A pie and pea supper tonight (I have another one tomorrow) at Swalwell Community Centre kicked off the fundraising quiz evening. My team - me, David, Cllr Sonya Hawkins and my brother Andrew - known as the Goat Doctors, have a record to defend. We won the quiz when it was last held in the autumn. Alas, we slipped up tonight and came in second.
As Leader of the Opposition in Gateshead, it is my duty to second the vote of thanks to the outgoing mayor and deputy mayor at the annual council meeting which was held today. I spent part of the morning pulling together notes for the speech as well as sorting a few loose ends regarding the Lib Dem group's representation on committees. I was due in the Civic Centre at 1pm for a naming ceremony
Having begun the day by wishing you a happy St Pancras's Day, there was only one place to go. St Pancras Old Church stands just to the north of the railway station and to the west of the line. As St Pancras Old Church History explains: St Pancras Old Church has been a site of Christian worship since the 4th century. It is thought that this church is on a site that has offered worship for more than 1700 years. Fragments of Roman material can still be seen here and there in the fabric of the current building. The monuments ...
The number of candidates in Blaydon has hit a record 7. Nominations closed yesterday. We have candidates from the three main parties (Lib Dem, Labour and Conservatives), from a minor party (Greens) and three from the fringe (Libertarian, UKIP and "We want the future now"). This latter party is actually registered under the name of "Space Navies Party". What is on the nomination paper is
The Liberal Democrats have questioned plans by the Conservatives to hand powers to the government that would enable ministers to censor social media content. Alistair Carmichael, Liberal Democrat shadow first secretary of state, said: "It is certainly bold of the Conservatives to boast how they can protect people on the internet the day after the NHS has been hacked with a loophole apparently built by the US government. "Government and technology companies must do more to find a real solution to problematic content online - but having a government agency deciding what constitutes acceptable free speech isn't it. "We need ...
help@libdems.org.uk is the extremely straightforward, and also extremely useful, email address to get in touch with the "customer services" team at party HQ.
The local party has successfully submitted nomination papers on Tuesday. As there has been talk, in recent days, of a Hastings & Rye progressive alliance, I make the following statement as the Liberal Democrat candidate for MP: 'I confirm that over the past week I have had talks with James Corre at Compass. I have [...]
Two council by-elections this week which didn't quite make it into the large round of elections last Thursday. Both holds, but note how Ukip suffered in both. The drop in the Ukip vote this time disproportionately helped the Conservatives in South Derbyshire whilst in Norfolk there was a welcome Liberal Democrats candidate this time, who made the most net gains as Ukip slumped: Woodville (South Derbyshire) result: CON: 46.3% (+13.4) LAB: 38.5% (+5.9) UKIP: 8.9% (-17.8) LDEM: 6.2% (-1.5) Con HOLD. — Britain Elects (@britainelects) May 12, 2017
Today in 'that title for a post isn't tempting fate, is it?' It didn't take a genius to predict that the NHS would be an issue in this election, because it's an issue in every election as the parties all attempt to prove that it will be completely safe in their hands, but will definitely collapse in days if anyone else gets their hands on it. What they probably weren't expecting was that the part of the NHS that would come under most scrutiny during the election campaign was its IT and cybersecurity provision. What's interesting is that it's not ...
The nominations are in for North West Durham, and in one area at least I claim an advantage. I am resident in North West Durham, and have been for many years. North West Durham, however, is clearly a powerful magnet. It still has the capacity to attract Conservatives from the deep South who seek to cut their political teeth here as Teresa May once did. Hastings is so far South it's what William the Conqueror found when he crossed the Channel! The rest of the field comes from closer "foreign parts", UKIP from Bishop Auckland, Green from Durham, and the ...
Second paragraph of third story ("The woman"): They surveyed the terrace. A problem! Only one of the tables still remained in sunlight. They stiffly marched towards it, pulled out chairs, seated themselves. At once they opened newspapers and lifted them up like screens. I had not read much Doris Lessing before (I liked The Summer Before the Dark and didn't care for The Grass is Singing) and was braced for, well, anything, but in fact I thought this was a very interesting set of short stories set in the supposedly repressive middle of the last century (published in 1957) and ...
