Sun 1st
21:50

Sunday Reading

Current Watchmen, by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (a chapter a month) Last books finished The Red Leaguers, by Shan F. Bullock The Famished Road, by Ben Okri Peoplewatching, by Desmond Morris Space Helmet for a Cow, vol 2, by Paul Kirkley Next books The Dancers at the End of Time, by Michael Moorcock Alexander the Corrector: The Tormented Genius Whose Cruden's Concordance Unwrote the Bible, by Julia Keay Short Trips: Christmas Around the World, ed. Xanna Eve Chown

This is a reminder that I welcome guest posts on Liberal England. And as you can see from the list of the 10 most recent guest posts below, I am happy to consider a wide range of subjects. If you would like to write a guest post yourself, please send me an email so we can discuss your idea. "You're all the same" - Katie BarronThe trouble with Seamus Milne - Tim HallSave the University of Leicester's Vaughan Centre for Lifelong Learning - Sally BirchThe peculiar contradictions of Scotland's Named Person scheme - Simon CalvertThe straight line of racist politics ...

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 490th weekly round-up from the Lib Dem blogosphere ... Featuring the five most popular stories beyond Lib Dem Voice according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (23rd-30th October, 2017), together with a hand-picked seven you might otherwise have missed. Don't forget: you can sign up to receive the Golden Dozen direct to your email inbox — just click here — ensuring you never miss out on the best of Lib Dem blogging. As ever, let's start with the most popular post, and work our way down: 1. 10/12ths good news for Liberal Democrats in ...

Posted by Caron Lindsay on Liberal Democrat Voice

The day before I flew home, I chose to attempt the National Library and museum again, having discovered they were closed on Monday. All week I was excited for the Library visit, to walk through its shelves and run my fingers along the books before choosing a great tome to study, even if for just a short while. Boy, was I disappointed? As a visitor, you enter the library and place your bag into a locker opened and closed by a pin number that you set yourself. This is entirely unnecessary, and you aren't in the building long enough for ...

Posted by Matthew Metcalf on Matthew 'Mec' Metcalf - The Mec Journal
Sun 1st
20:37

Six of the Best 729

" I was on the ... Social Liberal Forum stand. I was approached by a man who was attending his first conference. He had won a prize in the raffle. He explained that his son was on the Liberal Reform stall and they had told him we were a 'bunch of lefties'. He wanted to know about joining...." Iain Brodie Brown reports a conversation at the recent Liberal Democrat Conference. Jennie Rigg offers her guide to filling out a speaker's card at Lib Dem Conference. "Forced through war, poverty and uncertainty to make new lives in England, they were drawn ...

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

The Garden Street Island is a block of shops and a cottage on Belgrave Gate in the centre of Leicester. It was due to be pulled down for redevelopment, but after a campaign the city council has served a issue an Article 4 Direction. This means that the historic status of the buildings has been acknowledged and planning permission will have to be sought for any alterations.That is what I blogged in February 2015. This week the Leicester Mercury reported that planning permission for the demolition of this block is now being sought. The paper quotes Stuart Bailey, chairman of ...

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

It's been really upsetting to see the scenes from Catalonia. Ok, so the referendum on independence has been ruled illegal by the constitutional courts, but there are ways of dealing with that in a peaceful manner. No good can come of the Police's inflammatory action. Of course, this all has some resonance to me as a Scot. We, of course, had our own referendum on independence in 2014 after the SNP won a mandate to hold one. Mike Moore, as Secretary of State for Scotland, acted like a grown up and negotiated with Nicola Sturgeon to produce the Edinburgh Agreement. ...

Posted by Caron Lindsay on Liberal Democrat Voice

This conversation happened at the Lib Dem Conference when I was on the SLF ( Social Liberal Forum ) stand. I was approached by a man who was attending his first conference. He had won a prize in the raffle. He explained that his son was on the Liberal Reform stall and they had told him we were a 'bunch of lefties'. He wanted to know about joining.... Left is often one those words which creates more confusion than clarity. So we should be clear that SLF stand in a long tradition of radical Liberalism as this article in the ...

