Taken with my camera last May.

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England
Fri 5th
21:40

Six of the Best 758

Kirsten Johnson sees loneliness as a political problem: "Loneliness is a huge problem, but much of the solution lies in small, local solutions. To give one example, one of my villages came together to buy an old chapel which is now called The Hub. It is a space for coffee mornings, clubs, exercise classes and toddler groups. The Hub has combatted loneliness on many different levels." "The number of people who have had their lives turned upside down by these accusations grows every day." Amelia Tate explains how the alt-right wields and weaponises accusations of paedophilia. "Whether in the city ...

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

Before Christmas, Ros opened a Short Debate in the Lords on the impact of increasing the age at which women became eligible to receive the State Retirement Pension, an issue which has highlighted some pretty astonishing thoughtlessness on the part of a Government Department. I thank Hansard for recording her contribution...My Lords, I tabled this debate to bring the attention of the House to a major injustice which has been carried out against a large number of women in this country: some 3.8 million women who have been impacted by accelerated changes to the retirement age. In doing so, I ...

Posted by Mark Valladares on Liberal Bureaucracy

Marion Luttenberger cleverly mixes data with the physical world to produce these brilliant visualisations.

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

Second paragraph of third chapter:Tunde is twenty-one, just out of that period of his life where everything seemed the wrong size, too long or too short, pointing in the wrong direction, unwieldy. Enuma is four years younger but more of a woman than he is a man, demure but not ignorant. Not too shy, either, not in the way she walks or the quick smile that darts across her face when she understands a joke a moment before everyone else. She's visiting Lagos from Ibadan; she's the cousin of a friend of a boy Tunde knows from his photojournalism class ...

Thanks to the Evening Standard, we have our Headline of the Day.

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

Sell people a mug. They bring it back used and exchange it for a clean one, like some mobile phone shops will swap a discharged portable battery for a fully charged one. They are already doing this in more than one German city, so it's possible that local councils might start doing it here - I can totally see Calderdale Council introducing a CalderCup, especially in Hebden Bridge - but how much better would it be for you big companies to ensure customer loyalty AND advertising by making them carry round your cup that they have to bring back to ...

To begin at the beginning, at least 2017 is over! It wasn't a great year for us. Our 24-month climb back to prosperity since May 2015, buoyed by thousands of new members and encouraging Council election results, was paused at the June General Election. The two big parties in their nose-to-nose confrontation swept up more than 80% of the vote, leaving us with less than double figures, though now a dozen good MPs. It seemed our progress was no more. We lost an inspiring leader in Tim Farron, though gained one of great experience and knowledge in Vince Cable. (It ...

Posted by Katharine Pindar on Liberal Democrat Voice

Things are really moving now as can be seen from the shot below taken from the School Lane overbridge today. Click on the photo to enlarge it. The platform edgings are now visible. The line north of the present Maghull Station remains closed to Merseyrail trains to and from Ormskirk until Monday 8th January. However, as the RMT union is on strike on the 8th and trains will not be running north of Maghull for that reason then the engineering works will continue throughout that day too. The photo is also amongst my Flickr shots at:- www.flickr.com/photos/86659476@N07/

Posted by Cllr. Tony Robertson on Sefton Focus

January's stark and miserable darkness was made slightly more bearable yesterday with the arrival of the bright Winter issue of LGBT+ Lib Dems' magazine. Plus, as the organisation is colloquially known, produces a 16 page glossy magazine for its members twice a year. This issue is packed full of interesting features. There are news reports about the Scottish Government's apology to and pardons for past prosecutions of gay and bisexual men, about the 20th Trans Day of Remembrance and on Intersex awareness. One way of raising awareness of issues is to ask your MP to support an Early Day Motion, ...

Posted by Caron Lindsay on Liberal Democrat Voice
YouGov

The 1990s were a terrifying time to have AIDS, when no medication had yet been invented to hold the HIV virus in check. One watched dear, young friends slowly die, often reduced to a skeleton, pockmarked with Kaposi's Sarcoma and in great pain. Some accepted their fate with resignation, while others organised and campaigned, demanding [...]

