The party had high hopes of gaining a seat in Devon from the Tories tonight. So did we pull it off? Liberal Democrats GAIN Newport North Devon. Congratulations Caroline Leaver and the team! pic.twitter.com/fcBodBsgln — ALDC (@ALDC) December 7, 2017 Nice one, Caroline Leaver and team. * Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings
Only two council by-elections this week: Devon and Enfield. Despite it being only two, there wasn't a full set of Lib Dem candidates. But there was good news for the one with a Lib Dem candidate. That is North Devon, where the Lib Dems scored a striking gain in a by-election back in November in Braunton ward. This time it is Newport ward up for election. The result? A Liberal Democrat win. Liberal Democrat GAIN Newport (North Devon) from Conservative. — Britain Elects (@britainelects) December 7, 2017
[IMG: 'What do Women Want?' jokes are a load of rubbish] There is comedy and then there is something trying very hard to be comedy. So-called comedy sketches about 'What women want?' falls into the latter category. These aren't funny and are downright boring and insulting to women.... The post 'What do Women Want?' jokes are a load of rubbish appeared first on FeministMama @ambitiousmamas.
Embed from Getty Images Alarming news from Gloucestershire Live: A Cheltenham councillor was the victim of a "brazen" bike theft on Cheltenham's Promenade in the latest instance of county politicians falling victim to cycle theives. Councillor Max Wilkinson (Lib Dems, Park Ward) locked his bright orange Mango bike in the rack by the war memorial at 5.50pm yesterday, before a licensing committee meeting in the Municipal Offices. When Mr Wilkinson, the Lib Dems' prospective parliamentary candidate for Cheltenham, went to pick up his bicycle at about 6.40pm, it was gone and the lock was on the floor, cut through. It ...
Embed from Getty Images The most welcome development of the past week has been the appearance of Talking Pictures TV on Freeview. You no longer need an HD set or receiver to view it. Just do a reinstall and it will appear on channel 81. Talking Pictures offers a diet of vintage British films, leavened with a few from America and interspersed with the sort of old travel films I often post here. Already I have seen one film that I have long been looking out for. Yield to the Night was made released in 1956 and deals with the ...
The government has carried out impact assessments on policies ranging from drain standards to the use of parody in comedy yet still hasn't produced any on Brexit, Liberal Democrat research has revealed. The Liberal Democrats slammed the government as being "quite literally beyond parody." It comes after David Davis yesterday admitted that the 58 Brexit impact assessments he claimed his department was working never existed. Liberal Democrat MP Tim Farron said: "It's standard procedure to produce an impact assessment when bringing in new policies, on everything from comedy to sewers. "Yet the government haven't bothered to produce one for Brexit, ...
Farcical security Dick Newby, Leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords, has complained to the government over their 'farcical' security measures for the Brexit papers. Lord Newby has questioned whether such measures are beyond what is necessary for a document which should be made publicly available and contains no information which is sensitive. The documents contain no assessment whatsoever by the Government of how Brexit will affect the sectors covered, and simply repeat what they've been told by companies in the sector. The current security measures include:Booking a time slot to view the papersGetting a pass from ...
Following Chris Grayling's claim that the UK does not need identical laws to the EU for Irish border trade, the Liberal Democrats accused the government of not knowing what it is doing. Tom Brake said: "If you listen to seven different cabinet ministers, you hear eight different opinions. "Theresa May is being undermined at every turn by her own ministers in this incompetent government. Chris Grayling doesn't give a fig about trade in Northern Ireland - he only cares about trading blows with his own cabinet colleagues and pursuing an extreme Brexit. In talking up the possibility of a No ...
Second paragraph of third chapter: Eamon Donleavy had the newspapers spread out across his desk: the Post, the Daily News, even the Times. The only paper that hadn't played up the story of Michael's arrest was the Sentinel, and that was Charles van Straadt shielding his personal saint. Eamon did't know how long the Sentinel's silence could possibly last. He didn't know what was going to happen next, either. The centre couldn't operate without Michael. The center was Michael. Eamon didn't think that Michael could operate without the center. It was getting as crazy as Michael's personal life. Frankie recommended ...
