Unfortunately, being a Liberal Democrat kept me away from this afternoon's match at Bloomfields, but that didn't prevent me from vicariously following the game through the wonders of Twitter. And it was good news for the Marketmen in their rather harder follow-up to the game at Clapton. Chesham United are at a similar level to Needham Market, and play in the Southern League, but given that the Conference South teams enter the competition at this stage, it would have considered a relatively benign draw. But games like that have to be won, and with £4,500 going to the winner, there ...
Don't try this at home kids. There are some notes about the building on the Historic England site.
It is almost time for the Lib Dem Disco. A little bird has let us have details of the tunes our intrepid DJs will be playing. Here is how the night will unfold Of course, these are just the tunes. The success of a DJ set is all about the performance. In the meantime, I have my dancing shoes on. 10:40 Tim Farron Last Nite – the Strokes Rock the Casbah – The Clash This Charming Man – The Smiths Girls on Film – Duran Duran 11:00 Kelly-Marie Blundell Layla – Derek and the Dominos Living on a Prayer – ...
When one cannot be at conference (like me) then watching a livestream of it is a lifeline. Punchy, intellectual and people centred are the words that I would use to describe today's proceedings. Sal Brinton's, President of the Liberal Democrat Party, speech was the highlight - pitched at the right level to appeal to both the converted Lib Dem-er and non-converted voter, packed with truths and rounded off with a strong dash of an urgency to answer her 'call to arms'. In other words, Lib Dems have their work cut out for them in trying to rope in Labour and ...
Will Tanner dissects the Conservative Party's problem with young voters. "Across the country, students are being taught a narrow version of economics where real-world economic issues barely feature." Ten years on, Laura Bannister and Daniel Lapedus wonder if today's economics graduates could predict and prevent another Northern Rock. Sarah Carr and Danny Taggart ask if we need a truth and reconciliation process for psychiatry. "The Holodomor has become a totemic symbol in Ukrainian nation-building efforts; Russian oppression has consolidated a nation once internally divided by dialect, political culture and religion. For the first time in history, Ukraine (however corrupt and ...
Today the old boy remembers his success as a boxing promoter. Tuesday Did you see the fight between Mayweather and McGregor? While it was not as one-sided as the pundits predicted, I was painfully reminded of the night I arranged for Muhammad Ali to fight the heavyweight champion of Rutland, Tubby Anstruther. That one didn't go the distance either, but it did put the Empire Pool, Oakham, on the map as a venue for boxing. What great nights they were! Henry Cooper. Alan "Boom Boom" Minter. Vanessa Redgrave. Above all I remember Sugar Ray Michie, a tasty welterweight who later ...
Everyone knows that parking spaces are a precious commodity on this town. Today was a typical September Saturday. The park and ride bus was busy and car parks began filling up from before 10am. But bizarrely, someone had decided to cone and tape off nineteen spaces on the top deck of the Upper Galdeford car park. I arrived in town around 10.25am. At that point, the queue of people waiting for the flu jab at the Portcullis GP Practice was snaking out of the door. Several people I spoke to said they had struggled to park. Some with limited mobility ...
New Oxford West and Abingdon MP Layla Moran gave a brilliantly inspiring, gutsy speech on education to Conference today. She basically challenged a huge amount of educational orthodoxy around selection and league tables and challenged the Liberal Democrats to come up with a bold new policy, saying that we have the imagination and the gall to do so. She got a well-deserved standing ovation. The text is below. It is such an honour, and still slightly unreal, to be addressing you for the first time today as the Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for Oxford West and Abingdon. I'd like ...
This morning, the Liberal Democrats' autumn conference in Bournemouth debated the effects of Brexit on public services in Britain. The impact on NHS staffing as well as the hospitality industry has received quite a lot of media attention, but in my speech I focussed on the situation regarding higher education. For the HE sector, Brexit [...]
The first thing you learn when hostelling is that the room will empty before you've even woken up. I mentioned there were four guys on the lower bunks when I went to bed on Sunday night. When I woke up on Monday, there was just me and another. The second lesson I learned that day was that Mondays appear to be Irish Sundays. I planned to go to the National Library, National Museum, and the National Gallery because they are all situated next to each other. Except only the Gallery is open on Mondays. Everything else is closed. When walking ...
I have a vague ambition to improve my rather dismal knowledge of cinema by watching all of the winners of the Oscar for Best Picture (or equivalent). If I do them at the rate of one a month or so, I should finish roughly around the time of the centennial of this, the winner of the Academy Award for Outstanding Picture of 1927/28 (not yet called the Oscar). I had no expectations whatever of Wings. I don't think I've ever previously seen a film with Clara Bow, the star, or even with Gary Cooper, who has a small part as ...
