Ed Davey has announced tonight, in news that will surprise few people, that the Liberal Democrats will be opposing Boris Johnson's Brexit trade deal because it fails to deliver on the promises the Brexiteers made to the electorate and it makes the country so much worse off. It's not about tariffs. The whole point of being in the single market was not to have to bother with bureaucracy and red tape. Businesses who have been watching these ads saying that things are changing on 1st January (but we have no idea how) are going to find out for the first ...
Tue 29th
18:03
Covid Watch: Cases are growing among younger people in Shropshire as the nation heads towards an eve...
It's quite hard to a grip on the details of the coronavirus epidemic at times. The headline figures hide a lot of detail. In this article, we concentrate on infection by age group within Shropshire. Before the holiday, Shropshire infection rates were dropping. That is in stark contrast to England as a whole. Particularly Tier 4 areas in the south and east and in South Wales. The soaring infection rates across the country are driven by the faster spreading new variant of Covid. It's scary. Very scary. The latest data for our locality gives us an insight into the age ...
Second paragraph of third story ("Something Bright"):If you had a quarter - first find your quarter - and five hungry kids, you could supper them on two cans of soup and a loaf of day-old bread, or two quarts of milk and a loaf of day-old bread. It was filling - in an afterthoughty kind of way - nourishing. But if you were one of the hungry five, you eventually began to feel erosion set in, and your teeth ached for substance.I have no idea why I bought this, other than perhaps a sudden whim based on my ambition to ...
Johnson's deal gets worse the more you study it – @libdems will vote against it. It's bad for people's jobs, with the biggest increase in red tape in British history. And bad for people's safety, damaging our police's ability to fight crime. Britain deserves so much better. — Ed Davey MP [IMG: 🔶] [IMG: 🇪🇺] (@EdwardJDavey) December 29, 2020
Tue 29th
16:13
Lancashire Police Commissioner fails to make public the costs of 7-year Police enquiry
The Leaders of two of the North West's Liberal Democrat Groups, Cllr John Potter, Preston Council and Cllr Richard Kemp, Liverpool Council have accused the Lancashire Police Commissioner of resorting to complex, legalistic mumbo-jumbo to avoid letting the taxpayers of ... Continue reading →
Over at the Mirror there has been some further analysis of the 1200 pages of the deal the Prime Minister signed with the EU. Some of it may appear trivial but all of it is actually very important for our future relations with the world's biggest free trade bloc. This is what they discovered: 1. British farmers face a sausage ban on selling into the EU British chilled mince and sausages will be banned from being exported into the EU after January 1, with government guidance to British businesses, updated on December 28, bluntly saying "you will not be able ...
Economist divide trade into two major types: goods and services. Goods are physical things like lettuces or cars, though they are not necessarily all "good." A packet of cigarettes is a "good " in this sense, even though it is likely to lead to a premature and painful death. Services are non-physical, or "immaterial" things which are done by others for you, such as a haircut, a TV programme, or your education. We trade with the European Union in both goods and services . The "deal" agreed last week and to be voted on in parliament tomorrow is almost entirely ...
In his Christmas radio broadcast in 1939, the Queen's father quoted the poem by Minnie Louise Haskins; "I said to the man who stood at the Gate of the Year; 'Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown'". The answer came back; 'Go out into the darkness, and put your hand into the hand of God'. Now, I have no problem with people putting their faith in the Almighty. Many of us today probably think that our salvation might rest more in our own hands. In many ways, what we have faced in 2020 and what ...
I must have been very young when I first saw Michael Anderson's Around the World in 80 Days (available on BBCiPlayer for the next 20 days), based on the novel by Jules Verne. But it awakened the urge for distant travel which has never left me. There are marvellous scenes in a bull ring in [...]
Mon, 12:56: It's not all bad news. https://t.co/3Uilsjnfeg Mon, 15:00: American Gods by Neil Gaiman My thoughts from 2003: I think this is a very good book but not a great book. Many of the best bits were done previously by Gaiman in Sandman, and done better. #nwbooks https://t.co/uRjexaPPSZ https://t.co/ToP2rcoZZO https://t.co/6Y9tLhbsvs Mon, 15:10: Notes from a Small Island, by Bill Bryson This book was written in 1994, and shows its age in some respects but remains a very affectionate take on England and the English by a near-insider. #nwbooks https://t.co/k7jBowXmzr https://t.co/i7qakJNzsJ https://t.co/Ecdbox63zI Mon, 15:20: Casino Royale, by Ian Fleming What ...
Welcome back to the second instalment of the most read posts on Liberal Democrat Voice this year, featuring the posts ranked at positions 11-15 (part 1, featuring posts 16-20, can be found here). In September, our number 15 post saw us still debating what to do next in terms of Brexit, and ten of our former MEPs attempted to convince us that then was not the time to campaign to rejoin the European Union. Admittedly, that argument still rages to some extent, and there will be many Party members and supporters who are keen to start such a campaign as ...
These two photographs tell a story and in the case of the Trans Pennine Trail, specifically the part of it through West Lancashire which is also known as the Cheshire Lines Path, it's not a good one as far as maintenance is concerned Trans Pennine Trail/Cheshire Lines path – Looking south from Cabin Lane Great Altcar – December 2020 Tissington Trail Derbyshire – March 2019 The difference in maintenance regimes is stark indeed yet (I thought*) both are National Trails and I've cycled them both. I've commented on the terrible condition of the Cheshire Lines path, through West Lancashire, previously ...
There was a curious, and rather unlikely piece, in the Guardian on Boxing Day, courtesy of that well-known friend of Liberal Democrats, Nick Cohen, suggesting that Liberal Democrat councillors in Bath had opposed a new 5G phone mast for reasons linked to the theory that 5G was responsible for occurrences most politely described as conspiracy theories. Naturally, proper research was not involved, nor did he actually speak to anyone linked to the decision to refuse planning permission. It always puzzles me that so many people, including Liberal Democrats, claim to be sceptical about our media, yet seem willing to believe ...
Tue 29th
08:30
Whoniversaries 29 December: Bernard Cribbins, Time Warrior #3, Horns of Nimon #2, Girl in Fireplace
i) births and deaths 29 December 1928: birth of Bernard Cribbins, who played Tom Campbell in Daleks - Invasion Earth 2150 AD (1966) and Wilfred Mott in various Tenth Doctor episodes from Voyage of the Damned (2007) to The End of Time II (2010); also Arnold Korns in the 2007 Eighth Doctor audio Horror of Glam Rock 29 December 1963: birth of Julian Bleach, who has played Davros in New Who, the eponymous Nightmare Man in Sarah Jane, and the Ghostmaker in the Torchwood episode From Out of the Rain. ii) broadcast anniversaries 29 December 1973: broadcast of third episode ...
From Blether Tay-Gither, Dundee's story telling club : We hope you can join us for our December blether tonight on Zoom - 7pm to 9pm : The theme is ghosts. It's that time of year when it's a bit colder outside and we are huddled up in the warmth. More huddled up that usual this year with our enforced prolonged hibernation. Some festive events are still happening and we at least have the chance to meet in a cyber way to share stories. These long dark nights evoke the haunted and eerie things that dwell in the shadows. Even a ...
