A couple of newspaper articles about the Liberal Democrat autumn conference this week really brought it home to me just how biased some of the coverage can be. First came Andrew Rawnsley in the Observer (HERE), who wrote: It is not hard to find Lib Dems who are already wondering whether they made a terrible mistake when they hitched themselves to the Tories. So, it's not hard to find all these anti-Coalition Lib Dems. Well, sadly for the Observer, the seven Lib Dems they interviewed in the very same newspaper as a part of their coverage were all in favour. ...
With the baby boomers coming to retirement age in 2012 and people aged 50 and over set to increase to roughly 50% of UK population, Pensions are a key issue in politics today.The National Federation of Pensioners hosted a fringe event at the Liberal Democrat Conference with Stephen Webb MP and Norman Lamb MP which gave me the perfect opportunity to question the Coalition policies.The
Today's meeting of the Environment Partnership had another update on progress on electric cars in the North East. It's good to know that the North East is still leading the way. The network of charging points is almost in place in Stockton and in some other parts of the North East but sadly our neighbouring authorities in the Tees Vally haven't really started on theirs. They really do need to
An update on one of the stories mentioned in our previous coverage of Nigel Waterson, the now former Tory MP for Eastbourne. As ConservativeHome reports: It was reported in 2008 that Nigel Waterson, then the Conservative MP for Eastbourne, had been arrested for allegedly assaulting his teenage children. The Metropolitan Police has now apologised to Mr Waterson, and agreed to pay him damages and costs. It accepts that the accusations made against him were "wholly unfounded", and apologises for any distress caused.
The Refugee Council brought two refugees to the Liberal Democrat conference to talk about the issues they have encountered and what they would like the government to do. I snatched a quick interview with David Ndiwany and Abdul Turay:
Tonight, I had the pleasure of attending the first ever exhibition at the Roseangle Cafe Arts, fearuring a collection by local printmaker Barbara Robertson. It was a great event and extermely well-attended. It is really good to see the cafe at Dundee West Church going from strength to strength.
This morning saw the launch of the new Safer Neighbourhood Teams. These replace the old Neighbourhood Action Units which consisted of council funded police officers. The SNT's roll together NAU officers, local community police and Scottish Government funded Police. The NAU's were introduced three years ago and have been a great success resulting in a big drop in crime of various categories. The public perception of crime also improved remarkably. Faced with tough times ahead the SNT were trialled in the South East of the city with impressive results including a drop by 23% in category 4 crimes such as ...
Conference always has its fair share of controversy, but the biggest issue to emerge from it this year is a very serious one. One of our new MPs is in serious need of a nickname, and we haven't agreed what it should be. View Poll: Doctor Julian Huppert MP
As reported in today's Courier, I have written to the Director of Education and the Head of Secondary Education at Dundee City Council about the report going to Education Committee on Monday about the Harris Academy proposed re-build. The questions I have asked are as follows: "In advance of committee on Monday, I have some questions I'd be grateful if you could respond to prior to the meeting : a) When the Harris Academy rebuild was last at committee, I asked about 'front loading' the project using the City Council's third share of the capital cost to enable a start ...
I am always struck by the number of young people that were motivated to get involved in politics during the last General Election and its encouraging to see that some of them have joined the blogosphere. We need to encourage these young people to continue in their blogging now that the election is over so that their ...
Ok, so I dug way back into the depths of my 70′s childhood there to slightly plagiarise a line from the Wombles song 'We've got Wombles everywhere' but thats not say that us LibDems are wombles by any means. What is relevant though, is that there are many LibDems living abroad and finally they have ...
Seasonally adjusted claimant count unemployment rose 2,300 nationally in August, to stand at 1,466,300 or 5.3% of the workforce. Despite the national increase, seasonally adjusted unemployment in Birmingham fell by 171 to 46,523 or 11.6% of the workforce, down from 12.6% a year ago. Despite this relative improvement, Birmingham's unemployment rate remains the highest of the 8 core cities (basically the 8 biggest cities in England aside from London, which also has much lower unemployment than Brum). Liverpool has the second worse unemployment figures of the core cities and Manchester comes third. Unemployment in Acocks Green (measured in the unadjusted ...
The front page of the London Evening Standard gave me cause of great cheer this evening when i saw the announcement that the laws around cyber stalking are about to changed with more sever penalties for those perpetrating the crime. As someone who has very recently been the victim of this type of crime (amongst ...
The reaction by the CBI to Vince Cable's speech was absolutely extraordinary, and a symptom of the problem we face. To give him credit, it may be that Richard Lambert never actually read what Vince said when he made his remarks. If he had, he would have realised that the Business Secretary was absolutely pro-enterprise, pro-competition and pro-business. But he wasn't pro-monopoly, or pro-corruption. What is extraordinary is that Lambert and the CBI reach for their dictionary of insults, not because Cable attacked business but because he attacked the abuses of big, monopolistic business. Why is it that the CBI ...
Thu 23rd
21:52
Why I am supporting Jennie Rigg for President of the Liberal Democrats #RiggTheElection
I, like just about everyone I know in the Lib Dems is sad that Ros Scott isn't standing for a second term as party President however out of the candidates available I have made up my mind who I am supporting. Jennie Rigg It's quite simple really 1. Jennie is a grass roots activist. With ...
Anyone starting to get conference withdrawal symptoms? For those of you who were there, here's a few videos from the Lib Dem conference in Liverpool to help you catch up with what you missed by, erm, being there. And for those of you who weren't there and saw it all on telly anyway... well, here's another chance to enjoy some of the highlights. (Please note, as these are BBC videos it's not possible to link to them: they will therefore only be visible to readers viewing Lib Dem Voice directly through your web browser.) Vince Cable warns banks over 'outrageous' ...
