Take your fill of motions, fringe meetings and training sessions in the agenda and directory booklet for Southport conference: Keep up with news about Lib Dem conference If you'd like to be notified by email when further posts about Liberal Democrat conference appear on this blog, just sign up here. (Note: if you're already signed up for a daily email alert with all my new blog posts, then there's no need to sign up for these alerts too as the stories will also be in the full daily digest.) Email* Name* First Last What stories would you like alerts ...

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack
Tue 6th
21:13

Six of the Best 766

"We seem to have a collective aversion to focusing on the realities of an ageing society. Successive governments (and, let's be honest, millions of us too) have shied away from the changes - to our food culture, exercise levels, and more - that might ease a mounting sense of dread about the future." John Harris is right, you know. Jonathan Fryer has been to see Darkest Hour. A 1984 trip to the Berlin Wall is recalled by Otto English. "In July 1923 at the Lewes assizes, Mr Justice Avory handed an anonymous letter containing some 'improper words' to a respectable-looking ...

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England
Tue 6th
21:01

Lib Dems mark #vote100

Today, Lib Dems marked the 100th anniversary of women getting the vote. Vince put 16 and 17 year olds at the heart of his comments: Today we celebrate 100 years since partial extension of the franchise to women. It is shocking to think that another decade had to pass before votes were offered on a fully equal basis. The causes both of gender equality and real democracy in the UK still have far to go. A century on, we still see unjustifiable gender pay gaps, and sexism remains a scourge in the workplace and throughout society. Parliament itself remains unrepresentative ...

Posted by Caron Lindsay on Liberal Democrat Voice

Although aimed at 'young adults' the subject matter of the plot - resisting authoritarian surveillance - along with its pace and ability to demystify technological details makes Cory Doctorow's book appeal to a wider audience.

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

Embed from Getty Images I suspect I have more sympathy for the Mayor of Leicester's flagship policies on heritage and reducing the motor car's stranglehold on the city than many Labour members do. Anyway, Sir Peter Soulsby is now well into his second term and wants to be the Labour candidate at the mayoral election in May of next year. As the Leicester Mercury explains: Each one of the city's 22 Labour branches, reflecting the council wards, and around 25 affiliate organisations such as trade unions and the Co-op Society will each vote to decide whether there will be open ...

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England
Tue 6th
20:21

Suffragettes

If you've not seen the film Suffragette, you should do so. It's the story of how one women gets drawn into the battle for women's votes in the 1910s, and how she was excluded from her family and community as a result. It's a sharp reminder of how activism often has a high personal cost. [...]

Posted by Helen Belcher on Challenging Journeys (Phase 2)

On Monday there was a debate in the House of Lords on Women in Public Life timed to celebrate the 100th anniversary of some women getting the vote. There were many Lib Dem contributions and we'll be putting them all up over the next few days. First up is Sal Brinton. Her wide ranging speech included tributes to fantastic Lib Dem women like Nancy Seear and Shirley Williams, horrifying stories of appalling employment practice at the BBC and fond memories of her family member who had been on the Mud March as a 16 year olds and was a passionate ...

Posted by The Voice on Liberal Democrat Voice

Lord Bonkers weighs in on the former Liberal Democrat leader's obsession with That Sort of Thing. Advice for Tim Farron I have never been one for God-bothering: I rather take the view that the old boy does not need my advice. I have even been known to turn Radio Rutland off when the Revd Hughes comes on to do his 'Thought for the Day'; I can, after all, hear him giving it both barrels in St Asquith's every Sunday. So it is that I have always advised Farron to stay clear of religion when he speaks. He, however, never takes ...

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

Kidney Hill, Westerleigh will be closed for roadworks all day on Monday 12 February. This is the length of road that runs from the Broad Lane junction (next to what used to be Cornerways Day Nursery) down to the T junction with the main road.

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

In December the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards suspended his inquiry into Keith Vaz, the Labour MP for Leicester East, citing medical reasons. But this week both Guido Fawkes and the Leicester Mercury have noticed that Mr Vaz has been rather active of late. As the Mercury puts it: Some six weeks later Mr Vaz has been making a series of public engagements including a planning committee, a public meeting for Belgrave traders and the re-opening of a Leicester leisure centre.Let us hope this is a sign that Mr Vaz will soon be restored to rude health and the inquiry will ...

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England
YouGov

The tide comes in at Southport surrounding the longest iron pier in Britain The Lib Dem Conference is coming to Southport in March so I thought it might be helpful to if I did a guide to our town. In later posts I will go into more detail about some of the things that should be part of any visit to the town like the British Lawnmower Museum, excellent bookshops like my favourite Broadhurst's , the best places for afternoon tea (top choice Lillibet's), pubs and breweries, restaurants, Southport shrimps ,fish and chip shops, our brilliant municipal gardens, RSPB nature ...

