential election, Julian Assange has conducted an interview with Jonathan Pilger in which he not only attacks Hillary Clinton, but does so sounding a lot like an intellectualised version of Donald Trump. The worst Trumpism he has repeated is that the up coming election will somehow be rigged in Clinton's favour: "My analysis is that Trump would not be permitted to win. Why do I say that? Because he has had every establishment off his side. Trump does not have one establishment, maybe with the exception of the Evangelicals, if you can call them ...
[IMG: ALDC Master Logo (for screen)] Yesterday saw ten principal council by-elections across the country with Lib Dem candidates contesting all but one of them. The highlight of the night was a Town Council win for Steve Hartley in the Woodthorpe ward of Staveley Town Council in Derbyshire. Steve gained the seat from Labour taking two-thirds of the votes. This is the latest in a series of fantastic wins for the party in the East Midlands! Three key elements of their recent success are: solid hard work, harnessing the enthusiasm of new members and building a culture of going to ...
Unlike the United States of America the UK does not have a written constitution. Instead we rely on legal precedent and a series of Acts of Parliament, any one of which can upset the balance of the rights we have enjoyed for centuries. The attempts by successive governments to intrude on our privacy by extending legal surveillance is a good example of this. Not having a written constitution also means that the subject is not taught in school in the same way as it is in the USA and people's understanding of the conventions on which our liberties are based ...
Misterton church © Nigel Cox There is a by-election in the Misterton ward of Harborough District Council on 17 November. (Misterton is just east of Lutterworth.) The Liberal Democrat candidate is Martin Sarfas and we are fighting a strong campaign. If you can come along and help, please email Phil Knowles.
"Never underestimate the intelligence of the voters, nor overestimate the amount of of knowledge at their disposal" - Joseph Napolitan
[IMG: acas] On the back of HMRC giving notice to quit to Bootle and Netherton ACAS has seemingly now joined the abandon Bootle movement of Civil Service jobs out of a Town that so obviously needs them. My last posting about the HMRC job losses is available via the link below:- The HMRC jobs some 2,500+ are going into Liverpool whilst the much smaller number of ACAS jobs are moving to economically overheated Manchester! What on earth was the point of putting Civil Service jobs into Bootle in the 1960's, 1970's and 1980's simply to withdraw them all ...
Sat 5th
08:30
Port of Liverpool – £400m River Berth opens but access roads and rails will not be in pl...
The Liverpool Echo has the story – see link above [IMG: Red and blue cranes at Seaforth Docks] How many times have I posted about this?! It must be one of the most cart before horse projects of this scale that I have ever come across. Why build a £400m container ship terminal at Seaforth but without any of the new transport infrastructure in place to service it? Highways England are only just consulting on their controversial plan (that's putting it politely) to build a brand new access road to the docks down the Rimrose Valley Country Park and ...
From the Curator of Museum Services at the University of Dundee : Reanimating H G Wells : An exhibition in the Tower Foyer Gallery, University of Dundee Saturday 5th November-Saturday 23rd December | Mondays to Fridays 9.30am to 7pm, Saturdays 1pm to 5pm Starting today and marking 150 years since the birth of visionary writer H G Wells, this exhibition features striking pieces of art, design and typography created by Graphic Design students at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design, made in response to Wells's pioneering scientific romances. Both Level 2 and Level 3 students have created work ...
Embed from Getty Images Our third update from the LDV Fantasy Football League. Congratulations to Daniel Lewis, our Manager of the Month for October. His Danlew FC scored an impressive 198 points, just edging out Mark Widdop's self-deprecating Midtable Obscurity (197) and Richard Sweatland's self-deprecatinger 'nohopers' (188). Here's the overall league table: [IMG: ldv-0ct] There are 192 players in total and you can still join the league by clicking here. * Stephen was Editor (and Co-Editor) of Liberal Democrat Voice from 2007 to 2015, and writes at The Collected Stephen Tall.
Tesni, the company that is planning to build 215 houses between Bromfield Road and the A49 has applied to remove the controversial foot and cycle bridge across the Corve to Fishmore View. This action follows my requests on behalf of Fishmore View residents. They are concerned that their quiet cul de sac will become clogged... Continue reading Bid to remove Fishmore View footbridge from Bromfield Meadow housing plans →
Why historians would make bad policy advisers Obvious really... (tags: History politics ) APCO's Guide to Election Night 2016 What's happening? And when? (tags: Uspolitics )
Attribution: http://www.flickr.com/photos/81399520@N00/8049978198 What does it mean to stop a war that started years ago? That is the dilemma currently facing the Stop the War coalition. I first came across the organisation way back in 2003. I was a tree amongst the forest of anti-Iraq war protestors in Hyde Park. In that context, 'stop [...]
