Three council by-elections this week, with two results in so far – and the Lib Dems the only part to increase its vote share in both: Conservative HOLD Scotter & Blyton (West Lindsey). — Britain Elects (@britainelects) July 27, 2017
Rushden & Diamonds was formed in 1992 by a merger between two non-league team from Northamptonshire, Rushden Town and Irthlingborough Diamonds. The merger was promoted by Max Griggs, owner of the Doc Marten shoe brand, who funded the new club. The new club was remarkably successful. It rose through the non-league divisions and were promoted to Division 3 of the Football League (as its lowest division was then called) in 2001. Two years later they won it. After that they began to struggle, particularly after Griggs handed the club to its supporters. They were soon out of the Football League ...
Vince Cable has accused Theresa May of being obsessed by an "arbitrary" target to cut immigration, warning that her "posturing" has fuelled a dangerous and misleading impression that the issue is "out of control". The new leader of the Liberal Democrats attacked the Government's goal of reducing net immigration below 100,000 a year as "amateurish," "absurd" and having "malign consequences" including economic and social damage. [The Independent] The origin of that 100,000 immigration target is pretty damning, caused as it was by a slip of the tongue. No wonder that Vince Cable said, The case of overseas students illustrates the ...
If you enjoyed film of Jonathan Meades at Marsh Court that I posted recently, here are two more contributions by the great mean that may be to your taste. He has reviewed a book on album covers for the Literary Review: Three hundred pages of photographs of egomaniacal longhairs trying their utmost to look insolently delinquent (as only the alumni of Harrow, Charterhouse, Haberdashers' Aske's, Oundle, the Perse and numerous other public schools can). An introductory essay weighed down by cliché. A commemoration of the last century's over-denimed, over-flared sartorial nadir. A vanity project that exhumes ephemera - mere record ...
Encouraged by some heartening reviews of my childhood memoir, Eccles Cakes¹, I have embarked on a new volume of recollections, this time covering the years when I was based in Brussels, initially working for Reuters news agency, covering the European Economic Community (precursor to the EU) and NATO, then subsequently freelance, writing books, magazine articles and [...]
Thu 27th
16:37
On a (very) small example of why the British written media is a cesspool of lazy propaganda...
Who would have thought that a footballers religious views would be noteworthy of a story? Well today four of our newspapers decided that it was. The Sun, the Daily Mirror, the Daily Express and the Daily Mail all wrote articles about how new Manchester United striker Romelu Lukaku couldn't accept a Man of the Match award because of his religion. You see the Belgian is a 'devout Muslim' and therefore 'unable to pose with alcoholic gifts'. Two things. Firstly, why would this ever be a news story of any interest to anyone let alone worth all four newspapers written specific ...
The Liberal Democrats have accused the government of "turning prisons into powder kegs", after damning figures showed both assaults and self-harm have reached a record high, while 71 prisoners have been released in error. In the year to March 2017, incidents of self-harm reached a record high of 40,414 while assaults soared to a record 26,643, up 20% on the previous year. Serious assaults on staff have trebled since 2013, reaching 805 in the year to March 2017. The shocking figures also showed 71 prisoners were released in error over the past year, the highest number since records began. Separate ...
Voters won't be persuaded by reasoned argument alone. Liberal Democrats must get in touch with our emotions and show real passion for what we believe in
News reaches The Voice that Peter Taylor, currently Watford's Deputy Mayor, has been selected as the Liberal Democrat candidate to contest next year's Mayoral election in Watford. Peter, who currently serves as Dorothy Thornhill's Deputy Mayor, lives in Watford with his wife Rachael and their three children and has served as a councillor for Oxhey since 2012. Peter is assistant director of a national network of over 2000 schools and has previously worked as a teacher and as a researcher in the Houses of Parliament. Peter said: I am honoured to have been selected as the Liberal Democrat candidate to ...
Figures out this week show a continuing sickly GDP growth. The economy grew by 0.2% in the first quarter. We learnt earlier this week that growth was 0.3% in the second quarter. It's better than a contraction but it is still poor. The UK has gone from having the highest growth rate in the G7 under the Coalition to having among the poorest under the Conservatives. The IMF have also downgraded UK
Wed, 16:05: Azerbaijan: The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Nothing https://t.co/RiWiq8AiYq Great piece. Wed, 17:17: I am no fan of Misha's, but nobody should be made stateless. https://t.co/WBsFEkBhXa Thu, 11:51: Fascinating life story. https://t.co/syWC4y999a
hollymath | More about the World Cup final In which Holly goes into detail about the World Cup final that we both attended. On the 50th Anniversary of The Sexual Offences Act 1967, look how far we've come I'm in HuffPo again, lads. Do read/share, it's important [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
I have been visiting a friend in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital every day this month and a couple of weeks ago, when I was arriving there, I bumped into Norman Callender and his daughter Jean. Norman retired as a Lib Dem councillor a few years ago. Jean is Gateshead Lib Dem treasurer. They were visiting Phyllis, Norman's wife, who had been taken seriously ill. Sadly, she passed away the next day.
My Political Quarterly article 'Macron's lessons for the British centre' is now available free, so please go read it and tell me how many errors I've made in it. It's based in part on this post I wrote a couple of months ago, so you may find some of it familiar.
The Times has carried an obituary for a former Liberal MP for Aberdeenshire West. You can be forgiven for not having heard of him because he served as MP from 1966-70 and he died at the age of 90. But having read his story I really wish I had known him. Here are some extracts: A British naval attaché was on a 1,100-mile train journey from Murmansk to Moscow in the early 1950s when he got talking to a young captain of artillery in his carriage. "We had lunch together and he asked if I would like to bring a ...
Thu 27th
08:37
Lydiate – Accessing (or not) the Leeds Liverpool Canal from Southport Rd/Lollies Bridge
Steps could be erected here but cost and land ownership issues will be factors. It was recently suggested to me that there should be pedestrian access/steps down from Lollies Bridge on Southport Road to the Leeds Liverpool Canal tow path. Presently the only access to the canal is on the opposite side to the tow path along a footpath that enables you to join the tow path at Lydiate Hill bridge (otherwise known as Billy's Bridge), the next bridge north of Lollies Bridge. The photo above is taken from the footpath which runs along the opposite bank to the tow ...
The latest Adult Learning newsletter for the city has just been published - covering the summer months - and you can download it here. Here's details of the adult learning opportunities available in the West End area :
So the government have decided to ban new diesel and petrol cars and vans from 2040. In the immortal words of John McEnroe: "You cannot be serious!" On many fronts. If you polled a random selection of industry experts, I wonder how many of them would think that any petrol or diesel vehicles would be [...] The post 2040! Is this a joke? appeared first on Radix.
Your Focus Team was shocked to learn that Sirona, who run the Minor Injuries Unit (MIU) in Yate, are being allowed to shut the doors to new patients when they're busy so they can meet their waiting time targets. Of course there is no guarantee if you're redirected to A&E that you'll be seen any more quickly there than if you'd been allowed to wait at the MIU. Neither Southmead or the Children's Hospital are easy to get to from Yate, especially when injured. This seems to be about meeting targets, not meeting the needs of patients. Claire Young is ...
If it were not bad enough that Brexit is going to undermine our economy by stopping us trading freely with our biggest market and leaving us with labour shortages in key areas, this article highlights some key issues that could be equally as devastating. The author is Steve Bullock, who worked at the UK Representation to the EU from 2010-2014 where he negotiated several EU regulations for the UK in European Council working groups. He has also worked for the European Commission and the Department for International Development's Europe Department. He argues that Ministers insistence on leaving the European Court ...
