A British Transport Films effort from the 1970s. Notice how grubby everything looks and the cavalier way with railway heritage.
It's two years since we woke up to the terrible news that our excellent and much loved former leader Charles Kennedy had gone. He modelled a style of politics that was engaging and accepting – but passionate and clear, too. He had the courage to oppose the Iraq war. He continues to inspire many of us. Here is his 2013 speech to Conference on Europe. How we missed him during the EU Referendum. Below is the last article he wrote for LDV just after he lost his seat in 2015. I am very fond of political history. If nothing else, ...
The Independent wins our Headline of the Day Award. The judges added a rider saying that this appears sound advice to them.
Embed from Getty Images The Royal Television Society site reports that the BBC is to screen a three-part drama based on John Preston's book A Very English Scandal about the career and trial of Jeremy Thorpe. It will be directed by Stephen Frears and star Hugh Grant as Thorpe. I reviewed Preston's book on this blog. What was most interesting about it to those of us who remember the Thorpe affair is that it was told - sympathetically - from the point of view of his fellow Liberal MP Peter Bessell. He has received a bad press from other chroniclers. ...
Fri 2nd
18:59
Tory candidate James Duddridge doesn't understand the blue badge system and subtly threatens constit...
I'm pissed off folks. Pissed off. James Duddridge has been my MP since I moved to Thorpe Bay in 2010. He is standing to get that job once again next week. He is in my opinion pretty shit at his job. He will win on June 8 because it doesn't matter how good or bad you are, if you have a blue rosette you will win where I live. I have come to terms with that. That is life. That is our First Past The Post voting system. So you just deal with it and you move on. Yet instead ...
Below is Tim Farron's open letter to Teresa May. Please consider signing the letter via the link at the bottom of it. Climate Change is the biggest threat to us all and especially future generations. Climate Change deniers like Trump are putting the future of the human race in great danger and leaders like Teresa May need to stand out against him not sit back saying its disappointing! ***** Lib Dem Leader Tim Farron with Cllr. Pat Keith on Southport Station. Dear Theresa, We both know climate change is real. It's one of the greatest threats to all our futures ...
Gallow humour about next Thursday being polling day and next Friday being the announcement of the next polling industry inquiry highlight the nervousness amongst pollsters about who will have been seen to get it right and wrong when the votes are counted.* No wonder, given the huge range in Conservative leads in recent polling, from, at the time of typing, just 3% in the data behind the latest YouGov seat projection up to 12% in the latest ICM and ComRes polls. The former would be a worse result for the Conservatives than in 2015, the latter would be up there ...
A version of this blog first appeared on the Radix website. I found myself speaking at a New Weather Institute event at the Hay festival last weekend, about the prospects for a 'progressive alliance'. Despite the selfless and public-spirited behaviour, mainly of Green candidates standing down in some constituencies for the general election, I would say that the prospects were not terribly good. I said so. But speaking alongside two inspirational people, Amelia Womack, Green deputy leader, and Zoe Williams of the Guardian, I had what I felt at the time was a sudden change of heart. Not so much ...
It's odd to think after so many weeks of uncertainty that this time next week we'll finally know something for sure. The people will have spoken, and then we can try and work out exactly what it is they've said. Or we can just accept that it was another poll and even though there was a very large sample size, it was self-selecting and so doesn't provide an accurate representation of public opinion, so is really just one more data point to be added to the model. It'll be a slightly less scary version of Die Lösung, in which the ...
Fri 2nd
17:22
Broederschap: Pleidooi voor verbondenheid / Fraternité: Retisser nos liens, by Frans Timmenma...
Third section in full:Dutch original: Het is alsof je op een pad loopt dat zo oneffen is en zo veel valkuilen heeft, dat je blik zich versmalt tot de plek vlak voor je voeten en je verder niets meer waarneemt, alleen die ene plek, zodat je niet in een gat stapt of over een losse steen struikelt. Onze blik versmalt, onze geest versmalt, onze aandacht is alleen nog maar gericht op het hier en nu, op de volgende stap. We zien niet meer wat er om ons heen gebeurt, maar we vrezen het ergste vanwege de schaduwen die we nog ...
Last night the US President confirmed Europe's worst fears, by announcing that he is withdrawing from the Paris Agreement on climate change. He is on record as saying that he doesn't really believe in global warming, and although his pledge to give coal-mining a boost went down well in certain areas of the country during [...]
