Four council by-elections this week, showing a welcome spread of improvements for the Liberal Democrats in places where the party isn't (yet) in a position to challenge for the win. Labour HOLD South Heaton (Newcastle upon Tyne). — Britain Elects (@britainelects) March 16, 2017
A follow-up to Tim Farron's earlier floating of the idea of putting a penny on income tax to fund improved health and social care is coming from Norman Lamb at this weekend's Lib Dem conference: Income tax should be increased by 1p to deliver a £4.6bn boost to the struggling NHS while a long-term funding solution is found, the former Liberal Democrat health minister Norman Lamb has said... Lamb will urge his party's spring forum this weekend to back higher taxes to pay for health and social care. "You have to be straight with the public about what you say ...
Conservative seat. Cause: Death. LD Candidate: Michael Benfold
Conservative seat. Cause: Resignation. LD candidate: Alison Hesketh-Holt. To help, please contact James Pattison (jamespattison4@gmail.com)
Labour seat. Cause: Resignation. LD Candidate: Chris Boyle.
Conservative seat. Cause: Resignation. LD Candidate: Andrew Thorpe
The Clayton West branch, which left the Sheffield to Penistone line east of Shepley, closed to passengers on 22 January 1983, It was the coal traffic from Park Mill colliery that kept services running when Dr Beeching had done for so many other lines. I must have taken this photograph in Huddersfield station that day. You can read the history of the branch on the Disused Stations page for Clayton West. That page has a photograph of a train at Clayton West the same day. If I am in it, I am one of people in the middle distance walking ...
As we reported less than a month ago, Liberal Democtrats in the Parliament have been fighting the government's decision to deny disability benefits to 160,000 vulnerable people. The government have refused to listen and the new regulations came into force today. Stephen Fry tweeted: Changes to benefits specifically exclude some with mental health problems. Join @mindcharity & fight these changes https://t.co/l8YwYwoGCE — Stephen Fry (@stephenfry) March 16, 2017 He links to this message from Mind, the mental health charity: PIP is awarded to cover the extra costs that disabled people face. In December, courts ruled that people who find it ...
Councillors in Bury have been written to by Bury's NHS Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) informing us that the closure process of the Prestwich and Bury Walk-In Centres is now "paused". At present the closure proposal, which had been agreed by the CCG, has been going through its formal consultation stage, but the CCG has announced [...]
Mark Pack gives us four things to note about the record electoral fine levied against the Conservative Party: "The Conservative Party repeatedly refused to cooperate fully with the Electoral Commission investigation, requiring the Commission to go to court to get access to relevant evidence." You've heard of climate-change deniers. Now, reports Emily Atkin, there are air-pollution deniers too. "The capitalist class seeks to avoid responsibility for the many problems it causes, so it frames pain and suffering as somehow natural and inevitable." Susan Rosentahl offers a marxist theory of mental illness. Sam Knight tells us what will happen when the ...
In December, developers submitted plans for a pair of semidetached houses on Friars Walk. I am not against this scheme in principle. But I don't think it can be constructed without considerable disturbance of residents. It may well be that the level of disruption is so high that this scheme should not be built. I have asked for a construction management plan for this site but it has not been produced. For this reason, I have formally objected to this scheme. There have been several objections to this development from neighbours but I am not sure that most people know ...
Here the old brute demonstrates the advantages of a long life in public service and a good memory. Thursday When I saw Theresa May holding hands with Trump (of whose genesis I was writing only the other day) I was filled with foreboding. For I am old enough to remember 1938 and Neville Chamberlain flying off to Munich to meet Hitler. During a lull in the talks, the pair of them were photographed strolling hand-in-hand through a meadow in the Bavarian Alps. When Chamberlain came back to London in triumph, that picture appeared on the front page of all the ...
The Manchester Gorton by-election can change things for the whole party - and we need you to come and help to make that happen. Look at what we achieved in Witney. We sent a message loud and clear that the Lib Dem fightback was on. We proved we could take a serious number of votes from the Conservatives, angry at their former party's backing for a hard Brexit. If we can do to Labour in Manchester what we did to the Tories in Witney or Richmond Park we will send shock waves through British politics. We have an amazing story ...
Well, it tickled me... And that's without this little bonus number from the same parade...
...and dear Terry Wogan who was a great admirer of his work.... As a coincidence I remembering learning the poem "Home thoughts from abroad" off by heart when I was about 11 years old.
I do not see why it should necessarily be a cause for derision that a government reverses a decision, as our government has done in deciding not, after all, to increase the rate of some (my emphasis) National Insurance Contributions (NICs) by a modest 1% next year and another 1% the year after that. Listening to people, and responding where appropriate, are essential aspects of democracy (aka "government by discussion") and should be applauded. However, a great deal depends on which people are listened to. For example, this government is turning a very deaf ear indeed to the 48% of ...
