It seems that, no matter how late I publish this feature, the Press Team are still up and working. Last night, the final press release came out at 11.58 p.m., so is included in today's batch... Drone reforms are vague and lack resources Social housing neglect due to lack of political will Dover delay is a national embarrassment Cable: Bumbling Govt taking 'Dad's Army' approach to Brexit Lib Dems: Govt defeat shows no deal not an option Lib Dems: Drone sighting shows urgent need for regulation Lib Dems defeat Govt on loan charges Drone reforms are vague and lack resources ...
Responding to the news that 72% of manufacturers have said Brexit was their biggest source of uncertainty, Liberal Democrat Brexit Spokesperson Tom Brake said: "We have already heard today about how car sales have fallen by the biggest amount since the days of the financial crisis, and now we can see the damage Brexit is doing to the manufacturing sector."The uncertainty surrounding Brexit is doing untold damage to our economy. With businesses up and down the country left in the dark by this blundering Conservative Government, Theresa May must stop playing political games with people's jobs."The Tories have lost the ...
Three times as many lorries using Portsmouth International Port as a result of a no-deal Brexit would result in gridlock and potential closure to parts of the motorway, Leader of the Liberal Democrats was told today. The warning from Mike Sellars, Manager of Portsmouth International Port, came during Vince Cable's visit to the port alongside the Leader of Portsmouth City Council, Gerald Vernon-Jackson. Following the visit, Leader of the Liberal Democrats Vince Cable said: "This shows the bumbling incompetence of the Government taking a 'Dad's Army' approach to no deal Brexit preparations."Motorway closures are unacceptable; throwing the Portsmouth port into ...
We left Geoff Marshall and friend walking from the least used station in Leicestershire to the least used station in Nottinghamshire. Leicestershire's Bottesford, well placed to serve a large village, is quite busy for a least used station. But across the border, Elton and Orston is one of those kept open with a minimal service because that is cheaper than going through all the formalities of closing it. It would be worth the walk from Bottesford just for those two road signs on the bridge.
Responding to the Government's defeat on Amendment 7 to the Finance Bill, which limits their ability to raise tax if there is a no deal Brexit, Liberal Democrat Brexit Spokesperson Tom Brake said:"The Conservative Government's defeat this evening shows Parliament's rejection of a no deal. This amendment goes some way to taking no deal off the table, but it is crucial it is removed as an option entirely."Theresa May must stop gambling with our future. It is entirely within her power to take no deal off the table, however she is recklessly keeping it there as a scare tactic due ...
Last year a trial of a mobile stroke unit took place in Southend: The modified ambulance includes a CT scanner, laboratory and state-of-the-art facilities. This specialist ambulance allows patients to be diagnosed and treated on board, rather than losing valuable time transporting them to hospital. Patients in the unit can receive lifesaving treatment "on the go" when every second counts.Thst report, which comes from the Braintree & Witham Times, suggests the initiative is now to be used across Eastern England. Now Phil Knowles, health campaigner and leader of the Liberal Democrat group on Harborough District Council, tells me the East ...
Rachel Sylvester writes in the Times today (£) about the need for a realignment in politics. Her piece is pretty much a puff piece for Lovefilm founder, Simon Franks' new vehicle, United for Change, which will apparently launch in the Spring. she makes an astonishing statement: It's too soon to say whether this will become the vehicle for the much needed reconfiguration but there is clearly an appetite for something different. Jonathan Powell, Tony Blair's former Downing Street chief of staff, is also co-ordinating discussions about a new political party. The Liberal Democrats have indicated that they would happily be ...
I've been arguing on Twitter today. Yes, I know, a complete waste of time for the most part, but it keeps my mental agility intact, and gives me a better understanding of what, and how, other people think. The argument is about fishing rights in the North Sea, not a subject I claim expertise on, but I know a little. So, when someone claims that hill farmers don't matter because, post-Brexit, we'll have a hugely expanded fishing industry, my sense of scepticism was triggered. Let's put aside the bizarre notion that all those bankrupt hill farmers can be retrained as ...
The Independent wins our Headline of the Day Award. If my experience of Argos is anything to go by, they won't change it.
