[IMG: Haverstock celebrates a triple win] Last night the Liberal Democrats won all three seats in Camden Council's delayed Haverstock West election, beating Labour and improving their share of the vote by six percent. This means that the Liberal Democrats are now the official opposition to Labour on Camden Council. Full results, courtesy of ALDC: LD Jill Fraser 1462 / Matt Sanders 1326 / Rahel Bokth 1291 (45.3; +1.7) Lab 1257 / 1202 / 1114 (39.0; +4.6) Con 259 / 250 / 236 (8.0; -3.1) Green 246 / 240 / 181 (7.6; -3.2) Majorities 205 / 69 / 34 Turnout ...
Nick on the other hand has played a blinder and got lots of our stuff in and here is his letter Dear Ian, The Queen's Speech was unlike any we have seen for years. It was not simply another list of bills from a government determined to rule from the centre. It was not simply a speech from another one-party Government able to push through measures without the support of a majority of the country. Instead, the speech marked the beginning of a radical move to rebalance the relationship between people and their government, making life better for everyone. It ...
I've just realised it is now all there. Have a look. Quite a contrast of celebrating 700 years of Stockton Market which had an ancient scroll and people communicated by word of mouth (including shouting at the market cross!) and today where speakers at the market cross are on you tube, and write about it on a blog ! I am on this bit, and you can see everyone else down the right...
Just when we thought everything was settling down – is it really only three weeks since the election? – comes the news that Vince Cable is standing down as Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats in order to concentrate more on his new role as Business Secretary. It's a surprising announcement in that there hadn't been ...
Labour's plan to replace the existing councils in Exeter, Norwich and Suffolk with new unitary authorities has been cancelled by the coalition government. Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government Eric Pickles today announced that the existing local government structures would remain. The argument for the decision seems to be that the move to unitaries didn't have the support of the local populations, two didn't have the support of the independent boundaries commission and they were going to cause a lot of hassle for very little savings. The real meat on this story looks to be down in note ...
Just doing a quick catch up as I haven't posted since Friday when I was on the train heading to North Wales. The journey itself was a nightmare, needing 5 different trains and an arrival time over an hour later than the National Rail Enquiries website claimed. Still, at least it was a sunny weekend (my forehead is peeling as a result of the sun).I went to Sian and Alan's wedding on Saturday
The Liberal Democrat fightback is well and truly on in Camden, says Jonathan Fryer, celebrating our holding of all three seats in the delayed election in Haverstock ward. Writing on Conservative Home, Paul Goodman (former MP and contemporary of mine at the University of York) argues that Nick Clegg should be invited to address this year's Tory Conference and that the two parties need to get to know one another better more generally. Gerald Warner, writing on the Daily Telegraph site, would probably nor agree with him: "The Conservative Party is not a happy ship. The crew does not trust ...
Lots of people have asked me what those pictures are of on the right hand side. Yes, lots of people. Well, no one really. But can I just say that the one at the top is a favourite little shot of mine? Ah! Bude outdoor swimming pool, once in the Guardian Top Ten lidos in the UK. I learnt to swim there. Well, that's glossing it over a bit. When I was a kid, my mother decided I had dillied and dallied a little too much, so she chucked me in, and like a true Bude Boy I rose to ...
But, who is next? In the last hour one of my old bosses, Vince Cable has stood down as Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats in order to concentrate on his role as Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills within the Liberal Democrat - Conservative coalition government. I am delighted that Vince has got such a major role within the coalition government, something he rightly deserves, although it is slightly ironic that he is now in charge of the department he put forward that we should abolish! Vince is an absolute gentleman and will not have come to ...
Just back from Cardiff after a meeting with all Wales Environment Cabinet members and Welsh Assembly officials. On the agenda was the "Municipal Sector Waste Plan" which will be out for public consultation on 21st June. The plan will basically set out the details of how local authorities will meet the targets of 70% recycling and composting levels to be achieved by 2024/25. Conwy is currently recycling and composting 42% so as you can see we need to improve by an additional 28% by 2024/25, failure to meet the target may result in fines of £200 per Tonne over the ...
