Rise in homeless deaths demands end of Vagrancy Act UK govt must not be silent on situation in Hong Kong Tories cannot call themselves the law and order party Cable: End 'weaponising' of social care Rise in homeless deaths demands end of Vagrancy Act Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran has renewed her call for the Vagrancy Act to be scrapped following the publication of new ONS statistics revealing a rise in the deaths of homeless people in 2018. The ONS data shows that there were an estimated 726 deaths in 2018, an increase of over 20% on the previous year. ...
I allowed myself to be distracted yesterday... you know how it can be sometimes, so it's time to catch up... 'Out of touch' Tories plough money into roads despite people and planet crying out for public transport investment Brexit renders spending promises impossible – Davey 'Out of touch' Tories plough money into roads despite people and planet crying out for public transport investment Following Sajid Javids announcement of £25bn investment in roads, Wera Hobhouse, Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Transport, said: Just as people are starting to become aware of the damage we're doing to our planet, the Conservatives have committed ...
Responding to the speech by Priti Patel at Conservative party conference, Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary Christine Jardine said:"It takes some gall for Priti Patel to describe the Conservatives as the party of law and order. "This Conservative Government has just been found to have acted unlawfully by the Supreme Court. Now Boris Johnson is now threatening to break the law again by refusing to extend Article 50. "If the Tories want to talk about law and order, they should start by following the law and ruling out a disastrous no-deal Brexit that their own analysis shows will lead to ...
Today sees the start of Black History Month. Over on the Black History month website, Jo Swinson celebrates the achievements of black women, whose achievements, she ways, are often massively diminished. The contributions of black Britons are rich and varied, yet for too long we have ignored the legacy of black pioneers and accepted a narrative that confines the history of black people to that of slaves and colonial subjects. This is not good enough. Worse still, when we do celebrate black Britons, the contributions of black women are massively diminished. Yet, despite having to contend with both racial and ...
A conversation between David Forgacs (New York University) and Kim Hendrickson (Criterion Collection) to mark Criterion's release of a restored transfer of Blow-Up.
[IMG: According to a Tory, paying attention to diversity is 'pretend socialism'] There are some moments in life when I am more pleased to be a feminist than at other times. Being able to recognise prejudice disguised as a noble call of 'equality for everyone' is one... The post According to a Tory, paying attention to diversity is 'pretend socialism' appeared first on @ambitiousmamas.
Tue 1st
20:32
Boris Johnson will destroy the Conservative Party if he doesn't destroy the country first
I came across two article today which argue that Boris Johnson's adoption of populism may in the long run prove disastrous for the Conservative Party. On The Conversation, Andy Knott notes how the approach for Johnson's government marks a complete break with traditional Conservatism: For conservatism, protecting "what is" (in other words, the institutions that have been handed down to us) is a joint project between conservative politicians and the people, their constituents. Together they have been engaged in this project for centuries. This means there is a seamless bond between the people and the elite (or establishment, or government, ...
South West Hertfordshire Liberal Democrats have chosen Sally Symington as their candidate at the next general election. As she told Hemel Today: "The Liberal Democrats control the three local councils of Three Rivers, Watford and now St Albans. The Liberal Democrats hold 60 per cent of all council seats within the constituency."Sally, who is a member of Dacorum Borough Council, stood in Hemel Hempstead constituency at the 2017 election. She was later on the shortlist for Cheltenham, a Lib Dem seat until 2010. 'Symington' is a name with resonanace here in Market Harborough, but I don't know if she is ...
Current Cloud and Ashes, by Greer Gilman The Sparrow, by Mary Doria Russell David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens Seven Pillars of Wisdom, by T.E. Lawrence Last books finished Paper Girls Volume 6, by Brian K Vaughan and Cliff Chiang Next books Be My Enemy, by Ian McDonald The Bastard of Istanbul, by Eilif Shafak
Steve Jobs, the legendary founder of Apple was often described as using a 'reality distortion field' to convince himself and others to believe almost anything. Employing the techniques of bravado, hyperbole and sheer persistence, he could make an impossible task seem possible. Dominic Cummings, the Prime Minister's Chief strategist – a known fan of tech titans such as Steve Jobs and Elon Musk – seems to want to employ these techniques in pursuit of Brexit at any price and to crush the hopes of Remainers. The Government's multi-million pound advertising campaign telling us all to 'Get Ready For Brexit' on ...
