I just saw this tweet from Hugo Rifkind:Five years from now British politics will be 98% scuffles between uniformed supporters of Jacob Rees Mogg and Jeremy Corbyn while the rest of us sigh, sleep in parks, cook rats on open fires and still somehow don't vote Liberal Democrat.And... yeah. He clearly thinks he's joking. But would it really surprise anyone? [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
Footage from a rail tour in August 1976. On the way up we catches glimpses of Leicester station and a long-vanished signal box and of class 76 locomotives on the Woodhead route. New Holland Pier was where the ferry to Hull left from the Lincolnshire shore of the Humber. The service ended when the bridge opened in 1981 and New Holland Pier station (which I visited a couple of years after this video was shot) closed too. Here the paddle steamer Lincoln Castle takes you down the coast to Grimsby. Coming back the train passes through the lost station of ...
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The new issue of Liberator is on its way to subscribers, so it is time to spend a few days at Bonkers Hall. I am sure Lord Bonkers would suggest you subscribe to Liberator yourself. Mooning practice on the village green It has been a hard winter in Rutland, but we have not allowed that to interfere with our preparations for the visit of President Trump. To a man and, indeed, a woman, we are determined to give him a fitting reception. Mooning practice has taken place on the village green every Monday and Thursday since Michaelmas and the charabancs ...
Alarming news from the Conservative-run Northamptonshire County Council this evening: A cash-strapped local authority has imposed emergency spending controls as it faces "severe financial challenges". The section 114 notice bans all new expenditure at Northamptonshire County Council, with the exception of statutory services for protecting vulnerable people. Last month the government said an inspector would look into allegations of financial failings at the authority. The notice is to be discussed at the full council meeting on 22 February.It's been clear for some time that Northamptonshire has serious problems. At the start of the year Sajid Javid, the secretary of state ...
Second paragraph of third chapter: 'It's terrifying!' said Dick. An attempt to keep the continuity of the updated Famous Five books from last year, this is not so much a one-joke book as a no-joke book, the Famous Five being kept in a jail which resembles an immigration holding centre by the combination of the Secret Seven and evil cousin Rupert. Not really recommended but you can get it here.
There is a grandeur in the landscape, lifted up and uplifting and dry, or dried in brightening air. It is matched by an earnestness amongst the people who have been hardened in the ways of nature and cooperatives but can now hold higher hopes out for their children, who are open-faced with dark and shy and [...]
Embed from Getty Images Recently, for better or for worse, Tim Farron has decided to make his theological opinions (not his faith) front and centre of his public persona as an MP. His decision recently to speak out on gay sex being a sin, yet again, this time to correct what he said on national television during the election campaign last year, has prompted me to want to tell the other side of the story. I'm a Christian. I have been for over 13 years. It's part of who I am and it's what makes me a liberal. I read ...
Fri 2nd
14:54
Office for National Statistics report reveals massive wealth gap that is not getting smaller
The ONS has released its latest figures from the Wealth and Assets Survey. Findings include:In July 2014 to June 2016, the wealth held by the top 10% of households was around five times greater than the wealth of the bottom half of all households combined.The wealthiest 10% own 44% of all wealth, those in the "Middle wealth" category (51% -90%) own 47% of all wealth, and the poorest half own just 9% of all wealth. The bottom 10% of households have total wealth of £14,100 or less, the top 10% of households have total wealth of £1,208,300 or more, and ...
The Parklands School in Liverpool which is costing us £4.3 million a year to keep empty is a prime example of what went wrong under Labour's PFI back 'Building Schools for the Future' programme The collapse of Carillion and the ... Continue reading →
Michael Meadowcroft makes an impassioned case against Targeting but the facts simply do not support his case. In a First Past The Post electoral system good targeting of resources is essential whether you are a local party fighting Council elections or a national party looking to maximise the number of MP's elected. A good but widely spread vote wins little for a small third or fourth party. This was most clearly illustrated in 1983 when our 25.4% returned just 23 MP's compared to Labour returning over 200 MP's with a more geographically concentrated 27.5% of the vote. Michael does concede ...
Boris Johnson hit the headlines twice last month, and each time appeared to get egg on his face. First he claimed that the famous £350m per week on the side of a bus which Brexit would release for the NHS was in fact an underestimate: the true figure was nearer £438. This claim was rapidly ridiculed by almost every knowledgeable authority. Next Johnson let it be known that he would appeal to the Cabinet to allocate an extra £100m for the NHS right away. This time he was shot down by the Prime Minister and almost all his cabinet colleagues: ...
This post first appeared on the New Weather site... The year: 1991. The place: a Cornish country lane. An anonymous man is driving at speed when he suddenly sees an old, swarthy-skinned man, about two foot high, pointing angrily at him. He screeches to a halt and realises he is on the wrong road and that, if he had carried on, he would have driven over a cliff. "I consider this 'pixie' to have saved our lives," he says. The story is in a developing census of fairy beliefs in the UK and it is a strange one. It is ...
It is a truth universally acknowledged that any new political age, or groundbreaking political movement, must be in want of an economic theory. And not just the new age either. We are all in need of some explanation why rebooting the economy seems like wading through treacle these days. Whether you reflate like Japan, or [...] The post Why is prosperity so elusive? It may have something to do with 'surplus energy' appeared first on Radix.
