Some photographs taken on the walk from Long Eaton station to Trent Lock. This is just the sort of shabby charm I look for on the canals.

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

Life comes at you fast. On Thursday Richard Alderman was elected to Rutland County Council by drawing of lots after he tied at the top of the poll with the Liberal Democrat candidate. Yesterday he was reported to the council and the police after abusive posts on his Facebook account came to light. Today he was arrested. That Leicester Mercury report tells us it was Sir Alan Duncan, Conservative MP for Rutland and Melton, who tipped off the rozzers. And on Twitter Rutland Ned pointed out that Alderman had been backed as a candidate by a group called Democracy Rutland. ...

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

A further twist to the controversial vote on Europe this week: it turns out that although Jo Swinson was, very reasonably, on maternity leave and paired, the Conservative she was paired with broke the pair and voted: Just how low will your govt stoop @theresa_may? When @andrealeadsom delayed proxy voting motions, she *assured* those of us who were pregnant that we would be paired when necessary. Today your govt broke that agreement – @BrandonLewis paired with me but voted. Desperate stuff. pic.twitter.com/CcgF7z8MOV — Jo Swinson (@joswinson) July 17, 2018 Pairing itself is a procedure that, although it has been around ...

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

As a member of the FCC, I attended the meeting held last Saturday (14th July). My comments follow the more informative article by Zoe. The main purpose of the meeting was to go through all the motions that had been selected for FCC to review for possible inclusion at the Autumn conference. Subject area split the motions (54 in all): Business Innovation and Skills, Communities and Local Government through to Work, Social Security and Pensions (14 different policy areas, in all). Each member of the committee was given a policy area(s) with internal party contacts (mine was, for example, a ...

Posted by Tahir Maher on Liberal Democrat Voice

Last year I had read at least one book in all but one of the series on the final ballot in this category. This year all but one of them were completely new to me. In three of those five cases I decided to just read the first volume, for another I picked the volume with the highest rating on Goodreads and LibraryThing, and for the fifth the author kindly provided a sampler for Hugo voters. To repeat what I said last year, I actually opposed the Best Series award in principle, and supported trying it out for the 2017 ...

 

Posted by Owen Temple on Owen Temple & Margaret Nealis

In July 2017, a UN Conference on Nuclear Weapons comprised of 124 states voted 122 - 1 - 1 in favor of creating a Treaty to ban nuclear weapons; only The Netherlands voted against, and Singapore abstained. Though the Conference Vote itself results in no legal obligations on the UN Member States, the Treaty opened for signature on 20 September 2017. As of today, 59 states have signed it, and 11 have ratified it; 90 days after 50 states have ratified the Treaty, it will come into force - currently a distant prospect. Kevin White wrote an article for LDV ...

Posted by Toby Fenwick on Liberal Democrat Voice
Wed 18th
14:32

A Summer of Discontent

Were the likely effects of Brexit not so serious, the shambolic way the Government is handling matters would be laughable. At a weekend Cabinet gathering at Chequers earlier this month, Theresa May put forward her version of a Soft Brexit plan. All the Cabinet supported it at the time, but within days, David Davis and [...]

Posted by jonathanfryer on Jonathan Fryer
Wed 18th
13:55

The Big Brexit Squeeze

We all know The Squeeze; when we alert voters to the binary choice forced on them by First Past the Post, asking them to drop their preferred option and settle for us. The Squeeze runs through Brexit. Theresa May tells the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers that they might loathe her Brexit proposals, but the alternative is Corbyn. A wider, presumed "Leave," the audience is told the alternative is "no Brexit at all."As that would suit me down to the ground, I am told that HARD Brexit awaits if I fail to get behind whichever fantasy proposal is currently touted. ...

Posted by Tony Lloyd on Liberal Democrat Voice

[IMG: Water leaking from road (The Undercliffe)] As many local people have noticed, there is water running from the road at The Undercliffe, Sandgate. The water running down to and into Sandgate High Street, and also beginning to run into the neighbouring Chichester Hall. The water has been running off and on for months, but has recently restarted: it's doing considerable damage to the surface of the road which is also now breaking up. As the water seems to be clean (rather than sewage) I reported this to Affinity Water in March, and they ran tests but concluded that the ...

