It's International Women's Day today and this year's theme is Give to Gain. From the IWD website: Give To Gain emphasizes the power of reciprocity and support. When people, organizations, and communities give generously, opportunities and support for women increase. Giving is not a subtraction, it's intentional multiplication. When women thrive, we all rise. Whether through donations, knowledge, resources, infrastructure, visibility, advocacy, education, training, mentoring, or time, contributing to women's advancement helps create a more supportive and interconnected world. What will you Give to Gain gender equality? What does Give to Gain mean to you? Lib Dem Women, the official ...

Posted by Caron Lindsay on Liberal Democrat Voice

"Surrey. It would be Surrey," remarked one of the judges as they made our Headline of the Day Award to BBC News. He also suggested you seek professional legal advice before attempting to claim your neighbour's land.

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

A Bridgnorth church designed by Thomas Telford has serious structural problems, reports the Shropshire Star: In a statement the church said that the issues are not cosmetic and "go to the heart of whether St Mary's can continue to serve the town". The statement also says: St Mary's Church is one of Bridgnorth's most cherished buildings used both as a place of worship and a key community venue - but beneath its beautiful exterior, serious structural problems are putting its future at risk. A recent study led by Oliver Architecture has revealed that without significant investment, the church could face ...

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England

Imagine you're 20 years old. You left school at 16 with a handful of GCSEs, a mother with a disability, and no money for college. You've worked a few zero-hours shifts at a warehouse, but the anxiety that's been sitting on your chest since you were 14 has made regular employment feel like an impossible ask on most days. You want to do something. You've looked at courses. But Universal Credit requires 35 hours a week of job searching, and if you stop, the money stops. So the course stays a thought, and the job search goes nowhere, because there ...

Posted by Tanya Park on Liberal Democrat Voice

As Liberal Democrat Friends of Palestine, we unequivocally condemn the latest unilateral and unlawful US-Israeli military action in Iran and urges the UK Government not to be complicit by allowing the US to use British military bases to attack Iran. The Iranian people have a right to live free from a brutal regime; however, regime change from the skies can only unleash more bloodshed and regional mayhem - particularly when one of the instigators is an indicted war criminal like Benjamin Netanyahu. The devastating human cost is already evident, including in the killing of 165 Iranian schoolgirls and staff in ...

Posted by Anne-Marie Simpson on Liberal Democrat Voice

[IMG: Parents holding baby with words Tell us your views on childcare at Conference] I was listening to Marie Agnes Strack-Zimmerman, a German MEP answer a question on the delivery of Taurus missiles to Ukraine at a forum in Copenhagen. She was momentarily interrupted by the gurgles of a 4 month old sat on the knee of a friend from the Danish Radikale party. As Zimmerman remarked that it was good to get her interested in defence policy so young, it struck me that I had rarely, if ever, seen children so comfortably integrated into British political spaces. We have ...

Posted by Eleanor Kelly on Liberal Democrat Voice

John Bromley was a nearly man of Sixties pop. His Manchester-based band played hard-to-get with Mickie Most, with the result that the producer signed Herman's Hermits instead. In 1969 he brought out an album of his McCartneyesque songs, Sing, on which he was backed by the band Les Fleurs de Lys. The Riff, quotes a now-vanished Facebook post of his about his success as a songwriter for other artists: English songwriter John Bromley has written over 200 works with over 60 recorded and performed worldwide by major artists such as Shirley Bassey, Sacha Distel, Petula Clark, Richard Harris, Paul Anka ...

Posted by Jonathan Calder on Liberal England
Sun 8th
08:28

Tom Arms' World Review

Texas is a bright red, far-right Republican, conservative state. It has not elected a Democrat to the US Senate for 37 years. That may be about to change. And if it does the repercussions will rock the White House. Primary elections for one of the Lone Star state's two Senate seats were held by both the Democrat and Republican parties this week. One of the recognised barometers of political success is the size of the voter turnout. The turnout for the Democrat primary was highest in the state's history. The winner was Texas State Representative James Talerico. A middle-of-the-road Democrat ...

Posted by Tom Arms on Liberal Democrat Voice

Sometimes television throws up the unexpected, such as when Ianto, a major character on the Dr Who spin-off Torchwood was killed off and the entire nation apparently went into mourning. Within days a makeshift shrine had appeared in Cardiff Bay, roughly near the fictional entrance to Torchwood's secret underground base. I first blogged on this phenomenon on 20 August 2009 just before I went on holiday. Over the next eight days my blog received 5,422 hits, most of them looking for that post. I revisited the issue a couple of times over the next two years and then moved on. ...

Posted by Peter Black on Peter Black