'No-deal war chest' shows Hunt lost all sense of reality Responding to Jeremy Hunt's proposed '£6 billion war chest' to prepare for a no-deal Brexit, Liberal Democrat Brexit spokesperson Tom Brake said: Jeremy Hunt's 'no-deal war chest' is no more based in fact than the mythical promises that were made during the referendum. £6 billion is nowhere near enough to protect the people of Britain from a no-deal Brexit. Jeremy Hunt keeps promising that he will mitigate the effects of no-deal on British business, but what he could do is just not throw our economy under the bus in the ...
As a fundraiser for Siobhan Benita, new Liberal Democrat MP Chuka Umunna talked about joining the party, including how in fact the Lib Dems were the first party he joined: Chuka Umunna thanking #libdems for their warm welcome: "I'm particularly grateful to Streatham Liberal Democrats". https://t.co/gu3R0Rl2it — Mark Pack [IMG: 🔶] (@markpack) July 1, 2019
You can find a complete archive of Melvyn Bragg's In Our Time programmes on the BBC website and it's a wonderful thing to explore. This discussion is a good introduction to Popper's thought.
The admirable Liberal Democrat History Group has once again asked the contenders in a party leadership contest to name their favourite historical figure. I've commented before how Ed Davey and Jo Swinson have a different take towards working with those outside the party, with Davey emphasising more, 'if you agree with us, come and join us' while Swinson emphasises more, 'if you agree with us, let's find ways of working together'. Continuing that theme, Davey picked a Liberal Democrat member as his hero, and Swinson picked someone from outside the party: Ed Davey - Paddy Ashdown Liberals are not meant ...
I said last week that the Northampton University's new Waterside Campus includes "a bonus to lovers of railway history". And here it is. This restored engine shed is home to the university's student union. I first mentioned it on this blog in 2014 when I explored the derelict land where the campus now stands: Somewhere in the middle of it there is a "rare and little altered example of a Midland Railway locomotive shed". All the security fencing makes it impossible to photograph at the moment, but I hope it will be retained and restored as part of the redevelopment ...
Yesterday I blogged about the Liberal MP Dr Michael Winstantley. Today I can reveal in my Trivial Fact of the Day that he was the uncle of the newsreader Anna Ford.
South Glos Council's proposed Resource and Waste Strategy is pivoting from the current emphasis on recycling - which has been very successful - to saving resources by reducing consumption. Examples are eliminating single-use items and reducing the amount of raw materials we all use. There is a detailed strategy document and an online questionnaire, or you can download and print a paper version of the survey to post to South Glos or hand in at a local library or one stop shop. The consultation is open until Friday 27th September 2019. There will be roadshows - our most local ones ...
Last week we learned the sad news that Geoff Tordoff had died. This is a personal tribute and assessment of his life as a Liberal. Geoff was essentially a very nice person. He had a modest even self-effacing manner and invariably had a smile on his face and a chuckle in his greeting, but his Liberal commitment was deep and his impact on the party's organisation and strength was significant indeed for over half a century. Geoffrey Johnson Tordoff was a politician who made friends rather than enemies. Geoff started life in Lancaster and was educated at Manchester Grammar School ...
Well, I've done it. This morning I received a 50,000 point gift from a friend, evolved a Rattata into a Raticate, and finally spun the Pokestop outside my office to get the last few points to reach Level 40, the top and final level on Pokemon Go. If you don't know what any of this is about, this article in the Guardian is a good intro. I tracked the last 15 levels by date, and it's straightforward to see how long each level took me: Date Level Days since last level 17-Jun-17 25 25-Aug-17 26 69 23-Oct-17 27 59 21-Apr-18 ...
As I hadn't been to Zurich for at least 30 years I was pleased that the latest ALDE Party Council took place in Switzerland's financial capital at the weekend. My hazy memory of the earlier visit was of grey skies and rather grey people — it must have been winter — whereas this time Zurich [...]
Mon 1st
15:08
Leadership contenders answer questions on social democracy, social justice and reaching beyond our b...
