This post was first published on the Radix website... The story so far goes back to the parallels between the campaign for free trade and the campaign against slavery, which realised - especially after the 1860s when the US slaves and the Russian serfs were both released and found themselves straight back in an economic slavery - that the two belong together. That was free trade as Liberals understood it through the nineteenth century and into the twentieth. Free trade was, above all else, the antidote to slavery. Then came Milton Friedman in 1962 and others since who argued that ...
Today, Wera Hobhouse secured the backing of the Prime Minister for her quest to make the awful practice of up skirting an offence. After the question, Wera said: I am delighted the Prime Minister has listened to our call for reform. This would ensure women will be fully protected by the law from upskirting. Upskirting has been illegal in Scotland since 2009 and it is simply outrageous it is taking us so long to criminalise it here in England and Wales. Today marks a huge step in achieving our goal of making upskirting what it deserves to be: a specific ...
Embed from Getty Images My Liberal Democrat county councillor Sarah Hill is in the Leicester Mercury today: A dog walker says she was surprised to find a collection of fly-tipped bondage gear as she walked her pet by a railway line. Leicestershire county councillor Sarah Hill discovered the handcuffs, studded leather straps, paddles and, bizarrely, a set of hockey pads in a field near Great Bowden. Councillor Hill, who came across the fly-tipped items on Sunday, said: "I was just out walking and I saw the stuff not far from the footpath. "At first, I wasn't sure what it was. ...
Ashley Cowburn, political correspondent of the Independent, tweeted this cutting of a letter to the press by Keith Raffan. You can find it online towards the bottom of this Evening Standard page. Raffan, once a sketchwriter for the Express, was Conservative MP for Delyn in North Wales between 1983 and 1992. I know a university friend of his who met Raffan on a train during this period. He says that though Raffan was wearing an Alan B'stard suit and doing his best to come over as a Thatcherite, you sensed his heart was not in it. Raffan was at heart ...
Following on from my post on the long list, here are the Goodreads and LibraryThing ownership and ratings stats for the shortlist. Goodreads LibraryThing owners av rating owners av rating American War — Omar El Akkad 70396 3.83 632 3.86 Borne — Jeff VanderMeer 50713 3.91 565 3.9 Gather the Daughters — Jennie Melamed 16643 3.66 130 3.48 Spaceman of Bohemia — Jaroslav Kalfař 9580 3.87 122 4.1 Sea of Rust — C. Robert Cargill 8563 4.14 113 4.14 Dreams Before the Start of Time — Anne Charnock 816 3.51 24 3.3 The one that I really didn't see coming ...
This lovely bouquet arrived for me this afternoon. Thank you to everyone at Software AG for your encouragement – it (and the flowers!) is much appreciated. The post I love my work colleagues appeared first on ten pence piece.
I found the top spot very easy to place here. I'm not so certain of my other rankings, but here's where I am right now. 6) "Asylum," by A.E. van Vogt Second paragraph of third section:He dismissed that particular problem as temporarily insoluble, and because actually—it struck him abruptly—this girl's size was unimportant. She had long, black lashes and dark eyes that glowed at him from a proud, almost haughty face. And that was it; quite definitely that was the essence of her blazing, powerful personality.Wasn't really convinced by this (and turns out it is the first part of what ...
In 2017, many of us voted Labour as a tactical vote to stop Theresa May's Hard Brexit attack on democracy and kill her attempt to Crush the Saboteurs. It worked, another Hung Parliament resulted and forced the Conservative Party to depend on the DUP to stay in office. The result was to propel the impact of Brexit on Northern Ireland to the heart of British Politics, and thereby sabotage Hard Brexit on a unsolveable conundrum, how to avoid a hard border in Ireland and ensuring regulatory convergance in Ireland. The DUP position is impossible,and as such is the Conservative Government. ...
You certainly can't accuse Lib Dems in Manchester of shirking in this election campaign. The party hopes to build on its one councillor, former Withington MP John Leech, who has provided the sole opposition to Labour's 95 councillors since his election in 2016. They've produced a hard-hitting film highlighting the worst of Labour's excesses and offering a better way forward for the city. The film begins with young children watching TV and reacting to various controversial news headlines, including the recent comments made by Withington councillor Chris Paul. The 90-second video also picks at the council's record on homelessness, refugees ...
Brexit Breach: Labour Data Was Shared With Leave EU And Cambridge AnalyticaHear that? That's the sound of the shit hitting the fan. Are you standing for election on Thursday for the Lib Dems? Are you out and LGBT+?if you'd like us to tweet you a good luck message let us know and we'll do it :) New problems with TSB standing ordersAs someone who lives with a victim, sorry, customer of TSB, and whose household is therefore having some cash flow problems this month, I am getting heartily sick of this. Pull your bloody fingers out, TSB. The people fighting ...
Edinburgh relies on the creative industries. For a month a year, the city is home to all sorts of weird and wonderful productions from all over the world during its iconic Festival and accompanying Fringe. It's not surprising that the city's Lib Dem MP is a massive supporter of the creative industries. Christine Jardine has written for the Scotsman about the damage Brexit stands to do to evens like the Festival. She outlines the threat to the creative industries: UK Music has warned that touring and live events will be at risk because of the potential loss of technical talent ...
