Over the summer I have been writing up memoirs which is mostly new material that has been previously been unpublished. I am currently looking for either an agency or publisher for this book. Please contact me on mm.veart@icloud.com The title, Citizen of Nowhere is a direct reference to and rejection of, Theresa May's speech of October 2016 where she says "If you believe you are a citizen of the world, you are a citizen of nowhere. You don't understand what citizenship means."At its heart, the memoir is the story of my personal development and changing attitudes set against the backdrop ...
"People will never mourn diesels the way they mourned steam locomotives," I used to be told. But from my experience the high point of railway enthusiasm in Britain came at Christmas 1981 when the last Deltic-hauled British Rail passenger service ran.I photographed it at Castle Bytham and will reproduce the photo here one day. After that, public ridicule and the rationalisation of BR's locomotive fleet meant that things were never the same again. Since you ask, Deltics were powerful diesel locomotives that used to haul the expresses from King's Cross to Edinburgh. By the time I was a student in ...
"The behaviour in the party at the moment is such as to raise the question of whether a group of people who cannot behave in an inclusive way could really do so if they were in positions of power." Tom Harney comments on a Lib Dem Voice by former MP Adrian Sanders (which is itself worth reading). Courteney J. O'Connor reviews a new book on surveillance and society: "It is possible to engage in extreme surveillance that would be popularly considered a horrific breach of social etiquette, personal privacy and security without ever contravening the law." To tackle children's mental ...
Yesterday, the Scottish Liberal Democrats passed a comprehensive motion calling on the Government to produce a detailed strategy to deal with undiagnosed and untreated ADHD in adults and to ensure that health professionals and those working within the justice system are trained in the diagnosis and management of ADHD. I summated the motion. My son was diagnosed with ADHD earlier this year. We are fortunate to live in the only part of Scotland where there is a clinic for adults with ADHD and we are currently on the journey of finding out what treatment is going to help him. However, ...
Photo by Rui Sameshima on Unsplash Whatever you call it - the centre, the mainstream, the moderates - the side segment of the political spectrum that lies between the far-left and the far-right is in trouble. As Anne Applebaum wrote recently: In contrast to these energized extremists, the "old" center-left and center-right can seem flat and dull, nothing more than defenders of the status quo. Some are simply at sea; others, struggling to redefine themselves, are trying to peddle milder versions of the far right's racism. France's Emmanuel Macron is an exception, but he redefined the center only by inventing ...
Sun 9th
17:45
Open Monumentendag: the Battle of Neerwinden and the Three Tumuli of Tienen. And a Siberian Owl.
Today was Open Monument Day in Flanders, when various historical sites are on display and particular activities laid on for the interested public. F and I struck eastwards, to Neerwinden and to Tienen, both places which I already know well but where there was a little extra being provided. In Neerwinden, site of a terrible battle in 1693 (and again 1793), Wim from the local historical society was providing a guided tour of the battlefield. Here he is at the chapel of the Holy Cross, north of Neerwinden, taking us over the course of the battle. Alas, the battlefield itself ...
There's a gradual transition that goes on when you've been running for a while. It starts out as being someone who goes for a run occasionally, then someone who runs regularly, and finally you realise that you're a runner now. There's lots of things that come along with that change, like the ability to develop opinions on different tracking software and gadgets, a desire for a specific type of shoes you feel most comfortable running in and the steady acquisition of more kit for running. There's a paradoxical quest for comfort with running — doing anything long-distance is putting your muscles and ...
Here is Vince Cable's message for Rosh Hashanah. As the High Holidays begin this year I want to send warm wishes to everyone in Britain and around the world marking Rosh Hashanah & Yom Kippur. These holy occasions are a time of deep personal reflection, where many will look back at the challenges of the past and prepare themselves to welcome the new season with hope and enthusiasm. I want to thank the entire British Jewish community for their immense and ongoing contributions to our society. Your hard work is seen in every aspect of British life, from the arts ...
Welsh Liberal Democrat Leader Jane Dodds spoke to the Welsh People's Vote rally yesterday. A poll this week suggested that Wales, which had voted to leave in 2016 had now changed its mind and also backed a People's Vote on the deal. This is pretty astonishing given that even 6 months ago, there was a substantial majority of people opposed to a vote. Watch what Jane had to say here. * Newshound: bringing you the best Lib Dem commentary published in print or online.
