Farage tantrum shows he hasn't got the answers Responding to Nigel Farage losing his cool on The Andrew Marr Show this morning, Liberal Democrat Brexit Spokesperson Tom Brake said: Be it the 2016 or 2019 incarnation of Nigel Farage, he is still shamefully looking to point the finger rather than take responsibility. Just scratch beneath the surface and it is clear he doesn't have the answers on Brexit, never mind a manifesto. A vote for Farage, the Tories, UKIP, or Labour at the European elections is just a vote for Brexit and the years of damaging uncertainty that comes with ...
Twenty five years ago today, I was at work when someone came in and said that Labour leader John Smith had died. I was so shocked and sad at the loss of someone that, as far as I knew, everyone, no matter what party they were in, liked and respected. He was a thoroughly decent man who, as Shadow Chancellor and Leader of the Opposition, handed the backsides of Tory ministers to them on a plate on a regular basis, but could also engage in constructive dialogue and had good relationships with them. I often wonder what would have happened ...
While most people today were putting this sunny Sunday to good use at home, I was in Ryton delivering 500 leaflets in the Riverside Estate. Two hours of treading the streets and only one negative comment! I still have quite a few hundred leaflets left to deliver elsewhere!
Ed Davey was on Any Questions last Friday night. The first question from the audience in Cambridge was about climate change. Former Conservative Brexit Minister Suella Braverman hailed her party's action on this. I thought when I listened to it that Ed's reply was going to be interesting. Well, it was pretty forensic. He highlighted how the Conservatives had undone so much of the good work he had done as Climate Change Secretary and how important it was that we remain at the European table to have global influence. Find out what changes he is making in his own life ...
Just published by our Low Fell Focus Team, edition 35 of eFocus. This edition includes: Save the Hardman Centre Northumbria University's 'Making Low Fell Better' event a success Time running out to give your views on Tyne Tolls plan Low Fell's Summer Fayre You can read eFocus on this link.
"With the local elections, the Lib Dems were finally completely clear in their messaging. "Stop Brexit" - that's easy to understand. "Bollocks to Brexit" has the added bonus of having a slightly risqué element to it, meaning it will be discussed and thus picked up on." Nick Tyrone says the Bollocks to Brexit slogan is just what the Liberal Democrats need: Rachel Andrews takes us to the former Bessborough mother and baby home on the outskirts of Cork. Nine hundred children died here, but few graves have been found. Jonathan Webber introduces us to Simone de Beauvoir's views on parenting. ...
As Shakespeare said (J ulius Caesar Act 4, scene 3) : "There is a tide in the affairs of men Which taken at the flood leads on to . . .well, who knows? Two opinion polls published over the weekend show the Liberal democrats ahead of the Tories, with the latter in fourth place. BREX: 27% (-1) LAB: 25% (-1) LDEM: 14% (+3) CON: 13% (-1) GRN: 8% (+2) CHUK: 6% (-2) UKIP: 3% (+1) Of course, it's only by 1% and well within the poll's margin of error, so nothing to get too excited about. But as Harold Wilson ...
Today is ME Awareness Day. Many people have heard of ME, but the chances are that, unless you have ME, or are a carer for a person with ME (PWME), you do not really know it for the brutal debilitating effect it has. It wastes people's bodies, fogs their minds and it can crush their spirits. You might not really know ME because it is very difficult to diagnose. Often people with other fatigue conditions may be lumped in as ME patients. The key criterion for ME, in my opinion (other opinions are available) is Post Exertional Malaise (PEM). In ...
Second paragraph of third section (as usual in these books, it's about The Edge of Destruction):Observations: This unusual two-parter, featuring only the four regular cast members and the Tardis interior, was written to offset overspends on the previous stories, to introduce a 'sideways' narrative (instead of 'past' or 'future'), and to complete the series' probationary run of 13 episodes.I picked this up in 2010 and did not get around to reading it until now. I didn't miss much. It's a Lofficier-style recounting of every Who story to date (so through the end of the first Matt Smith season), with a ...
The Liverpool Echo has the article on its website – see link below:- Outside of Social Liberals this has been an economic/welfare policy which the two larger political parties have shown little if any real interest in to my knowledge to date. It's matter that I have blogged about before – see links below:- My most recent recollection about UBI is that one of the Canadian Provinces (could be Alberta) is considering trying to bring in a form of Universal Basic Income via it's Liberal Government. If this social welfare approach really is moving into mainstream ...
Yesterday was Lambeth, today was Peterborough on the campaign trail: Off campaigning with @LibdemBeki – online and on the streets [IMG: 🙂] pic.twitter.com/Yz06j92p5G — Mark Pack (@markpack) May 12, 2019 There's a quite remarkable election opportunity ahead if we can keep this up.
