Bigotry in all its forms is the stain that marks our species for shame throughout our history, our present and most likely our future. Bigotry and the bigots who espouse the different forms of it, forget a major fundamental aspect of what it is to be human. It forgets that we are all individuals and therefore should be treated as such. In the United States' Declaration of In the United States' Declaration of Independence, it says "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, ...
Welcome to Broxtowe Enews, brought to you by the Liberal Democrats and edited by David Watts, on behalf of the Lib-Dems in Broxtowe. 1. Local Election results Nottinghamshire County Council is under no overall political control after the results of Thursdays elections. For the Lib Dems, especially here in Broxtowe, the results were a prime example of why our electoral system needs reforming. We increased our vote share but ended up with 4 less seats than previously! In Broxtowe Steve Carr won the Bramcote and Beeston North for the Lib Dems, but that was the only victory that we had. Equally ...
I've spent the past 5 days in the New Forest. Back when I was a mustard-keen young political activist, I used to look askance at party members who took holidays during election season (where was their dedication?). In fact, I booked it months ago not giving a second's thought to the significance of 4th May. Does that make it better or worse? It means I've been partially insulated from the past week's events. I even ended up googling myself on Friday evening to find out my own election result (in a liberal-free area of Crawley, where I finished last, even ...
More news out about what will be in the Liberal Democrat general election manifesto (preview here): the Triple Lock for pensioners, one of the party's achievements in coalition and not to be confused with the party's internal triple lock, is in there once again. Here's what the party news release says about a policy which the Conservatives are flirting with abandoning: Pensioners will receive at least an extra £772 per year by 2021 under Liberal Democrat manifesto plans to protect the Triple Lock. The party are making the commitment to older people unlike the Conservatives who have repeatedly refused to ...
A sad aspect of visiting Brighton over the years has been the decline of the West Pier. When I first came across it there were serious hopes that it could be restored: today the ruins are sad rather than magnificent. A new arrival on the site is the British Airways 1360 - a sort of vertical pier - which I liked more than I expected to. Brighton is meant to be fun. It proved a challenge to photograph though. Now there are dreams of a whole new West Pier. It's construction would involve the removal of the last ruins of ...
More comedy genius from Australia's Clarke and Dawe, which also tragically is the last as John Clarke died a few days after it was filmed.
Lib Dems have topped 18% across the UK in the 2017 Local Elections, yet instead of the projected 100 gains made by some pundits, we lost seats. However this 7% swing from 2015 represents a steady fightback which will pick up key seats in Remain areas but faces a tough time from the Conservative/UKIP combination in traditional leave areas. The Tories have adopted a programme which bears striking similarity to the BNP Manifesto of 2005. We face the most important General Election in our history and there is everything to gain for the party as the voice of the 48% ...
This is the first of my Patreon-requested posts for this month. Jennie Rigg asked me to write about Gary The Wonder Dog. I don't normally write much about my home life, and I'm generally better at talking about ideas than ... Continue reading →
Sat 6th
19:58
Rennie, Cole-Hamilton and Campbell launch Christine Jardine's campaign to take back Edinburgh West
You know that wonderful post-election Saturday morning feeling, that you can lie in bed for a bit longer and you don't have to rush off and do anything? When you can lie about all day reading trashy novels and drinking gin and tonic in the sunshine? Well, it will be lovely when we get it in 5 weeks' time. Today, we had to drag our weary limbs out of bed sooner than we would have liked and head out campaigning. In my case, it was to the Edinburgh West campaign launch. Regular readers will know that last week, the Edinburgh ...
While I was working at a conference down in Brighton, Harborough Conservatives selected the candidate they hope will replace Sir Edward Garnier as the constituency's MP. Anyone who turns to Twitter to find out about will be disappointed. Though O'Brien joined in August 2009, he has deleted everything before yesterday's selection meeting. I don't know if it was the voters of Harborough or the Tory members he was wary of sharing his views with. Fortunately, it is possible to find out a lot about those views if you go to the Policy Exchange site. There you will find that when ...
The German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, once confessed that her favourite television programme is Midsomer Murders. This raised a few eyebrows, but I completely understand. Those of us who have busy and sometimes stressful lives, especially if this involves lots of face-to-face contact with strangers, need to wind down from time to time. And there is [...]
Norman Lamb was a first class Health Minister and Lib Dem Health Spokesperson. The policy he announced today shows courage and determination as well as a desire to bring people of all Parties and none together to try and achieve ... Continue reading →
Pensioners will receive at least an extra £772 per year by 2021 under Liberal Democrat manifesto plans to protect the Triple Lock. The party are making the commitment to older people unlike the Conservatives who have repeatedly refused to give the guarantee. This guarantee means the state pension is expected to be worth at
The Labour Party under any far-left socialist leader, not just Jeremy Corbyn cannot win an election in Great Britain. They will never gain enough seats to win a majority in the House of Commons. Why? The easy answer is their rhetoric. The rhetoric used by far-left socialists destroys any message these people may have, which from what I can see isn't much (boo-hoo blame the media). Their message and that of the current Labour Party is the Tories are evil (therefore Tory voters are either evil or stupid) and there is a horrible conspiracy by the rich and by business ...