From AP: Vince Cable is standing down as Liberal Democrat deputy leader in order to concentrate on his role as Business Secretary in the new Government. In a letter to Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, he said: "In joining the Cabinet I have taken on many new challenges and responsibilities and it is right that I focus wholeheartedly on the job in hand." A successor will be elected by Lib Dem parliamentary party on June 9.
I love it! Two minutes after the General Election - with Labour crowing in Camden that it would get loads of votes from LibDems furious about the coalition - and they bombed! The Liberal Democrats won all three seats in Camden Council's delayed Haverstock West election, beating Labour and improving their share of the vote by six percent. Commenting on the result, Liberal Democrat Party President, Ros Scott said: "This is a fantastic result and is testament to the hard work and dedication of our Liberal Democrat councillors in Haverstock." Even better - this is in the Miliband's old backyard ...
The Turkish ferry Mavi Marmara (The Blue Marmara) is one of the eight boats, -three cargo ships and five passenger vessels, making their way to Gaza over the next few days, in an attempt to break the Israeli blockade, and deliver vital aid. One of the organisers is a humanitarian aid group, supported by Ankara. On board the ships are 10,000 tonnes of cargo and about 700-800 activists and politicians from more than 40 countries. Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has called on the Israelis to allow the boats through. "We're trying to break the blockade of the Gaza ...
Just thought I'd copy you in to this interesting event at Canterbury Christ Church University, since many readers of Thanet blogs have an interest in local politics, as you might be aware I have some passionate views on local news media, particularly where politics is concerned. Surprisingly I've been asked to speak, I'd tell you more but I'm hastily cobbling together a few words to say, I think I may have to delve deep into the Bignews archives, other bods invited see details below: 'Crisis in Local Democracy?' Click for details The media and public opinion in Kent politics Public ...
Vince Cable has stood down as deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats in order to concentrate on his role as Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills. You can find the text of his resignation letter to Nick Clegg on the party website. His successor will be decided by a vote of Liberal Democrat MPs, which could be interesting.
I have just posted on The Corridor about worrying events in Oswestry.
Vince Cable has stood down as Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats in order to concentrate on his role as Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills. The text of Vince Cable's letter to Nick Clegg is below: Dear Nick, I am writing to offer my resignation in my role as Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats. It has been an honour to serve as the Deputy Leader of our party. However, in joining the cabinet I have taken on many new challenges and responsibilities and it is right that I focus wholeheartedly on the job in hand. These ...
On 16th May, I advised that the grass restoration works on part of Magdalen Green (following drainage works by Scottish Water) were about to start, but this has not, as yet, taken place. I today received the following update from the City Council - hopefully the restoration works will be underway next Monday : "We are working our way towards Magdalen Green, but have encountered a slight change of plan on the pitch re-instatement, and therefore running a bit behind. So all things equal we should be able to start & finish as from next Monday."
OK I'm going to criticise both sides. I don't know why a "perk" beyond the wildest dreams of most people needs to be a sticking point. But at the same time it looks as though Willie Walsh could do with a spliff (if it is legal and safe to do so, of course). We're not on this planet too long. Loosen up man! I cannot understand why this dispute is going on so long. It's pathetic. Anyway, we're all right. We've booked up nice and safely with Virgin Atlantic for our little trans-pond jaunt later this year. The only thing ...
Camden Labour is saying that it has "saved our council homes". But not a single home has been saved; thousands of homes have been doomed. To raise the money to do up every single council home, the Lib Dem-led administration sold 50 empty, derelict council properties. These weren't homes, because nobody was living in these ...
