It was a night of solid progress for the Lib Dems on the by-election front. In Anna Soubry's Broxtowe constituency, we regained two Council seats we'd lost in 2015. Broxtowe BC, Stapleford South East LD Tim Hallam 559 [44.3%; +15.9%] LD David Grindell 538 Con 380 [30.1%; -0.3%] Con 331 Lab 322 [25.5%; +1.0% Lab 219 Stapleford Alliance 0 [[0.0%; -16.6%]] 2 Lib Dem GAINS from Conservative Changes with 2015 — ALDC (@ALDC) June 13, 2019 Well done to Garry Winterton. Not a bad night. * Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings
For obvious reasons, I'm leaving out today's big story, but otherwise... Failed Tory policies lead to nine-year knife crime high Responding to the Ministry of Justice's latest knife and offensive weapon sentencing statistics, published today, Liberal Democrat Home Affairs Spokesperson Ed Davey said: The UK is facing an epidemic of knife crime, but the Conservative's cack-handed response is to repeat policies that have completely failed in the past. Branding young people as criminals - whether by locking them up on destructive short prison sentences or giving them one of Sajid Javid's gimmicky new knife ASBOs - traps them in a ...
One council by-election and two deferred contests this week – plus a full set of Liberal Democrat candidates. Stapleford South East, Broxtowe A contest deferred from May due to the death of Conservative councillor Chris Rice during the election campaign. It's a double vacancy in a ward the Lib Dems won back in 2011 and, hooray, had two Liberal Democrat candidates: David Grindell and Tim Hallam. Not only two candidates, now two councillors as the good news keeps on coming for the Liberal Democrats this week: Stapleford South East (Broxtowe) result: LDEM: 44.3% (+19.8) CON: 30.1% (-0.3) LAB: 25.5% (-2.9) ...
BREAKING NEWS: @ChukaUmmuna joins @LibDems [IMG: 🔶] welcome to the party! [IMG: 🥳] https://t.co/qbPaGiYFCe — London Lib Dems [IMG: 🔶] [IMG: 🇪🇺] [IMG: 🌈] (@LondonLibDems) June 13, 2019 While I am thrilled to bits to be welcoming Chuka, this development is slightly concerning as it means that Scottish Lib Dem MPs no longer outnumber London Lib Dem MPs, so we have to make sure that we remedy that situation – at the very least by electing Wemdy Chamberlain in North East Fife. Featured photo on home page of Chuka Umunna is by Chatham House, Flickr CCL * Caron Lindsay is ...
Former Labour MP and party leadership candidate Chuka Umunna has applied to join the Liberal Democrats.
Change UK, formerly The Independent Group, is now looking to change its name again: Change UK has applied to the Electoral Commission to change its name following a dispute with the petitions website Change.org. The party has written to the elections watchdog asking to be renamed The Independent Group for Change. It says Change.org is threatening to sue its MPs unless the party alters its name by 15 June. [BBC] It's all a long way from the early days when it looked like it might be a major challenge to the British political system. Keep up with news about elections ...
Having walked the Nottingham Canal from the city's railway station to Meadow Lane Lock and the Trent last summer, the other day I went west along the towpath instead. One of my discoveries, little more than a mile from the city centre, was a boatbuilder. An old Lenton Times article tells its story up to 1981.
This video from the New Economics Foundation gets it about right. It shares the analysis of Ian Jack, which I quoted a couple of weeks ago: A report in the Times last year showed that out of more than 1.7 million applications for residential planning permission granted between 2006 and 2014, fewer than half had been completed after three years. According to the Local Government Association in 2016, councils consistently approved more than 80 per cent of major residential planning applications; but the difference between the number of houses being approved and those actually being built was almost 500,000 - ...
First it was The Independent Group. Then it was Change UK. Then it was Change UK - The Independent Group. Then it was ForChange_Now. Today it became The Independent Group for Change. The Tiggers, as I shall always think of them, have been forced into this latest change of name following complaints from the owners of the Change.org petition site. They had hoped to register with the Electoral Commission as Change UK, but the Shropshire Star (who else?) explains that a statement from them sets out how: Lawyers from Change.org disputed the group's right to register as "Change UK" with ...
