With UK reputation on the line, the fight is far from over Responding to votes tonight in the House of Commons on the Internal Market Bill, Liberal Democrat Business Spokesperson Sarah Olney said: With our reputation around the world on the line, the fight is far from over. The excuses we have heard for breaking international law from the mouth of the Prime Minister show the depths to which the Conservative party has plummeted. Backbench Conservative MPs have a duty to follow their conscious and show Boris Johnson that his reckless approach will not be tolerated. The Liberal Democrats will ...
All Systems Go! was broadcast in 1973 as part of the BBC's documentary series One Pair of Eyes. Celluloid Wicker Man says it: feels more like a beautiful, art-house essay film, full of folklore and landscape, and soundtracked by Malcolm Clarke of the Radiophonic Workshop. It not only puts Red Shift completely into perspective (having been made a whole six years earlier) but it is also an essential viewing for fans of Garner.
I've been talking to well-placed sources and Lib Dem insiders about the debacle over the appearance of Geeta Sidhu-Robb on the shortlist from which our new London mayoral candidate will be selected. It seems the shortlisting committee had not heard even a whisper about her anti-Semitic campaigning and that if it had then her name would never have gone forward to the members. All the candidates (there were originally three, but one withdrew during the process) had passed their media and policy interviews and survived social media vetting. Selection committees have to take such information, along with someone's already being ...
Mon 14th
19:24
Planners to ask councillors to approve Rocks Green Sainsbury's supermarket and petrol station next w...
It's expected to be the final decision. After more than six years of wrangling and discussion, plans for a Sainsbury's supermarket are expected to be approved by the Southern Planning Committee on 22 September. There are still some details to be resolved but there are no fundamental planning reasons for rejecting the scheme. But to me the scheme is not as good as it might be. Bus passengers are treated as second class customers by the developers and planning officers alike. What they long for is cars, cars, cars. This application pays no more than lip service to the climate ...
Sadly, the only surprising thing about the revelations about Geeta Sidhu-Robb is that something like this hadn't happened before. You see, there's something rotten with our candidate selection procedures. In the party at large, there's a perception that candidates go through a rigorous approvals process. They don't. People believe candidates are vetted. They aren't. People believe our processes are robust and make sure we get the best candidates. They aren't. The simple fact is, all you have to do to become a LibDem candidate is to complete a pretty basic application form, get two other people to say you're basically ...
It's been six months since I received the fateful message that we would be working from home for a while. And, until Friday, I hadn't been back - there was little reason to do so, as I've been as productive at home as I would be in an open-plan office and the restrictions on travel made it unnecessarily complex to try to get there. But we're due to move offices soon, and in order to ease the move, we've been asked to empty our personal lockers until the move is complete. And so, in order to get it over with, ...
We had a little excursion yesterday to the Roman Archæological Museum in Oudenburg, close to Bruges Oudenburg is the location of a Roman fort which is gradually being excavated. Until the end of next month, they have a special exhibition on the theme of "Roma Intima: love, lust and the body" which is basically about sex in Ancient Rome as told through material culture. It's in-your-face entertaining, including rings with phallic motifs and the mysterious spintriæ, coin-like metal tokens with a number on one side and a sexual position on the other. But the crowning glory is this amazing decoration ...
People who have come to this country because they cannot put up with the political trends in their homeland are often worth learning from. I have supporters in my ward from Eastern Europe who came to the UK despairing of the post-communist rise of the authoritarian right in their country of birth. Interestingly they want nothing to do with the Labour Party. It is the socialist element they are wary of. As for the present UK Government, I feel for my friends, whose citizenship ceremony I shared in, but who now say "But this is the sort of unacceptable government ...
In my earlier two-part article 'Constitutional reform: a coherent national policy or not?', I described how I view it as essential that a constitutional reform policy be framed to encompass the constitutional arrangements of all parts of the United Kingdom, lest it otherwise make a mockery of the term 'federal'. This requires us to answer the English Question. In discussing English regionalism and federalism on various forums including the Liberal Democrat Federalists group on Facebook, I have observed criticism of Motion F11, our proposed amendment and the party's overall policy slate, some focusing various aspects such as the lack of ...
