I achieved something today. By not watching Prime Minister's Questions at lunchtime, I've successfully avoided watching it for an entire Parliament, and I really don't feel I've missed out at all. Now, can I manage to do the same for BBC Question Time if I hold out for the next few weeks? We seem to be hitting a slight turning point in the election buildup as news turns from who's not standing to who actually is going to be up for election in June. Having had a week to get themselves together, local branches of all parties are having selection ...
Excellent news from Southport, where incumbent Liberal Democrat MP John Pugh is retiring at this general election: Very pleased that @sue_mcguire has been picked as Southport #LibDems candidate. She'll make a great MP as well as being a lovely person https://t.co/ywyyLQhTp6 — Anders Hanson (@AndersHanson) April 26, 2017
Embed from Getty Images Sue McGuire, the leader of the Liberal Democrat group on Sefton Council, has been selected by the party to fight for Southport, reports the Southport Visiter. The seat is currently held for the Lib Dems by John Pugh. While we wonder why the paper has that odd name, let's enjoy this old railway poster.
The local election pact in Broxtowe has been the most high-profile example of Liberal Democrats making electoral pacts with others. But no more: Our Brighton Pavilion constituency members voted tonight for the #LibDems to stand down in favour of @CarolineLucas in #GeneralElection2017. — Brighton Lib Dems (@liberalbrighton) April 26, 2017
Eighty years ago today, German planes bombed the Basque town of Guernica in support of General Franco's fascist forces in the Spanish civil war. For the Nazis, it was an experiment: to see if Blitzkrieg would work. And it did, incinerating not only the buildings but a sizable part of the defenceless population in a [...]
After 23 years of Liberal Party rule, Gough Whitlam's Labor party in 1972 used the slogan "It's time" to sum up its argument that it was time for a change.
Well, that's been a bumpy 24 hours for Liberal Democrat candidates. After the suspension of the Luton South candidate for antisemitism, the same again happened in Bradford East, but with the extra publicity this time of the candidate dropped being the former MP, David Ward. He was dropped as a candidate under the party's rules for snap election selections and has also had his membership of the party suspended. Before this action was taken, Tim Farron had said: I am fully aware of the comments David Ward has made in the past and I find them deeply offensive, wrong and ...
Like this one....
Comment below with your seat predictions for the general election, in the following format, where x is your prediction:Alliance 0 > x Conservative 330 > x DUP 8 > x Green 1 > x Independent 4 > x Labour 229 > x Liberal Democrat 9 > x Official Monster Raving Loony 0 > x Plaid Cymru 3 > x Sinn Fein 4 > x SDLP 3 > x SNP 54 > x Speaker 1 > x UKIP 1 > x UUP 2 > x Others 0 > x Total 649* > 650The winner gets nothing but boasting rights and glory. ...
... so let's squash all talk of deals, pacts or any other nefarious practices, and while we're at it, let's be very VERY cautious with all these so called 'tactical voting' projects too. I had been a long time supporter of Open Britain, so I was quite pleased when they put my constituency on the list where they'd like to topple the pro-brexit incumbent. Naturally, I logged on to their website to pledge my support. I was rather shocked when, after giving them all my details, I landed on a page urging me to get in touch with my local ...
Yesterday the Bucks Herald reported: Buckingham Constituency (Liberal Democrats) will be fighting the General Election on June 8th. This is the first time one of the three major parties has contested the seat since 2005, four years before John Bercow MP became the Speaker. Their prospective parliamentary candidate is Sarah Lowes. Sarah Lowes is a life-long Lib Dem voter who joined the party in May 2015, after the then leader Nick Clegg's resignation speech inspired her to become an activist rather than an armchair supporter. However, this has now been superseded by events. Today, Sarah Lowes took the decision to ...
Responding to Theresa May's refusal today at PMQs to guarantee the triple lock for pensioners, introduced by the Liberal Democrats in coalition, Liberal Democrat Shadow Chancellor Susan Kramer said: "Theresa May is
Controversial former Bradford East MP David Ward has been removed as a candidate by Tim Farron. He had been re-selected as candidate for the seat and earlier in the day Tim Farron had said that he was not in a position to be able to remove him. I am fully aware of the comments David Ward has made in the past and I find them deeply offensive, wrong and anti-Semitic. I think his decision to stand again, and the local party's decision to select him, is wrong and I disagree with it completely. I don't select our individual candidates and ...
