I arrived at cabinet at Gateshead Civic Centre yesterday and discovered that the usual china cups for teas and coffee were nowhere to be seen. Instead, we were to use disposable paper cups that were "green" because they were "100% compostable". This is of course a factually accurate claim. Paper is compostable. Indeed, in my household, all waste paper either goes straight into the compost bin
A reminder as ever that when a political activist says, "My party talks far too much about our policy X" that should almost always be followed by the refrain, "But the public have barely noticed we talk about it at all".
Wed 21st
21:23
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Support for Mortgage Interest is a benefit given to people claiming Universal Credit or certain other income-related benefits who have a mortgage or who have taken out loans to make repairs to their home. It pays for the cost of interest on up to £200,000 of a person's mortgage in order to prevent claimants from defaulting on their mortgage. From next month, SMI will be replaced by a loan of the same value, which is repaid (with interest) when the property is sold. It's pretty cheap, as benefits go, costing the Government around £300 million a year. It is certainly ...
News from the Good Thinking newsletter: Last week, the BBC covered the latest development in our campaign to stop NHS homeopathy, revealing that the Royal London Hospital for Integrative Medicine will no longer be allowed to offer homeopathy consultations to NHS patients, effectively ending NHS support for homeopathy in the capital... The decision to end NHS homeopathy at the facility is no surprise to us - we have been tracking spending on homeopathy in the area since 2014, when we were told by 17 London CCGs [Clinical Commissioning Groups] that they had no way of knowing how much of their ...
Second paragraph of third chapter: See that girl, hear her scream, kicking the dancing queen. It's not that! Everett seethed inside. Clown Control to Mao Tse Tung . . . Major Tom! Everett wanted to shout. Major Tom Major Tom Major Tom. Get it right. The song was forty years old but Everett knew it better than his mum. There was a word for misheard lyrics. Everett had come across it online: a mondegreen. He'd liked the word. He remembered it. A decent YA novel from Ian McDonald, whose protagonist finds himself on a quest for his lost father, slipping ...
Liberal Democrat Immigrants exists to represent those members of the Liberal Democrats who have chosen to come to live in the UK from elsewhere. It also seeks to represent the interests of immigrants to the UK in general and to highlight those issues that disproportionately affect immigrants. The challenge for Liberal Democrats should not be "how do we make a broken and inhumane system work a little bit less badly?", but how we discard the broken system and in its place build something better, so that Britain can reclaim the reputation of an island of hope and welcome. As you ...
I attended the Gateshead East Lib Dem branch meeting last night to give my group leader's report and talk about the issues on which we are fighting the forthcoming local elections. However, I was not the guest speaker! That privilege fell to Martin Haswell, the Lib Dem victor in the Pallion by-election in Sunderland last month. He talked us through how he was able to take the Lib Dem vote from
Our government has declared Phase Two of the negotiations for our leaving the EU a success and we now move on to Phase Three. This "success" has been achieved only be the government's giving way on its so called "red lines." (I wonder why we call them that - Brewer's Dictionary is no help.) "Non-negotiable positions" would be more informative. EU nationals who come here during the transitional period will, after all, be able to claim rights of permanent residence if they wish;Fishing-boats from other EU countries will continue to be allowed to fish in "our" waters;several matters will remain ...
The European Commission has announced it intends to put an interim 3% levy on digital sales revenue of the biggest technology firms, such as Apple, Facebook and Google. Many large digital businesses have been accused of avoiding tax by shifting profits through complex structures, including via tax havens where they have little or no physical presence. EU officials reportedly think they will raise £4.3bn a year for member states from around 150 firms. Responding, Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable said: "This is the right move. A turnover tax has its problems, but as an interim measure it is necessary. Until ...
Embed from Getty Images The Treaties of Rome of 1957 founded the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) to create a European market for nuclear power. Its membership includes EU member states and has cooperation agreements with third-party countries like Canada, the US, South Africa. In its Brexit White Paper that invokes Article 50, the UK will be leaving Euratom. Euratom is legally distinct from the EU but is governed by EU institutions and therefore this UK Government is looking to leave Euratom. Some of the Brexit implications of leaving Euratom are:- Adverse effect on nuclear fusion research; Safety and non-proliferation: ...
New data released yesterday by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) reveals that only 6% of Universal Credit claimants in the private rented sector have their rent paid directly to their landlords, compared to 35% in the socially rented sector. This is despite calls by Liberal Democrat DWP spokesperson Stephen Lloyd to make payments to landlords the default. Lloyd has argued that maintaining the status quo will lead to many of the 1.3 million benefit claimants in the private rented sector being evicted and potentially made homeless. According to the Residential Landlords Association, 73% of landlords still lack confidence ...
Sergeant Bill Forth was murdered in Sunniside while on duty 25 years ago today. A memorial service was held this afternoon at the memorial stone on Sunniside Front Street. A full set of photos of the service can be viewed above.
Councillors are to be asked to approve the use of the former magistrate's court on Ashdale Road as a site for 20 new homes. According to the report to the Area Planning Committee (North) notification letters were sent out to 3 local homes in the vicinity and two commercial addresses – Consett Leisure Centre and Consett Academy, producing a nil response in terms of objections. Councillors Alex Watson and Owen Temple have both submitted responses to the application expressing concerns about traffic in an area which is extremely busy around school opening and closing times, with Councillor Owen Temple also ...
The final session of the Cultural Experience Award took place at the British Museum in Bloomsbury, London. This beautiful building attracts around 6 million visitors each year who visit the sites 94 galleries containing objects and artefacts from around the world. Many of the exhibitions and rooms are free to enter, meaning it's a wonderful place to pass an afternoon (as I have done on a few occasions before!) immersing yourself in history. The British Museum This session was particularly interesting in light of a recent seminar session in which we discussed the place of the museum institution within society, ...
