Great to be over in Southwark this evening where Simon Hughes's election campaign is well and truly up and running.

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

Complete with an animation inspired by the paintings of Beryl Cook, this advertisement was made in 1990.

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

I am honoured & delighted to be selected as the candidate for the Liberal Democrats in Oadby, Wigston & Market Harborough !! pic.twitter.com/pWS0NASIJY— Zuffar Haq (@Zuffar_Haq) April 20, 2017 Zuffar Haq, who was the party's candidate at the 2010 and 2015 general elections, will again fight Harborough in June. In 2005 his predecessor Jill Hope came within less than 4000 votes of winning.

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

 

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

Electoral pacts, part 1 Despite the evidence from the past that formal electoral pacts are not the most effective way to defeat a common opponent, the Greens, following the local election pact in Broxtowe, are now looking for something bigger: Brighton Pavilion MP Caroline Lucas is calling on Labour and the Liberal Democrats to co-operate with the Green Party in key seats to defeat the Conservatives. Electoral pacts, part 2 Paddy Ashdown is a fan: Well done the Greens for reaching out for sensible seat arrangements, where these can be done. Labour and Lib Dems shld respond positively — Paddy ...

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

I was back in the office this morning to finish the printing of my first election leaflet. Then back home for an afternoon of visiting constituents about casework. And then along came the news that Dave Anderson, Labour MP for Blaydon and Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and Scotland, had announced he was retiring. Dave and I differ enormously in our politics but we have got on

Posted by jonathanwallace on Jonathan Wallace

As I've pointed out before, there are routes for Britain to remain in the European Union, if Britsh voters decide this is what they want. But now the European Parliament President Antonio Tajani has gone even further: The president of the European parliament has said Britain would be welcomed back with open arms if voters changed their minds about Brexit on 8 June, challenging Theresa May's claim that "there is no turning back" after article 50. Speaking after a meeting with the prime minister in Downing Street, Antonio Tajani insisted that her triggering of the departure process last month could ...

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

Embed from Getty Images A couple of weeks' back, Mark Pack asked me if I'd write a piece for the next issue of his Lib Dem Newswire (required reading, btw). "Perhaps something on 'what the Lib Dems are currently getting wrong'?" he suggested, knowing I have my reservations about the party's ultra-Remain stance. I demurred a bit, I'll explain why below, and in any case it's been rather taken over by this week's events. So here's more or less what I would (probably) have written... I don't think Tim Farron has put a foot wrong as Lib Dem leader since ...

Posted by Stephen Tall on Stephen Tall

I listened to media coverage of Jeremy's first election speech today and he said what I would have expected of him as a socialist Leader of the chaotic Labour Party. But hang on a minute whilst he was saying that he would be the political leader of ordinary working people (if electors gave him the top job in Downing Street) one glaring issue contradicts the vision he was putting forward – there could well of course be others but the big one for me is this. When he whipped his Labour MP's to support a Hard Brexit and vote with ...

Posted by Cllr. Tony Robertson on Sefton Focus

... if you want to listen to me, load up this show on BBC iPlayer (you DON'T have to be in the UK, apparently). I am in a group discussion for the last half hour, so two and a half hours in. Fellow Lib Dems might want to start at about one hour 45 minutes, though, because my lovely regional chair, the fabulous Stewart Golton was on at that point, and I thought he was rather good. I... don't think I did too badly. I could have done better. I'm glad I got the dig in about Niggle Farridge though ...

YouGov

If May calls early election we hacks wont be able to trust any future denials from No10 about anything. They insisted it wasn't happening.— Isabel Oakeshott (@IsabelOakeshott) April 18, 2017Sensational move by May, showing sensational leadership.— Isabel Oakeshott (@IsabelOakeshott) April 18, 2017If you are ever tempted to take Isabel Oakeshott‏ seriously, just look at the timestamps on the two tweets above. Thanks to @imincorrigible for pointing this out. In my book this counts as a greater crime than getting Vicky Pryce banged up or telling viewers that the Liberal Democrats were going to lose the Richmond Park by-election because they ...

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England
Thu 20th
19:51

Six of the Best 686

Theresa May's hopes of a landslide depend on the how the old industrial towns of northern England vote. That is the conclusion of analysis by James Crouch. Caitlin Flanagan on late-night TV comedy and its failure to prevent the rise of Donald Trump: "Somewhere along the way, the hosts of the late-night shows decided that they had carte blanche to insult not just the people within this administration, but also the ordinary citizens who support Trump, and even those who merely identify as conservatives." "Did the Church of England not know that there were at least five archbishops buried there? ...

