You may have heard that I've written a book. Here's how Chapter 11 starts: Define the election as being for a job your candidate and only your candidate can do. As Ed Maxfield and I went on to say in that chapter: A winning campaign ... needs to convince votes that the post you are competing for is one that you, and only you, can do ... Liking you is not enough; you must be preferable to the other candidates on the ballot paper. I was reminded of this during the first hustings from the Liberal Democrat leadership contest, with ...
It's going to be a gruelling month for our Lib Dem leadership candidates. They've both had a fair bit of media exposure the last couple of days and tonight they are in Jeremy Corbyn's backyard having their first hustings. If anyone who is actually there wants to write up a report of the event, it would be very gratefully received. There were a lot of you there – which is fantastic on a Friday night on not that much notice. In the meantime, here's the pick of the tweets from the event. London Lib Dems did a fairly comprehsensive blow ...
On the final pages of his detailed "Legacy of a Century of Irish Politics" Irish historian Diarmaid Ferriter writes: [The] draft agreement on British withdrawal from the EU . . included a protocol relating to Northern Ireland covering a backstop - in the even t of the EU and UK failing to agree to their future relationships by 31st December 2020 - to avoid a hard border in Ireland. This detailed that in the absence of a future deal, the whole of the UK would stay aligned with the EU customs union instead of just a specific rule applying to ...
Non-fiction: 4 (YTD 18) Ursula K. Le Guin: Conversations on Writing, by Ursula K. Le Guin with David Naimon The TARDIS Handbook, by Steve Tribe The Big Finish Companion, vol. 2, by Kenny Smith Bland Ambition, by Steve Tally Fiction (non-sf): 4 (YTD 13) A Sunless Sea by Anne Perry Around the World in Eighty Days, by Jules Verne The Ginger Man, by J. P. Donleavy The Bridge on the River Kwai, by Pierre Boulle sf (non-Who): 13 (YTD 35) The Cruel Prince, by Holly Black Dark Lord of Derkholm, by Diana Wynne Jones The Calculating Stars, by Mary Robinette ...
First it was Edward Davey, now it is Jo Swinson joining the race to be the next Liberal Democrat leader: The party's foreign affairs spokeswoman used an appearance on the BBC's Question Time programme on Thursday evening to make the announcement and said she would officially launch her campaign the following day. She is the second person to announce their candidacy. "I happen to think that this country is crying out for a liberal movement that will challenge the forces of nationalism and populism ... the Liberal Democrats need to be at the heart of that movement, and I'm the ...
Yes, it is only one opinion poll Westminster voting intention: LDem: 24% (+6) Brex: 22% (+4) Con: 19% (-5) Lab: 19% (-5) Grn: 8% (+2) via @YouGov Chgs. w/ 17 May — Britain Elects (@britainelects) May 30, 2019 putting the Liberal Democrats in first place on 24% and Change UK in nth on 1%. But it is astounding, exciting, and further evidence of a real shift in public opinion. The political tide that swept us away in 2015 has turned again. Partly this is our doing, partly it is the weather. So what next? I've long argued – even when ...
The Lib Dems are on a roll, the Greens are still making progress but Change UK have had a disastrous few weeks. Nevertheless, unless you believe the former is now set to sweep all before them, the challenge still remains to be bring together the centre ground to maximise the opportunity resulting from Conservative and Labour [...] The post Bringing together the centre ground appeared first on Radix.
Gateshead Council is 45 years old. There have been 45 appointments of mayors of the borough made in that time. Every single one of them has been Labour. Gateshead is one of the few councils that does not rotate the mayoralty around the parties represented on the Council (in Gateshead two parties have councillors - Lib Dems and Labour). To be fair to Labour in Gateshead, the Leader of the
One of the strangest elements of the current political moment isn't just that both the Conservative and Labour party poll ratings are in free fall at the same time – a YouGov Westminster one today puts the Lib Dems in the lead with 24%, Brexit Party on 22% and both main parties tied for fourth on 19 each – it's that they are doing exactly the wrong things needed to pull themselves out of their respective death spirals. And I do mean, exactly the wrong things, as in, if you got them to do the precise opposite of everything they ...
