Following the general election and pending the election of a new party leader, Tim Farron has announced a new line-up for the Liberal Democrat Shadow Cabinet: I am delighted to announce our new shadow cabinet team, which brings together a wealth of experience. The party has people with a range of skills from within government, business and the charity sector. Together we will provide the strong opposition Britain needs to stand up to this Conservative government. As you might expect, there are senior roles for all the former Lib Dem ministers who returned to Parliament this month, with Vince Cable ...
Seen here in its last year of operation, this electrified line was built to take workers from Grimsby to the Great Central Railway's dock complex at Immingham.
Embed from Getty Images The Scottish Liberal Democrats have decided against mounting a legal challenger to result in North East Fife last week. There the SNP held on to the seat by 2 votes after three recounts. The Lib Dems had been ahead until the last recount. BBC News quotes Willie Rennie, the leader of the Scottish Lib Dems: "Many people have asked us to challenge the result in court. "We have given this careful consideration and, despite legal advice that we would have grounds to challenge the result, it has been decided not to go to court. "We have ...
As people who follow me on Twitter will know, I've recently been getting almost apopleptic about the way humanity — myself very much included — keeps making stupid, counterproductive, self-harming decisions, on every level from the tiniest decision to the ... Continue reading →
Fri 16th
20:06
Shropshire Council's next meeting has a zero agenda - it's a waste of money and should be cancelled
I have higher hopes for the new Tory administration under Peter Nutting than his predecessors, Malcolm Pate and Keith Barrow. But he is starting on the wrong foot by ordering a special council meeting with nothing of importance on the agenda. Seventy-four councillors and dozens of officers will be involved in a meeting next Thursday in Shirehall. What will this meeting achieve? Nothing. Diddly squat. Sweet Fanny Adams. I don't know how much a full council meeting costs but this meeting is not worth a brass farthing. The agenda is so thin it wouldn't make a decent slice of toast. ...
Last night this story appeared on the Daily Telegraph website: Vince Cable is too old to be Liberal Democrat leader, allies of frontrunner Jo Swinson have claimed, as they insisted the party must not go "from the dad to the grandad" when Tim Farron is replaced. Senior party sources view Ms Swinson, who is yet to announce that she will run, as the overwhelming favourite to take over from Mr Farron, with supporters of the current leader expected to "swing behind" the newly elected MP for East Dunbartonshire.Jo needs to calm her "allies" down and quickly.
The Planning Officer has now compiled his very detailed report on the proposed flats development on the site of the Tern Inn and car park at Heron Way. In summary, the report recommends refusal because of: The effect on the Heron Way shopsThe loss of the Tern Inn, which is listed as an Asset of Community ValueThe loss of the car park, which is also listed as an Asset of Community ValueThe added on-street congestion and effect on visibility As well as the petitions against the development, there were 309 objections to the scheme but only 3 people who wrote ...
Tim Farron has tonight announced a new Shadow Cabinet to make use of the talents of the newly expanded Parliamentary Party Jo Swinson was always going to get one of the big 3 jobs, and it will be her mission to bring Boris Johnson down to earth from his flights of fancy. Vince, predictably, is back in his role as Shadow Chancellor and Tom Brake has an incredibly tough act to follow as he takes on the Brexit brief which was formerly held by Nick Clegg. Ed Davey gets Home Affairs and Norman Lamb sticks with his field of expertise ...
Proper post in a bit, but... as the third Beach Boys book will be out soon, I should be starting my next music book once it's out. There are two main possibilities — a book on Roy Wood or one ... Continue reading →
The allegiance offered by local chieftains yesterday proves fragile, and the Dublin army diviedes again: The sixteenth we geave streight commandment to the Viscount Barry's sonne, the Viscount Roche, Sir Cormac Mac Teige Mac Donough, O'Keeffe, O'Kallaghan, and Mac Auley, that they should have alle their force and keriages to the est of the contrie to interrupt the passage of the traytours, to and fro the mountayns till our retorne, which they observed not, to the gret hindrance of the service, and their own trouble as your Lordship shall hereafter perceive. We then parted companie, my Lord of Ormonde taking ...