As you can imagine, the various groups within the Party have been keen to question the candidates about their response to the issues that matter more than most to their members. Today, we publish, at their request, the questions put to Jo and Ed by the Social Democrat Group... The Social Democrat Group are very grateful to the answers that Jo Swinson and Ed Davey, the leadership contenders for the Liberal Democrats, have given to our questions. The letter we sent to them with the questions is below. At this moment of great opportunity for our party, we would like ...
[IMG: Doug Wade and Tim Prater] Mayor of Hythe Doug Wade with the Vice-Chairman of Sandgate Parish Council Always an honour to attend the Canada Day parade to Shorncliffe Cemetery and watch the children place flowers on the graves. This year, on the 100th anniversary of the start of the event, it felt even more special to lay the wreath on behalf of Sandgate Parish Council. The Mayor of Folkestone led the procession, which also included the Mayor of Hythe Doug Wade, myself as Vice Chairman of Sandgate and Ann Berry the chairman of Folkestone and Hythe District Council, alongside ...
In my last article for LDV I spoke about the end of two-Party politics. Since then we have had three more opinion polls with Lib Dems ranging from first with 30% to fourth with 19%. What doesn't change is the fact that 4 Parties, Lib Dems, Brexit, Tory and Labour are bunched fairly closes around the 20s with the Green Party on 8-10%. I do like the 30% Lib Dem one though. Many people must have gone to bed dreaming of that magic moment of being declared an MP when they saw that. Although I am not 'Mystic Dicky' with ...
In what is now a very unusual move for us, we decided to have lunch out yesterday. We opted to go to the Woodmans on Fellside Road, Whickham, walking there via the Sandy Lonnen. We chose this venue as the pub was in the final 3 for the National Fish and Chips award in November last year. We felt it was time to sample the prize winning food ourselves. It was well worth the walk to get there.
I am just back from delivering 370 Focuses in the Watergate Estate in Dunston Hill and Whickham East ward. The lead story is the local election result which saw Labour lose their last seat in the ward to the Lib Dems. Labour's loss means Whickham is now a Labour (and Tory) free zone. We hold all 9 of the Whickham seats. We are, of course, building up our resources to win more seats in Gateshead
Mon 1st
11:35A global advert for the Hong Kong Anti Extradition Bill campaign - implications for the Remain Campa...
An advertisement to support the Hong Kong Anti Extradition Movement appeared in 14 newspapers around the world on 27th June. The press was puzzled by 2 questions: who created the campaign and how did they manage to execute it? Two million Hong Kong citizens participated in the Hong Kong anti extradition bill protest on 21st June. The protesters made three demands: the amendment of the bill to be retracted; the definition of the clashes between police and civilians on 12th June as 'riot' to be retracted; and, an independent commission to be formed in order to investigate the police behaviour ...
This isn't an article about who would win a second EU referendum and why (or why not) I believe that to be the case. That in itself is a prime example of Remainer complacency. No, this runs much deeper than that. Remainers have started in what looks like their millions to turn away from Corbyn and his promise to consider to look into the possibility of the option of whether or not keeping another EU referendum with Remain as an option "on the table" might be a good idea. This is a positive step. Yet there is much to worried ...
Sun, 12:56: RT @JamesMelville: A massive trade deal has been agreed between the EU and South America. The biggest free trade deal ever agreed between c... Sun, 13:51: RT @TimClarePoet: Say what you will about TERFs, they show a touching concern for my daughter's putative future amateur wrestling career. P... Sun, 13:56: This would be pretty awful. Three men from founding member states... https://t.co/Q0dpTvjEtN Sun, 14:48: RT @ManyFacedGodess: And it begins. You'll start seeing a lot of posts about butch lesbians being confronted in toilets now. Because appare... Sun, 16:01: RT @carneross: @nwbrux Thanks Nicholas. Much I learned from you. ...
Last night a friend of mine was out walking her dog when she was threatened by a man. I was shocked when she told me about it, and the panic she felt, and the inability to contact anyone without making things worse as he continued to harangue her: and not just because this sort of shit should not be happening in this day and age. My friend has a smartphone. You can set up SOS emergency alerts on smartphones. I couldn't believe she didn't know this. This leads me to suspect that lots of the rest of you don't know ...
