Wales Woefully Unprepared for No-Deal Brexit The Welsh Liberal Democrats have criticised no-deal preparations in Wales as "woeful" following a report from the Wales Audit Office, which critcised the lack of preparations made in case Britain leaves the European Union without a deal or transition period. The Wales Audit Office report stated, 'Wales needs to do more to prepare for possible no-deal Brexit.' despite the Welsh Government having begun "intensifying" their no-deal preparations as far back as December 2018. Jane Dodds, Leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats, said: Today's report from the Welsh Auditor General highlights the lack of real ...
Craven Arms does not just have a mosque: it also has a privately owned museum too. The Land of Lost Content, housed in a former Nonconformist chapel, bills itself as "Britain's foremost collection of pop culture ephemera, obscure and ordinary objects from the pre-digital era." But last September, reports the Shropshire Star, fire inspectors ordered its closure because "it did not come up to modern safety standards". Having visited it myself a few years ago, I was not wholly surprised. The good news is that the owners have spent the past five months bringing it up to standard and it ...
Adrian Slade has some lessons from history for those who scent an easy way to power: "Soggy centrism has never worked and the process of arriving at a realignment that actually achieves something is very far from easy, particularly without reform of the electoral system." "Right now, forbidding kids to walk and play outside unsupervised seems normal. But thanks to states revisiting their neglect laws - including South Carolina, Arkansas and Texas - soon this may seem as strange as it would have in the '80s." Lenore Skenazy reports growing support for free-range parenting. Lynn Hunt reviews two books on ...
Writing for The Independent Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable set out a new model for how the Liberal Democrats, the Independent Group and indeed others might end up working together.
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Current θ1 Present Danger, ed. Eddie Robson Last books finished Expo 58, by Jonathan Coe η1 Tweaking The Tail, by John Leeson The Life of Sir Denis Henry, by A.D. McDonnell Bitter Angels, by C. L. Anderson Next books A Little Life, by Hanya Yanagihara Daniel Deronda, by George Eliot
I have never had the slightest temptation to dabble in drugs and I don't have a son (nor ever wanted one). So I am maybe not the ideal person to empathise with the main characters in Felix Van Groeningen's movie, Beautiful Boy. The story of how a father tries to rescue his 18-year-old offspring from the [...]
The news yesterday morning that there is to be a new breakaway group inside the House of Commons, the 'Independent Group,' is an historic moment. That may seem hyperbolic, but the anger and resentment displayed by those seven who have left the Labour Party was as damning as it was dramatic. It showed once again why Jeremy Corbyn is, and always has been, the wrong person to lead the Labour Party, let alone be Prime Minister. Talks of electoral alliances have of course led to discussions about how the UK's main centrist party reacts. Echoes of the days of the ...
As a young man, G. K. Chesterton turned away from socialism to be a Liberal because, he claimed at the time, of the "tone of bitterness [and] atmosphere of hopelessness" encouraged among socialists. I wondered at this a little yesterday, now that seven Labour MPs have resigned the whip to sit as a group of [...] The post How the Gang of Seven needs to be different appeared first on Radix.
If recent news reports are to be believed, a consensus on how best to achieve a second referendum is coming together. Vote through Theresa May's deal on the proviso that it is put to the people first, with Remain an option on the ballot paper. There are many hurdles to jump over before then, not least convincing a reluctant Labour leadership to whip its MPs into voting for it. In preparation for the possibility, those campaigning on the Remain side should be gearing up for it, and we must learnt the lessons of the 2016 vote. Firstly, it is vital ...
As evidenced by this week's news, there are some remarkably consistent things which happen when people switch party, regardless of who, where and when. #1 The rule of principle a. If an elected politician leaves your party, it's a cynical move driven by fears over their future b. If an elected politician joins your party, it's a principled move, driven by fears over the future of our country #2 The rule of vocabulary a. If an elected politician leaves your party, it's a defection b. If an elected politician joins your party, it's a switch #3 The rule of seniority ...
- Linkspammer still broken, sorry about that. - I kind of feel like I want to blog more than I have for ages, but I'm not really clear what about. It's like an itch. This is an attempt at scratching it. It's not really working. Maybe I ought to do another Liberalism 101 post. - I've got to go to exercise class in a bit and I'm so wiped out after emotional roller coaster yesterday* and adrenaline rush of dentist terror** this morning that I really don't want to. I know it'll do me good though. - Daughter is playing ...
Tue 19th
11:15
Political breakaways are no easy option - a reminder of how the last one played out...
In 1981 and 1982 the Alliance between the two parties, under the leadership of Roy Jenkins and David Steel, was seen to be the perfect answer to Mrs Thatcher's highly controversial first government, then two years old. Polls suggested that the Alliance could win power 'if there was an election tomorrow' as the polls liked to say, but, as many will remember, there wasn't an election tomorrow. Instead there was the Falklands War, which Mrs Thatcher led us all into and won, thereby turning round many public perceptions of her. The Tories won the 1983 election comfortably, in the process ...