We've had an extraordinarily successful month. Back in April, we were written off, now we are clear leaders of a national movement that potentially includes over half the country. But we must be prepared for the cost of success. Many who want a People's Vote will join us, but they won't agree with all our policies. A key part of our values is the belief that people should not be enslaved by conformity and should think for themselves. Well, that belief is going to be put to the test. There are many thousands of social democrats who are disgusted with ...
A very interesting poll of people's general election voting intentions was published by The Times last night. The downside was that The Brexit Party were on 22% and in 2nd place. The upside is that the Lib Dems are in first place on 24%. Sky News this morning said that the last time the Lib Dems were in the lead in terms of general election voting intention was in 2010 during the general election
Thu, 12:42: Epic, epic demolition of @DominicRaab's credentials for honesty and credibility as an EU negotiator. Must read. https://t.co/l5QpGUahN1 Thu, 12:56: RT @BenTheEpicure: Some people coyly call them Ice Age Batons, but we know what they really are. #PhallusThursday https://t.co/yRTQY2PWKN Thu, 15:43: RT @markdevenport: When British & Irish ministers launched Stormont talks at start of May they said there was a narrow window to make progr... Thu, 15:58: RT @AodhanDonnelly: Ireland is the only country in europe (or the world?) whose population is still smaller (by a long shot!) than it was i... Thu, 16:05: RT @exitthelemming: Who could possibly ...
Next month will mark eighteen years since I was first elected as a Member of Parliament. To say it has been something of a rollercoaster would be an understatement – so it feels good to be on the way back up again! One of the things that has made the process of rebuilding so much easier over the last couple of years has been the really good team dynamic that we have within the parliamentary party. Most of the time agreement on positioning and priorities is simple and intuitive. When it is not then I think we manage our discussions ...
I've posted a couple of times recently about 2019 being the centenary of the creation of Ribble buses. My two previous posts are available via the links below:- Maghull resident Kevin Duggan has now let me have a couple of photos of a special livery 'Ribble' Arriva bus which we could all see out on the road a suppose...... Watch out for a red 300 or 310....... Click on the photos to enlarge them
Today I went for lunch at the Corner Bakery, just opposite our home. Fortunately it had a table available, which is always touch and go. The shop has been a tremendous success. The one opposite was the first and its success has spawned a chain of identical establishments across the city. I often wonder why [...] The post The huge dangers of politically correct puritanism appeared first on Radix.
On the other side of Offa's Dyke, the outgoing Prime Minister has called on her successor to cut tuition fees and reintroduce student grants to assist young people study for their degree and cut the amount of debt they face on graduation. If only she had concentrated on measures like this when she had the opportunity. This is especially so as Wales has already led the way with this reform, under a Welsh Liberal Democrats Education Minister. As is made clear here, Wales is now the only country in Europe to introduce equivalent maintenance support across full-time and part-time undergraduates, ...
It's official. After a teasing video last night #shesrunning pic.twitter.com/mCv2bD7QOZ — Christine Jardine MP (@cajardineMP) May 30, 2019 Her campaign website is here. So we have our two candidates. The first hunting is tonight in London and kicks off a fairly brutal month of travelling up and down the candidate for Ed and Jo.
From the City Council : THE ROAD TRAFFIC REGULATION ACT 1984 - SECTION 14(1) THE DUNDEE CITY COUNCIL AS TRAFFIC AUTHORITY being satisfied that traffic on the road should be prohibited by reason of carriageway patching works being carried out HEREBY PROHIBIT the driving of any vehicle in Blackness Road (from Glamis Road to Blackness Avenue), Dundee. This notice comes into effect on Wednesday 5th June 2019 for 5 working days. Pedestrian thoroughfare will be maintained. Alternative routes for vehicles are available via Glamis Road / Perth Road / Blackness Avenue and reverse For further information contact 433168. Executive Director ...
