Amazing news from the East Midlands BREAKING NEWS: @hinckleylibdems gain Church Ward on #EarlShilton Town Council. We have a Council group in the town for the first time ever! Congratulations to new Councillor Emma Harrison. Bloody brilliant! She beat a sitting Tory Borough Cllr to take it! #LibDemGain #LibDems — Mathew Hulbert (@HulbertMathew) March 29, 2018 Congratulations to the amazing Hinckley Lib Dems team * Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings
Imagine a classroom, with red banners hanging over the windows and there are rows and rows of desks lined across the room. On one side sit the men and on the other sit the women, split 50/50 down the middle. At the front of the room, there is a desk and next to that a TV screen on a stand. An elder woman, with the straight posture of a military officer eyes the room and speaks about the lesson those students would learn. What happened next sent a chill down my spine. She espoused my former opinion of sex to ...
One contest. No Liberal Democrat. Although sometimes the local circumstances behind the absence of a Liberal Democrat candidate certainly deserve support rather than censure, we also shouldn't slip into accepting that not running candidates is just fine. It isn't; we should aim higher even if hard pressed people can't always succeed in reaching higher this time round. Why does it matter? Because we can't build up a loyal base of people who regularly support us if we don't give them a chance to vote for us. Because we can't practise new skills and learn new things as effectively if we ...
Earls Barton stands in the Nene valley to the west of Wellingborough. It is know for shoemaking and the Saxon church that commands every approach to the village. What remains of the church from pre-Conquest days is its rustic and powerful tower. There is also an impressive earthwork behind the church, which could be prehistoric, Saxon or Norman. As at Irthlingborough, the churchyard commands views across the valley. The interior must wait for another day.
We Remainers hope for a second referendum on British membership of the European Union. Will we get one? I doubt it. But there is a more fundamental question. If we got one, could we win it? Or, in other words, what has changed about Remainers since June 2016? The weakness of our campaign then was that it made little effort to talk to older people or to those in the regions. We told people they were doing well from the status quo and should not put that at risk. But a lot of them weren't doing well and felt no ...
I first read this at about the age of eight or nine; I'm pretty sure it was the Cassell edition with illustrations by Thomas Morten, because a) the scatological bits have been bowdlerised out and b) I remember my grandfather, in what may well have been the last conversation I ever had with him, teasing me for not knowing Gulliver's first name; it does not appear in the Cassell edition, which omits the two introductory letters where he is introduced as Lemuel Gulliver. In case you don't know, the story is of a normal English naval surgeon who finds himself ...
I have never had the slightest interest in women's fashion, so was a little tardy in viewing Paul Thomas Anderson's Phantom Thread, but of course one doesn't need to be engaged with haute couture to understand what a very special film this is. Daniel Day-Lewis, in what he says is his swan song as an actor, [...]
At a Planning Committee Meeting today I discovered that one government body had disposed of a piece of government property to another government body, for a value "not available" on the Land Registry website, with the simple intention of getting that land planning permission in order to sell or transfer it on to another developer. At that same Planning Committee, despite my strenuous appeals that the Committee should not allow that very piece of land to be overdeveloped at a density of housing nearly double the average for similar land across County Durham, I watched one councillor propose the planning ...
We have to offer people what they need, and I don't think we are doing that. The Southport Conference earlier this month, besides passing many useful motions, agreed a Strategy, grandly entitled, 'Ambitious for our party, ambitious for our country.' We are good on noble ideas. 'Create a political and social movement which encourages people to take and use power in their own lives and communities' – that's a natural extension of our famous Preamble, 'We seek to balance the fundamental values of liberty, equality and community'. But is anybody heeding us out there, even in the less than half ...
... which mostly seem to boil down to PREDATORY MEN WILL DRESS AS WOMEN TO ENTER TOILETS AND CHANGING ROOMS AND PERVE ON US IF WE ALLOW GRA REFORM TO GO AHEAD. Now apart from the fact that this is absolute rubbish, given that GRA reform will affect not one single person's use of loos or changing rooms, I still have some questions about this mindset: 1, Have you ever had to present your birth certificate or genitals for inspection before using a loo or changing room? 2, Do you have strictly enforced gender segregation in the loo/changing room in ...
Embed from Getty Images Back in the day, I used to get permission to be away from school to take part in the local arts festivals. It was good for me to broaden my experience and skills and good for the school to see its pupils win awards and present themselves well. So I was pretty annoyed to see that the Royal Academy of Dance had complained that the Government's rules on term time absence from school prevented children from taking their dance exams. From the BBC: According to RAD exams director Andrew McBirnie, before 2013 ballet exams could be ...
The Electoral Commission is again investigating Vote Leave after whistle-blower Shahmir Sanni who worked for BeLeave came forward to say that when the sum of £625,000 was given to them by Vote Leave, it came with clear instructions as to how the money was to be used. If this is true, then it would be a criminal offence. Mr Sanni also asserted that most of the cash was spent on a firm linked to Cambridge Analytica. Chris Wylie, former Director of Research at Cambridge Analytica, told MPs this week that the company's actions during Brexit campaign were "a breach of ...
Much of our campaign since the 2017 general election has revolved around the "Exit from Brexit". We need to win over Remainers; by having a clear and repeated anti-Brexit position, the electorate will know what we stand for. There are a few problems. Firstly, we are not "anti-Brexit", we are pro-EU. Every time we say "Brexit", we evoke certain thought patterns within the minds of voters, particularly the so-called ReLeavers (those who voted Remain but feel we should Leave because of the referendum). We normalise Brexit. We make it seem mainstream. In an effort to be radical outsiders, we make ...
