None of Marie Kondo's (mostly mythical) thirty books only mantra featured when I spoke at Taunton Liberal Democrats last night.

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

Rochdale councillor Kathleen Nickson (Balderstone and Kirkholt ward) has joined the Liberal Democrats from Labour. Councillor Nicholson, who won 52% of the vote in her ward in last May's council elections, cited alleged bullying and aggression as the reason for her switch of parties: I simply could not go working in an undemocratic manner. I was being told how to vote, being threatened and effectively blocked from being able to do my job an elected member in the Labour Party. The Lib Dem councillors have always acted with courtesy and professionalism whilst still getting their point across. I believe I ...

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

Liberal Democrats in Thornbury and Yate have re-selected South Gloucestershire Council Group Leader Claire Young for Steve Webb's former constituency.

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

The Great British stiff upper lip. Our Victorian stoicism. Show no weakness, admit nothing is making you uncomfortable. It's the thing many people instantly think of when they think of Britain, and to be honest, it's true isn't it? We've all sat on the train, straining our necks to not look at the drunk person [...]

Posted by Becca Plenderleith on Some Ramblings.
Sat 26th
18:37

Cheers and Jeers #5

Here's my latest news roundup, in which I cheer or jeer the week's events. Cheers to Angola, on becoming the latest country to decriminalise homosexuality. The Angolan parliament voted by 155 to 1 in support of the measure, which also prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation. Cheers to Roger Waters of Pink Floyd, who has indicated he would like to carry out further rescue missions after helping two stranded boys out of Syria. Cheers for Fiona Channon who made history this week for being the first woman in history to carry the ceremonial mace into the House of Lords. Cheers ...

Posted by Andrew on A Scottish Liberal

One has to ask what has been achieved by the longest partial government shut-down in US history. Thousands of devoted federal workers had a grim Christmas and January, many of them resorting to food-banks and second jobs. And now it is over – Donald Trump has hoisted the white flag. His stalwart supporter Lou Dobbs observed that Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the House of Representatives, "has just whipped the president of the United States". It has all been complete madness. The video below shows Senator Michael Bennet (Democrat – Colorado) making perhaps the most passionate speech I have ever seen. ...

Posted by Paul Walter on Liberal Democrat Voice

The next crucial vote on Theresa May's Brexit deal takes place on Tuesday. Much of the focus has been on taking no deal off the table. That's important, because it would be a disaster. However, we shouldn't forget that the actual deal would damage us too, leaving us poorer and less safe. Back in November, the Bank of England said that all forms of Brexit would leave us worse off than staying in the EU. Vince said at the time: The Bank of England has concluded that Brexit - with or without a deal - will leave the UK poorer, ...

Posted by Caron Lindsay on Liberal Democrat Voice

Yesterday, staff at the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in Canary Wharf, London, lowered the flags of the 28 EU member states in preparation for their move to the Netherlands. Following the vote for Brexit in the 2016 EU Referendum it was no longer tenable for the EMA to stay in Britain; the Dutch stepped in [...]

Posted by jonathanfryer on Jonathan Fryer
Sat 26th
11:00

My tweets

Fri, 12:33: Trump ally Roger Stone arrested on seven charges https://t.co/BBpiaNRNQ4 Fri, 12:56: Good. https://t.co/CYszDnHu86 Fri, 13:05: RT @DoctorWhoNovels: Good morning, and as it's #ff why not follow these wonderful people? @RICHARDLEEGEEK @KosmicKris @Positive_Who @JakeCo... Fri, 14:45: Hooray! https://t.co/jToJrYn9YY Fri, 16:02: The choices are only going to get tougher as these polls go on. Tucker (and Perry)'s Season 28 books are great, but... https://t.co/ygN1x14emA Fri, 16:05: RT @Salon: Every extremist killing in U.S. last year was linked to far right — new ADL report https://t.co/44ZswDFQbJ Fri, 17:11: RT @cliodiaspora: As more and more problems with #SettledStatus emerge, it is time ...

Surely, the head of plane giant Airbus spoke for all of us when he branded Theresa May's handling of Brexit a "disgrace". However, his threat to close the company's plants if the UK crashes out of the EU with no deal has to be taken seriously. Airbus employs 14,000 people in Britain, including 6,000 jobs at its main wings factory at Broughton, in North Wales, and 3,000 at Filton, near Bristol, where wings are designed and supported. With around 110,000 more jobs in connected supply chains, the aerospace group is among the UK's key employers - and among the most ...

Posted by Peter Black on Peter Black
YouGov

Our Headline of the Day comes from the US and The Oregonian. What a guy!

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

The Liverpool Echo has the article on its web site – see link below:- I'll start this posting by saying that I've never been particularly enamored of school league tables as they are only one aspect of what we all hope schools are trying to achieve with our young people. However, they're a reality no matter how blunt an instrument they are and of course, many parents will use such performance standards at GCSE to decide which school to send their youngsters to. Schools on lists such as these will surely be under pressure to improve their results and ...

Posted by Cllr. Tony Robertson on Sefton Focus

In what is apparently her annual visit to the Sandringham branch of the Women's Institute, the Queen has extolled the virtues of compromise and "coming together to seek out the common ground." Although she doesn't actually mention Brexit this is widely, and probably rightly, regarded as a not very coded message to our parliamentarians to bash each others heads together and come up with a viable deal. As a dedicated Liberal who believes that our MPs should be elected by single transferable vote in multi-member constituencies, so leading almost inevitably to a balanced parliament with no single party with an ...

Posted by Peter Wrigley on Keynesian Liberal

From Blether Tay-Gither : Our January Blether will be on Tuesday 29th January - at 7pm at The Butterfly Café, 28 Commercial Street. The theme this month is "names". Join us for a relaxed evening of stories and tales. bring a story or just come to listen. Hope to see some of you there - all welcome!