This evening's Indicative Votes in the House of Commons have shown that significant support has shifted towards giving the people the final say on Brexit. The confirmatory referendum received more support than Theresa May's deal and was the most popular option on the order paper. Commenting, Leader of the Liberal Democrats Vince Cable said: "As anticipated, the Commons has not produced an absolutely clear way forward, but it is clearer where the centre of gravity now is. "What is essential is that whichever Brexit option the government pursues, it is put to the public in a confirmatory referendum. We have ...
There's more on the maypole in the Strand on Mr Pepys' Small Change.
The Forbes Pigment Collection, at the Harvard Art Museums, is a collection of pigments, binders, and other art materials for researchers to use as standards: so they can tell originals from restorations from forgeries.
* Paul Walter is a Liberal Democrat activist. He is one of the Liberal Democrat Voice team. He blogs at Liberal Burblings.
Press Briefing: Lib Dems: DWP is without a plan Responding to the National Audit Office report revealing that two years into the strategy, ministers have not yet developed detailed proposals for their goal of getting one million more disabled people into work by 2027, Liberal Democrat DWP Spokesperson Christine Jardine said: "Quite frankly I'm unsurprised by these findings, which simply add to the mounting stack of evidence showing that the DWP is not fit for purpose. "It's shameful that the department responsible for monitoring work capability is incapable of producing a plan so they can reach their own targets. They ...
Wed 27th
16:00
Jo Swinson MP writes: Another week of Brexit chaos, another week of government ignoring the big issu...
On Monday morning the ONS revealed that 1.5 million workers in England alone could lose their jobs to automation, with young people, women and the low-skilled most at risk. Just as we start yet another week of absolute chaos in Parliament over Brexit, I am seriously concerned that no one in Government is thinking about how technology will shape our society. As liberals, we instinctively embrace change, and we want to harness technological progress to solve challenges from disease to climate change. However, we must take steps now to ensure that everyone in society benefits from that progress. This is ...
I suppose after 36 years as a Liverpool Councillor nothing should surprise me about the way some people make wild claims about their track record on green spaces. Most of them are experienced councillors and they know that the way ... Continue reading →
I don't know if I speak for the rest of you, but I need something of a break from the relentless discussion on Brexit. It has taken over the political discourse to the degree that politics now is Brexit, with party affiliations and well-thought-out political standpoints no longer defining us in the way that the Remainer-Brexiter binary does. It's all so depressing. But that's for another post. We all need escapism and, I have just realised, I find mine in children's TV. As I have a 3 year old, I shouldn't perhaps find this surprising but I don't think I ...
It's local election time – indeed for someone, somewhere each April and May it is always a local election year. Of late, over the recent years you could be forgiven for not noticing – we Liberal Democrats have, somehow and for some reason, ceased to be "The Party of Local Government". For the first time in nearly a decade I have thrown myself back into the front line of party politics – so irritated am I by the body politic that I have concluded that locally, on my small patch of British, I might be the answer. So I am ...
A little over three years ago, just as Cameron named the date for the 2016 Europe referendum, I set up a Facebook page as a place to ... well, I wasn't sure, to be honest ... however, I knew I wanted to campaign online as well as face-to-face. I threw myself into that referendum campaign. I did plenty of street campaigning right across the South West, speaking with voters in places like Truro, St Austell, Liskeard and Plymouth as well as Taunton, Stroud, Bristol and Bournemouth. Also when I wasn't shuttling between high streets wearing the uniform of the time ...
When I worked in Papua New Guinea I discovered that meetings went on and on and on - and then on some more. Speakers 11, 12 and 13 had to have their say, even if speakers four, five and six had already said it. My "European"(?) attitude of,"we've already said that, so let's move on," cut no ice. I realised eventually that, in a country which within living memory had had no or few national forces of law and order, making sure that everyone had had their say was an essential element in getting local decisions accepted in a (usually) ...
Today the British Parliament will demonstrate how focused it is having seized control of the House of Commons agenda from the Executive. The Speaker, John Bercow, has to choose between 16 separate propositions that have been put forward on how to extract Brexit from its parliamentary impasse. He'll probably select only half, at most, for [...]
Tue, 12:23: RT @davidallengreen: One of the funniest moments of Brexit. https://t.co/NYZUBffvXE Tue, 12:56: Important thread on what the problems really are if UK law is not changed to reflect the new Brexit date. https://t.co/dSLS1p8xxp Tue, 14:58: RT @AndrewDuffEU: THREAD. Brussels is less interested in process than in outcome. Any proposal from London for a bespoke UK deal must be cl... Tue, 16:05: RT @MavenOfMayhem: Cis (or cisgender) isn't a slur. Yet some people think it is. 'Cis' literally means 'I'm comfortable with the gender I... Tue, 16:55: RT @unamccormack: diddly dum indicative vote diddly dum indicative vote diddly dum ...
This evening, the House of Commons will vote on 16 different paths either to or out of Brexit (and which one falls into which category very much depends on your definition of what qualifies as Brexit or not). Rumours swirl that May's deal will be brought back to the House tomorrow, as well as another, less substantiated one that she has agreed to quit if the deal goes through. I doubt it will go through regardless – I don't see how she gets Labour votes for it other than from the UKIP end of the party which is about three ...
Wed 27th
08:552012: Under an EU deadline & government collapse, the Dutch parliament grabs the reins Part 2
Read part 1 here: As Prime Minister Rutte had announced in his press conference on Saturday, when Parliament reconvened on Tuesday, 24th April, his Chancellor (Finance cabinet minister) Jan Cornelis de Jager started doing the rounds with all opposition parties. He was surprised when, arriving in the meeting room of the D66 parliamentary party, he found the leaders and Treasury spokespeople not only of D66, but also of GroenLinks and ChU sitting there to confer with him on a new Dutch budget package for Brussels. In telephone (and email) rounds on Sunday, and meetings on Monday, the top people of ...
The Western Mail reports that another Welsh Assembly Member has quit UKIP and launched a passionate attack on the party's association with right-wing nationalist and Islam critic Tommy Robinson. They say that Michelle Brown, a regional AM for north Wales, fired a parting shot by lambasting her party for "handing UKIP's megaphone to the likes of Tommy Robinson": She said that instead of fighting for Brexit, the party was "discussing individual politicians' pet projects such as attacking Islam and abolishing the Welsh Assembly". She accused the UKIP leadership of trying to "incubate and cultivate a rival fundamentalism". "I still believe ...
This is the great geopolitical issue that the European chancelleries will be facing for the next thirty years. In 2049, the Chinese will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Communist Party's takeover. Its leader, who is also the country's president for life, said that by that time China would become the world's leading power. Once [...] The post Should we be scared of China? appeared first on Radix.
There is an old saying that goes "You couldn't make it up" the drama of the last few weeks in parliament where Theresa May has been trying to get her deal passed has, in my opinion, been scandalous. May in her first attempt suffered the largest defeat in parliamentary history, followed by a second attempt when she faced the fourth largest defeat in history. Theresa May has not changed any of her red lines and then went on national television to blame MPs (how to win friends and influence people, Theresa May style). The only reason some of the MPs ...
