Continuing the gain of Liberal Democrat councillors this week is the news from Fenland District Council: Fenland councillor Sarah Bligh has announced she is leaving the Conservative party to join the Liberal Democrats after "bitter infighting" and "oppressive overtones" within the Tory group... "In recent months, there has been bitter infighting within the Conservative group that hasn't sat well with me. I have made no secret of the fact that I had suffered from mental health problems in the past and the infighting behaviour was starting to bring back those feelings. "I was also concerned that those people that did ...
Jonathan Meades is one of this blog's heroes. And I have often mentioned the day in 2009 when England regained the Ashes because I kept to my bargain with God and did not look at the score as I walked from Sutton Bridge to the ornamental lighthouses at the mouth of the Nene. When I reached them I found we had taken three more wickets, two of them by run outs. Surely evidence of divine intervention? Put these two factors together and you get this clip from Meades' film Double Dutch which puts him into the landscape I walked through ...
The duo who contributed so much to the Liberal Democrats' 2015 general election campaign are back together. How can Brexit possibly resist? Friday Full of excitement, Fiona rings me to tell me of her latest plan: she and the other members of her new party are to hire a car. "We're going to Lancashire and Lincolnshire. Or are they the same place? Anyway, the idea is we cruise round and whenever we see someone who looks as they voted Leave we point at them, shout 'Gammon!' and roar with laughter." I ask if she imagines this will help the forces ...
The ruins of Northampton Castle were cleared in the 19th century to make room for Northampton Castle railway station, which is still open today and just called Northampton. A gate remains, though it was re-erected away from its original location, and you can find a bit of a mound that looks as though it should have been the castle's motte but wasn't. The good news is that the wooden sculptures of knights that were once to be found in the town centre have made their way to the castle site.
Liberal Democrat MP Wera Hobhouse has slammed an 'out of touch' Tory for sabotaging her Bill to make upskirting a specific sexual offence today. Having secured the Government's support for her Bill to make upskirting a specific offence, it was expected to pass through the House of Commons today. The Bill comes off the back of Gina Martin's campaign, which she started after falling victim to the crime last summer. However, in a shocking move Tory MP Christopher Chope, known for objecting to the second reading of the Alan Turing (Statutory Pardon) Bill, defied the Government and Number 10 by ...
We won all three seats in the deferred election for London Bridge & West Bermondsey! Congrats to all three top candidates! That means that, nationwide, the @Libdems gained more seats in the 2018 local elections than Labour did! pic.twitter.com/yt2Q3ndWxs — Southwark Lib-Dems (@swklibdems) June 15, 2018 * Paul Walter is a Liberal Democrat activist. He is one of the Liberal Democrat Voice team. He blogs at Liberal Burblings.
My preferences are as follows: 6) The Stone Sky, by N.K. Jemisin Reviewed here. I am in the small minority that has completely bounced off this series. You can get it here. 5) New York 2140, by Kim Stanley Robinson Reviewed here. Too rambling for me, especially in the second half. You can get it here. 4) Raven Stratagem, by Yoon Ha Lee Second paragraph of third chapter: The usual instructor was a stocky, graying man who never smiled. Brezan, sitting in the classroom with the other cadets, noticed the gleam in his eyes. Not a good sign. Next to ...
The standard of the War Widows Association and the Royal British Legion were paraded in the Lady Chapel of the Anglican Cathedral today in a service that was quintessentially British Imagine this nightmare scenario. VE Day (Victory in Europe Day) ... Continue reading →
When this by-election was called, the conventional wisdom was that Labour would win with around 50% of the vote, the Lib Dems would put their by-election game into a high hear and get second with around 25% of the vote and then the Tories would slip into third. When I woke up this morning and flicked through twitter to find out what had happened overnight, the result wasn't exactly a shocker. What it means in the grand scheme of things is very little. Labour won with half the vote. Yes this is slightly down but it was still a comfortable ...
View Poll: World Cup, Day Three You should be able to vote using your Facebook or Twitter account, even if you aren't on Livejournal. Congrats to strange_complex, yiskah, hano, mount_oregano, johnny9fingers, vilakins and me for calling yesterday's result.
In Christine Jardine's Edinburgh West constituency, there's a little boy called Murray. He has severe Epilepsy. Medical Cannabis could make a huge difference to his life, alleviating the seizures he suffered on a daily basis. Christine has been helping Murray's mum, Karen, campaign for a change in the law. She writes in the Edinburgh Reporter about why this is so important: In my constituency a little boy called Murray Gray has won the hearts of the public through his very similar plight. A rare form of epilepsy which could be eased if the law were changed. "I went to Downing ...
Mumsnet brings in tougher forum rules after transgender row MN "clamping down on transphobia" by banning the use of the terms cis, cisgender, and TERF. Sorry, just got to go find my eyes, they appear to have rolled RIGHT out of my head... weekly_food_challenge | Challenge #47 - cook something that costs less than £1 Smash Bros. Ultimate hands-on: We put new fighters, new features to the test | Ars Technica You would not BELIEVE the excitement about Ridley in this household. Interesting Twitter thread about the differences between individual and social models of consent New words list June 2018 ...