Fri 2nd
16:46
Ludlow Town Council tells Shropshire Council to urgently rethink town centre exit closure next week
The town council has made a last-ditch attempt to prevent the closure of Brand Lane next Monday to Wednesday until a better plan for managing the resulting traffic chaos is in place. The closure is for three days, 24-hours a day to connect electricity and water to a single house. This is excessive. Buses and HGVs are to be rerouted over the Whitcliffe, a proposal that will not work. The town council's letter to Shropshire Council is reproduced in full below. It ends by saying: "The Town Council demands that Shropshire Council recognises the importance of the tourism economy of ...
Leaflets like these drawing attention to the Tories 'Dementia Tax' will be going out across Liverpool in the run up to the election Some people seem surprised that we now have major health and social care problems for the elderly. ... Continue reading →
Well said, Tim Farron, in the BBC TV party leaders debate.
Drum roll please for Tim Farron who accurately called it right during the leaders' debate when he said this:"Amber Rudd is up next. She is not the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister is not here she can't be bothered so why should you. In fact Bake Off is on BBC2 next, why not make yourself a brew? You are not worth Theresa May's time don't give her yours," he said. I am sick of hearing people say they will vote Conservative for the sole reason that Theresa May is 'strong and stable' . Can you hear the whirr of the ...
A brilliant new poster highlighting the Conservatives' plans to scrap free school lunches and replace them with breakfasts at a cost of just 7p per child was launched this week. Its slogan "Breakfast clearly doesn't mean Breakfast" mocked Theresa May's oft repeated Brexit remark. Theresa May's cynical decision to scrap free lunches for infants will hurt 250,000 of Britain's poorest children https://t.co/014Z1bafe7 pic.twitter.com/I7VCGGsDCW — Nick Clegg (@nick_clegg) May 31, 2017 The poster was issued to make the point that a quarter of a million children in poverty could suffer as a result of May's plans. It shows what you could ...
Frank Little, candidate for Neath, writes: "I have just had through my door a Labour leaflet (presumably accounted for in 'national' expenditure, and thus not subject to the constituency cap) implicitly promising to restore £1bn of cuts to the Welsh budget if Jeremy Corbyn comes to power. "Liberal Democrats would more than treble that. Tim Farron's manifesto promises at least £1.5bn for health, a similar amount for policing and £300m for education coming to Wales over the period of the next parliament. "Moreover, Liberal Democrats' proposals are fully-costed, whereas the independent IFS doubts the credibility of Mr Corbyn's manifesto costings." ...
Fri 2nd
11:55
LibLink: Nick Clegg: Why the Liberal Democrats believe a legal, regulated cannabis market would impr...
Nick Clegg has been writing in the BMJ outlining our position on Cannabis. He compares criminalisation of drugs to the prohibition of alcohol in the States: Far from controlling and eliminating alcohol use, the "noble experiment" of prohibition drove users towards increasingly potent and dangerous drinks. With no regulatory levers in place except the threat of arrest (which had to be set against the promise of handsome profits for those who defied the law), there was no effective way to control the market. The ensuing public health crisis was one of the key motivations behind the repeal of prohibition in ...
From introducing Michael Fallon at the Conservative Party conference to campaigning for the Lib Dems, Azi Ahmed explains why she's changed parties.
miss_s_b | The Blood is the Life for 01-06-2017 I posted The Blood is the Life for 01-06-2017 to my dreamwidth blog Twitter Instagram photo: "My mind to your mind. My thoughts to your thoughts." Instagram Instagram photo: "My mind to your mind. My thoughts to your thoughts." Twitter Instagram photo: Boss has bought a new toy Instagram Instagram photo: Boss has bought a new toy [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
In May and June each year, lots of people contact me as a beekeeper (and councillor) for advice on what to do about bee colonies in gardens and walls. At the risk of getting a load of abuse from Labour about my lifestyle, I've put together a short video about what is going on with the bees and what to do in response.
When the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) decided not to give the go ahead with charging several Conservative MPs with breaking election expenses rules, it said it needed more time to decide on one case. Now it has decided on that case. This time the verdict is to go ahead and prosecute both MP Craig Mackinlay (South Thanet) and two others, his agent and a Conservative Party official: On 18 April we received a file of evidence from Kent Police concerning allegations relating to Conservative Party expenditure during the 2015 General Election campaign. We then asked for additional enquiries to be ...
