Given how unwilling Vince Cable's office has been to account for his absence from the Commons the other evening, it comes as no surprise that the Sunday Times is reporting that he was in discussions about the launch of a new centre party. Let's park out outrage on that until we know more about what it proposed. Meanwhile I have thinking about yesterday's report from Business Insider that "Tom Pitfield, a data analytics expert and childhood friend of Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau, is helping Cable with party reforms which will be unveiled at the Lib Dem autumn conference."I am all ...
Placed so obscurely that you have to know it is there before you find it is a plaque marking the Leicester birthplace of C.P. Snow. Snow, who lived from 1905 to 1980. was a scientist and civil servant who served in the Lords as a minister in Harold Wilson's short-lived Ministry of Technology. He was also a novelist and was at one time was taken enormously seriously by the critics. Since his death, though his sequence Strangers and Brothers has been adapted by the BBC for both radio and television, he has fallen into almost total eclipse. Really, it is ...
Sat 21st
20:00
Shropshire Council shows it is not green when it comes to roadside verges - we must boost biodiversi...
Highways chiefs at Shropshire Council have given a poor answer to a question I asked about cutting grass verges. Anyone driving around Shropshire will note that many verges are cut unnecessarily at the cost of wildflowers and biodiversity. There are areas where regular verge cutting is essential. The response to a question I have asked for next week's council meeting shows that Shropshire Council has little awareness of how verges could make a major contribution to biodiversity. My starting point for the question at council next Thursday, other than my long interest in environmental matters and biodiversity, is a campaign ...
If you are incredibly rich and want to influence the Government, you can, for a cool £50k per hear join the Conservative Party's Leaders' Club. This buys you some pretty major access to key players in the Government: The Leader's Group is the premier supporter Group of the Conservative Party. Members are invited to join Theresa May and other senior figures from the Conservative Party at dinners, post-PMQ lunches, drinks receptions, election result events and important campaign launches. The Conservatives have now published the list of government ministers who have attended events with these very rich people, who include key ...
Fact #1 now reads a little archaically, but Fact #2 (save for the use of "man") still resonates.
Sat 21st
16:13
LISTEN: To Pauline Pearce talking about finding productive outlets for anger on Woman's Hour
Liberal Democrat Federal Board member and Hackney mayoral candidate Pauline Pearce was on Woman's Hour yesterday talking about how she channeled her anger into her campaign against knife crime. She talked about how she was so angry that the 2011 riots had stopped her doing her community radio show, her escape from chemotherapy and radiotherapy and focus for her campaign. That's what motivated her to rail against the unfocused She had been campaigning on knife crime long before her son became victm to it. She described how her personal experience intensified her anger and she had to "put the sensible ...
Here is how the Liberals of the time attacked Labour's Land Policy ahead of a general election that resulted in a hung Parliament (Labour 287, Conservative 206, Liberal 59).
Yesterday was Vince Cable's first anniversary as leader – the paper anniversary, so that should encourage us all to go deliver lots of leaflets for our Exit from Brexit campaign over the next wee while. We undoubtedly have the grown-up in the room as far as British politics is concerned. While the Tories' toxic civil war leads them to force a catastrophic economic meltdown on the country and Labour stands by and lets them do it, Vince has been tirelessly making the case for us to get out of this mess. Two years on from the Brexit referendum, if it ...
miss_s_b | The Blood is the Life for 20-07-2018 I posted The Blood is the Life for 20-07-2018 to my dreamwidth blog 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
Nick Robinson revealed something significant on Twitter today. He was replying to this accusation from a guy called Frederic Moreau: Jeffrey Donaldson of the miniscule, sectarian DUP with 10 MPs says the EU is overplaying *its* hand and needs to be pragmatic. Nick Robinson treats this and a lot of other bollocks with grave respect. ... Continue reading Nick Robinson reveals how far the BBC may have strayed
Fri, 12:56: RT @MaggieFick: #Ethiopia: Something a young man I met at a cafe here in Addis Ababa yesterday keeps coming back to me. He said: "The peop... Fri, 14:10: RT @antoni_UK: 1/ @DExEUgov has published the White Paper in 24 EU languages. I've just pained myself through the German document. For thos... Fri, 14:13: RT @Helenreflects: The horrible translations of the Brexit white paper in EU languages, which look like a barely retouched Google translate... Fri, 16:05: What The War of the Worlds means now https://t.co/5dr5Oas3e9 Great piece. Fri, 16:50: RT @kimgoodwin: I have had more than one male ...
This week the Government started consulting on relationships and sex education. For years, Liberal Democrats have argued that it is vital that every child has access to information that includes everyone, where LGBT+ people are included and which covers issues of consent and life-saving information about safe sex and contraception. Education spokesperson Layla Moran encourages responses and highlights how Lib Dem Education secretary Kirsty Williams has done this in Wales. For years @LibDems campaigned for compulsory, LGBT+ inclusive Relationships & Sex Education in all schools. @Kirsty_Williams is delivering it in Wales. Now we have a chance to ensure RSE is ...
Sat 21st
10:09
Time for the PM to trash that 'This is what a feminist looks like' T-shirt given the Jo Swinson fias...
[IMG: Time for the PM to trash that 'This is what a feminist looks like' T-shirt given the Jo Swinson fiasco] The Tory Party who ideologically hates the thought of giving workers any sort of rights have suddenly found a way to make employees' rights work in their favour. They took advantage of an MP who... The post Time for the PM to trash that 'This is what a feminist looks like' T-shirt given the Jo Swinson fiasco appeared first on FeministMama @ambitiousmamas.
Responding to calls from the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs to enable doctors to prescribe medicinal cannabis, former Liberal Democrat Health Minister Norman Lamb MP said: "The recommendation from the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs that doctors should be allowed to prescribe medicinal cannabis is more than welcome. The Government now has a moral duty to accept this advice and change the law without any further delay. "People should never be left to suffer when medicinal cannabis can safely relieve them from pain. However, there is also a mountain of evidence backing the case for legalising ...
Apologies for betting a little slow in reporting the news of the switch of Bella Saltmarsh, Dogsthope ward, from the Liberal Party to the Liberal Democrats in Peterborough. That leaves one Liberal on the councillor, the current Mayor Chris Ash and, I believe, the local Liberal Party branch has recently been dissolved. This growth in the Liberal Democrats adds to the gain made in the May local elections, when the then group of five added one by taking a seat off Labour.
The warning from Ireland's Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, that, in the event of a disorderly exit from the European Union, British airlines could be banned from Irish airspace has helped to focus minds on what happens if the divided and shambolic UK Government fails to agree a deal with the EU before we exit on 29 March 2019. As the Independent confirms, at present the UK benefits from "open skies" rules, which allow EU airlines to fly between and over any European airspace. But unless an aviation agreement is reached before the final departure date, then Civil Aviation Authority rulings will ...