The news that the Commonwealth Games has been beset by stories of poor conditions in the athletes village, shoddy workmanship and child labour being used to complete work. However, in the light of all of this, I am glad that the team are actually going. So much money has been invested in this event that ...
For all the criticism of Barnet Council's 'easyCouncil' model, whereby if you want anything more than the basic, you pay for it, Suffolk County Council is now proposing a move towards a scenario whereby the council provides no services at all directly, instead operating through a series of sub-contractors. Leader of the Conservative-run authority (it was so much better when Ros ran it), Jeremy Pembroke, suggests that the only staff left would be engaged in contract management. And curiously, I'm not absolutely opposed to such a radical notion. As far as most Suffolk residents are concerned, they don't really care ...
For those who are wondering where I am, I'm busy trying to get PEP! 2 down to a small enough filesize to upload to Magcloud, and working on the Beatles book. I'm also progressing more slowly than usual with both those as I'm exhausted from work. I'll be back soon. Meanwhile, links: Jennie Rigg wants ...
It is always good to bump into old friends at conference. In recent years so many folk have put in an appearance after a long absence. Erin (pictured ) used to work in Southport before going to London and now works with Burnely MP Gordon Birtwistle
Since the general election produced no clear winner in May, the debate and talk online and blogs from certain quarters (mainly labour) has take something of a turn for the worse. Not content with dealing with the fact that a coalition was formed due to no party getting a majority, certain Labour party supporters have ...
Several delegates at the Liverpool conference reported that a Liberal Minister in the Treasury had taken down a picture of Keynes and put up one of Gladstone . Shame on them. There is nothing wrong with Gladstone you understand -he did so much to usher in our representative democracy, establishing principle of universal franchise, secret ballot, decentralisation etc. In foreign affairs his belief in an ethical policy and that our role lay in international co-operation especially in 'the concert of Europe' are core Liberal beliefs. In economic policy he was a man of his time and in his time the ...
Liberal Democrat Leader and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg is representing the UK at the United Nations Millennium Development Goals summit in New York. Lib Dem blogger Jonathan Calder is also there, with an international group of bloggers put together by Oxfam to report on the summit. You can read his take here. The BBC's Laura Trevelyan writes fulsomely about Clegg's diplomatic experience and linguistic skills here. Meanwhile, here's his speech: Introduction It is an honour for me to address the General Assembly today for the first time as Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. And it is a ...
My eye was drawn to this linked piece on Lib Dem Voice by activist Davina Kirwan. It's a fabulously angry piece of writing about one thwarted attempt to improve the ethnic diversity of Liberal Democrat representation by requiring a BME candidate on by-election shortlists and where an MP resigns. A pretty mild quota proposal compared to all-black shortlists, but still fairly objectionable to opponents of quotas, either on principle or as a matter of a practicality in respect of what happens if no one applies. Her irritation appears underlined by the presumption this party gets it has a diversity problem, ...
Are we seeing the first real use of malware as a weapon in the physical world? And is it being used against Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant? From the Christian Science Monitor: So far, Stuxnet has infected at least 45,000 industrial control systems around the world, without blowing them up - although some victims in North America have experienced some serious computer problems, Eric Byres,
Right, you lot. If we're going to do this thing, we've got to get it done. Here, therefore, is a handy list ofThings You Can Do to HelpI still need some noms. If you are willing to take a sheet to people in your local party and get me some signatures, that would be awesome. Email me at JennieDOTriggATgmailDOTcom and I'll send you out a copy of the form. In order to be eligible to sign the form you have to be:A voting rep for your local party, or an MP/AM/Lord etc.NOT party staffNOT already a signatory to Tim or ...
Anyone starting to get conference withdrawal symptoms? For those of you who were there, here's a few videos from the Lib Dem conference in Liverpool to help you catch up with what you missed by, erm, being there. And for those of you who weren't there and saw it all on telly anyway... well, here's another chance to enjoy some of the highlights. (Please note, as these are BBC videos it's not possible to link to them: they will therefore only be visible to readers viewing Lib Dem Voice directly through your web browser.) Nick Clegg addresses UN on poverty: ...
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Following Stockport Council's procedures, the decision to close Avondale leisure centre has been referred back to the Executive. Everyone's agreed that they need to think again. Around a hundred members of the public attended the Scrutiny meeting this evening where the decision was made. Cllr Wendy Meikle, Chair of E&E Scrutiny said: "Could I first welcome everybody to this evening's Scrutiny Committee and for participating in the call-in process. I would like particularly like to thank those members of the public who have made the effort to be here tonight. Before the meeting starts can I make it clear that ...
Liberal Democrat Voice has the text of the Lib Dem leader and deputy prime minister's speech to the United Nations General Assembly: Development is, in the end, about freedom. It is about freedom from hunger and disease; freedom from ignorance; freedom from poverty. Development means ensuring that every person has the freedom to take their own life into their own hands and determine their own fate.
All good things in life come to an end at some point. As too, Lib Dem conferences, the latest of which is now over. I didn't go to it, but the Bury Lib Dems were represented by half a dozen delegates including our Council group leader Cllr Tim Pickstone, whose report on proceedings you can read here. Before the Lib Dems left Liverpool, our Transport Minister Norman Baker announced plans for a new local transport fund to cut down on short car journeys and encourage greener and healthier travel schemes. This is welcome news, which could mean things like more ...
Well the response from my letter to the Chief Constable of Dumfries & Galloway has finally arrived. It is reproduced below for reference. My comments will be in red, and quotations from legislation will be in purple, following each relevant bit. Dear Mr Carchrie Campbell COMPLAINT AGAINST THE POLICE I didn't write a letter of ...
