Jane Dodds is the first candidate in Wales to sign the Rural Powerhouse Pledge Lib Dems condemn Farage refugee comment Jo Swinson stands out as strongest voice of Remain Jane Dodds is the first candidate in Wales to sign the Rural Powerhouse Pledge Jane Dodds has become the first Parliamentary candidate in Wales to sign the Country Land and Business Association's new Rural Powerhouse Pledge. The CLA's new campaign will see it write to every Parliamentary candidate in every constituency in England and Wales asking them to pledge support for the Rural Powerhouse. The Rural Powerhouse pledge consists of five ...

Posted by Mark Valladares on Liberal Democrat Voice

Regular readers of this blog will know that I live and do politics in mid-Suffolk. And those of you who know mid-Suffolk will know that the district is split between two Parliamentary constituencies, Central Suffolk and North Ipswich and Bury St Edmunds. Creeting St Peter is on the boundary between the two seats, having been in Central Suffolk until 2010, and in Bury St Edmunds thereafter. As part of the deal making over the "Remain Alliance", local Liberal Democrats were stood down in Bury St Edmunds in favour of the Greens. And this "not having a candidate to support" is ...

Posted by Mark Valladares on Liberal Bureaucracy

Looking forward to helping run another three of these training sessions this weekend. pic.twitter.com/GVy6SNpCWK — Mark Pack [IMG: 🔶] [IMG: 🎒] (@markpack) November 22, 2019 It's turned out that my main activity during this general election campaign is helping run training events around the country designed to get people out canvassing for the very first time. By the end of the campaign, it's looking hopeful that the number of people trained up through these events will get well above thousand. Which is great news... but also means there's plenty of opportunity for people who don't make it to one of ...

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

Benjamin Britten was born in Lowestoft on 22 November 1913.

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

This won the 1976 Hugo and 1975 Nebula Awards for Best Short Story. Third paragraph of the main section of the story (there is also a short introduction):And then my gaze clambered higher still, up the 222-foot sturdy tower, to the top of which was moored the nose of the vast, breathtakingly beautiful, streamlined, silvery shape which was making the shadow.When I wrote this up in July 2001 - alas, much more innocent times to be writing about tall structures in New York - I said this:The story is a real jeu d'esprit from Leiber. He warms us up in ...

Someone on the radio this morning said that the Liberal Democrats had highlighted five vital points of our manifesto, which made it easy to grasp. I haven't noticed these five defined on any official manifesto I've seen, but I think he mentioned: Stop Brexit.Action on the climate emergency.The health service.Education.Housing.1. Stopping Brexit is rightly at the top of the list. As the other parties are trying, and I suspect succeeding, in hiving off Brexit as a boring issue we've all heard quite enough about, we need to continue to emphasise that hardly anything anyone wants to do for our society ...

Posted by Peter Wrigley on Keynesian Liberal
Fri 22nd
15:33

Changing the rules

The emergence of the new economy that we need is being blocked by economic rules that were designed to further the interests of the wealthy and the powerful. Continue reading →

Posted by Simon Perks on Simon Perks

I have not had one single ad on Facebook encouraging me to vote for the Liberal Democrats. Not one. But, when you think about it, what a waste of money it would be if I had. Let's face it, my vote for the party was never in doubt, and this one will be the proudest I have ever cast for the Liberal Democrats. Not only are we right on the biggest issue of our time, I've learned over 15 years' acquaintance that Jo Swinson is ideally suited to be our Prime Minister. Yesterday the BBC's Rory Cellan Jones offered an ...

Posted by Caron Lindsay on Liberal Democrat Voice

For the first time in my General Election voting life, I do not know for sure who is going to be elected in the seat where I reside. In 2005 I knew the Tories were going to win the Isle of Wight, in 2010 the Clegg bounce had just tailed off so I knew that the Tories were going in win Southend West. In both 2015 and 2017, the Tories were going to win Rochford & Southend East. Now as we go to the polls in 2019, I live in yet another constituency and this one is all to play ...

Posted by neilmonnery on The Rambles of Neil Monnery

It would be accurate to say that this mid-point is destined to be the hardest part of the election campaign for the Liberal Democrats. After being blocked off the head-to-head leaders' debates, they have seen the avaricious spending pledges of the two main parties taking much of the headlines. Labour are trying to capitalise on the issues of the NHS, and the Tories on how much money they plan to spend. It leaves Jo Swinson in a difficult position, before the crucial issues of Brexit, on which the party is strong, and the image of a brighter future, come to ...

