Great to see a Lib Dem GAIN in Gainsborough tonight. The town council seat was won by Neil Cook. Another gain from @Conservatives for @GCPLibDems in today's town council by election! Welcome to the team Neil @LibDems @ALDC @EastMidsLD @britainelects well done team [IMG: 👏] [IMG: 👏] [IMG: 👏] [IMG: 👏] pic.twitter.com/JIHoNBGsAS — Matt Boles (@CllrMattBoles) November 30, 2017 I mean that's nothing to nearly 60% of the vote. Wowsers, Steve Hammond and team. More news as it comes in. * Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings

Posted by Caron Lindsay on Liberal Democrat Voice

Don't you just wish Vince would just say what he thinks and not hold back? The depressing thing is that Vince is not being in any way hyperbolic. Trump's casual endorsement of the vilest kinds of prejudice makes the world a much less secure, peaceful place. It's up to us liberals to do all we can to replace that hatred with generous-spirited openness * Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings

Posted by Caron Lindsay on Liberal Democrat Voice

There is a lovely piece on the appeal of John Masefield's The Box of Delights by Piers Torday in the Guardian. Torday rightly identifies that the book's appeal lies in its blend of Christian and pagan and ancient and modern elements. The book blends: the folkloric mysticism of Albion with the lurid criminalities of the jazz age. There are ancient wizards, Christmas feasts and talking animals - but also bang-up-to-date thrills: criminal gangs of jewel thieves, machine guns and time travel.And, as he points out, Masefield has been mightily influential: The central trio - sensitive, orphaned hero Kay, who has ...

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

Welcome to another in my occasional series on useful, interesting or controversial findings from academic studies of our elections. Today it's turnout and the question, "Is voting habit forming?" In other words, if you persuade someone to go out and vote in one election, do you get a bonus benefit in that they are also then more likely to vote in future elections? That's the question David Cutts, Edward Fieldhouse and Peter John studied for their article in Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties, Volume 19 Number 3. The study was a follow up to a practical experiment carried ...

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack
Thu 30th
19:36

Six of the Best 747

"The Liberal Democrats did well to achieve a credible policy deal in 2010. But over the next five years they were out manoeuvred by their much larger coalition partners (and their friends in the media) and denounced by Labour, the party that had ran away from government." Stephen Williams (who was then a Lib Dem MP) asks if the German FDP has made a better fist of coalition negotiations in 2010. Walter Ellis remarks what a complete cock-up the Tories have made of Brexit. "Back in the 70s and 80s the BBC broadcast a series of interviews by Bryan Magee ...

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

The Daily Mail wins our Headline of the Day Award.

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

Other than all featuring in multiple places on my bookshelves at home, what brings the three of them together?

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack
Thu 30th
17:24

November Books

Non-fiction: 4 (YTD 48) Isaiah Berlin, by Michael Ignatieff Washington, D.C.'s Vanishing Springs and Waterways, by Garnett P. Williams Virginia Woolf, by Hermione Lee Brexit and Ireland: The Dangers, the Opportunities, and the Inside Story of the Irish Response, by Tony Connelly Fiction (non-sf): 4 (YTD 24) A Man of Parts, by David Lodge Dear Old Dead, by Jane Haddam Wolf in White Van, by John Darnielle Mutiny on the Bounty, by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall sf (non-Who): 5 (YTD 69) The Deepest Sea, by Charles Barnitz Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, by Roald Dahl The Knight of ...

Rt Hon Norman Lamb MP who made a brilliant speech as part of a series of debates initiated by Mr Speaker Bercow Regular readers of my blog will note that this blog is both longer and cleverer than my normal ... Continue reading →

Posted by richardkemp on But what does Richard Kemp think?

There was a recent article on Lib Dem Voice by Lord MacDonald on the review that is taking place on the Party's disciplinary procedure. I would like to encourage you to take part if you have not already done so - I confess I only just got around to filling it in myself yesterday! Regarding complaints, I have experienced elements of both ends of this process - having something done to me which I made a complaint about; and sitting on a disciplinary panel to decide whether charges against a party member were held or not. My insights into the ...

Posted by Kirsten Johnson on Liberal Democrat Voice
YouGov

As a former teacher I'm quite accustomed to people not listening. That's why I always regarded the golden rule of successful teaching to be: tell them what you're going to tell them; tell them tell them what you've told them.Of course, this approach wouldn't wash with OFSTED and its aims "tailored for every individual child" but I found it pretty effective with my students.. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to work with British politicians, or the British media. From the beginning the European Commission has been perfectly and repeatedly clear that progress on trade deals etc could not proceed until satisfactory ...

