In response to the Work and Pensions Select Committee Report out today on PIP and ESA assessments Stephen Lloyd MP, Liberal Democrat DWP spokesperson, said : "This is an utterly damning report from the Select Committee on the quality, or lack thereof, from the government's PIP and ESA assessments programmes."It's clear far too many assessments are inadequate for this system to continue in its current form."This also comes on the day where the DWP has put out a deplorable tweet reminding people that as today is Valentines Day, they will be checking that benefits claimants are declaring they live with ...
This short video from 1965 shows two lost stations. Cheltenham Spa St James and Cheltenham Malvern Road were both closed to passengers and goods the following year.
Responding to the news that talks have collapsed in Stormont, Vince Cable, Leader of the Liberal Democrats, said:"British taxpayer's have coughed up £1 billion to placate the DUP and keep them on the Government's side during this disastrous parliament. What are we getting for it? Just intransigence. "The British government are heading for a very dangerous situation in Ireland. Their approach to Brexit will lead to further division in Ireland, and undermine the Good Friday Agreement. At the same time their key allies in the Commons, to who they paid a billion pounds, are refusing to show any willingness to ...
"I will be pushing as hard as I can for reform of our large aid agencies but I will defend what they do and the work of all decent aid workers with everything I've got." Peter Kyle talks sense on the Oxfam scandal. Polly MacKenzie calls for an end to despair about British politics and for positive action instead. "Once upon a time, I was a member of the Lib Dem's federal policy committee. I used to irritate Danny Alexander and other luminaries by claiming that Liberals had made no contribution to economic debate since John Maynard Keynes had breathed ...
We have heard the latest about Norman Baker's music career, but what of the day job? Brighton & Hove News tells us: Just ten months after joining the Big Lemon, former Lewes MP Norman Baker is off to pursue a range of other interests including journalism, a music album and a top secret new book. Mr Baker joined the Brighton bus company in March last year, and says he has already achieved what he set out to do there. This includes winning new contracts, doubling the size of the team, helping launch the UK's first solar-powered electric bus and winning ...
Wed 14th
20:32
Does the "I got the same room in the same hotel for Brighton conference as last time" dance
The hotel we stayed in last time was really nice, did good breakfasts, and most importantly you can pick not just your type of room but your actual room. All the rooms have individual decor styles and different facilities. The reason I picked this particular room last time was because the decor is a bit goth and I was feeling silly. The reason I picked it this time? The huge, enormous, massive, easily fits two people and probably more, jacuzzi bath. Which was lovely to go back to and sit in with a bottle of wine after a hard day's ...
For my own notes, in Retro Hugo nominations season; and maybe yours too: fifteen sff novels by women, and two by writers of color, first published (or first published in English) in 1942. First ten listed in descending Goodreads popularity, with links to Goodreads pages; next five are not on Goodreads so listed in random order. NB I have not checked length eligibility. The Uninvited, by Dorothy Macardle (Goodreads) Gobbolino The Witch's Cat, by Ursula Moray Williams (Goodreads) Twig, by Elizabeth Orton Jones (Goodreads) Henrietta's House / The Blue Hills, by Elizabeth Goudge (Goodreads) Eyes of Horus, by Joan Grant ...
Morning coffee at The Atkinson in a café run as a social enterprise by the charity Autism Initiatives called A Great Little Place is recommended .This venue is part of the Atkinson Art Gallery/Museum/Theatre/Library complex on Lord St next to the Town Hall. There is lots going on there during the conference, check out their calendar of events Caron Lindsay rather jumped the gun by mentioning Afternoon Tea when she was reporting the most read Libdem blogs last week. Now is the moment: Southport is fortunate to have a goodly number of independent tea room. We do, of course have ...
The amazing Perpetuum Jazzile meets ABBA. What a winning combination, and still quite brilliant five years on.
Search engine optimisation (SEO) is the part-science, part-art skill of making your content appear high in search results. Do that and you get more web traffic (just as those businesses who did SEO before the internet existed got more business). There are many factors which go into getting your content performing well in search results. That's why there are whole books written about it and people who work full time doing just SEO. But there are also plenty of small and simple SEO tactics you can follow. One of the most common which is not followed is how to go ...