Thu 23rd
19:36
Fed up with Council delay, I have written to Nick Clegg about second home voter registration
Two and a half months ago, Cornwall Council's officers were told to prepare a letter to send to the Government on the issue of second home owners registering to vote in elections in Cornwall. To date, despite repeated promises, no letter has been prepared or sent and so I have today sent my own letter in my capacity as Vice Chair of the Council's Electoral Review Panel. It would clearly have had more impact coming from the Council Chief Executive but my patience has been exhausted. According to officers, the letter wasn't sent over the summer because they wanted to ...
Liberal Democrat Leader and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg is representing the UK at the United Nations Millennium Development Goals summit in New York. Lib Dem blogger Jonathan Calder is also there, with an international group of bloggers put together by Oxfam to report on the summit. You can read his take here. The BBC's Laura Trevelyan writes fulsomely about Clegg's diplomatic experience and linguistic skills here. Meanwhile, here's his speech: Introduction It is an honour for me to address the General Assembly today for the first time as Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. And it is a ...
Here is a video of a speech by Nick Clegg, Liberal Democrat Leader and UK Deputy Prime Minister, to the Liberal Democrat Friends of Israel's standing-room-only party conference fringe meeting on Monday: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A37wHgqCKeo
David Laws's return to the cabinet sooner rather than later has been expected by most commentators. And widely hoped for among his fellow Liberal Democrats. But a report on the Pink News site suggests that this may not happen. It suggests that Laws is unwilling to return to government and quotes "a source" as telling The Sun: "Everybody is saying when will David be allowed to come back, but the truth is he doesn't want to be a minister again. He's lost the hunger."It goes on to say that Laws has told friends that he may stand down as MP ...
This is an anthology of classic sf stories - and classic pieces of sf criticism - assembled in the mid- 1990s on behalf of the Science Fiction Research Association. I found it somewhat frustrating and slightly incomprehensible. There is very little editorial apparatus to help the reader appreciate whatever point the editors are trying to make; some groupings of stories do have a clear linking theme, others less so. While the editors declare their intention to skip the classics of the 1940s-1960s, the collection does include five pieces from that era, which seems a bit inconsistent. The non-fiction pieces of ...
I found myself in a situation where every time I criticise liberal democrats Im being blamed for not being loyal to my party. Since when did liberals swallow everything that comes out of government? The idea that the government is not always right and that individuals have soverignty over themselves and their minds is core to liberalism. ...
PoliticsHome has a gallery of Nick Clegg's adventures in America meeting top politicians and business figures Hilary Clinton, Ban Ki-moon and Bill Gates.
The Liberal Democrats have today launched an organisation to communicate with the party's overseas supporters. Liberal Democrats Abroad aims to keep members and supporters in touch with the UK party, to encourage supporters to join, and to register to vote in the UK. So, who's eligible to vote? British citizens who live overseas but were last on a UK electoral register within the last 15 years can vote in elections. If you are abroad but not on the electoral register, you'll need to contact the council for the area where you last lived in the UK. People who were under ...
[IMG: Jo Swinson MP with new Bearsden South Councillor Ashay Ghai] Jo Swinson MP has been announced as the new Deputy Leader of the Scottish Lib Dems. Michael Moore MP, now Secretary of State for Scotland, is stepping down after seven years as Deputy Leader. The Scottish Liberal Democrats website quotes Jo: After just four months in opposition, Labour has gone back to the cheap tricks and opportunism of the 1980s. In office, Labour ran up £23,000 of debt for every man, woman and child in Scotland. Labour caused the rising unemployment that we have inherited. Labour raised the deficit, ...
Having just spent the best part of the last week at the Lib Dem Conference in Liverpool I was stunned at how many people wandered up and asked me how it was going. Stunned because I wasn't sure that anyone outside Cambridgeshire knew I'd given up my car/motorbike for a month. But I've discovered that Julian Huppert MP and I have made Page 2 of Lib Dem news. A few thought I was mad and swore they'd never be able to give up their cars ..... but a significant proportion were intrigued to know what had made me do it ...
I promised to write something more about what is variously called the Tobin Tax, the Robin Hood Tax or the Finanacial Transaction Tax. Perhaps we should compromise on the Tobin Hood Tax? But I have saved myself a job by downloading the report Raising Revenue from the Stamp Out Poverty website: Critics would have you believe that Financial Transaction Taxes are hard to implement, unfeasible and easy to avoid. Raising Revenue, a new report by Just Economics for Health Poverty Action and Stamp Out Poverty, blows apart this myth, demonstrating that FTTs in fact already exist throughout the world. The ...
Tweeting volume should now return to normal; thanks for putting up with me. I am caught up on personal e-mail, DW and my "closest" filter on LJ; I'm unlikely to catch up on anything else. If you think I've missed something I should be responding to, let me know. Thanks! This entry was cross-posted from Dreamwidth, where there are currently [IMG: comment count unavailable] comment(s). View DW comment(s).
1. I am a child, I cannot be metaphorical and I am being literal. There really was an elephant at conference. The elephant made an appearance at the Blogger Award Ceremony. He won the best blog of the year and was exuberant about it. His blog is called http://millenniumelephant.blogspot.com/. I was delighted to be nominated for best new Lib Dem blog. I have only been blogging for 6 months and am only 11. I was delighted to even be nominated. I finally met Maureen Rigg who wrote about me on her blog after I gave my first speech at Spring ...
I have long thought it odd that the UK Liberal Democrats haven't had branches overseas, given the number of liberal-mided expatriates there are. The one exception has been the Brussels and Luxemboug local party, which found fertile recruiting ground amongst Eurocrats and Europhiles and which often organises good events (including for visiting LibDem politicians from ...
