In what turned out to be my last House Points column for Liberal Democrat News, I called on party members to enjoy being in government. I certainly enjoyed Nick Clegg's announcement of an extra £7bn to help the education of children from poor families. As tomorrow's Guardian reports it: Nick Clegg has wrung from the Treasury "additional" funds to pay for his idea of a fairness premium that would see extra support allocated to poorer pupils. The scheme will cost £7bn during the course of this parliament.At a speech today in Chesterfield, the deputy prime minister was coy about the ...
Now that work is winding down a bit, and I'm also done with the Beatlebook, I'll be posting more regularly again. I'm currently working on the book version of the Hyperposts (still trying to find a title for that) and as a result of that over the next few weeks I'll be posting essays on ...
This blog, in case you haven't noticed, is committed - as far as it is possible to be - to the battle against soulless technocracy everywhere. So let me report on setback in the battle, one small success, and one draw. The draw was the court case between the arch-technocrats Ryanair (hence the picture here, which I believe is the new Ryanair logo) and a website called I Hate Ryanair. Ryanair won, but on a technicality because the website included money-earning links. On the other hand, the website is still up, ending .org, and without the offending adverts. So that ...
This week has been dominated by one thing, the tuition fees row. Because of this my tweeters of the week are my partners in the open letter 1. @LiberalBertie 2. @KP_LD 3. @tomstubbs 4. @frasernesbitt 5. @TheSpiderplant 6. @dalekcat Cheers guys. I may have put the open letter on my blog, but this is ...
Dear Chris, Today is a defining moment for the Liberal Democrats. Today we show what can be achieved as a party in power - that we can deliver on a promise that we put on the very front page of our manifesto: giving a fair chance to every child. The Liberal Democrat's purpose in Government is to make Britain a better, fairer nation. And ahead of next week's comprehensive spending review, today we set out our plans for a four-year, £7 billion investment in improving opportunities for the most disadvantaged kids in this country. Every disadvantaged two year-old will be ...
This week saw October's full Council meeting and the conclusion of an investigation, which I led, into the state of the Allotments Service across Birmingham. Demand for allotments has been growing rapidly in recent years. The number of tenants has grown by over a thousand during the past 4 years and we are reaching the limits of the number of plots available in many parts of the City. It was the experience of seeing the tremendous growth of demand for plots in the Mayfield Road site in Tyseley that helped spur my interest in the subject and while there are ...
Cornwall Council's Cuts Roadshow made it to Bude this evening for the last of their planned engagement sessions with the public. The event was run by Finance Director Michael Crich and Corporate Resources Scrutiny Chairman John Keeling. Many thanks to them and to the other scrutiny members who came along. It's a pity that none of the Cabinet members who are making the cuts came along, but we were told that the points raised would be fed back to them. The worry with these events is whether they are mere window dressing or whether the views expressed here or at ...
Saturday 16th will see the commemoration of the 70th Anniversary of the Kennington Park Blitz tragedy, in which an estimated 104 people lost their lives when a bomb hit an air raid shelter that had been constructed in the park. The site is now marked by a memorial, following the efforts of the Friends of Kennington Park, and a short ceremony will be held at the memorial at noon on Saturday. This week the BBC published an excellent article about the tragedy, written by one of the members of the Friends of Kennington Park; it can be read here.
Believe it or not this post has been kicking around on my laptop, drifting around my brain and even resting in some safe depository in cyberspace for a week or so, each time I attempt to finish, I add and chop bits and pieces, anyhow this it the finished item, I see its Local Democracy week mentioned in Gazette, cheers for that snippet and a bit of poking around reveals this is an initiative from the Council of Europe in Strasburg and I'm thinking what democracy the more I observe the more I see a sham. What sounds like good ...
I'm in hospital, and I'm bored so please indulge me this post! Put together and downloaded some songs that I thought would keep me going whilst I'm here so I thought I'd share them: A little respect - ErasureAin't no mountain high enough - Marvin GayeAlright - SupergrassBelieve - CherBlue Monday - New OrderBrown Eyed Girl - Van MorrisonChasing Cars - Snow PatrolClocks - ColdplayCome up and see me - Steve HarleyCommon People - PulpCrocodile Rock - Elton JohnDancing in the Moonlight - ToploaderDancing Queen - AbbaDaydream Believer - The MonkeesDon't let me down, gently - The Wonder StuffDon't stop ...
