Four council by-elections this week, three Labour defences and one Conservative defence. The results coming in kicked off with two Labour holds, both in seats where the Liberal Democrat vote was up, over-taking the Greens, but a long way off winning: Labour HOLD Hitchin Oughton (North Hertfordshire). — Britain Elects (@britainelects) November 10, 2016
The organisation ColegauCymru / CollegesWales posts: Erasmus+ColegauCymru / CollegesWales succeeded in its Erasmus+ application once again for half a million Euros to support overseas opportunities for learners and staff. This latest success brings the total amount of funding acquired by ColegauCymru / CollegesWales for learners since 2011 through Erasmus+ and Leonardo da Vinci (the European Union's predecessor programme) to just over €1.2million. Nine FE colleges, Tata Steel and Isa Training will be part of this exciting project. The funding will enable 215 vocational learners and apprentices from 11 curriculum areas to undertake work placements in Europe. There is a petition ...
Luckily, I was treated to a dinner last Tuesday. Very much unknown to me, the evening turned into a quiz on R Dean Taylor. Born in Toronto in 1939, he was the first white artist to record on the Tamla Motown label. Here are his main Motown hits: Share
Well done BBC Radio 2, Pick of the Pops and Paul Gambaccini! Last Saturday's Pick of the Pops 1964 half was a real corker. Often the programme throws up great tracks which aren't played much these days. Henry Mancini's "How soon?" was really fantastic to hear. Yes, a bit schmaltzy and MOR (Middle of the road), but it hit the spot with me.... The Great Gambo said it was the theme from the TV series "The Richard Boon show", which is in the second box below and looks like a laugh a minute... Share
Labour seat. Cause: death. LD candidate: Adam Davis.
Labour 258 [31.9%] Independent 200 [24.7%] Conservative 158 [19.6%] LD Louise 150 [18.6%] Green 42 [5.2%] Majority: 58 Turnout: Lab hold Percentage chance since 2016
Conservative seat. Cause: death. LD candidate: Richard Greenwood. To help, please contact Bob Wheatcroft at bob.wheatcroft@gmail.com.
Labour seat. Cause resignation. LD candidate: Sam Macaulay
UKIP seat. Cause: resignation. LD candidate: Don Cochrane.
"Why are you always going on about the Shropshire hills?" I hear you ask. Let John Gillham, author of Hillwalking in Shropshire, explain.
And so another week with Lord Bonkers draws to a close. I always find that something of a relief. Sunday The pews at St Asquith's are packed - packed with clowns, jugglers, strongmen, lion tamers, beautiful ladies more often to be found riding horses and daring young men taking a morning off from the flying trapeze. Yes, my coming to the aid of the clowns in the Bonkers' Arms the other day Went Down Well. In contrast, the Revd Hughes could have chosen a more tactful text upon which to preach his sermon. He gives it both barrels with Zephaniah ...
As I tipped in Lib Dems set for new Party President election and the winner is likely to be... (spoiler: obvious answer coming), incumbent Sal Brinton has indeed been re-elected as Liberal Democrat President for a further (and final) two year term of office. If you are a party member and wondering why you haven't seen any ballot papers for this contest, that is because she has been re-elected unopposed. Here's what Sal said on the news of her re-election: I am honoured to be returned unopposed for my second term as President of the Liberal Democrats. The growth and ...
When I was in New York a few years ago a fellow blogger said to me something along these lines: "When Europeans visit the United States they usually come to New York or California, which are liberal, cosmopolitan places very like Europe. "But the rest of the country - what me are not meant to call 'the flyover states' - is not like that."This week's events have borne out the wisdom of those words.
However powerful the ruler, they still die eventually. So what happens next?
Liberal Democrat Voice had the story months ago; now the Mirror has caught up. Kevin Maguire has discovered that the lord chancellor Liz Truss was one a young Liberal Democrat activist: Teeny Truss was an activist in the yellow peril's Youth & Student wing, attending the pictured July 1994 protest on Twyford Down against Conservative Home Secretary Michael Howard's Criminal Justice Bill. Back then the In-Justice Secretary in Theresa May's Government stood up for civil liberties by objecting to restrictions on raves and wider stop and search powers. An inept Minister accused these past few days of failing to defend ...
emsiekate: CRYING IN MY SEMINAR AGAIN FFS
Thu 10th
19:55
Congratulations to Sal Brinton on being re-elected as President of the Liberal Democrats!
Embed from Getty Images Here is one presidential election you can all cheer about. The term of office for the President of the party is two years, with a limit of two terms, so every four years it coincides with the bigger event across the pond. Sal Brinton has served her first two years and has been elected unopposed for a second term. She said: I am honoured to be returned unopposed for my second term as President of the Liberal Democrats. The growth and revitalisation of the party remains my top priority and I will continue to work with ...
