Cable: CBI warning of no-deal plans reveals no faith in PM Cable tells Japanese business leaders a People's Vote is still possible Lib Dems vow to fight on for death penalty guarantee Cable: Barclays decision highlights the cost of no deal Brexit Cable: CBI warning of no-deal plans reveals no faith in PM Responding to reports that the Head of the CBI expects UK companies to speed up plans for a no-deal Brexit in response to votes in the House of Commons last night, Leader of the Liberal Democrats Vince Cable said: The voice of business in our country can't ...
Iain Dale has collated a collection of Liberal Party and Liberal Democrat party political broadcasts. It begins in 1955 with John Arlott, Frank Byers and Herbert Samuel. Cheryl Misak looks at the influence of Frank Ramsey on Ludwig Wittgenstein, whose work he translated into English. The older brother of Michael Ramsey, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Frank made many important contributions in philosophy, mathematics and economics before his death aged 26. London was once a city of horses, says Alex Cochrane : "Humans lived cheek by jowl with the 300,000 horses of cabmen, traders, laundrymen, grocers and rag-and-bone men. You can ...
The academic publishers John Wiley have made a special issue of the Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology freely available online. It looks at Brexit and emergent politics and its editors explain: This special issue considers how social psychology can contribute to an understanding of the political ruptures associated with Brexit, and also what challenges Brexit poses to social psychology itself. In other words, we consider how social psychology can be used to understand the current politics of Brexit and beyond.
Earlier this month it was a wolf sanctuary: now comes news that Bishop's Castle is to get a poetry pharmacy. As the Guardian reports: The poet Deborah Alma is preparing to open the UK's first poetry pharmacy. Here, instead of sleeping pills and multivitamins, customers will be offered prescriptions of Derek Walcott and Elizabeth Bishop. Alma, who as the "Emergency Poet" has prescribed poems as cures from the back of a 1970s ambulance for the last six years, is now setting up a permanent outlet in a shop at Bishop's Castle in Shropshire. An old Edwardian ironmonger's, it still has ...
[IMG: No More Hurt] Racism hurts. Racism is everywhere and occurs everyday these days. People say that Brexit is to blame. I think that Brexit and Trump have allowed racism to flourish by legitimising it. Racism was always there.... The post No More Hurt appeared first on FeministMama.
Alexander Betts presents the evidence that far from being a burden, refugees are a boon to countries which decide to accept them and give them chances.
Wed 30th
19:24
I am proud of the contributions of the Chinese diaspora communities to the UK - Vince Cable
Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable has sent greetings to everyone celebrating the Chinese New Year: Happy New Year greeting to friends and members of the Chinese community in the UK and to all who celebrate the Lunar New Year during this time of year! We are entering a year of uncertainty with Brexit on the horizon, but I am confident and proud of the continuing contributions of the Chinese diaspora communities to the UK. Some of you have been here for generations from Hong Kong and other former colonies, and others more recently from the Peoples Republic of China, whether ...
Unfortunately I think the "winners" in yesterday's parliamentary manoeuvres are the arch Brexiteers (Jacob Rees-Mogg et al and his European Reform group.) They can claim to have shown themselves to be "flexible" by supporting Mrs May's deal provided she agrees to re-negotiate the Irish backstop, and Mrs May can also claim to be a compromiser extraordinaire by agreeing to do this, despite the fact that up until now she has said that this was impossible. t The most perceptive comment I have seen on the demand to substitute "alternative arrangements" (as yet unspecified and with a and technology as yet ...
Second paragraph of third chapter: Stepping carefully between berry-bush roots and fronds of fern and the long thin branches of ground-level shrubs, Salli smiled to herself. It was Fenka. She liked Fenka. She kept her mouth shut and walked on. I bought this on seeing a recommendation from someone back in 2011; and I cannot not find whose recommendation it was, or why. I thought at first it might have been Liz Bourke, but her review is from 2012, after I had bought it. Lisa DuMond wrote it up in 2000, the year after it was published, but I don't ...
Just before Christmas Liberal Democrat Group Leader Councillor Tim Pickstone caught up with Bury's recently appointed Assistant Director of Education and Inclusion, Paul Delbridge-Smith, who took up post with Bury Council in August. One of Paul's first priorities was to get an accurate picture how Bury's schools are doing and how well they are performing in educating children in the Borough, as well as to look at the role of governors in securing good quality schools. The overall picture is extremely concerning given the recent declines in school performance and standards, in Ofsted judgements, and in the rankings of Bury ...