Fri 15th
19:40
Nostalgia for those heady days when you could become an alcoholic on the student grant
Given the current funding debate, it is surreal thinking about when I went to University, albeit for one year before deciding to "withdraw" (drop out) even though I'd passed my First University Exams. The money fell from heaven to provide my tuition fees and my living allowance. All I had to do was pay for the books. A belated and heartfelt thanks to Cornwall County Council (as was – One and all – as it said on my school exercise books)! It was a blast! Indeed, thank you to the Labour party. My education, as I once calculated, was carried ...
The amount of people signing my petition 'Lib Dems Against Tuition Fees' has almost doubled today and it appears those who have signed it have forward the address on to their friends and other party members.I have now included a news feed on the left hand side of my blog of the comments people are leaving. I will give a round up of the comments over the weekend. But in the meantime sign the
I think i'll let this speak for itself! H/T Liberal Burblings
Tony Blair's memoir has been re=shelved into the crime section by many shoppers. Now it's been nominated for an award for fiction. Erotic fiction. Bad erotic fiction, that is. The particular passage which has earned the book a nomination for the Literary Review's "Bad sex award" is this: That night she cradled me in her arms and soothed me; told me what I needed to be told; strengthened me. On that night of 12 May 1994, I needed that love Cherie gave me, selfishly. I devoured it to give me strength. I was an animal following my instinct... Yeuch. Tony ...
An interesting example of a negative ad from Winnipeg, Canada:
One aspect of Lord Browne's proposals on university tuition fees has received no coverage, at least none that I've seen; yet it's the ghost at the party and should be dragged out of its gloomy corner and exposed. The reason the government is planning such savage cuts is that over the last decade and a half Britain has accumulated ...
It's been touted in a few places today that two Liberal Democrat owned domain names, www.liberaldemocrats.org.uk and co.uk have been "hacked". Until a couple of hours ago, those sites redirected to this Tuition Fees-related video on YouTube. A few people did a quick lookup on the "whois" database for UK domains and found it apparently registered to Liberal Democrat HQ. Cue stories of the site either being hacked or it being an "inside job" by disgruntled staff. A little digging reveals a much longer and less nefarious story. Firstly, we can look at the Google Cache of the page, which ...
Here at the Birkdale blog we are always pleased to watch the success of our members, in that context let us draw your attention to a posting on Lib Dem Voice by Sarah Harding of this parish (but living as a student in Manchester)
Because how many broadcasting companies attract this sort of love? I'm trying to decide what my favourite rhyme from it is – is it 'Fireman Sam' and 'The Ascent Of Man', or 'John Peel' and 'Children In Need Appeal'?
British and European policy on the greatest issue facing the Middle East is not bad. We seek a 2-state solution for the future of Israel and Palestine, taking the 1967 demarcation line as the starting point for negotiations. We call upon Israel to cease building settlements on Palestinian land, end its illegal occupation, curb the repressive measures that accompany it, and lift its economic blockade of Gaza. In response, Israel does none of these things. Israel is an ally and preferred trading partner of the European Union. Our military and security forces share (some) information and make reciprocal training arrangements. ...
It's Friday. It's five o'clock. Here's a fistful of lists that sum up the LDV week: 5 most-read stories on LDV this week 1. Nick Clegg writes to Lib Dem MPs over tuition fees (172 comments) by The Voice 2. Vince Cable's statement on tuition fees (151 comments) by The Voice 3. Vince: why I'm saying 'No' to the graduate tax (97 comments) by Stephen Tall 4. The Browne Review and university funding: what's likely to happen next... (40 comments) by Stephen Tall 5. Opinion: the Browne report should be voted down (82 comments) by Elaine Bagshaw and Henry Vann ...