Would you like to freak yourself out? Click here for a twitter thread of AI generated nude portraitsThey fall right into uncanny valley. 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
A year ago, I watched in sorrow and horror as Theresa May triggered the Article 50 process, motivated more by keeping her restless Brexiteers in check than what was actually good for the country. With just a year to go before we are scheduled to leave the European Union, most of the really difficult issues are unresolved and every day the problems become more apparent. From the Irish border to how we sell and buy the things we take for granted from abroad, to the reappearance of roaming charges to uncertainty over aviation to nuclear safety, we still don't know ...
Wed, 19:24: Parallel Lives and Something Changed: two Bernice Summerfield collections https://t.co/rrK8yOq08A Thu, 02:57: RT @220_d_92_20: 39 years to the hour since Jim Callaghan's government was ousted by one vote. How very different politics seems now Thu, 10:45: RT @StigAbell: "And we shall illustrate this glorious moment with... a large cliff edge". https://t.co/H4opuZnun8
So, Liam Fox, the globetrotting Secretary of State for International Trade, has expressed his hope that after the "transitional" period is over (quite what we are transitioning to is not clear), we will be free to negotiate our own trade deals around the world, and he expects 40 agreements with 70 countries to be made. Except, these are 40 agreements with 70 countries that are already in place,
Thu 29th
10:21
Simple question: what the hell is everyone thinking at the moment? A dissection of the last 24 hours...
Something that gets lobbed at liberals these days is that the reason we feel so befuddled is because politics has been inverted by Brexit and Trump, and that our confusion is simply us feeling what everyone else felt for several decades. I've tried to empathise with this position as much as possible, partly to understand the current era in greater detail, partly to understand where liberalism went wrong and how it can rebuild. But events keep getting in the way of this since it feels like those cheering on Brexit and Corbyn, the two great democratic forces liberals dislike, are ...
Embed from Getty Images As Lib Dems we have campaigned long and hard for curbs on the government's power to snoop on our internet data. Yet, most of us (not all) have personally given an eye-wateringly broad "Snoopers' Charter" to big corporations – namely Facebook and Google. I know, I have checked on my data held by Facebook and Google. You can do it too. Facebook had all my photos, posts, friends etc etc going back to February 2007. The data was 354 megabytes in size. That's equivalent to 71 copies of the Complete Works of Shakespeare. Google is in ...
Responding to the news that SkyBet has been fined £1 million for failing to protect vulnerable gamblers, Tim Clement-Jones, Liberal Democrat Spokesperson the Creative Industries, said: "This fine should make the rest of the industry sit up and take notice that they must take their responsibilities towards customers seriously."If people have been allowed to place bets having self referred for exclusion due to addictive tendencies then that is a serious failure of the system with vulnerable people being failed by those in positions of power. They have a duty to protect those at risk, and that should always take priority ...
Yes I know it seems to go on forever, putting one together for Lydiate Civil Parish that is. And yes I'm still a skeptic of them, seeing NP's as of little or marginal benefit only, at best. But whatever I'm doing my bit to help put together the Lydiate one. Our last Neighbourhood Plan meeting went into all kinds of detail but two particular areas really interested me, the lack of a cycle path on the A59/Northway through Lydiate and the poor state of the canal tow path through Lydiate. What have these issues got to do with a Neighbourhood ...
I have never been a Labour supporter, but in the past I have respected that party for the values it is meant to stand for. The party's internationalism, its opposition to racism, sexism and all forms of discrimination and its championing of social justice have marked Labour out as a movement on the centre left. Labour's actions on the ground have not always reflected its values but then that can also be said of any political party. My beef with them has been their innate conservatism on some social issues, their inability to value the role of the individual and ...
FORMER CHELTENHAM MP Martin Horwood is putting on his rosette again - this time to stand for Cheltenham Borough Council. There's an unexpected vacancy in Leckhampton ward following independent councillor Ian Bickerton's recent resignation. That means the ward will be electing two councillors in the borough council elections on 3 May instead of one. Glenn Andrews is the other Lib Dem candidate. Martin handed in his nomination papers at the council offices today - and the retiring independent councillor Ian Bickerton was one of his nominators. Martin stood down as Lib Dem parliamentary candidate for personal reasons last year when ...
What is a progressive these days? I find myself asking this question constantly for a range of reasons which those who know me will understand. It isn't that I don't know the conventional answers. It is that I'm not sure why I find them now so annoyingly familiar. It could be something to do with [...] The post Why do voters hate the centre left? appeared first on Radix.
As the nuclear option looks less and less sensible, it becomes harder to explain Whitehall's enthusiasm. Might it be to do with the military? Against a worldwide background of declining fortunes for nuclear power, UK policy enthusiasm continues to intensify. Already pursuing one of the most ambitious nuclear new-build agendas in the world, Britain is seeking to buck 50 years of experience to develop an entirely new and untested design of small modular reactors (SMRs). In 2016, then energy and climate secretary, Amber Rudd, summed up the government's position: "Investing in nuclear is what this government is all about for ...
As the school Easter holidays start after school ends today, my usual weekly ward surgery at Blackness Primary School does not take place tonight - and all surgeries thereafter throughout the holidays do not take place - but I can still be contacted on any local issues or concerns through my e-surgery - just e-mail esurgery@frasermacpherson.org.uk. Surgeries recommence on Monday 16th April - surgery details are available here. I can also be contacted at home at any time on 459378 and also during office hours at my Dundee City Council office on 434985.
