There were only three Council by-elections tonight, all Conservative defences. The Lib Dems have two new councillors as we gained in Devon and Northamptonshire. Charterlands (South Hams) result: LDEM: 46.1% (+46.1) CON: 39.3% (-25.0) LAB: 10.7% (+10.7) GRN: 3.9% (-15.6) No Ind unlike previous. — Britain Elects (@britainelects) February 23, 2017 A ward we didn't even stand in last time is now represented by Lib Dem Cllr Elizabeth Huntley. Just like in Kettering. Barton (Kettering) result: LDEM: 57.0% (+57.0) CON: 29.8% (-19.3) UKIP: 9.4% (-14.1) GRN: 3.7% (-3.5) No Labour unlike previous. — Britain Elects (@britainelects) February 23, 2017 Congratulations ...
Tim Farron has thanked members and supporters for their hard work in the Stoke-on-Trent Central and Copeland by-elections. In an email tonight, he said: The polls are now closed for by-elections in both Stoke-on-Trent Central and Copeland. Members from all over Britain have volunteered, donated and cheered on these two upstart campaigns and I'm so grateful for everything that you've done. We can be proud of the campaigns that Rebecca Hanson in Copeland and Dr Zulfiqar Ali in Stoke-on-Trent have fought - right up to their work today getting our vote out in storm force wind and rain. In the ...
Embed from Getty Images Ever since I wrote an article for Comment is Free on the movement to encourage chess in schools, I have taken an interest in the idea that doing so benefits children's performance in the conventional curriculum. Last time I blogged about this, it was to report a study funded by the Education Endowment Foundation. It found that there were no such benefits. As I wrote then, "I have written too many press releases about scientific papers in my day job to expect any study conclusive." Sure enough new research has appeared, suggesting there were problems with ...
Independent seat. Cause: Resignation No LD Candidate
Conservative seat. Cause: resignation. LD candidate: Andrew Dutton.
Labour seat. Cause: Disqualified. LD Candidate: Rebekah Fairhurst. Contact: David Wilkinson, 01942 819456. david@westhoughton-libdems.org.uk
Conservative seat. Cause: Resignation. LD candidate: Elizabeth Huntley.
Conservative seat. Cause: Resignation. LD candidate: Joanne Alexander-Sefre. To help, please contact Jon Whitehouse – jon@eflibdems.org.uk 07854 851628.
Labour seat. Cause: Resignation LD Candidate: Bernadette Eckersley-Fallon Contact: David Wilkinson, 01942 819456. david@westhoughton-libdems.org.uk
Gateshead Council cabinet experienced an outbreak of foot-in-mouth on Tuesday. The source was Cllr Malcolm Brain (photo above) who decided to launch a tub-thumping attack on the Lib Dems for not attending a presentation put on by officers a few weeks ago about changes to environmental services. If only Cllr Brain had engaged his namesake organ stored between his ears. I was able to respond by
Good news from Maev Kennedy in the Guardian. A permanent gallery devoted the illustration from the Ladybird chiildren's books has opened at the Museum of English Rural Life in Reading: The Reading gallery has scores of titles shelved chronologically from 1961's Learning to Read Numbers, to current titles such as Climate Change by HRH The Prince of Wales, whose 50 pages are credited with two more co-authors and eight peer reviewers. Prince Charles's book is one of three new "expert" titles, for which the first new artwork in 40 years was commissioned. Before that illustrations were endlessly recycled and updated ...
I probably won't be staying up late tonight for the results of the Copeland and Stoke by-elections. I have a reasonably early start tomorrow morning with a meeting of people from the Home Office about the Prevent Network. So I don't want to be going to bed at 3am. My hopes for the outcomes (2 Lib Dem gains) are likely to differ from the actual outcomes. My guess is that Copeland will probably go
Embed from Getty Images I am not a Leicester City fan. Chelsea won my heart when I was a small boy, largely because my Mum comes from Battersea just across the river.* But I was delighted when they won the Premiership last season. In part because it was so unlikely and in part because their triumph melded with the discovery of Richard III to win this historic city some of the recognition it deserves. Things have gone badly for City in their defence of the title this season: they are currently only one point and one place above the relegation ...
Thu 23rd
18:56
Government must remove "squeeze in the middle" for retailers facing business rate hikes
Yesterday, the communities and local government minister, Sajid Javid, made a Commons statement on business rates. He defended the changes in rateable values being introduced on 1 April. These rises have led to protests across the country, including here in Ludlow. Our town has featured in the national media several times in recent weeks. The government must grasp the opportunity to address the "squeeze in the middle". This squeeeze threatens the future of independent shops and pubs, here in Ludlow and across the country. The government is on the back foot. Just days ago, Sajid Javid, said businesses were 'scaremongering'. ...