Posted on birkdale focus

There was something quite disconcerting about Vince Cable being on a pro-Brexit march today while the European Union was being castigated for not expressing an opinion about the police brutality in Spain. Numerous videos on Twitter show residents being pulled, pushed and beaten for wanting to vote in a heavily disputed referendum on whether the state of Catalonia ought to be independent from the rest of Spain. Many have called upon the EU, especially Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission, to express a negative opinion about the state sanctioned brutality but nothing has been forthcoming. Vince Cable's statement was ...

Posted by Jane Chelliah on FeministMama @ambitiousmamas

One of the things I have to do at conference is help to plan debates; this necessarily involves looking at a lot of Speakers' Cards. There used to be, in the agenda, an illustrated guide to filling in Speaker's Cards. This hasn't been in there for a little while now, and judging by some of the cards we got submitted, it needs to come back. In lieu of that, though, I have done my own (somewhat irreverent, and rather long) version ( under the cut ) I hope to get more cards like that last one, and less like the ...

YouGov

A documentary called 'Blond Ambition' about Boris Johnson's time so far as Foreign Secretary is being screened tonight on Channel 4. Boris has an ability to make people either loathe or love him and, no doubt, viewers will be divided into the two camps of seeing him either as a blundering but jolly buffoon; and those who suspect him of having a treacherous nature that will sell anything for his own advancement. Whichever camp one falls into one cannot disregard Boris J's insatiable appetite for publicity. Where there are cameras and lights, Boris J is infused with the opportunities that ...

Posted by Jane Chelliah on FeministMama @ambitiousmamas

A set of automatically updated campaign buttons is available for Liberal Democrat websites displaying the latest news about the party and also the latest campaign videos.

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

Vince Cable addressing the crowd #StopBrexitManchester #StopBrexit #stopbrexitmarch pic.twitter.com/S4y7kTyFsT — pictureman (@BluetackPhoto) October 1, 2017 Here's Vince addressing the considerable crowds at the #stopBrexitManchester march. This is what he had to say. We are in Manchester because the Conservative Party are here and we want them to hear our voices - to tell Theresa May and Boris Johnson that we are not 'citizens of nowhere', but people who are proud to be British, and proud to be European. We must tell the government what is at stake here. Take the great research institutions in Manchester, such as the National Graphene ...

Posted by Caron Lindsay on Liberal Democrat Voice

The brutality being meted out by Spanish riot police today is sickening and potentially deadly. There are countless videos on my Twitter feed of defenceless elderly people, young students, and even dogs being treated with inhuman violence by agents of the state. This must be condemned unequivocally, if belatedly, by the Spanish government, which must ... Continue reading #CatalanReferendum: democracy dies in chaos

Posted by Tom King on Never Cruel Nor Cowardly

One of Vince Cable's stated aims as leader was to overtake the Tories in terms of party membership. We knew that that was a reasonably tall order, as the last known figure for Tory membership was around 149,000 three years ago. That aim was going to take a wee while to fulfil, we thought. However we were looking at it in terms of us growing. It sounds like we're already there because the Tory membership has sunk like a stone over the Summer. David Hencke reports on an interview with a key Conservative campaigner who puts membership at around 100,000 ...

Posted by Caron Lindsay on Liberal Democrat Voice
Sun 1st
12:18

Dobie Gray: Drift Away

Last week I chose Dobie Gray's The In Crowd. This, from 1973, was his other great hit. There were only eight years between the two records, but so much has changed - not least the way Gray styles himself. No doubt it is partly because I have grown older, but it does seem to me that youth culture moved at an unprecedented (and unrepeated) pace in the 1960s.

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

Beamish Museum have great plans for new developments, including a 1950s town and a Georgian coaching inn. Find out more with the Museum's presentation to Sunniside History Society, 7 for 7.30pm on Tuesday 3rd October at Sunniside Club. £1/person. All welcome.

Posted by jonathanwallace on Jonathan Wallace

The Catalan Independence Referendum- Some Quick Thoughts... Apologies for the long silence readers- work has been very busy of late. I hope some of you are still out there ready to read! I was moved to start blogging again by the scenes of protest and the policy heavy-handed response to the Catalan independence referendum taking place today. Doubtless many news organisations and commentators will lead with scenes like the above, and certainly they don't look good nor does the police response with rubber bullets seem necessary or justified. At the same time, the attempts of commentators to suggest Spanish democracy ...