At a meeting of the Neath Port Talbot council Liberal Democrat group today, it was decided that Cllr Keith Davies should continue as group leader, and that Cllr Des Sparkes should be his deputy for the coming year. The recently distributed letter to Liberal Democrat councillors from David Laws, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, was discussed and its message accepted. It was resolved to pay closer attention to proposed expenditure, both council and Welsh Assembly Government funded. It was also agreed that council nominees to outside bodies were accountable to the appropriate scrutiny committees and that our members on ...
It's been a while since I posted, but I have been as busy as ever. I've had a busy few weeks this spring, fighting a general election, fighting to hold on to my council seat in Calderdale, dealing with the aftermath of both elections. The general election, as I posted before, was actually quite a good result. We consolidated our third place, we increased our vote and our share of the vote, again! This needs to be repeated our vote went up to over 7,000, that is the highest for nearly quarter-of-a-century in the heady days of the old SDP/Liberal ...
Dear Fraser, Yesterday's Queen's Speech was unlike any we have seen for years. It was not simply another list of bills from a government determined to rule from the centre. It was not simply a speech from another one-party Government able to push through measures without the support of a majority of the country. Instead, the speech marked the beginning of a radical move to rebalance the relationship between people and their government, making life better for everyone. It was the first time the Queen has ever delivered a speech listing the Bills to be introduced by a coalition government. ...
I am writing this while taking a break from reading my NHS Board Papers, all 800 pages of them. I am not one to complain but I think I'll need a wheelbarrow to get them to the meeting! Among the many things we have managed to achieve over the last 3 years has been to maintain and improve our performance on bed blocking where people who are fit enough to be discharged for one reason or another simply do not move out of hospital. Often while these patients are fit enough to leave hospital they are not fit enough to ...
When I visited Maidwell last month I was taken with the former telephone exchange there, which I described as resembling "a little abandoned chapel". If you know the A6 through Kibworth you will have noticed the 1960s telephone exchange there. Much harder to see from the road is the older exchange next to it. Pictured here, it resembles another chapel - or at least a church hall or school. So much so that I peered in through the window to see if that was what it was, but there was indeed electrical equipment inside.
A letter I have just written to David Ward (MP for Bradford East). If you can think of other people who could help with this effort, please forward this to them, link to this or use whatever means of communication you think would work. Thanks. Dear Mr. Ward, As founder of Liberal Democrats for Drug Policy Reform, I am hugely concerned at the unfolding events in your city as reported here on the BBC website and similarities to the serial murders carried out by Steven Wright in Ipswich in 2006. In 2006 further young women working as prostitutes in ...
I've been following the Labour party leadership contest recently and I've been trying to put my finger on why none of the candidates are particuarly inspiring. The answer came from a video I've just watched by anthropologist Simon Sinek at a recent TED conference where he talks about a model for inspirational leadership. Balls, Milliband, ...
The Councillors Community Initiative Fund is a scheme through which groups can apply for small grants for projects in wards across the City. The idea is that the Councillors in the ward decide how much to put into the pot (from an amount allocated to be spent in their wards) and then groups can apply. In Cressington we have put £3,000 aside and hope to see some good applications for the cash. You don't apply directly to us. Instead if you are interested you need to contact the City Council who can then send you the criteria and details of ...
Welcome to the sixth in a series of posts going through the full coalition agreement section by section. You can read the full coalition document here. Despite the importance of the two areas, these are two of the shortest sections in the agreement, reflecting how there are a small number of dominating issues. For defence there is the Trident compromise - it will be replaced unless there is a better value for money alternative. What the wording leaves unclear is the extent to which any alternative has to meet Trident like-for-like in terms of destructive power and constant instant availability. ...
Over the last few days there has been a growing furore over the Lib-Con coalition decision to extend anonymity to the accused in rape cases. Previously, the victim always had anonymity but this move will give both parties the same rights. Now I can understand the negative reaction to this move that has come from rape campaigners and women's groups, given the emotional nature of the subject and the appalling rate of conviction achieved (94% of rape accusations don't result in a conviction), but I honestly don't think that the change to the law will make that statistic any worse. ...
