Sat 6th
20:43

The Wife ****

It has often been said that behind every great man there is a great woman — or maybe in this postmodern world one should say "great Other". This is as true of artists as it is of politicians, though the license to abuse such a relationship often given to painters and writers goes way beyond [...]

Posted by jonathanfryer on Jonathan Fryer

St Leonard's Priory wasn't the only relic I found when I went to look for medieval Stamford. Greyfriars was a Franciscan friary that flourished in the town from the early 13th century until Henry VIII suppressed it. Joan of Kent, wife of the Black Prince and mother of Richard II, was buried here. All that remains of the friary today is this gatehouse beside Stamford Hospital and it does look as though it was much altered in later centuries.

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

I am slow to join attacks on the BBC out of a certain conservatism - it is part of the fabric of British life that I grew up with - and because it is likely that replaced it would be less good. But I am not a fan of its news and current affairs crisis these days. There is too much emphasis on star presenters and not enough on specialist correspondents - call it Humphrysism. There is too much emphasis on generating heat and not enough on casting light - Cliff Michelmore was right about Question Time. Above all, there ...

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

Are you surprised by this headline? I certainly am. In 2017/18, Shropshire Council took nearly £640,000 from Ludlow's car parks and on-street parking machines. That's three per cent down on the year before, probably due to bad weather over the winter. The 'profit' after operating costs was £373,000. Most of the profit is spent on subsidising buses. And, in what may come as a surprise to many people, those hated yellow screen stickers lose money. A loss of around £10 a ticket across Shropshire. Income and running costs First let's look at the overall figures. In 2017/18, parking charges and ...

Posted by andybodders on Andy Boddington

Long-time readers will be able to track how the headline I use when blogging about this gem of a political advert is steadily becoming more hyperbolic. The advertisement, however, fully justifies this.

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

Last week there was a great Town Hall meeting where the issue of Brexit was discussed. Liberal Democrat MP Tom Brake was present to speak and answer questions from the packed meeting. Joining Tom Brake was Nacho Morais, Chair of West London for Europe, who talked about campaigning in West London and the People's Vote march scheduled for October 20th 2018. Tom Brake MP It was stated that some of the likely effects of a no-deal would include the continuation of medicinal stockpiling and also of food. Businesses and people are now so nervous that they are assuming the worst ...

Posted by Gary Malcolm on Councillor Gary Malcolm

Deliverability is a clunky word for an important concept when it comes to digital campaigning. It's the idea that simply sending an email doesn't mean it ends up in someone's inbox. All sort of factors can get in the way of the email being delivered, and if it's not delivered it has no chance of being seen. Hence the importance of having a high delivery rate. The simplest factor is whether or not email addresses are accurate. That's one of the reasons why it's sensible to store email data in the same system as other data about voters (Connect for ...

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

You'll say it's just another day in Leeds, but it wins the Yorkshire Post our coveted Headline of the Day Award.

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

Readers of this blog site will recall how disappointed I was when the railway powers that be refused to acknowledge (in the name of the new Maghull North Station) the part the former Moss Side Hospital had played in the treatment of Shell Shock during and after WW1. Indeed, that disappointment was felt across a large number of campaigners as we wanted the station named 'Maghull Moss Side' because it sits on the site of the former hospital as does the new Poppy Fields housing estate. View of platforms at Maghull North Station My blog posting of December 2015 refers:- ...

Posted by Cllr. Tony Robertson on Sefton Focus

How To Spot False Widow Spiders, After Infestations Cause Four Schools To Shut Devastating rewrite of the Gashlycrumb Tinies The Government Threatened To Deport This Man With Learning Disabilities Because They Didn't Believe He Could Be Gay Some newsclippings from days after The Battle of Cable Street, 1936 It's odd how little has changed in the editorial position of these papers - both sides handwringing from the Graun, outright fashiness from the mail, etc. People Suing The Government Were Denied Legal Aid After The Government Was Briefed On Their Cases Fundamental rights of access to justice have been being stripped ...

YouGov

ALDC is the party's organisation which supports Councillors and campaigning. We know that if you follow their extensive campaigning guidelines, you are more likely to win. They run the Kickstart training weekends which are intense but give individual support to candidates and campaign teams. There is still time to register for the one in November. Being part of ALDC gives you access to lots of fantastic resources, so I'd recommend any campaigner joins here. The organisation has announced the result of its biennial elections. The new Management Committee takes office on 25 November 2018 and serves for two years. They ...

Posted by Caron Lindsay on Liberal Democrat Voice
Sat 6th
11:00

My tweets

Fri, 12:56: Likening the EU to the USSR: not unreasonable? https://t.co/Uo4N8i2mL2 Actually completely unreasonable, as... https://t.co/97QTtVdqcC Fri, 14:12: RT @BrusselsGeek: Happy Friday! #EUTweets of the Week: CO2 emissions bear the brunt, @alexstubb is out in front, EU offended by #jeremyhunt... Fri, 15:46: Go Nancy!!! https://t.co/UalIuGddG5 Sat, 10:45: Doctor Who's TARDIS has a different meaning for Black fans https://t.co/fZUzr47FYv Important reading.

Those who are still suffering from the delusion that we will be £350 million a week better off from leaving the EU need to read this article in the Independent, which details how the cost of legal obligations that the UK has entered into is rising every day. The paper says that in the early stages of negotiations Britain agreed to pay certain costs like the those of British EU officials' pensions, as well as honouring guarantees for EU projects it had already made. Both sides stopped short of putting an official figure on the future payments, in what was ...

Posted by Peter Black on Peter Black

One of the most heartbreaking moments of the 2017 election was that moment at about 6am when we realised that we had only just missed out on winning back North East Fife. The SNP MP and his wife were his own majority. Just two votes in it. That's one hell of a bar chart. North East Fife recently selected the wonderful Wendy Chamberlain as PPC and the irrepressible Scottish Party Leader, Willie Rennie is MSP – winning the constituency seat back in 2016. They're now advertising for an organiser. Don't ever tell him I said this, but I worked for ...

Posted by Caron Lindsay on Liberal Democrat Voice

From the Curator of Museum Services at the University of Dundee : Over the summer, Museum Services has been working with Art UK, Historic Environment Scotland, the Menzieshill Photography Group and other volunteers to map and record Dundee's amazing collection of public art. We have so far documented over 450 pieces and you can now see a selection of photographs taken by our volunteers in a new exhibition, Sculpture in the City - Celebrating Public Art in Dundee, showing in the Sharing Not Hoarding poster boards on the north east corner of Slessor Gardens. The exhibition features striking photographs of ...