Unsurprisingly – given there were only three candidates standing versus ten last year – none of the openly trans candidates were successfully elected on Thursday. I will be posting my list of General Election candidates after the nominations close on 11th May, and the notices of poll have been published. [IMG: Labour] Sam Feeney Cambridgeshire, St Ives North & Wyton 3rd place: 17.3% (New boundaries, so no %age change) Mridul Wadhwa Edinburgh, Craigentinny/Duddingston 6th in a 4-member division, 6.3% of first preference votes Alex Bear Derbyshire, Ripley East and Codnor 4th place: 2.2% (+2.2%)
ENGLAND – VOTE SHARE VS. 2013 Tories UP 13% UKIP DOWN 14% LibDems UP 2% Labour DOWN 3% https://t.co/htCvSBTOGQ pic.twitter.com/EuJnakWYuB — Westmonster (@WestmonsterUK) May 5, 2017 UKIP is dead in the water. Their voters have swung to a Tory party committed to Brexit with no final consultation and the opening new grammar schools, both signature policies of UKIP: their task is done. Meanwhile, we Lib Dems are bigger than we've ever been; and yet in spite of a 2% swing to us, we are not making the gains we deserve. Both Labour and the Tories have sticky voters who aren't ...
The Liberal Democrats have announced they would plug funding gaps for the English NHS and social care by putting a penny on income tax, in their first major manifesto commitment of the election campaign. This is the party's flagship spending commitment and its first major policy announcement for the election. At least 70% of Brits would happily pay an extra 1p in every pound if that money was guaranteed to go to the NHS, an ITV poll found last October. There will be a consequential increase in the health component of the Scottish and Welsh budget settlements. However, pressure on ...
The Liberal Democrats have announced they would plug funding gaps for the NHS and social care by putting a penny on income tax, in their first major manifesto commitment of the election campaign. The tax would raise an additional £44 million for Durham and Darlington, with £44 million for the NHS and £23.7 million for social care each year. This is the party's flagship spending commitment and its first major policy announcement for the election. The Liberal Democrats manifesto will also set out a 'five-point recovery plan' for NHS and social care services in their manifesto. At least 70% of ...
There is nothing that says 'lame duck leader' more than turning up for a rally to celebrate an election victory only for the victorious candidate to snub the event. That was Jeremy Corbyn's fate yesterday when he travelled to Greater Manchester to mark Andy Burnham's election as Mayor only to fnd that the former Shadow Cabinet Member had another engagement. The Independent has further bad news for the Labour leader. The paper says that some candidates are in near open-revolt against Corbyn following the party's battering at the polls on Thursday. Their poll found that amajority of Labour supporters want ...
miss_s_b | The Blood is the Life for 05-05-2017 I posted The Blood is the Life for 05-05-2017 to my dreamwidth blog Labour wins huge majority in local elections after Diane Abbott counts the votes I needed a genuine LOL right now. Why we should be grateful to immigrants Twitter Instagram photo: Spike has found sunshine ♡♡ Instagram Instagram photo: Spike has found sunshine ♡♡ andrewducker | A few thoughts on the council election results I wish we had STV down here. AND votes at 16. Scotland much more engaged electorate and more interesting politics. [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments ...
In the middle of an election campaign, Liberal Democrats don't have time to read books. But keep an eye out for reviews, and extracts, of The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity, Islam, by Douglas Murray, which was published on May 4th by Bloomsbury. The Sunday Times gave us a full-page extract last weekend, indicating the Murdoch press's approval of its author and his arguments. His opening sentence states that 'Europe is committing suicide': from loss of will, decline of Christian values (he calls it 'existential civilizational tiredness'), lost commitment to reproduce enough children, and above all from the mass ...
On Wednesday Gateshead Lib Dem Council Group held its annual meeting to elect officers and agree appointments to council committees. I'm pleased to report that I was re-elected unopposed as Group Leader, and therefore Leader of the Opposition (there are no Conservative, UKIP or Green Councillors in Gateshead - it's either Labour or Lib Dem here.) Ron Beadle was re-elected as Deputy Leader. I am
The Guardian has the commentary on its web site – see link above. We live in very strange times and are acting as a nation in ways the majority of us could surely never have envisioned and which are so obviously self-destructive. A government of the far right, our leading opposition party following them into the Brexit voting lobbies, who would have thought it possible but it is happening. I heard of a voter yesterday via the radio who was saying that they had no political home now as they wanted the Brexit of the Tories but the social ...
