Lib Dems: Fight against upskirting is far from over Nine prisons overcapacity by more than 50% Lib Dems: Fight against upskirting is far from over Responding to data revealing that incidents of upskirting have been reported to the police at a rate of almost one a day since it became a specific sexual offence, Liberal Democrat MP Wera Hobhouse, who originally proposed the Bill, said: This horrifying statistic serves to show how necessary a change in the law was. Victims across the UK were failing to get justice and perpetrators of the crime were walking free. The change to make ...
Christine Jardine argues that the Liberal Democrats should not hurry to elect a new leader. "I have long argued that Labour members should ban the words 'Tory voters' from their vocabulary. If you start from the premise that someone a Tory voter is who someone is, rather than voting Tory being something they have done, you write them off as a potential vote for Labour." Emma Burnell makes a simple suggestion. Stephen Parsons analyses why the Church of England is unable to respond adequately to revelations of abuse by its clergy. Sarah Manavis examines the strange case of Paul Zimmer, ...
Fleet Street needs to watch itself. As the press spews vitriol at the royal couple, they should have been paying attention to the carefully balanced Question Time audience last night when not one single person thought Harry and Meghan were making a mistake. Dan Wootton in the Sun is probably the worst offender. He, and his despicable ilk, are the cause of Harry and Meghan leaving public life, and the UK, behind. The constant sniping, made-up stories, gossip. How much bile do people have to take. Harry and Meghan are people with a right to live their lives their own ...
Second paragraph of third chapter:"Splendid!" Perveen clapped. Alice was just the remedy she needed for her dark mood.First in a series of mystery novels set in 1920s Bombay, featuring a Parsi woman lawyer as the protagonist. I wasn't hugely impressed. The actual murder doesn't happen until almost half way into the book, and I was thoroughly unconvinced by both the investigation and the resolution. Our heroine is able to triumph partly due to rather improbable violations of procedure by the police. There's also an intrusive backstory about her brief marriage to a chap from Calcutta. (And at the end we ...
[IMG: Jo Swinson wins "Best use of e-campaigning 2009"] This fortnight's edition of Private Eye is proving to be quite a goldmine. I thoroughly recommend buying a copy at your local newsagent or similar outlet. In the "HP Sauce" column, referring to the forthcoming Prime Minister's Dissolution honours list, it says: ...rumours abound at Westminster that the LibDems are about to get their first new peerages since 2015, with one recipient tipped to be recently unseated leader Jo Swinson. She's already got a CBE, so it should make for quite the nameplate. I personally think that Jo would make an ...
The left loves its abstract nouns. So, as Labour ponders what it needs to do to come back from its disastrous showing in last month's general election, I have three more abstract nouns for its members to contemplate: radicalism, pluralism and competence. Abstract nouns may be how many political activists like me think about things, ... Continue reading Radicalism, pluralism and competence: 3 things Labour needs to rethink
Billy Joel once wrote: You're not the only one who's made mistakes But they're the only thing that you can truly call your own This implies two things. Firstly, that you recognise a mistake when it happens. Secondly, you learn how not to make the same mistake again. The Liberal Democrat leadership shows little realisation of step one and no recognition that step two might be helpful. For those of us working hard to persuade the electorate on the doorstep, or through the media, that the LibDems might be their best choice, it is demoralizing to be fighting the Party ...
Few 10-year-old boys would choose Adolf Hitler as their imaginary friend, but in Taika Waititi's wacky comic drama Jojo Rabbit, it's wartime in Germany and little blond, blue-eyed Jojo Betzler (Roman Griffiths Davis) is in love with uniforms and swastikas and dreams of graduating to the Hitler Youth. However, it is clear from his behaviour [...]
2020 was never going to be a good year. A veritable armoury of Damocles swords hangs over us – Brexit, Ukraine, impeachment, tariffs, the cohesion of the Western Alliance, US presidential elections and, of course, that perennial headache, the Middle East. Donald Trump's killing of General Qassem Soleimani almost completely severed the threat suspending the Middle Eastern sword. Frantic efforts are being made to retreat from disaster. Hopefully they will be successful, but serious damage has already been done and governments around the world are reassessing their positions in light of the New Year developments. At the heart of the ...
Fri 10th
12:45
How a key element of Blairism has made a roaring comeback within the Labour Party, even being used b...
I feel like I should write about something happening in politics other than the race to be the next Labour leader. Yet I can't help myself; the whole thing is such a fascinating clusterfuck, I cannot turn away. Barry Gardiner's 24-hour challenge. The spectacular falling apart of Rebecca Long-Bailey's campaign – that has still not been enough to kill her chances of winning given she will be Momentum's pick. Thornberry's 0/10. It's all comedy gold. On a serious note, however, there is one thing is emerging that Labourites need to think about. And that is a dreaded element of Blairism ...