Embed from Getty Images It is strange what topics come up at an annual Liberal Democrat dinner, but this topic, in the post title above, came up at one I attended last week. It's a big subject. First of all, we need to be clear what "Just-in-time" actually means. It is a phrase which is bandied about so that it sometimes ceases to have any precise meaning. In its purest,original sense, Just-in-time refers to Just-in-time manufacturing, as defined by Wikipedia: Just-in-time (JIT) manufacturing, also known as just-in-time production or the Toyota Production System (TPS), is a methodology aimed primarily at ...
Wed 14th
17:05
Vince Cable joins rally to press for international students to be excluded from migration figures
Photo: Geoff Caddick/PA Yesterday the Liberal Democrat leader, Vince Cable, joined academics, students, business leaders and other politicians at a rally in support of international students. London Frist's "Stand up don't be counted" campaign aims to take students out of the UK's net migration target. The photo above shows Jonathan Bartley, co-leader of the Green Party, Jasmine Whitbread, Chief Executive of London First, Paul Currran, President of City University, Sir Vince Cable, Leader of the Liberal Democrats and Tulip Siddiq MP attending the rally in Torrington Square, London. The government aims to reduce net migration to under 100,000 people each ...
Embed from Getty Images Lib Dem Brexit spokesperson, Tom Brake has responded pithily to Boris Johnson's speech on Brexit: Boris Johnson is completely deluded about Brexit. This speech wasn't about the most important issue facing our country right now, this was about Boris' ambitions to become the next Prime Minister, and it probably wasn't much help on that front either. The lack of detail and understanding shown in this back of a fag packet speech would be astounding, if we didn't already know that the government has no clue and no plan. As ever, Boris managed to find time to ...
On Thursday Focus Team councillor Dave Hockey featured in a BBC Points West news story on the Frome Valley Relief Sewer - you can watch the extract here. Dave has been campaigning for the last two decades on this issue. Let's hope the new sewer will make a difference. For more details on the project, please see our previous blog post
Embed from Getty Images This is a rather unfocussed post, but I just wanted to give a shout-out for Parish Councils. One of our number here at LDV Towers, Mark Valladares, writes a blog called Liberal Bureaucracy. One of its main subjectival strands is Mark's role as a parish councillor. Just leafing through some of the post titles gives one an excellent flavour of parish council life: Creeting St Peter: the importance of a neatly trimmed bush... Suffolk's Parish councillors meet – nobody dead... Catch the bus, if you can... Creeting St Peter: rushing headlong into the 21st century... I ...
Interviews with The Women Of 'Star Trek: Discovery' (spoilers from the very headline, don't click if you're spoilerphobic) Star Trek: Discovery Creators on Season 1 Finale & Season 2 [Spoilers] This has more info but less feels than the previous link, for me at least miss_s_b | Another Very Important Poll I posted Another Very Important Poll to my dreamwidth blog No shared leave for shared leave minister - he's not allowed Eurgh. Cock-ups in implementation of my pet policy really piss me off. Just a Joke: Where Alt-Right Guys Get Their Start My Transition: Before vs. After The Goopification ...
Tue, 12:56: The rise and fall of Mikheil Saakashvili https://t.co/to3CEwK2K8 Best-before date was some time ago. Tue, 16:05: RT @IanDunt: Important moment. Even prominent Leavers now admit 'Project Fear' was accurate. https://t.co/2nFmaeWRDG Tue, 16:34: Best Series Retro Hugo 1943 https://t.co/KhyBMU1BV8 #retrohugos1943 Updated! Tue, 18:33: Daystar and Shadow, by James B. Johnson https://t.co/rx5fX9deKu Tue, 20:48: Science of kissing: why a kiss is not just a kiss https://t.co/v6oMQ488T9 Appropriate for V-Day! Wed, 10:45: Who's Important? A tale from Wikipedia https://t.co/ME0Zxk3XSs On gender and Erdős numbers.
Last week on t'internet, a toe-curling interview from 1970 (above) was doing the rounds. It featured a newly elected MP speaking on the BBC election night TV programme. Nothing unusual about that, except that it was – GASP! – a woman MP!!!!!!! The behaviour, during and after the appearance of Janet Fookes, of Robin Day and Cliff Michelmore gave whole new meaning to the word "patronising". So I thought it would be a good idea to balance things out. Even though Robin Day only thought Janet Fookes was interesting because she might marry Prime Minister Edward Heath (pwwwaaaahh!!) and Cliff ...
