Labour have let down Remainers again. Their national executive committee backed lifelong Eurosceptic Jeremy Corbyn by giving only qualified support to another referendum. Instead of giving full support for a public vote on the government's deal versus Remain they offer only a vote to stop "a bad Tory Brexit" as one of the "options on [...]
Four Seasons collapse shows social care crisis unfolding on Tory's watch Gosport investigation vital to ensure justice is done – Lamb Free sanitary products to be available in Welsh colleges Lib Dems: A vote for Labour is a vote for Brexit Four Seasons collapse shows social care crisis unfolding on Tory's watch Responding to the news that one of Britain's largest care home groups, Four Seasons Health Care, is on the brink of administration, Liberal Democrat Health Spokesperson Judith Jolly said: For the many thousands of residents and staff at the Four Seasons Health Care, the news that the group ...
Just leaked, Labour's European Manifesto section on confirmatory referendum: "Taking into account the variations in people's voting intentions and the scope of austerity as it impacts on the jobs related economy, and intersecting this with the Tory agenda of the few rather than the many, Labour will consider the next steps towards a resolution of the 2016 referendum vote in conjunction with
This evening I did my last leaflet delivery in Whickham East. That does not mean I have no more deliveries to do! Alas, tomorrow I will be in Dunston, Festival Park, Lobley Hill and Birtley. It will be my eve-of-poll Gateshead tour! In the meantime, I am working on the next eFocus. It will be another edition eagerly awaited by Labour!
Scottish Liberal Democrats have announced that the party's Environment spokesperson Rebecca Bell is their new Prospective Parliamentary Candidate (PPC) for Dunfermline and West Fife.
Well, people vote... and campaigners also campaign. If you're not used to political campaigning, what happens on polling day (and indeed the very fact that it's a super-busy day rather than the quiet day it usually is in the political news coverage) can be a bit of a mystery. So here is my list of the five main things campaigners get up to on polling day: 1. Delivering campaign literature Even on polling day, people are still making up their minds for sure how to vote – and those who think they have made up their minds might yet change ...
This 1910 Great Northern Railway poster for the Yorkshire coast takes some liberties with Lewis Carroll's The Walrus and the Carpenter.
When I heard that Jeremy Corbyn had written the foreword to an antisemitic book, I assumed it was a recent work. But it turns out the book is Imperialism by John Hobson, which was published in 1902. Hobson was an interesting and heterodox economic figure, who is claimed by both Liberals and Marxists. Imperialism was his most influential work. He was one of the leading New Liberal thinkers before the first world war, but later joined the Labour Party without ever feeling wholly at home there. Imperialism was his most influential work.and I am glad that it is in print. ...
At this exact moment 20 years ago, the third of three nail bombs in two weeks exploded in London. The Admiral Duncan was deliberately targeted in a homophobic hate crime. Three people lost their lives and many more were injured. The attack followed on from two others, in Brixton and Brick Lane, which targeted black and Bangladeshi people. The racist, homophobic murderer was arrested shortly after and eventually sentenced to life imprisonment. The BBC has interviews with some of the survivors. Liberal Democrat London Mayoral Candidate Siobhan Benita summed up her feelings in this tweet: Today, 20 years on, we ...
Books finished in the last week Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth, ed. Catherine McIlwaine The Weather on Versimmon, by Matthew Griffiths Alarums and Excursions: Improvising Politics on the European Stage, by Luuk van Middelaar April Books Non-fiction: 7 (YTD 14) Publishing and the Science Fiction Canon: The Case of Scientific Romance, by Adam Roberts Dungeons & Dragons Art & Arcana: A Visual History, by Michael Witwer, Kyle Newman, Jon Peterson and Sam Witwer On the Waterfront, by Malcolm Johnson The Botany of Desire, by Michael Pollan Doctor Who Episode Guide, by Mark Campbell Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth, ed. Catherine McIlwaine Alarums ...