What's this about then? Pavement parking is a problem for a range of people; wheelchair users, people pushing prams, those unsure on their feet, those who's jobs involve delivering and of course for those who rely on guide dogs. So isn't it time we took some action to help ensure the safety of these people? [...]
Sat 6th
08:55
Ignore the hype: yesterday's result shows a massive Tory landslide is on its way come June 8th
I am far from someone who makes a habit of complaining about the machinations of the Murdoch press swaying elections. But yesterday, Sky News made a projection based on the local election results which have the Tories ending up with 349 seats and Labour 215. In other words, the Conservatives will supposedly take less than 20 seats from Labour and end up with a majority of less than 50 after June 8th. On this projection, they would also take almost none off the SNP, despite an incredible Tory showing in Scotland on Thursday, which was at the expense of Labour ...
DUNDEE CITY COUNCIL - WEEKLY ROAD REPORT REPORT FOR WEST END WARD WEEK COMMENCING MONDAY 8 MAY 2017 Riverside Esplanade/Riverside Drive (Tay Road Bridge off ramp to 75m along Riverside Drive) - westbound nearside lane closure for 28 weeks to facilitate V&A construction works. SSE Glenagnes Cable Renewal - Lochee Road lane restrictions and closures on Blinshall Street, Fleuchar Street and Scott Street for 11 weeks. Riverside Approach (Roseangle/Magdalen Yard Road to Riverside Drive) - closed for one week for carriageway resurfacing works. Perth Road (at Farington Street) - temporary traffic lights until Tuesday 9 May for Hydro cable fault ...
Now that sleep deprivation is almost out of my system... The ideal conclusion to 4th May (avoiding Star Wars jokes) would have been the Libdems taking control of Somerset County Council, winning all seats in Yeovil constituency etc. Obviously that didn't happen, but the night, and the result wasn't all doom and gloom. There were [...]
Liberal Democrat Newswire #94 previews the Liberal Democrat manifesto for the 2017 general election.
That's the rehearsal election out of the way, now just five weeks to go as we wait for the real thing to happen. It's very weird having a local election in the middle of a general election campaign. There have been time before (notably in the 80s) when local elections were happening in the knowledge that a general election was very likely to be called in the wake of them, but the last time there were simultaneous campaigns on was 1955, when the general election happened three weeks after the locals. That was a time when both local and national ...
We took a day off yesterday, due to the absence of releases on polling day, so it's time to get back into the groove... Lib Dems respond to leaked Govt plans for new mass surveillance powers The government has secretly drawn up details of new bulk surveillance powers under the Investigatory Powers Act, according to leaked documents obtained by The Register. According to the documents all communications companies would be obliged to provide real-time access to the full content of any named individual within 24 hours, including encrypted content. The Investigatory Powers Act was passed last year, after Labour failed ...
If People Talked About Other Things the Way They Talked About Gender Identity Ow. (tags: sexandgenderandsexuality ) Tweets of the week: French elections, Brexit dinner, and the House of European History @BrusselsGeek is back! (tags: eu ) The future's not orange. The Lib Dems look set to miss out @MSmithsonPB is sceptical. (tags: libdems )
It's not terrorist attacks that produce mass casualties. It's our overreactions to them. This is the third post in a multi-part series on the dangers of overeacting to terrorism. Click here to read the first and second part. Grim reading Wikipedia has a list of the terrorist attacks with the highest death tolls. This is [...]
Meols Ward Lib Dem Councillors John Dodd, Nigel Ashton and Jo Barton are holding their next advice centre on Saturday 13th May from 11 am to 12 noon at St John's Primary School, Rufford Road, Crossens. We will be there to meet you and discuss any Council problems you may have. No appointment necessary. Just pop in. We also hold a monthly advice centre in Churchtown, at BoxTree Kitchen for Queenscourt café, Manor Road/Cambridge Road, roundabout, fourth Thursday of every month (except December) from 10:30 to: 11.30 am.
The Liberal Democrats have attacked plans by UKIP to slash foreign aid so it would account for only 0.2% of GDP. Tom Brake MP, Liberal Democrat Foreign Affairs spokesperson, said of Patrick O'Flynn's announcement: "Patrick O'Flynn is widely considered to be Paul Nuttall's brain. But this, to be charitable, is politics at its least thoughtful. "Ensuring that 0.7% of GDP is spent on foreign aid was a major achievement of Liberal Democrats in the coalition. It allowed us to vaccinate millions of children against ghastly diseases, stop humanitarian disasters and fight the horrific practice of Female Genital Mutilation. "UKIP would ...
