From Left Foot Forward: The Green Party's co-leadership team has been re-elected following a vote of members. Jonathan Bartley and Siân Berry were re-elected with 49% of the first preference votes. Rosi Sexton received 27% of first preference votes, while Shahrar Ali received 24% of first preferences. A total of 7,503 ballots were across all the internal elections, giving a turnout of 16%, according to the party. There are nearly 48,000 members of the Green Party of England and Wales. Turnout for the leadership - at around 14% - was the lowest since Natalie Bennett was elected unopposed in 2014. ...
I have mentioned in the past my local Demand Responsive Transport (DRT) link, Connecting Communities, which conveyed me to and from the station at Stowmarket, connecting my village to the world. The pandemic has not been kind, with the service currently reduced to, effectively, a medical transport service. Even if I wanted to go to my office, I'd need to find some other way of doing so, as commuting is not one of the valid reasons for booking a ride. However, there is a suggestion, no more than that, which might impact on my future use - the idea that ...
PM must stop playing fast and loose with rule of law Responding to the statement by the European Commission confirming that, if adopted as it stands, the United Kingdom Internal Market Bill would "put at risk the ongoing future relationship negotiations", Liberal Democrat Brexit Spokesperson Christine Jardine said: No one can really be surprised that the measures the UK Government have brought forward have put the likelihood of a trade deal in jeopardy. This proposal undermines trust and the UK's standing on the world stage. The Government must now act swiftly to erase anything that violates international law or that ...
The Low Fell Lib Dem Focus Team have just published their latest email newsletter eFocus, edition no. 72. There is an update on Gateshead being moved tot he coronavirus "watch list" as well as news about the garden waste collection scheme (customers are to get a discount). There are also a number of Low Fell news stories.You can read Low Fell eFocus on this link.
Current Titus Groan, by Mervyn Peake The Mirror and the Light, by Hilary Mantel Shadow Scale, by Rachel Hartman Distraction, by Bruce Sterling Last books finished Jerusalem: Vernal's Inquest, by Alan Moore The Sky Road, by Ken MacLeod Next books East West Street, by Philippe Sands Chronin Volume 1: The Knife at Your Back, by Alison Wilgus
Jane Dodds, winner of the Brecon and Radnorshire by-election in the last Parliament, has been re-elected leader of the Liberal Democrats in Wales.
Thu 10th
17:18
In the wake of the BLM movement, Police and Crime Commissioners need to be leaders in building the r...
Here's how they can do it: On May 25th, George Floyd was brutally murdered by American Police Officers, sparking protests in the USA that then spread across the world, including to here in the United Kingdom where protesters highlighted racial disparities in stop and search statistics and UK complicity in the slave trade. In 2012, the first Police and Crime Commissioners were elected across England and Wales with responsibility for producing a crime plan, managing the police budget and most importantly, bringing a directly accountable figurehead to policing here in England and Wales. It is the latter point which makes ...
An article with the headline "I lost my job in the last recession. I know how difficult it will be for single parents this time" is compulsory reading, especially when written by a journalist who is also a Lib Dem member. Liz Jarvis gives a very personal account of the impact of the recession on her and her family: Every time more job losses are announced during this crisis I think of all the people behind the headlines, the lives affected, and the knock-on effect for local communities. I lost my job in the last recession and all opportunities seemed ...
The Oscar-winning writer Ronald Harwood died earlier this week. I first came across him in 1978 when he took over from Melvyn Bragg as presenter of BBC One's Sunday evening book programme Read All About It. In those days I got a lot of my cultural education from it and Barry Norman's Film programme, which occupied the same slot for part of the year. I used to lug our black-and-white portable up to my room to watch these shows in bed. So you could say they helped me get to university. In fact they did so quite directly, because I ...
