Early this morning, I got an email from Ed Davey. He asked if he could send us a post for publication late afternoon, early evening. "Of course!" I replied. And then I went into a brief explanation of how we were going to be neutral in the leadership contest, and how we would be very even-handed between the candidates. I concluded, flippantly, that I was just randomly mentioning that for no apparent reason. I knew that there was a pretty strong expectation that Ed would stand and that some serious work had been done on putting a campaign together. I ...
Tue 27th
20:51
"My decision not to stand now to be Leader of our party is a difficult one, but it is rooted in my f...
Somewhat to most people's surprise (including my own), Lib Dem MP Ed Davey has decided not to run for party leader: When Tim [Farron] resigned, I assumed Jo [Swinson] would go for it, and I would have supported her. She gave understandable reasons why she didn't - so here are my reasons, some similar to Jo's. Emily and I met through the party. I was chairing a Housing Policy Working Group and she was a member, as a social housing lawyer. What could be more romantic? Our joy this weekend was seeing our two children play together. And when you ...
I have posted my photographs of York Layerthorpe and Dunnington stations on the Derwent Valley Light Railway. This is the third and last of my photographs of the line. I think it was taken in the spring of 1981, which was the line's last year of operation. The locomotive shown is now at the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre, on whose site you can real all about its career: This locomotive belongs to a class introduced in 1952, one of the first diesel types mass-produced by British Railways. D2298 itself was not built until October 1960, however, becoming one of a class ...
The Liberal Democrats have said that the EU's decision to fine Google £2.1bn for distorting the market stands in "sharp contrast" with the UK government's tax deal struck with the company last year. Liberal Democrat Culture, Media and Sport spokesperson Christine Jardine said:"This hefty punishment acts as a stark warning to others that search results must be fair to online retailers and ensure healthy competition. "It shows that by acting together across Europe, we can hold global giants like Google to account and protect consumer rights and smaller businesses. "This decisive action stands in sharp contrast to our own Conservative ...
Data released by the Office for National Statistics today shows 4.6 million people were classed as being trapped in a vicious cycle of 'persistent' poverty. Commenting on the news, Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron said:"These figures must be a wakeup call for the Conservatives. In Britain, 4.6 Million people endured persistent hardship and poverty. For all the Conservatives talk, these figures show they just don't care and sadly, I think poverty is going to get worse."The divisive Brexit the government is pushing is putting jobs at risk and this means more and more people will be driven to the edge."Those ...
Embed from Getty Images Fifty years ago, reports the Shropshire Star's business section, the first withdrawal from a bank cash machine was made. In those days it was known as an ATM - automated teller machine, And it was made at a branch of Barclay's in Enfield by the comedian Reg Varney. He was even trending on Twitter today, nine years after his death, because of it. But is this anniversary to celebrate? In what is probably the greatest post in the history of blogging, Stumbling and Mumbling pointed out: The invention of the ATM helped make it much easier ...
This is one of the main tourist traps of Ireland now; who knows what it was like in 1580?The twenty-seventh, we marched by the famous Lough Leyn, out of which the ryver of Lowgen doth spring, and falleth into the sea beside Magne. The Logh is fulle of salmon, and hath in it eleven islands, in one of which (Innisfallen), there is an abbey in another a parish church, and in another (Rosse) a castel, out of which there came to us a fair lady the rejected wife of Lord Fitz-Maurice, daughter to the late McCartie-More (elder brother to the ...
Last weekend I went glamping. with Emily and our children, John and Ellie. This luxury form of camping was my birthday present to my super-patient wife, and our first proper time to reflect together after the General Election. And to cut to the chase, I've come back to Westminster more determined than ever to campaign hard for the party Emily and I both love - but not to campaign to lead the party at this moment. When Tim resigned, I assumed Jo would go for it, and I would have supported her. She gave understandable reasons why she didn't - ...
