The Hop Garden in High Spen is a community run allotment and I've often attended events they have hosted in the past. On Sunday, after delivering some letters in Ryton, I headed to High Spen to go to the garden's swap event. The currency at these events is anything produced on the allotment that is surplus. The idea is that people swap what they have too much of, for something they don't have
The dreadful events in Manchester on Monday night have left many families in appalling grief, and all of us saddened on their behalf. The murderous action has left the whole country shocked, and the appetite for election campaigning reduced. Never the less, the election has restarted and the questions in many people's minds as diverse as ever. Some of those questions will no doubt be raised on Sunday afternoon at Christchurch Parish Church in Consett where the constituency's only husting (at least the only one organised to date) will take place at 4.00 p.m. All are welcome, and all the ...
People who follow me on Twitter will know that I am in the habit of tweeting a photo from my lunchtime walks. Having been told, perhaps a little generously, that the first one here is a "masterpiece", I thought I would share some of them here.
Fri 26th
20:50
Cable: IFS analysis shows Conservatives and Labour are hiding impact of their plans from the public
The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has published a damning analysis of the Labour and Conservative manifestos, saying that neither party "has set out an honest set of choices." It says plans in the Conservative manifesto could do "serious damage" to the quality of public services such as the NHS and schools, while Labour's tax rises may not raise anything like the tax revenues they have claimed. The IFS has also previously stated that the revenue raised by the Liberal Democrats' income tax rises, at around £6bn per year, is "more certain" than the revenue raised by Labour. Liberal Democrat ...
Embed from Getty Images I have put her in scare quotes because I have no idea if Katie Hopkins really holds the repugnant views she puts forward. She was required to be continually outrageous but to avoid being so outrageous that she became a problem for the mainstream radio station that employed her. It is a wonder she lasted as long as she did. And to keep up the "Katie Hopkins" brand she had to be equally outrageous on social media without any training in journalism or any editorial or legal support to fall back on. Again, it is no ...
And we're back. One thing that I've been thinking about with this election is whether there are any other elections it resembles and if those give us a clue to what the final result would be. Political scientists like finding things that are broadly comparable for two reasons: first, we can use different outcomes to measure the effects of small changes in other variables, and second, we get to pretend that all that reading about previous elections that we've done was of important academic significance, not just indulging in a psephological hobby. So, here are three other elections that this ...
Fri 26th
18:20
Sarah Olney's "festival of fun" and Stephen Lloyd's t-shirt giveaway - just two of the things happen...
A few weeks ago, we might have thought we'd be spending this bank holiday sipping gin and tonics in our back gardens in beautiful sunshine, but Theresa May had other ideas. Never mind, though. Lots of Lib Dem target seat campaigns are pulling out all the stops to entice you in. I am sure that others will add details of their events in the comments, but here are two that caught my eye. Sarah Olney has this lot to get rid off and a little bird tells me that they have all sorts of fun things planned to keep visitors ...
Delivering leaflets is such an apparently straight-forward activity that you don't see any training sessions or briefing materials in the party about how to do it.
One thing I used to do when I was the Member of Parliament for Yardley was to call together meetings of all of the religious organisations in Yardley as a Yardley multi-faith group. In many ways it is the creation of informal links between people that makes communication easier even if there is no formal decision making power. Obviously this is something I would intend to do again if the people
Former Welsh Lib Dem Leader Kirsty Williams has spoken out about the unpleasant divisiveness of our political atmosphere after one of her team was racially abused and she had the unsettling experience of a man making a shooting gesture and telling her Liberals should be shot. From Wales Online: Describing the change she has seen since the EU referendum, she said: "I think ever since the Brexit vote I think politics has become very divisive in a way I haven't witnessed in all these years and I think in some ways that has unleashed something where the country is very, ...
I've just finished updating the Northern Ireland elections site with the results from the 2017 Assembly election and candidates for next month's Westminster election. (Also details from the 2011 referendum on the Alternative Vote and the 2016 Brexit referendum.) Massive thanks to Conal Kelly for doing a great deal of the legwork. This would have happened sooner, but our new-ish home computer melted down the day I planned to do it, so young F and I spent most of that weekend bringing it in for repair and resurrecting the old desktop. C'est la vie.
This EU flag flies better when it is alongside the St George's Cross of England and the Union Flag of Great Britain and Northern Ireland I was out canvassing in Childwall the other night when a lady on the doorstep ... Continue reading →
Sarah Olney has written an article for the Times Educational Supplement talking about the difficulties facing universities as a result of Theresa May's push for a hard brexit. Citing Cambridge University's assertion that Brexit poses a significant risk to our Higher Eduction sector, Sarah outlines this in detail: Unfortunately, the Conservative government doesn't seem to be listening. Theresa May has chosen to pursue the hardest and most destructive version of Brexit possible: taking us out of the single market and the customs union, and even threatening to do so without a new trade agreement with the EU. The government is ...
... the Manchester thing hit me pretty hard, and then yesterday I had a migraine to the extent where I could just about manage twitter on night mode in a darkened room but not much else. So if I missed anything important, I'm sorry xx [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
This is the 9th General Election in which I've been politically active. Let's not think about how old that makes me! You can also add 4 Holyrood elections to that. I missed out on the first one because I was living in England and just about to give birth. That didn't stop me running a committee room in Chesterfield on polling day, though. Nor did it stop me doing stuff for the Newark by-election that never was. I've just been reflecting on all these campaigns and maybe I should write about each one individually at some point. In each election, ...
Claire Young recently joined thousands of people marching for fairer funding for our schools - parents, children, teachers and fellow Lib Dems - at the Fairer Funding for Schools rally. The Liberal Democrats would invest £6.9bn more in our schools and colleges over the next parliament, to ensure no school and no child loses out. That would mean £26m more in schools and colleges in South Gloucestershire, including £1.3m to protect the Pupil Premium, introduced by the Liberal Democrats to help the most disadvantaged children. In contrast, the Conservative government is proposing deep cuts in many school budgets - schools ...
