Workforce figures: public "desperately" needs a govt focused on getting growth back on track Voting reforms: Elon Musk-shaped hole in Government's announcement Afghanistan data leak "devastating" — Government must launch inquiry Carmichael welcomes progress on votes for 16-year-olds in UK elections Jane Dodds responds to UK Government plans to introduce votes at 16 Workforce figures: public "desperately" needs a govt focused on getting growth back on track Responding to the latest workforce figures, which show the labour market continuing to weaken, with higher unemployment and slowing wage growth, Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson Daisy Cooper MP said: We can't go on ...
"Have you seen that piece on satire by Colin Burrow in the London Review of Books?" asked Lord Bonkers over lunch. "It's Terribly Good." It turned out to be a review by Burrow of State of Ridicule: A History of Satire in English Literature by Dan Sperrin: The disappointment​ with satire that emerges from this book is in part a product of its method. The alluringly simple-seeming question 'What is this text trying to do?' is a much less good one to ask of satire than it might sound. It immediately excludes the possibility that a satirist might be a ...
Devon Live reports the expulsion by Reform UK of Ed Hill, a Devon county councillor: Devon County councillor Ed Hill (Pinhoe & Mincinglake), has been kicked out over claims by the party that he distributed a letter on free school meals to MPs and the media purportedly signed by 17 Reform councillors. The party says that councillors named as signatories had not been asked their consent "or even informed of its existence" before publication. Ed Hill had previously been in the news about claims over election expenses involving other Reform councillors. But Devon Live adds: The party also confirmed that ...
Last time I was in Helsinki, it was about 10 years ago when I was a Young Liberal and had been attending the European Liberal Youth (LYMEC) congress on the ferry between Helsinki and Stockholm. My memory of it is a bit patchy, admittedly... A decade later, I was there as a member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Council. Nae bad for a quine fae Aberdeen. Which reminds me, I've still got to share my memories with LYMEC ahead of their 50th anniversary next year. I'm sure some of you reading this might want to do ...
Budge up! We need to make room at the British political table for a new guest. Or, an old guest wearing a different hat which, in these days of UKIPs, Brexit parties, and Reform Uks (Reforms UK?), happens a lot. It seems that former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn will return to leading a political party. We didn't hear it directly from him of course, but from fellow left-wing MP Zarah Sultana who will be joining him in this new, yet unnamed, venture. At the time, it seemed Sultana had jumped the gun and announced the move without Corbyn's approval - ...
The first part of the BBC's two-part documentary on the Jesus Army, the abusive cult that grew out of the Northamptonshire village of Bugbrooke, will be broadcast on Sunday 27 July. It goes out on BBC2 at 9pm, and its full title is Inside the Cult of the Jesus Army. On the BBC website it's billed as follows: A look at the origins of the Jesus Fellowship. Founded in the 1970s, its early vision of communal living, shared finances and spiritual commitment changes over time, becoming more structured and controlling. Unexplained deaths begin to occur within the community, exorcisms are ...
I've had to inform this blog's trivia desk of a discovery I've made while listening to my favourite Chelsea podcast. Chelsea Fancast is presented by Stamford Chidge, whose real name is David Chidgey. And the discovery I made from the new edition of the podcast is that he's the son of the late David Chidgey who was Liberal Democrat MP for Eastleigh between 1994 and 2005, and then a member of the House of Lords. The elder David Chidgey was also, at least according to Lord Bonkers, the intrepid pilot of the Bird of Liberty, a spacecraft the Lib Dems ...
The key to growth as a solo consultant is finding new ways to engage with potential clients, partners and others who can support you in your work. While some potential clients will leap in at the deep end and engage you to help with a particular consulting project, others will want to dip their toes in first. And they'll want to do so at minimal cost and with minimal risk. This is where the power of the newsletter comes in. Simple, cheap and scalable Personally, I'm a huge fan of the idea of printed newsletters sent to recipients personally in ...
A few "political open goals" have been facing the Lib Dems recently, from the firing of Christine Jardine from the front bench (covered wonderfully by Lib Dem Voice's own Mathew Hulbert) to Unite the Union suspending Angela Rayner over Labour's lack of open support for striking bin workers. We can now add another open goal to the list: Labour's embrace of "trickle-down economics". As reported by The Guardian, Rachel Reeves plans to scrap regulations introduced by Gordon Brown, Keir Starmer's predecessor, to mitigate the impact of the 2008 financial crash on households. Chaitanya Kumar of the New Economics Foundation has ...
"There are some things that you just can't polish." So I said when i spoke against the Government's plans to bring secret courts into the area of civil law back in 2013. For some inexplicable reason, Nick Clegg had decided to agree to this dreadful proposal. The party, pretty universally, was livid. That's one reasons why factions don't usually work in this party. At the time, the Social Liberal Forum and Liberal Reform were at each other's throats on economic policy but we were united in standing up for civil liberties. You can read some of the background to that ...
Although our usual Tuesday surgeries at local schools and Blackness Library do not take place during the school holidays, we are holding a Thursday street surgery tonight to speak with residents on any local issues or concerns they may have. Should you have an issue you wish to discuss with us, e-mail us at westend@dundeelibdems.org.uk or call Dundee 459378 and we will be pleased to meet you - many thanks.
The Guardian reports that Keir Starmer has removed the Labour whip from four MPs for repeatedly breaching discipline and stripped three further Labour MPs of their trade envoy roles in an effort to assert his control over the party. The paper says that the four MPs who have lost the whip are Rachael Maskell, Neil Duncan-Jordan, Brian Leishman and Chris Hinchliff. They were informed on Wednesday afternoon and told their positions would be kept under review. Apparently, the whip has been removed because they are "persistent rebels": All four MPs facing suspension have been openly critical of several government policies, ...