The Council's Local Engagement Forums are usually dull affairs and the one held in January 2010 was no exception. However in the presence of councillors and local media it gave me the opportunity to ask a question and introduce myself as the 'Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate'. I was of course deleted from the minutes but the damage had been done. At last the news was out and some media interviews resulted. My first decision was one of my best. It was to ask Elvie Lowe to be my campaign manager. Elvie is a local legend, a councillor for 22 years, ...
Those who have followed the issue of my exile now ex flatmate now ex Senator Stuart Syvret will know about the fact that he left Jersey in protest at the undermining of the rule of law by the authorities in Jersey.He was then disqualified as a Senator, has returned to Jersey and is a candidate in the by-election for the seat he was disqualified from.I am hoping that our new government will take
I very much welcome the acknowledgement of the need for fair Welsh funding by the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, David Laws today, after I raised the issue in a question in the House of Commons. I raised the issue after Shadow Chancellor Alistair Darling asked an urgent question about the £6.25 billion cuts announced this week by the Coalition Government. In doing so I highlighted the statement made by Peter Hain in November last year about providing compensatory payments to the Welsh Budget where convergence had taken place, however a Parliamentary Answer by the Treasury confirmed that while convergence ...
I've moaned in the past about the useless concepts of academies and free schools. And with today's announcement that Michael Gove wants all schools to be one or the other (no idea what the difference is though), I expect I'm gonna have a lot more moaning to do. Academy schools are the brainchild of New ...
I've just watched Bob Stewart, the new Conservative MP for Beckenham, give his maiden speech. It was probably best described as a workmanlike affair. Maiden speeches are, I think, one of the best things about Parliament. It gives new MPs an opportunity to get used to speaking in the Chamber without the usual point-scoring and jeers from opposing MPs. But more importantly it is probably the only opportunity they will have to wax lyrical about their constituency. When I first moved to Cambridge, I learnt more about the city by reading David Howarth's maiden speech than by any other easily ...
In an effort to cure my election campaign withdrawal symptoms I've been reading a book published in 1964, Why Liberal?, a Penguin special which was one of a pre-election series covering the three major parties' policies. This publishing tradition was revived most recently by imprint Biteback, with Why Vote Liberal Democrat?, edited by Danny Alexander, proving a surprise hit. The 1964 version was written by Harry Cowie, then director of the Liberal party's research department – probably in something of a hurry, as big topics such as the health service are apologetically omitted ("as they have in any case been ...
A newly elected Labour MP has apologised after he compared the UK government's planned public spending cuts to domestic violence. Owen Smith, the Labour MP for Pontypridd, wrote in an article for Wales Home: "Surely, the Liberals will file for divorce as soon as the bruises start to show through the make-up?" However, he has backtracked after women's groups criticised him for using "a fairly tasteless analogy". He has now offered to re-edit the offending part of the article.
I know I am slightly behind in reporting this but according to our friends at the Ilford Recorder the 'ineligible' Labour Councillor Mark Gittens stood down on Monday. However see my comments in the Ilford Recorder in response to Andy Walker's letter claiming the rules are unfair. I think it is fairly obvious why a teacher employed by Redbridge Council would be ineligible and I set out my case in the article. So with Mr Gittens reported to have stood down we must therefore expect a by-election to be announced soon. With that in mind, I have to comment on ...
As my exams draw to a close, I find myself pondering at least one court case. And I find myself wondering why, if you wanted a reason why the Labour coalition never happened, you would look any further than last week in the High Court. Political parties have to have a fundamental idea around which they can coalesce. This would normally, of course, be an ideology, but it doesn't have to be; ideologies are generally better producers of narratives, but as UKIP have shown it is possible under the right circumstances to achieve a narrative without one. Where this gets ...