What are the five fundamental British values? If you have missed that in your schooling, you can always go to a primary school in Brixton, talk to a Somali-heritage child and ask him or her to tell you. You are likely to get an enthusiastic answer. I have, on visits to the school where I ... Continue reading What is liberalism for? What I have learned from a Brixton school
It's absolutely right that we should be scandalised about Oxfam aid workers paying for sex in the places where they were supposed to be alleviating poverty. And the cover-up is in some ways as bad as the original crimes. But the whole debate is missing a vital element without which we will not make progress - a total failure to understand the conditions in which people do vital but difficult work, the personalities of such people, and the need to provide them with back-up. Stop and think about it for a moment. Who goes to places where there's extreme poverty, ...
Wed 14th
10:06
Examining Boris Johnson's EU speech - well, one sentence in it at least, which was enough
My most basic feeling about the BoJo speech on the EU is: why do we need another one of these from a rogue cabinet member? Can't the government just come up with a collective position and then announce it? How am I supposed to take the intentions set out in the Boris speech other than "what Boris would do if he was PM"? Judging it by that final yardstick, it is the usual pretty thin gruel from the Foreign Secretary. In a Sun article this morning, which acts as what I imagine is a sort of trailer for the speech, ...
On BBC 2's Newsnight last night, Vince made a very good job of laying out why a hard Brexit is far from liberal: "It's either a deliberate misuse of language or intellectual confusion" – @VinceCable on Boris Johnson's vision of a 'liberal Brexit' #newsnight pic.twitter.com/WoOh9LQM6h — BBC Newsnight (@BBCNewsnight) February 13, 2018 * Paul Walter was a supply chain manager with a leading international IT firm from 1981 to 2016. Paul is a Liberal Democrat activist. He is one of the Liberal Democrat Voice team. He blogs at Liberal Burblings.
This is Maghull Square in the 1970's but the buildings are substantially as was. It was built in the 1960's. Photographer unknown. What's going on at Maghull Square/Westway shopping centre or more to the point why is little or nothing seemingly going on there? I refer of course to the oft promised refurb/upgrade. The previous owners (The Maghull Group) put in for planning permission to do it up but sold it on prior to doing the upgrade and the present owners have seemingly gone to ground after much talk of them upgrading the down at heal 1960's buildings and the ...
Faced with an acrimonious extraordinary meeting on Saturday, scheduled to determine the fate of its lotharion leader, Henry Bolton, the disintegration of UKIP is continuing apace. The Mirror reports that the party's chairman, Paul Oakden has resigned from his role. In an email to party members, Oakden said his last act as Chairman will be to chair Saturday's extraordinary meeting. Bolton is the fifth leader on Paul Oakden's watch, which says more about the identity crisis faced by UKIP than the competence of its chairman. Presumably, Mr. Oakden cannot face the prospect of a sixth leader, especially if the Telegraph ...
From the City Council : PUBLIC NOTICE GLAMIS ROAD WILL CLOSE FROM NINEWELLS AVENUE - BLACKNESS ROADON MONDAY 19 FEBRUARY FOR 2 WEEKS. BUS SERVICE DIVERIONS Service 22/73 towards Ninewells: Normal route to Blackness Road then left turn into Glamis Road - Perth Road - Ninewells Avenue - Dickson Avenue and then follow normal route. Service 22/73 towards City Centre: Normal route to Dickson Avenue then via Ninewells Avenue - Perth Road - Glamis Road - Blackness Road and then follow normal route. Service 23S towards Harris Academy: Normal route to Dickson Avenue then via Ninewells Avenue - Perth Road ...
My friend David Boyle recently wrote about the re-birth of liberal economics. In particular, the renewed attention on tackling monopoly power. As he mentioned, this trend has not yet reached the UK but has certainly reached Europe in the form of the muscular and highly regarded liberal Commissioner Margrethe Vestager (£). A simple search on 'Vestager' on the FT [...] The post The growing power of the big to exclude the small appeared first on Radix.