Plans to block no deal Brexit have yet again been shot down by the government. And again, Labour MPs were the saviours of the Tories. Had the 8 Labour MPs who back the government followed their whip, the Tories would have been defeated. Two of those Labour MPs were from the North East: Ronnie Campbell and Stephen Hepburn. Both are reactionary old school "socialists" who should have been
It's never been the same since its lead mine closed, but the Shropshire village of Pennerley has another claim to fame this week. On Wednesday, says the Shropshire Star, it was the wettest place in the country. Another report in the paper quotes a resident as saying: "I've been here 20 years now and I've never seen flooding like this. It's been two days of solid rain and we're all like drowned rats."If Malcolm Seville's Lone Pine Five is to be believed, such heavy rainfall in the Stiperstones will inevitably lead to the bursting forth of an underground river and ...
Third page: Naomi Novik shouldn't need much introduction; she's been on three of the last four Hugo ballots, and was previously a Hugo finalist in 2007, the year she won the John W. Campbell Award. Here she has teamed up with manga artist Yishan Li for a story set in an academy for budding superheroes, Liberty Vocational, where the young folk need to learn that with great powers comes great responsibility. Our heroine, Leah Taymore, has the ability to manipulate atoms - but is being conspired against by others in the school. It was quite a fun read, and it's ...
[IMG: Sandgate Library and Parish Council building] Kent County Council have closed Folkestone Library on Grace Hill due to the impact of water leaks at Folkestone Library on the fabric of the building and central electrics. They had been advised by KCC Infrastructure and Gen2 to close the building given the deterioration of the situation and a forecast of more bad weather this week. They will issue an update when they have more information on a re-opening. Works are in hand to ensure all archive material is moved to an unaffected area, and any registration customers with appointements in the ...
I am on a train to North Wales at the moment but I can't escape politics and the infernal Tory leadership race. The first round ballot was declared just as we were getting on the train. McVile, Loathsome and Harpic are now out, leaving seven in the race. Johnson was in the lead, comfortably ahead of Hunt. My guess is that the supporters of McVile and Loathsome will line up behind Johnson. As for
Through to the next round: Boris "Poundshop Trump" Johnson 114 (36.4%) Jeremy *unt 43 (13.7%) MiChaEl "sLItHy" GOve 37 (11.8%) Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaab 27 (8.6%) ((pls contribute your suggestions for a Raab Book Pile here)) The Saj 23 (7.3%) Matty MooMoos 20 (6.4%) Wet Rory 19 (6.1%) Eliminated: Andrearier Leadsom 11 (3.5%) Former Clegg Minion Harper 10 (3.2%) Horresther McVey 9 (2.9%) Aside from the fact that this is another sweepstake I've lost (I had Leadsom), the most terrifying part of this is that this looks close to coronation numbers for Jonhson, and second on the list is the former Hulture Secretary ...
Belatedly, the Electoral Commission has approved the Liberal Democrat application to be able to use "Liberal Democrats – To stop Brexit" on the ballot paper in elections. Parties have to use either their official name on the ballot paper or one of a pre-agreed set of descriptions. Although the application went in before the European Parliament elections, it has only just been approved, along with Scottish and Welsh variations. All ready for the 2019 general election which results in a hung Parliament followed by another general election... Keep up with news about elections by email If you'd like to be ...
Karen Gray lives in the west of Edinburgh. Her six year old son, Murray, has a rare form of Epilepsy called Doose Syndrome which causes him to have multiple seizures every day. She has been battling to get Medicinal Cannabis for Murray. The drug was licensed last year but Karen faces challenges trying to get it prescribed. The BBC followed her to the Netherlands a couple of weeks ago, where she brought stocks of the drug back to this country, which is still technically illegal without an import licence. You can see the difference the drug has made to Murray's ...