Tue 30th
14:45
Lib Dem MEP candidate Caroline Voaden on the liberal values Lib Dem MEPs would bring to Europe
In a few weeks' time, we hope that Caroline Voaden will be a Liberal Democrat MEP for the South West. Her interview on Sky News today shows why she would do a fantastic job. She talked about a vote for the Lib Dems being a vote to stop Brexit, why the Lib Dems have the advantage as the biggest, strongest pro Remain party in the UK, and the traditions of liberalism, internationalism and freedom that Lib Dem MEPs would bring to Brussels. Enjoy. Sky's Adam Boulton interviewing Lib Dem's lead SW & Gibraltar candidate this morning. A vote for the ...
Some lunchtime fun to brighten your day... Yesterday, Holyrood's Dog of the Year competition run by the Dogs' Trust and the Scottish Kennel Club took place with the Lib Dems represented by Alex Cole-Hamilton and his canine alter-ego, Martha. Martha is a Dogs' Trust rescue dog and seems every bit as irrepressible as Alex himself. The best morning falling in love with Martha, a Lab/Setter, @DogsTrust rescue dog who I got to enter into #HolyroodDogoftheYear. Such a ball of muscle &energy! Here she's giving me what can only be described as a 'Nantucket Sleighride' as she yanked me out of ...
New data from YouGov is packed with fun nuggets. For Liberal Democrats, the key point is that only just over half of voters know that the party is anti-Brexit.
Politicians must heed what young people, concerned about the future of our planet, are saying, writes Christine Jardine in her Scotsman column: Too little time recently has been dedicated to looking at how we are damaging the planet, undermining the future of generations to come and destroying the natural world. More importantly we are letting the valuable and scarce time we have left to change things slip through our fingers. That was also not my only encounter this week with a younger generation frustrated at the adult world's lack of action to protect their environment. On Friday morning I visited ...
Mon, 12:56: The Meteorite Hunters Who Descended on the Carancas Fall https://t.co/mAfbMJCS9B or, "The Mad Scramble to Claim the... https://t.co/gG254DlvHr Mon, 13:24: RT @irishwol: @nwbrux But you know, Big Ben is really the name of the ... ok, maybe not go there. Mon, 15:54: RT @BBCPolitics: Former WTO director general Pascal Lamy does not look impressed with Tory MP Iain Duncan Smith talking #Brexit #politicsl... Mon, 16:05: Hunting the Lynx with the Old Believers https://t.co/v9qRG1PW3X Great piece of writing. Mon, 17:11: Borderline Nationality Disorder https://t.co/5lRZa8IIut About the Drummully Polyp. Mon, 17:29: A reminder: "Brexit as seen from Brussels", featuring me, ...
Yesterday's news that victims of rape and sexual assault in England and Wales are among those who could be required to hand over their phones for scrutiny as a precondition for getting justice is a very worrying development. It is hardly going to encourage people to come forward if they have to allow Police to trawl through their entire public and private social media and many will fear that material which is entirely unrelated to the offence could be used in evidence. You also need to take into consideration that messages sent could be used to imply consent that simply ...
Tue 30th
10:06
Vote for me, I'm on a committee: Labour's car crash campaign in Pelaw and Heworth (no.2)
I wrote earlier this month about Labour's local election campaign in Pelaw and Heworth where the Mayor of Gateshead, Cllr Jill Green, is defending her seat against a strong Lib Dem challenge. In that post, I suggested Jill would be well advised for her sake to replace Cllr Leigh Kirton as her campaign manager/agent given the car crash nature of her re-election campaign. Thankfully, Jill did not
The now closed former College Road Library in Crosby is of course a Carnegie Library and it's a building of some merit. So sad to see it stranding there empty. Out of the shot is a Sefton Council 'To Let' sign. It's not so long ago (2012) that a fierce community-based campaign was run to save the library from closure – I covered the campaign on this blog site – see link below:- I really do hope that a useful purpose can be found for this listed building, a long slow decline with minimum maintenance would be a terrible ...
Nine years ago, I blogged about the awful gendered marketing of children's fancy dress outfits by the Early Learning Centre. At that time, they did doctors' outfits for boys and nurses' outfits for girls. Almost a decade further on, it's frankly not much better. Try searching fancy dress for girls and boys. Boys get the superhero stuff – very active and history changing. Girls get mostly pretty dresses and uncomfortable and impractical shoes. Have you ever tried climbing a tree in a Belle costume? It's not easy. The more recent Disney Princesses have a bit more agency than they used ...