Embed from Getty Images There are few feelings worse than those that follow losing an election. The crippling sense of disappointment; the frustration of finding out that your vision for the future is not shared by the majority of the electorate. As liberals we have had to become accustomed to this over the past two years, but the Trump victory feels of greater significance to the geopolitical order than anything that has come before it - even Brexit. It is vital that our anger is channelled into learning from the mistakes that become retrospectively apparent in our defeat. So what ...
Thu 10th
18:22
Foldgate Lane housing has been approved on appeal - it's the worst of planning decisions
Today the planning inspectorate announced that it has given approval to controversial plans to build 137 houses off Foldgate Lane. I am knocked breathless by this decision. The inspector has shown total disregard for our local plans. He says that we are building enough housing and have allocated enough sites for development. Yet he thinks... Continue reading Foldgate Lane housing has been approved on appeal - it's the worst of planning decisions →
I haven't really felt like writing much about politics since June 24th gave a narrow, but important victory to those who believe our future is better outside of the European Union. Well, either that, or they wanted to give the mythical 'liberal elite' a good kicking. There's increasing evidence to suggest that some who voted to leave regret their decision. ... The post I believe that the devil is ready to repent appeared first on ten pence piece.
Embed from Getty Images For years, it was said that there was a threat to western democracies from far-right parties with extremist or populist opinions. The BNP were, in the 2000s, supposed to be 'our' version of this phenomenon, before they collapsed and - arguably - their vote went elsewhere. But, still, the possibility of a small extremist nationalist party gaining undue influence was held to be a convincing argument against electoral reform. I think it may now be possible to say with great certainty that this was either a fallacy or a lie. Why? Because there are two countries ...
Embed from Getty Images No doubt the millions of Americans who voted for Trump will claim he will be the economic saviour of the United States bringing back millions of jobs from Mexico and Asia. For anyone who has studied even a basic level of Economics knows that this false promise will only bring disappointment to those who voted for him. Argentina is a classic example of what happens when a country takes a protectionist and nationalistic approach. During the years of its former President Cristina Kirchner, it gorged on a diet of economic populism including ridiculous import restrictions in ...
A countryside walk down Sudell Lane recently brought this interesting boundary marker into view:- [IMG: an-unusual-aughton-lydiate-or-lancs-sefton-boundray-marker] Click on the photo to enlarge it It was by the side of Sudell Brook which forms the boundary between the Civil Parishes of Aughton and Lydiate and of course the County of Lancashire and Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside. It seems to be of reasonably modern design to me, so I wonder who had it made? Aughton Parish Council? Whomever did it I think its a nice touch and baring vehicle accidents it should be there for generations. The photo is also ...
Embed from Getty Images Since the vote to leave the European Union back in June, many of my friends have suddenly developed a keen interest in their Irish ancestry. Others have already bagged a German passport, a Cypriot passport, and permanent residency in Belgium. Everywhere, anyone with a parent or grandparent from elsewhere in Europe is clambering aboard a lifeboat out of Brexit Britain. Some of us however aren't able to contribute to the big, post-referendum spike in applications to become new Danes, Italians and Swedes. I was giving this a lot of thought last month. Sure, I want to ...
[IMG: gina-miller-on-andrew-marr] When Nigel Farage asked this of Gina Miller on the Andrew Marr show on Sunday she was far too polite and politically unseasoned to respond in kind to this patronising and arrogant question. Well, Mr Farage, I would like to ask you what part of 'Advisory', 'Parliamentary Democracy' and 'Independent Judiciary', don't you understand. Moreover I think your question should be directed more at the people who you persuaded to vote Leave in the referendum. To the old man in the queue in front of me, the day before the referendum who said he "was voting leave because ...
I am sure that the vast majority of folks reading this will say I don't want to lied to. But....... And the but is this. We are all lied to on a regular basis by the media, politicians, businesses etc. Some lie openly but most lie in a way that some of us will not detect because the lies told feed our prejudices. So, in my case, if I hear a story slagging off Yorkshire County Cricket Club I will want to believe it as a Notts supporter. Now are you getting my drift? But what if the lies we ...
What is it? The Gunthorpe Ridings Road Safety on-line campaign is a super simple way to add your support to calls for Peterborough City Council to introduce road safety measures along this stretch of road. By adding your name on-line you'll be kept up to date with how the campaign is going and also receive [...]
Thu 10th
12:30
After more than half a century of post-war consensus, both the Left and the Right have broken ranks
Trump's surprise win has given us all food for thought. While it's easy to take the exit-poll evidence that the vote split across education fault-lines (much as the Brexit vote in the EU did) as a sign that Trump won on the back of mass stupidity, to do so is to ignore what's staring us right in the face. The cosy post-war consensus that arose among the Western powers, supporting baby steps towards prosperity, free trade, freedom of movement, religious toleration, neoliberal economics and gradual emancipation for women, ethnic minorities and the LGBT+, has been shattered by the 'left behind' ...
