But whilst the political world is paying tribute, the loss is more acute to the family that is the Liberal Democrats. Here are some of the reactions from Twitter. For those of our readers who didn't know Paddy as well, or for as long, perhaps these will give you a flavour of the man... Paddy listened to what I had to say and then blasted all my arguments to pieces. I shouldn't *always* use military metaphors for him, but they always come to mind. Sorry. Paddy was open to anyone, but he'd never patronise by giving you less than fully ...
There will doubtless be so many personal tributes to Paddy. My Facebook and Twitter feeds are full of them. There have been so many generous tributes from across politics. Nicholas Soames, for goodness sake, and Iain Dale and Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. Paddy was known for not being tribal. Back in the Summer of 2016, he was involved in setting up More United, a cross party group aimed at getting generous spirited, internationalist people with a social conscience elected. I was initially pretty sceptical and had some questions for them. Paddy was right back at me within 24 hours. ...
Taken leaning our of a locomotive-hauled train on the Settle & Carlisle round about 1980, this photograph shows the former turntable at Garsdale station and Dandry Mire viaduct. So high were the winds at this point that there used to be a stockade of railway sleepers around the turntable to prevent locomotives being swung around and around. Garsdale station serves Sedbergh in Cumbria and Hawes in North Yorkshire, both of which are some miles away. It's original name was Hawes Junction, the junction being with the Wensleydale line. That has been reopened as a heritage railway between Northallerton and Redmire, ...
It is the mark of a person when, in the hours after their death, tributes come from less expected corners. Here are some of the early ones, from across the political spectrum and beyond... First, from the world of politics... Touching words from Sir John Major paying tribute to Paddy Ashdown: pic.twitter.com/PNcJc2IOOQ — Sebastian Payne (@SebastianEPayne) December 22, 2018
The news of Paddy Ashdown's death tonight will have doubtless come as a shock to our readers, and to the wider Liberal Democrat family. Members of the Liberal Democrat Voice Team, like so many Liberal Democrat activists and campaigners over the years, have our own Paddy stories, of kindnesses and of events. Paddy was seldom dull, even if you disagreed with him at any one time. But, as the news of the death of a man many of us thought of as almost indestructible sinks in, we would like to offer our condolences to Jane, to the Ashdown family and ...
Paddy Ashdown inspired my foray into politics. I first met Paddy when I was 11 years old. I was awestruck as a timid little girl but I wanted to say hello to him at the 2010 party conference because I had been watching his speeches and debates on YouTube. I was enthralled by him. The idea of being involved in politics was beyond intimidating to me at that age. I approached Paddy who was immediately warm and listened to what I had to say. I told him how excited I was to be a Lib Dem. He listened to me ...
The old boy is inconsolable this evening and blowing his nose very loudly, but I found this tribute to Paddy's memoirs that he wrote in 2013. Advising an ambitious young correspondent, he wrote: Once you have been adopted, however, there is only one volume that will do: A Fortunate Life: The Autobiography of Paddy Ashdown (which is by Paddy Ashdown, incidentally). I know of no book that sets out half so clearly what is needed to win an election campaign. I don't mean the chapter on "The Winning of Yeovil" that was made available free on the electric internet recently, ...
Devastating news tonight - the death of former Liberal Democrat leader Paddy Ashdown. He took Yeovil from unwinnable into a safe Liberal Democrat seat, and also rescued the party from near annihilation in the fallout from the SDP-Liberal merger.
Paddy Ashdown, former leader of the Liberal Democrats, passed away earlier this evening following a short illness. A Liberal Democrat spokesperson said: It is with great sadness that we announce that Paddy Ashdown passed away earlier this evening following a short illness. He will be desperately missed by everyone at the Liberal Democrats as a dear friend and colleague, and remembered as someone who made an immeasurable contribution to furthering the cause of liberalism. Our thoughts are with his family and all of his friends at this difficult time, and we ask that their privacy is respected. Leader of the ...
Sad, sad news this evening. Paddy Ashdown has died at the age of 77. His character and enthusiasm were a large part of the reason that the Liberal Democrats emerged as a force from the botched merger process. It is hard to escape the feeling that Britain would be a better place if it had made greater use of his talents. His memoirs were notable for the sections on his childhood and service in the Marines and on his later work in Bosnia. And he never gave the impression when he talked to you that he was looking over your ...
Albert Pionke, Professor of English Literature at the University of Alabama, has written an article for The Conversation on the marginalia to be found in John Stuart Mill's library: Like many serious readers, Mill read with pen or pencil in hand, marking passages he found interesting, protesting against premises and conclusions he judged facile, and sometimes summarising his own thoughts in annotations on unprinted pages.Mill's annotations are now the subject of an international research project: Mill Marginalia Online. I was struck, however, by a more human discovery in one of Mill's volumes: tucked between pages 674 and 675 of Arnoldus ...
Remember those wonderful "Bollocks to Brexit" stickers we see at every People's Vote march? Some think they're not too classy, but I think it pithily sums up hw I feel. I have my own stash of the things and keep one on my phone at all times. Over the last few weeks, a big and bold yellow bus has been touring the country spreading the Bollocks to Brexit message, encouraging people to contact their MPs and emphasising the Brexit is "not a done deal." This week it came to Edinburgh: #BollocksBus outside the Scottish Parliament Building on Tuesday. Great turnout ...
Meet Rory Stewart, Conservative MP, government minister, a supporter of Theresa May's Brexit deal and self-confessed inventor of numbers.
There's a whole set of advice, support and training available for any Liberal Democrat member who wants to become a Parliamentary candidate. Once you are selected as a Prospective Parliamentary Candidate (PPC – a piece of jargon explained here), however, it all rather drops away unless you are in a target seat. So here's my first stab with eight tips on what to do immediately after you've been selected. Congratulate yourself: being a PPC can be difficult, tiring and arduous. It's also a brilliant service to the party and to liberalism, with a good chance of having fun and success ...