Wed, 14:59: RT @davidallengreen: Why the Rule of Law matters, and why it matters that government is deliberately seeking to break the law A short expo... Wed, 16:05: Brandon Lewis admits the government plans to "break international law". What now? https://t.co/r0A8yV3C8P A good summary from @PronouncedAlva. Wed, 17:42: Commiserations to @RosiSexton who still got a pretty good result from a standing start! https://t.co/8lqhiaGwmP Wed, 18:47: RT @ProfMarkElliott: New post | The Internal Market Bill - A Perfect Constitutional Storm https://t.co/dSpJ1CuqJH Wed, 18:49: RT @McEwen_Nicola: Some preliminary thoughts from humble political scientist on #InternalMarketBill. I'll restrict my comments to impact on... ...
Putting aside for one moment that trade with the European Union currently drives our economy, and that the failure to secure a deal before the end of the transition period will be potentially disastrous for us, it appears that Johnson's breach of faith over the withdrawal agreement may also have killed off any chance of his much prized trade deal with the United States. The Independent reports that Nancy Pelosi has warned the UK there will be "absolutely no chance" of a trade deal with Washington passing Congress should the government override the Brexit withdrawal agreement signed by Boris Johnson. ...
In his recent piece HERE George Kendall asks us which Universal Basic Income proposal we should choose and how can we say if it's affordable? How should UBI advocates respond? What I intend to do here is set out how I believe we should assess each UBI proposal that comes our way; however, the first step is to accept the principle of UBI at conference and acknowledge it needs to be a high enough amount to live on. My conclusion will be that an "out of the box" proposal like that from Compass is actually just fine but that Lib ...
I read "Conservative Home" - for as the axiom hath it. "If you read only one newspaper, read the one published by the opposition". A Fanzine, written by Tories - for Tories, "Conservative Home" often has me spluttering my cornflakes. But Andrew Gimpson's piece following Prime Minister's questions on the 9th September was remarkable - not only was he calling a spade, a spade but also he was calling a charlatan, a charlatan. "At the end of PMQs, Sir Desmond Swayne had asked the Speaker, on a point of order: "What remedy is there for those of us who ...
My last two blogs have been concerned with heritage, planning and other issues coming out of the Zipwire debacle. Some of my earlier blogs began to start shaping a new agenda for Liverpool post virus. I want to attempt to ... Continue reading →
Thu 10th
08:30
Whoniversaries 10 September: Smugglers #1, Horror #2, Paradise #3, Lost Souls, The Girl Who Waited
i) births and deaths 10 September 1944: birth of Graham Weston, who played Boer War soldier Russell in The War Games (Second Doctor, 1969) and De Haan in Planet of Evil (Fourth Doctor, 1975) 10 September 1998: death of Carl Forgione, who played the meditator Land in Planet of the Spiders (Thord Doctor, 1974) and the Neanderthal butler Nimrod in Ghost Light (Seventh Doctor, 1989). ii) broadcast aniversaries 10 September 1966: broadcast of first episode of The Smugglers, starting the original Season 4. Polly and Ben are astonished to discover that the Tardis is more than a police box, and ...
Thu 10th
07:32
No date yet for Buttercross repairs - King Street to remain closed for a few weeks at least
Ludlow Town Council briefly discussed repairs to the Buttercross on Monday night. Councillors were told that stonemasons had been appointed and work had started on stone in hand. More stone has been ordered from Grinshill Quarry but there was as yet no date on delivery. There was no debate, though Councillor Viv Parry said market traders were giving false information about the closure and asked for someone to tell them to shut up. King Street cannot reopen until the Buttercross is repaired and that looks to be a few weeks away. At least the weather is warm. Lime mortar will ...
I am grateful to everyone who, last week contacted me about flooding in the Miller's Wynd Car Park. I took this up immediately with the City Council's parking team and have been given the following helpful response : "One of my colleagues inspected Miller's Wynd car park again last Monday and Thursday morning and he confirmed that the car park is drying out. We suspect that it was the heavy rain running down the slope that caused this problem but we will continue to monitor the situation."
Perhaps because I have fond memories of watching Trevor Eve in Shoestring, I liked Waking the Dead. And the good news is that for the time being at least every episode of it is on the BBC iPlayer. Watching them now I find that the first part of each introduces us to an intriguing mystery reawakened by the discovery of a body, while the second spins off incoherently in all directions while Eve shouts at people. But I am glad they are there and you do find serous actors like David Hemmings and James Fox turning up in the cast. ...
