Congratulations to Louise Harris, who has won the South Glos by-election for the Dodington ward by a very convincing margin, after a very hard-fought campaign. The full results are as follows: HARRIS Louise - Liberal Democrat Focus Team 693 votes (49.3%)LIVERMORE Ian - Conservative 554 votes (39.4%)MALONE John - Labour 158 votes (11.2%)

Posted by Paul Hulbert on Focus on Sodbury, Yate and Dodington

The polls have closed in today's local by-elections, so while we wait for the results there is time to read Andrew Teale's previews. One of the three contests is in a Conservative-Labour marginal ward on Kirklees: Denby Dale. When I first heard of it, my ears pricked up. Because Denby Dale was where the branch to Skelmanthorpe and Clayton West diverged from the line from Huddersfield to Penistone and Sheffield. Sure enough, both those stations would have been in Denby Dale ward if the Clayton West branch had not closed in 1983. These days Skelmanthorpe is a place of pilgrimage ...

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

[IMG: Who are the alt-right 'Proud Boys'?] I need you to take two minutes out of your day to watch this. This is the co-founder of VICE. He has a television broadcast on CRTV – which is widely supported by conservatives.He is... The post Who are the alt-right 'Proud Boys'? appeared first on FeministMama.

Posted by ambitiousmamas on FeministMama

This evening 20 Labour MPs voted with the Lib Dems to oppose the Conservatives' tax cuts for middle and high earners. The rest did what they were told by their party's leader and abstained. Labour's sea-green incorruptible keeping his head down so as not so upset affluent voters? Indeed so. And this is not the first time Jeremy Corbyn has been uneasy about increasing taxation. There is no more spanielesque supporter of Corbyn than Chris Williamson. So public is his undying loyalty that his comrades have forgiven him for running Derby through an arrangement with the Conservatives. But when Williamson ...

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

These days I spend my time surfing the net looking for proof that I existed. Reader's voice: Well you certainly don't spend your time writing about politics. The other day there was a story in the Shropshire Star about a stalwart of chess in the county, Jim Samworth, who had died in Church Stretton aged 102: Jim was one of the players in Shropshire's historic win against Worcestershire in 1969 when his win against G. Elwell contributed to our first county-team win since 1916.It made me realise I had taken the strength of Leicestershire chess rather for granted. We won ...

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

Last night I was off to Islington Liberal Democrats, speaking about the party's strategy and messaging and getting the very Lib Dem honour of... drawing the raffle.

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

We've got a veritable torrent of press releases today, starting with an example of the Party being rather more radical than Labour... Cable: £1.3 billion for higher-rate payers should be used to reverse welfare cuts The Liberal Democrats have announced they will be voting against the Government's plans to raise the higher-rate tax threshold to £50,000. The policy – announced in Monday's budget – will cost an estimated £1.3 billion pounds next year, money which could instead be used to reverse cuts to Universal Credit or end the benefits freeze a year early. Leader of the Liberal Democrats Vince Cable ...

Posted by Mark Valladares on Liberal Democrat Voice

I resolved to start blogging every book I read in November 2003. It's proved to be a really good discipline; I recommend to all of you to at least keep a record somewhere of the books you have read, and if possible notes of what you thought of them. I have archived all of my reviews, on this blog and elsewhere, on LibraryThing and Goodreads. LibraryThing has only a small fraction of Goodreads' users, but I still like the interface a lot more. If you are reading this and are on either, feel free to add me (though do say ...

London Liberal Democrats took over the NUT headquarters in Camden last night for a hustings with the four short-listed candidates for the Mayoral elections in May 2020, the event chaired by former GLA member, Mike Tuffrey. Like the city itself, the shortlist is gloriously diverse: Siobhan Benita, Rob Blackie, Dinesh Dhamija and Lucy Salek. Several [...]

Posted by jonathanfryer on Jonathan Fryer

The fundamental problem of Brexit has not been that the UK voted to leave the European Union. The problem has been the fact that the vote was hijacked by ignorant, grandstanding fools who interpreted the vote as a will to sever all and every link between the UK and the European Union. That was then and is now a catastrophic policy. To default to WTO rules, when any member of the WTO could stop that policy was a recipe for the UK to be held hostage by any state with an act to grind against us. A crash out from ...

Posted by Cicero on Cicero's Songs
YouGov

I'm not sure whether the Liverpool Echo took this picture before or after the recent Central Ward Selection meeting!! In the week that we have 'celebrated' both Mischief Night and Halloween it seems an appropriate time to examine the state ... Continue reading →

Posted by richardkemp on But what does Richard Kemp think?

Local residents have complained to the police about Conservative volunteers in the Dodington by-election distracting traffic near the sites of road traffic fatalities during this morning's rush hour. One resident said "There was a group of people waving Conservative banners at passing cars, right on the busy junction opposite the entrance to the Centre (one of the polling stations). They're being a real nuisance distraction to drivers" This was along the road from a recent road traffic fatality, and not far from where the Tory candidate and the Tory MP stood for a road safety publicity photo the other day: ...

Posted by Paul Hulbert on Focus on Sodbury, Yate and Dodington

Thursday: One day the tale of the Cheadle selection will be told. But not today. The short version is: when Mark Hunter lost the seat in 2015, we stepped up to try to win it back. We fought a positive, honest, values-driven Liberal campaign... but they chose someone else. No regrets. That's democracy. We had a fun ride along the way. Thanks to Dave, Holly, Andrew and Daddy Alex But we DO want to keep on taking a stand for Liberal Values and giving Britain a Liberal Voice. Because Britain NEEDS to hear Liberal Voice. Perhaps it's best is I ...