YouGov

Last week I identified five issues we don't need to worry so much about in modern economics. Symmetry demands that I balance this with five issues that we should be worrying about more. That's much harder because there are a lot more than five things that are very important. So I need to thin down ... Continue reading The new economics: 5 new issues should we be worrying about

Posted by Matthew on thinking liberal

There has been much talk recently about how we are going to raise money to fund public services, and National Insurance Contributions (NIC) is usually the option the Treasury takes. This is predominantly because the public see NICs as something distinct from general taxation. However, continually raising NICs hurts the income of working people, depresses wages and is generationally unfair. NICs is only levied on those aged 65 and under, this explains to an extent why it is still seen as a contribution rather than a tax. However, with life expectancies rising and insufficient pension savings, people are working much ...

Posted by Tom Purvis on Liberal Democrat Voice

The Mayor of Ludlow and I held a meeting with Shropshire Council's portfolio holder for transport, Steve Davenport, on Monday to discuss proposed increases in parking charges. We were not told by Councillor Davenport that the final cabinet papers on charges had been agreed more than three hours before he arrived in Ludlow. Those papers say that proposed charges in Ellesmere, which Davenport represents, will not go ahead. They give concessions on charges in Shrewsbury, as demanded by Peter Nutting, leader of Shropshire Council. Coincidentally, Councillor Nutting is also the Mayor of Shrewsbury. Ludlow has been shafted. Utterly shafted. Ludlow ...

Posted by andybodders on Andy Boddington
Wed 18th
11:38

A word in your ear...

I once hid myself, afraid; until the heady rush of words was jammed by a crime against the muse, committed to survive: the stream of language dammed, damned, damaged in its course to leave words languishing around my skull, staring from its windows calling echoes down its aural spirals, striking out their balance – Words [...]

Posted by AL Franklin on Maintain the Advance!
Wed 18th
11:00

My tweets

Tue, 12:56: Megalithic passage tomb discovered in Co Meath https://t.co/fLTsvenub5 Wow!!! Tue, 16:05: Trump-Putin Summit: 7 Takeaways https://t.co/WKIY6dslND @natsecHeather writes. Tue, 18:09: Newry Bridge, or Ireland in 1887 https://t.co/EpqtnFQC78 Tue, 19:19: RT @JenniferMerode: Dutch MPs have tabled 11 questions to Dutch gov on Brexit no-deal, starting with this: "Have you taken note of the som... Tue, 19:19: RT @kevinhorourke: How on earth is the EU supposed to react to the shambles in London? That's a genuine question. But the answer is surely... Tue, 19:20: RT @GuitarMoog: Not content with voting against having the right to ratify international trade treaties, Parliament ...

The Liverpool Echo has a story on its web site which got me thinking – see link above As a regular user of COSTA across many of its cafes around the UK I have to say that, in my opinion, the standards can be variable in terms of cleaning and customer service. I've put this down to the franchise-type operation of the cafes whereby groups of them are owned by differing companies who buy into the COSTA brand, although I have also noticed differences between standards of their cafes that seem to under the same ownership. Clearly the local ...

Posted by Cllr. Tony Robertson on Sefton Focus

Federal Conference Committee met this weekend – unusually at Amnesty HQ in London rather than LDHQ – to set the Agenda for Autumn conference in Brighton. If you have not yet registered, please don't forget – conference runs from the 15th to 18th September, and you can sign up at https://www.eventsforce.net/autumnconference2018. Or, if you'd like to take advantage of our new refer-a-friend discounts, see https://www.libdems.org.uk/refer_a_friend As noted in my reports on Spring conference, the snap election last year delayed progress on several policy papers which have now come through so time pressure was again an issue. This did mean that ...

Posted by Zoe O'Connell on Liberal Democrat Voice

Next Tuesday is the Samaritans 'Big Listen' event, to raise awareness (and funds) about their important work to prevent suicide. The Samaritans answer a call for help every six seconds. Every year nearly 7,000 people take their own life in Britain and Ireland – roughly three times more men than women. You can talk to the Samaritans, any time, for free, on 116 123, or you can email them at jo@samaritans.org. Here are some of the ways we can all help support the important work of the Samaritans. There is more information on the Big Listen website here. Donate now ...

