Fifteen precious minutes of Basil Brush and Derek Fowlds have appeared on YouTube, though I am sure they would have been broadcast in colour. The clip here shows them tackling Romeo and Juliet. Things like this cracked us up in 1973 (if there wasn't a power cut).

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

On Tuesay I blogged about the dropping of all charges of child sex abuse against Jason Zadrozny, who almost won Ashfield for the Liberal Democrats at the 2010 general election. Jason was featured on the East Midlands section of Sunday Politics today. There was a short news report starting at 44:15, followed by a studio discussion. The other participants were Lee Rowley, the new Conservative MP for North East Derbyshire, and Alan Simpson, a former Labour MP who is now an adviser to John McDonnell. The presenter is Marie Ashby.

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

Sex fascinates us. It makes us horny, excited, nervous and creative. We want to talk about it, hear gossip about it, watch it, but society deems it semi-taboo, resulting in plenty of innuendoes, secrecy and mistakes. Sex is one of the keys that bind us together. It creates families, builds relationships and consummates marriages. It is the physical embodiment of the love between couples. By remaining sexually faithful to a single partner, you are demonstrating commitment and passion. Not quite. Sex is a physical activity Nothing more. It delivers two things to humanity. Procreation and pleasure. As an animal species, ...

Posted by Matthew Metcalf on Matthew 'Mec' Metcalf - The Mec Journal
Sun 5th
16:40

Sunday reading

Current Watchmen, by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (a chapter a month) The Deepest Sea, by Charles Barnitz A Life Worth Living ed. Simon Guerrier Virginia Woolf, by Hermione Lee Last books finished Cavalcade, by Noël Coward A Man of Parts, by David Lodge Isaiah Berlin, by Michaël Ignatieff Short Trips: Indefinable Magic, ed. Neil Corry Next books Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, by Roald Dahl Dear Old Dead, by Jane Haddam Doctor Who: The American Adventures, by Justin Richards

What a great result! Whilst anyone who had done any canvassing felt John was going to win few expected him to scoop 56 % of the vote. This was our first by-election GAIN in Southport since December 1938 when a certain Simms Mitchell (of who more on another occasion) won the Talbot Ward by-election. Simms came from a strong Methodist family and his Mother right up to her death in the early 1960s was a prominent member of the Southport Woman's Liberal Association. Simms said he owed his victory, at least in in part to the Tory candidate, a Mr ...

Posted on birkdale focus

Will this picture be another history item as the Council makes even more cuts to the services received by residents in Odd Down.

Posted by Odddown on Odd Down
Sun 5th
13:35

Air Quality

The current focus on traffic congestion and installation of understanding air pollution is Bath is welcome. However Odd Down seems to have been forgotten by the Tory run council.Lib Dem activist Joel Hirst said " It is really disappointing that Odd Down has not be included in the current study. I commute to work across OddDown every day and the traffic congestion on Frome Road and Wellsway is

Posted by Odddown on Odd Down

Lib Dem peer Roger Roberts spoke powerfully in the House of Lords this week on the subject of child refugees. He pleaded with the Government to reinstate the Dubs 3000 refugee children commitment. Here's his speech in full. My Lords, I am grateful for this opportunity. First, I will quote a friend who was there when the bulldozers came to demolish the camps in Dunkirk and Calais 12 months ago. He said that, "after I visited the Calais refugee camp, I still have an image in my head, which I'm sure will be with me for the rest of my ...

Posted by Caron Lindsay on Liberal Democrat Voice
Sun 5th
13:18

Resurrecting Heritage

Tourists who visit Britain often sigh that half the country seems to be a museum: a cornucopia of historic buildings, gardens and magnificent vistas. On that count, Italy is even more spectacular, let's admit it; I will never tire of discovering fresh antiquities and stunning palazzi in Rome. But here in the Gulf, where I [...]

Posted by jonathanfryer on Jonathan Fryer

You know how you were just telling me that you really wanted a follow-up to that post about liberal christianity's unhealthy silence on sex and relationships I wrote back in 2013? You know the one that said: For a number of years, I've been attending various churches whose congregations would broadly be described as liberal. [...]

Posted by Mark Mills on Matter Of Facts
YouGov
Sun 5th
12:31

Privacy: your data

At the Liberal Democrats Autumn conference I helped organise an ALDES (Association of Liberal Democrat Engineers and Scientists) discussion session on privacy and security titled "Your data, your choice" . The motivation for the session was that:Government, business and our personal lives are increasingly driven by our personal data. Credit card transactions, location data, and health records have the potential to improve products, provide insight for policy making, and detect security threats. But they also challenge our notions of privacy, intimacy and autonomy. How can results from privacy research be translated into policy? The session was chaired by Richard Gomer, ...