The Queen's speech yesterday announced a Decentralisation and Localism Bill which I pounced on with interest. The coalition deal had indeed proposed giving powers back to local government, redressing the remorseless whittling away at local powers under Labour. But the detail will be what matters. I have a particular interest in this because I am a member of a working group that has been developing the Liberal Democrat policy on localism. When we started we had no idea that we would be in goverment by the time we finished. So, what happens now? We will be finishing the policy report, ...
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has just emailed all Lib Dem supporters to offer his take on yesterday's Queen's Speech, and the many ways in which it includes Liberal Democrat priorities at its heart: Yesterday's Queen's Speech was unlike any we have seen for years. It was not simply another list of bills from a government determined to rule from the centre. It was not simply a speech from another one-party Government able to push through measures without the support of a majority of the country. Instead, the speech marked the beginning of a radical move to rebalance the relationship ...
I've been using my Brompton now for about six months and it's probably a reasonable time to write a short review. I took the opportunity to benefit from the Cycle to Work scheme to buy the bike, giving me a fairly significant saving on the purchase price. My employer pay for it up front and ...
My favourite artist Annemarie Wright has just finished a fantastic new piece. The pierce entitled "Their families have been told"
At the start of 2009 I like many others acquired a plot of land near Heathrow Airport. At the recent general election the reason for us acquiring that plot suceeded, there is to be no third runway going over our little plot. Therefore today I heard that another cause that has been close to my heart is also splitting up a plot. So I became 'one of Menie' (many) in putting my name to The Bunker that Donald Trump doesn't want to have as a hazard in his way to his golf course. Indeed it is a plot of land ...
Questions have been raised over whether and how the coalition government will influence Liberal Democrat MPs' stances on the issue of higher education funding. The coalition agreement has seen both the Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats give ground on certain policies and issues to make compromises in order to form a stable government capable of solving the nation's debt crisis. The Liberal Democrat manifesto proposed phasing out tuition fees and many Liberal Democrat MPs - including Redcar's Ian Swales - have signed the National Union of Students pledge to "vote against any increase in fees in the next parliament ...
From yesterday's Business Statement: Peter Black: Minister, would it be possible to have an urgent statement from the Minister for Rural Affairs on the way in which the Government is implementing the cull of badgers in north Pembrokeshire? You will be aware from newspaper reports that there has been great consternation in the area about Assembly contractors going around the countryside wearing masks, accompanied, mob-handed, by large numbers of police officers, thereby intimidating residents. In response to that, the Minister claimed that landowners had been notified in advance of visits by Assembly Government staff and their contractors, when, in fact, ...
AV is going to be a busy electoral system: not only is it the system being used for the Labour leadership election, it's also the electoral system being used by MPs to elect select committee chairs (hat-tip: Polly Curtis). Look forward then to the sight of MPs who have happily used AV to pick their party leader and to elect key Parliamentary posts arguing that it's really a bad, bad system...
Welcome to the fifth in a series of posts going through the full coalition agreement section by section. You can read the full coalition document here. It's rather a mouthful of a title for this section, but it reflects the diverse remit of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Almost inevitably it is made up of a disparate shopping list of policies without any clear thread running through them. The list includes the not exactly controversial (Make a success of the Olympics! Make a success of other sports events! Try to get more sports events!) through supporting the status ...
A proper post *will* come tonight, but I had to say something about this. Gerald Kaufman, my local MP, alleged in the Commons yesterday that Qassim Afzal, our parliamentary candidate in Manchester Gorton, for whom I voted and campaigned, went around personally telling Muslim voters not to vote for Kaufman because he's Jewish. Those allegations ...
Station Road, Yate will be closed in 3 phases between from 1-26 June (see previous story) This will affect bus services 327, 329, 342, X27 and X42. According to the First Bus website: "Throughout the period services 327, 342 and X42 will not be able to serve Station Road adjacent to Yate Shopping Centre and will use Kennedy Way instead" "During Phase 3 of the closure between 21-26 June, services 329 and X27 will also be diverted. Both will be unable to serve the normal section of route along Station Road, Church Road, Greenways Road and Gravel Hill Road. All ...