For me, Lib Dem conference began on Friday when I arrived in Liverpool. This 5 day extravaganza of Lib Dem-ness was a little wierd, especially to one such as I who had only ever been to Welsh Conference & Special ... Continue reading →
The evening began with some embarrassment, though nothing to do with the elephant. I was looking for the Conference fringe meeting where Oliver Letwin and Danny Alexander were due to speak, but I got the room number wrong. So that was how I found myself being warmly welcomed by Lord Dholakia and being introduced to the Indian High Commissioner. There was no way I could extricate myself without explaining that I really wanted to be elsewhere. I guessed that the Indian reception would have been much more fun - and better food, no doubt. But I had decided that it ...
The Liberal Democrats have today launched an organisation to communicate with the party's overseas supporters. Liberal Democrats Abroad aims to keep members and supporters in touch with the UK party, to encourage supporters to join, and to register to vote in the UK. So, who's eligible to vote? British citizens who live overseas but were last on a UK electoral register within the last 15 years can vote in elections. If you are abroad but not on the electoral register, you'll need to contact the council for the area where you last lived in the UK. People who were under ...
I may be on the Upper East Side, but my spies are still at work. This cutting comes from the Liverpool edition of the Metro
A good mix of Lib Dem Conference, Strictly, motorsport, atheist extremism and US politics for you today: First up, Conference hero Evan Harris' article at Comment is Free about Nick Clegg, fairness and cuts. I agree with a great deal of what he says - although I still say that the impending cuts will be a great deal fairer than they would have been if the Tories had been governing on their own. I also think that there is a fairly major discord between a liberal mindset and a leftie Labour one. I'd never feel comfortable in the Labour Party ...
There's a quango out there called WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme) which has today released a report about its successes. Except their successes appear to be pretty meagre. If the Government wants to cull another quango to save money then I would suggest that WRAP could be a prime target. The aims of WRAP are absolutely fine. They want to reduce excess packaging on food and other goods that we all buy. They also want to cut down on the amount that we throw away. But the report they have produced today indicates that they have failed one one ...
Earlier I saw a Tweet or two that mentioned that this month's Attitude had an article on equal marriage, including comment from Stonewall. They have this comment from, I'm sorry it is him again, Ben Summerskill. "Anyone who's involved in campaigning [for equal marriage] should be very cautious about being seduced by politicians in any party who are looking for political advantage and have have different imperatives from gay people in the wider world." Now I have a problem with that. I am a gay politician from the party that has just passed an equal marriage policy federally, after I ...
I have just been listening to a presentation about Umovement: "a global grass roots movement to accelerate the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals by developing/leveraging advanced social network technologies". Essentially it is a database. You decide what sort of good you want to do and where, and Umovement will point you to NGOs that are involved in relevant projects. Play with the system for a short while and you will be struck by the extraordinary number of organisations there are out there doing, we hope, good work. The large NGOs represented here in New York are demanding government action ...
In many ways it wasn't different to Liberal Democrat conferences past, the worthiness and rejection of the establishment were all still there; it's just so was Special Branch and a daily flyover from an RAF Tornado. Such is life in ... Continue reading →
Whilst out in Belfast city centre with Stephen, after an appointment at my GP's surgery, I was on my way to sort out some personal finances when disaster struck. I put the one card that survived the original bank card problem, into an ATM near CastleCourt this afternoon, and after putting in my PIN asking ...
From the Seattle Times: Montana woman fends off bear attack with zucchini
Last night, as part of my continuing attempt to end world poverty, I attended a reception at The Plaza, Central Park South, which is one of New York's spiffiest hotels. There was a free bar, tiny canapes and a panel of star speakers including Ted Turner and Queen Rania of Jordan, who are both ubiquitous here (I wonder who is Trooping the Colour in Amman while she is away?) and Sir Bob Geldof. Long-haired and grizzled, he will have to be renamed Sir Bob Gandalf one day soon. Gandalf's powerful but slightly rambling address aside, the tone was uniformly congratulatory ...
The Ethnic Minority Liberal Democrats' (EMLD) motion containing positive action measures to practically address the diversity of Lib Dem elected representatives was ripped to not much more than a review by amendments mostly from Liberal Youth, with the requirement to have at least one BME candidate on shortlists where a Lib Dem MP has resigned, or within a by-election, being lost. Goodness me. I think the Liberal Democrats are the new Conservatives. Deciding not to act because doing so would be hypocritical? Is this not the worse kind of irony that has seen the ill-representative nature of the party prevail? ...
Max Atkinson is running a competition on his blog with prizes: All you have to do is to suggest one object that any of the three main party leaders could use (or, in the case of Nick Clegg, could have used) to strike a chord with their audience during their 2010 conference speeches. Keen anoraks are welcome to propose an object for each of the three party leaders, but one leader/object is perfectly acceptable.
Who says the Police haven't got a sense of humour. Operation Gotham isn't about giving all the coppers batmobiles, big capes and superb martial arts skills; it's about keeping our houses safe as the dark nights return. The serious message is this: the peak time for burglary as winter approaches isn't the middle of the night, it's from 3pm in the afternoon with lots of people either out at work or picking up the kids from school. So be careful. Don't leave doors and windows open and take the usual precautions. Consider getting a timer that can turn lights on ...
I have a significant issue with the way women are represented in mainstream media as sexualised objects. Not only does it condone the sex industry, significantly harm gender relations and provide poor role models for young girls, but is also increases the risk of dehumanising women and increases the risk of sexual crimes and violence against women.A number of Feminist not-for-profit organisations
Google released their "transparency report" a couple of days ago. There's been a little coverage of how high the UK is in the chart, but what I haven't seen is an analysis of the data per head of population. It's pretty logical that the US would have more requests than the UK, after all they have five times the population. So, here we have it, the top ten countries for government snooping per head of population. Data is for the 12 months from July 2009 to June 2010. Population Requests Requests per Million 1. United Kingdom 62,008,049 2,509 40.5 2. ...