Well I think it is time for some gratuitous male chest nudity again. Courtesy of Glee who are doing a Rocky Horror Show special at Halloween your wish is my command. Of course the global story of the week was the freeing of the Chilean miners. They were largely bare chested in the heat of the mine. Here is David Letterman's take on the top ten thoughts that were going through their head as they were being raised for 16 minutes in the capsule. And a little trailer for Christopher and his kind which is coming to BBC soon with ...
The publication of the Browne report earlier this week has received a lot of backlash from the public but what angered me and many other members the most was the positive response it got from Nick Clegg and Vince Cable. Although the report does contain some positive points, there are a few dangerous suggestions which threaten the futures of thousands of prospective students. One such suggestion was to get rid of the cap on fees. This will inevitably lead to many courses costing around £7,000 per year with some so-called 'elite courses' possibly costing up to £36,000 for three years. ...
This afternoon, I attended the Unite against Hate Sporting Weekend launch at Parliament Buildings, Belfast as Vice Chair of the LGBT Independent Advisory Group to the Police Service of Northern Ireland. With Tim McGarry of the Hole in the Wall Gang as compère, we were treated to wonderful gags about Northern Ireland in general, as ...
I received Nick Clegg's email today titled "Giving a Fair Chance to Every Child". Surely that should have read "Giving a Fair Chance to Every Child except those from Large Families"?
As a governor and ward councillor I am very proud to be associated with Linaker Primary School. The school was recently inspected by OFSTED and it has now been announced that the school was judged to be Good and Outstanding in some areas. To magnify the school's achievement the Children's Centre was inspected at the same time, being judged as Outstanding. All this in the school's centenary year! THis is the school's best ever OFSTED result and the Children's Centre, seen by many as one of the best in the country, is the first Sefton centre to be inspected. Being ...
Northern Democrat No 54 Oct 10 This is the latest edition of the Northern Democrat which I edit and produce for members in the North of England.
Lib Dem Leader and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg this morning announced that the Coalition Government will spend an extra £7bn on giving the poorest children a better start in life. The "fairness premium" will come in three parts: First, all disadvantaged two year-olds will have an entitlement to 15 hours a week of pre-school education, in addition to the 15 hours already available to them at three and four years of age. By offering more help at an earlier age to the most disadvantaged children, the policy will directly tackle the gaps in attainment that open up in the ...
At the eastern end of Linlithgow's High Street stood the iconic Star and Garter Hotel. It had been on the site for over 250 years having first been established in 1759. It's familiar black corner brinks had given it a distinctive outline to the whitewashed walls. This morning at about 7am a fire broke out in a first floor linen cupboard and rapidly spread to the second floor and then roof. The proximity to the railway station in the town and it's position at the junction of the Edinburgh Road, Blackness Road and High Street and proximity to the railway ...
Every era throws up its acronyms. The eighties produces the Yuppie; the nineties the Dinky and the era of our obsession with home-ownership the Nimby. I wonder what the era of austerity will bring. One group that seems to be emerging from the current financial constraint are a group that I might christen the Cabbies, after their apparent cry of "Cut anything but..." These are the people who are extremely riled about the particular cut that affects their pet project. So, for example, I have a friend who works in the film industry who is bewailing the loss of the ...
There were nine principal council elections held on the 14th October and they continued to be encouraging. The Tories held one seat, the Independents one seat, the Lib Dems two and Labour four. The only seat to change hands was a Labour gain from Plaid. In the two Parish council elections reported to ALDC the Independents held one seat and there was a gain by the Lib Dems from Independent. With all the controversy swirling around and within the Liberal Democrats last Thursdays results continued to confound the pundits. We were defending two seats. [IMG: Our victor Helen Lynch (2nd ...
Earlier in the year, my colleague Eric Pickles announced that local authorities would be required to publish details of all of their spending above £500. This reform will go hand in hand with a requirement from November for central government departments to publish monthly details of all spending over £25,000. The Department for Communities and Local Government, however, have decided to go one better, and join our local government colleagues and publish everything over £500. Why is this important, I hear you ask? Won't it just provide the opposition, and for that matter, organisations like the Tax Payers Alliance with ...
So, what do you think?
