75 years from D Day, Jo remembered those who took part in the invasion: On the 75th anniversary of D-Day we honour the courage of all those who fought & sacrificed to liberate Europe. #DDay75 https://t.co/lgzS8Xa5Er — Jo Swinson (@joswinson) June 6, 2019 Tomorrow the crazy round of hustings continues. Between Friday and Saturday evenings, Jo and Ed travel To Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Newcastle. Details are here.

Posted by The Voice on Liberal Democrat Voice

Three contests but no actual council by-elections this week: the Peterborough Parliamentary by-election and two council contests delayed from the usual May election date.

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

Ed's day started with a good luck message to Beki Sellick, Lib Dem candidate in Peterborough: Best of luck today Beki! @LibDems -get down to the campaign office or make calls from home, it will make all the difference. We can deliver a brilliant result and stand up to the Brexit Party machine but @BoroLibDems need you! https://t.co/dVXxGDhWYN — Ed Davey [IMG: 🔶] (@EdwardJDavey) June 6, 2019 Phillip Hammond has been complaining about the costs of fighting climate change. Ed says that we can't afford not to: Hammond might be trying to reclaim his crown as a fiscal hawk in ...

Posted by The Voice on Liberal Democrat Voice

As Paul Geater notes in the East Anglian Daily Times, Conservative activists see Boris Johnson as their best hope of winning the next election. But he is not sure they are right: However after being asked about the leadership by people who are not, or at least are no longer, Conservative activists, I am starting to wonder whether Mr Johnson is really the asset that some seem to think. At the Suffolk Show I came across several business people (largely linked in some way to agriculture) who are really, really worried about Mr Johnson - and said to me that ...

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

Noel Newsome was director of European broadcasts at the BBC European Service from 1939-44, one of the few who knew the secret date for D-Day. He was in many ways the architect of the BBC;s international reputation for truth - believing that truth was a potential weapon of war. This led him into constant struggles with the authorities, which he described in his newly-published memoirs, Giant at Bush House. Here he describes getting the news about D-Day out there... "I had received my D-Day briefing. In the first week of June, the tides in the English Channel would be right ...

Posted by David Boyle on The Real Blog

Welcome to the latest episode of Never Mind The Bar Charts, featuring a special interview with Tim Farron and including his advice for the next party leader as well as tips on what members should ask in hustings meetings. Show notes Jonathan Calder's David Steel versus John Pardoe categorisation for Lib Dem leadership contests. Vince Cable's Stalin to Mr Bean moment at Prime Minister's Questions. The Lib Dems did indeed, as Tim Farron mentioned, once hit 4% in the polls after the 2015 election. Tim Farron's response to the European referendum result. You can watch the first Davey-Swinson hustings here. ...

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

Second paragraph of third chapter: There was a gentle hiss as the train doors parted. As Bernice stepped out onto the plush carpet, an android server moved along the platform towards them, displaying a tray of sparkling drinks. Its long, thin body was sprayed the pale pink and green colours of Spring. Its face was smooth, silvery and featureless until it saw Bernice, then two eyes, a nose and a mouth shimmered into place in the traditional human positions. Bernice knew from the on-train audio tour that each server had the capacity to approximate any facial features it came upon, ...

So I don't ever gamble with money, for various reasons, but I'll quite happily do a sweepstake where the prize is "I will buy the winner a drink" and I am a bit of a fool for saying "if X happens, I will do Y". This post is a tracker for the ones I am currently involved in. Drinks owed to me: 1, by Will, for correctly guessing the lib dems percentage share of the vote in the Euro elections Drinks I owe to other people: 1, in a sweep still running on the tory leadership contest (it is entirely ...

"Churchill?" "Nothing but an old war monger!" Thus spake Lil my great-grandma. Lil was the sort of woman who doesn't get into history books but the words "doughty" and "feisty" were fashioned just for her. Even as a six-year old I remember her tutting through all the sentimentality of her 90th birthday and making it perfectly clear that she wasn't going to bother getting to 91 (she didn't). When her day came the grim reaper must have been vastly more daunted to meet her than she was to meet him. Amid all the militarism of the D-Day commemorations it would ...

Posted by Ruth Bright on Liberal Democrat Voice

Dominic Raab is best known as the Brexit Secretary who resigned in protest at the Brexit deal he negotiated. Now he wants to be Tory Leader and PM. With a large number of contenders for the top position, the race is on to make the most extreme pledges on Hard Brexit. It is reported that Raab is ready to prorogue Parliament to stop MPs having a say on a No Deal Brexit. In effect, the future of the

Posted by Jonathan Wallace on Jonathan Wallace
YouGov

Increasingly, the evidence is growing that the fizzy, salted, and carbonated food that the major food producers and supermarkets are pushing at us is leading to unhealthy lives and early deaths. This article below is reproduced from the BBC following ... Continue reading →

Posted by richardkemp on But what does Richard Kemp think?

It's going to be even more confusing in the next few weeks and months. Last Sunday Philip Hammond stated clearly that it's no longer practical for the UK to leave the EU on October 31st, given the further delays caused by the pause for a Conservative leadership election. A majority has then to be recreated for some sort of agreement, a bill has to pass through the Commons and the Lords, and preparations for implementation by an over-stretched civil service have to be completed. Michael Gove has now followed Hammond, suggesting that October 31st may not be a hard and ...

