Don't listen to the fools who tell you Chelsea have no history. They were in the FA Cup final during the First World War and should have been the first English club to play in the European Cup after they won the Championship in the 1950s. But it's true that Chelsea have had an uneven history. When I was at primary school they won the FA Cup and the European Cup Winners Cup with a team of players like Peter Osgood, Alan Hudson and Charlie Cooke. Then the money ran out and the hard times came, though hope continued for ...
[IMG: Trump acknowledges that Liberal Democrats are the 'smartest' people] Don't believe me? Read the tweet below. Liberals, it must be universally acknowledged, spend a heck of a lot of time investing in building up a bank of knowledge. We read, we write and we like to... The post Trump acknowledges that Liberal Democrats are the 'smartest' people appeared first on FeministMama @ambitiousmamas.
I went down to London today for the demonstration against Donald Trump. There were the inevitable SWP banners, but plenty that were home-made too. If not quite Middle England on the march, the crowd certainly went far beyond the usual suspects. The throng was so dense (some 250,000 turned out for the event) that it was impossible to find the Liberal Democrat brigade. As the march showed no signs of setting off I eventually became a citizen journalist instead of a demonstrator and took these photographs before heading off to explore Bloomsbury.
Carola Godman Irvine, President of the Conservative Association in Lewes, has been suspended by her party after a series of comments she made about Muslims on her blog last year came to wider attention. PoliticsHome reports: Writing in the wake of the Manchester arena suicide bombing that killed 22 people just days before the general election last year, Ms Godman Irvine said: "Already they are raping and impregnating British girls and young women, 'creating' Muslim babies; just see what is happening in Rochdale. "Let us hope that the 22 victims of the Manchester bomb have not died in vain. Perhaps ...
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's Barack Obama. He's come to save the day.
Second frames of the third pages of Book I and Book II (here published as a single volume): This is a brilliant comic book about being at the sharp edge of diplomacy. Arthur Vlaminck is plucked from his almost-completed PhD to become speech-writer for the French Foreign Minister (the original title of the series is Quai d'Orsay, the location of the foreign ministry in Paris). The set-up is a very thinly disguised version of the 2002-04 period when the (barely pseudonymous) author was in fact speech-writer to the then French foreign minister Dominique de Villepin. There are a couple of ...
it was heartening to see many tens of thousands of people turn up this hot Friday afternoon to march against the views and practices of US President Donald Trump. There was a carnival atmosphere right from the moment that a giant Baby Trump in a nappy was inflated this morning and floated over Parliament Square, [...]
I have never liked the term "welfare state" with is paternalist tone, preferring "social state" derived from the German Sozialstaat and fitting with the concept of the social market as regulated, fair and free economy. It was interesting to read today in The Economist (Repairing the safety net - The welfare state needs updating) that the founding force behind the UK welfare state, the Liberal William Beverage, shared that view. However, more importantly, in that article and the introductory leader - Reforming the welfare state: Back to basic liberalism - the point is made that it was the liberal philosophy ...
Fri 13th
16:21
The Barrow Affair (7): Shropshire Council threatens police action against councillors - I'd welcome ...
Shropshire Council has threatened Shropshire councillors with police action if we reveal details of a potentially illegal payment to a football club. That is too much for me to stomach. I want to know why a former councillor leader approved a grant to his favourite football team. I want to know why repayments of that "grant" were cancelled on his watch. I want to know why, when he was forced to resign from Shropshire Council, he was immediately employed by the owner of the football team. The growing scandal about TNS, an Oswestry football club, cannot be ignored. If I ...
View Poll: Who will win the third place play-off?
You might be fooled into believing, because of the gnashing of teeth amongst the Tory Brexiteers, that the plan thrashed out at Chequers, on which today's White Paper was based, is hardly any Brexit at all. Don't believe that fiction, says Layla Moran, writing for Politics.co.uk. First, though, she compares and contrasts two holders of that high office of state of Foreign Secretary: The contrast between Carrington and Johnson is striking. Carrington served in Churchill's cabinet yet was the more modern figure, seeing the importance of nations working for the common good. Johnson, in contrast, invited a photographer to capture ...