Back in the saddle again after a combination of back and leg pain and the enervating heat of the last few days rendered me incapable of posting anything meaningful; and where better to begin than with five questions from spiritof1976, who asks; 1. What attracted you to the Lib Dem party? After I left Labour in disgust[1] in 1997, six months after staying up for Portillo, I was something of a "floating voter" for a while; but even in my Labour-supporting days I had paid attention to what was happening with the LibDems particularly on electoral reform, thanks to the ...
.....is this the future :-)
The following article is by Richard Heinrich and Phil Jarvest, who are joint candidates for co-chair of Liberal Youth. Lib Dem Voice welcomes articles from any candidates in the Liberal Youth elections. The issue of higher education (HE) funding will very likely become a serious and highly contentious subject during the present Parliament. We believe that for Liberal Youth – and indeed the Liberal Democrats – to play an active and useful role in this debate a full and wide-ranging internal discussion on the notion of a student contribution is needed. In our opinion Liberal Democrat policy has failed to ...
The 6th Chorlton Beer Festival will offer over 50 real ales to sample along with a collection of at least 30 traditional ciders. Red, white wine and soft drinks are also on sale to accommodate the partners and families of beer connoisseurs. On Saturday afternoon (until 7.00pm) children are welcome and receive free entry. A range of bands will be playing live music throughout the festival and even pouring rain has failed to dampen the spirits in previous years. The beer festival is organised and run by members of the church with the aid of the local Campaign for Real ...
Hey folks I only found this last night, 42 Awesome Ways to Use a Towel hopefully you all know where yours is by now after yesterday's blogposts from me and others. Now it is time to use the "most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have". As for Caron pointing out that the times of my posts from yesterday were not what she'd call a coincidence, quite correct just highly impropable. So follow the first link and you will just some of the ways in which to use your towel. I only wish I'd come up with it first. ...
We are in a pickle. Across Europe governments have amassed billions of debt, unemployment is on the rise, which, with the help of few cuts here and there, will go sky high, and the euro has wobbly foundations.We are in debt because we believed 'the markets'. We didn't want to pry into contemporary sorcery; we didn't want to ask how it all works; we left it to the 'experts'. Too many numbers, too
A couple of months ago, Lib Dem Voice identified five candidates standing for the party in this general election in winnable seats whose campaigns needed a helping hand from readers willing to make a donation. Thank you to all LDV readers who responded – collectively you helped raise some £1,831, a terrific response. Two of the five candidates, Lorely Burt and Stephen Lloyd, are now MPs thanks to the campaigns they ran. Our commiserations and best wishes for their future campaigns go to the three – Willie Rennie, Sal Brinton and Carol Woods – who didn't make it this time. ...
On Monday I was invited by Cllr Keith Whitmore (Chair of Greater Manchester Integrated Transport Authority) to view the progress of the Chorlton Metrolink along with the local Chorlton Ward Councillors. We were invited to a special tour of the new South Manchester Metrolink line to see how far the project has progressed since work started last ...
In an attempt to make life more interesting, there has been a bid to break into the media by a candidate. As a result, a member of the Editorial Board of Liberal Democrat Voice has sought my view on publication of pieces by candidates. This is my response... The advantage of Liberal Democrat Voice not being an official party organ is that I can't insist upon its neutrality. Therefore, I won't say that you can't publish it, leaving it to you to judge whether or not publication would be consistent with your editorial policy in respect of internal party elections. ...
