Winning is, it has to be admitted, so much better than losing, but the ramifications of the European Parliamentary elections keep coming. A block of sixteen MEPs are a significant factor in choosing who leads Europe for the next five years, and Liberal Democrats have an opportunity to be heard at the top table, with seven Liberal members of the European Council. And today's press releases give you a flavour of the possibilities... Corbyn remains a block to Labour support for a People's Vote Catherine Bearder elected to lead Lib Dem MEPs Prime Ministers meet to discuss election result Corbyn ...
Welcome to the latest episode of Never Mind The Bar Charts, in which Stephen Tall and I picked over the European election results and what comes next for the Lib Dems. Can the party sustain its May run of successes? Show notes Kieran Pedley co-hosts the Polling Matters podcast, which you can find here. Examples 1, 2 and 3 of how the media missed the story of the Lib Dem surge. Details of Lord Ashcroft's polling. Tim Bale points out that the referendum theory Stephen mentioned doesn't really hold water. Phil Cowley writes and edits great books, and here is ...
Catherine Bearder, re-elected as a Liberal Democrat MEP and now with 15 (!) colleagues, has been elected leader of the group: I am delighted to be elected as the leader for the Liberal Democrats in the European Parliament. Our main priority will be to stop Brexit and with 16 MEPs we will ensure our message is heard loud and clear in Brussels. We will also fight for those EU and UK citizens who were denied a vote on this election. Leader of the Liberal Democrats Vince Cable MP added: Catherine led the charge for British liberalism in Brussels during a ...
On the Saturday before last I went into Leicester to look for St Mary Magdalene in Knighton village. I found the graveyard full of interesting memorials, but the church itself was locked. Besides, I was more taken with the Knighton Free Church across the road. It was built in what I have called "humane modernism" - you could also call it "Hemel Hempstead modernism". YouTube has a video that explains the history of this unexpected building and even shows in under construction. I have posted a segment above, but you can watch the whole thing if you want to. I ...
The air hereabouts is still thick with talk of cuts to bus services, but today there was good news. Back in February I blogged about our Liberal Democrat campaign against the reduction in the bus service provided to Market Harborough's Southern Estate. (Every street there is named after someone who fought at Naseby, you know.) I wrote then: The service around the Southern Estate ... would probably be best provided by a town service using a much smaller vehicle. But that is not what we are being offered.Today Harborough FM reported that this is pretty much what is going to ...
It's a truism that one swallow doesn't make a summer, so perhaps one fantastic election result doesn't constitute a revival. But two? At the beginning of May we Liberal Democrats exceeded our most optimistic expectations by gaining over 700 Council seats. Then last week in the the elections for the European Parliament we increased our number of MEPs from a solitary one to 16 on an encouraging 20.3% of the vote. Double figures again at last. Our wildest expectations were for ten seats. Of course most people look at the headline result of the EU election and the winner's rosette ...
Current Bland Ambition, by Steve Tally The Bridge on the River Kwai, by Pierre Boulle Gather, Darkness!, by Fritz Leiber Last books finished The Slender-fingered Cats of Bubastis, by Xanna Eve Chown Space Opera, by Catherynne M. Valente Doctor Who: The Official Annual 2019, by Paul Lang Trail of Lightning, by Rebecca Roanhorse Nebula Awards Showcase 2011, ed. Kevin J. Anderson Conjure Wife, by Fritz Leiber, Jr Next books Sovereign by R.M. Meluch Will Supervillains Be On The Final?, by Naomi Novik, art by Yishan Li
Tue 28th
16:20
Many congratulations to Naomi Long and the Alliance party in Northern Ireland - elected by STV!
History made. @naomi_long takes second NI EU seat. #YesSheDid pic.twitter.com/vajmcadqDl — Alliance Party (@allianceparty) May 27, 2019 Many congratulations to Naomi Long on a stunning win in Northern Ireland for our sister party, the Alliance. Naomi, who is the leader of the Alliance party, a former MP and Lord Mayor of Belfast, becomes the Alliance party's first MEP. What is particularly heart-warming is that the election was conducted by Single Transferable Vote. Naomi came second in the poll, leapfrogging the candidate who was first on first preferences, due to her strong performance with second preference voting. Against the backdrop of ...
