London likes to present itself — with some justification — as the world's premier global city. But it may be falling off its pedestal. Whereas until 2016 people flocked to London to find jobs in everything from banking to being a barista, these days the movement is more towards the exit door, as applications for [...]

Posted by jonathanfryer on Jonathan Fryer

The project has been slipping ever since the contractors Carillion went under, but it is likely that the new car park at Market Harborough station will open next month and the old one on the other side of the tracks will close. Then work on straightening the S-bend those tracks take through the station will begin. This will enable the line speed to be increased. When the work is complete, the train in the first photograph below will continue straight towards the camera rather than taking the curve you see there now. I was at the station today and took ...

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

All our team will play a full part within the Council From left to right, Kris Brown, Mirna Juarez, Malcolm Kelly, Richard Kemp, Liz Makinson, Carole Storey, Andrew Makinson Following our Annual Group Meeting the Liverpool Lib Dems have announced ... Continue reading →

Posted by richardkemp on But what does Richard Kemp think?

Rather than committing to the painful, risky business of building peace, both Belfast and Mostar have instead opted simply to prevent any kind of contact.

Posted by jfefleming on Whatever's Left

Four practical steps which will make the next by-election in a weaker area an opportunity rather than another drag on time to endure.

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

Especially to those of you who pay for this blog via Patreon. I *do* hope to be back to full-time blogging soon, but I've been quite *astonishingly* ill, even by my chronically-ill standards, for a couple of months — a ... Continue reading →

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

Photo of a water mill at Alderholt from Geograph © Stuart Buchan The Daily Telegraph wins our Headline of the Day Award with this tale of everyday life in a Dorset village.

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

Peter Dunphy, the Chair of the Party's Federal Finance and Resources Committee, is stepping down after four and a half years in the role. He's been an incredibly wise pair of hands, steering the party through some pretty torrid times. The change from being a party of Government with nearly sixty MPs to a party with just eight required careful handling. We'll miss him in the role. On stepping down, he said: In case some of you don't already know I will be standing down as Chair of FFRC and therefore Registered Party Treasurer on 1st July. I originally notified ...

Posted by Caron Lindsay on Liberal Democrat Voice

Tim Farron has withdrawn from an event he was speaking at on Saturday after someone posted promotional material for it on Twitter. The blurb for the "Men Standing Alone" event to be held in Manchester says as follows: The leadership from those in authority in the denominations who should be the guardians of biblical truth has been muted to say the least and even in Bible teaching churches many appear to be wavering under the onslaught of the gay lobby. Add to this scenario the increasing problems associated with immigration, and Islam in particular and indeed many other things which ...

Posted by Caron Lindsay on Liberal Democrat Voice

...but we can't Oh, no. Because Tim Farron just can't stop talking. He can't help himself. Remember the party leader who told us he "doesn't pontificate on religious matters"? It was never true; as I pointed out many times, he actually has quite a record on making religious statements. But many did believe him, and told people like me we were illiberal and anti-Christian (yes, apparently even as a United Reformed Church elder you can be anti-Christian) for judging him according to his private views. You see, that's the real problem - Tim isn't, and never has been, private. And ...

Posted by Andrew on A Scottish Liberal
YouGov

Education has always been of special importance for liberals and Liberal Democrats throughout the ages. It has been one of the best vehicles for enabling individuals to obtain their full potential, develop their talents and make the most of the opportunities that they are presented with. It is with this in mind that Helen Flynn and John Howson's chapter is so warmly received in the latest publication from the Social Liberal Forum, 'Four Go In Search of Big Ideas'. Flynn and Howson rightly place great emphasis on the need to improve early years education. They call for a highly funded ...

Posted by Paul Hindley on Liberal Democrat Voice

Second para of third chapter:"Is there a good reason why you're outside my house at four thirty in the morning?" he asks, resting a travel mug of coffee on the hood of an ancient Land Rover. His keys jingle as he unlocks the driver's-side door. He surveys my T-shirt, soaked through with sweat under the arms and in the middle of my chest. It's a long run from my house to Fort Myers Beach — and there's a bridge involved.Trish Doller is one of my twins, born like me on 26 April 1967. (Also my former college flatmate who now ...

*** UPDATED 10TH MAY *** As many people will know, BBC TV's Casualty programme has been filming on the Road to Nowhere. The storyline involves a motorway crash and a petrol tanker blaze. The BBC has now told local residents that the big bang(s) will now happen by 10.30 pm today Thursday, May 10th (Not Saturday 5th or Wednesday 9th - they're running behind schedule) More details and photos of the set are on the Gazette website

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

Politics Home reports of Labour infighting, and complacency, over the selection of their candidate for the Lewisham East Parliamentary by-election: Labour bosses have been accused of a "stitch-up" designed to ensure a left-wing candidate will be chosen to stand in the forthcoming Lewisham East by-election. Senior members of Labour's national executive committee – including Jeremy Corbyn – will meet this morning to agree the timetable for the race, including which of them will make up a panel to decide the shortlist of candidates. But that has sparked an angry backlash from local activists in the south London constituency... They have ...