The Conservative manifesto launch demonstrated the same media handling mistake that many Lib Dem minister made early in coalition government.
Following on from Theresa May's promise of a free vote to lift the ban on the cruellest of hunting with hounds, allusions to country sports seems to becoming increasingly apt. On Monday, it was alleged that she had "shot our fox" by changing the Conservative manifesto to include "consultation on an absolute limit on what people need to pay" for their own social care. In fact Theresa May has shot herself in the foot. If we had deliberately set an ambush for the Conservatives, we couldn't have done a better job. The Tories had already broken a promise in their ...
Jeremy Corbyn seems hellbent on squandering any advantage that he may be gaining in the polls due to Theresa May's stumbling over the "Dementia Tax." She really struggled in her Andrew Neil interview on Monday night. She's laid her weakness bare. Her opponents should be all over that. Instead, Jeremy Corbyn has chosen to make some comments linking terrorism to British foreign policy at a time when people are really hurting after Manchester, which, as well as being insensitive when people are hurting, is also opening the door for all the usual attacks on him. He had the chance to ...
Student teaches teacher about Geneva Conventions This is the kind of thing I would have done [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
Fri 26th
10:25LibLink: Amna Ahmad: The Tories' response to the refugee crisis shows that they are turning their ba...
Lib Dem candidate for Sutton and Cheam, Amna Ahmad, has written for the House magazine about the ongoing refugee crisis. We have always helped those seeking sanctuary, even at times when we faced domestic challenges and hard times, and we must continue to do so. Recognising others' need even when we have distractions of our own is part of our identity, or "British values", and I will not allow Brexit or Nigel Farage to take that away. Furthermore, at a time when we are seen by many to be turning our back on the rest of to the world, behaving ...
The recent revelations about Diane Abbott's support for Irish nationalists in the 1980s have not been particularly surprising. For many old enough to remember the horrendous violence and terror the IRA inflicted on people, such support is unpalatable; but we already knew that, as a close ally of Jeremy Corbyn, she was likely to have shared his rigidly anti-West approach to world affairs. Criticism of the British State's policies can of course be healthy, and indeed must be present in a functioning democracy. But in the pattern of Corbyn's criticisms there seemed to be something more extreme, an apparent dislike ...
I recently visited the Tayside MS Therapy Centre in Peddie Street to discuss a number of local issues with the team. I have been asked to advertise the following notice for HBO Chamber Operator Volunteers that the centre has recently issued : HBO Chamber Operator Volunteer Due to the retirement of 2 long serving volunteers, we arenow recruiting for Chamber Operator Volunteers(To comply with operator guidelines, the minimum age is 18) This is an opportunity to undertake a satisfying and rewarding role as part of our team of trained volunteer operators, working in our friendly therapy centre while providing an ...
I have refrained from posting on the blog for the past few days out of respect for the victims of the terrorist outrage in Manchester. The political parties rightly suspended campaigning until today. Yesterday, Blaydon campaigning by all parties began again with the Rowlands Gill hustings meeting (more about that later). The eFocus for Whickham which was due to go out on Tuesday will be published
It's the first day of national campaigning since the Manchester attack on Monday night. For Tim Farron, it's not an immediate return to hostilities. Instead, he's going to Warrington to visit a Jonathan Ball/Tim Parry Peace Foundation in Warrington. The Foundation was set up by the parents of the two boys who were killed by the Warrington Bomb in 1993. Tim wants to learn about the charity's work. Later he will attend a remembrance service at a Mosque with the Ahmadiyya community in Manchester. In Scotland, Willie Rennie will be visiting a pharmacy in Glasgow. There, he will express gratitude ...
In Brexit, transparency is a tool - and Europe is using it The fiends! (tags: eu ukpolitics brexit )
Journalist Lee Fang has identified a £50,000 donation to the Conservative Party made by a company controlled by the Lebanese billionaire Fouad Makhzoumi who was at the centre of a political scandal involving the Russians ahead of the French Presidential election: The Lebanese billionaire who caused a scandal when it was revealed he paid France's Fillon for a meeting w/Putin just donated to the Tories — Lee Fang (@lhfang) May 25, 2017 As The Guardian explains of the French scandal: The French presidential candidate François Fillon has been hit by allegations he was paid $50,000 (£40,000) to arrange a meeting ...
Sadly the "pro-staying-in-the- EU from the 48%" which was expected to prduce a Liberal Democrat surge does not yet seem to have taken off. There's still time. Here's a simple guide to enable canvassers to respond if the Brexit topic is raised, or to introduce it if it isn't. Be it hard, soft or middling, if Btitain leaves the EU we shall be: Economically poorer.Politically less significant.Scientifically and culturally more isolated.Socially less secure.and, if we trade with anybody at all, still subject to international jurisdiction, including the European Court of Justice (ECJ) That's it. QED. or, more poetically: Of that ...
The photograph above is just one extract of possibly the most bizarre, xenophobic, authoritarian, patronising, illiberal and downright ridiculous manifesto so far. Not only do UKIP wish to dictate what flags can and cannot be flown on public buildings but they even want to prevent teachers using yellow adhesive stars to reward kids because they look too much like the EU flag. As if UKIP leader, Paul Nuttall did not have enough problems there is huge unrest within his party both about their plunging poll ratings and his performance as leader. As the Independent relates, rather predictably for UKIP, much ...
All parties bar Ukip and the Greens can find something to celebrate in this week's one council by-election, from Southend: Independent HOLD Shoeburyness (Southend). — Britain Elects (@britainelects) May 25, 2017