I'm writing this in Burkina Faso, where I'm working with an African colleague evaluating a programme on food security and local economic development. One of the big topics as we run up and down the country looking at cattle markets, check dams, irrigation and water systems, and so on is transport infrastructure, and mainly, potholes. Burkina Faso is a landlocked country, but a major crossing route across the growing regional single market and customs union (with a single currency already for the Francophone countries, and a bigger one mooted when the Francophone Union (UEMOA) and the wider Anglohone-Francophone Union (ECOWAS) ...
I've written before about my sympathy for a new 'Centre Party' (much as I dislike such a split-the-difference name). The election result means the issue has simultaneously both become more urgent and less likely. More urgent because who does a centrist voter now vote for? The Conservatives, already moving to the right as Theresa May made slashing immigration her party's top priority, have now sealed the deal with the antediluvian DUP. If you're the kind of Tory who liked John Major, to whom do you now turn? Meanwhile, Labour is now in thrall to Jeremy Corbyn following his expectations-defying result, ...
An unreviewed council meeting (picture via Colchester Chronicle) Some of you may have heard the news that I'm the chair of Colchester Borough Council's Governance and Audit Committee for the next year, after being Deputy Chair of it last year. As I wrote last year, Governance and Audit is a committee with somewhat of a dull reputation because its main job is to review the council's procedures and oversee the various audits the council undergoes, and they're the sort of things that usually only get very interesting when something has gone, is going, or is about to go wrong. However, ...
Existential introspection is a special process for political parties, usually reserved for the aftermath of major electoral events and therefore, gracefully, at least a few years apart. Well thanks to our third UK-wide trip to the polling booths in as many years, we're right back here again – and this time with the added excitement of selecting a new leader, for only the second time in three years! There's been lots of chat about what's been going wrong and what we need to do in the future, but I think there's been a consensus building around at least one idea: ...
The underwhelming offer by Theresa May of residency rights to (some) EU citizens resident in the UK will require a vast bureaucracy to ensure it happens. Inspectors will need to be employed to sniff around people's private lives to show they have been resident for 5 years. Thousands of bureaucrats will be needed to sort out the vast number of applications to remain. All of this, of course, means
There's a strange mood on Lib Dem Voice, and perhaps in the wider party, and a sense of treading water. There have been a host of explanations for why the fightback hasn't quite materialised and you only have look through this website to find some of them. I'd like to offer here my own two-penneth and also to gently encourage members not to fall into the traps we've readily accused members of other parties of falling into. Let me give a personal example of this; my mother is a longtime Liberal Democrat voter who voted for Brexit. She even toyed ...
Hate everything. Having cashflow problems, some of which are my fault, and some of which are other people's fault, and all of which are beyond my control and therefore incredibly frustrating. Cashflow problems meaning I am having to cancel on commitments, which I hate doing. Politics in general is full of arseholes who keep arsing. Work is frustrating, because I can't do the things I need to do for various stupid reasons (also beyond my control). Have had no sleep and lots of pointless arguments with members of household, which means I am dangerously low on spoons, grumpy and frazzled. ...
Mon, 12:20: RT @tnewtondunn: Breaking: DUP deal done - Theresa May and Arlene Foster sign a �1bn confidence and supply agreement in No10. Mon, 12:56: Catalonia's referendum: Four views on whether the vote should go ahead https://t.co/hv8IDhVtpi Balanced stuff from the LSE. Mon, 13:14: RT @davidallengreen: EU had already made "reciprocal" offer to UK before he sent this tweet. Johnson would have known this. Misinformatio... Mon, 18:58: Dingle of the Husseys, Part 14 https://t.co/Eol2fPXEFo Mon, 19:20: RT @UKPoliticalNews: N. Ireland expert Prof. Nicholas Whyte (@nwbrux): 3 things you need to know about the Govt.'s #DUP deal #UKPolitics ht... Mon, 19:40: ...