The public consultation on the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework (GMSF) is now open. The GMSF is the plan to provide space for an extra 202,000 new houses in Greater Manchester over the next 20 years. More information and submit your response in the consultation here. The consultation closes on 18 March 2019. Investigations by Bury's Liberal Democrat councillors has revealed the scale of the unfair way Prestwich and Whitefield have been treated in the GMSF. Greenbelt to be lost under GMSF proposals: Across Greater Manchester – 4% of green belt lost Across Bury – 12% of green belt lost Bury ...
There are similarities between what happened in 2016-'19 in Britain and the Netherlands both in economics and politics and in the people's perception and polling reaction. In 2016-'17 the EMU (including us Dutch) was crawling out of the banking and Euro crisis, and Britain was relieved that the Kladderadatsch announced during the EU referendum campaign didn't materialise substantially. But while the economy recovered (Holland) or stayed even (Britain), people saw that their buying power flatlining, while trusted big high street store chains (V&D here, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%26D, dozens in Britain) collapsed, and while big problems in health care (caring at home ...
At the last full meeting of Bury Council, Liberal Democrat Councillor Mary D'Albert asked for an update on what the Council is doing to tackle loneliness amongst older people. Q. "Could the Leader of the Council inform members what work the Council is undertaking to identify, and to reduce, levels of loneliness in older people?" The Council's response: "We have completed our Bury Loneliness and Isolation strategy, which will complement projects under the Friendly Bury banner, dealing with Dementia, Autism, Ageing Well and Carers. Action plans are being developed for each of these themes and consultation on their design will ...
Information from the Council: "Unfortunately, the bad weather has meant that we are unable to make any bin collections today. Please leave your grey, blue and green bins out, and – weather permitting – we will catch up on these. Brown bins, however, should be taken in and will be collected on the next scheduled collection day. Our gritters have been out six times in the last 24 hours, and a snow plough was used in rural areas in the north of the borough. Our highways, waste and cleansing teams have been diverted onto footway gritting in town centres and ...
Clean Team Prestwich have confirmed the location of their next community clean. This is Sunday 3 February 2019, 9.30am meet at the Heaton Park Metrolink to cover the broader Whittaker Lane area. Litter pickers and bin bags are provided, please dress appropriately for the weather! More information at their Facebook Page here. Next litter picks are on 3 March and 7 April 2019.
Wed 30th
14:12Want to know more about what Lib Dems are up to? Then Liberal Democrat Newswire is for you
Liberal Democrat Newswire is the free monthly newsletter I produce about what's going on in the party, how the party is doing in elections and polls, the latest campaigns and policies and what the plans are for the future. "A must read for senior Lib Dems and politicos alike" – Daily Telegraph "Excellent" – Vince Cable Over 12,000 people read it, with kind feedback such as how it is "always so interesting", " it is THE way to keep up with things Lib Dem" and "keeps us so well informed". Don't miss out yourself; just sign up here: Email* Enter ...
On Monday evening I was in Whitehall and spotted a loud but relatively small demonstration. As I walked passed, I heard the speaker attacking "Western colonialism and imperialism" and there were shouts of "Hands off Venezuela". Yes, a demonstration in favour of the socialist government of Venezuela and their reckless destruction of a once rich economy with some of the world's largest oil
What are we to make of last night's votes on Brexit in the British parliament? Are we edging closer to a deal in time for 29 March? Or towards a crash out on the same date? Or towards a postponement? You can find advocates of each of these in this morning's media coverage. The official ... Continue reading Is Labour crumbling on Brexit?
Updates: Contradictory amendments show only way forward is a people's vote Press Release: 1 Labour MPs who sided with the Tories have become handmaids to Brexit 2. The only compromise that the PM should consider is a people's vote 3 Tory cuts have made it easy for 'county lines' drug traffickers 4. Time to scrap cruel Vagrancy Act Updates: Contradictory amendments show only way forward is a people's vote Following both Sir Graham Brady's and Dame Caroline Spelman's amendments passing last night in the House of Commons, note following comments: Liberal Democrats have been fighting for over two years to ...