Following the shocking vandalism to the electrical control box of Bridge 20 on the Leeds Liverpool Canal a few weeks back where Greens Lane/Eagar Lane cross it this was the scene one day recently:- Interestingly the C&RT refer to the bridge as 'Coxhead' (see notice displayed by the bridge below), a name I've not heard before. I thought it's local name was Rimmer's Bridge. Can anyone with local knowledge clarify? I suppose it could be like Billy's Bridge in Lydiate also being known as Lydiate Hill Bridge i.e. more than one local name? Is there any update from Lancashire Police ...
Responding to Sajid Javid's announcement that he is running to become leader of the Conservative Party, Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokesperson Ed Davey has argued that "Javid's record as Home Secretary should disqualify him from entering Number 10". In just over a year at the Home Office, Javid has:Ignored calls to boost police funding to tackle the rise in serious violence, following £1 billion of police cuts since 2015.Refused to scrap the hostile environment 'Right to Rent' law, even though the High Court ruled that it is discriminatory and incompatible with the Human Rights Act.Undermined the UK's opposition to the ...
Tue 28th
14:55LibLink: Jo Swinson Lib Dems reaped the rewards of unapologetically supporting a People's Vote
Somewhere in the long night on Sunday, when she was dotting about between various media outlets, Jo Swinson found the time to write an article for the Times Red Box looking at the reasons for the spectacular Lib Dem success. Being clear about what we were about paid dividends. Our message at the elections was crystal clear and it worked. Voters recognised the Liberal Democrats are the largest and strongest Remain party. For the past two and a half years we have been unapologetically making the case for a People's Vote and we have successfully built a cross-party, cross-country movement ...
Front page of the Journal, our morning newspaper here in the North East, was not good reading for Labour today. Apparently, their drubbing in the European elections has kicked off a civil war in their ranks. I merely post a photo of the Journal for the enjoyment of readers. Given the large number of Labour members who read this blog, I guess the enjoyment is all with me!
Lord Ashcroft, nowadays a relatively detached observer of British politics, usefully spends some of the money he used to give to the Conservative Party on opinion polling. He has just published his post-voting analysis of the European elections - and it has some encouraging information for Liberal Democrats. 'The biggest single chunk of Lib Dem support in the European elections came from 2017 Labour voters (37%), with 31% coming from previous Lib Dems and 24% coming from 2017 Conservatives.' 52% of Conservatives who had switched to voting for the Brexit Party said that they intend to stay with the Brexit ...
Well it seems that works have finally started to make this junction a full one. This was the scene this morning 28th May as set up works were commencing:- My old friend and former Sudell ward Sefton Councillor (and former Mayor of the Borough of Sefton) Cliff Mainey started the fight to get this junction made into a full one quite some years ago; early 2000's if memory serves.
An ambitious UK Climate Change plan can reduce 1% of global emissions - but the UK has the power to cut 15% of global emissions, by decarbonising capitalism. The Committee on Climate Change has proposed a net zero carbon target by 2050 for the UK. This is the minimum we should do - within our own country. Yet the UK plays a massive part in more than 15% of the world's greenhouse gases - because the City of London finances the businesses responsible for those emissions. So we could make a more radical impact on climate change - if we ...
Welcome to the latest in my occasional series highlighting interesting findings from academic research. Today – how do party efforts to persuade supporters to sign up for postal votes work? The campaign logic for parties appears to be clear and solid: people with postal votes are more likely vote, so it makes sense to get as many of your supporters signed up for postal votes as you can. Especially as when postal votes go up, turnout goes up – this isn't just a displacement from one form of voting to another for people who would vote anyway. But how well ...
Mon, 12:56: RT @AmandaFBelfast: Ireland's partition perhaps 'a wrong division', says Eileen Paisley https://t.co/GM9u935r1s Mon, 13:10: I'll be on TV later on, commenting as the Northern Ireland votes are counted for the European elections. First BBC... https://t.co/l7P64AeVrg Mon, 13:26: RT @patrickkmaguire: A Sinn Féin source gets in touch to blame the SDLP's poor showing on Seamus Mallon, its former deputy first minister.... Mon, 13:42: RT @patrickkmaguire: With Naomi Long on course to take 100,000 first preference votes, reminded of @NewtonEmerson's post-match analysis of... Mon, 13:54: RT @SJAMcBride: The DUP's Sir Jeffrey Donaldson tells @BBCTalkback he thinks Alliance's Naomi Long could ...