We want someone like Hugh Grant's character inLove Actually. Only female. Following Tim Farron's bizarre and poorly timed resignation speech on Wednesday evening, there is now a vacancy at the top of the federal party. For the fourth time in eleven years, the Liberal Democrats are looking for a new leader. But what exactly are we looking for? And where might we find it? We're a rather diverse party - a broad church if you allow for religious terminology (oh, you don't? Apologies) - and it's always going to be difficult to please everyone. But there are indications out there, ...
While watching the Theresa May profile by Tory and newspaper "sketch" writer Matthew Parris on BBC Newsnight on the eve of the General Election I was alarmed by hearing various people interviewed by Parris repeating objections to May's breath of knowledge and policy interest I had earlier encountered in the Economist editorial and Bagehot column about her. In his column in The Economist of 27th May, Bagehot writes that in the social care U-turn fiasco, two worrying trends in May's approach of being (prime) minister and politician came together with an aspect of her policy interests and knowledge. Firstly, he ...
Tim Farron's unexpected resignation ends another chapter in a tumultuous period of politics. With the wave of populism that carried Jeremy Corbyn to a triumphant defeat and shook the Conservatives, how should the next chapter begin for the Liberal Democrats? The next leader should strike out for the centre ground, and it is the Liberal Democrats economic credentials that should take centre stage over our unimpeachable social liberalism. To begin with another exit, the loss of Nick Clegg perhaps signals the chance to rehabilitate the Coalition government. In too many ways the contribution of the Liberal Democrats has gone unnoticed; ...
The Liberal Democrats have called for the type of cladding used on Grenfell Tower to be banned in the UK, after it emerged the material is currently banned in US buildings over 40 feet for fire safety reasons and is classed as flammable in Germany. The damning revelations in The Times also found it would have cost just £5000 more to use fire-resistant panels instead of flammable ones. The government committed to reviewing building regulations on fire safety several years ago but the review has still not begun. Liberal Democrat MP Tom Brake commented: "It is simply beyond belief to ...
This article first appeared on 15 June 2016, in the wake of the Orlando massacre. It's worth reading again today after another week full of avoidable tragedy. One of the first things I tell people about myself, really as a warning, is that I cry a lot. At good news, bad news, RSPA appeals. Even a particularly nostalgic Hovis advert will do it. Since Orlando, I've cried on public transport. In the office. In a car park. At home. In response to eye witness accounts, doctor's stories, and politician's reactions. I suppose like many I've been grieving. But what with ...
Fri 16th
12:48
Violent Leicester crook told police he had knuckleduster to crush ice for Mother's Day drinks
The Leicester Mercury wins our Headline of the Day Award. The judge is quoted as saying: "I don't accept for one moment the knuckle-duster was to be used to crush ice."The Award judges are of much the same view.
In an interview with his local paper The Orcadian, Alistair Carmichael ruled himself out of standing for the leadership, saying: "It is difficult enough juggling the demands of having a family in Orkney and living between there, London and Shetland, without making it more complication. "I think there are other things that I can do that add value to the party's efforts, rather than be leader. He revealed what that would involve, too. He's going to go back to the role he had during the early Coalition years – as Chief Whip. That role will be very different now. Then, ...
It was at the start of the EU Edinburgh Rally - Leading not Leaving on June 16th that Willie Rennie, the event's chairperson, read out a statement that Jo Cox MP had been attacked in the street. None of us knew at that time, 2:00pm, that Jo had already died of her wounds. The pro-EU rally went on but it was not reported on. I knew as soon as switched on a radio afterwards and they were still talking about her that Jo must be dead. It was a shocking attack. As soon as reports came out that her attacker ...
The Liverpool Echo has the story on its web site – see links above I've been a parish councillor since 1985 and whilst meeting some rather eccentric parish councillors in my time I have always found the vast majority of my fellow parish councillors to be decent folk. Because of the nature of parish councils being small local affairs I have come across some councillors who think that the world ends at their parish boundary, or who don't seem to understand what a parish council can and can't do or who don't seem to get how they should ...