Thankfully not too many roadworks to report this month – though those that there are affect busy roads – for the full list see the GM Roadworks site here The Major roadworks in March are: – Bury New Road in Sedgley Park – 2 way traffic lights continue until 7 May 2019. – Bury Old Road, just north of Polefield Approach, carriageway incursions continue until 2 May. – Not in Prestwich, but will affect many people, multi-direction traffic lights at the junction of Bury Old Road and Middleton Road (at what was 'the Halfway House') 18-19 May 2019.
Three writers are coming to local libraries as part of the annual Read Regional celebration of new books from the north of England. The first event is at Radcliffe Library on Friday 10 May, when Anna Woodford will host an Exploring Poetry workshop at 2pm, followed by a chance to meet poet Clare Shaw. Author Robert Scragg will then be at Ramsbottom Library on Thursday 16 May from 7pm. To book a place at these events, visit the Bury Libraries News and Events web page: https://www.bury.gov.uk/libraries
Tue 30th
08:23
What Cameron becoming the Blair of the Conservative party means for the future of the Tories
For a very long time, I was sure the Tories would pull through and win the next election. They still very well might – but only because Labour is so breathtakingly, catastrophically poor. Even a mediocre Labour Party would be expecting to pick up 1,500 local seats on Thursday and win the EU elections by a canter given how poor the Tories have been of late. I figured, back in 2017, that whatever May brought back to the house in the form of a withdrawal agreement from the EU, the Conservative party would almost wholly back. Maybe there would be ...
President Macron may have forced it down to six months, but what has clearly emerged is that further extensions to the Brexit delay will be forthcoming if they are deemed necessary. What that means is that, for the UK, all options remain on the table – except, possibly, the hard Brexiteers' dream of a no-deal [...] The post Why it has to be time for a general election appeared first on Radix.
From Sheena Wellington : Tomorrow - Wednesday 1st May - at 1.15pm, our May Day Lunchtime Recital stars our own inimitable Karen Hannah on fiddle and Lindsay Duncan on vocals and guitar A fine player with an engaging personality, Karen is known as "tunemonster" for her unrivalled knowledge of Scottish melodies. The wonderfully named Nifty Shades of Grey, Sporran Again and Ceilidh Minogue are among the many bands she has worked with! She has taught fiddle at the Wighton Centre for many years and her performing career has seen her representing Scotland as far afield as New Zealand and South ...
Theresa May's obsession with immigration has long been a problem for both the UK economy, higher education and arguably the Remain campaign during the 2016 referendum. However, as Vince Cable points out in this Independent article, not only is this obsession wrong-headed and against the country's best interests, but also contrary to evidence, which she allegedly shelved. Vince has claimed that May suppressed up to nine studies that found immigration does not hit the wages or jobs of UK workers: The Prime Minister has repeatedly defended plans to impose tough curbs on EU workers after Brexit by arguing they are ...
Tue 30th
05:55In full: Cable and Brake's letter to Corbyn calling for Labour to back a People's Vote
Vince Cable and Tom Brake have written to Jeremy Corbyn ahead of today's NEC meeting urging Labour to back a People's Vote in their European Elections manifesto. There has so far been little enthusiasm for a confirmatory ballot from Labour's leadership, although the vas majority of their members and many of their MPs back it. One thing worth mentioning, though – even if Labour grudgingly agrees to some sort of confirmatory referendum, they are unlikely under Corbyn's leadership to back Remain. In contrast, the Liberal Democrats will enthusiastically and unequivocally campaign to stay in the EU. So, if that is ...
A poll carried out by the Fawcett Society has found 'widespread concern' about 'pink for girls, blue for boys' advertising by manufacturers and retailers. The poll discovered that 63% of mothers and 60% of fathers agreed that product marketing reinforces gender stereotypes. The charity says this is not limited to parents, 'as over half of men and women who do not have children also agreed'. Responding to the poll, Liberal Democrat MP Christine Jardine responded: "It is unacceptable that in 2019 companies are still marketing their products using outdated and sexist stereotypes. "These tactics are damaging for both children and ...