Sat 22nd
12:54
LibLink: Layla Moran: MPs should not get Christmas off in the middle of this Brexit crisis
MPs should be in Parliament sorting out the Brexit crisis, argues Lib Dem MP Layla Moran in an article for Times Red Box (£). She put up the text on her Facebook page: It's time to cancel Christmas. Well, for MPs at least. I've been struggling to put into words my anger and frustration at this clustershambles of a government and this inept official opposition over the past few days. In the real world outside this Westminster bubble, any company facing such an existential crisis would not allow its executives time off. Let's not forget that we are less than ...
For months senior Labour politicians have been telling us that "all options remain on the table" regarding the Party's policy on Brexit. In other words, Labour could possibly back a People's Vote and campaign for Remain, which opinion polls tell us is what a significant majority of Labour members want. But the Party leadership clearly [...]
Earlier in the year, I wrote aplenty about the need to reform the Liberal Democrat complaints and disciplinary processes. (Short version: we keep on commissioning expert inquiries which conclude our systems are broken; we need to fix them.) Now that the new system has been agreed, subject to each of the English, Scottish and Welsh parties making a final decision to opt-in to it, the next step is to start recruiting and training the volunteers to run the new process. A quartet of the party president and English/Scottish/Welsh state party chairs have written for Lib Dem Voice about why this ...
Fri, 12:12: Yep! https://t.co/NwQpIOI9Pw Fri, 12:56: Saturn's rings are halfway to their death https://t.co/vQzeV0xCcy Look at them while you can. They may only last another 100 million years. Fri, 13:37: RT @ce_murphy: @bellinghman @cstross @nwbrux @JulietEMcKenna @pnh No, that was the next one, @Octocon. This was the P-Con where Ted broke h... Fri, 16:05: Best of Brexit: A Christmas reading list https://t.co/Ou4lsO3Jmk Some of these I will avoid; some I will look out f... https://t.co/IKZx3pvQzI Fri, 16:20: APCO Brexit Bites — With "Capital Ideas" https://t.co/33mbn9ndad Fri, 18:11: Thread. https://t.co/Jy3Gz41Szs Fri, 18:18: RT @BradStaples: Some of my thoughts looking at 6 ...
Police force admits passing footage of disabled protesters to DWP Because nothing says ability to work like ability to attend protests, amirite? * facepalm * Britain is in crisis. But all we MPs are offering is an unedifying circus Rupa Huq dead on here What If Brexit Were a Restaurant? - The New York Times One of those scathing and utterly hilarious restaurant reviews that you come across from time to time. Not quite up to Jay Rayner at his best, but getting there. A 1944 OSS field manual suggests CIA operatives have been sabotaging every organization you've ever been ...
Anyone still clinging on to the hope that the Labour Party would somehow get us out of this Brexit mess will be sorely disappointed by an interview with Jeremy Corbyn in today's Guardian. But asked if he could imagine a referendum emerging as a solution if it becomes clear that parliament is deadlocked - as the work and pensions secretary, Amber Rudd, mooted this week - he said: "I think we should vote down this deal; we should then go back to the EU with a discussion about a customs union." As to what stance Labour would take if a ...
If there is one thing that still astonishes me about this calamitous, incompetent and riven Tory Government, it is that despite all their ego-driven in-fighting, and incoherence, they are still ahead in the polls. For that Theresa May has to thank Jeremy Corbyn, whose ham-fisted and ineffective attempts at being an opposition, has left his party flailing around on the margins of British politics. There is no better illustration of that trend than over Brexit. It is fair to say that the country has moved its position on leaving the EU. That is true also for Labour Party members and ...
No more council by-elections to come this year, so here's a quick look back on the overall pattern for the Liberal Democrats, courtesy of ALDC.
It's fair to say 2018 has been a great year for the Lib Dems with some resounding successes in by-elections nationally. We made 26 fantastic gains, with 19 of these coming from the Conservatives! A full list of our 26 excellent gains is below: Arun DC, Marine – LD Matt Stanley gain from Conservative. Aylesbury Vale DC, Quainton – LD Scott Raven gain from Conservative. Bath & North East Somerset UA, Kingsmead – LD Sue Craig gain from Conservative. Broadland DC, Aylesham – LD Sue Catchpole gain from Conservative Chesterfield BC, Moor – LD Tony Rogers gain from Labour. Chichester ...
Do you remember when bandwidth was a problem? A time when you wanted to do things on your computer but were unable to do so. It struck me that Brexit has crowded out all other sensible conversation for ages. Stuff that should be done has not been done – where are the Transport for the North Plans for both the new Road and Railway? Where is the new housing that we need? Where are the essential reforms for social care? When facing an existential crisis, even one of your own making, smart managers recognise that delegation is a key coping ...
In a new interview with The Guardian, Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn MP has repeated his support for Brexit going ahead.
Delays continue in getting final planning approval for the housing developments at Foldgate Lane and Bromfield Road. Trees and highways are the main issues. Network Rail has also warned about the potential for a future increase in noise from trains affecting the Bromfield Road site. Delays are not unusual in planning matters though approval Foldgate Lane, which has received a third "stop notice" from Highways England, is rather dragging on. On 19 December, Highways England issued a statutory notice instructing Shropshire Council not to grant final planning permission for the development of 137 homes at Foldgate Lane for three months ...
From Blether Tay-Gither : Our December Blether will be on Thursday 27th December - at 7pm at The Butterfly Café, 28 Commercial Street. The theme this month is "Guardians of the Wells". Hope to see some of you there - all welcome!
