Davey: Labour maths do not add up Labour's police pledge an "empty promise" without extra funding Lib Dems: Widdecombe fuels election pact scandal Davey: Labour maths do not add up Responding to the Labour Party Manifesto launched today, Liberal Democrat Shadow Chancellor Ed Davey said: As long as Jeremy Corbyn continues pursuing his Brexit policy, the maths in his manifesto simply do not add up. The Liberal Democrats will stop Brexit and use the £50 billion Remain Bonus to invest in public services and build a brighter future. We'll prioritise tackling the climate emergency and investing in housing, education and ...
I don't consider myself to be an exceptionally good person. I have, I admit, flaws. I have an erratic attention span, don't always deliver entirely what I promise to, and could be better organised. But I like to think that I'm pretty loyal, prefer facts to rhetoric, and that I care about the people around me. If given a choice, I will tend to avoid personal attacks and make a positive case for the things I believe in rather than tear down my opponents. And that, perhaps, is why I find modern retail politics so uncomfortable. I almost enjoy canvassing ...
Chuka Umunna is about to be on Question Time. I should be going to bed, but I can't resist staying up and watching. Who's with me?Chuka's first intervention came to the first question, about the Labour manifesto. He talked about how Brexit would make it impossible for Labour to implement what it promised – especially as it would be tougher for people to come here to build the houses it said it wants. "You cannot ignore the elephant in the room which is Brexit"@ChukaUmunna says ending free movement will make it 'incredibly difficult' for political parties to carry out their ...
Second paragraph of third chapter:Sunk in the grass of an empty lot on a spring Saturday, I split the stems of milkweed and thought about ants and peach pits and death and where the world went when I closed my eyes. I must have lain long in the grass, for the shadow that was in front of me when I left the house had disappeared when I went back. I entered the house, as the house was bursting with an uneasy quiet. Then I heard my mother singing something about trains and Arkansas. She came in the back door with ...
Because I travelled to South Kilworth on a whim, I managed to miss the two buildings Pevsner notices there besides the church. That does give me an excuse for returning to the village and the White Hart, though I had better hurry because the Tories may scrap the 58 bus soon. And I did find this splendid derelict house hidden away in a backwater.
Over the years this blog has followed the campaign - at first triumphant and later doomed - to save Stiperstones primary school in Shropshire. I have been sent a letter about its imminent closure that was written for publication in the Shropshire Star. As I cannot find it on the newspaper's website, I shall keep the letter anonymous while from quoting it: I have just learnt that this term Stiperstones School is to close after more than a century. It follows Westbury a couple of years earlier and, no doubt, others will follow. ... These closures are due to the ...
Today's leaflet delivery was in Kibblesworth. Just a modest sized patch this time, fitted in between feeding the goats and going to full council.
The Liberal Democrats came within four thousand votes of winning Harborough at the 2005 general election, but slipped into fourth place in 2015 and third in 2017. Thinking of Labour's brief revival in the constituency has reminded me of John Shaw, one of the two Labour councillors Lutterworth sent to Harborough District Council when I was a member. He was a good man, but like so many of the people I served on the council with, he is no longer with us. I believe he died in the summer of 2017. I remember John telling me that his father had ...
Responding to the Labour Party Manifesto launched today, Liberal Democrat Shadow Chancellor Ed Davey said:"As long as Jeremy Corbyn continues pursuing his Brexit policy, the maths in his manifesto simply do not add up."The Liberal Democrats will stop Brexit and use the £50 billion Remain Bonus to invest in public services and build a brighter future. We'll prioritise tackling the climate emergency and investing in housing, education and welfare, while Corbyn would embark on yet another Brexit renegotiation."Jeremy Corbyn's Labour party has put forward a manifesto which is filled with uncosted, undeliverable promises and fails to address Brexit. Only the ...
Thu 21st
18:30
Fifteen years ago Kaweh Beheshtizadeh was a refugee. Now he's a Lib Dem Parliamentary candidate.
Fifteen years ago Kaweh Beheshtizadeh was a refugee and now he is running for Parliament for the Liberal Democrats.
