Not a bit of it. as this talk by Chris Mathews and Adrian Jones from last November's conference 'Planning Leicester: Town planning and the historic environment since the 1960s' shows. The city has lots of interesting 20th-century architecture, some of which has featured on this blog. I played many chess games in the City Hall on Charles Street when it was home to the Willie Thorne Snooker Centre. It was a cut above the schools or church halls where matches usually took place. I have already posted one by the archaeologist Matthew Morris on 'The importance of the archaeology and ...
Embed from Getty Images How do we account for his desire to launch a war with Spain, that strange accent and his belief that prison works? I have vague memories of writing a column for Liberal Democrat News back in 1997 about an alien spacecraft being sighted over Michael Howard's Kent home. And it seems those memories are accurate. A Guardian article from 2010 says: But the opening of the latest batch of Britain's own "X-files" today reveals that the RAF in March 1997 did mount an inquiry into reports from six members of the public, including two firefighters, of ...
Professors Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher have predicted that the Liberal Democrats could gain 100 seats in the County Council election, twice as many as the Tories are predicted to gain. They also say that Labour will lose 50 seats and UKIP 100. From the Sunday Times (£): Thrasher and Rallings predict that Ukip's vote will collapse from 22% to 10% — and that the Tory vote will rise five points to 31%. Rallings said: "The Tories will benefit from Ukip's decline, but could themselves lose seats to the Lib Dems. "The Lib Dems will be looking to take seats ...
Embed from Getty Images Remember the chessboxing bout between Liberal Democrat activist and former Ukip MEP Jonathan Arnott that I mentioned the other day? I have good news from the Metro: A Ukip MEP has been punched to the ground in an epic grudge match with a Lib Dem activist - days after Article 50 was triggered. Billed as the main event of a 'chessboxing' match, the MEP for the North East of England was floored pretty early on.All the more impressive, given how handy Ukip MEPs can be with their fists.
Residents will now be receiving polling cards for an extra election this year. Voters across Greater Manchester will be asked to vote for the first elected 'Mayor of Greater Manchester'. Voting takes place on Thursday 4 May 2017. If you don't already have a postal vote but would like one, you can download form here. [...]
Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 475th weekly round-up from the Lib Dem blogosphere ... Featuring the five most popular stories beyond Lib Dem Voice according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (26 March – 1 April, 2017), together with a hand-picked seven you might otherwise have missed. Don't forget: you can sign up to receive the Golden Dozen direct to your email inbox — just click here — ensuring you never miss out on the best of Lib Dem blogging. As ever, let's start with the most popular post, and work our way down: 1. Labour's own canvassing shows ...
Sun 2nd
19:12
It's about time that the Liberal Democrats really did propose radical solutions to poverty
'We are remarkable but so helplessly stupid' was a remark made to me by Jen Robertson the other day. The context of the remark was in relation to the UK being able and willing to design and build the magnificent new Widnes – Runcorn bridge whilst we are at the same time incapable, or is that unwilling, to tackle poverty effectively. And it got me thinking because you know that whilst many of us are reasonably well provided for many others, in our supposedly civilised but less so every day country, are not. At the same time our government is ...
As the Syrian civil war enters its seventh year the flow of books about that tragic nation is similarly unending. But Ghayth Armanazi's The Story of Syria (Gilgamesh, £19.95) stands out, not only for its readability but also because of its author's privileged perspective. The scion of a prominent Syrian political and diplomatic family, Mr Armanazi has [...]
Sun 2nd
18:00
Freddie Flintoff, Professor Green, Ruby Wax and others talk about their mental health issues
The charity campaign Heads Together are publishing a series of videos on YouTube where famous and not famous people talk about their mental health issues. It really is good to see role models opening up about their problems. Below, you'll find three of the videos. In the top one, Stephen Manderson (aka Professor Green) and ... Continue reading Freddie Flintoff, Professor Green, Ruby Wax and others talk about their mental health issues
Embed from Getty Images It's quite incredible how we've gone from an Article 50 letter that makes scant reference to Gibraltar to a Tory Brexiteer suggesting that Theresa May would show the same attitude to the British territory as Margaret Thatcher did to the Falklands. Seriously. This isn't just some random right-wing Tory cheerleader. It's a former Leader of the Opposition, for goodness' sake. Michael Howard told Sophy Ridge, according to the Guardian: Thirty-five years ago this week, another woman prime minister sent a taskforce halfway across the world to defend the freedom of another small group of British people ...
I have heard this on the radio a few times recently and only the other day did I discover that it is not an old album track by Elton John. It turns out to be by Father John Misty, who is no more a priest than Sister Rosetta Tharpe was a nun. Father John Misty is a stage name or persona of Josh Tillman, who has been a member of several significant indie bands. He was recently interviewed on BBC Radio 6 by Mark Radcliffe and Stuart Maconie, describing the experience thus: "Sometimes I just suck," he says, sighing. "The ...