Bury Council report that there are two young girls travelling around the area collecting "sponsorship" for a parachute jump in aid of St.Johns Ambulance. Whilst St John Ambulance has fundraising teams in the Greater Manchester area who do brilliant work in raising valuable funds for the charity these girls are nothing to do with the charity and are just ripping off local people. It's incredibly sad that two young girls can be so unscrupulous that they could pose as fundraisers for the charity in the Radcliffe and Prestwich areas. These young ladies are not associated with St John Ambulance and ...
Tomorrow we've got a new guest editor running the site for a day, well known Lib Dem blogger Linda Jack. She's the second in a series of guest editors, with Mark Valladares having been the first and several more lined up over the next couple of months. If anyone else would like to be a guest editor for the day, please drop an email to voice@libdemvoice.org - voice.hat.libdemvoice.org.spam.com (this is spam bot hidden email address, replace .hat. with @ and remove .spam.com for the real one) with some details of your blogging or editing experience.
It was a really good conference in Liverpool. The biggest Liberal Democrat conference ever. Finally, it was possible to talk to Ministers who were actually putting Liberal Democrat policies into practice. It make a real change. I god interviewed on the Andy Crane show. I'm on at about 1:35:47.
I've started work on a new project (more of which later) and have started looking for what terms I want in the licence. Whilst I've been using the GPLv3 for smaller 'modules' this could be rather bigger and so that might not be the best way to go. The Free Software Foundation (FSF) have a great list of the many and varied licenses in use around FLOSS with comments about the pros and cons of each.
Matt Raven is running the BBC Question Time Live Chat 23 September 2010 #bbcqt this week. As readers will know Mark Reckons used to run this live chat and last week I covered the Labour Party Leadership Special Question Time live chat. I made an agreement with Matt Raven after we both saw a live chat gap in the market. I won't beable to regularly man a live chat and therefore can't commit. So it is Time for Matt to take up the mantle. The next 3 Question Times are from the party conferences (although Liberal Democrat Conference is now ...
As many of this blog's regular readers were away at Liberal Democrat conference in the last few days, here's a quick round-up of some of the highlights you may have missed: Good news for minor parties, unelected politicians and those who dislike election expense controls - I look at some of the consequences of delaying holding the first elections for a reformed House of Lords until the same day as the next general election. The dirty little secret the Coalition Government should address - continuing the theme of reforming Parliament, I looked at the little secret politicians don't like you ...
I've just returned from a busy week at the Lib Dem team here in Bury have just returned from the Liberal Democrat Party conference in Liverpool. I was one of six delegates representing the local team in Bury at the Conference. As I also work for a part of the Lib Dem Party nationally, it was a really busy time for me! What a busy week it's been. It's the first time (since the 1930s) where the Liberal Democrats have been a Party of Government, and as a result there was more media interest, and interest from "lobbyists" and pressure ...
If you would like to nominate a police officer or member of staff for an award recognising their hard work, now's your chance. The Avon and Somerset Police are looking for nominations for their fourth Community Policing Awards. To find out more and make a nomination visit the Community Policing Awards website.
It was reported in yesterday's Guardian that Suffolk Council is planning to become an 'enabling council' - one that provides none of its own services but which outsources everything to private companies and voluntary organisations or social enterprises. With potential budget cuts of up to 30%, it is certainly an attractive option to look at outsourcing services as the companies that bid for them almost always claim they can save money. But I worry that Suffolk, and others who choose to follow them, may well be going too far. It is certainly possible for a council to handover some services ...
Her in the Ukraine there is a saying that if you are whistling inside you are "whistling your money away". when I heard about this and other cultural norms here (like only buying even numbers of flowers for a funeral, not shaking hands on doorsteps etc) I tried to adapt to fit in better. Unfortunately this made something rather apparent emerge...I love to whistle!!!!! I've tried to stop, really I
I'm sorry I couldn't join you at Liverpool, but my absence hopefully left more of the wine lake provided by our generous sponsors for the rest of you. As 'cuts' were in the air and in your conversations. I'd like to suggest an easy one. HS2. Or High Speed (Rail) 2 to give its full title. The proposed new high speed rail link from London past Birmingham to the great cities of the North, such as Leeds. I'm told it may go near somewhere called Manchester as well on its way to Scotland. Now I am no engineer. If the ...
As regular readers will know VN has very much backed Sky 1's 'Must Be the Music' over ITV's increasingly contrived X-Factor. Lost in the bowels of the Echo Arena in Liverpool covering Lib Dem conference it was not possible to cover the live Wembley final. However, it was great to find out that the exceptionally talented Emma's Imagination, a former busker in Glasgow, had won the competition. Many of the shows stars have broken into the both the main charts and specialist charts but Emma's 'Focus', the song that won her the competition, could well be it's first number one ...
The Golden Twits are upon us again and my colleagues at RNID have been nominated! So, in a shameless attempt to garner for more votes for my awesome colleagues I urge you all to go an vote for @RNID. It should be just reward for the work that they do raising awareness of hearing loss ...
If I were a newly trained teacher struggling to find work, or I was looking for a new job after being made redundant (as opposed to not looking for a new job after being made redundant), I wouldn't have thought that either Alex Salmond or Iain Gray had the slightest interest in helping me after their display at First Minister's Questions. Gray seemed more bothered about slagging off Salmond, at one point comparing St Andrew's House under his control to North Korea, and Salmond was more bothered about whinging about powers he doesn't have rather than trying to make the ...
