Back in July 2010, I first blogged about an excellent post from Neil Stockley on how to win a referendum. He was writing about the alternative vote referendum, before it or the subsequent Scottish independence and Brexit referendums had been held. That makes very impressive how well his list of 10 key factors now read after we've seen how all three of those referendums were all conducted and concluded. So here are his key points once more, relevant too to the continuing political struggle over Brexit: Holding a public vote on changing the voting system is a radical step for ...
At some point today, while I was lying down with a headache, the counter on my blog's stats ticked over and I got my millionth visitor, roughly a decade after I started this thing (and long after blogs have stopped ... Continue reading →
Many Chiswick and Southfield residents have seen the notices placed on lampposts detailing Council plans to allow commuters to park in your streets even though many residents have bought their annual parking permits! The plans mean that Ealing Council wants to charge non residents money to park in areas where local Southfield residents are paying the annual CPZ permit fee. Over 40 sites are possibly affected across Southfield. Councillor Gary Malcolm has made a Freedom of Information request to uncover information from the Council about their plans. It appears that the Council has not considered the impact of having more ...
First broadcast in 1996, this documentary tells the story behind A Very British Scandal. It features interviews (to camera or from the archive) with Thorpe and two of his co-accused, as well as Norman Scott and Andrew Newton. You will also see Liberal Party figures, including David Steel, and the journalists Daniel Farson and Auberon Waugh. Waugh Stood against Thorpe for the Dog Lovers' Party at the 1979 general election.
Current Gemini, by Dorothy Dunnett The Collapsing Empire, by John Scalzi Raven Stratagem, by Yoon Ha Lee Last books finished Beyond This Horizon, by Robert A. Heinlein Collected Works, ed. Nick Wallace Mind Over Ship, by David Marusek In Other Lands, by Sarah Rees Brennan Second Stage Lensmen, by E. E. "Doc" Smith (did not finish) The Cybersecurity Campaign Playbook, European Edition, by Harrison Monsky and the Harvard Kennedy School Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs P.I.G.S., by Cecilia Valagussa The Case for a New WEU: European Defence After Brexit, by Charles Tannock MEP Next books Dark Matter, by ...
Dave Hodgson, Mayor of Bedford since 2011, has this week condemned the new timetable changes on East Midlands Trains; "'It sucks'. That was the verdict of a commuter I spoke to at 7:30 this morning getting off a delayed rail replacement bus, on the first day of the loss of peak-time intercity trains from Bedford. These buses are a testament to the Government's utter betrayal of Bedford over the new rail timetables. While the Government boasts of 'modernisation', commuters I spoke to this morning are dreading theprospect of at least two and a half years of rail replacement buses. And ...
"So that's three ideas, none of which are that radical, all of which are flawed to some degree, being presented to members as part of an opaque and closed process that only gives them a couple of days to vote on them." No, Nick Barlow is not a great fan of the Ashdown Prize. Anthony Costello looks at how the Irish referendum on abortion was won: "Early polls suggested that voters across the country were greatly influenced by the personal stories of women mediated throughout the campaign, whilst personal relationships and experiences also had a significant influence on voter choice. ...
There is a certain irony in that, having written the Committee's communication plan before I resigned as its Secretary, that the Committee leadership has evidently forgotten that it exists. Thus, this report is wholly my own work. You'll remember that if I run for re-election next year, right? The key areas for discussion this time were the workplan and our response to the Alderdice Report on BAME participation within the Party. The workplan is, I sense, a work of obligation rather than commitment, in that it looks to have been put together because one is required, rather than desired. Federal ...
An interesting blog post on Centrism It illustrates handily why I really detest centrism as a guiding principle, because while it professes to be sensible and reasonable and fair, in a lot of cases it is not fair or reasonable at all. And yet people cleave to it as if it is the ONLY way to be fair and reasonable... It can, sometimes, be fair and reasonable. But it usually isn't. 'All science fiction is political,' says Hugo award nominee Mimi Mondal In Britain, Austerity Is Changing Everything - The New York Times This is the most depressing article I ...
Parliamentary by-elections are the cup-cakes of political nerds and I have followed them closely since my early teens. I cut my political teeth as an 18-year-old sub-agent in the Birmingham Ladywood by-election in 1969 (which Wallace Lawler won for the then Liberal Party) and I have lost count of all the by-election campaigns I've helped [...]
