In the House of Commons tomorrow [Wednesday 26th February], Liberal Democrat Home Affairs Spokesperson Christine Jardine will present a Private Members' Bill to guarantee the rights of EU citizens to stay in the UK. The European Citizens' Rights Bill would give all EU citizens living in the UK before Brexit the automatic right to stay, without having to apply to the Home Office's Settled Status scheme. The Liberal Democrats pointed out that Boris Johnson has repeatedly promised that EU citizens would automatically be granted the right to stay, but failed to deliver on that promise. Instead, EU citizens have to ...
You'll find Cromford's cricket ground in the meadows beside the Derwent with views of the hills beyond.
[IMG: Cyril Smith and David Steel at the 1973 Liberal Party conference] Cyril Smith/David Steel (Photo: Getty/BBC) David Steel, the former leader of the Liberal Party, has today resigned from the Liberal Democrats following publication of a report by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA). The inquiry found that Steel had "turned a blind eye" to claims of child abuse and had abdicated responsibility in relation to accusations relating to Cyril Smith, the MP for Rochdale between 1972 and 1992. Steel opted to resign in order to prevent his family having to suffer "distress", and also to avoid ...
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Tue 25th
19:12
Flooding - Environment Agency says don't build on the floodplain in a climate emergency but we still...
The head of the Environment Agency today made a barnstorming speech on flooding. He is making the right noises about tackling the climate emergency. That's welcome. But he still thinks housing can be built in high risk flood areas. Sir James Bevan didn't speak about his own agency applying the lax national planning rules in a lax manner. According to a joint investigation by the Guardian and Greenpeace's Unearthed news unit, 764 homes in our county have been built in Flood Zone 3 - which has the highest risk of flooding - between 2015 and 2018. That's one in twenty ...
In addition to Lisa Smart's election as the new chair of the Federal Communications and Elections Committee (FCEC), Isabelle Parasram has been re-elected to the role of Vice President of the Liberal Democrats. (The party has four Vice Presidents, the chairs of the English, Welsh and Scottish Party along with this fourth role, which has special responsibility for working with BaME communities.) A former Parliamentary and GLA candidate, she was born in East London to Indo-Caribbean parents of the Windrush generation. A successful barrister by profession, Isabelle Parasram has played a key role in improving the party's disciplinary and complaints ...
Second paragraph of third chapter:Ashoka argued against intolerance and in favour of he understanding that even when one social or religious sect of people find themselves opposed to other ones, 'other sects should be duly honoured in every way on all occasions'. Among the reasons he gave for this behavioural advice was the broadly epistemic one that 'the sects of other people all deserve reverence for one reason or another'. But he went on to say: 'he who does reverence to his own sect while disparaging the sects of others wholly from attachment to his own sect, in reality inflicts, ...
I've been thinking a lot about public sector pay recently. Two things have brought this thought process on: Firstly, its because we have seen the Tory view of value when they have set earnings levels as a way of letting ... Continue reading →
Tue 25th
16:28Tories sack Shropshire Council's chief executive but they won't sack the political leaders who are f...
BBC Radio Shropshire and the Shropshire Star are reporting that Clive Wright, the chief executive of Shropshire Council, has been told to leave by the ruling Conservative group on the council. No one is surprised by this. The antipathy from Peter Nutting, the political leader of the council, towards Clive has been evident for a long while. The body language between Nutting and Clive has in recent months has made it clear they no longer work as a team. In Shropshire Council's now traditional style, Clive Wright has gone immediately. In the middle of a flooding crisis. That's lousy management. ...
If you live in Yate and you are 60+ would you be interested in becoming a' Champion' - Yate Town Council has worked with outside experts consulting and listening to local residents to identify an ambitious plan called Yate Ageing Better. The aim is to make our whole town more age friendly. A key part of the plan is to find older residents willing to be champions. A champion will - keep their ear to the ground, alert the Ageing Better group when they hear problems, and share news and ideas with people they know or groups they attend. Does ...
In my last post on Lib Dem Voice I touched on the current soul-searching going on within our Party, focusing on future electoral strategy. However, a successful electoral strategy has no purpose if we have no vision of what we would do with any further power it may bring. Now that the fight to keep the UK in the EU has been lost, the Liberal Democrats are in need of a new mission. I can think of none better than solving the country's housing crisis. The current lack of housing in the UK contributes to a number of the country's ...
It's deeply heretical for a Liberal Democrat to question our long-held opposition to formal verification in the relationship between the citizen and the state. But there are at least three reasons why Liberal Democrats should now be considering a shift in our long-standing opposition to some form of citizen ID. The first is the impact of the digital revolution, with the accumulation of mass data by both private and public bodies, posing very different challenges for privacy, transparency and data sharing and ownership. The second and third come from recent clashes between the Home Office and British citizens and residents, ...