The EU has just passed a law that could end the problems with free movement which led to Brexit in the first place How women are erased from their own acheivements If you like what you see here (or even if you don't) please consider dropping me a tip: [IMG: Paypal Donate Button] [IMG: Buy Me an uncaffeinated beverage (because I'm allergic to coffee) at ko-fi.com] [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
Fri 13th
11:56Philip Dunne's intervention in the Commons on Mortimer Forest cabins could kill the scheme
The row over the proposed development of 68 holiday cabins in the Mortimer Forest shows no sign of going away. A planning application was expected in June but we have yet to see it. I wasn't planning to write on this again until that application was submitted. But the intervention yesterday of our MP, Philip Dunne, is worth sharing. In response a question, from Philip, Thérèse Coffey, minister for woods and trees, said the government wasn't at all happy with the cosy commercial arrangement between commercial cabin builder Forest Holidays and the publicly owned Forestry Commission. I doubt this will ...
Since 1979, when Margaret Thatcher came to power, politicians - sadly including many in our own party - have denigrated taxation, reduced the levels of income tax and switched tax from income and wealth to consumption. All mainstream political parties have perpetuated the myth that you can have low taxes and good public services. When I first worked, in the late sixties, the basic rate of income tax was 33% and the top rate was 98%. This had persisted since the war, regardless of which of the main parties was in power. The basis for these levels of taxation was ...
Commenting on the Public Accounts Committee's report into the Ministry of Defence's contract with Annington Property Ltd ("Forces homes deal disastrous for taxpayers and worse could follow"), Liberal Democrat Armed Forces Spokesperson, Jamie Stone MP, said: "The UK's armed forces play a crucial role in the defence of the nation, and Liberal Democrats believe that it is the role of government to safeguard the interests of service personnel and veterans. "Not only has this deal cost taxpayers billions, the lack of clarity around future negotiations adds to the uncertainty faced by many forces families who have for far too long ...
Thu, 12:56: RT @PadraigBelton: https://t.co/zsrsHwxrUK Thu, 14:25: When you accidentally include an internal note in the URL of your news story... https://t.co/D5aVZvI63J Thu, 14:30: RT @UEfrance: Nos prévisions de croissance 2018 (% PIB) : 🇮🇪5,6 🇲🇹5,4 🇵🇱4,6 🇸🇮4,4 🇷🇴4,1 🇸🇰3,9 ðŸ‡ðŸ‡º4 🇧🇬3,8 🇨🇾3,6 🇪🇪3,5 🇱🇺3,5 🇱🇻3,3 🇱🇹3,1 🇨🇿3... Thu, 15:44: Semi-final retrospective, part two https://t.co/QPLDyBUZn6 Thu, 15:58: J.R.R. Tolkien's facsimile of the last page of the Book of Mazarbul, submitted to the publisher but sadly not inclu... https://t.co/vP7WZx1sGp Thu, 18:34: Your Code Name is Jonah, by Edward Packard https://t.co/0rOdIYoAmt Thu, 19:48: RT @JenniferMerode: If the British government wanted to undermine ...
Fri 13th
10:42
My take on why I think the Lib Dems lose people like Darren Grimes to the Eurosceptic Right
A few weeks ago, I read an article by Jonathan Calder, a prominent Lib Dem blogger, entitled "The mysterious Darren Grimes". It was about how Darren Grimes, head of BeLeave, the now infamous organisation at the centre of the Vote Leave Electoral Commission investigation, was not all that long ago a declared Lib Dem. In fact, as Jonathan's article points out, Grimes worked alongside Mark Gettleson and Christopher Wylie, both later to work on Vote Leave themselves, on Norman Lamb's leadership campaign in 2015. Jonathan ends the article by declaring that "It's all very mysterious." Except, having thought about it ...