Each year I convene three panels to compile lists of the Top 50 Liberal Democrats, the Top 100 People on the Left and the Top 100 People on the Right. Each list is published to coincide with the three party conferences. This is the tenth year I've been doing this and despite two referendums and two general elections in the past three years the pace of change is, if anything, increasing - perhaps not surprising, given the stresses of Brexit and a hung parliament. The Liberal Democrats have demonstrated the frenetic nature of politics today probably more than the two ...
Thankfully, the Lib Dem insurbrexion worked — the motion to suspend standing orders was won, by 377 votes to 96, so now there will be an actual debate and vote on policy tomorrow. Now, I can't be at conference for ... Continue reading →
Responding to Boris Johnson's Telegraph article in which he repeats the claim Brexit will lead to £350m for the NHS, Liberal Democrat Brexit Spokesperson Tom Brake commented: "Boris Johnson should know that simply repeating a lie doesn't make it true. "Crashing out of the single market would severely damage our economy and mean less money for the NHS, not more. "This Brexit fantasy is a transparent attempt to appeal to Conservative right-wingers and prepare the ground for a leadership bid. "With the Tories increasingly hell-bent on an extreme Brexit, it is crucial we fight to stay in the Single Market ...
Vince Cable has launched a powerful attack on Boris Johnson ahead of the Liberal Democrat conference in Bournemouth. The Liberal Democrat leader has challenged Theresa May to slap down her Foreign Secretary and show some leadership after Johnson sought to sink May's proposal for a transitional Brexit deal, before a likely Johnson putsch for the Conservative leadership. Vince Cable said: "Boris Johnson is on manoeuvres, which means everyone else should take cover. "He clearly thinks that Theresa May is on the verge of a U-turn which would lead to a transitional deal that would keep us in the single market. ...
Government plans to introduce voter ID at five local authorities next May risk "undermining democracy" by preventing people from voting, the Liberal Democrats have warned. Around 3.5 million voters would not have any of the required forms of photo ID if the measure was introduced across the UK, according to estimates by the Electoral Commission. Liberal Democrat MP Tom Brake commented: "Introducing voter ID at polling booths is a solution to a problem that is almost non-existent in the UK. "This is a completely unnecessary move that risks undermining our democracy by preventing millions of people from voting. "Evidence from ...
Liberal Democrats are united on Europe. We strongly believe that Britain is better off as a full member of the European Union. I am proud of this stance, and continue to argue for an 'exit from Brexit'. The European Union has been a project of huge economic and social success, fostering prosperity and maintaining peace on a continent historically ravaged by division and war. I want Britain to remain. The Liberal Democrats are the party of Remain. Meanwhile, even the spectre of leaving is doing great damage. Parliament has been asked to confer huge new power on Government - far ...
Fri, 12:56: Brexit and the Irish Border https://t.co/cVB2PdyTLa @DavidFordMLA: more Irish border crossings than along entire Eastern frontier of EU. Fri, 15:36: Thinking of going to the Pink Floyd exhibition at the V&A on Sat 23rd. Anyone want to join me? https://t.co/6bKfmT9MrH Fri, 16:46: The Moon Stallion, by Brian Hayles https://t.co/1avVkJwawA Fri, 19:00: RT @djmgaffneyw4: In a few years people will look back on this as the point they should have thrown in the towel on Brexit. https://t.co/hi... Fri, 22:49: RT @TwoPaddocks: People still worried about the conditioner I was using 2016? Relax. I am now using recycled frying oil ...
Last night I nipped back to London from the Liberal Democrat conference in Bournemouth to attend the Central Independence Day celebration at the Churchill Hotel. It's a unique event in the diplomatic calendar, as five countries mark their freedom on the same day: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. In a nice gesture [...]
Lib Dem conference is live on YouTube. If you can't make it to Bournemouth, you can still follow what's happening.
Sat 16th
09:50
If we want to save Britain's relationship with Europe, we mustn't demand a second referendum
Too many people have given up on saving our relationship with Europe. At present, things don't look good. We've an incompetent government, flirting with exiting without a deal. A Prime Minister who has swayed like a weather vane, supported Remain, but, now it is expedient, advocates an extreme Brexit. We've a charlatan of an opposition leader, who claims he supported our membership of the EU, but sabotaged the Labour Referendum campaign, and has since used his power as leader of the opposition to promote an extreme Brexit. However, we shouldn't lose heart. Brexiters are nervous, and with good reason. They ...
