Nation Cymru reports that Lembit Opik, former Liberal Democrat MP for Montgomeryshire and leader of the Welsh Lib Dems, has spoken at a meeting billed "How to Stop the Lib Dems with Lembit Opik." The website says he was introduced by Chris Grayling: it's sad to see a man fall so low. Over to Alison Alexander, the Lib Dem Senedd candidate in Montgomeryshire: "Many people here have fond memories of the good Liberal and Liberal Democrat MPs and MSs did for the constituency and I think they'll find his comments very sad. ... "As for the Tories, they should be ...
From Nature Today: Very few people were talking about rewilding in Europe a decade ago - today an ever-growing number of people are promoting it, with high-profile advocates including Sir David Attenborough and Greta Thunberg. But what is rewilding? Rewilding is about letting nature take care of itself, enabling natural processes to shape land and sea, repair damaged ecosystems, and restore degraded landscapes. It doesn't have an absolute end point, it's more about moving up a scale of wildness, where every step represents progress. ... Rewilding is not just about landscapes and wildlife, but people too. We rely on the ...
Sat 20th
16:10
Jane Dodds: Welsh Lib Dems will create a Wales where everyone is equal and nobody is enslaved by pov...
Welsh Lib Dem leader Jane Dodds gave her keynote speech to Federal Conference yesterday. She talked about the need to tackle poverty and isolation in Wales and for action to save the planet from climate change. Here is her speech in full. These have been hard times for us all. Covid has dominated our lives over the past year; Personally, professionally, politically. We have all needed to find extra resilience, additional emotional resources, extra bandwidth in our efforts to get through these times. A year when we lost people. When people lost jobs and livelihoods. When loneliness became an even ...
Y ou would think, wouldn't you, that if the person you had spent your life from childhood caring for died, you would get some help with funeral expenses? You would think, wouldn't you, that if the person you had spent your life from childhood for died, you wouldn't be made homeless? You would think, wouldn't you, that if you were willing to take on the responsibility of caring for someone you love, you would automatically get at least some training in how to lift them in a way that didn't ruin your own health? Or some information regarding your rights ...
Dances With Wolves won the Oscar for Best Picture of 1990, and six others: Best Director (Kevin Costner), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Film Editing, Best Cinematography, Best Original Score, and Best Sound Mixing. That year's Hugo winner, Edward Scissorhands, was nominated in one category, Best Make-up, where it lost to one of the two other contenders. That year's other Best Picture nominees were Awakenings, Ghost, The Godfather Part III and Goodfellas; I think I've seen The Godfather Part III but don't remember much about it. IMBD users rank Dances With Wolves top on one system but only 9th on the ...
The appalling murder of Sarah Everard and the inappropriate Police action in response to the vigil last Saturday night came too late for the Conference motions deadline, so the Federal Conference Committee used its power under the standing orders to allow our Westminster Women and Equalities spokesperson, Wera Hobhouse, to make a statement on the events and the issues they raised. Here it is in full: The killing of Sarah Everard horrified a whole nation. That sickening feeling when we heard she was missing. The wait. The search. As we all tried to hold on to hope, even as we ...
Thanks to work pioneered by Lib Dem Yate Town Councillors, the town has been awarded UK Age Friendly Status. This recognises all the work going on, led by Cllr John Gawn and his committee to make Yate a better place for older people. Thank you to everyone who has helped with our work on making Yate age friendlier so far. There is a mass of work to be done, and as we saw with the park gates, changes help everyone, whatever your ageIf you would like to be a community champion- an older person letting us know what needs to ...
Sat 20th
11:19Ed Davey uses the Sun to call for national insurance cuts for small high street businesses
Ed Davey is today calling for the ministers to take action to prevent many of Britain's high streets being lost forever after a year of lockdown. Speaking to the Sun, he said the Employment Allowance should quadruple from £4,000 to £16,000. The cut would help 1.2 million firms struggling to stay afloat by lower tax bills and lifting them out of the requirement to pay National Insurance Contributions. Davey tells the newspaper his plan is aimed at helping struggling hairdressers, chippies, cafes and local pubs. Newshound hopes dog groomers are included. And like all dogs, he is a fan of ...