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England
Thu 20th
19:33

GE 17: Key dates

The Electoral Commission have got off the mark pretty quickly and published their election timetable. Key dates are: Close of nominations: 4pm on 11 May 2017 Register to vote by: midnight on 22 May 2017 Apply for postal votes by: 5pm on 23 May 2017 Election expenses must be in by 14 July 2017.

Posted by The Voice on Liberal Democrat Voice

Whoops of delight and the whoosh of triumphant fists punching the air were apparently to be heard at Lib Dem HQ on Tuesday when Theresa May announced the 8 June election. For a party hammered so badly two years ago, the chance to regain some lost ground is indeed enticing, but if we're to make the most of the opportunity some nettles need to be grasped. Tempting though it is to believe in our invincibility based on recent by-election successes, we are still only around 11% in the polls. That will go up in certain seats, but our final total ...

Posted by Chris Bowers on Liberal Democrat Voice

Embed from Getty Images The latest email from Popbitch reminds us that: In the last three general election years (2005, 2010 and 2015) the Premier League was won by Chelsea.

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

I think I'd better revise my "Guide to the Lib Dems for new members" post! Welcome to all 8000 of you who have joined the party since the snap election was announced on Tuesday. We hope you enjoy the next seven weeks which are bound to be intense. There is nothing like the whirlwind of an election! This now means that party membership now stands at 95,000. If just 5000 more people join us, then that's Tim Farron's membership target for 2020 smashed. Sal Brinton, our Party President, had this to say: People are flocking to the Liberal Democrats as ...

Posted by Caron Lindsay on Liberal Democrat Voice

The Liberal Democrats have gained 8,000 new members in the two days since Theresa May called a snap election. The increase in members is the fastest rise of new membership in the party's history. The party now has over 95,000 members, more than double what it was at the time of the last general election. Commenting, President of the Liberal Democrats Sal Brinton said: "People are flocking to the Liberal Democrats as we are the only party who are offering effective opposition to this Conservative Brexit government. "Theresa May: we have the troops for this fight and they are raring ...

Posted by Owen Temple on Owen Temple & Margaret Nealis

The Tories demand the British people vote them a blank cheque at this election. They're not telling you anything about their plans for Brexit negotiations, much less the compromises that will have to be made if any sort of deal is to be reached. And if you're one of the millions who never voted for any sort of Brexit, hard or otherwise, the timing of this election guarantees your voice will be safely ignored. The Tories know there is no chance of Jeremy Corbyn becoming Prime Minister, so they're having an election now before they have to work out even ...

Posted by Tobie Abel on Liberal Democrat Voice
Thu 20th
15:36

Off to meet the beeb

I'm on my way to Morley to be on radio 5 live's drive time discussion show. I'm a radio 4 girl through and through, so not sure what'll happen. Hopefully won't embarrass myself TOO badly... [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments

The Liverpool Echo has the story on its web site – see link above Sadly this is a matter I have covered on this blog site many times and things are just not getting any better and you could say they are in fact getting worse. Does anyone have the answer to the question – 'How do we get guns of the streets of Merseyside?'

Posted by Cllr. Tony Robertson on Sefton Focus
eUKhost
Thu 20th
14:39

A new Medium

Just a quick announcement to let people know that I'm now cross-posting articles from here to Medium, so if you use it you can follow and recommend my writing there. Click here to see my stories. This will still be the principal place for my blogging, but having another outlet doesn't seem to harm the number of readers I get, and might even raise my profile.

Posted by Nick on What You Can Get Away With

It has been a rather more cheering day here in the pearl of the Baltics, Tallinn. The buzz of political debate has given me a sense of urgency, so I've been getting on with the sort of tasks that fall upon me to perform. And yes, I've spoken to my Regional Candidates Chair and the Chair of the Brussels and Europe Local Party, exchanged e-mails with the Chair of Federal International Relations Committee, the ALDE Party Council delegation - we're due to be in Ljubljana the weekend before polling day, and I'm expecting some withdrawals, not unreasonably. I've also offered ...

Posted by Mark Valladares on A liberal amongst the country gentry...