Congratulations to Roman Jakic (Zares, Slovenia) on being elected as the new ELDR Treasurer, and to Vesna Pusic (HNS, Croatia), Dick Roche (Fianna Fail, Ireland) and Graham Watson (Liberal Democrats, UK) on being elected as Vice Presidents.
At Cheadle Area Committee on Tuesday, Cheadle Town Football Club asked for the support of councillors for a plan for the council to sell them the ground. The ground, on Park Road in Cheadle Hulme North ward, was used as the training ground for the Portguese national team in the 1966 world cup but is now in poor condition by modern standards and desperately needs improving. Proposals for the ground include complete redevelopment of the facilities at the Park Road Stadium including a new spectator stand, changing facilities for teams and officials, a new all-weather football pitch and two new ...
Labour failed a generation of young people and students in this country. They left them with debt, with unemployment, and with a deficit worth £25,000 to each person. But in their final months they did do something to help. Commissioning the Browne Review in Higher Education Funding reopened the debate on education in this country; it allowed those interested to have their say, and more importantly be listened to. It gave the Coalition Government the chance to reform the education system. For Liberal Youth, our primary aim is to represent our membership, to do our best for them, and as ...
The afternoon session started with a keynote speech from Hans van Baalen MEP, President of the Liberal International, who spoke passionately about opposing the radical right across Europe. And then it was time for the plenary session on the theme resolution. In a spectacularly efficient piece of chairing, Gordon Lishman managed to deal with all 107 amendments without resort to a single counted vote. As a scrutineer, I wasn't entirely unhappy about being kept idle. Alright, not entirely idle. I did make a brief intervention in support of amendment 107, noting the value of technology and social networks in supporting ...
It's nice to see the Bracknell Regeneration Partnership has been busy in one area. Their website for example http://www.bracknell.com has been up and running for a few months now. There is plenty of news and event details on the site etc but if you click on regeneration all you will see a short statement, but no actual news on the regeneration. Remember this is the Bracknell Regeneration Partnership website. So in other words, so far they have nothing more to add. No news is bad news in this case.
I like Tim Worstall's blog; partly from a sense of lefty guilt at the dreadful business of taking money from people and calling it 'taxation', but mostly because it provides very snappy high-level analysis and is funny while doing it. A case in point is today's post on the liberal-lefty reaction to people purposefully flouting ...
Fri 15th
12:55
Social Liberal Forum asks candidates for the Liberal Democrat Party Presidency to share their views
Following Baroness Ros Scott's decision not to seek a second term as Party President, the race is on to become the Liberal Democrats' first new President under the Coalition government – a role that is increasingly significant given the Party's participation in said Coalition. The experience and calibre of candidates standing for election – itself signifies just how crucial this election could be, which is why the Social Liberal Forum is inviting all candidates to answer the following questions regarding their candidacy: Are you committed to helping the party develop policies which are as distinctive, radical and progressive as possible ...
The coalition government is busy reading through Lord Browne's report into higher education funding. He has recommended lifting the cap on fees, currently set at £3290 per year. All Liberal Democrat MPs were elected on the understanding that they opposed any rise in fees. But is the level of fee the critical issue here? And why is a graduate tax more popular? I joined the Liberal Democrats back in 2001, whilst an undergraduate at the University of Warwick. I joined because of opposition to tuition fees. Back then, the tuition fees I opposed were set at just over £1000 and ...
The thing about sitting on the fence, is that it's pretty uncomfortable. I knew I'd have to make my mind up at some point, but I didn't expect that the decision would be as clear as it has become. And, to be honest, I'm surprised at the decision I've made. At the start of this, if you had told me I'd be voting for Tim Farron, I'd have laughed at you. The thought of electing an MP to the position of representing the grassroots was one that was difficult for me to reconcile, but I think this week has convinced ...
[IMG: Jolitics website screenshot] New online political debating website launched is normally about as newsworthy as new Twitter app launched: they come along with great regularity, only the very few get much of an audience share and yet the media still love giving such reports plenty of attention. So should the plans that Bebo co-founder Michael Birch is following this well-worn political debating path with jolitics.com get more than passing attention? He believes so, as the Daily Telegraph reported: "Politics online simply has not been done well yet. There are lots of political discussion forums, but they never lead to ...
