Sat 9th
23:50

Farewell Mike

I was saddened this week to learn of the death of Mike Neville, one of the greats of North East broadcasting. I was brought up watching him present BBC Look North before his move to Tyne Tees. He was a constituent of mine until boundary changes moved his house into Whickham North ward. He will be greatly missed.

Posted by jonathanwallace on Jonathan Wallace

Edinburgh House, Golden Wonder's old head office in Abbey Street, Market Harborough, has been converted into a hotel, restaurants and shops. But when I worked there in the 1980s the company owned two other sites in the town. There was the merchandising warehouse on the Riverside industrial estate. I once rescued a sales promotion for Odduns (a long forgotten snack) there, sorting the paperwork and parcelling out the bottles of wine that cash and carries had earned for stocking it. But I now have no idea where it was. And there was the technical department in Springfield Street, where new ...

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

You may recall that Neil O'Brien, the new Conservative MP for Harborough, deleted all his tweets as soon as he was selected to fight the seat. But, as a reader has kindly pointed out to me, a few older tweets from him did escape the memory hole. In the autumn of last year O'Brien was the Conservative candidate in a Tandridge District Council by-election. As part of the campaign he set up a @Neil4Limpsfield Twitter account - and it is still there. I have skimmed the tweets in that account, but there is nothing terribly exciting - there are no ...

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

The great Conservative philosopher Michael Oakeshott defined Conservatism as follows: To be conservative, then, is to prefer the familiar to the unknown, to prefer the tried to the untried, fact to mystery, the actual to the possible, the limited to the unbounded, the near to the distant, the sufficient to the superabundant, the convenient to the perfect, present laughter to utopian bliss.You will see at once that Brexit belongs to the wrong side of every one of these contrasts. It is, in truth, the least Conservative measure you can imagine. I find the philosophy Oakeshott sets out enticing. It has ...

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

Second paragraph of third chapter: William Cecil's Irish correspondence began in earnest within months of his appointment in early September 1550 as secretary of state and a privy councillor. By comparison with Elizabeth's reign, Cecil's Irish correspondence in the early 1550s is slight: all that have survived are the less than two down letters written by members of the Tudor administration in Ireland to the young councillor. Still, this number is greater than all of the surviving letters which three of Edward's other councillors who maintained Irish correspondence — William Paulet, Edward Seymour, and John Dudley — received from Ireland ...

Those of us who had hoped of a return to Westminster for Sarah Olney will have to wait for a while because she has taken a job which will ensure she is there every day, but will not be able to stand for election. Vince Cable has appointed her as his new Chief of Staff so she will have a key role in developing his strategy and liaising with the Party to get us all onside. In many ways, this is an inspired appointment and sends out two very clear messages. First of all, it's forward looking. Sarah wasn't even ...

Posted by Caron Lindsay on Liberal Democrat Voice

Following the news that the interim Chief Executive at Lib Dem HQ is Nick Harvey comes news of two key appointments to Vince Cable's team: Lib Dem leader @vincecable has appointed @sarahjolney1 as his Chief of Staff and @MLeftly as his Press Secretary — Chris Mason (@ChrisMasonBBC) September 9, 2017 Liberal Democrat Leader Vince Cable said: As an MP, Sarah showed the very best of our party as a strong voice and a clear thinker. Sarah will head up my Leader's team, bringing her experience to bear and helping the Liberal Democrats make the biggest possible impact in the centre ...

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

Layla Moran ht the headlines this week when Tory MPs jeered her as she got up to ask the Prime Minister a question. She's now been speaking to Times Red Box about the issues that matter to her. She talks about her Palestinian heritage: She is also the first member of parliament of Palestinian descent, through her mother, a Christian whose relatives became a "typical diaspora family" after they were forced out of their home in Jerusalem. She has already been adopted an unofficial ambassador for the Palestinian community in parliament, but is reluctant to be defined solely by her ...

