Since his announcement of his leadership bid last night, Alex Cole-Hamilton has been on a bit of a media whirlwind. He held a press call near the beach in Cramond: Launching his leadership bid for the Scottish LibDems, @agcolehamilton says between the SNP and "Boris' Brexiteer Conservatives", Scotland is gripped by "a clash of nationalisms". @LBC @LBCNews pic.twitter.com/okIdDcafuN — Jack Foster (@jackfostr) July 28, 2021 It's been a strong first day of his leadership campaign. Watch this space in the weeks to come as he fleshes out his ideas. Expect to see some radical stuff... * Caron Lindsay is Editor ...

Posted by Caron Lindsay on Liberal Democrat Voice

Lily Humphries is one of the Lib Dem team in the Scottish Parliament and the brains behind many of our scoops with her freedom of information requests. When your lockdown research project takes an unexpected turn... https://t.co/Dp47OZDXdP — Lily Humphreys (@LilyJulia_) July 28, 2021 She features in in today's Guardian which reports that Lily discovered that the Queen had successfully lobbied Scottish Government ministers to get an exemption from a new law which "requires landowners to facilitate the construction of pipelines to heat buildings using renewable energy." That's not bad for someone who owns as much land as Her Majesty ...

Posted by Caron Lindsay on Liberal Democrat Voice

Obligatory bit of throat-clearing: I opposed the creation of the YA award because I am keenly aware of the extra burden every new category places on the Hugo administrators. But I have to admit that pound for pound, the YA and now Lodestar finalists are on par with the Best Novel finalists for the Hugos, and the extra degree of quality added to the awards as a whole justifies the extra resources required. (I do not feel the same way about Best Series, but we'll get to that.) Having said that, this year's finalists are a bit weaker 6) Legendborn, ...

Police chiefs have condemned Boris Johnson's latest high-profile strategy to tackle crime as "weird and gimmicky", while plans to increase stop-and-search were criticised for ignoring the evidence. Instead of showing that the Tories were on top of the crime agenda ... Continue reading →

Posted by richardkemp on But what does Richard Kemp think?

Following Vince Cable's interview with Nigel Farage in which the former Lib Dem leader said it was wrong to talk about a 'genocide' in China, Lib Dem MP Alistair Carmichael has robustly disagreed: Speaking as Chair of the All-Party Group on Uyghurs, I strongly disagree with Vince's assessment of the abuses against the Uyghur people. We can debate the "correct" level of engagement with Beijing without abandoning the idea of universal human rights.https://t.co/bxYoE0o39u — Alistair Carmichael MP (@amcarmichaelMP) June 28, 2021 Email* Enter Email Confirm Email Name* First Last What would you like to receive?* Liberal Democrat Newswire: monthly newsletter ...

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

Who would have believed back in March 2020, that we would still be battling the Covid pandemic in July 2021 after over a year of significant changes to our way of life? We missed our overseas holidays last year, and many will have to forgo them again this year. If we want 2022 to allow [...]

Posted by jaynemccoy on Diary of a Sutton Councillor
Wed 28th
11:00

My tweets

Tue, 12:56: In Nord Stream 2 fight, Ukraine gives EU taste of its own bureaucracy https://t.co/AnmIQ9qnlx Lots to digest in this good story by @herszenhorn. Tue, 18:39: Times Squared, by Rick Cross https://t.co/6y9rjJxGBa Tue, 19:47: RT @APHClarkson: I never understood how someone who could not resist the temptation to leak his latest cunning plan to journalists on Whats... Tue, 20:48: Elizabeth Siddall, John Everett Millais's Ill-Fated Ophelia https://t.co/zPq88QIqA0 "For [Millais'] Ophelia, Siddall spent five months in a bathtub." Wed, 10:45: Five Speculative Visions of Britain in Chaos https://t.co/k3fMDAh1N8 I have read 3 out of 5. Must look out for the ...

Today's Guardian contains a very worrying article in which they report that a new study tracking the planet's vital signs has found that many of the key indicators of the global climate crisis are getting worse and either approaching, or exceeding, key tipping points as the earth heats up. They say the study found some 16 out of 31 tracked planetary vital signs, including greenhouse gas concentrations, ocean heat content and ice mass, set worrying new records: While the pandemic shut down economies and shifted the way people think about work, school and travel, it did little to reduce the ...

Posted by Peter Black on Peter Black

As widely expected, Alex Cole-Hamilton has announced he is running to succeed Willie Rennie as leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats: Some news from me: [IMG: 👇] pic.twitter.com/EB3CMyNktM — Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP [IMG: 🔶] (@agcolehamilton) July 27, 2021 Scotland is a beautiful, rich and dynamic country, but it is not an equal place to live. If you're born into deprivation then the chances are that you'll learn less, earn less and die sooner than someone living up the road in a well-off part of town. It is the job of government to tackle inequality but, after 14 years in power, ...

Posted by Mark Pack on Mark Pack

The path that runs down the side of Harris Academy off Perth Road towards Riverside is badly overgrown - see photo. I am grateful to the residents who highlighted this to me and I have asked the City Council's Neighbourhood Services who have maintenance responsibility here to have it tidied.

YouGov

Responding to the news that senior police officers say they weren't consulted on the Government's new crime initiative, Liberal Democrat Home Affairs Spokesperson Alistair Carmichael MP said: "It beggars belief that the Government would show such contempt for the police and victim groups alike. "Far too often they are taking people for granted. "They would rather write their policies on the back of an envelope than consult those on the front line who already know that increased stop and search doesn't reduce violent crime."

Posted by Aberavon and Neath Liberal Democrats on Aberavon & Neath Liberal Democrats

The death of Mike Hendrick today will not have come as a surprise to anyone who read Mike Atherton's unexpectedly moving article on the England team that won back the Ashes in 1981. Atherton told us that Hendrick had been suffering from liver and bowel cancer for a long time and, in his own words, was "in the departure lounge, but the flight has not left yet". Hendrick was a fine seam bowler with career figures to prove it. In tests he took 87 wickets at 25.83 and in first-class cricket 770 wickets at 20.50. One oddity of his test ...

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England