The room was grey and functional, with little in it other than a bed with a grey, woollen, blanket and a single rather dejected pillow lying squashed on it. It had a shabby, Spartan, air about it, but would be ... Continue reading →
Last year, London Liberal Democrats took the sensible decision to get snap election candidates in place in all the seats that were not targets in the party's overall strategy. Thus it was that I agreed to fight a seat that had the dubious distinction of being the least Liberal Democrat of all London seats: Dagenham [...]
This is the former Lutterworth police station. According to the Leicester Mercury, before it closed last year it was "England's oldest serving purpose-built police station". The town's former magistrates court is on the same site and when I was there yesterday there was also a police vehicle parked there for old time's sake.
I have seen it suggested that the Liberal Democrats' position on Europe was toned down during the general election because some of our remaining MPs were concerned it would alienate their voters. In view of that, I was interested to discover a post I wrote back in December. There I quoted the words of the three Lib Dem MPs who abstained on Article 50. I see that, sadly, one of those MPs - Greg Mulholland - lost his seat on Thursday. The others were John Pugh, who did not stand this time, and Norman Lamb.and Michael Gove's appointment as environment ...
Editor's Note: Ed sent us this post on Thursday night but we were all out at our own counts so didn't get the chance to put it up. It is all the more poignant given that Mark Williams was defeated by a mere 104 votes, meaning that we no longer have an MP in Wales. I talked to Ed and we agreed that his heartfelt post should still go up, so here it is.... As I arrived at the count, the ambition of our hopes crashed to the floor as what was hoped for and planned had slipped away. And ...
Fintan O'Toole dissects the fantasy that is Brexit: "Theresa May is a classic phony Brexiter. She didn't support it in last year's referendum and there is no reason to think that, in private, she has ever changed her mind. But she saw that the path to power led toward the cliff edge, from which Britain will take its leap into an unknown future entirely outside the European Union. Her strategy was one of appeasement—of the nationalist zealots in her own party, of the voters who had backed the hard-right UK Independence Party (UKIP), and of the hysterically jingoistic Tory press, ...
Sun 11th
17:56
WATCH: Nick Clegg's concession speech: We need to reach out to each other and heal divisions
Having spent all Thursday night at the count, I've been catching up on the results programmes to see how the extraordinary night unfolded. I'm still pretty devastated that we've lost the country's foremost authority on matters European from Parliament when we most need him. Here is his typically gracious concession speech, in which he talks about the importance of people from all parties reaching out to each other to heal the division in the country. I suspect he would have said exactly the same thing if he had won. I'm still at the stage where I feel sick every time ...
Current Watchmen, by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (a chapter a month) Dune, by Frank Herbert Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by J. K. Rowling Last books finished Warriors ed. George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois The Broken Road, by Patrick Leigh Fermor Joyride, by Guy Adams Patrick Leigh Fermor: An Adventure, by Artemis Cooper Europe In The Sixteenth Century by H. G. Koenigsberger and George L. Mosse Walking the Woods and the Water, by Nick Hunt The Stone House, by A.K. Benedict Annihilation, by Jeff VandeMeer Next books De Mexicaan met twee hoofden by Joann Sfar De ...
[IMG: Steve Guy's 2017 election photo] As the dust settles, I am reflecting on the strangest general election. Who won, who lost – and where do we go from here? Let's look at it party by party: Conservatives Well, they called the election when they didn't have to. Clearly, they calculated that they would increase their majority substantially as well as extending their term by two years. When I say 'they' it must be said that many Tory MPs were less than happy with the early election. 'They' seems to have been Theresa May and her rather small inner circle. ...
I know, I know. We still haven't caught up on sleep from the last campaign and our families have forgotten who we are. We just want a break, right? Yes, of course we do. But we also need to start thinking about the next steps. If you want to be involved in Lib Dem campaigning, joining ALDC (the Association of Lib Dem Councillors and Campaigners) is pretty much essential. They will give you access to all the resources you need and will help you develop the skills necessary for fighting a winning campaign. They have two of their intense but ...
I could cheerfully have swung for Willie Rennie on Friday afternoon when he suggested an event on Sunday morning to celebrate our 4 Scottish Liberal Democrat MPs. I mean, it's the first Sunday morning in 7 weeks most of us could have had a lie-in. I thought nobody would want to go and it would be a disaster. I was wrong. It was well-attended, there were broadcast and print journalists there and the atmosphere was great. There are, however, two very important lessons to learn from the event, but more of that later. A huge crowd of people turned up ...
