Is the joke at last on Boris Johnson? His multiple gaffes, political mistruths and misjudgements would have sunk most other politicians years ago. Johnson's career as a serious front line politician has been living on borrowed time. Now, maybe, surely, his time is up. Johnson has survived as long as he has as a politician [...]
Great news - First Bus have listened to the concerns your Focus Team councillors raised when we met them this week and have had a rethink. The Cranleigh Court and North Road areas, which were left high and dry by the previous plans, will have a bus to Bristol. The revised Y3 service will go along Iron Acton Way to the Brimsham traffic lights, turn into Greenways Road and then head down Cranleigh Court Road to Station Road on its way to the town centre. Thanks to all the local residents who got involved - it's your voices that make ...
The Lost Byway explains: London Overground retraces legendary London writer Iain Sinclair's journey with film-maker Andrew Kötting around the Overground railway for the book of the same name. Directed Shot and edited by John Rogers. The film follows Sinclair reprising the walk over the course of a year rather than the day's walk of the book. Iain is once again joined by Kötting in parts, along with Chris Petit (director of Radio On) and Bill Parry-Davies on the 35-mile circular yomp. London Overground charts Sinclair walking through this changing landscape from his home in Hackney, through Shoreditch down to Wapping ...
In which young Tom asks a question that has long troubled me too. Friday I write these lines having been cast adrift in an open boat after the Flower of Rutland was seized by pirates. At least they were proper pirates - wooden legs, hooked hands, parrots - not like those rather disappointing Somalis one used to see on the television news. Mind you, I do not appreciate beings addressed as a "scurvy dog" - by the pirate captain or his parrot. My only companion is Tom, who proves a quick-witted child as he has smuggled some bottles of Smithson ...
Nick Harvey introduces the Liberal Democrats' 2017 general election review - or at least the version that has been made public. "The proposed Lib Dem immigration policy is simply not fit for purpose. I knew this as soon as I saw the consultation questions, which were all on the theme of 'immigration: threat or menace?' and 'how much should we punish immigrants? A lot, or more than that?'" Andrew Hickey tells it like it is. Martin Sewell asks why there has been no Church of England inquiry into the crimes of John Smyth. Peter Kinderman presents six 'psychological' terms that ...
Ross Grant, Leicester's new Lord Mayor, has found that his head is too big for the Ruritarian hat that goes with the role. Liberal England gives a meaningful look at camera 2. Some kind person, the Leicester Mercury reports, has offered to buy him a bigger hat - and well done, incidentally, to the Labour group for allowing the city's only Conservative councillor to take up this role. I wish the Tories who run Harborough were so civilised. Anyway, this story reminds me of a couple of earlier posts on this blog about the Lord Mayor of Leicester. The first ...
The Liberal Democrats have today published a public summary of the internal review carried out into the party's 2017 general election performance. Lib Dem 2015 general election review publishedThe post-mortem into the Liberal Democrat general election result has been published today and you can read it in full here. more As Chief Exec Nick Harvey has explained on Lib Dem Voice, the 2017 review was a rather different beast from the systematic review carried out after 2015. This time, the review was a heavy burst of intensive interviews with key people but without the wider research carried out after 2015. ...
Third poem, in full, with illustrations: DALEK (after 'Furry Bear') If I were a Dalek And a big Dalek too I shouldn't much care If it froze or snew. I shouldn't much mind If it rained acid I'd be all lead-lined With a coat like his. For I'd have no eyes just a stalk to see And I'd have no legs but I'd glide nicely There'd be no arms but my big gun would kill And there'd be a sucker which would, um, still— I would have no heart and I'd have no soul Which would help when being lonely ...
Responding to the pound falling to its lowest level against the dollar and the euro this year as worries increase that the UK will leave the EU without a trade deal, Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable said: "This does not reflect the underlying value of the currency. What this does show is the weakening of confidence in the UK, as well as the grave risks to the UK caused by the spectre of Brexit. "This is one of the reasons why we need to be clear that Brexit is not inevitable. The British people must have a final say on ...