Nibley Lane, from Badminton Road A432 to Westerleigh Road, will be closed tomorrow (Friday 8 December) for cleaning. The closure will run from 9.30 am to 2.30 pm.
And it is #ldben #naturalpartyofbusiness pic.twitter.com/Lhb6tHXoUn — Ben Rich (@BenRich66) December 7, 2017 Vince added: Under my leadership, I will ensure the Liberal Democrats are a strong voice for business and economic common sense. We will provide a sound and sensible plan to protect our economy, jobs and tax revenue from Brexit. Labour under Corbyn are intent on bashing business, while the Tories are pursuing an extreme version Brexit that will do permanent damage to our economy. We will provide a natural home for businesses and entrepreneurs. We would build on the industrial strategy that we introduced in government, keep ...
If there was a referendum asking voters to choose between continued membership of the EU under the current agreement, or with a settled deal between Britain and the EU after we've left, then I must have been on holiday when it took place! On the 23rd of June 2016 there was a referendum and people voted for something - that much we know. After a campaign that was described as having "glaring democratic deficiencies" by the Electoral Reform Society, people voted to leave the European Union. They did so for a variety of reasons. Some thought it would reduce immigration, ...
Politics has always added new words and acronyms to the English language, many of them pinched from other languages. Dictator, boycott, left-wing, fascist, federalist, quisling, quango, think-tank, commentariat, chav, cabal and Watergate are all examples of words that crop up in books or in the news. Britain's referendum on the European Union in June 2016 [...]
It seems as though the Secretary of State for Brexit may have been wilfully inaccurate in his statements to Parliament, to the media, and to the public. Either impact assessments have been made, as he claimed on multiple occasions, or they haven't, as he claimed before the Brexit Select Committee yesterday morning. Both statements cannot be true, unless one stretches the definition of truth in the manner of saltwater taffy. Fine, it should be a hanging offence, especially for a Government whose assertions of taking back control emphasise the importance of Parliamentary sovereignty. And whilst the Conservative/DUP majority can prevent ...
Vince Cable has launched a Liberal Democrat Business & Entrepreneurs Network (LDBEN) at an event in the City this morning, galvanising the business community amid the government's shambolic handling of Brexit. The network includes is made up of 80 leading figures from the business community, including angel investor Andrew Dixon and Chair of Allied Irish Banks Richard Pym. Liberal Democrat Leader Vince Cable said: "Under my leadership, I will ensure the Liberal Democrats are a strong voice for business and economic common sense. "We will provide a sound and sensible plan to protect our economy, jobs and tax revenue from ...
Thu 7th
12:01
Here's why the hardcore Tory Brexiteers are sticking with May - and will probably continue to do so
One of the strangest things about the current political era is that we have a prime minister who campaigned (however weakly) for Remain, yet has (in public rhetoric terms anyhow) become the one who has set out a hard Brexit path. It has been widely speculated that the reason hard Brexiteers have been relatively loyal to her (they could have ended her premiership several times in the last few months had they really wanted to) is precisely because she was once a Remainer; her zeal as a born-again Leaver having a zest that a proper Eurosceptic would be wary of ...
99 families stand to lose the chance of a socially rented home in Wera Hobhouse's Bath constituency after the Planning Minister failed to call in a planning decision. In what Wera described as "social cleaning", these families will be forced out of the city. In an adjournment debate last night, Wera took her argument directly to the Housing and Planning Minister. She outlined the direct consequences of the lack of social housing provision: What about the 99 most vulnerable families, who will now simply be moved out of their home city of Bath? They cannot stay because there will be ...
Some of you may remember that back in the Summer of 2013 Taylor Wimpey put in a bid to build rather a lot of houses on the land behind Maidensfield and Woodward Close in Winnersh. We fought them off. Well, they're back. And it's time for battle to be rejoined. About a week ago, a letter from Taylor Wimpey started landing on the door mats of people living around Maidensfield. It gave them until tomorrow to respond to a "consultation" on their plans for a spookily similar scheme to the one they proposed 4 1/2 years ago. So why, having ...