PR Week reports: The 'Yes to Fairer Votes' campaign has recruited Hill & Knowlton consultant Paul Sinclair as director of comms. A former journalist and special adviser to Gordon Brown, he will lead the campaign's communications team and act as a spokesman. PRWeek has also learned that key figures supporting the Yes campaign are keen to have a high-profile celebrity backer, with well-known actress Joanna Lumley the top target. Full story here.
Hat tip to James McKenzie for saving this: Today that has been replaced on the website by this emphasis mine: Liberal Democrats believe university education should be free and everyone who has the ability should be able to go to university and not be put off by the cost. In coalition the Liberal Democrats are looking at proposals to ensure the bottom 30% of graduate earners will pay less for tuition than they do at the moment. Following the Browne Review into Higher Education, Business Secretary Vince Cable is working on a system of repayment for tuition designed to make ...
It's currently snowing here in Helsinki, and even before it started, you could almost taste the snow in the air. I had an early morning scrutineers meeting, where I discovered that my job was in fact to count votes in the hall when necessary, like our stewards at Federal Conference do when a counted vote is required. The plenary session on the Congress resolutions was fairly uneventful. A LYMEC resolution calling for censorship of offensive websites, as opposed to blocking, was defeated. Personally, I was surprised that a group so consistently supportive of freedom was even tempted by the notion ...
Protheroe (Labour) (elected) 437 Howells (Neath Port Talbot Independent Party) 144 Maccathail (Plaid Cymru) 132 McCarthy (Liberal Democrat) 51 Turnout 24.08% Frank Little writes: We were defeated on largely national issues (the issue of the Browne report, recommending a lifting of the cap on the cost of university courses did not help), and the untrue allegation that our candidate would stop the rebuilding of the Gwyn Hall. However, it was the first time that we had seriously contested this ward. I consider our campaign was a good one and a start on which we can build.
Perhaps a recent anecdote sums it up best. Last week I asked a question of Michael Moore MP, Secretary of State for Scotland, at a Party gathering in Glasgow. My point was that the size and dangers of the current deficit were exaggerated and that I felt that the resultant alarm was being used by the Tories as an excuse to cut faster and deeper than was strictly necessary. I argued that Tory small-state ideology was the driver of the cuts rather than economics. Michael Moore's answer floored me: I was told to "change my newspaper". There was no attempt ...
I had to bail out of our evening delegation meeting early, as I was unexpectedly in possession of an invitation to a reception for Parliamentarians. Given the prospect of pleasant conversation and a glass of something sparkling, a discussion on the congress resolutions paled somewhat in comparison. We were treated to an entertaining speech from one of our Finnish hosts, the highlight of which was her assertion that Finns don't have sex. There was a comment from the back along the lines of "that explains why you have such a demographic problem"*, before it became clear that she was referring ...
Why waste time writing my own post on the subject, when others have said it all for me? Go take a look here, here, here, many of the comments here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here. While you're at it, why not join the Facebook group and sign the petition?
At Cheadle Area Committee on Tuesday, councillors voted to make traffic regulation changes in Cheadle permanent: Church Street is now one-way A loading bay has been set up on Mary Street Waiting restrictions on Church Stree, Mary Street and Lime Grove In a consultation, the main concerns of residents were that these were not always being observed. We felt better enforcement was the way forwards to deal with that and, whilst enforcement remains an issue we want these changes to remain. View Cheadle and Gatley in a larger map
Back in April, I reported that Stagecoach Strathtay had agreed to my request on behalf of constituents that it slightly extend the 69's bus route to cover Richmond Terrace and Richmond Court (pictured right) - this will be a boon to elderly residents in the area. The route revision has yet to be implemented and I have queried this with the City Council. The Council's Sustainable Transport Team Leader has advised me as follows : "We've got some on-going development work with Stagecoach to improve the bus services into Broughty Ferry. It looks like it will involve the re-registration of ...
The Word.