Responding to the CBI's call for the Government to drop its net migration target, Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokesperson Ed Davey MP said: "The CBI is right. The Conservatives' arbitrary net migration target is damaging our economy. "The NHS and other employers can't recruit the workers they need. Meanwhile, the Government's pursuit of an unachievable target has shattered the public's confidence in our immigration system. "Liberal Democrats demand better. The Government must drop its absurd target and replace it with an intelligent approach that maximises the cultural and economic benefits of migration."
Responding to the news that House of Fraser went into administration before being bought out by Sports Direct, Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable said: "This is yet another example of the crisis in our high streets. There are many factors that appear to have contributed to this administration, some of which we can do little about. "But one factor is online competition - and we must create a level playing field between the high street and the big tech retailers. This means scrapping business rates - a motion that will be put to the Liberal Democrat conference next month - ...
[IMG: Blogging from New York - Part 3] I spent most of my flight to New York reading 'The Despot's Apprentice' by Brian Klaas. If a Liberal was hosting a dinner party this close to the US mid-term elections, this is a book... The post Blogging from New York – Part 3 appeared first on FeministMama @ambitiousmamas.
After the 2015 election disaster, a comprehensive post mortem led by James Gurling analysed what had gone wrong and made a huge number of detailed recommendations of what should be done differently next time. However, the snap election of 2017, coming just two years later and out of left field, meant that we were still recovering from 2015 and had not had much chance to implement many of those changes. Another disappointing result demanded further analysis, although a snap election was a very different challenge. So the Federal Board concluded that a review should be relatively 'quick and dirty' and ...
Second paragraph of third chapter: Far below him, the cars in the front ranks of the parking-lot were spattered with broken eggs, wine and melted ice-cream. A dozen windscreens had been knocked out by falling bottles. Even at this early hour, at least twenty of Laing's fellow residents were standing on their balconies, gazing down at the debris gathering at the cliff-foot. I bought this, appropriately enough, at the Barbican exhibition last year. It's a dystopian story of middle-class life in a tower block degenerating into a primitive society ruled by violence and caste division, with a small contribution from ...
It seems I have stumped the complete Liberal Democrat Voice readership with my fun photo quiz from this morning. Here is a wider version of the scene pictured this morning. This should give you a clue as to the category of location that we are talking about... I took this photo while on my holiday last week. Can you guess where it was taken? It is a location mentioned wittily in a distinguished Liberal MP's auto-biography. Another clue is that the Liberal MP in question was a leader of the Liberal Party. Please use the comments field below to have ...
Here are the latest national voting intention figures from each of the main pollsters currently polling in the UK. To put the numbers into longer context, take a look at PollBase, my database of polling figures going back to 1945, which is updated quarterly and remember the warning about individual polls. Polling company Con Lab LibDem Ukip Green Con lead Fieldwork Method BMG 39% 37% 10% 3% 4% 2% 3-5/7 Online Delta Poll 37% 42% 7% 6% 3% -5% 12-14/7 Online ICM 39% 40% 7% 6% 3% -1% 3-5/8 Online Ipsos-MORI 38% 38% 10% 6% 3% 0% 20-24/7 Phone Kantar ...
The former labour MP. George Cunningham, who died last month, is the one who who moved an amendment to the first Scottish Devolution Bill in 1979 to say that a referendum in favour would only be valid if at least 40% of those entitled to vote (my emphasis) were in favour. In the event the referendum on Scottish devolution was "won" by 51.6% to 48.4% (very familiar figures) but that 51.6% was only 32.9% of the registered Scottish electorate. So the referendum result was "inoperative." Had Cunningham's logic been applied to the EU Referendum it would have suffered the same ...