Your next stop is Peterborough! What a great result in the European elections. A clear bold message from the Liberal Democrats triumphed over Labour obfuscation and Tory division. Our clear commitment to Stop Brexit and give the people the final say, struck a chord with voters who felt they lacked a voice. Back on May 2 we Liberal Democrats had our most successful local elections in a decade, gaining more than 700 councillors and taking control of 12 councils. British politics remains stuck in the quagmire of the June '16 referendum result; we do not yet know whether we face ...
Did you know the Big Lottery Fund is now called The National Lottery Community Fund? And that they have Funding Officer dedicated to the Bury area? AND they have simplified their processes making it easier for community groups to access funding? The Fund is working with Bury VCFA to ensure that local charities and community groups in Bury find out about the changes, who can apply, and the new simplified application process. Helen, the local funding officer, is holding a free information event on Mon 17th June 2019 at Bury Met at 1:00pm. The event is open to representatives of ...
A former soldier from Bury is fronting a major new campaign to get more people talking about and confronting the subject of suicide. Owen Dykes, 45, who twice came close to taking his own life, has filmed a powerful video for the Shining a Light on Suicide campaign – http://www.shiningalightonsuicide.org.uk/ The father-of-two from Elton found settling back into civilian life extremely tough after a distinguished 24 year army career, which included action in war zones like Bosnia, Northern Ireland, Iraq and Afghanistan. Having lost colleagues in action, Owen was struggling with a raft of undiagnosed mental health conditions. And despite ...
The Parklife festival, in Heaton Park, returns on 8 and 9 June 2019. Please note that this year there are ALSO concerns to be held in the same site on Friday 7 and Saturday 15 June 2019. As part of Parklife's licence a "Community Impact Taskforce" has been put in place to reduce the impact of Parklife amongst its local residents. If you wish to contact the Community Impact Taskforce at any point before, during or after the event, please click HERE. You can download a copy of the 2019 residents leaflet HERE. The organisers have produced this important set ...
I have just read a letter in the South Wales Evening Post in which the author claims that the 31% of the vote secured by the Brexit Party in Swansea constitutes an 'overwhelming yes for Brexit'. Other than instituting a period of mourning for the science of mathematics, the only realistic response to such claims is to repeatedly bang one's head on a desk. Over in the Mirror, the paper repeats the assertion elsewhere, that 'Stop Brexit' parties got more votes in the European elections than Nigel Farage's Brexit Party. This rather more reliable mathematical feat is very important, but ...
The BBC has the article on its website – see link below www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-48424232
Volunteers Week is celebrated between 1st and 7th June every year, to celebrate volunteers and says thank you to them for the contribution that they make. The week also raises awareness about the benefits becoming a volunteer and the diverse volunteering roles that are available. Further information about Volunteers Week and information about becoming a volunteer can be found at www.volunteersweek.org You can find information about volunteering opportunities across Prestwich and Bury at the Bury Directory.
As always, everyone is interpreting the European Election results in the way that suits their own pre-conceived ideas. So here goes with my interpretation of the consequences of the election on the UK political landscape. Just to be clear on the results: if one excludes Labour and Conservative votes as uninterpretable on the Leave/Remain divide, [...] The post A second referendum may now be all but inevitable appeared first on Radix.
Everyone knows the 2019 European election result in the UK was remarkable - but do you realise quite how much? It was the best Euro election result for the Liberal Democrats or their predecessor parties ever. This is true in terms both of seats (16) and votes (20.3 per cent). The party's previous best seat performance was 12 in 2004, though the UK then had 78 seats in the European Parliament, rather than its current 73. Our previous best vote performance was right back in 1984, when the Liberal-SDP Alliance scored 18.5 per cent. That was in the days before ...
This is a day late, but there's so much new podcast material here that you'll be sick of my voice if you aren't already. The new episode of A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs is up. This one's ... Continue reading →
