Liberal Democrats: Tories must stop dragging their feet on ethnicity pay gaps PM has failed the north of England and the whole country Liberal Democrats: Tories must stop dragging their feet on ethnicity pay gaps The Liberal Democrats are calling on Conservative Ministers to "stop dragging their feet" and require large employers to publish their ethnicity pay gaps, as new figures released today from the Office for National Statistics show that, on average, Bangladeshi, Pakistani and certain mixed-race groups are paid 15% less than white people. Liberal Democrat Equalities Spokesperson Wera Hobhouse said: Too many people's lives are blighted by ...
I've now been home for nearly seven months - hard to believe, sometimes - and I've spent most of that time as part of the HMRC team staffing the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme helpline. Given my day job, that's been something of a switch, especially as I haven't been in frontline customer service since 2012 (and it was very different then, I can assure you). Going from perhaps receiving one or two telephone calls to receiving them all day does require a shift in attitude too. As an investigator, people don't tend to want to talk to you whereas, when ...
The third and final part of this video deals with the Battle of Naseby, with starring roles for Market Harborough and Lubenham. You can watch part 1 and part 2 on this blog.
Aberconwy Liberal Democrats have selected a financial services professional, Rhys Jones, as their candidate for the 2021 Senedd elections.
We celebrated the summer solstice by having a party in our back garden - something we have done very rarely, in fact. Some nice pictures, though a lot of friends have since moved away. I wish I had taken more. (I also wish I had had my eyes open in the only one taken of me.) Unfortunately eating leftovers I cracked a tooth on an olive stone, and the following week I had a brief visit to the hospital for a vasectomy; this was not brilliant timing for reasons I'll explain in the July write-up. I don't seem to have ...
North Korea is a famously closed country — and an anachronism. A Communist family dynasty that viciously punishes those who dare to challenge the leadership's brilliance. An impoverished nation that nonetheless has produced nuclear weapons and has a showpiece national capital, Pyongyang. Before COVID arrived, the country was starting to open up a little under [...]
Not wholly surprising news from Scotland featuring Scottish Parliament by-election winner Beatrice Wishart.
The hearings for the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse's strand on the treatment of allegations against Lord Janner opened this morning. They will investigate the the actions of police, prosecutors, Leicestershire County Council and the Labour Party. Most of the inquiry's hearing are livestreamed on its website, but most of those for the Janner strand will be held in private. The Guardian says some journalists are being allowed to watch proceedings, but will be restricted in what they can report. The inquiry is not designed to rule on Lord Janner's guilt or innocence, but I am reminded of the ...
i) births and deaths 12 October 1965: birth of Dan Abnett, author of among others Big Finish audios The Harvest (2004) and Nocturne (2007), Tenth Doctor audio stories The Forever Trap (2008) and The Last Voyage (2010), Torchwood audio Everyone Says Hello (2008), most of the Tenth Doctor book The Story of Martha (2008), and Torchwood novel Border Princes (2007) plus various other comics and short stories. ii) broadcast anniversaries 12 October 1968: broadcast of episode 5 of The Mind Robber. A grand battle of fictional characters allied to either the Doctor or the Master ends with the destruction of ...
Our second of our series of features on this year's party awards winners features Mark Jeffery, the winner of the Belinda Eyre-Brook Award given to people who work for our elected representatives. See the whole party awards segment in the video, and the full submission in support of Mark below. Mark Jeffery has worked for the Lib Dems or Lib Dem run councils for most of the last 25 years. He joined the Liberal Party at the age of 13 and in the early '90's became an activist in Exeter and served on the Devon & Cornwall Regional Executive during ...
Sun, 12:42: RT @JeriLRyan: We must build a better future for the next generation. Join me, Star Trek cast, & Trekkies - @StaceyAbrams, @CoryBooker, @An... Sun, 12:56: Tales from the Coffeeshop: Varosha and the five stages of grief https://t.co/XKJZPwycqb Well put. Sun, 14:48: Without Russian Aid to Armenia, Azerbaijan Has the Upper Hand in Nagorno-Karabakh https://t.co/c6dNH1fx2l @RobertMCutler suggests that Russia will wait until Pashinyan is critically weakened before intervening. Sun, 15:29: Beren and L�thien, by J.R.R. Tolkien, ed. Christopher Tolkien https://t.co/0LRTjvlVek Sun, 16:05: Making the Monsters of 'Lovecraft Country' https://t.co/5exRww04NO Fun and fascinating. Sun, 16:48: A bit late at night ...
In a letter to Lib Dem Leader Ed Davey in advance of today's announcements by the Prime Minister, Cllr Richard Kemp has asked his Party's MPs and Peers to recognise the importance of Cities in stimulating national economic growth. On ... Continue reading →
Yesterday we learnt about the newly formed Lib Dem North American branch. Today we hear from one of their members. In the USA, "liberal" is a dirty word. Conservatives have for years used the term to mean "profligate lovers of state-spending, weak on crime and devoid of moral values." As such, even Democratic politicians shy away from the moniker and have done for decades. With Trump in the White House, and a febrile political polarisation infecting US politics, this dynamic has only sharpened: "owning the libs" has become the favourite pastime of conservative commentators, who seem to hate "liberals" more ...
Many thanks to everyone who took part in my latest mini-survey, this time looking at views on the hustings format for the party leadership election.
Often articles here in LDV advocate new spending commitments but rarely look at their costs, or consider what a fairer taxation system looks like. I like to start with what I call Harold Wilson's 'pound in your pocket' principle. Wilson was reassuring the public that devaluation didn't mean that their £ was worth less in sterling, but I take a deeper message from it:: the 'pound in your pocket' buys exactly the same however you came by it, whether that was by working for it (earned income), from rents, interest or dividends on savings (unearned income) or by selling items ...
The Guardian reports that a legal action has been launched over the government's failure to disclose details of its spending on contracts related to the pandemic, as it emerged that it has failed to account for £3bn spent on private contracts since the start of lockdown. They say three cross-party MPs and Good Law Project, a non-profit-making organisation, have filed a judicial review against the government for breaching the law and its own guidance and argue that there are mounting concerns over coronavirus procurement processes: Green party MP, Caroline Lucas, Labour's Debbie Abrahams and Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran say ...
DUNDEE CITY COUNCIL - WEEKLY ROAD REPORT Forthcoming Roadworks for West End Ward Blackness Road (at junction with Bellfield Street for a distance of 25m or thereby in an easterly direction) - closed from Monday 19 October for 3 days for BT work. Blackness Road (at Bellfield Street) - temporary traffic lights from Monday 19 October for 3 days for BT work. Riverside Drive (at Mayo Avenue) - off peak temporary traffic lights on Tuesday 27 October for maintenance work to DfT traffic sensors. Glamis Drive - closed from Monday 9 November for 2 weeks for carriageway surfacing.