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

The Learning Disabilities Mortality Review Annual Report was published recently by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership. In it are harrowing statistics of people with learning disabilities dying far too young. The report highlights the extraordinarily high incidences of preventable death. The Connor Sparrowhawk case has brought this to public attention recently: a young man with learning difficulties left in a bath unattended, he drowned whilst having an epileptic fit. Between July 2016 and November 2017, 1311 deaths were put forward for review, often by a Learning Disability Nurse. Of those, 27% of people had mild learning difficulties, 33% moderate needs, ...

Posted by Kirsten Johnson on Liberal Democrat Voice
Thu 10th
12:06

Re-elected as Leader

Last night was the AGM of the Lib Dem group on Gateshead Council. I was re-elected Leader of the group. This stunning victory came courtesy of an unopposed return! My contingency plans for what to do if I were defeated - cleaning the muck out of the henhouse, planting vegetables and making more jam - have had to be shelved yet again! Thank you to my colleagues for putting their trust in me.

Posted by jonathanwallace on Jonathan Wallace

Theresa May is trying to teach a horse to talk weekly_food_challenge | Challenge #42 - Iftar This week's challenge is LIVE Why are mass shooters and terrorists basically all men? Warning: doesn't really answer the question, and contains some EvPsychBollocks, but does also contain some interesting facts and figures. Channel 4's 'Genderquake: The Debate' Slammed As Munroe Bergdorf Is Heckled With Transphobic Abuse A Discovery of Witches 1st LOOK: Doctor Who's Alex Kingston stars as Sarah Bishop in new TV series I am VERY HERE for badass same-sex-parenting mama bear Alex Kingston. Katie on Twitter: "WHO WANTS TO HEAR ABOUT ...

Thu 10th
11:00

My tweets

Wed, 12:56: RT @benjamin_cook: So! The longest single shot in #DoctorWho? Thanks for all your suggestions. 😘 The Twitter hive mind has suggested six ma... Wed, 13:49: RT @FTKKosova: 2.Special thanks go to the @NorwegianMFA @PerSjaastad, for without their support this would not have been possible.@AwardsIC... Wed, 13:49: RT @FondacioniT: Very honourd to have recived the ICT Awards 2018 Recognition Award: "For outstanding contribution and merit in the use of... Wed, 18:46: Luminescent Threads and The Road to Middlemarch https://t.co/xOeN5dueEe Thu, 08:11: RT @DavidLammy: Not many things shock me after two decades in politics but the scale of rank incompetence ...

At the moment, virtually all of our policies – save for our stance on the EU – amount to tinkering at the edges of a flawed, if not broken, political system. This is a result of the fact that there is generally a fair amount of consensus within mainstream politics on a number of key issues. All parties agree that we need to build more housing, that we need more funding of schools, the NHS and the police, and that we need to protect the environment. The major policy debates at the moment concern immigration, nationalisation of public infrastructure, the ...

Posted by Chris Lee on Liberal Democrat Voice

Apologies for missing a couple – they all merged into one after a while. Denmark would be my top pick. Norway – very energetic with excellent superimposed musical instruments. I liked it very much. Netherlands – a classic Nashville country music rock song. It shouldn't even be in the contest. Denmark – very powerful and ... Continue reading Thoughts on the songs in tonight's Eurovision semi-final

Posted by paulwalternewbury on Liberal Burblings
eUKhost

It has not been a good week for the Labour leadership and their determination to back Theresa May and the Tories in securing a no compromise exit from the European Community. Two days ago 83 Labour peers defied an order to abstain and instead walked into the lobbies with the Liberal Democrats to help pass an amendment to the EU withdrawal bill saying that remaining in the EEA (the European Economic Area) should be a government Brexit negotiating objective. And today, the Independent reports that five MPs from the Labour party's northern heartlands have broken ranks and openly demanded a ...

Posted by Peter Black on Peter Black

The people of the USA have the right to elect a lying, misogynist bully in their democracy but they should not inflict him on the rest of the World!! I want to talk about Donald Trump and America but before ... Continue reading →

Posted by richardkemp on But what does Richard Kemp think?

I turned ten in May 1968. I remember how upset I was at all the Paris students breaking up the pavements to throw stones at the police. I was clearly not a very radical little boy. Fifty years on, it does give us a chance to take another look at the heady mix of angry [...] The post May 1968 and the Liberals appeared first on Radix.

Posted by David Boyle on Radix

I'm following up my post from February on children's mental health and the Government's Green Paper on the issue. Yesterday, the Education Committee and Health & Social Care Committee issued a joint statement saying that The Government's proposed Green Paper on Transforming Children and Young People's Mental Health lacks ambition and will provide no help to the majority of those children who desperately need it. Having three teenage girls, this rams home. The girls tell me of the myriad of mental health issues going on around them – peers self-harming; experiencing psychosis; anorexia; depression; anxiety; the list goes on. This ...

Posted by Kirsten Johnson on Liberal Democrat Voice

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kml7qXFJ0Ts Some fascinating pictures of this former station are on You Tube and you can access them via the link above.

Posted by Cllr. Tony Robertson on Sefton Focus

Peel's cranes at Liverpool 2's deep water river berth for colossal sized contain ships, Seaforth. www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZL_LYsb_uw The time lapse video is on You Tube – see link above Yes I know the new Liverpool 2 container terminal is controversial because it was built before the transport access for freight to and from it was sorted out – cart before horse I've heard it called – but this time lapse video is actually quite interesting and worth looking at

Posted by Cllr. Tony Robertson on Sefton Focus