Posted by DaveGorman on Liberalism5

... well, you might want to keep a weather eye on @Awkward__Squad on Twitter. The store is all built, and the sample shirts are on their way to test subjects, and assuming everything is OK with them we are going to launch properly next week. I'm reasonably confident everything will be OK with them, because we are using Rapanui's print on demand service TeeMill, and Rapanui are ace: organic, fairtrade, non exploitative, full of recycling, etc. We chose them because:I care about the ethical stuff, and I know most other Lib Dems do too;We know their t-shirts are good quality ...

As the new chairman of the Sunniside History Society, I attended an event yesterday morning to launch the DVD about the Fugar History Project, our biggest piece of work over the past 3 years. The society got a grant of £10,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the production of the DVD was the final part of the project. The launch event went ahead at the Marquis of Granby, next door to Fugar.

Posted by jonathanwallace on Jonathan Wallace
eUKhost

The images emerging from Catalonia today should trouble all of us, especially given the link between liberalism and self-determination. You could, and I probably would, argue that both sides have been particularly uncompromising in their approach, but independence battles tend to encourage such an attitude - after all, there have been precious few examples of states gaining sovereignty through negotiation alone. But the responses of both sides have led to today's scenes of riot police attacking and wounding those Catalans who fervantly believe that their lands are better off in a free Catalonia. I am a believer in the principle ...

Posted by Mark Valladares on Liberal Bureaucracy

Friday evening saw the latest quiz at the Swalwell Community Centre, complete with pie and peas. This is the third one we've done. At the first one we came out on top. In the 2nd, we were runners up. On Friday, you guessed it, we came third. At current rate of progress, we are expect to be in last place within a year!

Posted by jonathanwallace on Jonathan Wallace
Sun 1st
11:00

My tweets

Sat, 13:05: RT @RoryBrown: Very good Matthew Parris piece in the Times "This paralysed government is done for" https://t.co/wlEpP0JiL3 Sat, 15:02: Broadway Melody (1929) https://t.co/O6QAXrqCqw Sat, 15:45: RT @EmilyGorcenski: This is because lesbian sex is pure. https://t.co/riNj1daNJm Sat, 16:17: RT @apcoworldwide: Test your #UK party knowledge with our quiz for a chance to win champagne and a political biography of your choice! http... Sat, 17:03: RT @Manta_Raee: My little brother made this comic and it's such a Mood™ https://t.co/7D8Yc1Jl29 Sat, 20:09: RT @invisibleman_17: #saturdaymorning Baby dolphins fascinated by squirrels... https://t.co/kUQzlTcrEh Sat, 20:48: How Fake News Turned a Small Town Upside ...

I read The Furthest Station (Peter Grant, #5.7) by Ben Aaronovich - here's my review on Goodreads It's a short review for a short book Instagram photo What do you mean "There's no room on the bed", mummy? There's plenty of room for us...... [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments

Two good reasons to visit ward 11 of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Gateshead on Friday. Firstly the nursing staff had organised a Macmillan coffee and cakes event. I used the opportunity to stock up with cakes. Secondly, my friend Richard (I am his carer) had been told he was being discharged and so I needed to collect him to take him home. So thanks to the staff for the cakes and for looking

Posted by jonathanwallace on Jonathan Wallace

Detail from the Robert Gould Shaw Memorial, Boston I've recently returned from a seven city, 10786 mile-long tour across the eastern United States. This trek sprang from several random "bucket list" items of mine. I was fortunate enough to be able to stitch together an itinerary which did a lot of ticking of my terminal wish list. The visits were all deeply "anorakky" in nature - mainly to museums. But as I prepared to travel, I noticed that there was a clear theme running through most of my destinations - that of African American history. I am a complete dunderhead ...

Posted by Paul Walter on Liberal Democrat Voice

Many thousands of people are expected to demonstrate today in Manchester on the StopBrexit! March. I am sad not to be able to be with them, as I am preparing for the new academic year at SOAS that begins tomorrow. However, I am braced for a storm of abuse from Brexiteers, who will doubtless claim [...]