Posted by jonathanfryer on Jonathan Fryer

In May 2015 I was a callow and energetic parliamentary candidate, motivating myself with the daydream, but not the expectation, of what the UK would look like in two years if the Liberal Democrats won an overall majority in the general election. Nick Clegg was Prime Minister and Vince Cable was shopping for a new briefcase as the first Liberal chancellor of the the 21st century. Even my far more modest hopes for the result of the 2015 were dashed, eight seats in parliament and several excellent liberals cast from it left me as devastated as Paddy Ashdown's hat must ...

Posted by David Thorpe on Liberal Democrat Voice
Fri 5th
11:00

My tweets

Thu, 12:56: RT @bretjturner: The first guess from one of my 1st graders was "death" and such an awed, somber, reflective hush fell over the class that... Thu, 16:08: Donald Trump Didn't Want to Be President https://t.co/5hmHFEGtgz Long but entertaining. Thu, 16:32: RT @Berlaymonster: and the whole tale unfolds with distressing inevitability. V good thread. Print it out so you can tick off each stage... Thu, 18:03: The Story of English in 100 Words, by David Crystal https://t.co/sKjjhDjrht Thu, 20:48: BSFA Awards Stage 2 https://t.co/F0WDxLTVdH Vote! Vote! Vote! Fri, 08:58: RT @_Red_Long: I'm a blind twitter user. There are a ...

Women Are Being Left To "Bleed Out" When They Have Their Periods In Police Cells, A Watchdog Says Iceland new law makes it illegal to pay men more than women This should prove interesting. Free speech works both ways - as Toby Young is finding out Stop asking me 'what about men?' Oh this is excellent. Graphic Novel rec: Tamsin and the Dark by Neill Cameron & Kate Brown Tamsin is a fantastic leading lady, you should buy this book. And the one before it, Tamsin and the Deep too. (other bookstores are obvs available) The Transgender Scientist Who Changed ...

This is a reminder that applications for the Future Women MP's Weekend are still open and will close on Monday, so if you're thinking about applying please make sure you get an application to us in time! The training is run in collaboration with the Campaign for Gender Balance and is designed to support female talent within the party. Layla Moran MP is a former attendee, you can hear her experience of the weekend here. The sessions have been specifically developed to help you carve your path to Westminster by giving you strategic advice from senior figures within the party. ...

Posted by Natalie Chindipha on Liberal Democrat Voice

There has been a visible increase in the number of street homeless right across the UK over the last few years. Even in Wales, where the Government has passed legislation putting the onus on local councils to prevent homelessness, it appears that the system cannot cope with the number and the circumstances of the many individuals presenting themselves as without a home. The reasons for this are many and complex. I do not work on the frontline, nor have I engaged with those who do for a few years now, so I cannot hope to understand them all. Many of ...

Posted by Peter Black on Peter Black

The Earth is constantly changing. There are something like 15 plates which comprise the Earth's crust or mantle and they are forever moving towards and away from each other. Geologists call the movements tectonic shifts, and sometimes they cause massive earthquakes or volcanic eruptions. The geological shifts are mirrored in politics. Presidents, prime ministers, governments and countries move to the right and the left. They change alliances and sometimes disappear altogether. Earthquakes are difficult to predict. The same can be said of tectonic political shifts. In one case we are dealing with nature with all its unknown variables. In the ...

Posted by Tom Arms on Liberal Democrat Voice

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Posted by richardkemp on But what does Richard Kemp think?

In our review of corporate governance last year, we took the view that the UK should move from its primary focus on 'creating shareholder value' to a broader stakeholder-focused economy that does not privilege shareholders over everyone else. It is gratifying to see that the Financial Times is now also calling for a change in the social contract between [...] The post Why the shareholder economy is a sham appeared first on Radix.

Posted by Joe Zammit-Lucia on Opinion - Radix

Magdalen Green :

eUKhost

Just a brief post today, as I have some family business to deal with over the next couple of days that's going to take what little energy I have left that the cold I'm dealing with isn't sapping. The next ... Continue reading →

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