Posted by Peter Wrigley on Keynesian Liberal
Thu 30th
15:34

Wisdom of the Crowd

[IMG: e voting screen] During the Article 50 vote, I found myself tweeting quotes from a famous speech made by Edmund Burke, who was a Whig MP and Political Philosopher in the 1700's, on representative democracy. In his speech to the electors of Bristol in 1774, he said that government and legislation are matters of reason and judgement and must not be decided by opinion and inclination. The quote I used to underline the point that MPs who believe Brexit is wrong should not vote to trigger Article 50 was, "Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his ...

Posted by Darren Martin on Liberal Democrat Voice

The owner of the Tern Inn and car park in Heron Way has submitted an appeal against being refused planning permission to rebuild the pub and car park as flats. Some outline documents are on the South Glos Planning Website but the Planning Inspectorate will not consider the appeal until the developer has provided some missing documents. It's not yet visible on the Planning Inspectorate's own "Appeals Portal" but when it does, it will be under Case ID 3190390. For the back story of this proposal, which has been strongly opposed by local residents and Dodington Parish Council, please check ...

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

Liverpool Lime Street Station www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-42181009 The BBC has the story on its web site – see link above It seems that luck played a big part in this wall collapse not leading to a far worse situation/accident. How Network Rail did not have in place the appropriate monitoring processes is the big and uncomfortable question for them now. They are only lucky that the incident did not lead to injury or even loss of life.

Posted by Cllr. Tony Robertson on Sefton Focus
Thu 30th
15:02

Update on warehouse fire

South Gloucestershire Council have released this update following a warehouse fire on the Beeches Industrial estate last month. "A deep-seated underground fire is still smouldering at the affected warehouse unit and odour from the unit can be detected some distance from the site. This is because the structure is unsafe and it is difficult for the fire service to gain access and tackle the residual heat which causes it to smoulder and periodically reignite" They go on to warn about prolonged exposure to the remaining smoke in the immediate area. Please click this link for the full update.

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

One has to wonder. Is this the most incompetent British government in living memory? The latest fracas relates to the provision to the Brexit Select Committee of two heavily redacted lever arch files with assessments of the impact of Brexit. Michael Deacon in the Telegraph (£) summarizes better than I ever could the farcical contradictions of [...] The post How the redacted reports are undermining Britain's negotiating position appeared first on Radix.

Posted by Joe Zammit-Lucia on Opinion - Radix

Don't forget that it's Chipping Sodbury Victorian Day this Saturday (2nd December) from 1 pm to 8 pm. Lots of fun for all the family - please see the Chipping Sodbury Victorian Day Facebook page for more details.

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

Yesterday, the Disabled Children's Partnership campaign was launched in parliament. Lib Dem Leader Vince Cable came along to show his support, as well as many other MPs, peers, charities and family representatives. I was also pleased that former Care Minister Norman Lamb MP, was also able to come meet families. The Disabled Children's Partnership (DCP) is an exciting new coalition of over 50 disability and children's charities. I sit on their Public Policy Group as a member of the Fragile X Society Board. The DCP believes that children with disabilities in England face four big challenges: There are not enough ...

Posted by Kirsten Johnson on Liberal Democrat Voice

Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable has demanded that Theresa May cancels the expected government to government summit with the "evil racist" Donald Trump. Vince Cable said: "Many of us warned when Theresa May walked hand in hand with Donald Trump that any relationship with such a racist was bound to end badly. "But the prime minister, desperate for a trade deal, ignored the advice from across the political spectrum. "Britain is now paying the price for her bad misjudgement. Theresa May's extreme Brexit has alienated our European allies and now she has lost her last remaining friend on the world ...

Posted by LD Neath on Aberavon & Neath Liberal Democrats

We Liberal Democrats agree that the Conservatives are finally on course to meet their pledge to cut immigration - but only because they have crashed the economy. Former cabinet minister and now Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesperson Ed Davey MP said: "The Brexiteers were right that Brexit would reduce immigration. What they forgot to mention was that immigration would go down even before Brexit, due to the widely forecast catastrophic consequences of the government taking Britain out of the world's largest single market. The Conservative pursuit of an extreme Brexit is crashing the economy and making the country a less ...

