PM change to guidance is reckless and flies in the face of experts Responding to the Prime Minister's announcement on the change to guidance on using public transport and going to workplaces in England, Acting Leader of the Liberal Democrats Ed Davey said: While we all want life to get back to normal as soon as possible, people remain rightly worried about coronavirus. The Prime Minister's plan to change current guidance for working at home and public transport use is utterly reckless and flies in the face of experts, including the UK's Chief Scientific Adviser. With Government testing and tracing ...
The Judith Stone stands, or squats, in a field near East Farndon, a Northamptonshire village to the south of Market Harborough in peril of being absorbed into Market Harborough. They call it Little Bowden Syndrome. Geologists maintain that it is a glacial erratic - a stone differing in size and type from those found in the area because a retreating glacier left it there when the Ice Age went out of fashion. Historians say Judith was a niece of William the Conqueror and was granted land hereabouts. And. as a local landmark, the stone was used as a boundary marker/ ...
Second paragraph of third chapter:Selendra came in in some confusion. At one moment she was flushed almost pink, at the next, she went pale, paler even than Haner's accustomed delicate gold. She closed the door behind her and stood a moment with her tail to her family.A hilarious and also slightly grim comedy of manners, riffing off Anthony Trollope in a society of cannibalistic dragons. It's well imagined, and of course in today's context of querying the roots of Victorian prosperity it seems rather appropriate to highlight the violent foundations of the entire nineteenth-century social system. Not a lot more ...
The Liberal Democrats are not a bitter and twisted lot. The, or we, are not a lot at all. There are not as many as two larger groupings, but we avoid groupthink and would think of ourselves as a lot of individuals, together. Or not always together. Liberals, by nature, are good soloists as well as sociable choristers! Perhaps I am preaching to the choir, I think many surely must know what I mean. When a Liberal Democrat steps back a bit, goes his or her own way, this party do not say, as others seem to, " good riddance ...
Fri 17th
17:48
Is Britain overplaying its hand with its proposal to deploy a new aircraft carrier in the Far East?
Military chiefs plan to send HMS Queen Elizabeth to the region after it enters service next year, and is expected to conduct exercises with allies in the region where China lays claim to the disputed South China Sea. "How many countries take seriously the UK's military strength right now? Britain needs a realistic view of itself instead of biting off more than it can chew," wrote Zhang Junshe, a senior research fellow at the PLA Naval Military Studies Research Institute, in the Global Times, a party-run newspaper. He said that the purpose of the deployment made little strategic difference to ...
His “real liberalism” of free speech absolutism is merely comforting the already powerful.
[IMG: Tim Prater with a Seagull Proof Waste Sack] Seagull proof sacks are now available to households in Sandgate (mainly the High Street / Esplanade areas and roads off) who have "purple bag" refuse collections. Stop the purple bags being pecked apart and waste pulled everywhere by putting your bags in the sack on collection days. Full details of how qualifiying households can apply for their (one!) free sack are at Sandgate Parish Council are arranging the distribution of sacks on behalf of Folkestone and Hythe District Council and Veolia - we all hope it can reduce street littering ...
Over the past few weeks, I have come under criticism from a few people because I am not hard enough in opposing Mayor Anderson. One even went so far as to say that it was because Joe Anderson was my ... Continue reading →
Huawei, Hong Kong, Uighurs, the South China Sea, Chinese economic and military growth, "Kung Flu", economic crisis, cyber-attacks, intellectual property theft, trade wars, sanctions, Donald Trump, Xi Jinping ... are all combining to raise the spectre that the world is marching eyes wide open into the Thucydides Trap. What, you may ask is the Thucydides Trap? It is a political/military term coined by American academic Graham Allison in 2012 to warn against the inevitability of war between China and America. It was based on the work of the Greek historian Thucydides who explained that the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BCE) was ...
Lib Dem Voice invites each candidate for the leadership to submit one post in support of their campaign per week. This is the post from Layla Moran's team for this week. While we're all caught up in the policy nuances of our summer leadership debate there is something to me that seems to have been overlooked – a leader's ability to make the Liberal Democrats part of the national conversation in the media. This for me is one of the main reasons I'm backing Layla to be our next leader. Layla has the media nouse to make the Liberal Democrat's ...
In Your Area wins our Headline of the Day Award.