Tue 8th
19:21
Government defeat! Cross Party amendment requiring MPs to consent to no deal preparations passes
Yvette Cooper's cross-party amendment which ensures that the Government would have to get the explicit consent of Parliament for no deal expenditure passed in Parliament tonight. This amendment was signed by Lib Dem, SNP, Plaid Cymru and Green MPs. I always like that moment in the Commons when the tellers line up in front of the Speaker. Those on the right are on the winning side. And if it's the opposition MPs, you know that the Government has been defeated. The margin was just 7 votes. 303-296. There's a bit of a health warning with this, though. This doesn't indicate ...
At the weekend I was in Chelmsford, a place Liberal Democrats – especially from London – should really try to visit before May. There's now an additional reason to support the local Liberal Democrat team: a great new PPC (Prospective Parliamentary Candidate) in Marie Goldman. On being selected Marie Goldman, who runs small businesses in the construction and technology industries, said: I'm thrilled and honoured to be selected by the Liberal Democrats in my home constituency of Chelmsford. We need far more people with real-world experience in Parliament. My wealth of experience from living in other countries and running my ...
A few less roadworks this month – for the full list see the GM Roadworks site here The major roadworks in January are: – Hilton Lane (near Sandylands Drive) 20 January, 2 way traffic signals (T4GM) – Middleton Road, just south of Junction 19, lane closures on 25 January 2019 (T4GM) – North and south of Junction 17 (A56) lane closures 14-16 January 2019 (BT) – Cadent works on Bury Old Road continue until March 2019 – Rainsough Brow – carriageway incursions to 21 January (Electricity NW) Not in Prestwich, but the roadworks on the A56 in Salford at the ...
Patients from Bury will be invited to share their experiences of GP services in a national survey being sent out in January. A random sample of patients from each GP practice in England will have the opportunity to share their views and experiences in the national confidential GP Patient Survey run by Ipsos MORI on behalf of NHS England. The survey covers all aspect of patient experience including amongst other things, making appointments, the quality of care received from GPs and practice nurses, satisfaction with opening hours and out of hours NHS services. The survey is an opportunity for patients ...
A reminder that the Parklife Community Fund is now open for applications for money raised at the 2018 event. This fund is open to community Groups in Prestwich and is a donation from ParkLife organisers. This year the fund stands at £23,500 and we are offering grants of up to £1,500 for community projects. The fund is open to groups that operate from Prestwich and/or for the benefit of Prestwich residents. The closing date for applications forms is 12 noon on Friday 25th January 2019. Successful groups will be invited to an awards evening on February 28th 2019. The application ...
New year, so new day for my weekly reading blog. Current The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy, 2010 Edition, ed. Rich Horton Heartspell, by Blaine Anderson The Time Lord Letters, by Justin Richards From Here To Eternity, by James Jones Last books finished Mikman, by Anna Burns Next books Saga Volume 9, by Brian K Vaughan and Fiona Staples "The Queen of Air and Darkness", by Poul Anderson
Sometimes there is only snark (it's not big and it's not clever)
Now one has asked for one before Here's John Redwood denying he called for one but being caught out Anyway there is no demand for it and that losers' march was tiny There will be civil unrest and the EDL will have a massive march
The arrival of new seeds to plant is always a treat, especially in January. This year it is a packet of six non-dormant Monkey Puzzle seeds (Araucaria araucana). I hope they will germinate and add to the collection of small trees growing away, including the Giant Sequoias. I have also taken cuttings of the Salix babylonica 'Tortuosa' (corkscrew, tortured or my fave, dragon's claw willow). I have found the easiest way with these is simply to push bare stems in a pot in winter and watch them grow away in Spring. I have planted my lovely Christmas gift of a ...
A casual glance at the news these days will see lots of journos reporting on this new craze of pro-brexit protestors in yellow hiviz jackets. Why, you might think, would people who abhor Europe and all it's works suddenly adopt the markings of a European protest movement? Why do people who object to being dismissed as gammons voluntarily clad themselves in mustard? A little trawl through some UK primary legislation will bring you to the Public Order Act 1936 {wikipedia link for those who get the heebie jeebies at the thought of reading Acts of Parliament}, which prohibits the wearing ...
