It was a project which would power 150,000 households for 120 year, a program of lagoons at Swansea, Newport, Cardiff and Colwyn Bay which would create over 34,000 jobs in Wales alone. And Wales does need jobs. It was championed by the Lib Dems in Government, but, as has happened with so many Lib Dem ideas, it's been cancelled today by the Tories. Coming on the same day as the the vote on Heathrow expansion, you would be forgiven that the Tories really didn't give a hoot about what David Cameron is alleged to have once described as "green crap" ...
Embed from Getty Images Back in the 1970s there was a league table for the most times "you know" was said during a short Match of the Day interview. I can't remember who topped it, but I remember that the count ran into dozens. If there were a similar table today it would be the number of times "like" was said that would be counted. We all do it to some extent, as an Indpendent article by Olivia Blair explains: Professor Michael Handford, a professor of applied linguistics and English language at Cardiff University, says there are two main reasons ...
At the weekend I joined over 100,000 other people marching for a 'People's Vote' in London. This marked the second anniversary of when Britain narrowly voted to leave the European Union. Negotiations to formally leave the EU have been ongoing for the last 15 months. As things currently stand, Britain will Brexit on 29 March 2019. Forget soft or hard Brexit, neither seems likely to happen. There is hardly any sign that Britain is heading towards a soft Brexit, where Britain remains inside the Single Market and the Customs Union after Brexit. The House of Commons recently rejected the opportunity ...
Thanks to the kind permission of Federal Policy Committee (FPC) member Jeremy Hargreaves, I've added to the Liberal Democrat Newswire his highly accessible and thorough guide to how the Liberal Democrats make policy.
The Liberal Democrats are calling on May to take a stand against Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Christine Jardine said:"Erdogan's re-election cannot be regarded as truly democratic. Erdogan has consistently infringed on the democratic and human rights of the Turkish people in order to maintain his position of power."We truly sympathise with the Turkish people, who will have to endure another five years under the control of this ruthless megalomaniac. "The Conservative government are not doing enough to send a message that Erdogan's actions will not be tolerated, even inviting him on a state visit only a couple of ...
Mon 25th
19:29
Cancellation of the Swansea Bay tidal lagoon is a betrayal of Britain's energy and economic future
Commenting on the Government's decision to scrap the Swansea Bay tidal lagoon former Liberal Democrat Energy Secretary Ed Davey said:"This is a betrayal of Britain's energy and economic future - and will be particularly devastating in Wales. "Britain is an early leader in tidal power and has the potential to become the world champion. Tidal lagoons are the smartest way to take this opportunity. Yet the Conservatives are effectively killing it. "The Government is talking utter nonsense on the price of tidal and have failed to engage in the facts. "Swansea Bay, as a pathfinder experiment, would add only 30p ...
Current Le Mariage de Figaro, by Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais Robot Visions, by Isaac Asimov Last books finished Old Friends, by Jonathan Clements, Marc Platt and Pete Kempshall Dark Matter, by Blake Crouch City of Stairs, by Robert Jackson Bennett Politically Correct Bedtime Stories, by James Finn Garner Virgins, Weeders and Queens, by Twigs Way Moominvalley in November, by Tove Jansson Brexit and the Future of Ireland: Uniting Ireland & Its People in Peace & Prosperity, by Senator Mark Daly Heroine Complex, by Sarah Kuhn Next books Your Code Name is Jonah, by Edward Packard Rose de Paris, by Gilles ...
It's just two years to the day since a good half of the nation woke up to the horrifying fact that we had voted to leave the European Union. I say "a good half" because although 37% of those entitled to vote opted for "Leave" and only 34% voted to "Remain," that left some 28% who didn't bother to vote so were presumably satisfied with the way things were, the 16 and 17 year-olds, thought to be overwhelmingly in favour of remaining,(and most affected by the decision) were not allowed to vote, and neither were the evn more immediately affected ...
Radio 4's Moral Maze on the NHS yesterday didn't start well. The first witness raged at the institution's inefficiency and how people were using its supposed moral integrity to justify it. Tens of thousands were dying as a result, he said. His interlocutors provided no real challenge. I switched off. This is symptomatic of the ... Continue reading Tax or efficiency: making sense of the politics of the NHS
It craked. Hoarse and raw. Footloose, on the wing, it looked down at us. Perched in the roof-line gutter, craking on... The bird of fortune, named by accident, rescued by goodwill, nurtured in our den, drawing down our blackened greed, shimmering... "You gaaave me what I asked for; I can see how much is there [...]
TRIGGER WARNING FOR MENTAL HEALTH, SUICIDE AND SELF-HARM When self-harm is mentioned, you likely imagine someone cutting themselves. There are various reasons why someone might harm themselves, and we need to face up to the fact that we all need to do more. But to recognise when someone is hurting themselves can be difficult. There are a variety of methods, and often the person hides their harm away. It becomes hard to spot the signs and to even understand what those signs mean. I have three friends who have openly admitted to me that they have self-harmed and each of ...
While some of the major health think tanks such as The King's Fund say the announced 3.4% increase in annual NHS spending is not enough - and I would agree with that – can we at least use the additional NHS funding more efficiently? I would say it might be worth looking at changing some long-established patterns of patient care. Let's start by looking at primary care. Currently it is estimated that around half of all GP appointments are for just two kinds of conditions – musculoskeletal (MSK) problems (accounting for a fifth of all GP appointments) and mental health ...
Our Headline of the Day Award goes to a first-time recipient, The Red Roar.