The actual starting gun to the Labour leadership contest has now been fired. Ballots go out over the next couple of days, meaning voting for the next Labour leader will be commencing very shortly. As a registered supporter this time round, I have been at the receiving end of all of the contenders' leafletting. I thought I would take the time to review each one's content; to talk about the literature they have each sent out to try and woo my vote. LISA NANDY As if they were racing to get to me, the leaflets from Keir Starmer and RLB ...
[IMG: SCAM] Been notified of a scam that is circulating today and is mainly targeted at call centres although they could try and ring any number. Call are being reported nationally coming from 020 379 57734. The calls suggest they are from Amazon and saying that your Amazon Prime subscription has expired. The callers don't actually know if you have an Amazon prime account but they will offer to renew your subscription and take a payment over the phone. You can protect yourself by not giving out any personal information about yourself to unsolicited callers. If you do use Amazon ...
There have been two announcements over the weekend to boost our fading self-confidence. The "new" British passport is to be issued from the end of next month. Its cover will revert to the former blue (though I had a good look at my old one and, even in the daylight, it seems to me to be black) and will not mention the EU. It was, however, designed in France and will be manufactured in Poland. (The French sounding but British company Thomas de la Rue failed to get the contract.) Further and better particulars are available here. I find it ...
Mon, 12:56: Iran's leadership rigs an election — and still loses https://t.co/H7VFvjxyl5 Very telling. Mon, 16:05: Sanders sends Democratic establishment into panic mode https://t.co/CH6TNjFmIg Most of my Dem friends were Biden su... https://t.co/Qvn826ACI7 Mon, 17:11: Why John McDonnell's comparison of Julian Assange to Dreyfus is absurd and offensive https://t.co/nkUvseFty5 Well p... https://t.co/gTI1isprql Mon, 18:30: Nebula finalists: Goodreads/LibraryThing stats https://t.co/aOLxUHXzTq Mon, 19:20: RT @davidallengreen: Ministers and government advisers that keep boasting about how they will break legal obligations... ...should rememb... Mon, 20:46: RT @alantravis40: 2016 referendum pledge signed by Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and Priti Patel... https://t.co/L73B3vkK1C Tue, 10:45: RT @pmdfoster: ...
Welcome to news about the new chair of the main Liberal Democrat campaign committee, a discussion of the importance of potholes, all the latest voting intention opinion polls and by-election results, a chance to order my new book Bad News and more.
The Liverpool Echo has an article on its website, which prompted this posting as Woodend is not amongst the schools listed – see link below:- The photo above was taken in April 2018 and shows the former Woodend Primary School on the right. It was, on closure, merged into Maghull High School, as it shared the same grounds, and became its 6th Form Block. I only did my final 2 terms of primary school there when we moved into Maghull in December 1968 yet I have happy memories of that short time – Mr Hadaway the Head teacher and ...
Over the weekend the new Federal International Relations Committee (FIRC) met to discuss its priorities and strategy for the next three years. The Committee's prime purpose is managing the Party's relations with like-minded parties, individuals and institutions in other countries, not least through our membership of the European (ALDE) and global (Liberal International - LI) Liberal families. But FIRC also has a role advising the Party, including in both Houses of Parliament, on European and international policy. The composition of the Committee is particularly strong this triennial, with members coming from a wide range of relevant backgrounds, including academe, journalism, ...
Since the EU referendum came and went in 2016, leaving destruction and woe in its path, Ireland has been a thorn in the Eurosceptic's side. What to do in order to avoid a hard border between north and south came to dominate negotiations between the UK and the EU during Theresa May's premiership; one could even convincingly argue that it was the Irish problem that did for her time in office. Boris came up with a very Borisesque way to deal with the Irish border question once he became prime minister: just sod everyone's concerns about it for now and ...
The Guardian reports that Minette Batters, the president of the National Farmers' Union has hit back at suggestions the government will allow imports of chlorinated chicken and other low-standard farm produce in trade talks with the US. She has called for rules on minimum standards for imports to be enshrined in law, and has insisted that other countries must trade with the UK "on our terms", rather than seek to water down food rules. Farmers quite rightly fear they will face a flood of cheap imports undercutting high-standard British produce, and the potential for the EU to ban UK-produced food ...
As far as I'm aware there are no meetings scheduled for March at Blyth Town Council I'll try to post details of any that arise in the meantime
The Liberal Democrats will today present a Bill with cross-party support which would require the Government offer Hong Kong citizens the right to live in the UK. The move by the Liberal Democrats, whose former leader Paddy Ashdown led the argument for securing the right of abode if China ever reneged the Sino-British declaration, comes after a year of clashes and violence between the police and pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong. Speaking ahead of presenting the Bill, Liberal Democrat Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Alistair Carmichael warned "If there ever were a time for us to act in support of Hong Kong, ...