Posted on birkdale focus

As we celebrate the centenary of the 1918 Representation of the People Act, which gave the parliamentary vote to (some) women, for the first time, readers may be interested in two meetings and one publication: In Conversation at the Mile End Institute: Jo Swinson MP (19 February) At 6.30pm on Monday 19 February, at the Mile End Campus, Queen Mary University of London, Jo Swinson, the Liberal Democrats' Deputy Leader and Shadow Foreign Secretary and the MP for East Dunbartonshire, will join Professor Philip Cowley in conversation. This is part of the Mile End Institute's regular series of political 'conversations', ...

Posted by Duncan Brack on Liberal Democrat Voice

You can download the .pdf here. Plain text version etc coming soon :) [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments

" Gravity Equation " is a bit of economic jargon that I've only just come across. It's the name given to a finding by an economist called Thomas Chaney of the US National Bureau of Economic ResearchChaney's finding is that international trade between economies is directly proportional to the the size of the economies and inversely proportional to the distance between them.I'll repeat that. International trade between economies is directly proportional to the the size of the economies and inversely proportional to the distance between them. In other words, if it really needs spelling out, economies trade most with their ...

Posted by Peter Wrigley on Keynesian Liberal

Second paragraph of third chapter:She pulled a pained face at Piotr, standing to her right. He gave a tiny shrug, used to the heat, Benny imagined. She wasn't quite sure how he'd wangled being out here with her on her first 'walkabout', but it was (only vaguely) reassuring to have a familiar face there.I rather dropped off my blogging of Who-related books last year, but I intend to fix that this year. As I work through them, this is the next in publication order of the Bernice Summerfield books by Big Finish, in this case a novel by Mark Michalowski. ...

For today *ONLY*, I am giving away free ebook copies of my novel Destroyer. These copies will be up until 15:10 tomorrow, 6th February, after which point the links will be broken. If you want to buy the book after ... Continue reading →

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

Lord Storey served as Liverpool Councillor for 38 years and now is our Young People's spokesperson in the House of Lords. His request for a government review of the competence and capacity of the Council should be heeded My colleague ... Continue reading →

Posted by richardkemp on But what does Richard Kemp think?
Tue 6th
12:45

100 Years and Counting

My grandmother took me by the hand and said that we were going to do something special. Off we went from our house, to a local school. The next thing I remember is being lifted onto a small shelf, being given a pencil and my grandmother telling me that we were going to vote for Mr Churchill. She showed me where I was to make my cross. I voted. It was the 1951 election and I was four years old. My grandmother had been a supporter of the suffragette movement and told stories of her exploits as a young girl. ...

Posted by Flo Clucas on Liberal Democrat Voice
Tue 6th
11:08

Darkest Hour ****

Joe Wright's somewhat fictionalised biopic of Winston Churchill (a tour de force by actor Gary Oldman, unrecognisable beneath remarkable prosthetic makeup that convincingly brings back to life Britain's war-time bulldog) recounts the tense weeks of May 1940, when the Germans were sweeping west across continental Europe and the bulk of the British army was stranded [...]

Posted by jonathanfryer on Jonathan Fryer

miss_s_b | The Blood is the Life for 05-02-2018 I posted The Blood is the Life for 05-02-2018 to my dreamwidth blog If you like what you see here (or even if you don't) please consider dropping me a tip: [IMG: Paypal Donate Button] [IMG: Buy Me an uncaffeinated beverage (because I'm allergic to coffee) at ko-fi.com] [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments

eUKhost
Tue 6th
11:00

My tweets

Mon, 12:56: RT @illegibscrib: Hugo Nominations are open, watch your inbox for the ballot link! @worldcon2018 @TheHugoAwards #hugoawards #worldcon #sff... Mon, 15:50: RT @gjeraqina: Only Serbia and Montenegro will get a feasible timeline for #EUmembership by 2025. Other Western Balkans countries will get... Mon, 16:05: The Berlin Times commemorates the 10315th day since the Fall of the Wall. https://t.co/HEEr7vHTao That's as long as... https://t.co/b2DOdmsYKK Mon, 18:53: RT @randyfmcdonald: Today, on the 5th of February, 2018, is the first day that the #BerlinWall will have been down longer than it was up. (... Mon, 20:10: Monday reading https://t.co/SjiosjJmSw Mon, 21:10: No ...

On hearing of the arrival of a new volume of "how to" popular feminism one might be tempted to channel Brenda of Bristol on hearing about the election: "ANOTHER one!!" Jo Swinson enters a very crowded market with her new book. Can she really have anything to add? To be fair she doesn't just write about this stuff; she really means it. Largely ignoring the six week old baby strapped to my (very sore) front she once nagged, cajoled, charmed and begged me to stand in a forthcoming by-election. She has probably directly encouraged hundreds of women and girls to ...

Posted by Ruth Bright on Liberal Democrat Voice

Don't be a bystander to hatred and prejudice - that's the call to Greater Manchester people at the start of Hate Crime Awareness Week. Residents are being urged to sigh a promise to never stand by if they see someone being abused or attacked because of who they are. Find out more at letsendhatecrime.com.