View Poll: World Cup, Day Thirteen You should be able to vote using your Facebook or Twitter account, even if you aren't on Livejournal. I'm glad to say that I managed to call all three results yesterday; nobody else got more than two. Some people (well, one person) asked about the standings so far. By dint of answering my own questions diligently, I am currently in the lead after the first 32 matches; but it's all to play for. 128 out of 212 predictions have been correct so far, just over 60%. Congrats to dave_gallaher for his hat-trick, and thanks ...
I read an article, at least one a week, about how Brexit is going to be the death of the Conservative Party. Beyond being very cavalier about the impending doom of the most successful political party in the history of mankind, I don't agree with most of the analysis on a fundamental level. I think there is a far greater chance that Labour will be badly hurt by the fallout from Brexit and the Tories will muddle through. I'm not saying that definitely will happen, I'm simply suggesting that given what's in front of us now, that seems much more ...
This resolution proposed by PLC, Partido Liberal de Chile and supported by D66 of Netherlands and LIBG Liberal International British Group was hotly debated during the Human Rights Committee session at the 200th Executive Committee meeting of Liberal International held at the headquarters of the Free Democratic Party of Germany in Berlin this weekend. Despite strong reservations from several delegates to the original wording and a proposal to refer back, a ŷlast minute re-write during the session which addressed all of the reservations expressed led to success, with a large majority of delegates voting for the resolution during the following ...
Sun, 12:25: 4657 9443 6378 (If you connect please ping me so that I know it's you) Sun, 12:56: It Came From The Search Terms: Month of May https://t.co/4Av3SRIRTj Micro-advice from Captain Awkward. Sun, 13:07: World Cup, Day Twelve https://t.co/CGJ4xWXNaZ Sun, 15:02: Opinion polls, the Daly Report, and prospects for a United Ireland https://t.co/lL3LVegPbn Sun, 20:48: RT @damonwake: Incredible. Giving birth to one 54-year-old child is remarkable enough, but FIVE?! https://t.co/4uVr95xZK1 Mon, 09:47: RT @EZaharievaMFA: Working breakfast with #Albania ahead of the last #GAC under @EU2018BG. Thank you, @ditmirbushati for the honest and di... Mon, 10:09: When your first flight ...
Labour supporters and others stood amongst a crowd of over 100,000 people on Saturday protesting against Brexit, calling for a vote on the final deal, and chanting 'Where's Jeremy Corbyn?' The Labour leader had conveniently scheduled a visit to a refugee camp to coincide with the march, but the chant was not just about his absence on that day, it was questioning why Labour under his leadership has failed to show-up at all as an official opposition during the debate over the existential crisis that Brexit threatens to become for the UK. In this context there is an interesting piece ...
I enjoy cycling down the Rimrose Valley, it's a lovely green oasis amongst the hustle and bustle of the crowded part of Sefton Borough. So sad then that Highways England are to drive a new road right through the heart of it Early last Sunday morning it felt like I had the whole valley to myself and then on the horizon the reason that the road is going to be built came into view (see photo above), the gantry cranes of Liverpool 2. I've blogged about this more times than I care to recall as it has been one of ...
They say that the political centre ground has been vacated creating a big opportunity for so-called 'centrist' political forces to make big gains by re-occupying it. But is that true? There are reasons why the centre ground has been vacated. And they do not bode well for those who approach that space in the same [...] The post How to win with the new politics (are you listening, Lib Dems?) appeared first on Radix.
I am about 99 per cent less politically engaged now than was I was even three years ago, mostly because I think all parties lack true radicalism right now, so I find the endless rehashing of each party's greatest hits albums tedious in the extreme. But this week Labour did pop up with an idea that tempted my focus away from the books I've been meaning to read, and the friends I've been meaning to meet, when they proposed shifting the Bank of England to Birmingham and changing the central bank's mandate to target productivity. The first idea is based ...
Mon 25th
07:50
Welcome to my day: Monday 25 June - it's not the despair, it's the hope that gets you...
England win 6-1, a huge march against Brexit. Anyone would think that we might be entitled to good stuff for a change. We'll see if anything comes of either event, but it is nice to have something that offers hope, rather than the despair that has been so wearing of late. There's been a lot of hope in the past week for supporters of the NHS, but the Conservative proposal of an extra £20 billion for health spending turned to dust pretty quickly when it became clear that there wasn't much actual money, and that what there was would be ...
You can't get away from potholes and failing road surfaces in Ludlow. Sheet Road, one of main access roads into town, is falling apart from one end to the other. Pedestrian crossings are barely visible because crossing stripes haven't been painted in years. New potholes appear almost every day. The contractors who maintain the A49 between Ludlow and Bromfield admit it "is breaking up and in poor condition." The state of our local roads in Shropshire will be the topic of discussion at a public meeting in Ludlow on 5 July. All road maintenance work in Shropshire is carried out ...
DUNDEE CITY COUNCIL - WEEKLY ROAD REPORT REPORT FOR WEST END WARD - WEEK COMMENCING MONDAY 25 JUNE 2018 South Union Street/South Marketgait at Dundee Railway Station - northbound nearside lane closure from 9.30am for 2 weeks for footway works. Brook Street (at Milnes East Wynd) - off-peak temporary lights on Monday 25 June for Scottish Water manhole repair. Forthcoming Roadworks Logie Street - closed from Monday 2 July for 3 weeks for carriageway resurfacing. Greenmarket/South Marketgait junction - prohibition of all right turns from Monday 2 July for 2 weeks for traffic signal refurbishment works.