General Sir Richard Dannatt's memoir of his time in the British army manages somehow to be both fascinating and banal. Fascinating because of the detail he provides to back-up his severe criticism of Ministry of Defence civil servants and politicians, Labour ones in particular but Gordon Brown above all, for failing to fund the army sufficiently for the jobs they demanded of it. Banal because, despite his long experience of counter-insurgency and peace-keeping operations starting with Northern Ireland in the 1970s, his repeated message through the book is one of 'give the army more money, give the army more time'. ...
The Friends of Wighton are pleased to announce their Cappuccino Concert in Dundee on Saturday 16th October. The event starts with coffee and newspapers, served from 10.30am. The music will begin at 11am. Admission is £5. Historical keyboardist Henry Lebedinsky (pictured right) will be performing a concert of French harpsichord music. Henry, from North Carolina, is visiting Dundee to research baroque Scottish music, using the important collection of old Scottish music books held in Dundee Central Library's Wighton Collection. Henry is a specialist in historical music on organ, clavichord and harpsichord, performing regularly in America with chamber ensembles and baroque ...
This is the video programme I filmed at the Liverpool Lib Dem Conference last month. Presented by me and Greg Stone from Newcastle, we interview 2 Cabinet ministers, lots of members and take a look at the exhibition area and the fringe meetings.Click on "close to play" at the bottom of the ad to play the video rather than the advert.
Following a substantial amount of work from Council officers and local community groups, local councillors were pleased to support a proposal that the Stockport and District Anglers Federation manage and bailiff angling activities at Abney Hall Park pond off Newlands Road in Cheadle. The pond has been used for fishing since 1988 and recent anti-social behaviour has brought this issue forwards. Although in Cheadle, the pond is in Cheadle Hulme North ward and the local councillors June Somekh, Paul Porgess and John Pantall have been working hard on this issue. View Cheadle and Gatley in a larger map
INDIA Over the past two weeks it has been great to see the Indian hosts of the Commonwealth Games, overcome adversity and difficulties in readying the various facilities to producing a fabulous games. I was generally appalled at the mocking comments and snide remarks aimed at the Indian hosts at the beginning. Okay there was some mess, and they were running late, but we shouldn't forget what a massive task this was for India. But they delivered and their earlier embarrassment and expected humiliation on the world stage should now be replaced by pride and joy at having delivered a ...
Lib Dem Voice has been polling party members signed up to our discussion forum on the very live issue of the Lib Dems' response to the Browne Report. Individual links to all signed-up party members have been emailed to the 1,200+ members of the Forum. So far, over 500 responses have been received. If you have not received your email please do contact Ryan Cullen at ryan - ryan.hat.libdemvoice.org.spam.com (this is spam bot hidden email address, replace .hat. with @ and remove .spam.com for the real one) — and if you have yet to join the forums and wish to ...
Stonewall tried to defend themselves against the revelations that they've nominated someone they themselves labelled transphobic for an award, but seem to have spectacularly failed. Given that on Twitter they have been pointing people at this Pink Paper story, it seems reasonable to say that it's a good representation of their position. They are pointing out that Bill Leckie, the journalist in question, has been much nicer recently and mention his positive article on Gareth Thomas last year. Of course, Gareth Thomas is gay, not Trans, so the fact that Leckie has been nice to gay people isn't directly relevant. ...
From Stockport Council: Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles, has announced the abolition of centrally driven targets, known as Local Area Agreements. This will instantly remove reporting on 4700 Whitehall targets. Instead, local areas will be in control of their own delivery targets, answering to residents. In addition National Indicators, used to monitor council performance, will be replaced with an agreed single list of Whitehall data requirements for local government by April 2011. The Council will continue to collect data in relation to the 2010/11 Council Plan measures which provide an indication of progress in achieving the Council's priorities. Future data ...
Congratulations to my new council colleague Helen Lynch who won a tightly-fought by-election in Watford's Central ward last night (see here for details). This has historically been a Lib Dem versus Labour marginal ward and any by-election caused by the resignation of a Lib Dem councillor is going to be tricky. Nonetheless after a hard and at times bitterly-contested campaign, we came through, however, narrowly, making this five by-election wins on the trot for Watford Lib Dems over eight years (and more wins and years if you include the wards of Three Rivers District that are in the Watford constituency). ...