Mon, 12:05: RT @britainelects: The following MPs have resigned from the Labour Party: Chuka Umunna (Streatham) Luciana Berger (Liverpool Wavertre) Chr... Mon, 12:56: Sometimes you see something that restores your hope in humanity. https://t.co/FhDjjliBAD Mon, 16:05: RT @notalogin: The middle initials "R.R.", a ranked list: 1. J.R.R. Tolkien 2. George R.R. Martin 3. The Children R.R. Future Mon, 17:11: Iran: the revolution that shook the world https://t.co/vhcjECeXVN Well worth reading. Mon, 18:10: When the square root of n is less than or equal to n's number of divisors https://t.co/KOb22DOi7p Mon, 18:57: RT @DmitryOpines: 1/ Click-bait headlines are damaging the Brexit ...
It's no secret that this year is going to be big for us Liberal Democrats, and the Young Liberals are no exception. Last year, we provided thousands to young candidates across the country. We contributed to getting some fantastic young councillors elected, now serving their community. In 2019 we're doing the same with more support to elect young councillors. The aim is to give young people the community voice which they deserve and need. This support can range from grants for literature to subsidised action days and more. In 2018, we supported almost every candidate that applied. In almost every ...
The formal public consultation on the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework ends a month from now on 18 March 2019. This is your opportunity to have your say on these important plans which will have a massive impact on our local area for generations to come. You can take part in the consultation online, or in the post. Details of the online consultation are here. Responses sent in the post should be to: Planning Team Consultation, GMCA, Churchgate House, 56 Oxford Street, Manchester, M1 6EU The GMSF proposes 202,000 new homes in Greater Manchester (to put that in context the whole ...
Back in January I placed my first political bet: on Brexit happening on the due date of 29 March 2019. The odds had slipped to 5:1 against and I thought the combined chances of the government squeaking through a deal by then, or failing miserably and Britain crashing out on that date, were higher than ... Continue reading Will Brexit be delayed?
The most significant blow to Jeremy Corbyn's Labour yesterday was not the defection of seven MPs to a poorly defined independent grouping, but the readmittance of Derek Hatton to the party. This was the man who, in September 1985, as Deputy Leader of Liverpool City Council, sent redundancy notices to 31,000 council workers through a private cab firm, so as to make a political point. That action in turn gave the then Labour leader, Neil Kinnock, the ammunition to root out the hard left from Liverpool. It inspired Kinnock's most famous speech, at the Labour party conference in Bournemouth over ...
The reaction to yesterday's press conference in which seven Labour MPs announced that they have left the party and will sit as an independent bloc (for now) has been extraordinary. It seems that a lot of people who have found themselves politically homeless over the last few years discovered in the Magnificent Seven a new hope. The Independent Group's Twitter account has gained almost 80,000 followers in less than 24 hours; their website fell over yesterday morning due to excess traffic. On the other side, the Corbynistas lost their minds. I expected them to be cool and treat the whole ...
A huge thank you to everyone who responded to the Prestwich Crime Survey towards the end of last year and the start of 2019. We had a great response, both the post and online. What we were looking to find out is local people's views on policing in the area, to help us best represent you at Council and in discussions with the Police. We asked you what you felt about the visibility of the police in Prestwich. You said: Good 1.7% Satisfactory 8.5% Unsatisfactory 35.9% Poor 53.8% A pretty clear 90% saying the police presence was either unsatisfactory or ...
Whichever way any sensible person thinks about Brexit, a disaster looms at the end of March. Nearly three years on from the Referendum and the decision to trigger Article 50 Parliament and the country are no clearer as to what they want from leaving Europe, and why they want it, than they were in 2016. Division is everywhere. Unhappiness, uncertainty and disillusionment are as rife today among electors as they are across the political spectrum. When asked by the pollsters, a significant majority of UK electors now say they favour not leaving at all. That does not necessarily mean they ...
Residents recently contacted me concerned about the poor state of the road in Rockfield Crescent. I raised this with the council's Roads Maintenance Partnership and have received the following positive response : "The Road Maintenance Partnership inspector raised an order on 12-2-19 for pothole repairs to be carried out with a timescale for repair of approximately thirty days."
When you are an active member of a political party, the amount of the infrastructure of your life that is embedded in it is colossal. My husband knows that we have a bird of liberty as well as a spaniel determinedly pushing its way between us when we try to grab some time together. Our lives revolve round election cycles and meetings and protest marches. And this blog. Most of my best friends are in the Liberal Democrats. To be honest, I think they would still be my best friends wherever our lives took us, but, still, I share stuff ...
Tue 19th
05:53
Call for residents and visitors not to park overnight on Corve Street, Ludlow next Saturday
If you are going to be up and away by 7am next Sunday 24 February, disregard this post. But if you want to slumber until mid-morning, please don't park on Corve Street overnight between Tesco and the Compasses. You'll get a knock on your door asking you to move your car fast. Any parked cars that remain parked on that stretch will prevent the final resurfacing of Corve Street. We have a one-off opportunity to get the road surface sorted. Highways crews will not be coming back to patch any areas of road that can't be accessed. Galdeford car park ...
