This is a far more personal post than I normally do here, and I apologise for that. I'll be back to talking about old SF novels or something soon, I promise. I don't feel comfortable at all talking about my ... Continue reading →

Posted by Andrew Hickey on Sci-Ence! Justice Leak!

Jessica Elgot reports in the Guardian that MPs and peers have criticised the secrecy around the publication of the government's Brexit impact reports: Parliamentarians are now allowed to view the papers in a restricted-access reading room organised by [David] Davis's Department for Exiting the EU (DexEU), which one called "ridiculous amounts of security just to ensure that as few people see this stuff as possible". Another described the collection of documents as "two lever-arch files for 80% of the economy".One of the first parliamentarians to view the reports was the Liberal Democrats' Dick Newby: Dick Newby, the Lib Dem leader ...

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

I spent last weekend in Amsterdam at the Congress of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE), the European-wide federation of liberal parties. It was a great opportunity to meet up with old friends, and hear some pretty inspiring speakers - the prime ministers of the Netherands, Belgium, Estonia, Slovenia and Luxembourg were all present and spoke. As an elections nerd, the most interesting bit for me was the conference's choice of six Vice-Presidents from a field of seven. (The President of ALDE, Hans van Baalen, a Dutch MEP fromPM Rutte's VVD party, was also up for re-election, ...

The Anderson report has found that the Manchester Arena bomber had been a "subject of interest" and opportunities to stop him were missed. Meanwhile London Bridge Attacker Khuram Butt was the main target of a surveillance operation - but this was suspended twice because of a lack of resources. Liberal Democrat Home Affairs Spokesperson Ed Davey commented: "This report shows the key challenge facing our security services is not a lack of powers, but a lack of resources. "It is the Government's responsibility to ensure our security services have the capacity to keep us safe, but instead our police have ...

Posted by LD Neath on Aberavon & Neath Liberal Democrats

After the Supreme Court upheld Donald Trump's ban on people entering the United States from six mostly Muslim countries, this politics of division was attacked by the Liberal Democrats. Leader Vince Cable said: "This is not the signal the supposed leader of the free world should be sending out. The Muslim ban is the worst symbol of Trump's intolerance, and we must hope this doesn't spread even more hate at a fragile time. "It also underlines why Liberal Democrats have told Trump that he simply is not welcome in the UK - the difference is this country won't resort to ...

Posted by LD Neath on Aberavon & Neath Liberal Democrats

UK rail fares will rise by 3.4% in January, the largest increase for five years, due to rising inflation since the Brexit vote. The cost of annual season tickets on some commuter trains has now risen above £5000. For example, Crowhurst in East Sussex to St. Pancras is now £5,130. Commuters in Wales will also see painful price hikes. Many travel to work in Cardiff from Neath and will be hit by a £56 increase.The Liberal Democrats have called on the Government to freeze fares to help hard-pressed commuters. Liberal Democrat Transport Spokesperson Jenny Randerson commented: "Hard-pressed commuters are being ...

Posted by LD Neath on Aberavon & Neath Liberal Democrats

What sensitive flowers they are! You cannot move these days for some commentator dismissing students (especially women and LGBT students) as lacking resilience and unable to cope with criticism, contrary views or even a bit of banter. But would we really want to go back to the university culture of thirty or forty years ago - particularly for women? The revelation in Harriet Harman' s biography "A Woman's Work" that her tutor threatened to downgrade her degree if she did not sleep with him does not come as a big surprise to those of us who went to university a ...

Posted by Ruth Bright on Liberal Democrat Voice

Leading figures in the pharmaceutical industry have warned that diverging from EU standards could create a "nightmare scenario" for the sector and that the fall in the pound since the Brexit vote has already made it no longer viable to produce certain medicines. Mike Thompson, Chief Executive of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI), told the Commons Business Committee that regulatory alignment with the EU is "critical" and failure to agree mutual recognition could lead to a "nightmare scenario." Peter Ballard, Managing Director of Xiromed, warned that the fall in the pound has already meant it is no ...

Posted by LD Neath on Aberavon & Neath Liberal Democrats
Tue 5th
11:34

Shambolic surprises

When the hints in the media yesterday morning were all pointing towards a deal with the EU which included "regulatory alignment" of Northern Ireland with the EU, I began to think that Theresa May had pulled off the impossible - she had actually got the DUP to change its mind and back plans which they had previously implacably opposed. In all the media coverage last week, the DUP had made its

Posted by jonathanwallace on Jonathan Wallace
Tue 5th
11:00

My tweets

Mon, 12:56: Since Article 50 was triggered, a no-deal Brexit has been the default https://t.co/utjovfq1Mv @spectator has it right. Mon, 16:05: The case for Northern Ireland remaining in the EU single market https://t.co/QkJB3iRoOi An Alliance perspective. Mon, 21:55: Hard Brexiters have just discovered Britain is weaker than Ireland | Fintan O'Toole https://t.co/KPUaIefki8 Mon, 22:00: Read this. https://t.co/dfAvrKNEqT Mon, 22:00: RT @gerrylynch: MY LATEST BLOG on #Brexit: the DUP and the Risks of Not Passing Go via @SluggerOToole https://t.co/1a3Vg6yHqd Throwing a hi... Mon, 23:05: RT @kevinhorourke: 2 thoughts on today. 1. HMG must be terrified of what the New Year will ...