Posted by prestwichfocus on Tim Pickstone

Ten groups are to share nearly £13,000 from the funds raised by Parklife in 2017. These grants were made following consideration of applications by the nine Prestwich councillors: Prestwich Plodders. £1,150.20 The Fed, £1,437.97 Jigsaw, £1,120.44 Shomrim Prestwich Community Safety, £1,500.00 Friends of Forest Park £1,500.00 Prestwich Arts Festival, £1,500.00 Prestwich Methodist Youth Association – 2 grants £900 and £1,500 Prestwich Together, £550.00 Incredible Edible Prestwich, £350.00 Prestwich Clough Day, £1,500.00 13 applications that were not successful still have a chance to be funded after presentations at a 'Pitch' event.

Posted by prestwichfocus on Tim Pickstone

It's not just members that Labour may lose over Jeremy Corbyn's warmth towards Brexit (which, of course, echoes his life-long Euroscepticism): Jeremy Corbyn would haemorrhage votes to the Lib Dems should Labour embrace Brexit at the next election, a new poll has revealed. According to the HuffPost UK exclusive YouGov survey for the pro-EU Best for Britain campaign group, Vince Cable's party would surge to 18% of the vote if he pledges to oppose Brexit while Labour and the Conservatives remain committed to leaving the EU. The poll, published on Tuesday, said a pro-Brexit Conservative Party would lead the polls ...

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

Do you have the skills and experience to become a trustee for an award winning local mental health charity? Since 1997 the Creative Living Centre has supported adults experiencing mental health problems through an integrated set of activities, therapies and courses, providing a service which our members have described as life changing and, at times, life-saving. Greater Manchester's Mental Health transformation programme means that the centre snow at an exciting stage of its development. They are looking to appoint a number of new Trustees to provide leadership and direction, and to ensure that the centre is seen as an exemplar ...

Posted by prestwichfocus on Tim Pickstone

A full update on roadworks in Prestwich on the GM Roadworks Website (www.gmroadworks.org) Significant roadworks this month are: – What it says is road closure on Fairfax Road from 25 February – 11 March – will will find out more about what this exactly means and let people know in advance. – 2 sets of roadworks on Bury Old Road – one happening now down near the junction of Ravensway near to the Manchester border and, from 19 February 2018, work at the junction with Sheepfoot Lane including a lane closure (United Utilities). – Continuation of the United Utilities work ...

Posted by prestwichfocus on Tim Pickstone

Over at the BBC, the Welsh Political editor, Nick Servini has been speculating on the intentions of Wales' new Local Government Secretary towards our local councils. Alun Davies has already announced that he wants to give 16 and 17 year olds the vote in municipal elections. Is he ready to bite the bullet and implement more radical changes? It has long been my view that we have too many councils, many of which are too small to effectively deliver larger services such as education and social services on a cost-efficient basis. As a result, and because some of the councils ...

Posted by Peter Black on Peter Black

I have expressed concern that, less than a year after the resurfacing and relaying of the block paving surface at Nethergate outside Dundee Contemporary Arts, the road surface is already appearing to sink in places and is uneven - see right : I have received three complaints from constituents about the road condition in just the past two days. The work to bring the road outside DCA on the Nethergate at the South Tay Street junction was undertaken in February and March last year. It is very concerning that, so soon after this work being completed, the road brickwork is ...

In a recent, outstanding article for The Guardian, Gary Younge argued that the "fantasies" of Brexit may have been in part propelled not only by a historical sense of exceptionalism related to the Second World War, but by a sense of British gloriousness and independence drawn from the imperial era. An inability to confront Britain's position [...] The post The antidote: education in history and citizenship appeared first on Radix.

Posted by Peter Fischer Brown on Opinion - Radix

Over the last few days a frightening juxtaposition has emerged between the Brexit Impact forecasts and solid evidence of the precarious nature of family finances in the UK. Whatever the scale of the adverse Brexit impact proves to be it would seem that a substantial proportion of our fellow citizens lack the financial resilience to cope with any impact at all. The RSA report "Seven Portraits of Modern Work" paints a vivid picture of an economy in which the tentacles of financial fragility permeate well beyond the lowest paid, penetrating the Tory-voting classes to the extent that around 70% of ...

Posted by Andrew Haldane on Liberal Democrat Voice

Monday the 5th February saw work starting on land clearance prior to full construction works to make the present 'Ashworth' junction (Junction 1) of the M58 a full two-sided junction. My old Council colleague Cliff Mainey will be pleased as he launched the campaign to get this work done quite some years ago. The work yesterday seemed to be tree clearance, ironically trees that would have been planted when the the M58 was built (around 1980) and when Giddygate Lane was diverted and made an Access Only gated road. The photo below was taken on Monday from Giddygate Lane looking ...

Posted by Cllr. Tony Robertson on Sefton Focus

On 6th February 1918 the Representation of the Peoples Act received its Royal Assent from George V and became law. The fourth major reform of the parliamentary franchise, it gave the vote to all men aged 21 and over and to women aged 30 and over who owned property or were married to male property [...]

Posted by stephenwilliams on Stephen Williams' Blog