Lovely weather, lots of new party members and even a few journalists spotted in Brighton today for the Liberal Democrat federal conference. The name of the person who revealed to me today that they have not read 101 Ways To Win An Election, will remain secret between me, them and the stern letter going to their whip. Otherwise, here's some of what happened at conference in Brighton (all the text of motions ec. here): "Some charities are being buried in CVs from Labour MPs looking for a new job" – @vincecable #ldconf — Mark Pack (@markpack) September 15, 2018

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

It's nearly time for the Lib Dem Disco to get underway. Lib Dem Voice can reveal the setlists that our intrepid DJs will play. And they are amazing. And conducive to some serious dancing. And we can also reveal the the compere for the evening will be our editor, Caron Lindsay. So, without further ado, here we go: Christine Jardine ABBA – Dancing Queen Whitney Houston – I want to dance with somebody Blondie – Maria Layla Moran C&C Music Factory – Everybody Dance Now Snap! – Rhythm is a Dancer Modjo – Lady (here me tonight) Sarah Olney Erasure ...

Posted by The Voice on Liberal Democrat Voice

Lord Bonkers often tells me the story of how he was at an Aldeburgh Festival concert when the hall was inundated by the sea. He snatched up a double bass as it floated past and paddled himself to safety, accompanied by Benjamin Britten on the piano. Saturday To the Royal Opera House, Oakham. The first Lady Bonkers was a great Wagnerian, and when I returned from business at the House would often greet me in the guise of Brünnhilde - "Hojotoho! Hojotoho! Heiaha! Heiaha!" and so forth. The evening's entertainment is Benjamin Britten's 'Darren Grimes', which tells the story of ...

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

Boris, as ever, is leading the charge for the Tory Brexiteers. In doing so, he has explicitly laid out the strategy of trying to destroy the Chequers "agreement" while simultaneously keeping May in Number 10. As he writes in the Daily Telegraph on the matter: "It's not about the leadership. It's about the policy. It's not about changing prime minister. It's about chucking Chequers." The reason for this strategy is simple: those who favour a hard Brexit within the parliamentary Conservative Party do not have the numbers to win a vote of no confidence against the prime minister. So, they ...

Posted by Nick on nicktyrone.com

Along with the films that won the Oscar for Best Picture, I am going to watch Hugo and Nebula winning dramatic presentations when we get there. 1946 is the first year where I hadn't already seen the Retro Hugo winner for that year (released in 1945, the same as The Lost Weekend). The previous years were: 1939 (The War of the Worlds), 1941 (Pinocchio and Fantasia) and 1943 (Bambi). Although there are four earlier winners of a Retro Hugo for Best Dramatic Presentation, the 1946 Retro Hugos were the first to be given out, on the 50th anniversary of the ...

Liberal Democrat members have attacked the proposed Migration paper A Fair Deal for Everyone for reasons ranging from fairness, to morality, to family, to economics. But for a political party, it has another fatal flaw. Its well-meaning, wishful-thinking naivety is just terrible politics. It's time to get politically streetwise with a bit of hard-headed realism. Let's ask the tough questions, get back to evidence-based policy and demand better. Meaning Well and Wishing Are Not Enough I'm sure the people who wrote the proposed paper for debate at Lib Dem Conference and its defenders mean well. I know and respect quite ...

Posted by Alex Wilcock on Love and Liberty
Sat 15th
15:53

Heading to conference

Yesterday I headed down to London from Gateshead on another LNER service that wasn't performing well (no ticket machines working and only one member of staff to deal with the resulting long queue of people wanting to purchase tickets followed by the cancellation of the 11.59am train to London). The purpose of the trip is to go to Brighton Lib Dem conference. I am staying in my flat in London so

Posted by jonathanwallace on Jonathan Wallace

Back to my Best Picture Oscar sequence, after the summer break, and it's The Lost Weekend, which also won Best Director, Best Actor and Best Screenplay, losing out on Best Cinematography (Black and White), Best Music and Best Editing. It was also one of 11 films that won the Grand Prix at Cannes that year, and only one other film since has managed the Cannes/Oscar double. (Marty, which I have not otherwise heard of; we'll get there in 1955.) The two IMDB ratings rank The Lost Weekend 8th and 3rd among films of 1945, behind Spellbound and Brief Encounter in ...

Liberal Democrats members have attacked the proposed Migration paper A Fair Deal for Everyone for reasons ranging from fairness, to morality, to family, to economics. But for a political party, it has another fatal flaw. Its well-meaning, wishful-thinking naivety is just terrible politics. It's time to get politically streetwise with a bit of hard-headed realism. Let's ask the tough questions, get back to evidence-based policy and demand better. Meaning Well and Wishing Are Not Enough I'm sure the people who wrote the paper and its defenders mean well. And I can see how they got themselves into this mess. Two ...

Posted by Alex Wilcock on Liberal Democrat Voice

This Op-Ed is inspired by an article in the latest Economist, A Manifesto for Renewing Liberalism, which caught my eye because the author and I are in agreement that Liberals must be bold and impatient for reform! The only way they will prevail in society, the writer says, is "if their ideas are unmatched for their ability to spread freedom and prosperity". I could not agree more, my thoughts exactly. Not freedom for some or prosperity for some, but freedom and prosperity for all of society in its diversity. We as a party, and Liberals at large, have spent a ...

