To lovely [IMG: [personal profile] ] wildeabandon on the occasion of marriage! Yay! [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
The independent Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned a radio advertisement from the Home Office about the process for EU citizens to apply to remain in the UK after Brexit. The Home Office's advert claimed the system is really simple. The ASA decided otherwise, as the New European reports: The government department's radio advert, which was broadcast on April 13, told EU citizens that they only needed to have simple ID details to hand in order to apply to stay in the UK after Brexit. "All you need is your passport or ID card and to complete an online form," ...
One of my more esoteric Sunday music video choices was We Make Hay by the SY6. Ten years after it was shot, a blog post by Jake Buchanan looks back on the experience: As the years rolled on, people wanted more of the SY6. We did an ill advised 2nd video for a fruit and veg company which I am not a fan of and then left it as that. People wanted us to do something to mark the ten years. We kicked about the idea of doing something but to be honest I was never fully sold, it's nice ...
Thankfully, common sense has broken out amongst Remainers today as leaders of different parties agreed on the best route to try to stop Brexit.
Responding to the Prime Minister calling for the BBC to "cough up" and pay for TV licences for all over-75s, Liberal Democrat Shadow Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Layla Moran said: "Boris Johnson has a habit of making lavish spending promises without any intention of actually paying for them; free TV licences for over-75s are the latest in a long list."If he wants to honour his pledge to keep TV licences free for over-75s, Johnson will have to reverse the cuts his own Conservative Government has inflicted on the BBC or fund them via his own ...
Responding to the reports that the Advertising Standards Authority have ruled that Home Office radio adverts for the EU Settled Status scheme were "misleading", Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary Christine Jardine said: "It's appalling the way EU citizens have been treated by the Tories since the referendum. "We've already heard far too many cases of people not receiving the Settled Status they are entitled to. The Home Office putting out misleading adverts about how to apply only makes it worse. "Under the Government's plans, anyone left without Settled Status by the end of 2020 will be exposed to the Tories' ...
In the past ten months a combination of Extinction Relbellion and the audacity of Swedish schoolgirl Greta Thunberg have done us a favour: forcing us to interrupt our parochial navel gazing over Brexit and lift our eyes to the real crisis, the climate crisis, which will affect not just our own back yard but the entire planet unless we take action pretty sharpish. We have just twelve years to reduce our polluting emissions by 45% and thus keep the rise in global temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius and thus preserve a sustainable lifestyle for all of us on the planet. ...
Current De Bourgondiërs, by Bart Van Loo Pigs in Heaven, by Barbara Kingsolver Cat Country, by Lao She Last books finished The Early Life of Samuel M. Wickersham, based on his writings 1819-1862, edited by Edward Wickersham Hoffman True Stories, ed. Xanna Eve Chown The Dispossessed, by Ursula Le Guin Berlin: City of Stones, by Jason Lutes The Grandfather Infestation, by John Peel Berlin: City of Smoke, by Jason Lutes Bloody Sunday: Truth, Lies and the Saville Enquiry, by Douglas Murray Berlin Book Three: City of Light, by Jason Lutes Smallworld, by Dominic Green Next books Children of Time, by ...
Tue 27th
16:31
Jo Swinson joins 120+ MPs in signing Church House Declaration to defy Johnson attempts to close Parl...
Embed from Getty ImagesFrom The Guardian's Ben Quinn: Boris Johnson was described as a threat to the very nature of British democracy at a cross party meeting of MPs who signed a pledge to an alternative parliament in the event of the prime minister shutting down parliament to make a no deal Brexit happen. In a highly symbolic gathering in Church House, where MPs met during the second world war, Labour's John McDonnell took to the stage alongside the former Conservative MP, Anna Soubry, as well as the Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson and Caroline Lucas of the Green Party. ...
Speaking after this morning's meeting of opposition leaders to discuss stopping a no-deal Brexit, Leader of the Liberal Democrats Jo Swinson said: "This was a positive meeting with a clear objective to stop the nightmare that is no-deal Brexit, which the Government have admitted will lead to medicine and food shortages. "I am pleased the meeting focused on a legislative route which we have agreed is the best way forward and are now looking at all the scenarios to deliver this. There will be further meetings over the next few days across all groups in Parliament. "There is clear understanding ...
Norman Lamb has told the Eastern Daily Press that he will not stand for election again: Sir Norman Lamb, who was elected under the Liberal Democrats for North Norfolk 18 and a half years ago, said Brexit had stalled so much of parliament's business he no longer felt other issues got the time they deserved. Sir Norman, 61, spoke exclusively to this newspaper to announce he would not be standing at the next election – which he expected before the end of the year – but also to launch his next endeavour to help improve mental health care in the ...
The Guardian reports: Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson has told the BBC's World at One programme that the meeting in Jeremy Corbyn's office with other leaders trying to stop no-deal Brexit was "very positive". Swinson confirmed that the leaders did not discuss who would lead a caretaker government if the prime minister lost a vote of no confidence She told the show: "What is clear is there is a real sense of urgency. We don't have time to lose. We are very much looking to act as soon as possible." * Paul Walter is a Liberal Democrat activist. He is ...
Tue 27th
13:27+++Cross party opposition talks end in agreement on the priority of legislation to prevent no deal
* Paul Walter is a Liberal Democrat activist. He is one of the Liberal Democrat Voice team. He blogs at Liberal Burblings.
Yesterday (26th August) Liverpool had an appalling level of air pollution and was, indeed, one of the worst cities in the Country, if not the world for the level of particulates and toxins in the air. Remember that this was ... Continue reading →
As we near the end of the school holidays, I have been thinking a lot this summer about holiday hunger - an estimated three million children in the United Kingdom are at risk of going hungry during the school holidays. Three million. In 2019. In the UK. This is utterly shocking and a moral outrage in the world's fifth biggest economy. Children who are eligible for free school meals (FSMs) lose this provision in the holidays. Families already struggling to make ends meet have to shoulder the burden of additional childcare costs, as well as providing an additional meal on ...