Posted by jonathanfryer on Jonathan Fryer

Boris Johnson has decided that it is time to make his move. He believes that Theresa May is too weak to sack him and too vulnerable to resist his attempted coup. As the Conservative Conference starts in Manchester today, he has already rocked the boat a number of times, effectively set out his leadership manifesto and contradicted the official cabinet line on Brexit. He is acting as if collective responsibility does not apply to him and he is getting away with it. It is little wonder that senior conservatives such as the Chair of the Treasury Select Committee, Nicky Morgan ...

Posted by Peter Black on Peter Black

It's often useful to save what you can see on screen as an image, such as to safely store a copy of that foolish comment a political opponent made online or to clip a piece of content to attach to a social media posting (though bear in mind copyright rules when you do). There are 1,001 ways to do such screenshots, but if you are on a PC there's a particular benefit of using the free Full Page Screen Capture extension for Chrome. As the name implies, it captures the full page, rather than just the part of the page ...

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

Currently, excitement at prospects of electoral reform in the UK is mostly focused on the forthcoming debate on 30 October in the House of Commons, arising from a petition organised by Make Votes Matter. While this is an excellent piece of consciousness-raising, it seems sadly unlikely to lead to any reform in the near future. In contrast, there is a real opportunity for progress in Wales, where the devolved government is considering introducing the Single Transferable Vote (STV) for council elections, along with a range of other election-related reforms. The deadline for responding to the Welsh Government consultation on this ...

Posted by Denis Mollison on Liberal Democrat Voice

The next West End Police Surgery takes place at the Mitchell Street Centre on Tuesday - details below :

The Art Deco portal to Queensway the first Mersey Tunnel From a Merseytravel press release, it may be of interest if you are a user of the Mersey Tunnels Mersey Tunnel users are set to benefit from an improved travelling experience as work gets underway on a refresh of the toll system in both tunnels next month (September). Improvements that will be introduced through the refresh, some of which are the result of feedback received from tunnel users, include: · New toll machines on both the Birkenhead and Wallasey Tunnel toll plazas · The machines will include an improved positioning ...

Posted by Cllr. Tony Robertson on Sefton Focus

Reports that the Conservatives are to find the money to make a fresh offer to students has been dismissed by the Liberal Democrats.Liberal Democrat Education spokesperson Layla Moran said:"This cynical attempt to shake the magic money tree will not fool young people who know it was the Conservatives who axed maintenance grants and presided over rising interest rates for students."The Conservatives have consistently worked against the young. This U-turn just shows they fear there being a change of government, not that they have had a change of heart."Liberal Democrats have been pushing for greater help for students but the Conservatives ...

Posted by LD Neath on Aberavon & Neath Liberal Democrats

The Liberal Democrats have welcomed Michael Gove's announcement to increase sentences for animal welfare offences to up to five years, a policy taken from the Liberal Democrat manifesto. In January this year, the government said there were no plans to extend maximum sentencing in response to parliamentary questions from the Liberal Democrats, instead offering the possibility of giving revised guidance to magistrates. The Liberal Democrat 2017 manifesto called for "stronger penalties for animal cruelty offences, increasing the maximum sentencing from six months to five years." No such policy was proposed in the Conservative 2017 manifesto. Liberal Democrat Environment Spokesperson Kate ...

Posted by LD Neath on Aberavon & Neath Liberal Democrats

The Liberal Democrats have challenged the Conservatives to publish their latest membership figures after a shock report claimed that Tory membership numbers were tumbling, and may now have fallen below the resurgent Liberal Democrats. The Liberal Democrats have soared to 103,000 members, while reports suggest that the Conservatives are set to fall below 100,000 and are facing "oblivion". Ed Davey MP, Liberal Democrat former cabinet minister, said: "If true, these reports show that on the eve of the Conservative conference the party's grassroots have lost all faith in Theresa May's Brexit government. Be it their bungled general election campaign, their ...

Posted by LD Neath on Aberavon & Neath Liberal Democrats

Automation looks set to replace many jobs in the next few decades. What work will be left for humans to do? Hal Varian, chief economist at Google, has a simple way to predict the future. The future is simply what rich people have today. The rich have chauffeurs. In the future, we will have driverless cars that chauffeur us all around. The rich have private bankers. In the future, we will all have robo-bankers. One thing that we imagine that the rich have today are lives of leisure. So will our future be one in which we too have lives ...

Posted by Toby Walsh on Political science | The Guardian