As President Trump sits down in the Oval Office for his first day in power, hundreds of thousands of people will march in Washington DC to show solidarity with those who have good reason to be fearful of the next four years. Women, Muslims disabled people, Mexicans are just some of Trump's targets who have faced mockery, inappropriate comment or language bordering on hate speech from him. Every time he talks about building walls, or banning people, or openly admits sexual assault like it's all a game or mocks disabled people, he encourages another round of abuse and prejudice. Marches ...
Embed from Getty Images Ben Riley-Smith writes on the Daily Telegraph site this evening: Jeremy Corbyn is set to become the first official opposition leader to lose a by-election to the Government in 35 years, according to the Labour Party's own canvass returns. The Telegraph understands internal analysis of more than 10,000 conversations with voters in Copeland, the Cumbrian constituency, shows Labour's support down by a third since 2015 ...The returns suggest that the Tories will take Copeland - a seat held by Labour for 80 years - when voters pick their new MP next month.He goes on to say: ...
I must have taken this around 1980, by which times Deltics were confined to the stopping trains from York to King's Cross. (I was never convinced by those white cab surrounds.) Except that this station roof doesn't look like York. Could it be Manchester Victoria? If it was, what was the Deltic doing there?
Bury Council's Cabinet will be considering a report at its meeting next Wednesday (25 January 2017) on the future of Libraries. The Council has been consulting on library service for a number of months, though for everyone involved in the consultation the proposals - which now recommend the closure of at least 10 of the 14 libraries across Bury, including Unsworth Library on Sunnybank - these plans will come as a huge surprise. The options to be sent to public consultation are: Option 1 - Close 11 Libraries, keeping Bury (with Archives), Prestwich and Ramsbottom. Option 2 - Close 10 ...
What will Brexit mean for your favourite sports team? Tim Wigmore explains. Milton Keynes is 50 years old. Stephen Bayley asks if we should celebrate it or laugh at it. Raf Nicholson celebrates Rachael Heyhoe-Flint, who died this week: "The first women's cricket celebrity, she was unique, wonderfully charismatic and humorous." Jem Stone offers a quick history of the BBC and social media. "During the 1950s. the quest for the four-minute mile was seen very much in nationalistic terms; Bannister's 1953 run was, in fact, hastily arranged to take place five hours before his American rival ... made his own ...
It was a very quiet night on the by-election front last night. The Conservatives managed to hold a seat in Bromsgrove where we didn't stand but their vote fell by 16.6%. A Conservative hold on Bromsgrove District Council last night. https://t.co/Q1lXVZyIHg pic.twitter.com/GFeLQIy7mJ — Britain Elects (@britainelects) January 20, 2017 However where we did stand in a seat on Faversham Town Council in Kent, our very own Antony Hook gained a seat from the Conservatives. * Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings
The family health emergency mentioned yesterday is worse than I thought at first (and I thought it was bad). I'll be doing family stuff for a while, and may not have the brain space for writing anything coherent this weekend. ... Continue reading →
Fri 20th
18:39
Doctor criticizes Gwyneth Paltrow for advising women to hold jade eggs in their vaginas all day
There has been other news in America today, and it has helped the New York Times to win our Headline of the Day Award. The judges praised its perfect combination of celebrity, randomness and rudeness.
Second paragraph of third chapter:As he went along the corridor he was assailed by all sorts of doubts and surmises. Could he have made some mistake in his work? Could someone have appeared from the depths of the Empire and come knocking at every door, going from office to office and vizier to vizier, claiming that his valuable dream had been thrown in the wastepaper-basket? Mark-Alem tried to remember the dreams he'd rejected recently, but couldn't recall any of them. Perhaps that wasn't it, though. Perhaps he'd been summoned because of something else. It was nearly always like that: when ...
Fri 20th
15:58
Tim Farron tops Guardian front page as Carmichael's "You're not an opposition" riposte to Thornberry...
Last night, Alistair Carmichael took full advantage of the opportunity his last minute addition to the Question Time panel gave him to give both Conservatives and Labour a blast. Watch him tell off Labour's Emily Thornberry: Earlier today, Tim Farron was the top story on the Guardian website as he lambasted Labour's failure to put up any sort of opposition to the Tories. In an overt attempt to steal votes from Labour in pro-remain constituencies, Farron said he believed Corbyn had put his party on the wrong side of the biggest political issue in a generation and was struggling because ...