The death of Brian Walden, which was announced today, reminds us of a golden era of political broadcasting. Walden was a Birmingham Labour MP between 1964 and 1977, when he resigned to become the presenter of London Weekend Television's Sunday lunchtime programme Weekend World. A typical edition would have a cabinet minister or leading member of the opposition as a guest. There would first be a deeply researched film about a problem facing the minister or a political dilemma facing the opposition, followed by an in-depth interview. The mood was like a university tutorial, with Walden as the stern tutor. ...
[IMG: My daughter isn't enjoying university and I don't know how to help her] We did everything by the book. By this, I am referring to the unwritten books of 'Mothering in a Capitalist World' or 'How to bring up a potentially strong citizen who goes on to become... The post My daughter isn't enjoying university and I don't know how to help her appeared first on A Feminist Mum making a difference.
Lib Dem run Clitheroe Town Council has passed an emergency resolution calling on Lancashire County Council to keep the 280 Bus going and with the current timetable, after Preston Bus ceases to provide the service on the 17th June. Cllr. Allan Knox said: "A large number of school pupils going either to CRGS or to Cardinal Newman use the service and to withdraw it or even just change the timetable during GCSE's and A levels could have serious consequences for young people's future life choices. "In addition there are many people who use the service to commute to Preston or ...
I've been out this morning with a team door knocking in my own Church Ward in Liverpool. Obviously, it's a ward I know well having been re-elected here earlier this month with 60% of the vote. I have lived in ... Continue reading →
I saw a comment on Twitter about Richard Curtis's new film Yesterday, which imagines a world in which the Beatles have not existed. The comment said something to the effect that this world would be terrible, because all the music would be like Cliff Richard. That, of course, nonsense. There were plenty of other British bands influenced by Black American rhythm and blues in the early 1960s, and plenty of them made the same move to psychedelic music later in the decade. I have a problem with The Beatles - and not just that their name is a lame pun. ...
Sat, 13:16: Very sorry for Michael and Susan. Dreadful news. https://t.co/kmPBMu9frZ Sat, 14:02: RT @lynnoconnacht: I will never be over the generosity of the Hugo Voting Packet. NEVER. 💕💕💕 Sat, 14:02: RT @audiojeremy: Yay, just received the Hugo voting email! Sat, 16:32: RT @reviewsandrobos: @HugoAwards voter packet day is like Christmas in May https://t.co/jgg4oYF5pF Sat, 17:16: RT @garik16: Oh boy, the Hugo Ballot and Hugo Packet is out, containing a ridiculous amount of great SF/F works for anyone who's a Hugo vot... Sat, 17:19: RT @zenaldehyde: So my Hugo-nominated novelette about a failboat imugi isn't actually in the Hugo voter ...
I have been in politics too long to be excited by opinion polls. Having seen stratospheric ratings for the SDP/Liberal Alliance in 1982, Lib Dem ratings within the margin of error of zero in 1989 after the Lib/SDP merger, poll ratings for the Lib Dems in the Blair years which were interpreted by Labour as the end of liberal democracy and 2010 poll ratings which overdid the Lib Dem vote, I tend to
As if we were not already clear enough about the Labour Party's commitment to help Theresa May and the Tories deliver Brexit, the Independent reports on remarks by shadow cabinet minister and Cornyn ally, Richard Burgon, that Labour "doesn't exist to stop Brexit". Burgon made the remarks after the Labour leader launched the party's manifesto for the European elections in two weeks' time and come after Jeremy Corbyn insisted Labour is neither a Remain or Leave party. The Labour leader also reiterated his party's policy of supporting the "option" of a second referendum, if the party is unable to obtain ...
12 May ought to be a public holiday in the East Midlands.
The New York Times brings this unexpected news which, assuming the reference is to be taken literally, is rather weird: In Myanmar, a Former General Repents ... Mr. Shwe Mann, once the third-most powerful man in the country's military dictatorship ... has exchanged trench warfare and the bunkered mentality of a xenophobic junta for a personal library full of titles like "101 Ways to Win an Election" and "How Successful People Think." If Ed Maxfield and I produce a third edition of 101 Ways To Win An Election, I don't think I'll be approaching him for an endorsement.
Sun 12th
00:55
Voting intention opinion polls scorecard: Lib Dems ahead of Conservatives in two Euro polls
Hello! I'm Mark Pack, author of 101 Ways To Win An Election, and the maintainer of the largest database of national voting intention polls in the UK, stretching back to 1943. Welcome to a round-up of the latest voting intention figures from each of the pollsters currently active UK. Dramatic opinion poll results continue to come in. We've had a Lib Dem surge, with YouGov giving the party their best share with that pollster since early 2013, Opinium their best share with that pollster for over two years and now ComRes giving the party their best share with that pollster ...