The 'Anne Hathaway monster movie' is as ridiculous as it sounds, but Colossal uses its weirdness to devastating effect. *Spoilers for all of Colossal ahead* Making inconsistency into a virtue Conventionally, a review needs to tell you what it is that's actually being reviewed. This is an unusually taxing task for Colossal. Short hand doesn't' [...]
What's this to do with? At a previous meeting of Full Council, the question was asked whether or not Peterborough City Council was planning to introduce 4 weekly bin collections? In response the Cabinet Member for Waste and Street Scene, said he could "...confirm that at this moment in time this authority is not considering any plans [...]
We've produced a campaign kit for the 2017 General Election for activists new and old alike. Included in the pack are more than 15 briefings, info sheets, 'how to' guides, a plan, an election timetable and a range of sources for more help, advice and guidance. To receive your free copy in the post, register on ALDC's website. We hope you'll put the campaign kit to good use getting your candidate elected on the 8th June. The kit's contents have been developed by community campaigners during our 50-year lifetime and used to great success by activists over the past year, ...
The Grauniad is loudly trumpeting "Farron Sacks David Ward". I suspect that what actually happened is that there was a phone call to Yorkshire regional candidates' chair, who in her turn made a phone call to the chair of City of Bradford Liberal Democrats, who in her turn made a phone call to David telling him that the situation was untenable... But the narrative of Tim making swift and decisive action won't hurt us in the press, even if constitutionally it's a bit suspect. I'm not going to comment one way or the other on the justice of this outcome ...
Listen here, from 1 hour 36:50 minutes in, to an interview given by our own Mary Reid to BBC Radio Wales yesterday. She was commenting on Tim Farron's statement that gay sex is not a sin and talked a lot of good sense. * Newshound: bringing you the best Lib Dem commentary published in print or online.
It is important that people are paid fairly for the work that they do. It is, of course, possible to compare the appointments to the Labour Candidate's Office and my parliamentary office. Mary McGivern has said: "If you look on IPSA it gives staff salary ranges. Phillips appears to employ women as 'caseworkers' which are low paid jobs, higher paid jobs go to males, i.e. Office Manager,
Yesterday the Scottish Parliament debated the Conservative cuts to tax credit which means that only two children per family are covered. Every Scottish Conservative MSP voted for it, with many robustly defending the policy. Their line seems to be, as the Conservative candidate at my local council hustings said last week, that this is a compassionate (that's the word she actually used) exemption. They are also saying that the woman doesn't have to fill it in, it's a third party. Well, have a look at the form and imagine how you would feel if it applied to you. You have ...
30 young locals will be affected by the Conservative government's decision to strip 18-21 year olds of housing benefit, research by the House of Commons library, commissioned by the Liberal Democrats has shown. In total 18,000 young people across the country are expected to be affected. The Liberal Democrats have committed to reverse the cuts, which came into force at the beginning of this month. Cornwall is already suffering from high levels of homelessness, with official figures showing there were nearly 100 rough sleepers in 2016. Charities have warned that stripping 18-21 year-olds of housing benefits could push more young ...
There is quite a bit of confusion about the UK constitution. The last revolution was in 1688. It was a popular revolution and the new constitutional document (the Bill of Rights) was created as a document outside parliament. Hence there was not really any legal continuity between the previous parliaments and that parliament. It was key because it created a constitutional monarchy. Other
It was Thomas Mayhew, minister of the West Church in Martha's Vineyard, who coined the slogan "No taxation without representation" in 1750, capturing in that phrase one of the major causes of the American civil war. Of course, this phrase reflected a clause of the Magna Carta, written in 1215. British citizens who live outside of the United Kingdom are currently entitled to vote in elections for only 15 years after leaving the UK, but the Conservatives promised to extend this to lifetime enfranchisement in their 2015 election manifesto. The Tories said they were intent on "scrapping the rule that ...
www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/john-bason/lib-dems_b_16229212.html The Huffington Post has the story on its web site – see link above Quote from the article 'The Liberal party, in any form, has not formed a majority government since David Lloyd George led Britain to victory in the Great War. Today, Liberals matter more than at any time in the subsequent one hundred years. Really, the Lib Dems are the only party who can save Britain.' My thanks to Roy Connell for the lead to this posting.
weekly_food_challenge | What should we do for next week's challinj?In which I ask for your input. New Challenge will go up later today. General election 2017: Where UK's parties stand on BrexitThis is pretty comprehensive, albeit they missed the Loonies off. InstagramInstagram photo: Mail's arrived. Lol what I'VE got! #doctorwho #dalek #awesome My review of Doctor Who: Dr. TwelfthI read Doctor Who: Dr. Twelfth (Roger Hargreaves) - here's my review on Goodreads My review of Doctor Who: Dr. FirstI read Doctor Who: Dr. First (Roger Hargreaves) - here's my review on Goodreads My review of Doctor Who: Dr. EleventhI read ...