"Wealth is not a measure of worth. But low income is related to feelings of inferiority." Across a range of countries, studies have shown, the experience of poverty leads to people believing they have failed themselves for being poor, and accepting that others feel like that about them. This is part of the remarkable findings of professors Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson, epidemiologists, whom I heard giving a talk on inequality on Wednesday night in a Keswick church. Speaking alternately and informally, the professors reminded an attentive audience of how common it is for people to feel inadequate in social ...
I don't suppose it matters how prepared we were for the disruptive, whirlwind that currently passes for the President of the United States, most of us are still shell-shocked at the diplomatic loose cannon that landed on our shores yesterday, who then proceeded to undermine and insult his hosts, whilst at the same time sticking his big nose into our internal affairs. Just for the record, I thought it was unwise of President Obama two years ago to try to influence the result of the Brexit referendum and a major miscalculation on the part of Cameron to encourage him to ...
Can he do it? The latest NATO summit ended with the alliance still intact, but Donald Trump has opened the door to an American exit with the chilling words: "It is presently unnecessary" to withdraw the United States from the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. Which means that it is still on the table. Trump is angry that his alliance partners are slow in reaching the defence spending target of two percent of GDP by 2025. In fact he wants them to double the target to four percent. After all, America is spending 4.8 percent according to Trump (3.5 percent according ...
Congratulations to David Beavan and team on a stunning win in Southwold and Reydon. Congratulations to David Bevan and @Waveney_LibDem. Lib Dem GAIN from Conservatives! Waveney DC, Southwold & Reydon LD David Beavan 1005 (71.38%) Con 307 (21.8%) Lab 78 (5.54%) UKIP 18 (1.28%) pic.twitter.com/Q2EtneGHLL — ALDC (@ALDC) July 13, 2018 This was a by-election for Waveney council caused by the sad death of Conservative councillor Sue Allen. May 2015 result (two seats in ward): C 1170/990 Lab 472/310 Grn 347/302 UKIP 341. * Paul Walter is a Liberal Democrat activist. He is one of the Liberal Democrat Voice team. ...
Fri 13th
08:04
Swinson: President's Club trustees should be disqualified for sickening culture of sexual harassment
Back in January, the FT exposed a disgusting culture of sexual harassment at an annual gathering of rich men held under the auspices of a charity. Madison Marriage's report outlined some of the abuse that these women had to put up with: Over the course of six hours, many of the hostesses were subjected to groping, lewd comments and repeated requests to join diners in bedrooms elsewhere in the Dorchester. Many of the hostesses were subjected to groping, lewd comments and requests to join diners in bedrooms elsewhere in the Dorchester Hostesses reported men repeatedly putting hands up their skirts; ...
Ten normal council by-elections this week plus another City of London Corporation content. The latter is, as usual, an all-independent affair (and is, in fact, one of a pair, the other being uncontested). With the ten normal ones, the run in recent weeks of Lib Dem full slates comes to an end with the party contesting eight out of ten this time. That is at least two up on the number of candidates the party had the last time each of these wards was contested. It is also a reminder of how valuable preparatory work is by local, regional and ...
In the middle of a prolonged hot spell, snow is not on many people's minds. But it was on the mind of Shropshire Council's Place Overview committee yesterday when it met to discuss how the council responds to snow emergencies. Among the plans are a pilot snow warden scheme. I began calling for snow wardens in 2013. In May this year, Shropshire Council accepted a cross party motion asking the council to look into the case for a warden scheme. Now it looks like we can get on with it in preparation for the next cold winter. In it's Winter ...
From yesterday's Victoria Derbyshire programme: Theresa May's plan means hard Brexit for services – 80% of the UK economy. The British people deserve better. If you agree and want to #ExitfromBrexit add your name: https://t.co/Q5Uwt381TS pic.twitter.com/AYjAXRDR8c — Liberal Democrats (@LibDems) July 12, 2018