Embed from Getty Images With Conservative expense returns for the last general election under scrutiny in more than 20 constituencies, an old post on Conservative Home makes interesting reading: After the jollity of the first evening, the Battlebus departed from its base in Glastonbury, which we made our HQ for the six days or so. We travelled across the South West of England from Torbay in the south to Cheltenham in the north of the region, visiting five constituencies along the way. The days were long: 7.25 start, and arriving back at the hotel past midnight, sleep was short. I ...
Yesterday's general election in the Netherlands shows that Liberalism is slowly turning the tide in the battle with the dark sinister global forces behind the right wing xenophobic populist surge which culminated with Brexit and the near fascist Donald Trump. Today Liberals like Justin Trudeau set an example in Canada which has now been joined by Holland. Meanwhile in Britain, Conservative plans are in disarray, with a huge u-turn on the White Van Man tax broken pledge (NIC) creating an open goal which Jeremy Corbyn couldn't score. In Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon has laid down the independence bombshell which will unpick ...
Councillors in Bury have been written to by Bury's NHS Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) informing us that the closure process of the Prestwich and Bury Walk-In Centres is now "paused". At present the closure proposal, which had been agreed by the CCG, has bene going through its formal consultation stage, but CCG has announced that this consultation is "paused". The delay is because the CCG wants to consider the announcement by the Government in the budget around how Urgent Care waiting times can be addressed across the country. The email we have received is below. At the moment is seems ...
A sight that all of us will have seen since the Autumn is ambulances queuing at A & E and patients waiting on trolleys in hospital corridors. Some of us will have seen the situation at first hand, waiting with a relative or waiting for treatment. Bed occupancy has been dangerously high in many hospitals, with senior managers and doctors having to take decisions that, in some instances, are literally life or death. Upsetting as these images are, they show only the tip of a very large iceberg that is threatening to sink an NHS and the social care system ...
There will be a tree planting, litter picking and conservation morning at Wapley Bushes on Saturday 25th March 2017 from 10am until 12 noon. We will be planting some young trees in the woodland and doing a "spring clean" of the Nature Reserve and Common. Meet at the Shire Way entrance to the Nature Reserve. All children must be accompanied by an adult. Litter pickers, black sacks, disposable gloves will be provided. Please wear walking boots or wellies.
At the age of 11 I had a choice. I could either attend a Catholic secondary school or a secondary school without a religious character. I chose the Catholic secondary school. This school, Notre Dame, had a catchment area covering half the city of Sheffield. This meant that there were pupils from affluent and less-affluent areas, from the inner city and the suburbs and from the families of many nationalities. I had classmates who were Anglican, Methodist, Catholic, Muslim and of no-faith at all. Had I chosen the non-Catholic school, all of my fellow pupils would have lived in the ...
Maghull in Bloom volunteers are supporting Rotary's purple4polio campaign which aims to eradicate polio worldwide. Rotary has joined forces with the Royal Horticultural Society to distribute 5 million bulbs to 'In Bloom' groups across Britain and Ireland to raise awareness about their campaign. They gave Maghull in Bloom 5000 purple crocus bulbs which have been planted at various locations, including the circular planters and barrier baskets in Maghull Square/along Westway and in the Maghull boundary baskets such as the one on the Maghull/Lydiate boundary on Southport Road. The first photo also is amongst my Flickr shots at:- www.flickr.com/photos/86659476@N07/
This Sunday, Conference will decide our party's policy on state-funded faith schools - and in particular on whether schools should be able to select children on the basis of their religion or belief. I would like to think this would be an uncontentious issue. Surely we are defined as a party by our rejection of discrimination, and by our determination to oppose entrenched privilege and inequality. And yet there are some within this party who believe that our children should be segregated by their religion - so that Catholic children only play and learn with other Catholic children, Jewish children ...
A list of the policy resolutions of the 2017 spring conference held in Swansea last weekend are on a pdf here.
[IMG: kafka trial] The Trial, Franz Kafka This is the twelfth book chosen from my #40booksby40 list. It's the one which surprised me most so far. I guess, because I already knew the basic plot — Josef K. is charged with a crime but is never told what he is accused of or how he can defend himself — I'd assumed The Trial would be quite a serious, righteous, outraged novel. And on one level it is; but it's style is far more comic absurdism, as K. embarks on the uncompletable task of trying to prove his innocence. He makes ...