Fri, 12:00: 20 hours left to nominate for this year's Hugo Awards! If you were a CoNZealand member, and you want to nominate, check now to make sure that you are in the system. Fri, 12:06: RT @POLITICOEurope: It is with great sadness that POLITICO announces the death of our much-loved editor in chief, Stephen Brown, at the age... Fri, 12:43: If the Hartlepool by-election is on 6 May, it will be 92 weeks after Brecon & Radnor (1 Aug 2019) - we have already beaten the previous 83-week all-time record. By comparison, the 11-month parliament from January to December ...
The Prime Minister's eagerness to refurbish the Downing Street flat he occupies with one of his families may well come back to bite him. The Guardian reports that the official elections watchdog has contacted the Tory party over a reported payment made for the refurbishment of Boris Johnson's residence: The Electoral Commission said it was in touch to establish whether any sums relating to the renovation works should have been declared under the law on party political donations. In response, the Conservative party said that all reportable donations were correctly declared in compliance with the law. It follows reports by ...
We were promised a real treat yesterday evening. Those of us who remember the 80s will know that Midge Ure was the lead singer of Ultravox. Significantly he was also one of the organisers of Band Aid and Live Aid, as well as co-writer of Do they know it's Christmas. And here he was 'in conversation' with the BBC's Gavin Esler and Lib Dem peer Paul Strasburger at our own Conference. Of course, he had an axe to grind. If you think Covid-19 has damaged the music industry – and that is certainly true – it is also reeling from ...
I can't claim that this is my first Liberal Democrat conference – by a long chalk (snort!). That was back in 1992ish. And I think I made my first conference speech then (or shortly afterwards). But last night was quite exciting. I attended my first virtual Liberal Democrat conference and made my first virtual conference speech. I have to say that I was very impressed indeed by the whole set-up. Well done to Geoff Payne and the team for an excellent job putting it on! It's just like attending a "terrestial/physical" conference except for the absence of a certain essential ...
i) births and deaths 20 March 1979: birth of Freema Agyeman, who played Martha Jones in New Who and Torchwood. 20 March 1971: broadcast of second episode of The Claws of Axos. The British are determined to control the world's supply of Axonite; the Axons, however, are a parasitic organism intending to suck the planet of all its energy. 20 March 2004: the BBC announces that Christopher Eccleston has been cast as the new Doctor.
There is striking lesson from the efforts of different countries to tackle coronavirus, efforts that have varied remarkably and tragically in their effectiveness.
There is still time to apply to vote by post for the elections on 6 May. Remember, in this area there are three elections - Town Council, County Council and Police & Crime Commissioner. You don't have to voter postally in all future elections, but if you are concerned about voting at a polling station under the current pandemic, you may wish to vote by post. If you haven't previously applied for a postal vote, you need to register for a postal vote before 5pm on April 20. You can apply online by emailing NCC directly at elections@northumberland.gov.uk with your ...
From the City Council : Dundee City Council proposes to make an Order under Section 14(1) of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 for the purpose of facilitating bus priority improvements. The Order is expected to be in force for 3 weeks from 22 March 2021. Its maximum duration in terms of the Act is eighteen months. The effect of the Order is to prohibit temporarily all vehicular traffic in (1) West Marketgait northbound from its junction with Nethergate to West Port Roundabout, (2) West Port Roundabout on the south side of the outer lane and (3) Hawkhill from West ...
I have a new favourite group of elections. The disestablishment of the Church in Wales was a favourite cause of Lloyd George Liberalism. Why should the majority of the population, who were nonconformists, pay tithes to support a church in whose doctrines they did not believe? Disestablishment was secured by the passing of the Welsh Church Act of 1914, which was put into effect n 1920. But there was a problem in the shape of a number of parishes that straddled the border between England and Wales. What do to with them? The solution was to invite the residents to ...