In this RADIX session held at the Big Tent Festival of Ideas, 2019, our panel discusses whether the old politics of monolithic, hierarchical political parties is dying – and what it might be replaced with. OUT WITH THE OLD: A NEW POLITICS? from Radix Think Tank on Vimeo. Read the full post "Out With The Old: A New Politics?" on Radix Think Tank.
Jacinda Ardern's empathic response to the bombing of a mosque in New Zealand in March this year made international headlines. The press went into a frenzy over her sensitive and visibly moved reactions to those affected by the tragedy. It's really telling of our age, that Ardern herself became the subject of the news when she was doing what any decent leader should be doing. We elect politicians to represent us, so surely the ability to sympathise and to imagine who we, the electorate are, what our needs, aspirations and vulnerabilities are, is a basic requirement of the job? Why ...
Cased in limestone shells laid down daily, year by year; Walking on the void Advertisements
Tue 1st
12:37
'Out of touch' Tories plough money into roads despite people and planet crying out for public transp...
Following Sajid Javid's announcement of £25bn investment in roads, Wera Hobhouse, Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Transport, said: "Just as people are starting to become aware of the damage we're doing to our planet, the Conservatives have committed to spending £25 billion on roads. Given the government claim to be serious about tackling our clean air crisis and the climate emergency, this announcement is a slap in the face for the planet."Instead we should focus our energy on improving alternative modes of transport - spending the money on better and safer cycling networks, footpaths, and green public transport. "The Tories have ...
Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran has renewed her call for the Vagrancy Act to be scrapped following the publication of new ONS statistics revealing a rise in the deaths of homeless people in 2018.The ONS data show that there were an estimated 726 deaths in 2018, an increase of over 20% on the previous year. The highest numbers of deaths were recorded in the North West (77) and in London (110).Layla Moran said:"These figures are simply shocking. Clearly it takes more than a rough sleeping strategy document and the creation of a Minister for Homelessness to fix this epidemic. We ...
I've often commented on how Lib Dems need to keep on bashing away at communicating the party's stance about Brexit because, given the limited attention most people give to politics, we're a long way still from 'everyone' knowing where the party stands.
The Lib Dem press office has provided an excellent summary of where we are this morning, together with the agenda for Parliament today: Morning Newsletter Top Lines: Liberal Democrats remain committed to stopping Brexit, and that starts with stopping no-deal. We want a People's Vote to stop Brexit, and in the event of a general election then every vote for the Liberal Democrats will be a vote to revoke Article 50 and stop Brexit altogether. A vote of no confidence held right now would make no-deal more likely, not less. That is why Jo Swinson successfully argued that one should ...
Mon, 12:56: RT @Peston: I would love to know which officials thought that Benn, Letwin and Grieve actually needed overseas EU help to draft a bill as s... Mon, 16:05: Golden Head https://t.co/5SrxubtFf7 More on the theft of the golden toilet. Mon, 17:11: This woman could hold the UK's fate in her hands https://t.co/3gkWprIcYz Brussels takes notice of @naomi_long. Mon, 18:24: September books https://t.co/EZS8pKoAe4 Mon, 19:35: RT @BobbyMcDonagh1: Mark Francois: "historically those who have sought to bully us in these islands". Does he have the slightest inkling ab... Mon, 20:39: RT @lowflyingrocks: 2019 SN3, 13m-28m in diameter, just passed the ...
It's the first Tuesday of the month and that means tonight Sunniside History Society is meeting. The speaker is David Goldwater, one of our own members but also one of the key archeologists working on Roman Vindolana. He will be giving up an update on the recent finds at the site. Residents are welcome. The meeting starts at 7pm in Sunniside Club. £1 on the door.