With the Liberal Democrats Presidency up for grabs, nominations are open. Some LibDems and LibDem organisations are publicly backing various proposed candidates. Whilst I have no problem with my fellow Northern Ireland Lib Dem blogger, Stephen, publicly supporting Tim Farron MP, (Westmorland and Lonsdale). And I have no problem with Tim himself: I may decide ...
"We have punched above our weight in government because we have a democratic party which has clear principles and policies" said Vince Cable in his keynote conference speech today. "In a few short months we have showed how we can advance our party's policies and principles while serving the wider national interest. But we need to sell this message. The Tories will not do that for us. We have to do it ourselves. That means focus leaflets and doorsteps. That means you. We need you. All of you." Vince also attacked Labour's record on the economy, saying: "We know that ...
The Liberal Democrat Conference this week has seen motions debated by the grass roots of the party, it's had more fringe events discussing a wide range of topics and we were privileged to hear from many senior figures both in the party and in Government. But conference would not be conference without a little light relief and this year, Ian Swales MP competed against his Liberal Democrat colleagues in a Virtual Archery game as well as (without knowing) competing in the badge competition! Mr Clegg, hit a perfect ten with his final shot, shouting "bullseye" across the hall however, his ...
[This is an updated version of my speech to the consultative session on party strategy at the Liberal Democrat conference, 19 September 2010] We Liberal Democrats need to think seriously about the party's identity - but we need to understand how the voters see us, not about how we see ourselves. Remember the Times-Populus polls we hear about year after year. In 2007 and 2008, clear majorities saw the Liberal Democrats as being "made up of decent people but their policies probably don't really add up" and "basically a protest vote party because they have no chance of ever winning". ...
Put your question to local service providers: Various City Council Services will be represented along with Greater Manchester Police Continuing the commitment to consult with residents about local services, the Third Chorlton Community Forum event has been organised for Residents in the Chorlton ward.The evening starts at 7pm when the panel of service providers will take questions from the audience. You can then gather useful information from these services. If you want to get involved then come along to Chorlton Library details below The event will take place on:Monday, 11 October 2010, 7pm-8.30pmAt Chorlton Library, Manchester Rd.
Part 23 of blogging my way through my first reading of Atlas Shrugged. You can find the first part here. Chapter 23: Anti-Greed Rand really hates Government scientists; they're people who don't put their brains into making profits! Don't worry, in AtlasWorld they get their comeuppance in the form of Dr Stadler, who in this ...
The UN Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing - one of the 'Special Procedures' of the human Rights Council - has written a 'letter of allegation' about the threat of eviction against Gypsies on the Dale Farm site. A draft response was prepared by officials for approval by the Minister Andrew Stunell MP, and I wrote to Andrew making some comments on the draft. His Private Secretary told me that he looked at my note but didn't make any amendments to the draft. I therefore sent my comments direct to the Special Rapporteur, who has acknowledged them.
Letter from Mr R to the GP dated September 16: I saw Lord Avebury today in my clinic. Since you have started his Furosemide, his symptoms of dyspnoea have marginally improved. The chest X-ray performed last week showed that his has got bilateral mild pleural effusion. However, his haemoglobin came back as 9.2, which is an improvement from the 8.5 previously. His CRP and his white cell count are normal, which does exclude any deep-seated infection. He is generally still feeling a bit weak and his blood pressure is still unstable. I will be writing to my colleague, Phil MacCarthy, ...
From the Council: Stockport Council is currently undertaking a review of its licensing policies for alcohol and entertainment premises. As part of the review residents and local business operators are being encouraged to give their views on the effectiveness of the Council's current licensing policies. The findings from the review will influence the Council's new licensing policies for alcohol and entertainment premises for the next three year period. The Council's licensing consultation document can be viewed along with the current licensing policies at all libraries in the borough, Stockport Direct Centres, or on the Council's website at www.stockport.gov.uk/licensing The closing ...
This week the Liberal Democrats past a motion to make 'Marriage' and 'Civil Partnerships' open to all. I am generally in favour of this but think it would be an awful lot easier to have one thing that people in love could have - probably called a Marriage, I am not convinced we need two different things, I understand some are cautious of using the word Marriage as that has (to some) religious connotations.
[IMG: Jo Swinson MP with new Bearsden South Councillor Ashay Ghai] Jo Swinson MP has been announced as the new Deputy Leader of the Scottish Lib Dems. Michael Moore MP, now Secretary of State for Scotland, is stepping down after seven years as Deputy Leader. The Scottish Liberal Democrats website quotes Jo: After just four months in opposition, Labour has gone back to the cheap tricks and opportunism of the 1980s. In office, Labour ran up £23,000 of debt for every man, woman and child in Scotland. Labour caused the rising unemployment that we have inherited. Labour raised the deficit, ...
Thu 23rd
12:12
Voters looking for something different from political parties: Does the Lib Dem message fit the bill...
In the past public services have generally been viewed as the responsibility of formal government and its (non-elected) agencies. As a result, the vast majority of management regimes had distinctly 'top‐down', technocratic characteristics. When Tony Blair started his New Labour project he wanted to change this. Recently he was talking about the NHS and said ...
LGA Lib Dem Budget Conference Friday 22nd October 2010 Local Government House, Smith Square, Westminster Is your Council going to have a tough time with its budget? Would you like help with your budget and how to get the politics right? Would you like to know the effect of the Comprehensive Spending Review on Local Government? All these questions can be answered in a one day session run by the Lib Dem Group at the LGA on Friday 22nd October 2010, two days after the Comprehensive Spending Review. All Lib Dem Councillors and Researchers welcome. Led by Gerald Vernon-Jackson, Leader ...