I've decided to add occasional recipes as I cook them here. They're not really recommendations so much as records to myself of what I did, so that I can adapt and improve in future. One result of this is that I will occasionally be overly specific in terms of ingredients and kitchen equipment used; if you are attempting to follow them, there's no need to be so precise. ( Quorn meatball and pepper stew with paprika ) [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
Sun 2nd
14:56
Freddie Flintoff, Professor Green, Ruby Wax and others talk about their mental health issues
Over the years, here at Liberal Democrat Voice, we have strongly publicised Time to Talk day. On the same theme, the charity campaign Heads Together are publishing a series of videos on YouTube where famous and not famous people talk about their mental health issues. It really is good to see role models opening up about their problems. Below, you'll find three of the videos. In the top one, Stephen Manderson (aka Professor Green) and Freddie Flintoff talk. Next down, Ruby Wax talks with her husband, TV producer Ed Bye. But the truly moving and inspiring video, for me, is ...
Early start this morning to help with a canvassing training session for new (and some not so new!) Liberal Democrat members in Merton.
[IMG: 7 best] Many thanks to the 13.500 visitors who dropped by Lib Dem Voice this week. Here's our 7 most-read posts... Catherine Bearder MEP writes: Why we want to let Brits keep their EU citizenship after Brexit (14 comments) by Catherine Bearder The UK's ritual humiliation of disabled people Part 2: The PIP Interview (16 comments) by Geoff Crocker So this is how Jeremy Corbyn will be holding Theresa May to account on Brexit (41 comments) by The Voice A whole load of love for the Lib Dem Press Office (15 comments) by Caron Lindsay Liberal Democrat Voice gets ...
What's this about then? Basically, the state of the road in Eskdale Close is bad! I've raised this issue before, and small patches of work have been done by the Tory controlled City Council, but what we need is a full and proper piece of resurfacing work. What does Darren think? Eskdale Close may not [...]
Now that the school Easter holidays are underway, my usual weekly ward surgeries do not take place, but I can still be contacted on any local issues or concerns through my e-surgery - just e-mail esurgery@frasermacpherson.org.uk. Surgeries recommence on Monday 17th April - surgery details are available here. I can also be contacted at home at any time on 459378 and also during office hours at my Dundee City Council office on 434985.
Crossens Saturday, 8th April, St John's Primary School, Rufford Road, Crossens, from 11am to 12noon. Churchtown Thursday, 27th April, BoxTree Kitchen for Queenscourt café, Manor Road/Cambridge Road, roundabout, from 10:30am to 11:30am.
OK, so the Patreon-only comics post thing hasn't worked out like I hoped. Partly that's on me missing some, partly because people haven't suggested things other weeks, and so it sort of death-spiralled because people don't want to suggest stuff ... Continue reading →
Ten days ago, pubs in England unexpectedly won the right to planning protection, as the Government conceded the closing of a loophole that has allowed many good pubs to be converted into convenience stores without needing planning permission. The news was released by Planning Minister Gavin Barwell to Lib Dem Pub Champion Greg Mulholland, whose record in championing pubs has led him to be hailed as 'The Casked Crusader' by none other than the Sun newspaper, and loathed by lobbyists for the under-fire pubcos the BBPA. Most notably he has led the campaign for a statutory Pubs Code and Adjudicator ...
Welcome to the latest in my series of tips and advice for Liberal Democrat members, which appear first in the email bulletin run by London Region for party members. Whether it's for sending out with a tweet or putting in a leaflet, taking a photo on your smartphone of a team of Liberal Democrats out campaigning is now a common part of campaigning. Here is one very easy way to make those photos look much better, both of which hinge on the same point – we want people to think that that the Lib Dems are a nice, successful bunch ...
The Liberal Democrats are tipped to be the big winners from May's local elections according to the predictions made by local government election experts Professors Michael Thrasher and Colin Rallings. Their predictions are made each year, based on the results in council by-elections in the run up to the big May round of elections. For 2017 they are predicting the following in England: Liberal Democrats +100 Conservatives +50 Labour -50 Ukip -100 The big losses predicted for Ukip are not a surprise as Ukip's vote share in local council elections has been sinking year after year since its breakthrough successes ...
Sun 2nd
08:55A longer read for the weekend...Sir Nick Harvey on NATO in the era of Trump, Putin, Brexit and Corby...
At Spring Conference in York, Sir Nick Harvey spoke at a Liberal Reform fringe event asking what now for NATO in the era of Trump, Putin, Brexit and Corbyn. With his kind permission we reproduce his remarks. Please do share your thoughts in the comments. Do Brexit, Trump and the rise of populism in Europe signal a disintegration of western institutions? Has NATO become irrelevant or do we need it more than ever at a time of Russian expansionism? Two notable quotations are of relevance to these questions: Mao Tse Tung's assertion that, "Political power grows out of the barrel ...
University Challenge and the quest for perfect recall Yep. (tags: tv )
With the controversy over Russian interference in the US Presidential race raging and with many more revelations expected it is only natural that we should be asking could the same thing happen here. Well, according to a working group set up by the London School of Economics such interference is not only possible but we may not have sufficiently robust structures in place to stop it. According to the Guardian they have warned that new technology has disrupted British politics to such an extent that current laws are unable to ensure a free and fair election or control the influence ...