Keir Starmer, the shadow secretary for leaving the EU, gave a speech yesterday that was meant to clear the air on what Labour's election policy on Brexit really, actually in fact is. Of course, it only led to more confusion. I work in public policy in Westminster. I work in public policy specifically on Brexit at present. And I genuinely do not understand what Labour's policy on Brexit entails in even the most broadest strokes. If I had to explain it on a doorstep, I would be completely screwed. Let's start from square one: are they for or against leaving ...
Wed 26th
09:55
In this campaign let's not focus too hard on Brexit: other things matter to people too
As well as appealing to the 48% of voters who are deeply disenchanted with Brexit, I think there are many other policy areas we need to focus on, if we are to make an electoral breakthrough. In this week alone, there have been three fatal stabbings in London, innocent people (all men) aged 17, 40 and 60, robbed of their lives because of mindless violence. We have to show that we care about violence and people having the right to live in peaceful streets and neighbourhoods. Let's also tackle the inequitable housing situation, whereby overseas buyers are buying up London's ...
In brief: Labour MP Clive Lewis has tweeted out a graphic, claiming to show the results of a constituency poll carried out by "ICM". ICM Research, however, says it has no knowledge of every having conducted such a poll. Interesting. Clive Lewis (Lab, Norwich S) tweets bar chart of an ICM constituency poll. ICM's head of research has no knowledge of the poll. pic.twitter.com/8ByhM1K8Kl — Matt Singh (@MattSingh_) April 26, 2017
First of all, on behalf of the tens of thousands D66 party members (over 25.000; and we're gaining members every week for the past year, our heartfelt congratulations to the Lib Dems on passing the 100.000 members threshold. And you're not done yet, I know. If we look to our Spanish and French social-liberal, pro-EU sister parties, Ciudadános and Macrons movement "En Marche", they too are booking spectacular results in gaining members, and getting members active on the street. According to the French Wikipedia and the Economist, En Marche (EM) claimed 88.000 members in October 2016, and 250.000 now. The ...
This week's launch of STV's new television service STV2 is, I feel, a disappointing missed opportunity. STV2 has been created by STV by weaving together several local TV franchises it successfully bid for covering Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Dundee and Ayr into one single output. The idea behind the local franchises had been separate, local TV output at each one and that STV has undermined the spirit of the local TV franchise deals by creating just one TV service spread across all 5 areas. Katie Martin of STV's public relations and communications team advised me : "STV2 will deliver a single ...
Please report your issues online via the council website to free up the phone lines for people who don't have internet access. There is a dedicated webpage with information and special links for reporting issues – look under Waste and Recycling on the Sutton Council website. This page also allows you to check the collection [...]
Does Theresa May really believe that she can control the terms on which a General Election is fought? That is the question that many broadcasters may well be asking as she continues to resist taking part in leaders' debates. As the Independent reports, their poll shows that the majority of the British public wants her to go head to head with her rivals in live TV debates during the election campaign. The BMG Research survey reveals more than half of people want the live contests to go ahead: Respondents were asked whether "leaders of the UK's major political parties" should ...
When I arrived at Lib Dem group meeting on Monday evening, I was told that the BBC had been interviewing people in Blaydon about what they thought about Tony Blair returning to Parliament as MP for the constituency! It seems Blair made a comment in which he expressed his worries about the state of the Labour Party and the moves towards Brexit. His despair at the current state of affairs led him
On Sunday we headed to Dunston Hill to deliver a Focus and petition form. The lead article was about Labour's plans for hundreds of executive homes on land to the south of Whickham Highway. Though Labour had described the plans as a "myth", in 2015 they stripped the area of its greenbelt protection. Well, the planning application is now in. Labour originally allocated the site for 550 houses.