The Conservative Party has been fined £70,000 by the Electoral Commission for breaking election expense rules. The commission's report highlights "numerous failures" in reporting spending on three by-elections in 2014 and the 2015 General Election. These included missing payments of £104,000 – and £118,000 that was either not reported or incorrectly reported. [BBC] El Comm report is huge vindication of C4 News investigations over last 14 mons, supporting what we said about by-elex, S Thanet & Battlebus — Michael Crick (@MichaelLCrick) March 16, 2017 Interested in more stories about how our elections are run? Follow my dedicated election law channels ...
Embed from Getty Images Theresa May dealt a blow to Ireland in her Brexit white paper when she said she wanted in effect to leave the EU customs union, confirming Brexit poses a huge threat to frictionless cross-border trade on the island of Ireland, the mainstay of the Irish economy. The Irish Ambassador to the UK, Daniel Mulhall said last month that comprehensive customs and border checks between Ireland and Northern Ireland are not remotely possible Northern Ireland polled more europhilic than other regions in the UK before the election. Its Remain vote of 55.7 per cent was the third ...
Kathy Sheridan: Another day, another Brexit lie exposed This is how the Irish are seeing us right now, folks. [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
The mostly commonly cited trope in Westminster these days goes along the lines of "Queen May". The prime minister is so in command of all she surveys that she is becoming infallible. This ignores the problems coming her way in regards to the Union, but unlike what some pundits are saying, I don't that even in a worst-case scenario anything on this front would seriously damage her ability to remain in Number 10. Most Tories care much less than about the Union in reality than they are generally willing to admit in public, so even if Scotland voted for independence, ...
Recent events have suggested that Theresa May would be wise to call a General Election sooner rather than later - Parliament Act not withstanding. Word on the street is that the decision to back down on raising Class 4 NIC payments was made after the chair of the 1922 committee had a quiet word with the PM to inform her that there was no chance of forcing it through with her current, narrow majority. This demonstrates the weakness of her position - and she'll have tougher fights than this in the Brexit years ahead. Given the position of Labour, a ...
The next Community Engagement Forum for Yate, Chipping Sodbury and Dodington (which includes the rural part of Dodington Parish) is at 7pm on Monday 27th March at St Nicholas Family Centre, Abbotswood, Yate BS37 4LG.
Federal Conference is probably the best fun that you will ever have in your life. You will thoroughly enjoy every exhausting moment. If you're new, it can be a bit overwhelming until you get used to the sensory overload. I had a long break from going to them and when I returned, in 2011, I spent the first day wandering round in a state of wide-eyed amazement, like a child in a toy shop. Spring Conference is smaller than Autumn, but a look at the agenda tells me that there are at least two things going on that I want ...
Embed from Getty Images Nick Clegg with Mark Rutte in 2010 As the FT reports, VVD, the liberal party of Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte, will once again be the largest party in the Dutch parliament: Prime Minister Mark Rutte looks certain to form the next Netherlands government, with his party projected to secure a clear general election victory over rivals including populist challenger Geert Wilders. The projected victory was welcomed by moderates and pro-EU politicians across Europe and has calmed their fears that the continent was poised to fall under the sway of nationalists following the UK's Brexit vote ...
Russia's 5th Column Buying up the Far Right in Europe and the US. (tags: democracy eu ukpolitics uspolitics elections russia ) Electing Europe? My colleague @MariellevHeumen on the Dutch elections. (tags: Netherlands elections eu ) Chizhov: Don't ask me if Russia plans to have an ambassador in Edinburgh - EURACTIV.com Russia has over centuries had a special relationship with Scotland. St. Andrew is the saint protector of both Scotland and the Russian navy. The Russian navy has the same flag as Scotland. Only the opposite combination of colours. (tags: Russia Scotland eu ) Polio's last stand: frantic effort to eradicate ...
As predictable as yesterday's u-turn on National Insurance Contributions was, the manner in which it came about was quite remarkable. As the Telegraph reports, the back-down represents a huge blow to Mr Hammond and is one of the most significant Budget u-turns in modern times. The announcement will leave a £2billion black hole in Mr Hammond's Budget plans which he plans to fund with new measures in his Autumn Budget. The paper says that up to 100 Tory MPs were said to be prepared to rebel over the issue and even a Tory minister said that the Government had to ...
On Monday the Labour party had one of its biggest meltdowns yet. Voting for, then against the amendment to protect the rights of EU citizens who already live in the UK to stay here – there are 1,722 here in the Ribble Valley. Nobody knows where Labour stand on Brexit, they're trying desperately to play both sides. Unfortunately for them people in this country are wise to it and people cannot respect a party that will not stand up for what it believes in. Commenting, Liberal Democrat Cllr. Allan Knox said "Labour had the chance to block Theresa May's hard ...
