The Leader of the Liberal Democrats Ed Davey has called upon the Chancellor to be "on the side of the self-employed", as a million people face being slapped with a tax bill on money they never earned. Income tax bills landing at the doors of the self-employed and freelancers of this country at the end of July will be calculated based upon their earnings in 2019-20 - neglecting the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on business and trade. In a letter to Chancellor Rishi Sunak, Davey sets out five urgent actions required of HMRC to take into account Covid losses ...

Posted by Aberavon and Neath Liberal Democrats on Aberavon & Neath Liberal Democrats
Sat 24th
19:27

100 Puns

I have been challenged to post 100 puns over 100 days. Can I do it?

Posted by Alan Window on An Aussie's Nightmare
Sat 24th
17:07

May 2012 books

This is the latest post in a series I started in late 2019, anticipating the twentieth anniversary of my bookblogging which will fall in 2023. Every six-ish days, I've been revisiting a month from my recent past, noting work and family developments as well as the books I read in that month. I've found it a pleasantly cathartic process, especially in recent circumstances. If you want to look back at previous entries, they are all tagged under bookblog nostalgia. In the outside world, the big news was the French Presidential election, in which François Hollande destroyed the incumbent with the ...

This week, Jacob Rees-Mogg was forced to publicly apologise for using the term 'yellow peril' to describe the Liberal Democrats in the House of Commons. By doing so he joined a long list of other well-known racists, such as... The Guardian... The New Statesman... Jo Swinson's former SpAd... And err... ourselves... What Jacob Rees-Mogg saidContinue reading "Yellow Peril (how to find offence in nothing)"

Posted by democracycoma on Democracy Coma

Every year at Conference we acknowledge those people who have made an outstanding contribution to the Liberal Democrats whether they have achieved elected office or not. Nominations are open for this Autumn's awards and close on 16th August. So what are the awards and who is eligible? The President's Award Eligibility: open to any Party Member elected to public office and who has demonstrated excellence and commitment. Criteria: the winner will be recognised for outstanding commitment and service to the Party. Local, regional and state parties should be seeking to nominate people who deserve recognition for their hard work, long ...

Posted by The Voice on Liberal Democrat Voice

Hello! I'm Mark Pack, author of both 101 Ways To Win An Election and Bad News: what the headlines don't tell us, along with maintaining the largest database of national voting intention polls in the UK, stretching back to 1943. The next general election is most likely several years away, but political polling of voting intentions for a general election is in full swing. Half-a-dozen firms are polling regularly, with a handful of occasional surveys from others too. Below the table, you'll find the option to sign up to email updates about new polls and also a set of answers ...

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

I found it pretty easy to rank these. 6) Tenet, written and directed by Christopher NolanNasty violence, incomprehensible time-travel plot and Kenneth Branagh does a very silly Eastern European accent. 5) The Old Guard, written by Greg Rucka, directed by Gina Prince-BythewoodCharlize Theron and her co-stars are very cute immortal fighters in today's world, and do a lot of biffing, for no reason that I could really detect. 4) Soul, screenplay by Pete Docter, Mike Jones and Kemp Powers, directed by Pete Docter, co-directed by Kemp Powers, produced by Dana MurrayIn case you were worrying, I liked all the others, ...

Good work from Layla Moran in today's press. First, the Guardian reports the Commons Library research commissioned by the All Party Parliamentary Group on Coronavirus, which Layla chairs, which shows that the number of positive cases tested for variants has fallen dramatically. The results suggest that in the three weeks to 17 March, there were an estimated 1,769 to 1,827 positive tests from people entering the UK from red list countries, of which somewhere between 63% and 68% were sequenced to determine the variant involved. By contrast in the three weeks to 30 June, there were an estimated 445 to ...

Posted by NewsHound on Liberal Democrat Voice

One of the joys of leading a Parish Council is drafting my column for the Parish Newsletter... If I had thought for one moment that chairing the Parish Council was going to be easy, recent events have demonstrated that there is no such thing as "too quiet". So, time for a quick run-through of what's happened over the past few months... We've got a new County Councillor in Keith Welham, who won the Stowmarket North and Stowupland division by 139 votes over outgoing Cllr Gary Green. Keith is familiar with our issues here, having served as our District Councillor between ...