We are all reeling from what was a very disappointing set of General Election results. Personally I was hoping for at least 15 per cent of the national vote share and a substantial increase in the number of MPs, but it wasn't to be. On a night of losses I was particularly sad to see Tom Brake defeated. I had the pleasure of meeting Tom back in 2016 and I know he was an excellent constituency MP. Of course, the headline loss was our new leader Jo Swinson in Dunbartonshire. I can't help thinking that the pressures of having to ...
Thu, 12:33: RT @LaResnick: I'm very sad to announce that my dad died very early today, January 10, 2020, a little after midnight. He was diagnosed in... Thu, 12:56: The woman saving Georgia's lost cheeses https://t.co/PJoPmerBUt Story of the day. Thu, 18:09: Two Being Human novels: Chasers, by Mark Michalowski and Bad Blood, by James Goss https://t.co/wGSueSdfT7 Thu, 19:04: RT @cstross: My first hard disk, a 10Mb device, cost £370 in 1986. My most recent is an SSD, a 2Tb device (200,000 times the capacity), th... Thu, 22:46: Just in case anyone thought that the "let's move forward together" narrative ...
This post first appeared on the Radix UK blog... Long-standing lib Dems, battered by a disappointing general election result - the third in a row - then had to cope with a Guardian column by former Times editor Simon Jenkins, urging the party to wind itself up. Let's leave aside some of Jenkins' arguments about tactical voting - which don't really stand up - and tackle the central claim that there is no potential role for the Lib Dems to fulfil, even if they do not at the moment. Because, we have to face it that - if that was ...
Fri 10th
09:50
"Her disastrous miscalculation" - Sir Nick Harvey's view on Jo Swinson's support for December electi...
Former North Devon MP, Sir Nick Harvey stood down as Liberal Democrat party chief executive shortly before 20th October last year. In this fortnight's Private Eye, a letter from Nick is published which severely criticises a decision made by the then party leader, Jo Swinson, soon after he left the role on 28th October. He doesn't pull any punches: Though I had departed by then, the Lib Dem pivot on 28 October to back an election appears to have been taken that weekend under SNP pressure, and left Labour no choice but to follow suit. It was a catastrophic mistake, ...
The Lib Dem Podcast, featuring John Potter and Richard Kemp, is back for 2020 and kicked off with a great interview of Liberal Democrat MEP for Scotland, Sheila Ritchie. As the blurb says: It's 2020 and we are back! We have a series of brilliant interviews coming your way with MPs, MEPs, council leaders and others across the party. Our first interview is with the amazing Sheila Ritchie our MEP for Scotland. We talk about recovering from the election, life as an MEP, what lies ahead for Scotland and most importantly if she could only eat one meal what would ...
I suppose that as his main policy plank is splendid isolation for the United Kingdom, our newly re-elected Prime Minister has to find friends when and where he can. But does he have to embarrass us all by choosing Hungary's authoritarian nationalist leader, Viktor Orban as his new best friend? As the Independent reports, Orban has heaped praise on Boris Johnson, calling him "one of the bravest European politicians". This comes days after it was revealed that one of Mr Johnson's top advisers had called for a "special relationship" with the Hungarian government and endorsed its attacks on liberalism: "I ...
Merseyrail Class 508 EMU at Maghull Station I've been informed that there's a rail tour coming up on the Merseyrail network on Sunday 26th January 2020. The tour will be raising funds for Merseyrail's charity of the year, Alder Hey Children's charity. The tour can be booked from the Branch Line Society (BLS) website www.branchline.uk/fixture.php and is charged at £25.08 per person. This is a relatively cheap price as in previous years the BLS tour on the MR network has been charged at a higher price. The tour involves coverage of all lines of the MR network including the stock ...
I've been thinking about the relationship between the UK for some time but my thoughts have been jolted to a conclusion when I read this in today's Independent. "A group of mental health professionals have warned Congress it must act urgently to ... Continue reading →
Govt must stop young people falling prey to 'county lines' gangs Tories failing children's mental health Govt must stop young people falling prey to 'county lines' gangs Responding to a report released today by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services into 'county lines' gangs, Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokesperson Christine Jardine said: When children as young as 12 are being exploited by drug gangs, the Government's approach clearly needs to change. We need to stop both the supply and demand of illegal hard drugs. Unnecessary Tory cuts to the police have made it easier for organised criminal ...
Residents will recall that, just before Christmas, I again reiterated my strong opposition to the council administration's policy of introducing car parking charges into seven West End car parks. The effect will be particularly difficult for residents and add to on-street car parking in the area. I received the following update late yesterday from the council's Parking and Sustainable Transport Team Leader : "We expect the new car parking charges in the seven West End car parks to be introduced on Monday, 27 January 2020. In advance, we will advertise the change by way of signage and press releases from ...