Council: Camden Electoral Region: London Embolden designates elected Rahel Bokth Liberal Democrats 1291 Tom Copley Labour 1202 Sabrina Francis Labour 1257 Jill Fraser Liberal Democrats 1462 Tim Frost Conservative 250 Paul Grader Green 240 Jane Adele Lawrie Green 246 Robert Ricketts Conservative 236 Matt Sanders Liberal Democrats 1326 Joan Stally Conservative 259 Sean Thompson Green 181 Joynal Uddin Labour 1114 Two Liberal Democrat GAINS from Labour One Liberal Democrat HOLD
The recent general election was a bitter disappointment for the Liberal Democrats in the London borough of Camden. The party's Ed Fordham didn't seize the parliamentary seat of Hampstead & Kilburn as had been widely expected, let alone Jo Shaw in Holborn & St Pancras, which looked like an outside chance when opinion polls were suggesting ...
The Times Higher Education Supplement reports the promising news: A Liberal Democrat peer is to launch a libel reform bill in the House of Lords that would offer greater protection for scientific debate against defamation claims. Lord Lester of Herne Hill said he was introducing the private member's bill in order to encourage the government to act quickly on libel reform. He said his aim was to trigger the formation of a committee to take detailed evidence on the topic. He added that he hoped the government would adopt the final version of the bill. Both the Conservatives and the ...
Jonathan Calder has an intriguing post over at Liberal England today, suggesting that David Cameron might campaign in favour of the Alternative Vote for tactical reasons. [IMG: AV Ballot Paper] I can just about envisage Cameron campaigning in favour of it. After all, his only argument for keeping First-Past-The-Post was that it allowed you to 'kick out a government' - and look where that got him. And his commitment to dispersing power seems to be firm, judging by yesterday's Queen's Speech. What better way to do so than by upgrading our electoral system from 'beginner' to 'intermediate'? But Jonathan's suggestion ...
What harm has Brian Haw and his merry band of protesters ever done? When I worked in Parliament and then Westminster area they became part of the every day scene and a reminder that our democracy is based on free speech, something as a Liberal Democrat, I am immensely proud of. So yesterday when it was announced the Police during a search of the tents, prior to the arrival of HM The Queen for the State Opening of Parliament, had then arrested Brian Haw and Barbara Tucker I was dismayed. The Police presence as very often in London, was well ...
Howard Keal's campaign is gathering momentum, so please help us with the final push before close of polls on Thursday. With a Labour candidate who was working in London till recently and so is not well known, the election is between the Tory candidate so unpopular in her own party they tried to deselect her at the end of last year, and Howard Keal who has a local profile leading the Liberal Democrat group on Ryedale District Council. Having secured an additional £9.5million in funding for flood defences in this area, Howard Keal has a consistent track record as a ...
I am against Academy Schools, unless the proposed flood of new ones are going materially to be different from the New Labour model. In practice what happened in Academy Schools was that a business, organisation or individual was able to put in just 5% - yes, 5% of the capital costs, and nil - yes nil - of the running costs. For that, the "sponsor" got to choose the curriculum, while the school received a massively larger share of the available pot of state capital for schools, than would be given to any "normal" LEA school. The state was still ...
I received this in the mail this morning from the Vote for Change campaign. I signed it straight away. Please sign as well When does silence speak more loudly than speech? In today's Queen's speech, it certainly did. What Cameron & co. chose to leave out of the speech says more about their plans for this new government than the words the Queen actually uttered today. And what they left out was a concrete timetable for the referendum we've been promised on electoral reform. Co-sign our letter to David Cameron, requesting a meeting to hammer out a timetable for the ...
The Christian perception of God (generally, not universally) is one that is all powerful, and creator and sustainer of the whole universe. there are also many verses that discuss that all things belong to God, we don't actually own them we are only left in charge of them. After all in genesis Adam and Eve are ... Read more
With much thanks to Richard Gadsden, I am now in possession of a copy of the Constitution of Liberal Youth England. The most immediately salient point is this; 11.5. The Returning Officer for the Federal Organisation shall be entitled to be the Returning Officer for all elections; if he or she does not wish to be the Returning Officer for this Organisation, then the English Executive shall appoint a Returning Officer. So, if I understand this correctly, and I have a nasty feeling that I do, it's up to me to organise an election for the position of English Convenor. ...