Thu, 12:09: I have a short piece on the EU budget negotiations in today's edition of the @APCOWorldwide German EU Council Presi... https://t.co/ryD7aoJj3f Thu, 12:22: RT @jonlis1: Of course Shamima Begum should be allowed back into the UK. She was a groomed child whose government left her stateless and al... Thu, 12:56: Glorious etymological thread. Twitter is sometimes brilliant. https://t.co/VCS1P6QhNH Thu, 16:05: Meet the woman behind sex scenes in I May Destroy You, Normal People and Sex Education https://t.co/NgbRqeKOH4 Wow. Thu, 17:11: Scotland's England Problem https://t.co/MHDhYZSwKA Good summary from @KirstyS_Hughes. Thu, 18:39: Thursday reading https://t.co/O403nUjwuk Thu, 19:48: RT @alexwilcock: OTD ...
A 'Bin Liner' freight train is headed towards Wigan whilst a Northern Class 150 heads for Kirkby near Rainford Station No sooner had I blogged about proposals to extend the present Liverpool – Kirkby Merseyrail line a short distance to create a 2nd station within the town of Kirkby than my old friend Bob Robinson sent me details of works being carried out further up the line at Rainford. My posting about the Merseyrail extension is available via this link:- And this is what's happening further east in terms of bridge renewal works by Network Rail (18th July – ...
We're here again, a year later, for another LD leadership contest. I'm not doing an endorsement, having said that I won't endorse anyone who doesn't sign up to a meaningful set of actions on policing reform – though those who know me won't find it hard to work out which way I'm leaning, but rather [...]
I first became aware of the distinctiveness of China's Uyghur minority when I travelled across Xinjiang en route to Kazakhstan in 1994, savouring the tranquility of rural communities that were more like Central Asia than Han China. The local people were polite but reserved, their adherence to the Islamic faith evident but low-key. I returned [...]
One of the things I like about our Party is our willingness to bounce ideas off one another. On a Zoom meeting of our local party Exec this evening, once the formal business was out-the-way, we socialised over an optional drink. This was no epic drinking session of lore in the making, to be sung-about to our as-yet unspawned grandchildren, but a glass was nonetheless raised. The frustrations of campaigning in Scotland, where the national dialogue is no longer Left vs Right, but Unionism vs Nationalism, came to the fore. In this common parlance, Liberalism doesn't get much of a ...
With all the massive amounts of spending/borrowing by our Conservative government, which has been forced to adopt Keynesian economics because of the pandemic, what are we going to do about paying it all back? Clearly the right/centre right and even some of the left of UK politics will favour more austerity and lower taxes whereas the left generally will favour less or no austerity and higher taxes. We think like that because that's what we've been told our options are. But are these black and white options really the only way forward to address the situation? Yes, I realise that ...
In the Guardian a few days ago, George Monbiot highlighted one of the many scandals of this lockdown, the awarding of contracts worth billions of pounds for equipment on which our lives depend, without competition or transparency. He argues that the government has 'has trampled on its own rules, operated secretly and made incomprehensible and - in some cases - highly questionable decisions.' He outlines the details of this scandal: Let's begin with the latest case, unearthed by investigative journalists at the Guardian and openDemocracy. It involves a contract to test the effectiveness of the government's coronavirus messaging, worth £840,000. ...
Fri 17th
09:00
Tories officially wash their hands of any responsibility for open spaces or play areas on the new de...
Tories officially wash their hands of any responsibility for open spaces or play areas on the new developmentsThe Tories have created a model in which all the open space and play equipment on new developments like Autumn Brooke and Ladden Gardens will be owned by a PRIVATE company (set up by the developers) who then charge the residents to run the open spaces and play areas. Residents have been finding they have no way to ensure the company comes up to scratch. And S Glos who created this mess say the only solution is for a legal challenge by residents ...
Fri 17th
08:30
Whoniversaries 17 July: Hugh David, The Time Meddler #3, Damaged Goods, fictional film releases
i) births and deaths 17 July 1925: birth of Hugh David, who directed The Highlanders (Second Doctor, 1966-67) and Fury from the Deep (Second Doctor, 1968). As an actor, he was one of those approached about playing the role of the Doctor back in 1963, but turned it down. ii) broadcast anniversaries 17 July 1965: broadcast of 'Battle of Wits', third episode of the First Doctor story that we now call The Time Meddler. The Monk is luring the Viking fleet to attack; and Steven and Vicki discover, to their amazement, that he has his own Tardis. iii) dates specified ...
I am grateful to the City Council's Roads Maintenance Partnership for its prompt attention to the resident's concern I raised recently about trip hazards in Peddie Street caused by missing utility company covers - now resolved :