[IMG: web story image always stand] I know this advice comes from ALDC every year – make sure you have a full slate of candidates standing in every division, but I want to tell you it is possible and should really try to make this a reality. If the results in Sunderland are anything to go by, it is vital that [...]
Sal Brinton, the Lib Dem President, has announced that party membership has topped 80,000, with 1000 people joining the Liberal Democrats since Theresa May's speech announcing that the Tories are going for the most extreme, hard Brexit that they can. 500 people have joined in the last 24 hours since Jeremy Corbyn signalled a 3-line whip for Labour MPs to vote for the triggering of Article 50. Sal said: The Liberal Democrats are the real opposition to this Conservative Brexit Government and it is great to welcome so many new members. For those who oppose Theresa May's plans to rip ...
South Glos has already gone some way towards stopping dangerous U-turns across the Rodford Way dual carriageway by putting an island in the mouth of the Abbotswood junction, which was the favourite turning place. It hasn't totally solved the problem yet, because some people are still doing U-turns - we even saw a large articulated vehicle do it the other day. Even worse, some of the drivers are going through the wrong gap in the central reservation and meeting legitimate turning traffic head-on, or turning through the three-way Sundridge Park / Rodford Way / Shire Way junction. There have been ...
Continuing the sharp growth in Liberal Democrat membership since the 2015 general election, events of the last few days have now pushed it over 80,000: Over a thousand members have joined the party during the course of the week, half of which have joined since Corbyn confirmed Labour will back the Tories in triggering article 50, even if it leads to a hard Brexit without the public being given a say. Membership is now at its highest this century with 2016 being the best year for membership growth since the party was founded and continues to rise. Commenting, Liberal Democrat ...
[IMG: web story image always stand] When it comes to finding those candidates it is, of course, a question of asking. Don't make it just one persons responsibility. Ask all councillors, officers and activists to suggest names and divide the ask between a number of people. Also with our recent surge in membership it is also important to ask and advise what [...]
Theresa May's long awaited speech on Brexit was notable both for what she did say and, perhaps more conspicuously, for what she did not. On Northern Ireland specifically, the Prime Minister declared that the maintenance of the Common Travel Area will be an important priority during the negotiation and that the UK will work to deliver a 'practical solution' so as to avoid a return to the borders of the past. The practical solution posited by Mrs. May was subject to the caveat that the integrity of the UK's immigration system must be protected. This, the Prime Minister suggests, is ...
Lib Dem Leader Tim Farron says "Now we know what Theresa May's Brexit looks like and it's not pretty. The Government is pushing for a destructive hard Brexit with the UK leaving the single market. It will be a disaster for jobs, our economy and for public services. The sad fact is, this speech could have been written by Peter Bone, delivered by Nigel Farage and will no doubt be cheered on by Jeremy Corbyn. We – the Liberal Democrats are the only party that will oppose this Conservative Brexit Government." And here in The Guardian the Lib Dem Leader ...
An oxymoron replaces a tautology. Theresa May, the British Prime Minister is contemptuous of intellectuals that try to weave policies into a wider, coherent narrative. Instead she concentrates on a series of tasks, whose solutions may clash with one another. In her speech on Brexit last Tuesday Mrs May moved her defining slogan on from "Brexit ... Continue reading Theresa May's Brexit moves from tautology to oxymoron but makes the best of a bad job →
Inauguration day, here we are. Today, Donald Trump becomes the 45th president of the United States of America. A lot has been written about Trump breaking from conventional American foreign policy in numerous ways, not least of which in terms of volume having to do with how instead of seeing the European Union as the best guarantor for American interests in Europe (as every other president in the relevant era has done), Trump sees the EU as fundamentally a bad thing. Few of the speculative articles on this really seem to understand why Trump feels this way, although it is ...