Posted by Lord William Wallace on Liberal Democrat Voice

I was six years old when the D-Day landings took place on this day in 1944. By the time I reached "call-up" age National Service in the UK was just about ending, so I have never been forced to "give" my life for my country and I am very thankful for that. It is right to remember the young men on all sides who were sacrificed on the Normandy Beaches 75 years ago. But note, for the most part they didn't "give" their lives, they were largely conscripts who had their lives taken, through a failure of politics. Thankfully, in ...

Posted by Peter Wrigley on Keynesian Liberal
Thu 6th
11:00

My tweets

Wed, 12:56: RT @davidallengreen: As you get older it is the sheer logistical work that went into D-Day impresses more and more. The more you find out... Wed, 13:49: RT @damonwake: This sounds like a man preparing himself for disappointment. https://t.co/ZbUVzB2cwV Wed, 16:05: From Vikings to Windrush: a journey down the Thames estuary https://t.co/IIU1lBwWbw Sounds like a great book. Wed, 16:31: Very sorry to hear that Albert Rohan, one of the greatest Austrian diplomats, has died aged 83. I will post my pers... https://t.co/c0g8LQrmWL Wed, 17:11: RT @NaomiOhReally: A 17-year-old rape victim was NOT euthanised in the Netherlands. @euronews @Independent ...

Many of the new Liberal Democrat MEPs have been sharing on social media the first steps in taking up their new roles. Caroline Voaden, from the South West, has also done this little video.

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

Want to get better at promoting the Lib Dems in what you do online? Then the daily tips in Liberal Democrat Newswire's Digital Power-Up course are just for you.

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

The day after people voted in the European elections, I posted a piece recording how hundreds of EU citizens were turned away from polling stations and denied a vote in that contest. The media reported that people had turned up at their local polling station only to find their name had been crossed off the register. It became a common theme across the UK, with the hashtag #DeniedMyVote trending on Twitter as it was flooded with accounts of EU citizens being prevented from voting after confusion among election officials and administrative errors. Now the Guardian has revealed new data showing ...

Posted by Peter Black on Peter Black

George Monbiot has published an article this week on a report he has co-authored Want to tackle inequality? Then first change our land ownership laws His opens with a question " What is the most neglected issue in British politics? I would say land. Literally and metaphorically, land underlies our lives, but its ownership and control have been captured by a tiny number of people. The results include soaring inequality and exclusion; the massive cost of renting or buying a decent home; the collapse of wildlife and ecosystems; repeated financial crises; and the loss of public space. Yet for 70 ...

Posted by Joe Bourke on Liberal Democrat Voice

The latest meme that is taking flight is that a UK trade deal with the US would somehow mean giving up the NHS. This was fueled by an interview the US ambassador gave on the Andrew Marr Show. Sound bites about the NHS being on the line have started flooding the twittersphere and other outlets. [...] The post NHS hysteria bites again appeared first on Radix.

Posted by Joe Zammit-Lucia on Radix

Footpath sign at Sandy Ln – There's a similar one off Moss Ln I've blogged a couple of times recently about Lydiate Footpath No.14 which links Sandy Lane to Moss Lane. To recap, its become an issue following Lydiate Parish Council creating a fenced dog-run area a few weeks back which means that footpath users effectively have to walk through the dog-run. Dog run area seen looking towards Sandy Ln. The public right of way is somewhere to the left where the corner fence post is Attempts to define exactly where the public footpath is have come to nought (so ...

Posted by Cllr. Tony Robertson on Sefton Focus
eUKhost

 

Thu 6th
06:33

Madam Atatürk

As father of the modern Turkish nation, Mustafa Kemal posthumously continues to enjoy a super-human status, which in fact he had already acquired during his lifetime. He was a brilliant military commander who played a pivotal role in preventing the further dismemberment of the territory by foreign forces following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire [...]

Posted by jonathanfryer on Jonathan Fryer

To the outsider, to those who do not pay attention to politics, the reason why the Liberal Democrats are back on the political scene is pretty obvious. Both Labour and the Conservatives are failing as parties and people are turning towards alternatives: be it Greens, SNP, Alliance, Plaid Cymru or Farage's Brexit "Party". Or even, *shudder*, the Liberal Democrats. On one level that is true. On the night of the EU elections, the Lib Dems came second. This could, and is being dismissed as a protest vote. A view from the inside of politics offers a different perspective. The worse ...

Posted by Martin Veart on Martin's View

Peterborough makes history today. It's the first parliamentary constituency to hold a by-election following the successful recall of an MP. Lib Dem candidate Beki Sellick has been working hard. People who have been to Peterborough have said what a brilliant candidate she is and how you can't walk down the street without loads of people stopping her because she has such a high profile there. She talked about her plan for Peterborough in an interview with the Parliamentary Review: Sellick's plan is based around three key areas: the economy, the environment and public services. As a business owner herself, working ...

Posted by Caron Lindsay on Liberal Democrat Voice