A few years ago I made quite a bit of noise about the need to stop providing biscuits to councillors in meetings of Gateshead Council. At the time, the council listened and acted. I instantly made myself unpopular (or even more unpopular depending on a councillor's view of me) when the biscuits disappeared from meetings. After a year of so, suddenly biscuits made a reappearance at meetings. So
Tuesday was somewhat of a special day in the UK parliament. Lots of votes on lots of amendments to the government's motion. I won't talk about the vote results (too many have already done so in detail) or what they might or might not mean in the long run (because I haven't got a clue). [...] The post You can see why people are sceptical about 'experts' appeared first on Radix.
Wed 30th
11:27
Because we all have iTunes or Spotify or Google Play Music or Deezer or whatever these days, a poll
View Poll: Playlists [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
I was in Westminster last night for a meeting so I was around when the votes on the Brexit amendments started to come in. Well, we all know what happened. Theresa May scraped through on the Brady amendment, thanks to a temporarily reunited Tory party and, as I predicted last year, a group of Brexit-backing Labour MPs. We were, of course, previously told that her deal was absolutely final,
Tue, 12:56: RT @MavenOfMayhem: THREAD: Recently, a pediatrician claimed he was bullied off Twitter by trans activists. He blamed me, in part, for raisi... Tue, 13:56: RT @instituteforgov: The Malthouse compromise prizes Conservative unity over #Brexit negotiability https://t.co/9szr58Exkq https://t.co/mEv... Tue, 15:29: RT @GuitarMoog: Indeed! Perhaps more importantly, the PM has to go to Brussels and explain that she voted against the deal she and her cabi... Tue, 16:05: January 1919: the Irish Republic, the League of Nations and a new world order https://t.co/BdHwVTSUNJ Not sure that... https://t.co/OsQqrfyZkv Tue, 16:53: Thread. (Short.) https://t.co/3pdvl5OxTC Tue, 17:34: RT @IanWishart: Exclusive; The European Union ...
Wed 30th
09:28
Never has so much bollocks been spoken about one evening in parliament as we're seeing today
To recap, last night two amendments were voted on in the House of Commons: the Brady and Cooper amendments. Brady's was absurd in a sickly, feverish way. The essence of it is to destroy May's deal and force the Prime Minster to reopen discussions with the European Union so that the backstop can be changed. If you haven't been following lately due to your head being under a pillow because you just can't take anymore, I can say that several items of Brexit bingo were well and truly on display – you may vomit to note that "technological solutions" are ...
I haven't had time to catch up with the Inside Europe yet, but those who have seen it tell me, and this review confirms that the programme validates everything we think about David Cameron's tenure as UK Prime Minister: The full hour paints a vivid portrait of a leader showing no leadership but instead bending to the whims of a fully sociopathic political project. It lays bare Cameron's only achievement, which was to lay a paper-thin layer of modernisation over his beloved Conservative Party, to make it electable again. Of course, this could not stop him from being burnt to ...
This is a two-article set; the first looking at the real "Dunkirk" mentality in 1940-'45 up to 1954; the second at Dutch and British present-day politics. My first point is: no-one can use opinion polls in proving that the "Dunkirk Spirit" about "surviving without flinching" structural shortages, even: rationing, of daily necessities like fresh "fruit and veg", medicine, etcetera, was as widespread or as solid in 1940-'44 as the postwar legend has it. Opinion polls were a new thing; the first big Gallup polls in British politics and society only started being conducted from 1944-'45 onwards (see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_poll ). Moreover, ...
Residents have complained to me about the state of the roadway in Greenbank Place - see photo (right) : I took this up with the council's Roads Maintenance Partnership and have received the following helpful feedback : "An order has been raised for the repair of a number of potholes in Greenbank Place with a timescale for repair of approximately thirty days."
Last night was a night of political drama. MPs voted to move Brexit forward but their demand for the exit agreement to be renegotiated may well be blocked by EU leaders. The Joint Clinical Commissioning Groups voted to close the A&E at Princes Royal Hospital, in favour of a single A&E at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital. Telford and Wrekin Council leader Shaun Davies has already said that he will ask health secretary Matt Hancock to intervene. If that doesn't succeed, I wouldn't be surprised if the decision is challenged in the high court. The meeting at Harper Adams University was ...