YouGov

Things Tim Farron doesn't understand: Atheism The problem being, of course, that he claims he does. I make no bones about not understanding faith no matter how much people try to explain it to me; I wish more faith-havers would extend me the same courtesy. 40,000 children trapped in 'zombie' academy schools If only someone could have foreseen this happening and warned us against it... The difference between men and women in spatial skills can be erased with a quick course of study "What is clear is that cultural biases have an effect. Consciously or unconsciously, girls are nudged away ...

Let's unpick what happened yesterday. The British prime minister travelled to Brussels to have lunch with the president of the European Commission, over which it was planned that they would finalise the wordings that would allow the trade talks between the UK and the EU to move to the next stage. The big issue that was left to be resolved was how to avoid a hard border between the north and south of Ireland. Everyone involved said they wanted in theory to avoid a hard border – the trick was how this could be practically achieved, with the UK's stated ...

Posted by Nick on nicktyrone.com

This blog has been wrong about a lot of things. Especially the Labour Party. But one area where my record has been very strong, in spite of standing outside the conventional wisdom, is Brexit. This is encouraging me to be recklessly brave in making my next prediction: Britain will stay in the EU Customs Union, ... Continue reading Brexit: Britain will end up in the Customs Union

Posted by Matthew on thinking liberal

I sympathise with Theresa May. She has a very difficult decision to make for the country. The two options are: Option 1: The Mass Lemming option We are hold hands – that is all 65.64 million of us, minus two, and jump over a very high cliff into economic contraction/uncertainty and a return to ghastly ... Continue reading Do we fancy jumping off a cliff like lemmings?......now let me see.....it's a tough one.....

Posted by paulwalternewbury on

[IMG: PSM V11 D400 Lemmings in migration] I sympathise with Theresa May. She has a very difficult decision to make for the country. The two options are: Option 1: The Mass Lemming option We are hold hands – that is all 65.64 million of us, minus two, and jump over a very high cliff into economic contraction/uncertainty and a return to ghastly sectarian murder in Northern Ireland. But the good news is that the press will love it and John Redwood and Jacob Rees-Mogg (the minus two) will be at the bottom of the cliff to catch us. Option 2: ...

Posted by Paul Walter on Liberal Democrat Voice

Readers of this blog site will know I have been keeping a close eye on Driver Only Operation (DOO) of trains, with particular reference to the industrial dispute involving franchise operator Merseyrail and the RMT union where removal of train guards is planned when new Stadler rolling stock is delivered in a couple of years time. Merseyrail's new Stadler Trains, to be delivered in a couple of years time, are at the heart of the dispute about driver only operated trains. In case you are not up to speed a brief recap – Merseytravel the transport committee of the Liverpool ...

Posted by Cllr. Tony Robertson on Sefton Focus

I was wilfing around Spotify yesterday when I chanced upon an old favourite tune on mine. It proves that Stealers Wheel did great stuff apart from "Stuck in the middle with you"- which made them extremely famous, and presumably rich, due to being used in the film "Reservoir Dogs". This one is called "Star" and ... Continue reading A great tune from Stealers Wheel which isn't the one from Reservoir Dogs...

Posted by paulwalternewbury on

A symptom of decreasing community participation in public service planning and management is the increasing size of public service organisations. It has now reached a stage where there is no effective public participation, just consultation and not much of that. This is not a new phenomenon; it has been going on in UK local government [...] The post The strange, remote world of ever-larger bureaucratic services appeared first on Radix.

Posted by Barry Cooper on Opinion - Radix

For a few brief moments yesterday I genuinely thought that Theresa May had achieved the impossible and got herself a deal with the EU on how to take Brexit forward. Admittedly it was less than perfect - the concessions over Ireland were bound to produce demands for similar treatment from Wales and Scotland, subsequently undermining the stability of the UK - but it was a valiant attempt to square a difficult circle and some credit should be given for effort. The problem of course is that May had already put herself in an impossible position through her supply and confidence ...

Posted by Peter Black on Peter Black

Having voted courageously to take back control of our nation and regain our sovereignty, it has been incredibly frustrating to see our elected representatives over-complicating the process of Brexit and not putting Britain's interests first. I have heard much from Theresa May and her team about how difficult it all is; less about the opportunities that Brexit presents for us as a nation. So let's break down the stumbling blocks one by one, and look at how the governement should be approaching them. Firstly, the Irish question. The Leave campaign always stressed that there was no need for a hard ...

Posted by David Gray on Liberal Democrat Voice
eUKhost

From the Curator of Museum Services at the University of Dundee : Our celebrations for the centenary of D'Arcy Thompson's On Growth and Form continue next week with a free talk by Meic Pierce Owen in the D'Arcy Thompson Zoology Museum at 6pm today - D'Arcy Through the Letter Box - the Polymath's wonderland as seen through his correspondence D'Arcy Thompson's papers at the University of St Andrews incorporate some 30,000 letters written throughout his lifetime. In this entertaining talk, archivist Meic Pierce Owen (who has read more of the correspondence than almost anyone except D'Arcy) explores highlights of a ...