One of the big promises of the Lib Dems general election campaign was that there would be "no deals, no coalitions". However, now that Tim Farron has resigned as leader, it does leave room for the new leader of the party, whomever they may be, to reverse this decision. The outline of such a deal would be pretty straightforward: no formal coalition, simply supply and confidence in return for single market membership. There is no way the Tories would go for it at the moment, namely because they do not want to seem like they are explicitly responsible for making ...
I joined the Liberal Party the day of Margaret Thatcher's first victory. I will be leaving its successor party the day after I return a spoiled ballot in the election for the next party leader. As a party we have had our fights, our disagreements, and our debates. We have also proven that the strength of our shared commitments and ideals has been of a power that protects the very essence of what it means to be liberal and democratic. One of my first committee appointments in the party offered the opportunity to work closely with Richard Wainwright, a devout ...
Dave Page's measured and sensible thoughts on Tim Farron's Resignation Racism and the gay scene This is a badge of shame, TBQH. [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
At approximately 00:54 on Wednesday morning an horrific fire was reported at Grenfell Tower in north Kensington, London. Within half an hour the flames were reported to have engulfed an entire side of the building, leaving many people trapped inside. We need answers and to do whatever we can to help the victims and ensure something like this doesn't happen again. Firstly, The Guardian has are some questions that need to be answered: How did the fire start? Why did the fire spread so quickly? Was the recently fitted new cladding at fault? Did the new gas pipes, which were ...
With Labour's Leader and Shadow Chancellor continuing to reiterate their support for a hard Brexit that will involve leaving the single market and restricting immigration, it is difficult to see why Theresa May needs to soften her stance, even if she no longer has a majority. That message does not seem to have got through to Labour's Brexit spokesperson however who, according to the Guardian, has said that Labour will work with MPs from across the House of Commons to force Theresa May to change course on Brexit. This is despite the fact that the Labour and Tory manifestos are ...
I'm not going to mince my words or toe the centre-line in my summary of the Liberal Democrats' election result for reasons that will become clearer the further you read. Our result on the 8th June was embarrassing, demoralising, and worst of all, irrelevant. 7.4% of the vote was all that our party could accrue; 40,000 votes fewer than our 2015 performance which we naively thought was our floor. When the country was crying out for a party of the centre with both Labour and the Conservatives lurching to the extremes, we didn't answer the call. Whilst our swelling membership ...
From the Curator of Museum Services at the University of Dundee : Workshop - Sunday 18 June - 2pm to 4.30pm Come and make your own Binary Bonsai with Botanica Mathematica artist Madeleine Shepherd. Take it home or contribute it to the growing woolly herbarium that is on display in the D'Arcy Thompson Zoology Museum. Madeleine will give a short introduction to the project and the ideas behind its creation and then we'll have fun with fibre generating trees and flowers by applying some simple rules. Yarn and some tools will be provided by Dundee's own independent yarn store, Fluph. ...
Great, another leadership contest... just what the Liberal Democrats were crying out for. Or not, perhaps. Frankly, whilst Tim didn't handle the whole 'gay sex' thing terribly well, and a far better response was available than the one he gave, whilst he had the support of my friends in the LGBT community, I was willing to turn Nelson's eye towards the matter. It is his actions rather than his personal beliefs that actually impact on people's lives, and it seems that his record on Parliamentary votes was well nigh impeccable. But it wasn't to be, and the grey men came ...
Official voices are rightly cagey about making pronouncements on the causes of the horrifying fire in Grenfell Tower, Kensington, but it seems to me that three options are available and one of them must be right. Either: 1. The regulations regarding building tower blocks, their footings, fire precautions, materials, stairs, escape routes etc are inadequate, in which case we need some more and better regulations. 2. The regulations are adequate but they were evaded or avoided, either deliberately, through negligence, or to cut costs. 3. The regulations were adequate and adhered to, but the inspection system to ensure that proper ...