The tee has been reported to the council. We hope it will be sorted out shortly.
Thousands of votes were not included in the result for a newly-elected Labour MP, Plymouth City Council has said. Luke Pollard won Plymouth Sutton and Devonport with 23,808 votes. However, the actual figure including the missed votes cast in his favour was 27,283. Mr Pollard said the votes from the Efford and Lipson ward were counted in his constituency, but they were not included in the result. He would still have won comfortably over Conservative Oliver Colvile. Mr Colvile's official result on Thursday was 17,806 votes. However, with Efford and Lipson added in he won 20,476 votes. The Electoral Commission ...
miss_s_b | On Lib Dem Leadership elections: I nail my colours to the mast (& probably upset lots of people) I posted On Lib Dem Leadership elections: I nail my colours to the mast (& probably upset... to my dreamwidth blog Twitter Instagram photo: Went to @czerwik1991 today and found that someone had been bottling ElGato' s micturitions. Chat...... [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
While we contemplate the possibility of another election in the not too distant future, and we watch with some degree of trepidation as the DUP and the Conservatives sup together, I'm taking a day off from politics to prepare for my Dad's funeral tomorrow and to sort out jobs that need doing down on the plot. Having left David to get on with planting crops over the past 7 weeks, I am back to the
Labour and Conservatives are each fragile coalitions of competing sects, riven by internal dissent and ready to break apart. This is the moment to seize these fractures in the established order and forge a realignment of British politics.
Stephen Thompson introduces this Sunday's artist: Jesca Hoop first attracted national attention in the early '00s, when her unusual backstory — the daughter of musical Mormons, she'd served a long stint as nanny to Tom Waits' kids — helped fuel critics' interest in songs that always seemed to be coming at you sideways.The Lost Sky is a track from her latest album. Memories Are Now. There is a whole symposium devoted to it on Pop Matters, where Andrew Paschal says: "The Lost Sky" is a gorgeous if troubled reverie, Jesca Hoop's smokey vocals a relentless stream of circular thoughts, memories, ...
I posted about this on 1st June. Here's the post for reference:- Well I got a reply to my complaint about the bridge from Sefton Council but it was not the reply I expecting! This is what it said:- 'Thank you for your email. Unfortunately Sefton only cut the grass verges and hedges we do not maintain the trees at the below location (see attached maintained area) It may be best to speak to Maghull Town Council.' Since when did Maghull Town Council have responsibility for this pedestrian bridge across Northway? It certainly did not when I was a ...
It is fair to say that the Sunday papers are gunning for Theresa May. Behind its paywall, the Sunday Times for example suggests that five cabinet ministers have urged Boris Johnson to topple her. Their columnist, Robert Harris says that May should be poleaxed. Elsewhere, papers are reporting on confusion and dissent over the projected deal with the DUP. Two of Theresa May's top aides have been thrown under the proverbial bus, whilst the Daily Mail quotes members of 'Team Boris' who are said to be circling like vultures waiting for the kill. Meanwhile a 640,000 signature petition is doing ...
What was it like becoming an activist in 1978? Well, you were given a bundle of newspapers to deliver. No change since then apparently? You might also be lent a copy of The Theory and Practice of Community Politics, which you thought about, discussed and, importantly, set about acting upon in all the communities to which you belonged. Neither the people who had developed this new form of Liberalism and fought for the Party to accept it, nor those who followed this theory and practice in the 80s and 90s, would have thought that forty years later they would be ...
The next West End Police Surgery takes place at Blackness Library tomorrow - details below :
The Guardian has the story on its web site – see link above Goodness this is a powerful insight into the mess that is UK politics today. And what's all this Labour celebrating about, they lost, progressive politics lost and we are in a worse situation than we were before the election was called! The good ship HMS UK has been holed at the waterline yet again and we are firing the guns at ourselves! With thanks to Roy Connell for the lead to this posting.
Network Rail will be holding a public drop-in session at the Bishop Mascall Centre, Ludlow on Tuesday 13 June, 3-7pm. Their team will also be in Onibury on Wednesday and Craven Arms on Thursday. The sessions are to brief the public on the full closure of the A49 to vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists between Saturday 1 July and Sunday 9 July. The rail line will be closed all day on the weekends of 1-2 July and 8-9 July with an hourly bus replacement. This is in addition to previously planned weekend rail closures on 17-18 June and 24-25 June. That ...