It feels like we're living through a revolution long in the making. To be fair, I haven't experienced enough other revolutions to adequately compare it to, but I know I've been promised big changes for a while. A 'gentler politics', a Liberal resurgence, 'New Labour'. I certainly didn't expect constitutional upheaval from a political party which promised a 'strong and stable government'. Well, we certainly got big changes last month, although I'm not sure you can call something new if it also happened in the 1640s, just before the English Civil War. Of course, David Cameron didn't mean to start ...
It may help to explain why those in positions of power tend to resist any challenge to the status quo. Continue reading →
One thing that the last few years in politics have taught me - among others - is that, surprisingly, computers can't count. Or at least, Facebook's computers can't reliably tell you how many people are in a group, once it gets above a certain size. On the morning of the 8th May, 2015, I was absolutely devastated. Not only had my party been all but wiped out, but Liberalism had been written off and my non-Lib Dem friends, while supportive of me, struggled to hide their belief that the drubbing was deserved. And then something odd happened: thousands of new ...
Liberal Democrats have committed to ambitious plans for fight against our climate crisis. Our planet is in crisis, balanced on a knife-edge at the point of no return. Due to man-made climate change, global temperatures are soaring, the polar ice caps are melting faster than ever before, and whole nations are already facing the existential crisis of rising sea levels and extreme weather. Whole species of animals are being wiped out month by month, and global famine is a very real threat. This is something that we can only tackle if we all work together, collaborating with every single nation ...
In politics, as in other walks of life, one of the signs that somebody has lost the plot is when they repeatedly do the same thing in the hope of a different result. One should not therefore be surprised at this Independent article, which suggests that Boris Johnson is to bypass Brussels and the EU's chief negotiator, Michel Barnier in attempt a last-ditch charm offensive on EU leaders to get a Brexit deal over the line. This is a tactic that had already been tried by Theresa May, and which fails to recognise, never mind understand the unity of purpose ...
Details of roadworks for the month below – some pretty significant ones coming up this month, including a number of road closures. For the full list see the GM Roadworks site here The Major roadworks in September are: – Heywood Road/Scholes Lane junction 21-23 October 2019 Multi-Way signals (Bury Council), and... – Heywood Road (at the junction of Hope Park Road) 2 way signals 23 October – 5 November 2019 – Rainsough Brow / Bridge over the Irwell towards Agecroft – Contra Flow 3-5 October 2019 (Salford Council) – Ostritch Lane (High Bank Crescent to Bury Old Road) closed up ...
Macmillan Cancer are raising funds this month by asking people to go the 31 days without alcohol this October. All the money raised by those "Going Sober this October" will help Macmillan support even more people facing cancer. Right from the moment of diagnosis, through treatment and beyond, Macmillan Cancer Support are a constant source of support, giving people facing cancer the energy and inspiration to help take back control of their life and make life with cancer about living. Find out more about how you can take part here. .
Libraries Week is a celebration of the nation's much-loved libraries, and in 2019 we are celebrating the role of libraries in the digital world. Events at local libraries will celebrate and explore how libraries are engaging communities through technology, building digital skills and confidence, encouraging digital participation and inclusion, supporting health, wellbeing and education and supporting local business and enterprise. Libraries Week 2019 takes place from 7 to 12 October. There are many events at libraries across the borough, and all of them are free. Monday 7 October Digital Security (stay safe online) event at Bury Library 10am to noon ...
Just to report back from two recent Council meetings. Last month the Council's Audit Committee met. Councillor Steve Wright reports: At the previous meeting in late July the committee should have been presented with the final Audited accounts. The Councils Auditors (Mazars) were unable to sign the accounts because of problems with valuations.At this meeting the Account would be signed off by Mazars and further explanation of the issues with them. The valuations were on Property Plant and Equipment although there wasn't overall any discrepancies in the values the Auditors said Significant difficulties during the auditDuring the course of the ...
Further to my recent article about the maintenance of Balgay and Victoria Parks, I have also had similar concerns about grass and other maintenance at Magdalen Green. Having raised this matter with environment management at the City Council, I have now had this feedback from the Service Manager - Environment in the council's Neighbourhood Services : "Magdalen Green has always been a fast growing area historically. We have had to carry out additional cuts to the grass on a number of occasions over the seasons prior to events such as WestFest due to the growth rate. The constant warm weather ...