We did not achieve equal marriage, we enacted same sex marriage. We did not get an Equal Marriage Act through parliament, we got the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act through parliament. Yes, the distiction bloody well matters!!! There's still a whole huge amount of inequality and you make it harder to fight that inequality every fucking time you say we passed equal marriage. For the love of Cthulhu STOP DOING THIS. For a big long list of the remaining inequalities, see this previous blog post. [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
Responding to a leaked Cabinet note revealing the UK will not be ready for a no-deal Brexit by October 31st because is will take "six to eight months" to build up supplies of medicines, Liberal Democrat MP Christine Jardine said: "This Government document will be extremely concerning to people who rely on medicines like insulin to stay alive."It is unacceptable that senior Tory figures running to be leader are suggesting that we could leave on the 31 October when documents are showing the exact opposite. "The candidates for Tory leadership must be honest. No deal is not a reality, it ...
Liberal Democrat MP Tim Farron used yesterday's Prime Minister's Questions session to call for the establishment of a new cross-party group to bring forward a new deal to fix Britain's social care system. Speaking on the floor of the House of Commons, Tim said: "This log-jammed and under-worked Parliament could become one of the best if we chose to work across party to fix our broken social care system. "Through free votes, good will and hard work, we could design and then enact a new deal for social care that could give millions hope for the future. "As one of ...
Yesterday the government stopped MPs from taking control of Parliamentary business on 25th June as part of the attempt to block a no-deal Brexit.Following the vote, Liberal Democrat Brexit Spokesperson Tom Brake MP said: "Crashing out of the EU without a deal would be catastrophic for our NHS, jobs, and the environment. That is undeniable and it is reckless and underhand to suggest otherwise. "Liberal Democrats will continue to do everything in our power to take no-deal off the table. Whoever the next Prime Minister is, we cannot allow them to damage our country as they attempt to shut down ...
Responding to the Ministry of Justice's latest knife and offensive weapon sentencing statistics, published today, Liberal Democrat Home Affairs Spokesperson Ed Davey said: "The UK is facing an epidemic of knife crime, but the Conservative's cack-handed response is to repeat policies that have completely failed in the past. "Branding young people as criminals - whether by locking them up on destructive short prison sentences or giving them one of Sajid Javid's gimmicky new knife ASBOs - traps them in a cycle of crime, creating more victims and making our streets less safe. "To make matters worse, we now have Boris ...
Ed's first email to party members was published. Climate change's devastation won't respect borders - you have to work internationally, with other countries, if you want to save our planet. That's what I did, as Energy and Climate Change Minister. At the European table and at the UN, I fought for tougher targets to cut carbon emissions. And I won. Now - just as we are leading the campaign to Stop Brexit – I want us to lead the fight to solve the Climate Change Emergency. With my radical economic plan, for carbon-free capitalism. Then he took the Business Secretary ...
3 users of the service, which is no more, have spoken to me in the past couple of days querying why it has stopped. Well apart from a few social media postings from Sefton Councillors, which I've have read, I had no more detail. Clearly folks are both disappointed and more than a bit baffled by the turn of events. I was told by one resident that he had read the article in the Aintree & Maghull Champion a few weeks back saying the service was likely to stop but he was adamant that that same article was promising that ...
Wed, 12:05: President @SPendarovski of #NorthMacedonia speaking at @FriendsofEurope. Great to see him again! https://t.co/vlEmHtatPk Wed, 12:14: RT @MattChorley: If you believe Boris Johnson will win a 140-seat majority against Jeremy Corbyn, I've got a leather-bound collection of Th... Wed, 12:29: How would Boris Johnson solve the Irish border problem? https://t.co/4fFLPPY9v1 A rather optimistic interpretation... https://t.co/AyJS5oSlpf Wed, 12:35: RT @FriendsofEurope: "North #Macedonia has made immense progress in the last year. Are you not concerned that with the upcoming elections i... Wed, 12:44: Glimpse of my bald patch on the left. https://t.co/DspHNIKad0 Wed, 12:54: RT @srdjancvijic: Important message coming from #France ...