Posted by LD Neath on Aberavon & Neath Liberal Democrats
eUKhost

He's done it again! Trump's trigger finger has fired off a series of retweets and comments of an offensive divisive nature. And this time he has given a tiny extreme right group a massive dose of publicity. Quite how the leader of the world's most powerful nation has time to trawl through the digital output of tiny extremist organisations is beyond me. Quite what he was thinking of in retweeting

Posted by jonathanwallace on Jonathan Wallace
Thu 30th
11:00

My tweets

Wed, 12:56: State of the Energy Union: On track or lagging behind? https://t.co/YRMID106Iq My colleagues @ehoffm4nn and Danuta Slusarksa answer. Wed, 15:20: RT @RotaryEndPolio: Survivors of Belfast polio outbreak sought for anniversary event https://t.co/Si82BIDY44 Wed, 16:19: Aww! https://t.co/hqz0s9vLjc Wed, 17:45: RT @mawoods: #Brexit: Little doubt EU and UK have reached divorce deal: https://t.co/LgasEmDLvw @JonTonge @nwbrux Wed, 18:38: Virginia Woolf, by Hermione Lee https://t.co/upCHQhbY8O Wed, 23:33: RT @lisanandy: Hi @theresa_may and @BorisJohnson. This is the right response https://t.co/xXBmuKVGfl Thu, 09:56: RT @JenniferMerode: Cautious optimism on Irish border phase one deal. But difficulties of final deal can't be underestimated. https://t.co/... Thu, 10:45: ...

Britain First deny links to extremist Donald Trump That's so close to the bone it's scraping. Evidence that from the second episode, Doctor Who wasn't as good as it used to be Evidence from Huddersfield, so it must be utterly correct ;) Samsung Develops Battery Material with 5x Faster Charging Speed Oooooooooooooooooooooooo About Amazon - Working at Amazon - Dogs of Amazon Amazon is a dog friendly workplace. There are many dogs. One of them (Peek) looks just like my Roxy! jimhines on Disbelief of the current sexual harassment situation Google faces mass legal action in UK over data snooping ...

Thu 30th
10:45

Brexit Break-up

Liberal Democrat opinion seems to be moving towards an expectation that sometime in 2018, the Brexit process will collapse. They argue that the government is divided and their negotiations are seen as chaotic. Some suggest that Tory divisions will bring the PM down and are likely lead to a general election. We should remember that this is the same party which ran us out of town in 2015. This is the party with more financial backing than we could dream of. Most of all, Tory MPs do not want to lose their seats any more than other MPs. So, put ...

Posted by Garth Shephard on Liberal Democrat Voice

"Morrissey's Brexit love affair makes him the last true rock'n'roll rebel" is a headline from a recent Brendan O'Neill piece; "Morrissey is probably the only remaining music 'celebrity' in the world who tells the truth about politics." tweets Paul Joseph Watson of Infowars. If you worship the very idea of Brexit, hate political correctness in all forms and spend a lot of time taking down millennials for being "snowflakes" then Moz is one of the great pop cultural icons of our age. Only, this is really weird when you stop and think about it. Morrissey, after all, isn't just a ...

Posted by Nick on nicktyrone.com

Just when we thought that Donald Trump couldn't surprise us anymore, the US President allows his itchy Twitter finger to get the better of him and launches into an assault on his supposed ally, Theresa May. Having been admonished by Number 10 Downing Street for retweeting anti-Muslim propaganda by the extreme right wing group, Britain First, Trump retaliated last night on his medium of choice: "Theresa@theresamay, don't focus on me, focus on the destructive Radical Islamic Terrorism that is taking place within the United Kingdom," the US president tweeted on Wednesday evening. "We are doing just fine!" It is difficult ...

Posted by Peter Black on Peter Black

I posted a while back about what I understood to be the old St. Mary's RC Primary School in Melling on the site of what subsequently became 'The Chesterfield' banqueting suite on Prescot Road and where a new house is presently being built. Here's a link to that previous posting:- When I realised the connection with the RC church just up the road into Aughton (the school was in Melling) I wondered about this church that hardly looks like am ecclesiastical building. Without the crosses on the apexes of the main building and porch, some small religious statues amongst ...

Posted by Cllr. Tony Robertson on Sefton Focus

Last Saturday was the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. Orange The World is the 16-days of activism against gender-based violence led by the U.N. Secretary General's initiative UNiTE to End Violence against Women. The theme of Orange The World this year is Leave No One Behind – End Violence Against Women and Girls. This is Day 6 of Orange The World. Women and girls around the world are subject to the most dreadful human rights violations. Female Genital Mutilation; child-marriage; rape; molestation; harassment; domestic violence, death. One in three women will experience violence in their lifetimes. ...

Posted by Kirsten Johnson on Liberal Democrat Voice