Posted by NewsHound on Liberal Democrat Voice

Speaking at the People's March for Europe in London, Liberal Democrat Leader Vince Cable argued for the public to get a say on the terms of Brexit: When we know the outcome and the facts, public should have the choice whether to jump off the cliff or #ExitFromBrexit #PeoplesMarch4EU pic.twitter.com/o7gDIPbJGi — Vince Cable (@vincecable) September 9, 2017 Here is what Vince Cable said: We've got to absolutely stop the extreme Brexit which this incompetent, disunited government is trying to force upon us. The Liberal Democrats continue to demand that the public should have a choice when the final outcome and ...

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

There are times when living 400 miles from London is a right pain. I'd have loved to be marching with the Liberal Democrats in the March for Europe in London today but an extra trip the week before Conference is way beyond my budget. "We continue to oppose Brexit" says Vince, describing the Government's strategy as "train crash in slow motion." His language on this is becoming stronger all the time. He's also developing a very strong message for the party that is not about Brexit – putting the reduction of inequality front and centre of the Liberal Democrat agenda ...

Posted by Caron Lindsay on Liberal Democrat Voice
YouGov

I've written before about the excellent work the Your Liberal Britain team are doing at involving members in the party, including the new guide to motions at Lib Dem conference. Just out is the result of the biggest YLB project, to write a short vision that sets out the future the Liberal Democrats want to achieve for the our country. Over 8,000 people have been involved in drawing it up, via a series of face-to-face discussion meetings, an online survey, an essay writing competition and now producing the final statement. It isn't an official party publication, but with that many ...

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack
Sat 9th
11:00

My tweets

Fri, 12:49: Thread. https://t.co/N3UU3J4q86 Fri, 12:52: RT @MSmithsonPB: Ouch. Tories lose FIVE of the 8 council by-elections they were defending overnight https://t.co/dCiRtEsG53 Fri, 12:56: RT @paulwaugh: This is truly jaw-dropping. https://t.co/HG8pDaacWN Fri, 16:05: Is the Electoral College Doomed? https://t.co/VusyajPDq9 How the popular vote winner can be guaranteed the Presidency. Fri, 16:58: Very interesting and compelling - but who is the author of the piece? https://t.co/uk9LsUoNDc Fri, 18:40: Children are Civilians Too, by Heinrich B�ll https://t.co/VghSUtgDz0 Fri, 20:48: MEPs propose cut in their ranks after Brexit https://t.co/z170tAuQv9 Makes sense. Fri, 22:35: RT @mrjamesob: Astonishing how quickly Brexiters have gone from lying ...

miss_s_b | The Blood is the Life for 08-09-2017 I posted The Blood is the Life for 08-09-2017 to my dreamwidth blog [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments

Embed from Getty Images Back in August, I waxed lyrcially about the history which is reflected regularly in the BBC programme "Who do you think you are?". I feel compelled to return to the subject, given the sheer awesomeness of the last episode in the current run of this BBC series. Available on BBC iPlayer for the next 27 days, actor and director Noel Clarke traces his family history. Noel's mother, Gemma, came to this country from Trinidad as an NHS nurse in the 1960s/70s. She brought up Noel on her own, and there are no siblings. Noel Clarke had ...

Posted by Paul Walter on Liberal Democrat Voice

Welcome to the latest in my occasional series highlighting interesting findings from academic research. Today - how leaflets (which we know from other research work at helping to win elections) help raise turnout.

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

There was some good news yesterday as the Guardian reported that EU judges are to be asked to rule on the legality of Britain's mass digital surveillance powers. They say that the investigatory powers tribunal (IPT) has ruled that the European court of justice (ECJ) should decide whether the UK's bulk collection of communications data, tracking personal use of the web, email, texts and calls, is legal. The paper concludes that the ruling is a victory for the campaign group Privacy International, which brought the case following last December's ruling by the ECJ that the "general and indiscriminate retention" of ...