And so it arrives... finally. Always too short, yet campaigns last forever. At the beginning they take ages, in the middle you wish it was over and at the end you want more time. The day after you are left with a sense of regret at the gap that re-opens in your diary. So what precisely has happened and been going on? Let's go through the outputs. 1. The Conservatives have selected a councillor from Stoke-on-Trent and he's young, enthusiastic and done himself no discredit. What we know is that, assuming he loses, he will duly be given a safe ...
All this week Durham's TAs have been keeping a silent vigil outside County Hall. Just one or two of them most of the time, a few more today. When I left there was a small group standing in the sleet, still smiling, and still waving to the cars that sounded their horns as they drove past. I am filled with admiration for their spirit, their refusal to allow their case to "go off the radar", and their cheerfulness too. I'm completely convinced that, if they are offered a cost neutral arrangement that protects their interests whilst getting rid of any ...
There is an impressively large number of people involved in charitable and voluntary activities in our borough. It has been my privilege to meet many of them and to acknowledge their contribution and thank them for their work. I have also been able to support their fundraising efforts. This week I want to tell you about my own fundraising initiative. On 1stApril I shall be hosting the Mayor's Charity Ball in Southport. I have decided that the money should go to locally based charities. In particular I shall be supporting the 800 Group of Charities. The name was coined when ...
Sign the petition here: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/183859
On 30th December 2016 the Investigatory Powers Act 2016 (more commonly known as the Snoopers' Charter) came into force; suffocating personal privacy and liberty without so much as a whimper from Labour or the SNP. Under the guise of counter-terrorism, the government has achieved unprecedented surveillance powers over its own citizens and now has the ability to indiscriminately monitor, record, hack and spy on the communications and internet use of everyone in the country. With the official opposition in disarray and unable (and even in many cases unwilling) to scrutinise the government's actions and challenge the narrative that state security ...
[IMG: Overhanging tile] You may have noticed scaffolding has appeared around 15 Sandgate High Street. That's my fault! A few days ago I had someone mention there were loose tiles on the roof there. I went and had a look, and there were a number, including at least one actually hanging over the edge of the building above the bus stop, seemingly supported by nothing but prayer and pigeon droppings... I took some photos, and sent them in an email to Shepway Council's Environmental Services on Friday who passed it to their "Building Control and Empty Properties Officer" on Monday. ...
Tuesday night saw the inaugural meeting of the Party's new Federal People Development Committee. This group oversees the Party's work in the areas of Diversity, Membership and Training. The committee was established by the Party's Governance Review, with the idea being that the work in these three areas has a lot of overlap and would benefit from co-ordination. This first meeting was mostly about us getting set up as a committee, electing our various Officers and representatives. To that end: I was elected as Chair of the committee Adrian Hyyrylainen-Trett was elected as the Chair of the Diversity Sub-Committee Sarah ...
Thu 23rd
12:54Measures to support schools, reduce energy use and calm traffic rejected by Shropshire Council
A full council meeting took place today. The biggest item on the agenda was the council's financial strategy through to 2020. An attempt by Lib Dem councillors to deliver more support for schools, reduce the energy used by streetlights and provide more funds for traffic calming was rejected by the Conservative majority. I am sorry that this amendment to council's financial strategy did not go through. It would have helped schoolchildren, communities and the environment. The government has previously provided an Educational Support Grant to Shropshire Council. This was used to pay for school costs such as maternity cover and ...
Thu 23rd
12:30
Caroline Pidgeon writes...Brexit demands greater devolution - a new deal for our regions
Back in 2013 I wrote an article for Lib Dem Voice setting out the case for London and other cities to have more financial control. The vote to leave the EU makes the case for devolution and fiscal devolution more urgent. Whatever Leave voters felt they were voting for, it was not 'business as usual'. It was not an endorsement of centralised power, simply removing it from Brussels to Whitehall and job done. The referendum result not only affects the country as a whole but also within our nations, regions and cities. The uncertainties from Brexit may well be better ...
I'm not so sure that concern over immigration was the over-riding motive for Leave voters in the UK referendum on membership of the EU, but it was clearly important. Certainly, the Leave campaigners thought so, as they kept banging on about "taking back control" and, in particular "control of our borders" However, like so many of the Leavers' claims, that the EU is entirely or even mainly responsible for immigration into the UK does not stand up to scrutiny. Net migration into the UK form other pats of the EU is estimated to have been 190 000 (see here)in 2016 ...