Posted by Joyce Onstad on Liberal Democrat Voice
YouGov
Sat 15th
11:00

My tweets

Fri, 12:56: Morphosis: J R R Tolkien, "The Fall of Gondolin" (2018) https://t.co/lniydkUZHL Reviewed by @ARRRoberts. Fri, 16:05: How The Left Hand of Darkness Changed Everything https://t.co/aQNRymxf2f Great piece by Becky Chambers. Fri, 18:41: The Ginger Star, by Leigh Brackett https://t.co/pl3ywbhph9 Fri, 20:10: Thanks for voting, everyone. I asked because in the opening seconds of "The Picture of Dorian Gray" (1945), Sir Ced... https://t.co/0VA5kHM0Wp Fri, 20:14: RT @molloy1916: "se-CREET-ive"? Easy. PUT IN YOUR RHI BOILERS ASAP. DON'T TELL ANYONE I TOLD YOU!" SPADS ANONYMOUS https://t.co/oeAqhHfBls Fri, 20:48: Why my inbox is always open https://t.co/aXWYUjRBbm It's OK not to be OK, ...

While there will be lots of chat about Vince's plans for party reforms, the main controversy on the floor of Conference will be the paper on migration which is being debated on Sunday morning. It's a measure of just how controversial it is that there are FIVE amendments. Even if they all pass, there are still so many structural problems with the paper. I wrote about some of the fundamental problems I have with it over at Liberator and my article is reproduced here with their permission. It won't cut it at the hairdresser's We should reject timid, half-hearted, apologetic ...

Posted by Caron Lindsay on Liberal Democrat Voice

Four years ago, I celebrated New Year's Eve with a lot of optimism. 2014 was going to be the year of my 50th birthday. Both of my daughters would be graduating. The previous work year had been the most successful of my career and I'd been awarded a trip to Maui. We were also going to Bruges for a break ... The post Transplant +3: Four years ago appeared first on ten pence piece.

Posted by tim on ten pence piece

I welcome guest posts on Liberal England. As you can see from this list of the 10 most recent ones, I am happy to consider a wide range of subjects. If you would like to write a guest post yourself, please send me an email so we can discuss your idea. The peculiar contradictions of Scotland's Named Person scheme - Simon CalvertThe straight line of racist politics from 19th century South Carolina to Donald Trump - Phil NobleHow can a Liberal talk to a hate addict? - Katie BarronThe Second World War families who took evacuees into their homes - ...

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

The Guardian has the comment piece on its web site – see link below I must admit that when it started to appear that the Electoral Commission had acted in a less than even handed way over the EU Referendum my first thought was no surely not but as the whole saga has unfolded some very worrying aspects of the actions of the Commission have been brought to the surface. I suppose the bottom line is how on earth could a body charged with ensuring fairness in our democratic process get itself into such a situation? It beggars belief ...

Posted by Cllr. Tony Robertson on Sefton Focus

The fact that the Tories are to treat leading campaigners for a third Brexit referendum in the same way as Russian diplomats and refuse them passes to their Conference, tells us everything we need to know about the paranoiac, divided and unhappy state of their party. As the Guardian reports, three leading campaigners for a second Brexit referendum have been refused passes for the Conservative party conference, prompting them to complain that the governing party is suppressing voices it disagrees with: Eloise Todd, Best for Britain's director, was among those who were refused passes on Thursday night in a terse ...

Posted by Peter Black on Peter Black

Vince Cable will use his speech at the rally at the opening of Autumn Conference to make an open pitch to progressives to back us as the only movement in UK politics for them. The intervention follows THAT speech in which he set out his ideas for reforming the party. Apparently, since then over 10,000 people have pre-registered their interest to become a party supporter - an average of over 1000 per day. Vince said: I want to make an open pitch to the people of this country who are fed up with the extremes of the current Conservative and ...

Posted by The Voice on Liberal Democrat Voice

 

It's an intense first day of debate at Conference. Abortion, Windrush, animal welfare and power for people and communities form the policy discussions. The day ends with a debate on reforming the Party's disciplinary processes. Have sufficient changes been made to satisfy those who referred it back in Southport? Keynote speakers today are Layla Moran and Tom Brake. 09.00-09.05 Opening of conference 09.05-09.40 Report: Federal Conference Committee Report: Federal Policy Committee 09.40-10.25 Policy motion: Improving Animal Welfare 10.25-11.15 Policy motion: Righting Wrongs: Restoring the Rights of the Windrush Generation 11.15-12.30 Policy motion: Establishing Real Freedom of Choice 12:30-12:50 Speech: Layla ...

Posted by The Voice on Liberal Democrat Voice

Long Eaton is a railway town. It is crossed by a confusion of lines, some used only by goods trains, and level crossings are common. Today, with passenger services diverted because of major improvements being undertaken at Derby station and a train derailed on the Leicester to Birmingham line, it was more confusing than usual. Long Eaton has had stations on several sites. The one that currently carries its name is not well placed - there used to be one right in the town centre, but that line now has no scheduled passenger service. One day soon it may be ...

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England
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