Posted by Peter Black on Peter Black

When asked to guess what proportion of people in this country are immigrants, people on average greatly over-estimate the true number. But what do people who get the number much too high then say when the truth is pointed out to them?

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

That's Lancashire has a video about the troubles of this Ovington Drive children's play area on youtube – see link above. Well known environmental campaigner and Southport (Kew Ward) Lib Dem Councillor Fred Weavers. My good friend Cllr. Fred Weavers is backing the locals who are fighting Sefton Council's removal of play equipment and the threat of closure of the play area.

Posted by Cllr. Tony Robertson on Sefton Focus

The Memory Cafe is run by the church with the help of the Rotarians and is very relaxed and friendly - family and careers welcome - tea, coffee and cake provided. Activities quizzes, word search dominos etc. Help, support and an opportunity to share experiences. 1st and 3rd Tuesdays 10.30am to 12.00noon Chipping Sodbury Baptist Church High Street Chipping Sodbury 01454 313023 Email office@cs-bc.org.uk

Posted by Paul Hulbert on Focus on Sodbury, Yate and Dodington

It's like 2010 all over again. The intervening years have not made Vince Cable any more amenable to Rupert Murdoch and his Empire. He's been writing in the Evening Standard explaining why the Murdochs should not be able to takeover BSkyB. The grounds for opposing the takeover are two-fold. The first is that concentration of media ownership is already a concern and will become worse if the takeover goes ahead. The Murdochs' 21st Century Fox is the leading supplier of newspaper content (through The Sun, The Times and The Sunday Times), the leading supplier of news content through commercial radio ...

Posted by NewsHound on Liberal Democrat Voice
eUKhost

The Liberal Democrats are tabling an amendment to prevent Theresa May's attempts to rig parliamentary committees and ram through the government's hard Brexit plans. A controversial government motion set to be voted on Tuesday evening would give the Conservatives a majority on all key parliamentary committees, despite the party losing its majority at the election. The Liberal Democrat amendment to the motion will aim to reverse the proposed changes and keep the current procedure, in which the political make-up of committees reflects Parliament as a whole. Liberal Democrat Leader Vince Cable commented: "Liberal Democrats will work with other parties to ...

Posted by LD Neath on Aberavon & Neath Liberal Democrats

Commenting on the Lammy Review, Liberal Democrat Shadow Secretary for Justice Jonathan Marks said:"This thoughtful and comprehensive report exposes the racial biases that still exist in our criminal justice system. Its findings are shocking and prove beyond doubt that innate prejudices, however unintentional, still infect every level of the system."The report's findings as to how unfairly the system treats young people are particularly worrying. The Government must consider and respond to this report very carefully. We need a plan for effective and swift action to eliminate the unequal treatment of ethnic minorities within the criminal justice system. Warm words, however ...

Posted by LD Neath on Aberavon & Neath Liberal Democrats

WEST END COMMUNITY COUNCIL MEETINGTUESDAY 12TH SEPTEMBER 2017 AT 7.00PMLOGIE AND ST JOHN`S (CROSS) PARISH CHURCH HALL(ENTER FROM SHAFTESBURY TERRACE - OFF BLACKNESS AVENUE) 1. WELCOME, INTRODUCTIONS AND APOLOGIES 2. MINUTE OF MEETING 13TH JUNE 2017 AND MATTERS ARISING 3. POLICE SCOTLAND UPDATE 4. REPORT FROM HARRIS ACADEMY - BARRY MILLAR 5. PERTH ROAD ROADWORKS UPDATE 6. WECC HIT LIST 7. PLANNING UPDATE 8. CORRESPONDENCE 9. OTHER MEETINGS ATTENDED ON BEHALF OF WECC 10. AOCB - MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC INPUT 11. DATE OF NEXT MEETING - Tuesday 10th OCTOBER 2017 Light refreshments will be provided.