A brief introduction first for those of you wise enough not to spend time at the weekend following politics on Twitter. Labour MP Chuka Umunna gave a speech in which he used a common literary allusion, dating back to William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, calling on Jeremy Corbyn to "call off the dogs" in Labour's internal infighting. Cue Corbyn supporters responding claiming that it was a literal reference to themselves as being dogs and loudly tweeting outrage. Chief amongst these was Owen Jones, despite the fact that he himself has used the dogs phrase metaphorically in the past. Cue next outrage ...
3,000,000 - that is the estimated number of UK citizens who currently have no right to vote in UK parliamentary elections, despite the fact that decisions made in Westminster affect their lives in their countries of residence. Currently, only those UK citizens who have lived abroad for less than 15 years are entitled to vote at their last place of residence. At the last General Election, our manifesto supported the claim to a "Vote for Life", as did the Conservative one, but the government announced no legislation in the Queen's Speech. Fortunately, Conservative MP Glyn Davies introduced a private members ...
Sun 9th
14:00
Vince: Lib Dems are about openness, equality, civil liberties and protecting democracy and environme...
Much has been written about Vince's proposed reforms to our party. However, we thought it might be worth fishing out that bit of his speech where he talked about our values and where he set out what he wants to achieve as leader: I used the break to give some thought as to the role my party should be playing in the British political system. The country is bitterly divided over Brexit and the politics of the main parties leaves millions of voters, broadly those in the 'centre ground', feeling ignored while they get on with their internal civil wars. ...
I have a great respect for Sir Vince Cable. He is a competent leader and one of the very few current British politicians with what used to be called "bottom" - serious and successful experience in the wider world as well as in politics. So it pains me to criticise him, but his latest and much heralded pronouncement is wrong on two counts. First, at a time when overwhelmingly the most serious issue in our politics is Brexit, this is not the time to distract attention with musings about arcane features of the party's rules (should non-MPs be eligible to ...
Squirrelled away in your conference directory at crack-of-sparrow-fart on Saturday morning is a training event called "Making The Most of Conference". It's down as being run by FCC. For various reasons, some of them quite funny, this has fallen to me to run, rather than any of the people on FCC who are actually professional training types or anything like that... Do come along to it. It's not a long session, and I hope to make it entertaining as well as useful. I've written* a handout and everything! But if nothing else it's prompted me that I really ought to ...
It's well known that we Lib Dems are process geeks. We LOVE voting systems and can tell you all about the pros and cons of each one. We are very proud of our constitution, which is the size of a novel, and contains processes for everything from running conference debates to selecting candidates for parish councils. But something seems to happen when Lib Dems get high enough up the food chain of the party, and they start to assume that everyone else is as interested in processes as they are. This leads to the leadership of the party at all ...
Liberal parties have a long history of enabling people. We invented Parish Councils, we are Britain's only independent mutualist co-operative party, and we champion devolution of power. Vince Cable proposes change that is very liberal, very enabling and poses little change to the way that our party works. Indeed, most of what he proposes already exists and all he asks is that we give it structure. This party has supporters' clubs promoting policy, we call them Associated Organisations (AO's). They range from the association of Liberal Democrat Trades Unionists. and the Green Liberal Democrats through to the Liberal Democrat Friends ...
Coming across this record the other day, I was confused. Surely A Legal Matter was a Rolling Stones single? Convinced I was right about this, I spent some time searching YouTube for the Stones' version before I accepted it does not exist. Chalk another one up to the Mandela Effect. But it does sound like a Rolling Stones record and even has their regular collaborator Nicky Hopkins on piano. Most notably it is sung, not by Roger Daltrey, but by Pete Townsend. Stewart Mason writes on AllMusic: As if "My Generation" hadn't been enough of a clue, "A Legal Matter" ...
LibDems must beware of repeating Nick Clegg's failure of ambition on behalf of our party and our values in coalition
"Consultation", Lib Dem Leadership StyleDepressing, but unsurprising. 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
I have a new incentive for rewarding myself for completing tasks. An item on my to-do list gets done and I get to read another entry in a wonderful new book edited by Iain Dale and Jacqui Smith which tells us about every woman MP from 1918-1996. It's a real treasure trove which covers the battles women have fought over the past century for equal pay, against discrimination, for childcare, for rights in the workplace – for things even as fundamental as the right to continue working after marriage or to have your own bank account. The Honourable Ladies' profiles ...