Second paragraph of third chapter: That was good news. The sooner they realised that everything was running as it should, the sooner they would leave him [Delitsky] in peace. He was about to turn back to his instruments when he caught sight of Johanna Teske making her way across the control room towards him. Given yesterday's demise of the Cassini probe in the atmosphere of Saturn, it was timely to read this Twelfth Doctor novel set in precisely that location, in a future where humans and their alien allies are mining the rains of pure diamonds that occur amidst the ...
I posted a few days ago about the damaged cycle/footbridge over a stream just south of Formby – my previous posting is accessible via the link above – and am pleased to say that some temporary repairs have been completed. Here's a couple of shots of the temporary repairs taken by Roy Connell. Thanks to Sefton Council's Footpath Officer for acting quickly to try to make the bridge safe. I understand that the bridge is to be replaced by Sefton Council. With thanks to Roy Connell for the lead to this posting
Do you ever have a gripe with a train or bus operator? Well if you do Merseytravel (our local public sector transport committee) have an e-mail address via which you can make your views/concerns known. Comments or complaints relating to a particular bus service or specific transport related matter should be directed to Merseytravel's comments system; comments@merseytravel.gov.uk It will then, I am told, be referred to the appropriate Merseytravel department or commercial operator. With thanks to Cllr. John Dodd for the lead to this posting
Yesterday, along with representatives of the Friends of Magdalen Green and a representative of the council's environment management, I took part in a site visit at Magdalen Green to discuss a number of issues. This was a very useful and productive discussion and it has been agreed to provide an information board near the bandstand and look at some other improvements for Magdalen Green in the coming months.
There are some lively fringe events today. One of the most popular, which sadly clashes with a Federal Board meeting so I can't be there, is an ALDE event with Catherine Bearder MEP and Nick Clegg. "Britain's place in the EU – Lib Dems are not giving up." That's in the Bryanston Suite in the Marriott. Your Liberal Britain has some ideas about turning the party into a much wider social movement. I think that they need to do more in the way of diversity and appealing to local government, but they have a lot to offer the party. Join ...
The Liberal Democrat vote share per candidate at the last general election was the lowest since all women got the vote. Two and a half years after coming out of coalition, the Liberal Democrat local council base has recovered by a mere net two councillors. (Not 2,000; not 200; not 20; but 2). It's now seven years since the Liberal Democrats last regularly polled in double figures in the opinion polls. And just about every day brings more news that reinforces the need for a strong Liberal Democrat voice in British politics. That's why there needs to be a real ...
Per my last report back from FCC, for various reasons the contentious vote was retaken, I voted the other way, and it went the other way, by 6 votes to 7 this time (there were more of us attending). So there's going to be a mini debate on the suspension of standing orders, with a maximum of six speakers with a maximum of two minutes' speaking time each. It's going to be chaired by Mary Reid, who is absolutely scrupulous about debate balance and fairness. Whatever happens, I think it's going to be interesting. Other things that happened included boring ...
09.00-09.05 Opening of Conference by Baroness Brinton 09:05-09:15 Report: Federal Conference Committee – the one you need to be in to vote for the suspension of standing orders to discuss the Europe motion 09:15-09:25 Report: federal Policy Committee 09.25-10.10 Policy motion: Learning to Communicate in English 10.10-11.40 Consultative session: Party Strategy Consultation 11.40-12.30 Policy motion: The Paris Agreement and uK Climate Change Policy 12.30-12.50 Speech by Layla Moran MP 12.50-14.10 Lunch 14.10-15.25 Policy motion: The impact of Brexit on Public Services 15.25-15.45 Speech: Baroness Brinton 17.00-17.50 f11 17.50-18.00 f12 15.45-17.00 Policy motion: Natural Environment Policy report 17.00-17.50 Report: Federal Board ...
Vince Cable's team will be happy if we do two things at this Conference. The first is to present a very strong line on Brexit, marking the Liberal Democrats out as the unequivocally anti-Brexit party who want the people to have the final say on whatever emerges from the negotiations. The second is to establish Vince firmly in people's minds as one of the most credible, authoritative voices on the economy that this country has. They want people to understand that he has the answers to address the concerns that they had when they voted Leave. It's been fantastic to ...
Very few people will argue with the view that charitable organisations should avoid getting embroiled in party politics but the current law goes too far in restricting the way they are able to carry out their work in the run-up to a General Election. That is not just my view nor that of the charities themselves, it is also the view of a government appointed body given the task of reviewing the Lobbying Act. Many campaign groups believe that they will be left unable to speak out for vulnerable and marginalised people in society because the law as it his ...
I will be heading off to conference at Bournemouth tomorrow, Saturday, though I don't get there until Sunday (I'm staying overnight in London). I've just emailed Gateshead members about conference and some of the key debates that are taking place. You can read the email on this link.