Posted by Robert Johnston on Posts of Train of thought

As part of Local Growth Fund the council will be shortly replacing some bus shelters on the 20A/C route within Odd Down. The bus shelters will be replaced with new shelters matching those installed elsewhere in Bath as part of the Bath Transport Package and in most locations will provide additional weather protection from the addition of small side panels. These shelters are at the following

Posted by Odddown on Odd Down

As a former Lord Mayor of Liverpool Erica is organising an event on 11th November to encourage more women both to enter public life and to move to a leadership position Next weekend my wife Erica is hosting an event ... Continue reading →

Posted by richardkemp on But what does Richard Kemp think?

As the Sunday papers are published this morning, there are yet more disturbing stories about sexual harassment in Westminster, in Holyrood, and in politics more widely. Harassment of this kind is absolutely unacceptable under any circumstances, and Liberal Democrats will work across parties to stamp it out. I want to see a political system in which everyone is represented, and political institutions - from Parliament down to every local authority - that reflect the society they serve. It is absolutely crucial to this ambition that everyone feels they are in a safe and professional environment when they get involved, stand ...

Posted by The Voice on Liberal Democrat Voice

I was never a great Oasis fan. I took the side of Blur in the Great Britpop battle and Pulp were arguably better than either of them. But I do like this, the current single from Noel Gallagher's new band. Being Noel Gallagher it is derivative. I sense Ricky Martin and Plastique Bertrand in there, and the recorder comes straight from the 1960s - the Rolling Stones, say, or Manfred Mann. In his defence, though, rock has been going so long that it is now almost always derivative. And if you are going to have a recorder player it is ...

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

Laura Gordon has been voted in by Liberal Democrat party members to be the party's new Prospective Parliamentary Candidate (PPC) in Sheffield Hallam. We are pleased to announce that Laura Gordon is our candidate for Sheffield Hallam! pic.twitter.com/y0zUDs8UmH — Sheffield Lib Dems (@SheffLibDems) November 3, 2017

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack
Sun 5th
11:00

My tweets

Sat, 14:21: Grand Hotel (1932 film and 1930 book) https://t.co/Wp4CJ1KSHL Sun, 07:53: RT @jfmouthonlegs: Endlessly having this conversation at the moment. Well said Jo Brand. https://t.co/FPfpZuWym8 Sun, 10:45: RT @Stonekettle: The. Air. Is. Too. Clean. The air is too clean. The air, is too clean. https://t.co/S5uW43rhjn

Following the recent rule changes to open up leadership of the Welsh Liberal Democrats so that approved candidates rather than just Parliamentarians can stand, Jane Dodds has now been elected the new leader: It is an honour to have been elected as the next leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats – to focus my energy on bringing like minded people together to rebuild our party and to re-establish the Welsh Liberal Democrats as the radical, progressive force of Welsh politics. I'd like to thank Liz Evans for running an excellent campaign and giving members a vital opportunity to discuss our ...

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack
Sun 5th
10:25

Brexit will unravel

So, the children snatched the keys of the family car. They haven't a clue how to drive it. They've locked the doors. You can't make them listen. You watch helplessly. It shudders forward as they fight amongst themselves. They won't unlock or take notice until they've driven it into the sea. They're convinced it's amphibious! What can you do? How can we stop them driving over the cliff? ...The story of Brexit so far. But I don't believe the car will topple off the cliff. It'll either run out of fuel, conk out, hit a tree or run into a ...

Posted by Andrew George on Liberal Democrat Voice

miss_s_b | The Blood is the Life for 04-11-2017 I posted The Blood is the Life for 04-11-2017 to my dreamwidth blog [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments

eUKhost

The Guardian has this opinion piece on its web site – see link above Powerful stuff indeed and Cohen could not have hit the nail more squarely on the head. With thanks to Roy Connell for the lead to this posting

Posted by Cllr. Tony Robertson on Sefton Focus

Over the last ten days the country has been rocked by the revelations of sexual harassment at Westminster. Let me be clear that the Liberal Democrats believe harassment and abuse of power are unacceptable in any situation, and especially at Westminster. Whether the allegations are about groping, inappropriate remarks or texts through to possible criminal offences of sexual assault and rape, any complaint needs to be listened to, taken seriously and investigated. Since these incidents are often about abuses of power, it is crucial people have an independent, confidential route to report incidents when they happen. This week the Chief ...

Posted by Sal Brinton on Liberal Democrat Voice

From the Friends of the University of Dundee Botanic Garden : The next event arranged by the Friends committee is today - Sunday 5th November - at 2pm in the Education Centre. Dr Alan Barclay, who can occasionally be seen ringing birds in the Garden, will give a talk on birds and bird ringing. This event is free to members of the Friends, but guests are welcome and are invited to make a donation.

I still find it difficult to believe how many MPs and Ministers contend that walking away from the European Union without a deal is a possibility. Not only would it massively undermine the UK economy but it would also increase poverty. This is best illustrated by this article in the Independent, which quotes research that concludes a no deal Brexit could rise by almost £1,000 per year to shopping bills in the UK. The National Institute Economic Review say that a range of staple products, including meat, vegetables and dairy products will see the largest rise in prices if we ...

Posted by Peter Black on Peter Black