What's this to do with? You may have heard about the Tory controlled City Council's controversial plans to evict residents from 74 properties in St Michael's Gate, Parnwell? Therefore at a previous meeting of Full Council, I questioned the Conservative controlled administration as to their reasoning behind it? Could the relevant Cabinet Member, please explain [...]

Posted by Cllr Darren Fower on Cllr Darren Fower

Quite enjoying this General Election. Yesterday morning was launch day - on Richmond Green with Tim, Sarah, the media, a dog, a baby and lots of diamonds. Heard Tim say 'we are not allowing a coronation to happen' in about 5 different interviews. Was expertly herded into a donut. Chatted about the non arrival of Richmond Park By Election badges with Baroness Kramer. Great fun. Then in the afternoon was on College Green, sitting next to Tony Livesy on BBC 5 Live Drive for 2 hours, offering the occasional bon mot. Michael Howard came, said some terrible things, and left. ...

Posted by Richard Morris on A VIEW FROM HAM COMMON

Theresa May U Turns as PM Campaigned for Remain ("I believe it is clearly in our national interest to remain a member of the European Union"). Now Hard Brexiteer in Chief Said there would be no early general election (11 times). Now called one. Said wouldn't do TV debates. Now doing TV Q&A debates Rumoured to be announcing that companies would be forced to reveal how many foreign nationals they employed. Then denied this was ever on the table. Class 4 NICs. Pledged to constituents she would oppose 3rd runway at Heathrow. Then approved it as PM Put Hinkley C ...

Posted by Richard Morris on A VIEW FROM HAM COMMON

Meols Ward Lib Dem Councillors John Dodd, Nigel Ashton and Jo Barton are holding their next advice centre in Churchtownn We will be at BoxTree Kitchen for Queenscourt café, Manor Road/Cambridge Road, roundabout, from 10:30 to 11.30am on Thursday 27th April. We will be there to meet you and discuss any Council problems you may have. No appointment necessary. Just pop in. We alo hold a monthly advice centre in Crossens, at St John's School, Rufford Road, Crossens every month (except August) on the second Saturday of the month from 11:00 am to 12:00.

Posted by John Dodd on Meols Lib Dems

When you live in one of the safest Tory seats in the country and you get a phone call out of the blue from a life long Tory voter saying that he is prepared to campaign for the Lib Dems in the General Election you start to think that you're dreaming! That's what happened to me within a couple of hours of the announcement yesterday. He not only rang me but had to go to the trouble to find my telephone number in the phone book - that's a serious amount of trouble to go to. We're in the middle ...

Posted by Philip Knowles on Liberal Democrat Voice

The debate rages on in Westminster: will we see a large victory for the Conservatives come June 8th, or a massive one? A lot of Tories are cautious and seem to feel it will be the former – which only makes me think the latter more likely given they won't be taking anything for granted. One argument that pops up again and again is that it will be harder for the Tories to take seats in the north, Midlands and Wales than many pundits think, simply because there are so many people in these places who might think of voting ...

Posted by Nick on nicktyrone.com

More than one person yesterday mentioned a dislike of my colour scheme. The word "Geocities" was uttered. I am not unaware that everywhere else on the internet is bright white with lots of free space, and that my colour scheme might be seen as undesirable, so I thought I ought to explain (especially for non-LJ/DW users) why it is as it is: If you use Dreamwidth (or any other code fork of LJ) your blog is not just your blog; it is also a social network and an RSS reader. Look up at the top right of any page on ...

The issues of sin and legislation are not the same: Channel 4 revive their witchhunt of Tim Farron Interesting, from a non-Lib Dem Christian. An Open Letter On The Subject Of Tim Farron's 'Homophobia' | The Huffington Post In which I am HuffPoed: weekly_food_challenge | Challenge 15: Oats I've also posted this week's weekly food challenge These seats might prove important for tactical votes in the 2017 General Election Interesting list. How to Know If You've Sent a Horrible Tweet Interesting post on The Ratio, via ht Radical, liberal rental reforms are needed Interesting post. Not sure I agree with ...

One lesson of the Richmond Park by-election that we should all take account of in the coming general election is that those who call an election may lose control of the campaign. Zac Goldsmith chose to fight a by-election on the expansion of Heathrow airport. But he lost the election because voters found other issues - above all, Europe - mattered as much to them. Theresa May has defined this seven-week election campaign as all about Brexit. But it won't be, and it can't be, however hard she and her party, and the partisan right-wing media, try to hold attention ...