Stephen Gilbert MP, who did a brilliant summation on the Lib Dems' equal marriage motion, has come out in support of Tim Farron for party president. Like me his support as an openly gay man has raised one or two eyebrows with his friends. However, like me he has also clarified his position on LGBT rights with Tim himself. On his website he gives Tim's response as: I am a passionate supporter of equal LGBT rights. But if you look at 'they work for you', I'm classed a s being 'opposed to equal gay rights' because of 2 of my ...
I am sure everyone would agree that the Liberal Democrat Voice team did a marvellous job of covering Conference. In just 5 days, their small but perfectly formed team popped out 44 posts on their Conference tag alone. It's a phenomenal amount of work when you consider that they were involved in organising 4 Fringe events as well. I keep telling people that it's Liberal Democrat Voice that should be their first port of call when they read a headline in the media that they don't like because that's where the truth tends to be. In fact, it's the LDV ...
4 October a pilot starts to change the recycling and rubbish collections to 10,000 residential homes and flats - street properties. Attached is the only information I've received so far on who and where it will affect. Basic premise is recycling is still every week but organic matter will be also be collected. All other rubbish will be collected fortnightly. The dreaded fortnightly collections - this shouldn't be an issue if the organic waste process and collections work well. One unresolved issue is no disposal contract of the collected organic waste yet...this really worries me as the pilot will disintegrate ...
Although the world is generally catching up with reality, sometimes it feels necessary to remind people that there are some people in the world who don't conform, who aren't straight, but aren't gay or lesbian either. 11 years ago, September 23rd was chosen as an annual day to shout about bisexuality, and whilst I'm involved in the bi community for the social side of it more than anything, this is an event I recognise because even though I'm not bisexual myself1, I feel the invisibility nonetheless. The reason? If I walk down the street hand-in-hand with a guy, anyone who ...
Last night the Ulster Unionist Party elected Tom Elliott MLA for Fermanagh and South Tyrone as their new leader. This morning he said: "What I want to see is a party that actually represents the population of Northern Ireland. "I want to see for the Ulster Unionist Party the same as I want to see for the people of Northern Ireland - that is a working together, that is an integration, not a carve up between two parties or two sections of our community. "I want an all-embracing party that actually represents Northern Ireland." However, how all-embracing a party can ...
There is a good blog post from Andrew Sparrow on the Guardian website in which he outlines ten things he has learned from attending Liberal Democrat Conference. Obviously a number of journalists were attending our conference for the first time this year and were pleasantly surprised to see that we did not live up to the myth. These are the highlights of Andrew Sparrow's post: 1 The Lib Dems have made up their minds about the coalition - and they like it. Journalists came to Liverpool expecting to find evidence of a grassroots backlash against Nick Clegg's decision to go ...
'Like a yeti in a barber shop?' This was the playful headline with which the big 'n' bearded Lib Dem MP David Heath chose to announce his arrival in the party's blogosphere, capturing something of the tongue-in-cheek essence of Lib Dem blogging. David's blog – http://davidwsjheath.wordpress.com – has, rather sadly, fallen silent since the general election, and his appointment to the government as Deputy Leader of the House. But don't expect for a moment the coalition agreement to have a similarly quelling effect on the rest of the party's blogging community. What's out there? There are, as I write, 249 ...
Children and Young People's Scrutiny is one of Stockport's Scrutiny committees, keeping an eye on what the Council and the various other agencies are up to and, hopefully, spot issues and make helpful suggestions to improve things. The latest meeting was last night. All the meetings are open to the public and all are at the Town Hall, with the next one being 20th October. Yesterday we discussed: The report from the Children's Trust for Q1 2010/11 (April-June this year), including the health of young people, safety, care placements, injuries, educational achievements, youth offending and economic wellbeing. Budget reports (capital ...
I was thrilled to bits to discover the other day that this trashy tome has made it to number 44 in the Total Politics Blog Poll, up 23 places from last year. Thanks to everyone who voted for my random musings and I hope you'll find more of whatever it was that tickled your fancy over the next year. I am the last of a line of 4 Scots in the Top 50, headed by Tom Harris at number 8. He's said he'll give up his blog if he makes it into the Shadow Cabinet,which would be a shame on ...
Living (dlc), the local Disabled Living Centre, is holding a "Celebrating Age" OPEN DAY at the Vassall Centre, Gill Avenue, Fishponds, Bristol BS16 2QQ on Wednesday 29th September 2010 10:00 am - 3:00pm. Admission is free, as is the tea/coffee and cake, and all are welcome. For information please phone 0117 9653651.
Fortunately my progress on the adjacent M4 yesterday was not impacted by this. But I was aware of a major hold-up for drivers on the A4 near Theale, Berkshire. due to Andrew Marr being spread all over the road. Or, more correctly and less dramatically, 15 tonnes of copies of his book, "The making of Modern Britain" were spread over the road after a W.H.Smith's contracted lorry overturned. The driver suffered cuts to his arm.
Last week we posted an initial call for contributors to help Lib Dem Voice celebrate Day of Multilingual Blogging this Sunday. If that sounds like something you might be interested in, do please get in touch with me – alex - alex.hat.libdemvoice.org.spam.com (this is spam bot hidden email address, replace .hat. with @ and remove .spam.com for the real one) Full details are in our original post here.
So it seems that we are not going to see the leader of the Ulster Unionists in next year's Belfast Pride march. As reported by Pink News, Tom Elliott MLA recently said that I have indicated at party meetings that whilst some members of our party would go to gay pride marches or GAA matches, ...
The Guardian gives a good review of Vince Cable's speech at Conference in its editorial which shows the distinctiveness of the Lib Dems finds people wanting the Lib Dems to be more Lib Dem Yesterday, at the Liberal Democrat conference in Liverpool, Mr Cable finally made a dramatic return both to the limelight and to ...