Thu, 12:56: RT @GarthGilmour: Ugg: "Scur let fire go out!" Scur: "What about time Ugg's grandfather lose fishing stick? Why Scurs totem pole to Sky God... Thu, 16:05: Crisis and Conviction: U.S. Grand Strategy in Trump's Second Term https://t.co/TvjYiYMHzx Fascinating analysis of US foreign policy. Thu, 20:48: Mr. Johnson's Shame https://t.co/bSTpqjzvUL Jewish Chronicle on BoJo and the niqab: "Mr Johnson's words were those of a bar-room bigot." Thu, 21:52: The Politics of Climate Change, by Anthony Giddens https://t.co/d7OiLNHfLY Fri, 10:45: Britain of the welcomes. https://t.co/TQSWD5cTDl
There are definitely things the UK Liberal Democrats could and should learn from Emmanuel Macron's success in France. As with learning from the US, however, to learn successfully you also need to understand the differences. One major one is the electoral system neatly illustrated by this pair of vote shares: 24%: Emmanuel Macron, first round French Presidential election 2017 25%: SDP/Liberal Alliance, 1983 general election The Alliance scored a higher vote share in failing to break the electoral mould in Britain than Macron did in smashing it in France. The reason? Different electoral systems. That's both why I'm sceptical of ...
Fri 10th
10:45
Fun holiday snap quiz - can you recognise the location mentioned in a famous Liberal's autobiography...
I took this photo while on my holiday last week. Can you guess where it was taken? It is a location mentioned wittily in a distinguished Liberal MP's auto-biography. Please use the comments field below to have a stab at the answer. Comments will be held in our "pending" file until 3pm and then released to reveal the winner. The prize will be the much coveted accolade of "LDV Super-Anorak" – a title which will be yours until a successor is appointed, a bit like being Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Chiltern Hundreds or of the Manor of Northstead. ...
Hyde Park's Serpentine Lake boasts two scenic cafés, the previously covered Serpentine Bar and Kitchen and also, on the southern side and further west, the Lido Café. Also known as the Lido Café and Bar, Lido Bar and Café and Lido Café Bar.
Changes to the 46 and X46 buses, which many residents only heard about when we told them here and in Focus, will leave many people in North Yate without a service to Bristol. As we reported last week, the X46 is being replaced by the Y3 and the 46 by the Y4. Although the Y services are better for some, they cut out the following parts of the old routes: Cranleigh Court Road and Greenways Road from the Cranleigh Court to Church Road junctionsIron Acton Way, Goose Green Way, Greenways Road from the western Goose Green Way junction to the ...
I am back after a week in Snowdonia and North Wales and nothing appears to have changed. Boris Johnson is under investigation for insulting and racist remarks about Muslim women, playing the Trump-spark-outrage-for publicity card in his bid to succeed Theresa May, whilst Jeremy Corbyn is still aiding and abetting the Tory hard Brexit by refusing to acknowledge and back the increasing demand for a final referendum on any deal the UK Government can negotiate. When we have the current Trade Secretary asserting that a no-deal exit is more likely than a negotiated agreement with the EU, we get an ...
A modern freight train on its way to the docks passes the site of the Balliol Road Station. www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-l5XtpzwBU The photos are on You Tube – see link above An interesting set of photos from just some of the lost railway stations across Sefton Borough. You'll see a full list of them under the video. And before you ponder it, Lydiate Station (one the Cheshire Lines & Southport Extension Railway) was never in Lydiate Civil Parish. It was in fact in Altcar Civil Parish and the site of it is within West Lancashire Borough.
Disappointing news from Cornwall overnight – our excellent candidate Stephen Daniell didn't make it in his attempt to hold the seat in a by-election caused by the sad death of Paul Summers. Paul had won the seat in a by-election in July 2016 from UKIP. Cornwall County Council. Newquay Treviglas. Con gain from Lib Dem. Con 363 (45.38%), Lib Dem 306 (38.25%), Lab 131 (16.38%) — ALDC (@ALDC) August 9, 2018 * Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings
M S Therapy Centre (Tayside) LtdUnit 12b Peddie StreetDundee DD1 5LBTELEPHONE: 01382 566283e-mail - info@taysidemstherapy.co.uk Social Support/Chamber Volunteers Wanted This is an opportunity to undertake a satisfying and rewarding role as part of our team of volunteers, working in our friendly therapy centre while providing an extremely useful and appreciated service to the community. We are looking for volunteers who are available for a couple of hours on Saturday, either morning or afternoon. We ask that you are physically fit, friendly and caring to offer our members, who are attending for Oxygen Therapy, social support by welcoming them on arrival, ...