He's a remainer But he's changed (despite never changing his mind on anything in the last 40 years). Look a "jobs first brexit"
Well the EU is an undemocratic superstate That as may be but we are constantly outvoted in the council Bah! We'll just find another international body that's more democratic
Of course leaving won't affect the economy Project fear! We haven't left yet anyway and already we are prospering Anyway, we put in loads of money and get very little out
Tue 8th
14:23
Memes/links for (mostly) fighting the last war - Part 3b - Trade - Tariffs, deals and WTO
Trade deals will replace any lost trade from the EU (they're a part of the tiny bit above the line) We'll just trade on WTO rules which everyone agrees are great. Who actually trades solely under WTO rules? (SPOILER: no one) And they are blocking us UK signals failure of bid for quick Brexit transition at WTO (Who elected these WTO members anyway and how do we get rid of them?) It's not just about tariffs anyway
Most of our trade is not through the EU.
Tue 8th
14:10Memes/links for (mostly) fighting the last war - Part 2e - The 2016 campaign - the vote
People had just been waiting for a chance to leave the failing EU. We all knew what we were going to vote for and the campaign made no difference anyway Anyway it was completely fair and without outside influence Anyway, at least people haven't a steady drip of propoganda beforehand.
Tue 8th
13:59Memes/links for (mostly) fighting the last war - Part 2d - The 2016 campaign - kick the establishmen...
People weren't voting to just kick the establishment. Seems the Leave campaign were the establishment just as much, who knew? Plus ca change
Tue 8th
13:50Memes/links for (mostly) fighting the last war - Part 2c - The 2016 campaign - other leave lies
Also:
Tue 8th
13:41Memes/links for (mostly) fighting the last war - Part 2a - The 2016 campaign - the single market
No-one was talking about being in the Single Market or being like Norway. No! Nigel never stopped talking about Norway (video) Nevertheless people wanted out of the single market. No! By the way, this chap wanted to keep the Customs Union and Single Market in 2012. I wonder what happened to him?
We were lied to in 1975 and were told it was just a common market. No you weren't. UK Voters knew the 1975 Referendum was about both an 'economic & political union' with the rest of Europe We were never hoodwinked It's could to give them a source they can't accuse of being biased against them, so I give you Peter Hitchens: The 1975 Common Market Referendum Campaign Documents There was no excuse for thinking the Common Market was "just a free trade group" in 1975
Last night at 9 PM, as almost all of you will know, Channel 4 broadcast a drama based on the events leading up to the EU referendum in June 2016, written by James Graham and starring Benedict Cumberbatch. I'm going to break this review up into two separate pieces: one, reviewing "The Uncivil War" as a drama; two, examining the politics of the piece and more interestingly, the politics of the reaction to the programme. I liked it much more than I thought I would. I wasn't a big fan of "Coalition" and I was weary of "The Uncivil War" ...
Christopher Beazley, former Member of the European Parliament for Cornwall and Plymouth (1984-94) and then East of England (1999-2009) is resigning from the Conservative Party to join the Liberal Democrats.
Across many fields there's a regular occurrence of people announcing that they're soon going to be launching something that's Big and New and Different and Will Definitely Change Everything. "Soon" never gets officially quantified to anything more specific than "in a few months" but it's always really close, honest, so just hold on in there and, oh, if you happen to be an investor we might just need a little bit more funding to get over the line, but the payoffs will be huge. In politics, this type of vapourware has normally applied to individual policies in various forms, be ...
Like many I was shocked by the recent death of Paddy Ashdown, the former Liberal Democrat leader, at 75. Having seen him in only September I thought that he had a lot more to give. That's cancer. He was a very special person. I only met him a couple of times. The most substantial was ... Continue reading True liberal: I will miss Paddy Ashdown
Tue 8th
11:46Christopher Beazley, former Conservative MEP for two decades, defects to Liberal Democrats and calls...
Christopher Beazley is welcomed into the party by Jonathan Brown Christopher Beazley, Chichester/West Sussex resident and former Member of the European Parliament for the East of England 1999-2009 and for Cornwall and Plymouth 1984-1994, is resigning from the Conservative Party to join the Liberal Democrats. Christopher says: As a lifelong, traditional, one-nation, pro-European Conservative I can no longer sit idly by while my former party plunges the country into disaster. Successive Tory Party leaders have failed to confront the nationalist, lunatic right-wing fringe. As my daughter put it: "David Cameron gambled with our future and lost!" I salute the Liberal ...
MP slams Government for failure to improve health services for trans people Public Interest Test consultation on BBC iPlayer proposals The BBC wants to make iPlayer more suitable for the Netflix era. Have your say here. Networks should demand to see Trump's speech in advance -- and refuse to air it if it's filled with lies: CNN analyst TBF I'd be happy to apply this to any politician, but then you'd get all the wankery about what lies are lies, and... Another new centrist party which is definitely going to be launched in April and not just disappear up its ...
