That quote is, of course, not from me but from someone else. In this case, Liberal Democrat member Liz Jarvis on her conversion from Labour. Writing for The Independent, Liz Jarvis says: I surprised myself when the decision finally came. I was raised in a politically split household: my mum, the daughter of Irish Catholic immigrants and a Women's Libber, took my sister and I on marches and Labour Party picnics. My dad had been in the Middle East Land Forces and admired Thatcher. It was sometimes like living with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton and the rows were furious. ...

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

An article by Michael Dervan in The Irish Times begins: It was when I was working on the book, The Invisible Art, A Century of Irish Music, 1916-2016, that I first registered the name Maud MacCarthy. She was an Irish musician who was born in Clonmel in 1882 and died, a month short of her 85th birthday, in Douglas on the Isle of Man in 1967; she was buried at Glastonbury.Maud MacCarthy is a name that has appeared on this blog before. In 2012 I discovered that she had been a girlhood friend of Nora Logan, the suffragette daughter of ...

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

[IMG: "Cycling is all about freedom"] A story about one man's efforts to help combat climate change through his passion for bicycles. The post "Cycling is all about freedom" appeared first on FeministMama.

Posted by ambitiousmamas on FeministMama

[IMG: I am taking up Mindfulness in 2019] There is something about the New Year that makes one want to throw off the old and embrace the new. To me a New Year represents a blank sheet of paper upon which I can... The post I am taking up Mindfulness in 2019 appeared first on FeministMama.

Posted by ambitiousmamas on FeministMama

Last week, the Resolution Foundation found that UK black and ethnic minorities (BAME) lost an estimated £3.2bn a year in pay gap and called for equivalent gender pay gap reporting for BAME workers. There was another report from the Centre for Justice Innovation on how community sentencing has decreased due to the loss of trust between the judges and magistrates and the probation service since the latter was privatised. It seems like there is report each week of evidence of race discrimination or breakdown of trust between the UK establishment and the ethnic minority communities. In 2018, the Grenfell fire ...

Posted by Merlene Emerson on Liberal Democrat Voice

You know that terrible sinking feeling you get when you are about to pay for something and realise that the debit card you thought was in your wallet... isn't? Well, I had one of those moments on New Year's Eve. And then, there's that moment of hope. "Perhaps I've left it in another jacket/other item of clothing etc.?", only to find that hope extinguished. And then Ros had an idea. "Could you have left it at the restaurant we had lunch in yesterday?", she mused. "Unlikely,", I thought, "but it's worth a go.". The only question was, what was the ...

Posted by Mark Valladares on Liberal Bureaucracy
Wed 2nd
11:00

My tweets

Tue, 12:56: RT @AndrewDuffEU: Why Remainers should wise up to what the EU is doing. By me in ⁦@ObserverUK⁩ https://t.co/w15tbLhXa7 Tue, 14:34: RT @PickardJE: don't be alarmed but you're now living in the year that the original Bladerunner was set: 2019 https://t.co/aJs1gADZ9u Tue, 16:05: RT @afneil: Channel "migrant crisis" in context: 220 have attempted crossing in last 2 months, many well-educated Iranians. 750,000 "boat p... Tue, 17:11: RT @Pearoid: Every 'Bally' in #Ireland https://t.co/rt0EtvJCXH Tue, 20:28: RT @Dublin2019: Hi @worldcon2018 members! @TheHugoAwards nominations open soon, & you can participate. Most of you are on our list. If you... Tue, 20:36: ...

The Vimes Boots Theory: Further Reflections "Vimes' Boot Theory says that the reason rich people get to save themselves money on boots is that they have the $200 for boots that poor people don't. That is true, of course, as discussed above. But that's not the whole story. They also know where to buy $200 boots. They also know which $200 boots to buy." Great people who turned down New Year's Honours These Leaked WhatsApp Chats Reveal Just How Brexiteer Tories Relentlessly Fight The "Smeary" BBC "A huge cache of leaked messages show how Eurosceptic Tories have repeatedly pressured the ...

Wed 2nd
10:35

Coalition blues

Back in 2010 after a General Election that left our party with the balance of power in a hung parliament the Liberal Democrats went into coalition with the Conservatives. Every section of the party overwhelmingly supported this move and after decades out in the cold Liberals were finally back in government. The circumstances weren't ideal given the dire economic situation, and for a party that faced the Tories as the main opposition in many areas, it was sure to be difficult electorally over the coming five years. That said options were limited, Labour were the clear losers, and the parliamentary ...

Posted by David Warren on Liberal Democrat Voice

There is a very useful article in today's Times from Danny Finkelstein explaining why the World Trade Organisation (or WTO as everybody refers to it) offers no solution to the problems Brexiteers argue exist with the European Union. Finkelstein starts by outlining a brief history of the WTO, and in particular, how the US under Trump remains hostile to the body. He says that in 1948, 53 countries signed the Havana Charter which envisaged the creation of an International Trade Organisation (ITO). This body was to sit alongside the World Bank and the IMF, and would help to open up ...

Posted by Peter Black on Peter Black
YouGov

Happy 2019 to you all. As we enter the new year, I reflect on the past month and feel like a certain bridge may have been crossed by Team Corbyn that will be tricky to cross back the other way. An interview in the Guardian had Corbyn saying that in the event of a general election, Labour would campaign on a platform of continuing with Brexit, only seeking what Corbyn describes as a better deal than the one May managed to acquire. There was nothing new in this position – it has been Corbyn's position on Brexit since June 24th, ...

Posted by Nick on nicktyrone.com
Wed 2nd
07:30

CCTV - What of Liberty

The UK has approximately 1 per cent of the world population and well over 10 per cent of the world's CCTV cameras. London alone has around 422,000 CCTV cameras, and it is estimated that on an average day an individual, in London, will be captured on a camera at least 30 times. Third in line with the most CCTV cameras is Chicago, with at least 17,000. However, according to a recent report in the Chinese state media, People's Daily, the city of Beijing now has a CCTV network that covers 'every corner' of the city. The total number of cameras ...

Posted by Tahir Maher on Liberal Democrat Voice

I have taken up residents' complaints about the filthy state of the pavement on Riverside Drive around the area where the Tay Rail Bridge crosses above the street. The pavement is badly covered in a mess caused by roosting birds on the bridge and residents have expressed concern about the potential health hazard. I have therefore asked the council's Rapid Response Team if it can have the pavement jet washed. However, the problem will simply return unless Network Rail improves its netting under the bridge to deter birds from roosting there so I have also raised the issue with the ...