I caught up with John Barrett, former Lib Dem MP for Edinburgh West, the other day. He told me about his recent trip to Ethiopia. He first visited the country as an MP 15 years ago and has had a particular interest in international development ever since. He talked about how he and his wife Carol have been supporting a family in recent years. As a result of a conversation on their trip, he is now trying to raise £2000 to get them a fridge, a water purifier, a cooker and a washing machine. He explains why on his Just ...

Posted by Caron Lindsay on Liberal Democrat Voice

Wokingham Borough Council finances are a mystery to a lot of people – including, I have to say, some councillors. The public don't really understand how the council is funded, or what choices they have about how to spend the money and what it is compulsory for them to do. They certainly don't know what things cost. Or even what all the services are that the council has to deliver. So this is the first post in a series in which I am going to have a stab at explaining it. Wish me luck – because it is complicated. I ...

Posted by Prue Bray on Prue Bray

On Saturday 10th November in Mons, Belgium, the UK heritage Charity the Shorncliffe Trust will be starting a wholly unique commemorative journey, that sees two specially commissioned Lanterns bring the "Spirit" of all those Canadians and British soldiers back home to the UK and Canada. The "flame" from Mons, will be carried by representatives of the Trust to the St Symphorien Military Cemetery, where lanterns will be placed on the graves of the "First & Last" British and Canadian Soldiers who lay side by side. The two specially created Lanterns "Maple" & "Tommy" will then be transported back to Shorncliffe ...

Thu 1st
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My tweets

Wed, 12:38: RT @BrunoBrussels: A great memorial at Gare Centrale that marks the sacrifice of Belgian railway workers not as victims but as heroes of re... Wed, 12:56: RT @AllieRenison: Really worth reading transcript from @PoliceServiceNI chief's most recent evidence this year to Northern Ireland Affairs... Wed, 16:05: How Cameron's misreading of Merkel led to Brexit https://t.co/YoBtdakHjz Important critique from the Right. Wed, 18:38: October books https://t.co/T1XaaLEdaM Wed, 19:11: RT @asgardianicicle: i made my own tardis pumpkin! #doctorwho #DWFanCreations @bbcdoctorwho https://t.co/Bw9QAvovCx Wed, 20:48: The new 50p has echoes of the first, disastrous Brexit https://t.co/6nIQ8F7EcI Back to Carausius! Thu, 08:34: RT ...

As I said on Monday, the bit that annoyed me most about the Budget was that better off people were getting a tax cut when the benefit freeze continued and only a third of what was needed was put back into Universal Credit. Add to that the people who have their much-needed disability benefits cut back for the most arbitrary of reasons after deeply flawed assessments and you can maybe see why I am so fuming. Astonishingly, Labour is backing the Tory plans – although some may revolt. So it's good to see that Vince Cable will lead Liberal Democrats ...

Posted by Caron Lindsay on Liberal Democrat Voice

Brought together in one place, here are the various Liberal Democrat tools and services that I look after to help keep people informed, provide materials and prompt action. Hope you find them useful – and feedback on either the range of services or thoughts about individual ones are always most welcome. Do you want to keep in touch with what's happening in the Lib Dems? Your wish is my command... and here's the suite of email lists you can choose between for signing up to, from a daily email digest through to a monthly newsletter. If you also, or instead, ...

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

During the 2018 Labour Conference delegates passed a policy motion in which the workers of any given company would be entitled to own 10% of its stock. This, on the face of it, is not something that liberals would be entirely against. Indeed, it was David Lloyd George who, in 1908, settled a rail strike by creating boards which were formed between worker groups and the bosses on an equal parity - 50% worker, 50% bosses. The whole idea of worker cooperatives is also something which we in the Liberal Democrats are in full support, with Nick Clegg saying that ...

Posted by Edwin Black on Liberal Democrat Voice
eUKhost

Ongoing tensions in the federal coalition, the disastrous showing for the CDU's sister party in Bavaria, the CSU, in the Bavarian elections and now a deeply disappointing result for the CDU in the important state of Hessen (which includes the economic powerhouse of Frankfurt) – all these have finally claimed the scalp all expected they [...] The post Merkel's End - what now for the Radical Centre in Germany? appeared first on Radix.

Posted by Peter Fischer Brown on Radix

Rimrose Valley Country Park map. The things you find when Bob is deep into transportation research in this case via the Built bEnvironment Networking web site. Tucked away in an article about Manchester's expected 2040 strategy refresh (see link above) this quote pops up: "Tim Gamon, regional delivery director at Highways England said the agency is currently developing scheme for Road Priority 2, which will cover its investment programme from 2020 to 2025. Projects due to start work in March 2020 are a £135m congestion relief scheme on the A585 between Windy Harbour and Skippool, £52.8m improvements to junction ...

Posted by Cllr. Tony Robertson on Sefton Focus

It hasn't been a good week for Corbyn's Labour Party. They continue to be badly split over Brexit, with the leadership still lined up behind the Tories in taking us out of the EU, they are arguing amongst themselves over John McDonnell's support for tax cuts for those earning more than £50,000 a year, and now they have lost themselves in a fog of their own making on benefit policy. The Independent reports that the Shadow Chancellor insisted only last week that Labour would fully uprate benefits, which are currently frozen for four years, until at least 2020. However, he ...

Posted by Peter Black on Peter Black