Swinson: Corbyn is a Brexiteer at heart Responding to the news from Labour Party conference that it would not back Remain in a People's Vote, under the guidance of Jeremy Corbyn, Leader of the Liberal Democrats Jo Swinson said: Jeremy Corbyn has again shown a total lack of leadership on Brexit and settled on yet another fudge on the biggest issue facing our country. Jeremy Corbyn has repeatedly had the opportunity to put the full force of the Labour behind a Remain position, but he has once again shown today that he is a Brexiteer at heart. He is determined ...
Today is the International Day of Sign Languages. The Liberal Democrats are committed to introducing a British Sign Language Act which would see every Deaf child and their families learning BSL. #IDSL2019 pic.twitter.com/IZaCTsIc10 — Liberal Democrats (@LibDems) September 23, 2019 * Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings
Now many may feel I am way off the mark with my title. It is also true to say that the Premier League by in large flourishes with the TV money generated every time their contract is renewed. It is also true to say that parachute payments to teams relegated from the Premier League has [...]
Today I was in Nottingham and visited the city's Roman Catholic cathedral St Barnabas. Its architect and designer was Augustus Pugin, though much of his richly coloured interior was painted over in the 1960s. When I see footage from that era I am surprised by how dirty everything looks. It's not how I remember it, but it must have been like that. And the leaflet I picked up at St Barnabas tells me:Coal fires and smoke meant that by the 1960s St Barnabas was known as the 'Black Cathedral'.It did not look black in this afternoon's sunshine before the rain ...
An interesting report appeared on the Chronicle website yesterday, highlighting Labour internal polling showing that Labour are losing 21% of their supporters from 2017 to the Lib Dems in the North East. A further 15% are leaving for the Conservatives or Brexit Party. We talk about 3rd party squeezes in campaigning but this is the first time I've seen a 1st party squeeze, in which the lead party
Today has been Bisexual Visibility Day. This is how Lib Dems have been marking it: Brilliant work by @BiVisibilityDay to celebrate bisexuality, challenge biphobia and signpost people to the bisexual community! @LibDems have a proud history of supporting LGBT+ equality, and long will it continue. #loveislove #bollockstobiphobia pic.twitter.com/K2q8Xfh5wU — Jo Swinson (@joswinson) September 23, 2019
[IMG: When do you turn your heating on?] It's a British peculiarity to stave off turning on one's heating for as long as possible. As an immigrant, I am cyclically bemused at this time of every year by 'heating shaming'. It's almost a... The post When do you turn your heating on? appeared first on @ambitiousmamas.
I'm going to defend Angela here. So what she struggled at exams. She is smart and well deserves her position. And if you took a minute to see what she overcame you'd be all the more impressed. We don't always agree. But she has my respect. Shame on you. https://t.co/bA5zYAGEKV— Layla Moran 🔶 🏳️🌈 (@LaylaMoran) September 23, 2019I'm with Layla on this one. Education and educational achievement are things to be celebrated, but how you do at school can be as much a measure of your home background as how bright you are. That's one reason I am so pleased ...
The news arrives from Labour conference in Brighton this evening: they have voted to go into the next general election with a policy of sitting on the fence on Brexit. It's the biggest issue of the election, indeed, the biggest issue in decades, and Labour can't give a definitive position. With all the evidence showing that they are losing votes to the Lib Dems on one side and Brexit/
Four thoughts on the Labour conference mess over Europe today as they let down Remainers, once again.
At last week's full meeting of Bury Council, the local Liberal Democrat group proposed a motion calling for Metrolink to trial the use of conductors on trams. The motion was passed with unanimous support from all parties in the Council, which means the Council will now formally request the move from Transport for Greater Manchester New Prestwich Councillor Michael Powell used his 'maiden speech' to propose the motion, pointing towards the hope that conductors on trams would help to alleviate two particular existing issues with the service – rise in anti-social behaviour and violence, and high levels of evasion. Last ...