Thu, 12:56: The jumbled mess in the center of Jackson Crater https://t.co/v67i4aLTuE On the far side of the Moon... Thu, 13:58: World Cup, Day Two https://t.co/v6bgHmv3YN Thu, 16:05: How the Home Office used the NHS to refuse my client a visa https://t.co/WEZkCMcBvn Disgusting from UK government -... https://t.co/ViGMt9mFtf Thu, 18:00: RT @lowflyingrocks: 2018 LD1, 14m-31m in diameter, just passed the Earth at 11km/s, missing by 601,000km. https://t.co/NUoQUL0aWV Thu, 20:44: The 2018 WSFS Award finalists for Best Young Adult Book https://t.co/rTlXA1LBS8 Thu, 20:48: RT @theobertram: How do politicians get secretly taped? (This is an old anecdote, some of you have heard ...
Well done Lucy Salek, Lib Dem candidate in the Lewisham East by-election yesterday. And well done to the team around her for delivering a very creditable 19% swing from Labour and a comfortable increase in actual and share of the vote. The result is as follows (and I've included all the candidates due to the novel situation in which there are nearly as many of them as there are electors!): Janet
I take my newly awarded responsibilities as Chair of my Parish Council seriously, as one should. In that capacity, I see myself having a role in lobbying for things that we need or want, and in attending meetings so that I might better anticipate things that might impact on us sooner or later. And so, the receipt of an invitation to attend a Town and Parish Council Liaison Meeting, organised by Mid Suffolk District Council, seemed like an obvious thing to attend. I was, I have to confess, therefore somewhat surprised to discover that the meeting would take place at ...
Good news from Westminster – Wera Hobhouse's Bill to make upskirting a specific sexual offence could closer to becoming law today when it receives its second reading in the Commons. Wera has won Government support for the measure but it requires to get through today without objection before it can proceed. Wera has been working with campaigner Gina Martin and her lawyer Ryan Whelan on the details of law reform with the Ministry of Justice. Wera today said she was "delighted" as the Government agreed to support her legislation to close any potential loopholes, in order to better protect victims ...
If we needed any more proof that hard-line Brexiteers inhabit a different world to anybody else then the revelation that the City firm co-founded by Jacob Rees-Mogg, has set up an investment fund in Ireland and is warning prospective clients about the financial dangers of the sort of hard Brexit favoured by the Tory MP, must surely count as a slam-dunk.. As the Guardian reports, the London-based Somerset Capital Management (SCM) described Brexit as a risk in a prospectus to a new fund it launched in March, which has been marketed to international investors who want to keep their money ...
What a shambles! Theresa May is clinging onto the north face of the parliamentary Eiger by her finger nails while Remainers bay for her blood on one slope and Brexiteers on the other. The only thing keeping the prime minister on her increasingly precarious perch are behind-doors conflicting promises that must be kept secret because if they leaked Mrs May, the government, the conservative party and Brexit negotiations would tumble. The Labour opposition, meanwhile can't decide whether to oppose or join the government, and is, if anything, more divided than the Conservatives. Anti-European Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn instructed his MPs ...
Commenting on the increased Liberal Democrat vote in the Lewisham East by-election Liberal Democrat Leader Vince Cable said:"Lucy Salek and the Liberal Democrats have fought a proud, pro-European campaign and have seen former Labour and Conservative voters switching support and rallying behind our campaign. We have also focused on the issues that matter to the community - and that have been neglected by an overly confident Labour Party - and will continue to do so. "This result sends a message to the Labour leadership that it cannot take pro-European voters for granted.This is the largest swing from Labour to the ...
I have just been travelling in Italy, largely by train. I found the trains modern, clean and comfortable. All the trains I took left and arrived on time (one of them arrived six minutes early at the destination). Standing on platforms and studying the timetables (sad, I know, but there's nothing much else to do [...] The post What does the railways crisis say about UK management? appeared first on Radix.
Responding to the NAO's latest report on Universal Credit, Liberal Democrat DWP Spokesman Stephen Lloyd said: "This comprehensive report from the NAO is a devastating indictment of the Conservatives' cruel and incompetent roll-out of Universal Credit."Not only is UC years behind schedule and unlikely to either deliver value for money or increase employment, it is also causing severe hardship among claimants, which the Government consistently refuses to acknowledge or address. "This awful situation is unlikely to improve, with the NAO estimating that over 300,000 new claimants will be paid late over the course of this year, inflicting further financial and ...
Liverpool Lime Street Station The Liverpool Echo has the story on its web site – see link above This is a fascinating bit of railway and indeed social history.
From Sheena Wellington : Saturday 16th June, Cappuccino Concert - Wighton Heritage Centre, Central Library11am - noon - tickets £5 Andrew Gordon & Euan Johnston, songs, tunes and a bit of welly! Euan Johnston and Andrew Gordon have been friends from the Scottish music scene for 15 years each a much respected performer in his own right. Finally getting together as a duo in early 2016, Euan and Andrew have worked on a set that shows their passion for Scottish and Irish Music. Never taking themselves too seriously, they switch from the serious to the surreal, from Spain to seals. ...
Nice when your canvass returns are bang on, isn't it? We briefed the media this week that we were on 25% – and that is almost exactly what we delivered. Last year we lost our deposit in Lewisham East. This year we got a quarter of the vote. Our actual number of votes went up by 2.5 times, too, from 2086 votes last year, although the turnout was less than half. Labour's vote dropped from 32000 to 11000 and the Tory vote dropped from 11000 to 3000. That vote share bar chart is going to look very good. And, courtesy ...