Mon, 12:56: The Ross Perot Myth https://t.co/7IoU5OwQQc @FiveThirtyEight showing that he did not in fact cost Bush senior the 1992 election. Mon, 12:56: BBC News - Gabon coup: Government says 'situation under control' https://t.co/hV6zIWHfD5 So 2019 still has a chance... https://t.co/lr4ZUrOpHJ Mon, 13:06: RT @davecl42: @nwbrux Let's see how #brexit goes before you count your chickens Mon, 16:05: Voting David McIntee over David Llewellyn, on both quality and quantity. https://t.co/dlEZur39Bv... https://t.co/sc3oEldyh1 Mon, 17:11: 'Managed no deal'? That's just more Brexit snake oil https://t.co/vFUFjR8Ck8 @AnandMenon1 and @JDPortes lay it out. Mon, 17:45: Favourite Male Companion: A bit of a dissident here, ...
I'm often on College Green, Westminster, filming TV interviews for Middle Eastern channels, but whereas the atmosphere there used to be rather jolly, things have recently taken a more sinister turn. One had become used to anti-Brexit campaigner Steve Bray photo-bombing shots and couldn't help but smile when he turned up with an immense pole [...]
Hospital Theresa May chose to launch NHS plan was built with £50m of EU financing https://t.co/tDFAOjNfWx — Barney Pell Scholes (@B_PellScholes) January 7, 2019 The European Investment Bank has put over £2.9 billion into British hospitals. A valuable resource we lose if we go ahead with this madness.
A planning application is just in from Punch Taverns to build two semi-detached two-storey houses on the car park of the Bridge Inn at the bottom of Corve Street (18/05877/FUL). The pub will remain in use. Punch regard the car park as surplus to their requirements. The site is within Ludlow Conservation Area so the design must be looked at in detail. There also could be a loss of residents' parking spaces on St Mary's Lane. That could be a point of contention. As could tarmacked car park spaces in an area with frequent flash flooding. Click for larger images ...
Tue 8th
09:30Generosity, compassion, 3am phone calls and no watching rugby - David Laws' heartfelt tribute to Pad...
It's still hard to get our heads round the fact that Paddy is no longer with us. So many tributes have been paid to him. One particularly touching one was published on Somerset Live at the weekend. David Laws, who worked for Paddy and who succeeded him as MP for Yeovil, talked about life with this great character. Here's an extract: But those who knew Paddy best, most valued his personal qualities, not the titles or impressive CV. He was a voracious worker, a natural leader, a person of great courage and conviction, and of a generous, compassionate and progressive ...
The German SPD Social Democratic party is in deep crisis. A reluctant coalition partner once again with Angela Merkel's CDU, poll ratings place the SPD currently at 14 per cent at a Federal level, about the same as the far-right AFD and far short of the Greens at 20 per cent. While a number of SPD ministers are [...] The post Why 2019 is a sad half century anniversary for the German SPD appeared first on Radix.
I am one of the first to stand up and defend people's right to protest, to offend others and even to be offensive, if it is justified. But there is a line to be drawn between legitimate protest and intimidation, and yesterday's confrontation with Anna Soubry MP crossed that line. As the Guardian reports, dozens of MPs have written to the UK's most senior police officer to raise concerns about safety outside parliament after the Conservative MP faced chants from protesters on Monday calling her a "Nazi". Ironically, the tactics adopted by these protestors have far more in common with ...
Did you know that the new Highway Code is likely to say that a driver should leave 1.5m between their vehicle and a cyclist when overtaking and that the Police may well be encouraged to take drivers to task, even penalise them, for not adhering to this change? The change is coming about because a small minority of drivers are putting cyclists at risk by passing far too close when overtaking. Most drivers pass well away from cyclists but some don't care and pass cyclists in a very dangerous way. I've had a couple of bad experiences recently when cycling ...
It is now just over 11 weeks left before we leave the EU. We should have been a lot further with the negotiations that we are at the moment i.e. a deal agreed with the UK now in the process of negotiating a trade deal, this is what the Tories called a 'good deal'. But the bickering among the Tories that led us to a referendum almost sealed their fate in that they were never going to agree on what they considered was a good deal. Their bluster about how the EU would bend to their needs because BMW and ...