You might have been so be-dazzled by the London Pride parade back in July that you missed the 202nd Liberal International Executive Committee meeting which took place on the same day at the National Liberal Club (and which incidentally gave perfect grandstand viewing of the parade in the streets below) . I've only recently started going to these international political meetings (since I retired and now have the time!) but the dynamic is quite different from UK political meetings and very energising. There are many younger participants and many, many more women to offset the usual pale, older males, and ...
Mon, 12:13: Nearly 100 firms have moved to the Netherlands over Brexit fears, say Dutch https://t.co/HNf7pSBDmM #TakingBackControl Mon, 12:56: RT @piris_jc: If the U.K. refuses to pay its debts to the EU, then the EU will not accept to negotiate a trade agreement with the U.K... ht... Mon, 16:05: Is it "Montezuma" or "Moctezuma"? Neither. (Great thread.) https://t.co/x3v8apb0Ao Mon, 17:11: Sure, Trump can buy Greenland. But why does he think it's up to Denmark? https://t.co/shIiCeK4vF Good explainer. Mon, 18:00: RT @Petrit: EXCLUSIVE: I just published in @medium the story behind #Serbia's campaign to delegitimise #Kosovo, using as intermediary the "... ...
Make no mistake Johnson and his entourage are gearing up for an early election. Everything dome by Johnson, the ham actor, and his government is for home consumption and particularly to haul in support for Farage's Brexit Party. Notoriously greedy for free cake, Johnson is playing the trick of posing as the opposition, even though ... Continue reading Gifting Johnson 5 Years in Power is a Real Risk
Tue 27th
10:24
Why revocation of Article 50 is a much larger possibility than is being talked about at the moment
The "national unity" government idea continues to hog breathing space in Westminster gossip columns. Funny, I was the one talking about it years ago as a possibility when no one thought it could ever be a thing; now I really don't see it happening. It's too big a leap for too many MPs to take simultaneously. One can just about imagine 30 or even 40 Tory MPs willing to jump ship, at least temporarily, to stop no deal from happening; for this to happen at the same time as the vast majority of the PLP decide to do the same ...
The next election, whenever it is, could see major gains by the party, or not. What's the difference between the two outcomes? In my view it is knocking on doors. In the Brecon and Radnor by-election, although we won, we did not knock on enough doors, but almost certainly delivered far too many leaflets. Yet every measure of how to win people over to our cause says that we will do it by talking person to person, either on the doorstep (best) or over the telephone. In their book, Rules for Revolutionaries (recommended by Mark Pack), Becky Bond and Zack ...
Long-standing Liberal Democrat MP, and former candidate for party leader, Norman Lamb is not going to stand at the next general election. Amongst the candidates he has defeated along the way in his North Norfolk constituency, in 2005 Norman Lamb beat then Conservative Party candidate Iain Dale. Norman Lamb told the Eastern Daily Press: It's been 18 and a half years. I spent 11 years before that trying to get elected. I started out against a 15,500 Conservative majority in 1992. In that time, every election in north Norfolk, whether a by-election for the council, or whatever else, I've fought ...
Greeting claims by Brexiteers, and Boris Johnson in particular, with a large pinch of the proverbial salt is becoming second nature to many of us. So, when on Sunday, the Prime Minister claimed that "very substantial sums" could be redirected to domestic priorities if the UK left without a deal, amid reports that he had received legal advice suggesting that the payment could be cut to as little as £7bn, we could be forgiven for being sceptical. And for good reason. As the Independent reports, Brussels is of the view that Britain will be expected to pay its £39bn Brexit ...
I have had questions recently about how to speak at Shropshire Council planning committees and I thought I provide an update on how the system works. Objectors and supporters should understand that planning decisions are a formal process and committee must follow the rulebooks, or risk having their decision overturned at appeal or even in the high court. The dryness, even dullness of planning committee meetings is a testimony of their importance and the seriousness that councillors bring to their duties. Having sat on several committees in my five years plus as councillor, planning is certainly the most arduous duty ...
Tue 27th
08:21
Opinion: Re-imagining our societies 6: Coping with global heating and declining prosperity - a brief...
So-called 'sustainable development'... is meaningless drivel James Lovelock To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete. Buckminster Fuller During the past 20 months, that I have contributed my bottom-up wanderings to this think-tank, I have been putting together my ideas of how the future may be. Not how it should be, but how it is likely to be. Two conclusions so far. I don't believe that global heating can be stopped, or even slowed down. Climate change is a degenerating reality.I don't expect the future economy will be "business as usual". In due course, the ...
You can't have travelled on Merseyrail without noticing the signs telling passengers not to put their feet on seats and the other day I saw the rule being enforced on a Liverpool – Ormskirk train when a young lady was approached by on-board security officers. They spoke to her very reasonably (I happened to be just across the gangway from them) and she was let off with what seemed to be caution. Most of us see this practice as being anti-social but I recently read why public transport operators are so keen to put a stop to it. A Doctor ...
This Thursday - 29th August - from 12 noon to 2pm at Ninewells Community Garden : Let's Eat: Beans! All welcome - come and join the team for some tasty bean burgers! The theme for this month is beans - broad, runner, french, fine, kidney, baked - green, purple or red! Volunteer Christina Howie will show how to prepare one of her favourite bean recipes - please do bring along a recipe, or some food to share - with our without beans! At 1pm there will be a visit from the Scottish Fire & Rescue Service to talk about how ...