Mon 14th
11:44
'It could have ended in tragedy' - row intensifies over councillor who admitted driving lorry during...
After adding the missing closing quotation mark, the judges gave our Headline of the Day Award to Lincolnshire Live. Look closely and you will spot Cllr Brown in the image above. Thanks to a reader for alerting us to this story.
Sun, 12:56: Fiction set in Belgium: a very brief overview https://t.co/BEvUeKJFDf for further consideration. Sun, 14:48: Beyond Authenticity: the Spectre of Han Hegemony https://t.co/9YgvYD6FYg Vital analysis of Mulan by @jeannette_ng. Sun, 15:18: Th�odore Jonet and his daughters Juliette and Emilie https://t.co/WgPdvBLanZ Sun, 16:05: RT @mirandajewess: I have just found the best book in the whole world. It is a German grammar book from 1913. Stick with me... A THREAD htt... Sun, 19:49: Flemish and Dutch friends: am I right in thinking that "werpen" is used more in Belgium and "gooien" in the Netherlands, but they both mean "throw"? Or is ...
Here is a tweet from our party President, Mark Pack from last night: A statement tonight from the Lib Dems: "Geeta Sidhu-Robb has been suspended from the Liberal Democrats and will not be on the ballot paper to be the Liberal Democrat candidate for Mayor of London. There is an investigation underway in accordance with due process." — Mark Pack [IMG: 🔶] (@markpack) September 13, 2020 Updated 10:50 14/9/2020: In line with our normal policies, we have not been publishing comments which explicitly favour or disfavour one candidate in a party election process. This particular case is now under investigation, ...
Fake news, Russian bots, millions not even on the electoral register so what is the response of Government? Propose abolishing the Electoral Commission which actually needs more powers rather than being kicked into a ditch! Here's what the Electoral Reform Society thinks about Government threats to our electoral guardian:- My good friend Bob Robinson sums up the worrying situation very well when he says – 'Not content with ploughing up the level playing field - the Tories now want to nobble the referee?' My thanks to Bob for the lead to this posting The post Our democracy is under ...
Mon 14th
08:30
Whoniversaries 14 September: Justin Richards, Peter Ling, Mind Robber #1, Time & Rani #2
i) births and deaths 14 September 1961: birth of Justin Richards, who has written more Doctor Who books than any other living writer (though still some way off Terrance Dicks). 14 September 1972: birth of Jenny Colgan, also a writer of several Doctor Who books, better known to the general public for her other writing. 14 September 2006: death of Peter Ling, who wrote the 1968 Second Doctor story The Mind Robber (though not the first episode; see below). 14 September 2014: death of Angus Lennie, who played the scavenger Storr in The Ice Warriors (Second Doctor, 1967) and the ...
Long-term furlough extension essential to protect jobs Economic contribution of UK-Japan trade deal will be "drop in the ocean" COVID-19 testing falling dangerously short of expectations New Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader commits to building "winning campaign machine" Accepting rule of law appears optional for Ministers under Boris Johnson Long-term furlough extension essential to protect jobs Responding to ONS figures showing that UK GDP grew by 6.6% in July 2020, Liberal Democrat Treasury Spokesperson Christine Jardine said: We mustn't let these figures disguise the fact that the economic crisis caused by coronavirus is far from over. As we approach winter, countless ...
DUNDEE CITY COUNCIL - WEEKLY ROAD REPORT REPORT FOR WEST END WARD - WEEK COMMENCING MONDAY 14 SEPTEMBER 2020 Lochee Road (at Tullideph Road) - off peak temporary traffic lights on Wednesday 16 September for tree cutting work. Strawberrybank - closed from Thursday 17 September for 5 working days for wall maintenance works. Forthcoming Roadworks Riverside Esplanade - off-peak nearside lane closure on Thursday 24 September for Scottish Water ironwork repair.
Are there no rationalisations that Tory Ministers will use to justify the government's breaking of international law in the Brexit Bill? First we had Brandon Lewis, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland telling the House of Commons that this legislation, which overrides part of the withdrawal agreement, breaks international law, albeit 'in a very specific and limited way', and now we have the Justice Secretary, whose job is the very definition of observing the law, telling the BBC that he would resign if the law was "broken in a way that I find unacceptable". This immediately begs the question, ...