Today is World Down Syndrome Day and this year across the world people are wearing odd socks to celebrate difference. So if you got dressed this morning before you realised, then maybe you can change one of those socks when you get home? #lotsofsocks, #WDSD18. The UN set up World Down Syndrome Day six years ago "to help raise awareness of what Down syndrome is, what it means to have Down syndrome, and how people with Down syndrome play a vital role in our lives and communities." And they cleverly chose 21st March because Down Syndrome is a result of ...
There is not much gain for any big corporation or its chief executive to upset a sitting Prime Minister and government. Hence the announcement that Unilever had picked Rotterdam over London as its global headquarters was closely co-ordinated with Number 10. The result of such co-ordination is what is to be expected. As bland as [...] The post Economical with the truth about the Unilever HQ appeared first on Radix.
It's the third week of the 'Make Do Play' Challenge! After ending the week on a high last time, I was excited to get started with the next seven days of creative prompts... Day Fifteen Singing I didn't feel brave, so I'm not going to film myself singing! However, singing in the car is something my boyfriend and I do all the time anyway. As I mentioned on Day Three, I'm currently obsessed with the soundtrack for The Greatest Showman, so we popped that on and had a lovely old sing-a-long as we drove to the shops.One of the reasons ...
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Embed from Getty Images I was delighted to chair Liberal Reform's panel discussion at Spring Conference with Wera Hobhouse MP, Laura Gordon (PPC for Sheffield Hallam) and Stephen Smith (Transport for the North). The debate explored the opportunities, threats and politics surrounding the Northern Powerhouse agenda and how the Liberal Democrats should take on the challenge of owning the agenda going forward. The statistics speak for themselves: as a region, the North has an economic worth of around £304bn and would be the 10th largest economy in Europe if it were a single city. However, the region is grossly underperforming ...
Tue, 15:14: A History of the Universe in 100 Objects, by Steve Tribe and James Goss https://t.co/bo9Se0bQrG Tue, 16:03: RT @Locke4MP: @nwbrux Same here. My friends and I used to walk off before our PE lessons and find a music cupboard to hide in and jam out.... Tue, 16:04: RT @RobotArchie: @njj4 @nwbrux Exactly my experience but in retrospect I wonder if this is just the mirror image of the lack of help given... Tue, 16:13: RT @damonwake: Good turnout for Albanian PM Edi Rama at the European Parliament. His message: we really want to join, you need our enthusia... ...
miss_s_b | I Updated my Buy Me Things page...... mostly because I finally caved and made a wishlist on Master of Malt. How to protect your Facebook privacy - or delete yourself completelyInstagram photo: Roxy wishes it to be known she is extremely comfortable 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
This morning, a fishing boat called Holladays sailed down the Thames loaded with right-wing MPs, Nigel Farage, and a bunch of journos. It was a protest at the fact that the transition deal May has negotiated will keep Britain in the Common Fishing Policy throughout, i.e. until December 2020. Farage as mentioned, was on the boat (of course); Rees-Mogg was not, choosing to stay on shore in a move you may or may not choose to look at metaphorically. I get why a lot of people in the British fishing industry are upset at this turn of events. A lot ...
Embed from Getty Images The Liberal Democrats and its members are like the fans of North East football teams - passionate, hopeful, want their team to succeed and aspire to be number one. In addition to this they have good networks, a sense of community (both have a social endeavour to collect for their local foodbank) and are willing to help each other out if a crisis occurs. They are resilient, similar to the Liberal Democrat membership. North East fans are welcoming (unless it's a local derby!) like the Liberal Democrats when new members join the party and attend conference ...
According to the Home Affairs Committee of the House of Commons, ministers are being 'worryingly complacent' about the complexity of issues to be negotiated with the EU regarding the future security of our country. As the Independent reports, the committee believes that unless a deal is struck to maintain security and policing cooperation with the EU after Brexit, then the UK could be sleepwalking into a crisis. They say that there are "serious legal, constitutional and political obstacles" that mean an agreement will not be easy to reach, but failure to "urgently" resolve these issues will "seriously undermine" the UK's ...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-43308729 The BBC has the article on its web site – see link above Quote from the article :- 'Doing lots of exercise in older age can prevent the immune system from declining and protect people against infections, scientists say. They followed 125 long-distance cyclists, some now in their 80s, and found they had the immune systems of 20-year-olds.' Now I know why Roy Connell and Ian McLean have had me out cycling, they think I'm elderly! With 'thanks' to Roy Connell for the lead to this posting
This is a serious problem and I recall seeing builders trying to back out of building the 'required' number of affordable homes on development sites during my time on Sefton Council's Planning Committee. Oh and yes the term 'affordable homes' is vague and open to differing interpretations itself. So have a look at the link above from CPRE (Council for the Protection of Rural England) as their video captures one route developers use to maximise their profit at the expense of the kind of homes communities actually need. Yes I know, regular readers may recall that I have had ...
Under Trump, US science policy is on autopilot and largely directionless. Here is how to tackle this lack of leadership The first time the word "science" appeared in a tweet by Donald Trump was on 13 September 2012, long before he became US president, when he wrote: "Wake Up America! See article: 'Israeli Science: Obama Birth Certificate is a Fake'." Since becoming president, Trump has not mentioned the words "science" or "technology" in his tweets, reflecting not so much disdain for these issues but an abject lack of interest. After the 2016 election, the benign neglect of science policy was ...