Tue 27th
10:48
This is probably what will happen in Syria in the next few years - and few in the West care at all
I saw an item on Channel 4 news last night that is depressing me still. It was about Syria and the latest attacks on ISIS, and it reminded me about where the conflict in Syria, I believe, is inevitably headed, and how depressing it is that very few people in the West seem to care. Donald Trump thinks Syria is about ISIS and nothing else, so he is backing the Kurds to destroy them. It seems to be working so far. This has convinced the regime and its main backers, Russia and Iran, that the time has come to enact ...
On Saturday I spent the day at the Kells Lane Fair in Low Fell, Gateshead. I had a table there to sell eggs and preserves from my self-sufficiency venture. I also took along Whinnie, the baby goat we are raising by hand. He turned out to be the big hit of the day. I didn't need to spend time looking after him - people were queuing up to walk him round Kells Lane Park. Cllr Marilynn Ord bagged
Labour did not win Britain's General Election. Indeed Jeremy Corbyn's party did no better than Gordon Brown's in 2010. And yet Mr Corbyn has every right to be pleased with himself. His party burst through all expectations and is now within shouting distance of power. They did this with an innovative campaign that has changed the ... Continue reading Hubris wrecked Theresa May. Will it do for Jeremy Corbyn too? →
There's a method of coping with anxiety which suggests thinking of the worst thing that could possibly happen, then telling yourself that it probably won't. There's another method called Reductio ad Absurdum, which reduces an argument or scenario to ridiculous conclusions. Neither of these are particularly helpful at the moment. Politics, and society, is operating so illogically at the moment that even denigrating a scenario to absolutely ridiculous proportions, making it the worst thing that I could think of happening; I wouldn't put it past the realms of possibility. Image Source: Pinterest.com Quote: Alice's Adventures In Wonderland - Lewis Carroll ...
Chipping Sodbury Library was earmarked for closure last year due to South Glos plans to save money, but following a local campaign it will now stay open on the condition that it is run by members of the community. Friends of Chipping Sodbury Library are now looking for around 40 people to work shifts at the facility on a regular basis. The library will be handed over to the community on the last weekend of September, with volunteers taking over running it during the first week of October. They will work in shifts of around four hours, with the library ...
The Scottish Government's consultation on footway parking and double parking closes on Friday. The consultation document can be downloaded here. As the issue of parking on pavements and across dropped kerbing is a subject of many constituent complaints, I have already submitted a response. It takes only a few minutes to do so and I would urge any West End resident with views on this to submit a response - you can do this here. I raised this matter at the council's City Development Committee last night. It was suggested that the consultation may be being extended to 31st August. ...
A Jumble Trail is coming to Prestwich on 2nd July, 10 -2p.m. It's like a car boot sale but on your street. Come and join the fun either as a stall holder or to find some treasure. This is a must for anyone that likes a rummage on a car boot or in a charity shop and also for anyone that wants to have a good clear out. Facebook Page is here.
A Pirate Adventure Game is taking part across seven parks in Bury from 26 June - 3 September · Clarence Park, Bury · Nuttall Park, Ramsbottom · Close Park, Radcliffe · Peel Tower, Holcombe Hill · Prestwich Clough · Phillips Park, Whitefield · Burrs Country Park, Bury Here's how it all works... · Each walk you go on will take you past seven simple puzzles (some are really easy to spot, but you'll need to look harder to find the others) · Once you find a puzzle, you need to work out the answer (this will be a letter or ...
Across Bury the NHS (Clinical Commissioning Group), the Council and the 'Healthwatch' group are reviewing the different ways in which pharmacies ('chemists') can help the public to access medicines or provide services which will target specific health problems for the local community. To do this they want to hear about your experiences of using a pharmacy to ensure they provide the best service for you and improve the health of the borough. This survey relates to your experiences when using a pharmacy. It has been developed in conjunction with the NHS and with the support of Healthwatch Bury. Please note: ...