It does not bode well that, while the Queen's Speech was announcing a rebirth of civil liberty, Brian Haw was being arrested in Parliament Square. This was yet another bad move by the Met. They know Brian very well by now, and are fully aware that he is not a threat to the Queen. It beggars belief that, after they have stared at his every moment for years, they might suddenly think he was storing weapons or using drugs, This was crass and insensitive. The rest of the Parliament Square "Peace Camp" is quite a different matter. I have not ...
Yesterday's announcement by David Cameron in the House of Commons that a referendum will not be held in Wales on more powers for the Welsh Assembly took us all by surprise. The one criticism I have of the Prime Minister is that he made this announcement without first ensuring that there had been full discussion with the Welsh Government. That was naive and a sign of inexperience in the job. I hope that he is a bit more sure-footed in future dealings with Wales. I have already written here that in many ways the date of the referendum does not ...
If you support LGBT rights and you are planning to go to San Francisco this summer please watch this first. If you need cheering up today, then please watch this.
It is a relatively exciting time to be an electoral reformer. The one major party that has always supported reform is actually in government. We know we are going to get a referendum on changing the voting system for the Commons, albeit only to Alternative Vote but many reformers think that would be a step in the right direction. Politically it was the only possible option and an acceptance of that seems to be sinking in. The fight will now be to win the referendum as a staging post for something better and much more proportional later once people are ...
The front cover of today's Independent tells a sombre tale. The top half shows the Queen making her speech in the Lords including the words: "Legislation will be brought forward to restore freedoms and civil liberties, through the abolition of Identity Cards and repeal of unnecessary laws." The bottom have shows Brian Haw being arrested earlier just outside in Parliament Square. It brings up the dichotomy of what was being said inside by a Conservative/Lib Dem government and what was being done outside under the auspices on a Conservative Mayor of London (whose brother is now part of that Conservative ...
I was hoping to see the 'new politics' on show yesterday in the Queen's Speech debate. For me - the way politics is conducted with jeering and negative point scoring - has always seemed an odd showcase to the world if we want to look like grown ups making and taking grown up decisions. It was marginally good humoured (at times) but there was quite a lot of the old politics on show. One of the advantages of coalition politics - it has always seemed to me ( a natural supporter of consensus politics) is that we seek to find ...
An article by Peter Wilby in yesterday's Education Guardian (Brand New predicts that " 'free schools' started by parents, teachers and voluntary groups...will (eventually) be run by private companies...(which)...talk eagerly of economies of scale if they can take charge of dozens, even hundreds (of schools)." Aren't these "economies of scale" in managing salaries and appointments procedures, organising contracts for buildings, furniture, stationery and text-books, allocating budgets, etc exactly what Local Education Authorities used to do? The "free school" project is therefore merely privatisation under another name, with no evidence that the private sector can improve on the services of ...
Paul Linford writes on his blog: Last week, I suggested that the enthusiasm with which Prime Minister David Cameron has embraced his new Liberal Democrat partners hinted that coalition might have been the election outcome he wanted all along. If I'm totally honest, I don't think there is any 'might' about it. As several other commentators have remarked over the past week, Mr Cameron is clearly more at ease with his Lib Dem deputy Nick Clegg than he is with most of his own backbenchers. Had he succeeded in gaining a narrow overall majority on 6 May, Mr Cameron would ...
Have you read 'Eats, Shoots and Leaves' by Lynne Truss? If you put a comma in the wrong place then it may be a matter of life and death. I am not writing a blog on punctuation, I just wanted to mention the book because it is full of grammatical errors. We all come across them and I want to take photos of signs that are full of errors or are ambiguous. You see them all the time. People who have good degrees make foolish errors. The person who wrote the sign 'have you payed and displayed?' probably had a ...