Second paragraph of third chapter: De slaapkamer stond vol met flesjes, schalen en kolfjes met planten-aftreksels, azijn, kamferolie en andere middeltjes om de pijn van de aan-staande moeder te verzachten. Hoewel de toortsen, die een parfum van hars verspreidden, de toch al pittige mei-temperaturen helemaal de hoogte in joegen, mocht volgens de traditie geen raam opengezet worden om frisse lucht toe te laten vooraleer de kersverse mama ter kerke was gegaan. De babyuitzet omvatte twee wiegen, eentje op houten wielen voor effectief gebruik en een andere, uiterst luxueus en verfijnd, om mee te pronken. De hertog wilde groots uitpakken met ...
If I am elected as party president I want to weld the party together to form an unstoppable force to fight for liberalism. I believe the way to achieve that is by applying our principles: championing the rights and well-being of individuals, and helping them to grow and contribute to the party. It's all very well for me to lay out what I want to achieve. Now I need to answer the obvious question: how would I actually do it? I think our Federal Conference showed that under Jo's fantastic leadership we have a shared sense of purpose, determination, belief, ...
Work should be starting now on the replacement traffic calming on Heywood Road going into Simister Village. Residents will be aware that the chicane was taken out when the road was resurfaced last year. Because of problems with the chicane, and at the request of your local councillors request a number of different options were considered by the Council. Everyone has different views on traffic calming ...., but the new solution, which is speed humps rather than a chicane, seemed to be preferred by most people.
Greater Manchester's Council leaders have announced that the next draft of the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework (GMSF) will definitely be delayed to summer 2020. Over 60,000 comments on the latest draft were received and the Council Leaders say that they will use the next six months to have 'further engagement' on the main issues. The comments received from the public on the previous draft will be published at the start of October. Councils will approve the next draft in June 2020, no coincidence at all that this will be just after the council elections and elections for Greater Manchester Mayor ...
Or rather, no answer to questions.... Prestwich Liberal Democrat councillor Michael Powell took the opportunity of written questions at the last meeting of Bury Council to ask about congestion on the A56 through Prestwich: "Now that the A56 works in Prestwich are complete, could the Leader inform members what work, if any, is being undertaken to assess the long term impact of the scheme on other roads through Prestwich, or if a study to assess such any such impact is planned?" And the answer from the Council: "As part of the design of the Prestwich High Street scheme, extensive computer ...
All of the reports from the wider media here in Brighton have been focused on two things: one, Labour infighting, centring on the attempt to remove Tom Watson from the Deputy Leader position; two, Labour's more radical policy ideas like abolishing private schools and the 32-hour week. Neither of them strike me as being electorally helpful for Labour in the short-term. I am here in Brighton, at the conference, witness to it all. Is the infighting as bad as the papers are saying it is? For a start, it is best to explain what Labour conferences have been like since ...
The volunteer group Clean Team Prestwich have launched their "Adopt Your Street" campaign. Clean Team Prestwich are calling on local residents to pledge to keep their street (or part of it if it's a long one!) litter free. In exchange for your pledge, Clean Team Prestwich will provide you with a litter picker so you are able to pick up litter quickly, safely and regularly. There are almost 300 streets in Prestwich and we really need local residents to help us tackle the litter problem. Particular streets that we need residents to adopt are Hampden Street, Heaton Street, Upper Wilton ...
Incredibly Edible Prestwich and District are organising the annual Apple Day at Philips Park on October 13th 2019. They say: "There's a wonderful cafe serving delicious apple cakes, apple pancakes and pastries. There's also jams and chutneys, all from locally grown apples. There's also lots of apple games and fun for the kids. You can also bring your own apples for juicing. Park in the main car park, near the children's play area, and you'll find stalls and a cafe in and around the barn." More information here.\ Before the day, IEPAD need help with apple picking, apple donations plus ...