Sun, 12:56: Giant canyons discovered in Antarctica https://t.co/b2eT83sGE5 Tekeli-li! Sun, 16:15: The Repeal of the Eighth https://t.co/eDnFIyV42j Sun, 16:15: @aaocarroll https://t.co/OLVlCAQBWP Sun, 17:59: RT @hayward_katy: Public opinion on abortion in Northern Ireland via @ARK_info: 63% agree it's a woman's right to choose 76%: women should... Sun, 20:48: Jordan Peterson Is So Sexist I Don't Need to Know Anything Else https://t.co/xdHCNrxiYN Fair comment from @foxyfolklorist. Sun, 21:19: RT @leonardocarella: Italian PM update: it seems that Conte's claim in his CV to have "studied at Girton College, Cambridge, in September 2... Mon, 05:38: RT @MichaelSwanwick: It is my sad duty to note ...
Sounds familiar? Time to make some sense of this slogan. As shown here before, Brexit has already, and, if carried through, will continue to inflict massive economic damage to UK household incomes, tax revenues, and public spending potential. According to the Bank of England, the British GDP is already £20 billion smaller than it would have been after a remain-vote. This is consistent with the 0.5% GDP growth underperformance of the UK compared to the G7 since 2016 (1% of GDP is equivalent to £20 billion). Given the UK's previous position at the top of the G7 growth ranking, the ...
The Ashdown Prize will be awarded to the boldest, most radical new policy idea that best empowers the citizen and tackles one of the challenges facing Britain today. So goes the blurb sent out to every Liberal Democrat member yesterday, urging us to vote on the radical policy ideas that this new contest within the party has drawn up. It's a bold plan and a way to open up policy-making in the party to a wider audience and to bring forward ideas that are normally stifled by the leadership before they get a chance to... Yeah, you know where this ...
t's very easy for those, like us, who make policy recommendations to fall into abstract thinking. To forget that policy decisions have a direct impact on people's lives. Often a dramatic impact. This was brought home by a recent story in The Guardian about Jerome Rogers. The short version of the story goes as follows. Rogers was [...] The post The murderous potential of the bureaucratic state appeared first on Radix.
Last week, I wrote in these pages about becoming a Parish Councillor as, perhaps, a stepping stone to other things, although it can be, and often is, worthwhile in itself. I then went home to my Annual Parish Council Meeting and, rather unexpectedly, became Chair. That will teach me... On explaining a bit about my particular Parish Council, a friend noted that it seemed to be one of the common models, an anarcho-syndicalist collective, whereby someone is notional in charge (a bit like the Constitutional Peasant scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail), as opposed to the Stalinist school ...
As I embark on my final day at the Hay literary festival I reflect on the theme of many of the sessions I attended over the last few days - the search for a new identity which may or may not have contributed to the Brexit vote nearly two years ago. Many speakers talked about the difficulties of living and working as a minority in a multi-cultural society built on the remnants of empire, and how large swathes of white British people are struggling to come to terms with a loss of influence and prestige associated with that imperial past. ...
Today's Liberal Democrat Voice is brought to you from sunny West Yorkshire, starting in Brighouse and ending... probably in mid-Suffolk, which isn't very Northern, I'll admit. No promises about today's content, I'm afraid, although there might be something about Parish Councils again, given what happened last week. So, sit back with the light refreshment of your choice, as we set off on this Bank Holiday Monday... * Mark Valladares is Monday Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice. Sometimes, it's much easier than it looks...
Well yes of course I'm no supporter of Corbyn as I'm a Radical Liberal but none the less the almost cult-like following Corbyn has is something I'd really like to at least understand. That some people think he is the saviour of the left is undoubtedly the case and that he is idolised by some is also a given, but let me throw a few things out there for debate. Firstly, in the last local elections as I was out and about campaigning and indeed cycling through West Lancashire and Sefton one thing really struck me; it was the Labour ...
DUNDEE CITY COUNCIL - WEEKLY ROAD REPORT REPORT FOR WEST END WARD - WEEK COMMENCING MONDAY 28 MAY 2018 South Union Street/South Marketgait at Dundee Railway Station - northbound nearside lane closure from 9.30am for 5 weeks for footway works. Please also note that, in addition to the scheduled road report, Guthrie Street has been closed at its most westerly section, in recent days. The council has advised me : "The works and road closure are due to a SSE cable fault. They contacted me last Tuesday to advise me of the problem. I would hope the work to be ...
I've been thinking quite a bit about the series Brooklyn Nine-Nine recently, even before the news of its cancellation and miraculous resurrection. I started watching it mostly as a kind of methadone for The Good Place, whose creator is a ... Continue reading →