There is nothing good about the problems surrounding the Commonwealth Games. However, the fact that the athletes' village appears to be a midden is nothing compared to reports that child labour is being used on the site. It's not as if this is something new,either. Way back in February, the Herald Sun in Australia pointed out that children were being used to build drainage systems. Apparently the parents were paid more if they brought their kids to work, a bonus which brought their daily income from a disgrace to a pittance. It breaks my heart to think that in other ...
I know this came out last Friday, but given I have been working at the Liberal Democrats conference in Liverpool I am only writing about this now. Once again thanks to a blogger, Wael Khalil, the truth came out and fraud exposed. Recently Egyptian President was on a visit to the USA, a picture was taken at the White House. However, the Egyptian State newspaper Al-Ahram doctored the photo to show the Egyptian President leading the delegation of Barack Obama, Binyamin Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas walking down the red carpet. Whereas it was Barack Obama leading the group. I think ...
Thu 23rd
07:45
LDV survey: Lib Dem members think Mili-D would make best Labour leader (but Balls would be best for ...
Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum to discover what Lib Dem members think of the early race for the party presidency, the London mayoral selection, Trident, and the Labour leadership. Over 400 party members have responded, and we've been publishing the full results. This Saturday we find out who will be the next Labour leader. The assumption is it will be neck-and-neck between the Brothers Miliband, David and Ed. David has been the favourite throughout the summer-long contest, but in the last few weeks theres been a sense that the race has tightened with many folk now tipping ...
Vince Cable's statement of the obvious truth that "markets are often irrational or rigged" has produced injured bleats from the CBI et al about over-emotional language with might frighten the horses (by which they seem to mean foreign investment.) How does the right reconcile its belief that trade unions should be hedged aground with all sorts of regulations which restrict their activities, while capitalists should be free to do as they like? Actually I'm not necessarily a great fan of trade unions. In the 1960s we Liberals had all sorts of ingenious plans for industrial democracy and worker participation. One ...
Yesterday someone arrived at this blog after searching for:paddy ashdown what a geezer
Thu 23rd
05:52
Health Minister must get to grips with backlog of nearly 3,000 retrospective continuing care claims.
The Welsh Liberal Democrats yesterday called on the Welsh Government to get to grips with continuing care payments in a more efficient way in order to get through the backlog of nearly 3000 retrospective claims. Our motion insisted that the Labour-Plaid government process cases without panels when possible and deal with claims in order of how close they are to completion rather than in chronological order. At present the Welsh Assembly Government is processing 140 cases a year out of the 2,485 claims. At this rate it will take 13 years to deal with all the cases. The Health Minister ...
Thu 23rd
05:18
Whoniversaries 23 September: Floella Benjamin, Tomb of the Cybermen #4, The Ribos Operation #4
i) births and deaths 23rd September 1949: birth of Floella Benjamin (now Baroness Benjamin of Beckenham) who played the recurring character Professor Rivers in the first three seasons of the Sarah Jane Adventures. ii) broadcast anniversaries 23rd September 1967: broadcast of fourth episode of Tomb of the Cybermen. The Cybermen kill Kaftan; Toberman helps the others to freeze the Cybermen again, at the cost of his own life. 23rd September 1978: broadcast of fourth episode of The Ribos Operation. The Doctor is rescued by the shrivenzale, blows up the Graff, and converts the jethrik into the first segment of the ...
So it seems that we are not going to see the leader of the Ulster Unionists in next year's Belfast Pride march. As reported by Pink News, Tom Elliott MLA recently said that I have indicated at party meetings that whilst some members of our party would go to gay pride marches or GAA matches, ...
diggerdydum: The Real Actual Long Game First in a series of eighteen polls, taking all the 216 Doctor Who stories so far, and voting for them a dozen at a time. If you haven't voted yet, you can do so in the next six days. In the first poll, choose from Gridlock, Image Of The Fendahl, The Caves Of Androzani, The Deadly Assassin, The Eleventh Hour, The Happiness Patrol, The Highlanders, The Long Game, The Sensorites, The Time Monster, The Visitation and The War Games (tags: doctorwho) diggerdydum: Army Of Ticks choose from Army Of Ghosts/Doomsday, Bad Wolf/The Parting Of ...
Because of all the Equality Act discussion detail recently, I've been thinking about other trans-related legislation. An interesting and not often talked about offence is under section 22 of the Gender Recognition Act 2004 which basically makes it illegal for anyone to "out" someone if they've found out by virtue of being an employer or similar. Although it's a criminal offence, the penalties are quite mild: A "Level 5" fine, which is up to £5,000. As an upper cap, that's pretty mild given you could quite possibly maliciously destroy someone's life. I submitted a batch of Freedom of Information requests ...
What to say about about Vince's speech that hasn't already been said after forensic text analysis and critiques by right and left. On this occasion I rather agree with Labour blogger Hopi Sen's 'Sad donkey runs free' analogy. In substance Vince has said nothing new, his attacks on the banking profession as 'spivs' are pure populism, and his chances of persuading his coalition partners to change anything on the basis of such an analysis are slight. After the activist cheer has died away in a week, the main impact of the speech will be to permanently lower his reputation amongst ...
This week in the local paper the "bullying" row continues (see blogs on 10th and 15th Sept). We read that the cost of investigating the allegation that the town clerk was bullied amounted to £17,000. More support to criticise the councillor who raised the concerns? Of course, but this week her supporters get more coverage. In fact she was "fully justified" in her complaint. If I were on her side I would agree that she was justified and the money didn't matter and shouldn't matter if anything like were to happen in the future. If my tent were in the ...