Fri 2nd
11:55
We've come so far, but the fight for full equality for LGBT+ communities is far from being over
We're now on the second day of LGBT History Month 2018. One of the things that makes me most proud to be a Liberal Democrat is our record on LGBT+ rights and equality. We have, indeed, always been there on these issues...leading the way, with pioneering policies and brave advocates. From campaigning for an end to discriminatory legislation such as Section 28, which barred the 'promotion' of homosexuality in schools, to enacting Same Sex Marriage legislation during the 2010-15 Coalition Government (by far, in my humble opinion, the best thing we did in office)...thank you, Lynne Featherstone! From LGBT+ Lib ...
On Saturday after promising a cinema trip to one of my children I crossed the BECTU picket line outside the East Dulwich Picturehouse. I felt seriously conflicted but my promise to my child outweighed my intense discomfort at crossing a picket line. Looking into the material provided by both side of this dispute I feel less discomforted. But this could change if the sacked Ritzy Picturehouse employees win the employment tribunal the BECTU union states they are pursuing for wrongful dismissal – the employer says they were sacked for encouraging people to cyber attack the company The only difference ...
miss_s_b | The Blood is the Life for 01-02-2018 I posted The Blood is the Life for 01-02-2018 to my dreamwidth blog monthlysupergo | February's Challenge - Character Mad-Libs! This month's challenge looks like it will be a lot of fun, so consider this a little comm pimp. Diversity starts in schools - children need to see a wider range of careers 'Free speech defenders', not liberals, are the ones shutting down debate eBay drops PayPal as first choice for payments I mean it's been coming for a while, but this is still mindblowing for those of us who remember ...
Thu, 13:13: RT @BrigidLaffan: The best that #UK can hope for is to 'be wounded not broken'- sleep walking comes to mind. A ruling class incapable of r... Thu, 13:35: RT @EvaMaydell: Full house at today's debate on the role of #Bulgaria in the #WesternBalkans integration and the management of the migratio... Thu, 13:42: RT @EvaMaydell: Minister for #EU2018BG @LilyanaPavlova at @HSSde debate on #WesternBalkans: More than ever we need security and stability i... Thu, 13:58: RT @Simona_NG: Debate organised by @FundHanns @ManfredWeber says Schengen is not only about people crossing borders, but also about police... Thu, 16:05: Thread. https://t.co/vfEB2P20xD ...
Issue 388 of Liberator is on its way to subscribers. Find out with our two free articles from this issue how Adrian Sanders thinks there is an 'exit from Brexit ', and why Rebecca Tinsley is sounding the alarm over the persecution of Cameroon's English speakers. Also in this issue: Blood Flows in Myanmar – Phil Bennion describes Liberal International's activity to try to protect the Rohingya How Universities Sold Their Souls – Trevor Smith looks at why seats of learning decided to chase money Battling Brexit From the Red Benches – Tony Greaves on what Lib Dem peers can ...
I am old enough to remember Lord Carrington resigning as Margaret Thatcher's Foreign Secretary over mistakes that were made in the run-up to the Argentine invasion of the Falkland Islands. He believed in ministers taking responsibility for their actions and those of their subordinates and civil servants. He would never had stood up in the Houses of Parliament and maligned a public official, no matter what the circumstances. What a contrast with the rather sorry affair of Steve Baker, a minister in the prosaically named Department for Exiting the European Union, who has been accused of maligning the civil service ...
It's time to talk. And the Liberal Democrats should publicly say so. Nuclear weapons, cyber weapons, drones, robots and rogue nuclear states have combined to move the Doomsday clock to two minutes before midnight. The last time it was this close to Armageddon was January 1953. Stalin was still in the Kremlin. The Korean War was raging and General MacArthur was pressing for a nuclear attack on China. The Soviets detonated their first atomic bomb in 1949. The Americans exploded their first hydrogen bomb in 1952. Anti-communist witch hunter Senator Joe McCarthy was at the height of his powers, Post ...
Residents will recall that, back in November, I highlighted the poor maintenance of the Miller's Wynd car park - the foliage was very tired and there were dumped items across the car park. The acquisition by Dundee City Council of the Miller's Wynd car park - from the University of Dundee - has provided much-needed additional free 2 hour parking in this area of Perth Road. However, it is important the infrastucture of the car park is improved and I contacted Dundee City Council seeking improvements. I am pleased to say that the overgrown foliage has now been tackled and ...
I took the photo above back in September 2014 and the round house can be seen on the left of the shot. Recently the Southport Visiter newspaper ran a series of 3 excellent articles plotting the history of the house. The links below take you to those fascinating articles:- My thanks to Roy Connell for the lead to this posting.
Another earth tremor, if not a political earthquake, in the Labour citadel of Sunderland tonight with a gain by the Lib Dems in the Pallion by-election. But this wasn't just any old earth tremor! The Lib Dem vote increased by a modest 49%. As is now the norm, the UKIP vote went into meltdown, but Corbyn's candidate also suffered not only the loss of the seat, but a big drop in vote share. The