The candidates did their first emails to party members. Read Jo's in full here. My aim as Leader is to build on our 700+ gains in the local elections and our fantastic success in the European Elections to change Britain's politics. As Leader, I will win us the cut through we need to get our strong liberal message across. As Leader I will reach out to the next generation, bringing new and vibrant talent into our party. And as Leader I will ensure that the Liberal Democrats lead the liberal revival that our politics so desperately needs. On BBC Politics ...
Thu 13th
09:23
LibLink: Christine Jardine: The Women's World Cup is a fantastic force for equality but it is only t...
The Women's World Cup is on at the moment. Christine Jardine writes for the Independent about what this means for equality in sport. As a child I loved playing football, and nagged my parents until they bought me my own football strip. But there were few people who didn't find my girlish enthusiasm either amusing or something to frown upon. This is why the knowledge that six million viewers thought it worthwhile to tune in to watch two teams enjoy a platform previous generations could only dream of filled my heart with joy. But we are still far from equality ...
Thu 13th
09:21
The leadership contest demonstrates the Tories have lost the plot - for the time being at least
The Conservative Party has been morphing into something else since June 2016, something very different to what they have ever previously been. Amongst other things, they used to know how to win elections. How are they doing on that front these days? Lost their majority at the 2017 general election; lost 1,300 councillors at the this year's locals; came fifth, with less than 10% of the vote in a nationwide contest. How the Tories used to win, and did so more successfully than any party in the history of western democracy, was by being pragmatic and reasonably level-headed. Yes, there ...
[IMG: No photo description available.] A cross-party attempt to stop a no-deal Brexit failed yesterday, handing a moral victory to hardline Brexiteers, who want us to crash out of Europe without a deal on 31 October. The motion proposed giving MPs control of the parliamentary agenda in a fortnight's time. That day could then have been used to begin legislation to prevent the UK from leaving the EU without a deal, though it is uncertain what form this would take. However, despite Labour spearheading the move, it was their ill-discipline that saw it defeated. Eight Labour MPs including Caroline Flint, ...
Let us take the case of Germany, often believed to be a paragon of hard-headed rationality and good economic management. When the Berlin Wall came down, East Germany was freed from Soviet rule just like the other Soviet satellite states. A surge of emotional, national feeling pushed Helmut Kohl to pursue an expensive reunification project. [...] The post When emotion, reason and economics collide, emotion invariably wins appeared first on Radix.
Well this has been quite a saga and it's still yet to be resolved. I first blogged about this flooding after heavy rain back in December 2015, here's a link to that posting:- Subsequently I've blogged and chased up Sefton Council about it a number of times and my Parish Councillor colleague Edie Pope has also been on the case. Back in June of 2018 we reported (on this blog site) the latest position to be like this:- Cllr. Edie Pope and I have recently heard from Sefton Council's drainage engineers to the effect that United Utilities have seemingly ...
During the European elections, Change UK candidate and East Renfrewshire councillor, David Macdonald, urged people to vote Liberal Democrat. He has now joined the party. Commenting on the move David Macdonald said: I have joined the Liberal Democrats and have now changed from sitting as an Independent to sitting as a Liberal Democrat councillor within East Renfrewshire Council. The Liberal Democrats are a party that has a proud history of supporting liberalism and social democracy, championing civil liberties, supporting LGBTQI rights, calling for constitutional reform, promoting proportional representation and supporting internationalism. They are the political party that best match my ...
At the most recent meeting of the Community Spirit Action Group, the residents' group for the north of the West End Ward, concern was expressed at the damage to the council owned wall at the bottom of Saggar Street - see below : I raised this with the City Council and have now been updated as follows by the Tenancy and Estates Team Leader: "To help get this fixed, I asked one of the Tenancy Assistants to investigate and report back which he has now done. On inspection, he agreed the walls needs repaired, and in the interim, did what ...