The Guardian has this interesting piece on its web site. That Labour is 'suffering' another period of entryism akin to that it had 'trouble' with in the 1980's (Militant) is a given. But entryism and the radical changing of direction of political parties is nothing new although Labour in particular does seem have periods where what it believed in yesterday is no longer what it believes in today more often than other parties. It's social democrat and hard left wings seem to be in continual battles to be top dog you might say. But if you look at the ...
Wed, 12:44: RT @jk_rowling: There is no swearword in the English language big enough to do justice to my feelings at this moment. https://t.co/XQa6yPEq... Wed, 12:56: Brexit: Launching Satellite Britain https://t.co/iCSZ7vzaIG @AndrewDuffEU's latest thoughts - as ever, well worth reading. Wed, 13:41: Happy to help. Very happy. https://t.co/KtRngrBkA4 Wed, 16:05: How the UK blundered into an Irish border quagmire https://t.co/fxo7nviVdp Great FT report (paywalled, alas). Wed, 17:48: Ethnic minorities are under-represented in the European Parliament https://t.co/zDTgpJnVT5 @NeenaGMEP on being the first Asian woman MEP. Wed, 18:30: Wolf in White Van, by John Darnielle https://t.co/5n49FGTgcx Wed, 20:48: Is There Hope for ...
miss_s_b | The Blood is the Life for 06-12-2017 I posted The Blood is the Life for 06-12-2017 to my dreamwidth blog Autistic social problems partially down to NTs shunning us Oh what a surprise. [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
As the EU negotiations traverse this predictably tricky stage, the Usual Suspects appear on television blithely arguing that we should just walk away from the negotiations with the EU with no deal because it'll all be fine, really. Except anyone can see that that outcome is far from desirable. The House of Lords European Union Committee has skewered any notion that "no deal" is anything other than a highly damaging option in a report published today. It also slams the Government for enshrining the date of withdrawal in the European Withdrawal Bill. They also make the obvious point that it ...
The problem with working in a bubble like Westminister or Cardiff Bay, surrounded by ambitious people, all of whom have an agenda and a list of enemies as long as their arm, is that people lose perspective. That is especially true of journalists who, if they are not careful, can get carried away dealing with the constant stream of rumours and innuendo they are being fed. Of course the difference between a proper journalist and somebody riffing it on social media is that the former tends to check their sources and approach the more unbelievable stories with caution. Every now ...
I got a response from Patreon to my request for information about how they will be charging people who pledge per post. It turns out that each pledge will incur a separate thirty-five-cent charge. That clearly makes my current structure ... Continue reading →
Apparently, there are no problems around the failed sites like this one in Norfolk Street according to the Council. They haven't spoken to local people and businesses. I put down a series of written questions about our due diligence and ... Continue reading →
So the 'Jamaica' coalition discussions hit the skids in Germany and Angela Merkel may have to think again. The sheer difficulty of getting CDU, CSU, FDP and Greens to agree on migration, economy, climate change and energy policy, and transition in the automotive industry, has proved too much even for Frau Merkel. Meanwhile, in Britain, [...] The post How to save the centre ground, German style appeared first on Radix.
Wessex Water have written to Claire Young to say they have planned a Flood Alleviation Scheme to address the flooding and odour issues in Westerleigh. This will introduce a new section of sewer that will take the discharge from the abattoir and bypass the village. The design has been signed off and works are scheduled to commence in September 2018. They have also agreed to attend a meeting. Claire will be liaising with them and Westerleigh Parish Council to make arrangements.
I have mixed feelings as I come back from my third ALDE Congress (Alliance of Liberal and Democratic parties across Europe), this time in Amsterdam, one of the most liberal cities in the world. It's energising to spend time with liberals from across Europe, and the largest Congress yet of 1500 people, knowing that we share values of openness, internationalism and environmentalism. Some countries are so liberal like the Netherlands and Finland, that they even have two liberal parties! There was sad news that the UK representative on the ALDE party bureau, Baroness Ros Scott was not reelected to her ...
The tough situations at work edition featuring harassment, emotional labour and when tattoos become a matter of life-and-death. "This impact assessment is written on a cocktail napkin. And it just says Brexit. And Brexit is spelled wrong!" pic.twitter.com/BO7tc09RQN — a coalition of chaos (@jamesinlimbo) December 6, 2017 Sexual harassment: You too? by Eduardo Reyes (Law [...]