Double yellow lines now in place at Hall Lane/Southport Road junction to aid road safety. The saga of the the type of parking restrictions outside Our Ladies Church in Southport Road Lydiate has been covered before on the is blog site and previous postings are available via the link below:- The agreed solution is now in place which will hopefully improve road safety (driver views along Southport Road when exiting Hall Lane) whilst not compromising the activities of the church.
After two days of debate on the Article 50 Bill, the House of Lords turned its attention to the Digital Economy Bill last night – and inflicted a defeat on the Government as the Mirror reports. The House of Lords backed plans to cap monthly mobile phone bills tonight as peers inflicted an embarrassing defeat on the Government. Supporters say it will stop cash-strapped users seeing costs spiral out of control, barring them from making calls when they hit their limit. Tory ministers hoped to block the move, which would let customers set limits on how much they can spend. ...
I am sorry to keep harking on about the extra £350m a week promised by the Brexiteers to our NHS but actually it is very important. It is possibly one of the chief reasons the UK voted to leave the EU. It is a significant promise that looks increasingly unlikely to be met. The real damage to our NHS from Brexit remains with staffing as is illustrated by this Guardian story. They report on a survey by the BMA which reveals that about 12,000 doctors trained in European countries could quit the UK because they feel less welcome following the ...
[IMG: dunmore siege] The Siege, Helen Dunmore This is the eleventh book chosen from my #40booksby40 list. The question 'The Siege' asks is blunt and raw: what happens when you starve a city for 2½ years? Leningrad found out, from 1941 to 1944 — an astonishing 872 days — when the Germans laid siege to it. We see what happens through the eyes of one disjointed family, the Levins: Anna, the nursery worker, and sister/mother to 5 year-old Kolya; their father, Mikhail, a writer dangerously unable and unwilling to toe the Stalinist line; and Marina Petrovna, an old flame of ...
Today's by-elections in Copeland and Stoke Central are – it is safe to say without the dreaded hyperbole – epoch defining. So what's going to happen? Here's where I nail my colours to the mast. To say I'm worried about this would be to devalue just how shaky I feel about these predictions: we really are in fool's territory here. Still, I feel the need to wade in. COPELAND Current MP: Jamie Reed, Labour (well, he's long pissed off, but the he's the closest thing to a sitting MP anyhow – he's got a good job in the nuclear industry, ...
From the City Council : Dundee City Council proposes to make an Order under Section 14(1) of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 for the purpose of facilitating carriageway resurfacing works. The Order is expected to be in force for 3 weeks from 27 February 2017. Its maximum duration in terms of the Act is eighteen months. The effect of the Order is to prohibit temporarily all vehicular traffic in Nethergate from West Marketgait to 20 metres or thereby west of South Tay Street. Limited access will be maintained to properties for deliveries etc. An alternative route will be available ...
There will be an opportunity to asks questions and express concerns about crime and safety at a public meeting in Ludlow on 2 March. The main guest of the evening will be West Mercia's Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner, Tracey Onslow. She will talk about how the commissioner's office and West Mercia Police work to reduce crime and fear of crime. The meeting will also discuss antisocial behaviour and continuing problems with young people racing around the town centre and other streets. Tracey will be supported local police officers, including Steven Mason, Ludlow's new police constable. Andy Boddington, Shropshire Councillor ...
Why Facts Don't Change Our Minds Beware your own mindset! (tags: psychology ) GOP congressman worries about terrorists using bales of marijuana to smuggle nukes into the U.S. Wow. (tags: uspolitics ) Oxford distances itself from Trump favourite Malloch @FT putting the boot in! (tags: uspolitics ) Profile in Courage: Iceland's President Denounces Pineapple As a Pizza Topping | Foreign Policy Brave statement: Mér finnst ananas góður, bara ekki á pítsu. Ég get ekki sett lög sem banna fólki að setja ananas á pítsuna sína. Mér finnst gott að hafa ekki þau völd. Forsetar eiga ekki að hafa alræðisvald. Ég ...
The Lords are at it again - sticking their unelected noses in to the business of the Commons. How dare they oppose the elected chamber. Well, so those who support Brexit-at-any-cost will tell us - ironically most of which are the same bunch who had no interest in, or actively opposed, changing the unelected nature of the Lords. But this isn't going to be a Bexit post. Nope, there's so much that