Posted by Lord William Wallace on Liberal Democrat Voice

Holy shit, you guys... [IMG: a screencap from google analytics] My regular readership is not tiny. Yesterday was... impressive. Most people looked at more than one post, too. And links came from EVERYWHERE: obviously, twitter was by far the biggest source of links; Lib Dem Voice, HuffPo, and fellow LDs like Zoe O'Connell and Nick Barlow were also expected, but... Mumsnet? Two different Liverpool local websites? Outpost Gallifrey? And DuckDuckGo, which implies people were searching for me... Genuinely kind of bowled over here. [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments

Day 2 of the election campaign yesterday: time to print my first leaflet. It was written last week but Tuesday's snap poll announcement meant it required a small number of updates. I was in the office last night printing it. It is a Focus for a particular ward in Blaydon constituency. The avid Labour readers of this blog who want to know which ward will have to wait a bit longer. Delivery will

Posted by jonathanwallace on Jonathan Wallace
Thu 20th
09:02

East Dulwich Benches

We have a small project to install some benches around East Dulwich. I've proposed the following locations: – Lordship Lane across the road from the Coop on the built out kerb. – Lordship Lane outside Karavan eco shop area of kerb build out. – Barry Road junction with Etherow Street – again the kerb build out area. – North Cross Road – Lordship Lane close to junction with North Cross Road. What I'd also like to suggest after a walkabout are; – Lordship Lane outside Sainsburys – Lordship Lane outside Foxtons – Outside East Dulwich station Where would you like ...

Posted by James Barber on James Barber

If you live off Shire Way or Rodford Way, you could be interested in a new group aimed at encouraging wildlife in gardens and nearby. Local residents Clare and Mat Woodman said "The group will be launched to give people the chance to share ideas, tips and suggestions in helping to make the area more wildlife friendly and a wonderful place to live. From backdoor wildernesses to public open spaces we all can play a part in helping to protect and nurture our outdoor areas. In our busy lifestyles we sometimes lose contact with nature and our projects will be ...

Posted by Paul Hulbert on Focus on Sodbury, Yate and Dodington

From the Curator of Museum Services, University of Dundee : The next evening talk in the D'Arcy Thompson Zoology Museum will be on Tuesday 25th April at 6pm, when Jim Cook of the Dundee Naturalists' Society will be speaking about Conservation in the Quarry: Care and Maintenance of a Small Nature Refuge. Well over 150 members and friends of the Dundee Nats have been working at Carsegowniemuir Quarry over recent years carrying out a wide variety of conservation tasks, including planting some 1,400 trees of 23 native species. The site has developed and improved, with the full support of the ...

You're too busy. You need a 'Shultz hour'. Sometimes easier said than done... (tags: psychology work ) President Marine Le Pen's first 100 days Gaming out the unthinkable. (tags: france eu )

When she announced the General Election Theresa May was very clear that she would not be participating in any leaders debates. Presumably she has calculated that to do so would give her opponents greater credibility and exposure, a mistake Cameron made in 2010. However, whether that position is sustainable over the period of a campaign has yet to be seen. The Independent reports that ITV have said that it will push ahead with a debate, while the BBC has also now said it wants the studio audience events to happen. Whilst a poll has suggested an overwhelming majority of Britons ...

Posted by Peter Black on Peter Black

So a snap General Election it is then. The stars are surely aligned for substantial Conservative gains. They appear to be polling double the vote share of the Labour party at the moment. That would deliver a thumping majority. The Commentariat has already expended plenty of effort over the last 36 hours doing its thing – focusing on the possible triggers for May's U-turn on an early election. Maybe the rationalisation she offered stands up: it's all about silencing dissent and easing the passage of her version of Brexit through Parliament. Maybe she has simply lost patience with having to ...

Posted by admin on Alex's Archives

Former left-wing Labour MP Bob Marshall-Andrews has defected to the Liberal Democrats, labeling Labour as a "political basketcase" and talking of: The abject failure of the Labour leadership to participate in the Brexit debate, a failure which provided a concession of both votes and credibility to Ukip... At present there is manifestly a huge vacuum on the centre left represented in substantial part by the 48% of the electorate who rejected Brexit and the lies on which it was based. To many, including me, there was a folorn hope that reformed and radical Labour Party would rise to the historic ...

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack