Well, it's all over bar the counting. In just a few hours, we'll know if Jane Dodds has succeeded in her attempt to become Wales' only Liberal Democrat MP. She has been an amazing candidate. We could not have asked more of her. She's talked about local issues and Brexit, she's been engaging and warm and kind. We should all be very proud of the work she has done. So, what happened in 2017? Chris Davies (Conservative) 20 081 James Gibson-Watt (Liberal Democrat) 12 043 Dan Lodge (Labour) 7 335 Kate Heneghan (Plaid Cymru) 1 229 Peer Gilbert (UKIP) 576 ...
I have never been on the receiving end of a Liberal Democrat knocking up operation at full pelt and I can imagine that, important though it is, it can be quite annoying. However, Lib Dem campaigners calling round after 9pm at night can have their uses, as Harrow's intrepid and brave Adam Bernard showed tonight: Excitement in Builth Wells while campaigning for @DoddsJane. A voter got locked out. We borrowed a ladder from a neighbour and I got to climb in an upstairs window. #FirstTimeHousebreaking pic.twitter.com/4aqc8xAd26 — Adam Bernard [IMG: 🔶] (@AdamBernard_HA) August 1, 2019 It's one of those things ...
John Rogers takes us from Harpenden along the River Lea and a disused railway to the Devil's Dyke earthwork at Wheathampstead and then to a twilit St Albans. Malcolm Saville was living at West End Farm when he began writing his children's books during the war. The barn at Seven Gates farm under the Stiperstones, which the Lone Piners made their HQ2, is based on the one at West End Farm. And another of Saville's early books, Jane's Country Year, was set there.
Country Life - I flick through it in the Library at Bonkers Hall - has a feature on Hunton Court in Kent, which is currently yours for £12.5m. It tells the story of the estate. Fast forward to the middle of the 19th century and you learn this: In 1850, Henry Bannerman - scion of an enterprising Scottish family of farmers and distillers who, by the late 1820s, had created a cotton-trading and manufacturing empire based in Manchester - retired from the business and moved to Kent, where he had invested his profits in the Hunton Court estate, located in ...
Jonny Keeley is lead singer with the band Fight the Bear, He has also twice won Bishop's Castle for the Liberal Democrats. Today's Shropshire Star carries the news that he is standing down to concentrate on family commitments. The Star quotes his fellow Lib Dem councillor Ludlow's Andy Boddington: "I am sorry that Jonny Keeley has needed to stand down as Shropshire councillor to allow him to concentrate on family commitments. "He was one of our few young councillors and was a great community champion. I look forward to him returning soon."
Jo Swinson shows her energetic style by heading down to Brecon for polling day and doing some knocking up with the candidate. It isn't usual for party leaders to do this sort of thing, but it's very Jo to want to be there in the middle of the action, doing her bit. Thanks to @joswinson, @libdems leader, for joining me in #Brecon tonight for the final day of the #BreconByElection. We have a real chance to make history here & ensure the voices of our communities are heard at Westminster. Please make sure to vote before polls close at 10pm! ...
Second paragraph of third chapter: On some days you wonder what it all means. And on some days you find out. It's like suddenly seeing a huge black pig in your headlights when you're running 80 miles an hour on ice. Boom. Total clarity. No more gray area. One of the classic accounts of American politics, not quite as remarkable as Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 because the election of 1992 was much less remarkable, and also frankly because Thompson's own style was becoming much more self-indulgent. Thompson's drug-fuelled raging stream of consciousness writing comes over now ...
Boris Johnson (who reminds me of a character from The Thick of It) starts off as Prime Minister with remarkably low ratings in the first Ipsos-MORI poll: (Look away now if you are a Tory Remainer who voted for Boris Johnson 'because we have to have an election winner') Initial favourability ratings for our Prime Ministers: Blair +60 May +35 Cameron +31 Brown +16 Major +15 Thatcher +2 Johnson -7 Source: @IpsosMORI — Mark Pack [IMG: 🔶] (@markpack) August 1, 2019
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Revised plans submitted for 67 homes at Fishmore Quarry - they are more a tweak than a rethink and n...
Shropshire Homes has submitted a new set of plans for 67 homes on the old Quarry site on Fishmore Road (19/02060/REM). The only significant change is that a block of apartments has been moved from Fishmore Road to the back of the site. They are swopped with two pairs of semi-detached houses. Three additional car parking spaces will be created, upping the total to 131. Of these, eighteen will have direct access onto Fishmore Road disrupting the current parking bay. This site is heavily constrained by its topography above and below ground. This makes it more difficult than most to ...
Regular readers of this blog will know that I have long advocated a public health approach to mental and physical health issues. Crudely put this means moving the work, wherever possible, from curing ill people to preventing illness. Doing this ... Continue reading →
I appreciate that venues suitable for Lib Dem federal conference are limited. And choices of venue are directly affected by costs. But do we have to go to Brighton again? It seems we have got ourselves stuck in a Brighton/Bournemouth autumn conference axis. It has just been announced that autumn conference next year is in Brighton. Yesterday I booked my hotel for this September's Bournemouth
Mr Johnson's utterances have never been known as a reliable indicator for anything much; his behaviour tells its own story: as UK Prime Minister, he is setting out his stall for a General Election as soon as he can. As with any habitual liar, it is none too clear how far he believes his own ... Continue reading Election Alert as Johnson plays the Blame Game
AHHHHHHHHH JUST GOT PHONE CALL FROM CONVEYANCER I'M GOING IN TO SIGN ALL THE PAPERWORK ON MONDAY AT 2 AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH GOING TO HAVE A HOUSE!!!! OMFG such relief. [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
Wed, 12:35: As recommended by the survey I did on here a few months back. https://t.co/9cBMf0Ic5b Wed, 12:56: RT @JP_Biz: The Central Bank of Ireland's latest quarterly report suggests the Irish economy is close to or at capacity & there's a risk of... Wed, 13:00: 20 hours left to vote in the 2019 Hugo Awards and 1944 Retro Hugo Awards! Wed, 14:47: RT @MiamiShowband: Today, 44 years ago, 5 young men died needlessly at The Miami Showband Massacre. Let us remember all of them with sadnes... Wed, 17:11: RT @prashantrao: "Come work for @TheAtlantic," we told @TomMcTague. "You'll get to ...
Despite my better judgement some young(er) lib dems persuaded me to sign up to Wizards Unite. I say "despite my better judgement" because I remember how severely I got into Ingress back in the day, and this is built on the same architecture - so yes, this means I can reach two inns from bed and top up on spell energy at my leisure having been for a wander around town. And yes, it means that after just over 2 days I'm level 15 already, and sick of the sight of Brilliant Golden Snitches from the current special event. It's ...
As Paul and Kirsten have have already written, today voters in Brecon and Radnorshire choose a new MP. With the fantastic Jane Dodds, vote for Jane #BreconandRadnorshire, a person who believes in community and will work hard for local residents @libdemvoice @NDLibDems pic.twitter.com/zWkMoTxhS6 — Dr. Kirsten Johnson (@DrKirstenJ) July 31, 2019 It would send a huge message to Boris Johnson that people don't want his cavalier and irresponsible pursuit of the most disastrous option to his country if Jane Dodds were returned as MP. And, more importantly, it would reduce his parliamentary majority to just one, reducing his scope for ...
This is just a brief post to collect all my Medium posts from the last month in one place to make them more easily accessible. As I'm planning on trying to write more and get back to something like my old frequency of posting, posts like this should be a good way of letting me see how much I'm writing. First post of the month was my public declaration of support for Jo Swinson in the Lib Dem leadership election: Why I voted for Jo Swinson Obviously a very influential post as she did go on to record a clear ...
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Although Wales led the way with a 5p charge on single use bags and reaped the benefit of a massive reduction in people utilising them when shopping etc., it was the Liberal Democrats, in government, who insisted that England follow suit. Today's Independent demonstrates the beneficial impact that decision is having for the environment. The paper says that disposable plastic bag use in England's main supermarkets has fallen by more than 90 per cent since the introduction of a 5p charge in 2015 with the average English shopper now using just 10 bags a year, compared to 140 before the ...
A Red Squirrel – What could be more symbolic of Formby and Little Altcar The Liverpool Echo has the article on its website – see link below:-
Departure board at Southport Station from back when you could get to Manchester Airport from our local seaside resort by train as well as from Liverpool. A recent article on the Liverpool Echo website regarding the lack of a rail link to Liverpool's John Lennon Airport, by Liam Thorpe, got me thinking again about this odd missing link in our local transport infrastructure. Here's a link to the Echo article:- My angle on this goes back to the failed Merseytram project of some years back. At the time I was leader of Sefton Council so was involved in all ...
Patrik Hermansson, a 25-year-old graduate student from Sweden, supported by the charity Hope not Hate, infiltrated and filmed the 'Alt Right' movement in 2016. Undercover with the Alt Right is a chilling expose of a political movement, which holds extreme views on minorities, immigrants and White Supremacy. The film documents their hateful discussions, their view [...] The post We need to tackle hatred, Islamophobia and antisemitism together appeared first on Radix.
Good morning! We were up at 5am to support Jane Dodds! Please remember to come today to Brecon and/or Radnorshire if you can. If you can't please do some phone knocking up. Details are here. Thanks! Kirsten and Paul, LDV team in Llandrindod Wells * Paul Walter is a Liberal Democrat activist. He is one of the Liberal Democrat Voice team. He blogs at Liberal Burblings.
Some months ago, at the request of residents, I requested that the council considers installing additional Moveable Vehicle Activated Signs on Perth Road to encourage all motorists to drive below the 30mph limit. The request was in relation to the area east of Harris Academy (there has been one sign provided some time ago further west around Clovus Duveau Drive) and the new signs have now been provided - see below : Although welcoming these, I have received comments that these signs (there's one on each side of the road) could be better positioned - one in particular is partly ...