Posted by Patrick Maxwell on Liberal Democrat Voice
YouGov

Chemistry World magazine has just published my analysis of the impact that the delay to the UK's departure from the European Union is having on UK science and what the Prime Minister's proposed Brexit deal could mean for researchers. Read ... Continue reading →

Posted by Simon Perks on Simon Perks
Fri 22nd
11:00

My tweets

Thu, 12:09: New booktuber in town: @_mschacha_ reacts to "Little Darlings" by Jacqueline Wilson, Chapter 1 #booktube #booktuber https://t.co/SEYyikwcRP Thu, 12:56: The 2-Word Trick That Makes Small Talk Interesting https://t.co/sCf0RRHor1 "I'm curious." Thu, 16:05: Welcome To The United Airlines Economy Minus Program https://t.co/jo8QliESUp *snerk* Thu, 17:11: RT @henryfarrell: Bringing two of this morning's tweets together, Philip Jose Farmer wrote a pastiche of Tarzan as written by William Burro... Thu, 20:48: RT @RMCunliffe: Unpopular opinion: If you want to ban MPs from taking second jobs, how about paying them a competitive wage? The basic MP s... Thu, 22:07: The Bluest Eye, ...

Our sister party in Northern Ireland has produced a heavily pro EU election broadcast. Let's hope that more Alliance MPs are elected on December 12th.

Posted by The Voice on Liberal Democrat Voice

Six local council by-elections, including each of Scotland, Wales and England, this week. Torry/Ferryhill, Aberdeen An SNP seat with Gregory McAbery standing for the Liberal Democrats in a ward elected by STV last time as this is Scotland and where the SNP topped the poll in first preferences. Torry/Ferryhill (Aberdeen) first preferences: SNP: 43.2% (+11.8) CON: 26.0% (+2.1) LAB: 10.6% (-12.8) LDEM: 8.4% (+3.3) GRN: 8.1% (+3.3) IND: 2.3% (+2.3) UKIP: 1.4% (+0.5) SNP HOLD. — Britain Elects (@britainelects) November 22, 2019

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

Say what you like about Tricky Dicky Nixon. And you can say a lot. He was an egotistical, toilet-mouthed politician who abused the office of the presidency for his own personal political gain. He was also one smart cookie when it came to foreign policy. His major saving grace, however, was that when faced with the inevitability of defeat, he resigned. For most of his five and a half years in office Nixon acted as if his personal interest and the national interest were one in the same. But in the end, he came to realise that the US constitution, ...

Posted by Tom Arms on Liberal Democrat Voice

If this is to be the election when social media finally comes into its own then it is possible that the Tories have blown it. Their antics on Twitter and elsewhere have thrown up a storm of protest, as they have used their online engagement for dirty tricks and alternative facts. As if to compound their misdemeanours, when confronted by journalists over the party's misuse of the medium, senior Tories have dismissed concerns out of hand, claiming that nobody really takes notice of what happens on Twitter etc, outside the Westminster bubble. I am not sure that is true. More ...

Posted by Peter Black on Peter Black

Three results in so far from last night's by-elections. It was disappointing to lose a seat in Chichester. It was a seat that we had held only briefly in a new ward, when we won narrowly in May. Our councillor promptly left us, joined the Greens and resigned from the Council, so the chances are that we were being punished. Loxwood (Chichester) result: CON: 61.8% (+17.4) LDEM: 29.9% (-25.7) GRN: 7.7% (+7.7) PAT: 0.6% (+0.6) Conservative GAIN from Liberal Democrat. — Britain Elects (@britainelects) November 22, 2019 Thanks to Gregor McAbery in Aberdeen and Will Ogborne in Cardiff and their ...

Posted by Caron Lindsay on Liberal Democrat Voice

From the City Council : Dundee City Council proposes to make an Order under Section 14(1) of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 for the purpose of facilitating sewer connection to new build house. The Order is expected to be in force for 1 week from 2 December 2019. Its maximum duration in terms of the Act is eighteen months. The effect of the Order is to prohibit temporarily all vehicular traffic in Glamis Terrace for its entire length. Access for residents will be maintained where possible. An alternative route will be available via Glamis Road, Glamis Drive, Hazel Drive ...

Shropshire Council planners have approved 71 new homes on the former quarry on Fishmore Road. This is a welcome scheme that will bring this long derelict eyesore into active use. The development by Shropshire Homes will be a mixture of semidetached and short terraces of houses, along with four blocks of apartments. It is probably the largest development approved in southwest Shropshire without first being considered by a planning committee. Property sizes will range from one bed apartments to three bed houses. The development lacks a play area and affordable housing, though three homes will be sold at a discount ...

Posted by andybodders on Andy Boddington

Following Ann Widdecombe's comments on LBC on Thursday evening that she was offered a role in the Brexit negotiations to stand down in the general election, Liberal Democrat Shadow Brexit Secretary Tom Brake said:"This revelation by Ann Widdecombe is yet more evidence that the Conservative Party may have acted illegally in offering her a job in the Brexit negotiations in return for her standing aside in the 2019 election."The allegation must be added to the police investigation into whether peerages were offered to Brexit party candidates to stand down.This is just further evidence that Boris Johnson's Conservatives are not fit ...

Posted by Aberavon and Neath Liberal Democrats on Aberavon & Neath Liberal Democrats
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