Today represents another hurdle in May's battle for/against/whatever she's now doing with Brexit, involving a meeting of the Brexit subcommittee. What makes it all the more daunting is that the prime minister has lost an ally in Amber Rudd on the subcommittee. She is also near the point where continuing to fudge everything is becoming impossible. Having said that though, May has seemed at a point where fudging would have to end before, and she always finds a way to do it some more, so perhaps this will be more of the same. If I were Theresa May, and I ...
Tue, 12:56: It Came From The Search Terms https://t.co/raXtvPAZRC Captain Awkward advises. Tue, 15:30: May Day in Vissenaken https://t.co/HoJkUuSsgz Tue, 16:05: James Fallows on the Reinvention of America https://t.co/ltC5luHM14 An optimistic take. Tue, 20:48: The Last Slave https://t.co/y2tut0cGn7 From Zora Neal Hurston's unpublished book. Wed, 08:01: I have to say my reaction is tinged with sympathy. Anyone who has ever tried producing an election leaflet in the h... https://t.co/TfU3XP7lzH Wed, 10:45: RT @kevinhorourke: Two years after the referendum, Theresa May expected to come down in favour of a scheme that has zero chance of being ac...
Our Pauline Pearce is running an energetic campaign to be Mayor of Hackney. On Monday night, she appeared at a hustings, outlining her plan to cut knife crime – an evidence based Violence Reduction Unit which has been successful in Scotland. She also emphasised that she really is at the heart of her community. From the Hackney Citizen: Pauline Pearce, who is also standing in Brownswood ward, said: "I have no mass of qualifications, but what I do have is common sense. "Everyone out there who knows Pauline knows they can knock on my door. And if I become mayor, ...
Responding to the news that the Royal Bank of Scotland has announced it is to close 162 branches and cut 792 jobs across England and Wales, Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Vince Cable said:"The Conservatives seem to have forgotten about the 'last bank in town' pledge, where communities must have at least one bank or the local Post Office must take over its duties. Ministers must check that RBS has consulted the Post Office for these assurances. "All this has happened because RBS dragged off and defaulted on its Williams & Glyn spin-off, another of the inglorious failures of its ...
Wed 2nd
10:17
Cable and Davey call on Javid to drop Home Office plan to deny immigrants access to their data
Sajid Javid has been urged to dump the controversial Immigration Exemption Clause in the Data Protection Bill, which will be debated next week. Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable and Home Affairs spokesperson Ed Davey have written to the new Home Secretary to protect people's fundamental rights when their data is being processed for immigration purposes. Many immigration decisions are overturned at appeal because the Home Office has made mistakes. But the Bill puts at risk the right for individuals to see what information the Home Office holds on them and the Lib Dems are pressuring the government to make a ...
Responding to reports that the Chancellor will argue in cabinet for a close customs partnership with the EU, Liberal Democrat Brexit spokesperson Tom Brake, said:"Reports suggesting that the Chancellor is set to undermine Theresa May's position on the customs union show that the government's Brexit plans are in tatters. "Many in the House, and now even senior Cabinet ministers, are openly questioning the viability of the PM's plan to tear us out of the customs union. With nearly half our exports currently going to other countries in the EU, the Treasury knows that leaving the customs union could badly damage ...
Wed 2nd
08:55
The Independent View: Invitation to Lib Dem Women - Be involved with research on women's political r...
One hundred years after women gained the right to vote and to be elected to Parliament, women are still fewer than one-third of MPs. The Fawcett Society, with the support of the Government Equalities Office, is undertaking a landmark piece of research into the barriers to women being selected by political parties, and then elected to Parliament. We are working with all major political parties across the UK, and we need your help. Have you at any time since 2010: – Been selected as a Lib Dem parliamentary candidate but not subsequently elected OR – Considered putting yourself forward for ...
The Independent carries the astonishing news that Theresa May is said to have overruled other cabinet ministers who argued that more foreign doctors are desperately needed to help meet staff shortages in the NHS. They say that despite pressure from the home secretary, health secretary and business secretary, May is said to have refused to budge on rules that restrict the number of visas given to specialist workers from overseas. They say that the prime minister has been widely criticised for the "hostile environment" she presided over as home secretary between 2010 and 2016. However, as this passage from former ...
Well it seems so as Sefton and Knowsley Councils are planning to construct one. It will effectively run from the site of the new Maghull North railway station, over the Ashworth Junction of the M58 (where there's already a short section of cycle path taking cyclists around the busy motorway junction) and on down Prescot Road towards Kirkby. The photo below shows the end of the present cycle path as you go around the junction heading towards Melling Mount:- Sefton and Knowsley Councils are still developing proposals for the cycle track but the project has funding secured. Construction is scheduled ...
We have long railed here against the use of targets as a primary, or even sole, measure of performance. Now targets have led to the resignation of Amber Rudd as Home Secretary. The narrative is that it's not the targets themselves that have led to her resignation but the fact that she misled parliament over [...] The post Targets impoverish us – just ask Amber Rudd appeared first on Radix.
Meadow Community Wildflower Garden behind Sefton Drive on the Cheshire Lines Path in Maghull. At Meadow Community Wildflower Garden – Just behind Maghull's Sefton Drive – See link above for details Volunteer litter picking seems to have become a big hit in Maghull and Lydiate in recent times
Crossens Saturday, 12th May, St John's Primary School, Rufford Road, Crossens, from 11am to 12 noon. Churchtown Thursday, 24th May, BoxTree Kitchen for Queenscourt cafe, Manor Road/Cambridge Road, roundabout, from 10:30am to 11:30am. We will be there to meet you and discuss any Council problems you may have. No appointment necessary. Just pop in.