Willie Rennie will probably be disappointed that he didn't actually get to scrap a car when he visited a scrap yard in Fife this morning. He went there to say that the Liberal Democrats would "scrap the SNP's plans for another divisive independence referendum." He did, however, manage to look disapproving: .@willie_rennie: @theSNP need to scrap plans for another divisive #indyref2. ScotLibDem MPs will be local champions not indyref cheerleaders pic.twitter.com/iLBYbtQAEt — Scot Lib Dems (@scotlibdems) May 12, 2017 He said: The Liberal Democrats are clear that we want to scrap the SNP's independence referendum. The news this week that ...
Frank was brought up in an army family and had a much-travelled childhood. He remembers trouble in Egypt and seeing poverty in the back streets of Benghazi, as well as the rejuvenation of the region of the Ruhr in Germany after the devastation of the world war. Settled briefly in Wallasey on Merseyside, he attended Oldershaw Grammar School where two visiting lecturers made an impression. "The first was Emlyn Williams, who performed his recreation of Charles Dickens' readings from his own work, a rare honour for the school. The second was a man whose name I unforgivably soon forgot, but ...
Referendums? Are you really so dumb? Surely it should be referenda? All right, I openly admit that I'm no expert on referendums, or referenda, my background being in science and medicine. The following thoughts are strictly those of a layman, but they should be relatively light on establishment bias and received wisdom. I see five problems and a conundrum The first problem is that referenda are subject to 'populist' forces. What is meant by that? Suppose there was a referendum on whether we wanted to pay taxes. The populist lobby, attuned to the visceral nature of taxation, would urge us ...
What's this about then? The Tax Payers Alliance, have published a report that showed in 2015: 17 Council Officers received salaries in excess of £100,000 4 Council Officers received salaries in excess of £150,000 2 Council Officers received salaries in excess of £200,000 ...executive salaries in many local authorities remain high, raising questions over value for money [...]
Last night the first Party Election Broadcast of the year was shown in Scotland. It's a re-worked and updated version of the Groundhog Day PPB broadcast earlier this year. Tim Farron has also re-done his piece to refer directly to the election. The commentary includes direct reference to the so-called Rape Clause which has horrified so many people across the country. Enjoy. What do you think? The original version of this went down pretty well when it was first broadcast in January. And any guesses as to who is doing the voiceovers? * Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat ...
The Mayor of Sefton Cllr. Iain Brodie Brown writes:- Please support this petition to make Jean Alexander the first individual women to be given the Freedom of the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton. Follow the link below to SeftonSays to sign the petition. When I became Mayor of Sefton a year ago I had a little list of things I wanted to do. I had a vision that the Mayoralty could reach out and confer civic recognition and thanks to people in our community who have often been excluded. I was delighted to be the first Mayor to visit the Mosque, ...
The Liberal Democrats have officially ruled out alliances this time, but informal arrangements seem to be popping up all over the place, and it's certain a vote for Corbyn won't help any such alliance evolve in the future. Vince Cable allegedly believes that there are certain Labour candidates in this election whose views 'exactly match our own.' If that is the case then it is rather reassuring that the current reactionary riff being performed by Corbyn and Co. is not the tune to which all of the Labour Party march. But the problem is, that doesn't matter. Corbyn has already ...
Theresa May's snap general election is already being described by the political pundits as unlike any other. That's partly because she has called it for one (official) reason: to get a mandate to be tough in Britain's Brexit negotiations with our 27 EU partners. Unofficially, it's clear the Conservatives believe that Labour under Jeremy Corbyn [...]
Yesterday I went to the audiology department of our local NHS hospital for a minor adjustment to one of my hearing aids. After she had dealt with it the technician told me I was due for another hearing test in July, but would not be sent for. It was up to me to "initiate the procedure" and "request a new pathway." (Who on earth dreams up this management speak?") I would then be advised that I could go to the private sector for this. It is apparently mandatory that his option be pointed out to me. Labour, Liberal Democrat and ...
Nominations for candidates for the general election closed last night. Here in Ludlow, four candidates are standing. Philip Dunne will bat for the Conservatives. Julia Buckley is standing for Labour. Hilary Wendt is the Green candidate. Heather Kidd will represent the Liberal Democrats.
Well, I say review, it's more a disjointed set of ramblings. ( background about why we went ) ( Shinedown ) ( Maiden themselves ) We had a really great time, and Hol really loved it, and is fully looking forward to Alice Cooper in the autumn now :) [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
Dear straight allies, please don't come to pride until you've understood these 6 things Alabama rot map 2017 reveals where the disease has struck | WIRED UK More on the doggy disease highlighted by the BBC yesterday. Be careful out there doggy people. gallifrey_times | GT for Thursday the 11th of May 2017 I posted GT for Thursday the 11th of May 2017 to the Gallifrey Times Whoniverse Newsletter Instagram photo We've found our seats. We're quite high up. #ironmaiden #Leeds Instagram photo View from our seats without our heads in the way. Pit forming already and it's an hour ...