Posted by Mark Valladares on Liberal Bureaucracy
Sat 24th
11:00

My tweets

Fri, 14:18: This is unfairly low. One of the great plots, chunks of it stolen for The Face of Evil (including the incident with the mirror). And the Doctor has a Reacting Vibrator! https://t.co/TUbavITrR6 Fri, 18:01: Friday reading https://t.co/l8fpbA2g8F Fri, 18:10: Middlemarch, by George Eliot https://t.co/ZKh7e3esMR Fri, 23:41: RT @davidallengreen: @law_and_policy @CommonsSpeaker At base: some seem far more upset at a member of parliament calling a prime minister a... Sat, 10:45: "He suffered from indigestion now nearly every afternoon in his life, but as he lacked introspection he projected the associated discomfort upon the world."

YouGov

A very mixed picture this week in the world of local council by-elections. From the highs of the phenomenal hold in Camden, to the lows of not even standing in a Liberal Democrat held seat. Of the eight principal authority contests across England and Wales this week, we only stood in four. It's essential that we, as a political party that takes local government and community seriously, give voters a Liberal Democrat to vote for at every available opportunity. Nevertheless, we also saw some good performances in some town and parish councils this week, managing to gain two seats, and ...

Posted by Ollie Bradfield on Liberal Democrat Voice

It was quite a week last week. There were three big events in Liverpool but two of them, the World Heritage Status announcement and the leaked report into the running of the Labour Party took up so much air time ... Continue reading →

Posted by richardkemp on But what does Richard Kemp think?

Charles Moore believes that 'a special animus' is directed towards Priti Patel by portions of the left simply because she is 'Indian, female and firmly Tory'. While I wouldn't deny that there is a bizarre form of racism on the left in these matters – the 'we own the BMEs' sentiment that they never realise really is completely racist – there are several problems with this argument. The first is that this sounds an awful lot like the identity politics the right is always railing against. You can't have it both ways – complain that the left always yells 'racism' ...

Posted by Nick on nicktyrone.com

The Guardian reports on the view of SAGE adviser, Professor Robert West that ministers are allowing infections to rip through the younger population in an effort to bolster levels of immunity before the NHS faces winter pressures. Professor West's allegation comes after England's remaining Covid restrictions were eased on Monday, with nightclubs throwing open their doors for the first time in the pandemic and all rules on social distancing and mask wearing dropped even as infections run high: Ministers were made aware of scientists' concerns about reopening nightclubs and other crowded, close-contact and poorly ventilated venues without testing or other ...

Posted by Peter Black on Peter Black

YouTuber Fredo Rockwell has been talking with London Assembly member Hina Bokhari, elected this May alongside Caroline Pidgeon:

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

Rodrigo Duterte steps down as President of the Philippines in June 2022. He will be 77 and is planning for a quiet, non-eventful retirement—unlikely. Nipping at his heels are the prosecutors at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. They want Duterte to stand trial for the thousands of extra-judicial killings that took place first in the city of Davao while he was Mayor, and then across the Philippines during his presidential tenure. However, the ICC faces formidable hurdles in placing Duterte in the dock. But first why do they want him there? Apart from being a foul-mouthed, rude, socially ...

Posted by Tom Arms on Liberal Democrat Voice

Residents recently highlighted to me concerns about speeding motor bikes and scrambler bikes going through Balgay Park. I raised this concern with both the City Council and Police Scotland and have received this helpful update from our local community police sergeant : "Thank you for bringing the below to our attention. We will bear this in mind when out on foot patrol and deal with any issues we come across in an appropriate fashion. I have also advised the Divisional Road Policing Unit Inspector so that traffic vehicles can bear this area in mind when out on patrol."

Sat 24th
01:42

Six of the Best 1018

"Emmett Till was killed early on the morning of August 28, 1955, one month and three days after his 14th birthday. His mother's decision to show his body in an open casket, to allow Jet magazine to publish photos - "Let the world see what I've seen," she said - became a call to action." Wright Thompson visits the barn where Emmett Till was killed. It is now used to store the owner's Christmas decorations "Britain's postwar economy created so many white collar jobs in the public and service sectors that it required no unusual ability or hard work or ...

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England