Labour leadership tone deaf to a People's Vote Responding to Len McCluskey's comments on the Andrew Marr show this morning, Liberal Democrat Brexit spokespeson Tom Brake said: No matter how loudly some in the Labour party demand that the leadership change its position on Brexit, it is clear it is still falling on deaf ears. It is insincere to only offer a People's Vote if it's a Labour deal on the table. Any Brexit plan must go back to the British public. Any Brexit deal, whether negotiated by Theresa May, Boris Johnson or Jeremy Corbyn will be bad for our ...
There's a South Glos Council consultation aimed at stopping HGVs using the smaller roads as a short cut between Chipping Sodbury and the B4465/ M4 road network. The idea is to to introduce an environmental 7.5T weight limit, with an exemption 'Except for loading' on the affected lanes and adjacent residential streets within the Dodington area. You can see and comment on the proposals here - the consultation is open until Tuesday 16th July 2019. The full list of roads affected is: Bowling RoadCatchpot LaneChapel LaneCherry RoadChestnut DriveClaypit HillCulverhill RoadDodington LaneDodington RoadDownleaze DriveElm CloseGibbs LaneGrassington DriveGullivers PlaceHighfield RoadHorseshoe LaneJobbins CloseLeaman ...
Following Ed Davey's apology for a poorly worded article, we now have Jo Swinson apologising for a mailing error that resulted in some party members being posted literature even though they had opted out of such contacts.
There was a very useful article in yesterday's Observer assessing the impact of devolution and its legacy. It concludes that those who saw devolution as an answer to the threat of nationalism miscalculated. In Scotland it was thought that devolution would persuade the Scots to turn their backs on independence and that a parliament elected by proportional representation would ensure the SNP could never win a majority. Such a view was very wrong: In the event, the SNP won one in 2011, came close to winning the vote for independence in 2014 and still commands the field. The referendum redefined ...
Maghull Wind Orchestra's latest appearance at Prescot Festival turned out to be a big hit as Prescot Parish Church was packed out to hear them close out this annual festival of the arts with soprano Danielle Louise Thomas. Click on the photo to enlarge it.
I had to take an astonished breath when Boris Johnson explained how committed he was to business - so committed, he said, that he was the only senior politician who supported the banks during the 2008 crash. What, I exclaimed to myself? That is like saying you supported England in 1588 by backing the Armada. [...] The post Yes, a new economics is emerging – but not from the left appeared first on Radix.
DUNDEE CITY COUNCIL - WEEKLY ROAD REPORT REPORT FOR WEST END WARD - WEEK COMMENCING MONDAY 1 JULY 2019 Blackness Road (Seymour Street to Abbotsford Street) - temporary traffic lights for one week for footway works. West Marketgait (North Marketgait to Courthouse Square) - southbound nearside lane closure for one week for footway works. Abbotsford Street - closed at junction with Blackness Road for 10 days from Monday 1 July to facilitate footway reconstruction works. Nethergate (West Marketgait to Park Place) - closed from Monday 1 July for 7 days for City Fibre duct installation and pedestrian crossing refurbishment. Forthcoming ...
Recently Blyth Town Council have arranged a series of litter picks, mainly around the town centre of Blyth. All very laudable you might say, helping to keep the town centre tidy. BUT:- Are they intimating that the good folks, and businesses of Blyth, are litter louts? Are they saying that our partners, Northumberland County Council , are not doing their job properly? Are they saying that the NCC staff are not doing their job? Are they putting NCC jobs at risk? As I said, a laudable intent, but with much wider implications. Just saying
The latest episode of "A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs" is now up. This one's on "Please Please Please" by James Brown, and how hard a life you have to have to become the hardest working man ... Continue reading →
The Independent this week suggested that the Lib Dem leadership election hadn't caught light. Well, perhaps not; but that's an indication of the quality of candidates, and the fact that the vast majority of members would be as happy with either Jo or Ed in the role. Readers are invited to compare and contrast this to both the current Tory or past two Labour leadership elections... I don't mind admitting that I'm a long time Jo Swinson fanboy - from winning her seat at the age of 25 when she was the "baby of the Commons" (how infantilising is that?), ...