There are three meetings scheduled at Blyth Town Council in October :- Tuesday 1st October - Governance Committee Thursday 10th October - Full Council (*) Tuesday 29th October - Environment Committee All meetings are scheduled to start at 6:30 at Arms Evertyne House (*) This may be preceded by a Public Question Time
I have just been watching coverage of the Labour conference and the bizarre suggestion from the Shadow Chancellor and some activists that the Government should have stepped in to save Thomas Cook. They argue that it was once a nationalised company, although this was only because it was a subsidiary of a subsidiary of railway companies that were nationalised, not because the Attlee Government thought a publicly owned travel agent was a great idea. They also mention the rescue of banks but the economic and social impact of allowing several major banking groups to collapse is of an entirely different ...
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I was recently at an event speaking to a couple of Liberal Democrat friends - let's call them Tim and Fiona. A friend of mine, Roland, who is a Conservative Party supporter walked up to us with a broad grin on his face. "Well, your party's gone and done it. It's abandoned any pretence of being democratic; promising to reverse the result of the greatest democratic exercise this country has ever undertaken. Good for us. You'll lose." I introduced Tim and Fiona and Tim started to respond. He started talking about only implementing the change if the party got an ...
Some commentators claim that we Liberal Democrats are so well identifed with trying to stop Brexit that, if and when Brexti is sroted out, we shall have nothing left on which to campaign. Happily, a contribution by a Paul Hindley, on Liberal Democrat Voice, 20th September 2019, gives a good summary of various motinons passed at this years conference which , in my view , form a convincing basis on which to campaign. Here's an outline: According to Hindley, the Liberal Democrats are now committed to: investing an extra £5 billion into the welfare system every year;establishing a £50 billion ...
Nominations close at 5pm on Monday 30th September for the Liberal Democrat internal elections. These are being held for: Party President (a contest I have some interest in...) Federal Board (15 places) Federal Conference Committee (12 places) Federal International Relations Committee (6 places) Federal Policy Committee (15 places) ALDE Council Delegation (6 places) English Party representative on the Federal Board (1 place, open only to members of the party in England) All the places are for a three-year term of office and there's a new online nominations system that you can use to nominate people. You'll need to know their ...
Sun, 12:56: Thread. https://t.co/dOl1rKdmFi Sun, 13:44: RT @davidallengreen: Those Brexiters glibly demanding the prime minister to "defy" the law on Brexit... ...elsewhere demand "crackdowns on... Sun, 14:12: Eli Poppe with a massive instrument, Patrizia Hardt soprano, for a cohort concert of 16th century lute music. https://t.co/KdK8GMJaGI Sun, 14:48: RT @Simon_Nixon: @stefanstern Thanks. One thing I learned during 10 years spent roaming around Europe reporting on a decade of crises for t... Sun, 16:05: I have found it genuinely chilling to realise how little the bash-patriotic no-deal Brexiteers care about Northern... https://t.co/B2Bnp0aSAr Sun, 17:41: The 2019 Hugos, part two https://t.co/YY09PGzzBJ Sun, ...
[IMG: South Asian Women Breaking Silences and Speaking Up] I challenged and questioned the Asian patriarchy throughout my childhood while growing up on the continent. My childhood was peppered with 'don't do' and 'not allowed to do'. It was an existence defined in unequal... The post South Asian Women Breaking Silences and Speaking Up appeared first on @ambitiousmamas.
This speech was given by Guy Verhofstadt MEP was delivered on Wednesday at the European Parliament in Strasbourg: The British Parliament may be shut down, we are clearly showing today the European Parliament is not. Eurosceptics like bashing Europe by saying that the European union is undemocratic. And they repeated that today. Well, Juncker or Tusk can do a lot but at least they cannot close the doors of this House. So, if the Eurosceptics here want to look again for a ridiculous comparison with the Soviet Union (as they often do), from now on they can point their finger ...
The Low Fell Lib Dem Focus Team published the latest eFocus (edition 42) last week. Key issues covered include: Labour's bus tax Millennium Bridge graffiti noise on Clement Street Kells Lane Park Tree funding for voluntary groups period poverty You can read eFocus on this link.