Posted by prestwichfocus on Tim Pickstone

In the wake of the announcement by the Electoral Commission that Vote Leave overspent during the EU referendum campaign, many Leavers have decided to counter with a tactic you could broadly call "I know you are but what am I". It is a knee-jerk response which consists of saying "well, even if Vote Leave cheated – which I am not confirming they did – Remain cheated too". Here is the essence of said argument, straight from the mouth of UKIP – sorry, I meant Labour, of course, Labour – MP, Kate Hoey: "Even if they spent half a million pounds ...

Posted by Nick on nicktyrone.com

The rather toothless Electoral Commission has finally made a decision and fined Vote Leave £61,000 and reported them police after finding "significant evidence" of coordination with another campaign group, BeLeave. This is not some technical finding, this is an allegation of law-breaking which directly influenced the referendum result two years ago. The Guardian reports: The watchdog said it had imposed punitive fines on Vote Leave because it said the group had refused to cooperate fully with its investigation and declined to be interviewed. Its former chief executive, Matthew Elliott, had previously alleged it was the Electoral Commission that had refused ...

Posted by Peter Black on Peter Black
eUKhost

A formal outline planning application has now been received by the council for up to 400 homes on the former East Lancashire Paper Mill site in Radcliffe. The application envisages family housing involving a mix of detached, semi-detached and terraced properties together with some apartments To view the planning application and its supporting documents, click here.

Posted by prestwichfocus on Tim Pickstone

Linked to the 70th birthday of the health service, NHS Bury Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) is holding a Big7Tea event where local people can come along, have a cuppa and hear about social opportunities happening now across Bury that could have a positive impact on mental health and wellbeing. These social opportunities, called 'social prescribing' or 'community referral', are often provided by organisations including voluntary, community and faith sector groups. They can be offered in the form of an activity linked to the arts, gardening, befriending and exercise and supports those who may suffer from mental health problems or are ...

Posted by prestwichfocus on Tim Pickstone

Embed from Getty Images I'm sure readers can think of examples where election results have been declared invalid by the courts and had to be re-run. The classic example was the 1997 Winchester election. At the general election, the returning officer declared Mark Oaten the winner by two votes. The court accepted the former Tory MP's case that the failure by the returning officer's staff to stamp 55 ballot papers with an official mark, leading to their rejection, cost him a win – also by two votes. The election was re-run in the 1997 Winchester by-election. I remember calling on ...

Posted by Paul Walter on Liberal Democrat Voice

The Bury 2018 Sports Awards are on their way - and residents are invited to submit their nominations by 31 July. The awards will honour volunteers, coaches, clubs, schools and athletes and are organised by Bury Sport and Physical Activity Service. The deadline for nominations is 31 July 2018. The categories are: Changing Lifestyle Recognition Award Community Club of the Year Coach of the Year Disabled Sports Achiever of the Year Sports Achiever of the Year Unsung Hero Award Volunteer of the Year School Commitment to PE and Sport Award 'I Will If You Will' Sporting Female of the Year ...

Posted by prestwichfocus on Tim Pickstone

The June 23 2016 referendum vote, when the British people decided to leave the European Union (EU) created a lot of confusion and anger on both sides of the Channel. Now that the emotions have subsided and the Europeans have discovered that the strategy of their American ally could be even more erratic than that [...] The post It may be time for the French to rescue the British appeared first on Radix.

Posted by Renaud Girard on Radix

The plan presented by Theresa May at Chequers and the subsequent resignations by two of her senior cabinet ministers (Brexit and Foreign Secretaries) is more to do with them running for cover than resigning in exasperation. What Theresa May agreed with her cabinet was not in any way a soft Brexit option, it doesn't resolve the Irish border issue and from all accounts will be rejected by the EU. The proposal will still involve the UK leaving the single market, ending free movement and limiting the role of the European courts. The proposal is that we will accept part of ...

Posted by Tahir Maher on Liberal Democrat Voice
Wed 18th
07:00

Designed to Inspire

From the Curator of Museum Services at the University of Dundee : Now on in the Lamb Gallery, Tower Building: Designed to Inspire - an exhibition of amazing design from the University of Dundee's collections In 1977, the Principal of Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, Myer Lacome, proposed a plan for a museum of design to be housed in a landmark building on Dundee's waterfront. 41 years later his vision has finally been realised with the opening of the V and A Dundee. With Dundee having been designated a UNESCO City of Design in 2014, an exciting new chapter ...