Back in the day (well 2017) I actually got paid to write columns about constituency betting. Due to contractual reasons I can't do that anymore but I can of course muse some thoughts on this old here blog and I will do so as/when I feel like it over the next few weeks. I'll start off with a bet I placed when the market opened up – Chelmsford. To the untrained eye (or person putting together the odds) the Lib Dems wouldn't be in play in the Essex town. Despite getting within 5,000 or so votes at the height of ...
Here is the Lib Dem election broadcast for the General Election. I will admit to a wee tear at the start where Jo is talking about her Dad, who died last year. He would have been so proud to see her leading an election campaign as leader of the biggest and strongest Remain party. It's personal, hopeful, bright and clear about our aims about stopping Brexit and transforming the economy to make it work for people and planet. And we have added Chuka Umunna, Sarah Wollaston and Siobhan Benita, too. Enjoy. * Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice ...
Thu 21st
11:58
On whether the UK is ready for a strong female leader like Jo Swinson to be Prime Minister and is it...
Three years ago Donald J. Trump became the 45th President of the United States. Each person to have been elected to that position has had a penis and a pair of bollocks dangling between their legs. He won despite being woefully under-qualified and by doing so, he beat the most qualified person ever to have run for that particular job in Hillary Clinton. One big difference between the two of them is her reproductive organs weren't on the outside (small hat tip there to the opening episode of Stargate SG-1...). Now clearly the United Kingdom isn't the United States. We ...
Thu 21st
11:37
Why the Lib Dems saying that they would never put Jeremy Corbyn into Number 10 is smart politics
A couple of years ago, in the wake of the 2017 general election, I wrote a book called "Apocalypse Delayed: Why the Left are Still in Trouble" which advanced a theory about the Labour Party that is about to be tested, namely that they would lose, again. I also wrote about the woes of the Lib Dems, devoting a whole chapter to this subject. Amongst the problems I identified as afflicting the party, one was a desperation to get the left-wing vote back; the voters they had lost when the party went into government with the Tories in 2010. I ...
Yesterday I spoke to people who are representing those women (WASPIs) who lost out on their pensions when the age that women could claim pensions shifted at relatively short notice (about 10 years) and many received no information about the ... Continue reading →
Wed, 12:56: RT @michael__42: A small 2019 thing I don't understand is how the Telegraph has a Europe editor who just logs on to Twitter every day and e... Wed, 16:05: RT @BillGates: Even a single child paralyzed by polio is one too many, but I'm optimistic that we will eradicate the disease thanks to the... Wed, 17:11: One of the best of many good threads replying to @anandMenon1 piece yesterday. https://t.co/vsf3pLNlrB Wed, 17:18: RT @RoguePOTUSStaff: This morning, VP was nearly ready to begin the offensive to turn Congressional GOP against POTUS. After being targeted... Wed, 19:27: How the 2010s ...
The broadcaster and former Newsnight presenter John Tusa has declared his support for the Lib Dems... I am British by citizenship, Czech by birth, European by culture, history and identity. The Lib Dems are the only party to believe in our continuing membership of the European Union. They are the only party not taken over by the extreme factions in national politics. They are the only non-sectarian party. They are the only party that puts the sovereignty of parliament at the heart of our representative democracy. How could you vote for anyone else?
[IMG: John Willoner's Eco-House at Findhorn. Turf roof, passive solar, solar panel.] At the Folkestone and Hythe District Council meeting of 20th November, the most significant item of debate was arguably: Otterpool Park - Additional Capital Funding "This report considers the recommendation of the Cabinet on additional capital funding for the Otterpool Park project." The recommendations agreed by Cabinet were: 1. To receive and note report C/19/23 2. To recommend to Council that it makes available an additional one hundred million pounds to be drawn down over a period of up to five years to enable the Otterpool Park project ...
[IMG: Beach Huts on Folkestone sea front] At the Folkestone and Hythe District Council meeting of 20th November, I spoke on the motion: Budget Approval for Folkestone Beach Chalets Scheme "This report proposes changes to the Council's capital programme including the capital funding implications. The capital works are a request from the Trustees of the Folkestone Parks and Pleasure Grounds Charity to provide capital funding of £500,000 to support the renovation of 16 of existing beach chalets, the demolition of the remaining 58 beach chalets and the installation of 120 new beach chalets at Marine Walk, Folkestone." I spoke twice: ...