Slightly late but here it is, the video I shot at Bournemouth conference last week. I missed Saturday as I was at the Bowes Agricultural Show. I took the train there on Sunday so missed half of that day as well. Nevertheless, I hope I catch the flavour of the event.
The day after Britain's EU Referendum in June 2016 the most common google search term in the UK reportedly was "What is the EU?" Of course, many of those asking the question would not have voted in the Referendum and just wanted to know what all the fuss was about when the shock result (52:48 [...]
The fact that I live on Merseyside is down to Thomas Cook. I'm a Nottinghamshire born lad but left my Notts mining community of Kirkby-in-Ashfield at the age of 6 and headed for Rochdale. Then at the age of 10 I left the home of the Rochdale Pioneers and wandered due west to Maghull on the outskirts of Liverpool. These moves were in effect organised by Thomas Cook, not as holiday trips of course but as a consequence of my Dad working for this famous travel agency. This is dad (George William Robertson) back in 1957 at work in Thomas ...
Last week, I found myself talking to one of the key experts in the UK on about community share offerings. He told me just how often he is asked by clients and others how you are supposed to keep in touch with shareholders in the community. We were chatting at the launch of the interim report of the Protecting Community Assets inquiry, where some of the case studies exemplified exactly the problem - small voluntary groups end up owning a building, or a pier in the case of Hastings, having sold shares to hundreds of local people, then don't know ...
On Tuesday morning, the last day of conference, I moved a motion calling on conference to support renters. To support them by instructing our party to scrap section 21 of the housing act (1988). Section 21 is the part of the act that allows no-fault evictions. You can see the debate that followed here. Please do watch it, but to save you time, I'm very happy to be able to tell you that they did. So, it is now party policy to scrap section 21, either directly as a government, or indirectly, in response to a vote in the Commons, ...
Well, I'm not sure what happened there, as I thought that I'd set this for 10.30 yesterday evening. Nevertheless, here are yesterday's official press releases... Scrapping Ofsted must be the beginning of the end of teaching to the test – Lib Dems Responding to today's announcement by the Labour Party that they will campaign to abolish Ofsted, Liberal Democrat Shadow Education Secretary Layla Moran MP said: It is always good to see the Labour Party copying another key Lib Dem education promise, just as they followed us in calling for SATs to be scrapped, here they are trailing in behind ...
Welsh Labour may be attempting to turn back the tide with their 'campaign for remain at any cost' stance but the reality is that this is not a devolved matter and that when it comes to any future determination of our EU membership by a Labour Government, it will be Jeremy Corbyn and his team who will call all the shots, not Welsh First Minister, Mark Drakeford. And as far as Corbyn and the UK Labour Party are concerned the fence sitting continues, or does it? As the Guardian reports, Corbyn himself appears to be shifting his public stance towards ...
Mon 23rd
07:30
Riding the enthusiasm wave, some thoughts going forward and a Presidential race update...
Well, that was a pretty good Conference, wasn't it? Passion, enthusiasm, and a whole bunch of people I'd never met before. I have to admit that I left Bournemouth rather more enthusiastic than I was when I arrived. And so, what to do with all of that enthusiasm? Well, I'd like to try a few things. Firstly, our new members are still feeling their way into the Party, and that offers an opportunity for the various groups withing the Party – Specified Associated Organisations, Associated Organisations, thinktanks, pressure groups and the like, to reach out to new people. So, if ...
I have had numerous concerns recently about the frequency of grass cutting and maintenance in Balgay Park, Victoria Park and Lochee Park and also the need to attend to overgrown bushes at the Victoria Park boundary with Jedburgh Road. I took this up with the council's Service Manager - Environment and he has now responded as follows : "I can confirm that the grass at Victoria Park has now been cut. In terms of Lochee Park, to ensure the pitches are kept in a suitable standard for football we always endeavour to cut these weekly, the remainder of the park ...