The Campaign for Gender Balance (CGB) and the Diversity & Talent Support Team are pleased to announce that this year's Future Women MPs Weekend will be held on Saturday 4 - Sunday 5 March 2017 at the Jurys Inn Hotel in Milton Keynes. Future Women MPs weekend is an intensive residential training weekend for any aspiring female MPs within the party; whether you are already an approved candidate or are yet to take that initial first step, this is the perfect way to kick start your journey to Westminster. Jo Swinson, Tessa Munt and Jenny Willott all started their successful ...
Bury's NHS Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) met on Wednesday (18 January 2017) to consider the outcome of its own 'consultation' on the future of our two Walk-In Centre (Bury and Prestwich). The result of the public engagement undertaken included over 1,000 survey completed by residents: 90% thought that the Walk-In Centres serve a purpose not otherwise provided in Bury. 83.5% disagree or strongly disagree with a decision to not renew the Walk-In Centres. The CCG recognised that the largest number of objections and concerns were regarding the Prestwich Walk-In Centre, rather than the Moorgate Centre. Only one petition was received ...
Responding to the publication of the Scottish Government's Draft Climate Change Plan, outlining an ambition to reduce emissions by 66% by 2032 compared to 1990 levels, Scottish Liberal Democrat energy spokesperson Liam McArthur MSP commented: "Having only met our climate change targets once in five years we need a plan and a vision, backed by ... Continue reading McArthur: Time to 'Walk The Talk' on Emissions Reduction
ALDE MEP Ivo Vajgl (Slovenia, DeSuS), European Parliament's rapporteur on Macedonia, expressed his concerns at rising tensions among the countries of the Western Balkans in recent weeks. Ivo Vajgl calls on leaders of the Western Balkan countries to keep the region stable and focus on the European integration process: "Recent statements of some leaders are ... Continue reading ALDE Express Concerns over Western Balkans
In a statement following the SNP Government's defeat over their plans to abolish the board of Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Northern Isles MSPs Tavish Scott and Liam McArthur said: "Parliament has given SNP Ministers their marching orders tonight. Despite SNP Highlands and Islands MSPs shamefully putting their party before their constituents, the government was defeated ... Continue reading Defeat For SNP Government on Enterprise Boards
It is time to explain my hip thigh bone theory of the world. The theory is based on the 1920s African-American spiritual "Dem bones, Dem Bones, Dem Dry Bones." The ditty in turn was based on a Biblical passage in which a collection of dry bones reassemble themselves before the astonished eyes of the prophet Ezekiel . The foot-tapping, hand-clapping spiritual is a roof raiser in evangelical churches around the world. It is also a popular song in young children's anatomy classes. But to my mind, Its main value is as a perfect metaphor of how the rapidly shrinking and ...
It is some time since a Liberal Democrat leader featured so prominently on the front page of the Guardian so it is worth reflecting on where the party currently stands. The Liberal Democrats have just passed 80,000 members after surges in new recruits following the 2015 General Election, the European referendum and Theresa May's 'Brexit means Brexit' fiasco/saga. We are the only party fighting elections in all the nations of Great Britain with a clear pro-European message and we are very very slowly starting to see the benefits of that stance in the polls. It is right therefore that Tim ...
Last night, at my weekly ward surgery at Blackness Primary School, I had the pleasure of meeting the West End's new Community Police Inspector, Martin Pattie, and discuss some local matters. The introduction of locality-based Inspectors is a good initiative by Police Scotland that I discussed with Divisional Commander, Chief Superintendent Anderson, at a meeting just before Christmas. The West End already has an excellent Community Police Sergeant in Elise Wilson and she advised me yesterday about another positive initiative in the West End - regular police community surgeries - to quote Sergeant Wilson : "We are due to launch ...
HSBC, UBS to shift 1,000 jobs each from UK in Brexit blow to London #takingbackcontrol (tags: ukpolitics brexit ) A masterclass in disinformation NATO's deployment to Eastern Europe - as portrayed in Russian media. (tags: Russia nato ) 'He Has This Deep Fear That He Is Not a Legitimate President' Trump's biographers reflect. (tags: uspolitics )
I've had a very bad sinus infection for a few days — one which was at first so bad I genuinely worried it might be a stroke because I was so dizzy I couldn't even turn over in my sleep ... Continue reading →