All political campaigns seek to control their media coverage, but few go so far as to exclude specific journalists from their campaign bus in order to avoid criticism. It is a surprise therefore to find that the Conservative Party have banned the Daily Mirror from travelling on the party's battle bus. As the paper says, senior Tory aides told the Mirror as early as last week they could have access to the trip - the Tory leader's first with the bus - but pulled the offer at the last minute. The Mirror, which reaches almost 500,000 households and more than ...
Michael Portillo with Frank Hornby Trust Chairman Les French as seen on BBC TV's Great Railway Journeys. Yesterday saw our trustees meet up at our Frank Hornby Experience exhibition space within Maghull's Meadow's Leisure Center for a day of work on our exhibits.* We had a lot to do to sort through recent donations and start a cataloguing process for the charitable trust. We were also installing new exhibits, erecting some really nice new graphics and generally tidying things up. It was great that Ray Clarkson came over from Bolton and Jim Gamble from Nottingham to assist us. Last Monday ...
Following the Boris Johnson – Jeremy Corbyn TV election debate, YouGov carried out a super-quick poll of people who watched the debate to judge the winner. The verdict? The public fell one 1% short of a top-bants answer by splitting 51%-49% in favour of Johnson. There was though also an outbreak of conspiracy theories online about how there were many polls that showed Corbyn winning by a landslide and which the media showed their bias by ignoring. Added to this were claims that all those other results were much better than the YouGov one as they involved far more people ...
The head to head debates on TV tell you little to nothing about how our local MP candidates think their party's policies will impact on life in the rural south of Shropshire. The husting on 2 December will be an opportunity to quiz the four Ludlow candidates. Churches Together Around Ludlow (CTAL) is to host a husting of Ludlow constituency candidates on 2 December at 6pm in St Laurence's Church. Doors open at 5.45pm. Questions can only be submitted in writing and only on the night. If your question is selected by the chair, Mike Beazley, you will be allowed ...
Thursday: I don't suppose anyone's noticed, but there's a General Election on. Manifest So let's put it on record that this is a VERY STUPID PLAN. A General Election is VERY HIGH RISK. If we get a Lib Dem government, we CAN stop Brexit. But that's a REALLY big "if". If Johnson wins a majority, he can have ANY BREXIT HE LIKES. Maybe his "deal"; maybe the self-styled Spartans of the ERG will blackmail him into No Deal. "Spartans" being an anagram of "AN SS PRAT". We should have taken every extra day we could get to look at Johnson's ...
Responding to Labour's council and social housing programme, Liberal Democrat Shadow Secretary for Housing, Communities and Local Government Tim Farron said:"It won't be councils denying planning permission for new council homes under Labour, it will be Labour denying entry to the EU workers travelling here to build them. "10% of our construction industry workforce is made up of EU citizens, but - just like the Tories - Corbyn's Labour has failed to back free movement from the EU. Under Labour, the workforce we rely on will no longer be available in the UK."We can only build the homes Britain so ...
Lib Dems: Labour can't keep their housing promises without EU workers Responding to Labour's council and social housing programme, Liberal Democrat Shadow Secretary for Housing, Communities and Local Government Tim Farron said: It won't be councils denying planning permission for new council homes under Labour, it will be Labour denying entry to the EU workers travelling here to build them. 10% of our construction industry workforce is made up of EU citizens, but – just like the Tories – Corbyn's Labour has failed to back free movement from the EU. Under Labour, the workforce we rely on will no longer ...
From Blether Tay-Gither : Our November Blether will be on Tuesday 26th November - at 7pm at Madigan's Tearoom and Bookshop at 25 Castle Street. We will be joined this month by Apprentice Storyteller Lynda Dargie, who will share a couple of tales. Lynda has shared stories with us before but this time she will be there as part of her accreditation process. The Theme is ANIMALS. Join us for a relaxed evening of stories and tales. bring a story or just come to listen. Hope to see some of you there - all welcome!