Listen to him here. There are those within the party who believe that Clegg was never with the rest of us on tuition fees. He mollified them somewhat before the election with the signing of the pledge he intends to break and various speeches. They are now screaming WE TOLD YOU SO!!!!. Vince.... Vince I can understand. Vince has to be a spokesman for his government department, he has to stick to the government line, and you can tell he isn't happy about it. Clegg, though... Clegg has a get-out. It's there, in black and white, in the coalition agreement. ...
I'm thinking of taking some anger management classes. You know how I always say "I didn't think Stonewall could make me any more angry, but they just managed it"? Well... it's that time of the week again! Let's look at the latest Stonewall car crash (this week not involving marriage equality, I can hear your hip-hip-hooray's from here!): The Stonewall Awards are to be held on the 4th of November at the Victoria and Albert museum. In the running are various individuals such as Joe McElderry, a young X Factor winner, who is nominated for "Hero of the Year" for ...
News from the Treasury: The annual allowance for tax-privileged pension saving will be reduced from £255,000 to £50,000, and the lifetime allowance will be reduced from £1.8 million to £1.5 million. This will replace the complex proposal legislated for by the last Government in the Finance Act 2010. "Tax-privileged" is a tax break to you and me by the way. The governments estimates that in a normal full year these changes will bring in an extra £4 billion and affect around 100,000, four out of five of whom have incomes of over £100,000. Reducing tax breaks for the most well ...
The BBC report that children born in Wales this century are more likely to be living below the poverty line than their peers in the rest of the UK. They say that researchers have found that one in three Welsh seven-year-olds live in a family with less than 60% of the UK's average household income. This is despite the fact that tackling child poverty is a "top priority" of the Welsh Government and was a major focus of the previous Labour UK Government: The research was carried out by the Institute of Education at the University of London and involved ...
From Stockport Council: Stockport Air Raid Shelters, owned and run by Stockport Council, was one of the runners up at the 2010 England's North West Tourism Awards - narrowly missing the top award for "Best Small Visitor Attraction". For more information about Stockport Air Raid Shelters visit www.airraidshelters.org.uk or phone 0161 474 1940.
It's nice to have something positive to write about for once, and as it's Friday, this should get the weekend off to a good start. Some of you may have attended Colchester Free Festival this year and enjoyed a rather nice day out in Castle Park. If you want to show your appreciation to the ...
The second session of the working group on the theme resolution took place in late afternoon, and I was keen to push on, encouraging my colleagues to focus. And focus we did, allowing us to complete the review of all 107 proposed amendments. From a Liberal Democrat perspective, the big issue were the proposals to seek greater compatibility between the social security systems of the member states and to create an EU framework and qualifying period of eligibility to receive social welfare benefits for immigrants entering the Union. We opposed these, seeing them as an unhelpful intrusion into the affairs ...
There is no cause to doubt that the US killed Linda Norgrove accidentally. My sorrow for her and her family is the same as that I feel for the thousands of entirely innocent Afghan and Pakistani civilians killed in US airstrikes. Nor do I diminsih the responsibility of her captors. But nonetheless, the most worrying point of thw whole incident is the lie propagated by NATO that she was killed by a suicide vest wearing captor. The suicide vest is of course a potent symbol of Islamic fundamentalist violence, and by invoking it NATO were not only lying about who ...
Liberal Democrat Helen Lynch triumphed last night in a Watford Borough Council by-election in Central Ward. The vacancy was caused by the emigration to the USA of the previous Liberal Democrat councillor. Compared to the previous result in the Borough ward - at the May 6th General Election - the Liberal Democrats improved on their vote share and on their majority. The campaign was characterised by misleading leaflets and canvassing by Labour, who sank to the level of unfair personal criticism of the outgoing councillor. The Conservatives also put out misleading leaflets giving a false picture of crime statistics. Under ...