Thu 10th
12:00Enough with the flagellation of the "liberal elite" - Hillary Clinton actually got the most votes!
Embed from Getty Images In the wake of the US election, there's been a lot of sneering condemnation of the "sneering metropolitan liberal elite" including under posts on this very site. Perhaps just hold the horses on this condemnation for a second, eh? What is the objective of a candidate in an election? Go on. Try it. Ah yes, you say – to win the most votes. Well Hillary Clinton won the most votes in the US election: 59.8 million to Trump's 59.6 million. The constitutional oddity of the electoral college meant that Trump won the votes in the right ...
After the last-minute, and deliberately obscured, transfer of North Durham patients from NHS planning with Teesside and Darlington, into a new planning process around the Tyne, Wear and Northumberland area, North Durham patients have every reason to fear for their hospital services. These new plans, called Sustainability and Transformation Plans (STP), are designed to create big cost reductions in the NHS, and the effect in Durham may prove to be the dismembering of our current Foundation Trust, and the closure of either Chester le Street or Shotley Bridge Community Hospital. Yesterday's publication of the STP clearly states that Durham's UHND ...
I don't know if history is attempting to cheer us up with a sense of irony but yesterday was the 27th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. On the same day, it was announced that the wall-building Donald Trump had been elected US President. Whether or not the Trump wall will ever be built is a moot point and were it to go ahead, quite how he gets the Mexicans to pay for it is not
Embed from Getty Images There has been an upswing in certain sections of the press of the condemnation of a particular demographic: the 'liberal, metropolitan elite'. When did 'liberal' become a dirty word? Why is it being used as a word to mock, or incite loathing? It is defined by the OED as a willingness "to respect or accept behaviour or opinions different to one's own..." and as someone who is "open to new ideas". That all sounds great. Perfectly reasonable. It's concerning, then, that the word is being twisted to suit an agenda that runs on stoking fear and ...
Most of the world remains stunned that Trump could have won the presidential election. Theories abound: some of the few pundits who were correct beforehand said Trump would win because of a key group of indicators; some said you could read it in the behaviour of the markets. But Trump winning conforms to a much simpler prediction model, one that has been correct every time since the war. It's so simple, in fact, it's embarrassing. The more charismatic candidate always wins, every time. By charismatic, I mean this in the crudest possible terms. Basically, take who is the more watchable ...
Back in June, I wrote a post on my private Facebook page summarising my thoughts on the outcome of the EU referendum result in the U.K.; and I find myself filled with similar emotions regarding yesterday's result. Donald Trump has won the Presidential election in the U.S. (with the Republican Party retaining control of both... Read More Thoughts on the US Election Result
Unlike on 23rd June (the day of the British referendum on the EU) I went to bed with a sense of quiet foreboding on Tuesday night. And that foreboding was confirmed by the shocking news of Donald Trump's victory in the US presidential election. It is a bad year for liberals. Some liberals did support ... Continue reading The centre collapses. What should liberals do? →
From the Curator of Museum Services at the University of Dundee : Our current exhibition Ballads of Battle celebrates the life and work of the Dundee writer and illustrator Joseph Lee, and marks the centenary of his first book of war poetry. To accompany the exhibition we have two events taking place tomorrow, 11th November: 1.20pm, Bonar HallLunchtime Concert - Ballads of Battle As part of the University's lunchtime concert series taking place in Bonar Hall, Ken Murray (baritone) and Graeme Stevenson (piano) will perform musical settings of Lee's poems that have not been performed since the Great War. No ...
In the weeks running up to the EU referendum, I said that I would Britain would vote to leave the EU. I didn't know this by the fact that people I knew were going to vote leave. In fact, almost everyone I knew, apart from maybe 5 people, were going to vote remain. When the referendum result was called and I knew Britain was going to leave the EU, I can safely say I wasn't surprised. I was angry, disappointed and saddened, but not surprised. It was in that week following the EU Referendum that I predicted Trump was going ...
Europe, Alone in Trump's World by Mark Leonard Make Europe great again! (tags: eu ) What A Difference 2 Percentage Points Makes Nate Silver reflects. (tags: uspolitics )
The Western Mail reports on the finding by the National Audit Office that the spiralling cost of modernising the Great Western rail line has reached £5.6 billion. They say that the figure represents a £2.1 billion increase since 2013. The National Audit Office's Chief Executive, Amyas Morse commented: "The department's failure to plan and manage all the projects which now make up the Great Western Route Modernisation industry programme in a sufficiently joined-up way, combined with weaknesses in Network Rail's management of the infrastructure programme, has led to additional costs for the taxpayer." The report says that inadequate planning and ...
Some people should not read this post. I assume that approximately 0% of my regular readers (Sid and Doris Bonkers) are happy about Trump winning the US election, but it's just about possible that I have a few USian readers ... Continue reading →