Here's a clip from our final Party Election Broadcast of the campaign which is airing today: It's certainly well made and captures the sense of horror that we may feel in two years' time if the Brexiteers don't deliver on their assertions. If there's nothing we can do about it, how are we going to feel. Launching the broadcast, Ed Davey said: The look on peoples' faces as the news sinks in says it all. We want to bring home to people how incredibly irresponsible Theresa May is being, and how she is risking peoples' jobs and livelihoods. This is ...
The Liberal Democrats have challenged Theresa May to publish a report looking into foreign funding of extremism in the UK that she sat on as Home Secretary, and continues to do so as Prime Minister. In December 2015, David Cameron announced there would be a comprehensive review of foreign funding of extremism due to be published the following spring. However, the review is yet to be published. Tom Brake, Liberal Democrat Shadow Foreign Secretary, has written to Theresa May reminding her that Saudi Arabia in particular provides funding to hundreds of mosques in the UK, often espousing a hard-line version ...
Vince Cable makes a major intervention in the election campaign today with a speech on the economy and Brexit. He is not going to mince his words. He will Accuse both Labour and the Conservatives of adopting a Brexit strategy almost designed to inflict maximum economic damage by rejecting membership of the single market and customs union, as well as other benefits of the EU Warn that the economic storm clouds are already gathering once more from rising inflation, falling real wages and rising personal debt to slowing spending and growth Highlight the Liberal Democrats' positive economic plan, including boosting ...
Fri 2nd
09:15
The Left are falling for the exact same trick that they were calling out only a couple of weeks ago
A meme that one saw all over Twitter a few weeks back, posted always by left-leaning folk, was a quote from that well-known leftie Peter Hitchens, saying the following about polling: "Opinion polls are a device for influencing public opinion, not a device for measuring it. Crack that, and it all makes sense." This was all part of the very commonplace left of centre disregard for polls we've seen since 2015; that the pollsters were supposedly making up the enormous leads that the Conservatives kept racking up every week. It was all a lie, apparently; in actual fact, Corbyn was ...
I highlighted at the latest meeting of Community Spirit Action Group residents' complaints about a bad pothole in Tullideph Street along from the Tullideph Road junction. I had reported this to the City Council. The council's Roads Maintenance Partnership has now advised me that : "An order has ... been raised for the repair of a pothole on Tullideph Street approaching the Tullideph Road junction with a timescale for repair of approximately twenty eight days. There is currently a slight backlog with pothole repairs however additional resources have been allocated to address this."
As I listened to a local hustings discussion on the subject last night it occurred to me that the only way Theresa May is going to achieve her aim of getting net immigration down below 100,000 is if she institutes a socialist planned economy, something that is not very likely. This Tory pledge is one of the more bizarre of this election. It is bizarre not just because it is largely unattainable, or because it will badly damage our economy but also because the Tories have failed twice to come anywhere near achieving it and have no plan as to ...
Crossens Saturday, 10th June, St John's Primary School, Rufford Road, Crossens, from 11am to 12 noon. Churchtown Thursday, 22nd June, BoxTree Kitchen for Queenscourt café, Manor Road/Cambridge Road, roundabout, from 10:30am to 11:30am. We will be there to meet you and discuss any Council problems you may have. No appointment necessary. Just pop in.
The Guardian has the story on its web site – see link above This article is well worth a read as it gets behind some of the headlines that politicians put up to mislead us all. Taxation in particular leads to all kinds of half truths, misinformation and down right manipulation by politicians. Just look at the tangle, all of her own making I would add, that Teresa has got into over the so called Dementia Tax. Why even the Daily Mail lambasted her for that manifesto pledge that could end up being her poll Tax moment. With thanks ...
It won't have escaped your notice that there is yet another election next Thursday. As with many general elections, local voices are being drowned out by the battle between party leaders and the media hysteria over what this or that leader has done, or might do, and whether they turn out for TV debates. For us in Ludlow, we need an MP who can deliver for us locally. We need to hear the voices of our candidates. We fortunately have had the opportunity to hear our four Ludlow candidates at two hustings hosted by BBC Radio Shropshire. There is a ...