The Liberal Democrats will introduce an additional month of paid parental leave especially for fathers to encourage greater sharing of parental responsibilities. The policy will build on our transformational achievement of introducing Shared Parental Leave in order to ensure that new parents can make the decisions which work best for their family. Jo Swinson, who introduced the original Shared Parental Leave in the Coalition Government, said: The Liberal Democrat introduction of Shared Parental Leave was a massive step towards more equal parenting, and recognising the vital role that fathers play. Parents across the UK have already benefitted from greater flexibility ...
We have not yet left the EU so it is impossible to assess the full impact of Brexit as yet, but the ramifications of the decision we took last June are starting to feed through the system. In particular they are starting to hit our cost of living. That was certainly the message of the Governor of the Bank of England yesterday, who warned that the impact of Brexit will contribute to a dramatic drop in real-terms pay this year with average workers due to be left hundreds of pounds out of pocket. As the Independent reports, Mark Carney predicted ...
As John Betjeman wrote: Saint Pancras was a fourteen-year old Christian boy who was martyred in Rome in AD 304 by the Emperor Diocletian. In England he is better known as a railway station. Today is also Steve Winwood's birthday.
The Friends of the University of Dundee Botanic Garden Annual Plant Sale in the Garden, in conjunction with Garden Power of Plants day, is on Sunday 21st May. It will take place from 11am to 2pm - times to be confirmed (check the Friends' blog here for updates on the timing). Contributions of plants and offers of help will be very welcome (contact fudbg.committee@gmail.com or telephone 350990).
Responding to reports Theresa May will not seek the endorsement of prominent business figures in the campaign, Liberal Democrat Shadow Chancellor Vince Cable said: "The Conservatives are making a virtue of necessity, because very few respectable business people are likely to endorse the party in its current form. "They have buried any claim to be the party of business. Theresa May has adopted UKIP's job-destroying agenda wholesale, choosing to quit the single market no matter what damage is done to British businesses. "People don't have to settle for a bad Brexit deal that will cost jobs and push up prices. ...
The Liberal Democrats will introduce an additional month of paid parental leave for fathers to encourage greater sharing of parental responsibilities.The policy will build on our achievement of introducing Shared Parental Leave which ensured new parents could make decisions which work best for their family.Many fathers would prefer to spend more time with their children in the period after they are born. The Liberal Democrats want to make that a real possibility giving opportunities for new fathers to spend quality time with their newborn children. Jo Swinson, who introduced the original Shared Parental Leave in the Coalition Government, said: "The ...
A dog's brexit. Excellent analysis from former U.K. Ambassador @dbroucher. (tags: brexit ukpolitics eu ) Labour manifesto pledges to restore Tom Baker as Doctor Who This may not be true. (tags: ukpolitics doctorwho )
[Original Post from https://www.facebook.com/martinveartedin/#] Today Tim Farron announces LibDems plans to accept 50,000 Syrian refugees. I have no problem with the UK taking more refugees. The problem I have is the UK's role in creating refugees. We should not be supporting any side in the wars in the Middle East. I have worked and travelled in the region (and beyond) over the decades. My fear is, which have been confirmed by Michael Fallon on the Today Programme this morning, is that we are selling weapons purely for profit and, in doing so, enable the continuation of the wars. Saudi ...
IRON MAIDEN!!!!! The vocals were a LITTLE low in the mix, so sometimes clarity was a bit lacking. Thankfully I knew most of the words anyway. SCREAM FOR ME LEEDS!!!!! They didn't play my favourite song, but they did play Holly's, and the look on her face when she heard the opening bars is a thing I will treasure for always. I am very happy and slightly deaf and slightly hoarse. But definitely very happy. ISIHAC on Sunday! :) [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
Thursday's big event was the official launch of the Lib Dem campaigns in Blaydon, Gateshead, Jarrow and South Shields. The respective candidates (me, Frank Hindle, Peter Maughan and Gita Gordon) were at the launch at Gateshead Civic Centre with guest speaker Lord John Shipley. Each candidate gave a short presentation about themselves and then answered questions from members. A good meeting, but