Writing in her local newspaper, Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran says: Earlier in the year, the Prime Minister took the decision to involve British troops in armed conflict in Syria... For several days it looked like Parliament would be recalled and MPs asked to vote on whether or not to send our armed forces into conflict. I have to tell you, in those days, I barely slept. For a few days the burden of being asked whether our service personnel go to war or not really hit home to me the importance of MPs understanding the roles, responsibilities, challenges and ...
When high school student Cameron Post is caught making out with another girl in the back seat of a car by her boyfriend, she is sent off to an evangelical Christian camp in up-state New York to be "cured" of Same Sex Attraction (SSA). The year is 1993, and there is a motley crew of [...]
Sat, 12:56: RT @EndlessForms: The vasculature of an apple 🍏🍎🍏🍎 https://t.co/ciYelif031 Sat, 15:48: Jenny - the Doctor's Daughter https://t.co/rExNdphWdZ Sun, 10:45: RT @daytonward: Happy 45th Anniversary to #StarTrek, the legendary animated series which premiered on NBC the morning of Saturday, Septembe...
Yesterday, Willie Rennie gave his keynote speech to Scottish Conference. In it he made clear that Liberal Democrat MSPs would not back the SNP's budget this year unless they took a second independence referendum off the table. He highlighted the party's support for a boycott of the SNP Government's national tests for 5 year olds and said that Scotland should follow other countries where formal education does not start till 6 or 7. He praised Nicola Sturgeon for the way she handled allegations of sexual harassment against Alex Salmond and criticised the former first minister for running his defence like ...
Four days of chemo down, three to go including today, and I'm definitely feeling soggy. I've just started on my 5th bag of cytarabine, with two more of etoposide to follow this morning. My platelets are clearly suffering, as a small nick with my razor this morning didn't stop bleeding for a while. Even though my stubble is still growing ... The post Transplant -3: Soggy Sunday appeared first on ten pence piece.
The current plans for the Harthill and Calderstones Park which will take 13 acres of much loved green space, buildings and woodlands and privatise them with Redrow The future of 13 acres of the Harthill & Calderstones Park will come ... Continue reading →
Whatever one might think about the European Community and the bureaucrats who oil the wheels, I am sure that even some Brexiteers will be nodding a vigorous, affirmative, 'yes' at the words of Ireland's member of the EU executive, who has suggested that Brexiteers Boris Johnson and Jacob Rees-Mogg might want to "shut up and let Prime Minister May get on with her work" in negotiating a deal. As the Independent reports, Phil Hogan has warned that Britain is "trapped in a recurring cycle of silly behaviour" over Brexit and risks leaving the EU without an agreement on trade. He ...
Timing. Brilliant musicians have it. Amazing dancers have it. Stunning actors have it. And sometimes great journalists display it too.
When I joined the Lib Dems in April 2017, little did I know that a year later I would be the first BAME Lib Dem councillor elected in Merton. I have many people to thank for my journey, but essentially this happened because I was trusted by my new Lib Dem family to help lead our success in Merton and show our values by the way I serve - which is what I've tried to do. The election campaign was intense and emotional. West Barnes was a top target ward and a lot rested on us winning. But it wasn't ...
I'm back - kind of! The past few months have been a whirlwind of activity and events, so I'll try to summarise here and hopefully explain why I've been absent for a while. Firstly, and most obviously if you have read this blog before, I have finished my Master's Degree! It's been a year of challenges, and I've been pushed beyond my limits both academically and personally; it's been exciting, enlightening, frustrating and fascinating, and I'm incredibly proud of myself (and a little bit shell-shocked) for getting through it with a body of work that I'm pretty chuffed with, to ...
The data from the Ludlow household survey conducted earlier in the summer has been completed. It gives some clear ideas on what is wanted in Ludlow over the next five years. Town councillor Erica Garner is leading development of the Community Led Plan and is holding three public meetings, two on 12 September and a third of 13 September. Further details below. Erica says: "Some of the ideas are more easily and quickly achieved," she said, "while some take a longer-term view. The ideas come from the community and the whole purpose of the Community Led Plan is that it ...
Serena Williams's name will be all over the world's media over the next 24 hours. It shouldn't be - Naomi Osaka's should, as she was a 100 per cent deserved winner of the US Open women's singles. More importantly, Williams only has herself to blame for what happened to her, and anyone who tries to make her the victim or demonise the umpire, Carlos Ramos, needs to know the truth of what happened in one of the most eventful US Open finals ever.Firstly, Serena was given a warning for being coached. That is against the rules at the Grand Slam ...