We have a lot of experience in Wales of throwing Quangos onto bonfires, however the experience here does not seem to have helped First Minister, Carwyn Jones in forming a considered view on the Coalition Government's plans. He has accused UK Ministers of rushing through their cull of 192 Quangos, even though his own government's bonfire was equally as rushed and based on the bare minimum of consultation. He says that his administration were given "limited opportunity" to work out the full implications for Wales of such a wide-ranging reform. This again reflects the Welsh experience at a time when ...
The ELDR Congress that has been taking place in Helsinki since Wednesday is the largest ever and is indubitably one of the best. The high turnout reflects not only the growing number of member parties across Europe — the Liberal Party of Moldova and the Solidarity and Freedom Party of Slovakia were admitted into full membership ...
Liberal Democrat Voice reports that Nick Clegg will make a speech today in which he will unveil an extra £7 billion for the pupil premium to help the most disadvantaged children all the way through from pre-school to university. The pledge is one of many brought to the coalition by the Liberal Democrats and marks out the Government's commitment to fairness and to helping the poorest people in our society. As Clegg says: The spending review is a difficult process. As a government, and as individual ministers, we need to be able to look ourselves in the mirror and know ...
Yesterday afternoon saw the presentation of the seven, no, make it six candidates for the three Vice-Presidential vacancies (the Kosovan contender having withdrawn), Lena Ek (Centerpartiet, Sweden), Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert (VVD, Netherlands), Norica Nicolai (PNL, Romania), Vesna Pusic (HNS, Croatia), Dick Roche (Fianna Fail, Ireland) and our own Graham Watson. But first, the introduction of a new Treasurer took place. Roman Jakic (Zares, Slovenia) looked a bit familiar. His CV reminded me why. Many years ago, when dinosaurs roamed the Earth and I had rather more hair than I do now, Roman was a new face at IFLRY, and a popular ...
Yesterday saw a by-election in the St Nicholas Ward on Herefordshire Unitary Authority. It was also the first test for the new political party - It's OUR County (Herefordshire) - a test they past with flying colours holding the seat.
When I wrote about the Browne Report, asking Liberal Democrat MPs to honour their pledges to vote against any rise in tuition fees, I did so looking at the long term effect of lumbering our brightest young people with almost insurmountable debt at the start of their working lives. I also touched on the fact that we as a society benefit from education and it's only right that we should, therefore, pay for it. Yesterday there were two superlative blog posts taking that theme further. One from new blog Angularities asking for the MPs' tuition fee rebellion from the Party's ...
When you live in a place you tend not to notice the things which when visitors arrive they marvel at-in Southport the autumn invasion of pink footed geese fall into that category. They begin to arrive in early September. Every morning around 8.00am they fly over my house, a great raucous mass of them. Vera Marsden, who lives close by, has written a posting on the local RSPB blog : From about 8am. for the next 2 hours, the Pink-Feet must have flown over Birkdale in anything from batches of 1,000's to the solitary 1 playing 'catch up' at 10'ish. ...
We've received more articles for publication on the topic of tuition fees than on any other single topic for a long time. Those not already published will be coming over the next few days. Due to this high volume, we can't commit to publish all new articles submitted on the subject. If you're thinking of writing an article for Lib Dem Voice on tuition fees, please drop us an email first (voice - 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 an brief outline to avoid disappointment.
I am not at the moment resigning from the LibDems over the tuition fees issue. But I have seldom in politics seens anything as nauseatingly insincere as this statement from the Liberal Democrats Federal Policy Committee. Tonight, Wednesday October 13, the Federal Policy Committee of the Liberal Democrats held their regular meeting. During the meeting they held a special session to discuss the latest announcements following the Browne Review. In a statement following the meeting, the committee spokesperson said: "FPC confirms the Liberal Democrat party policy remains to phase out tuition fees. "We are now in a coalition government and ...
Halfway along Great Oxendon railway tunnel there is a ventilation shaft. It emerges in a field on the edge of the village.
Hillary Clinton is concerned that defence cuts in the UK will jeopardise our ability to carry out our NATO obligations. Now NATO was founded to defend the North Atlantic region against advances by the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact allies. The danger of armed invasion by Russia is now minimal, and it is all of 14 years since I had the pleasure of organising a deliciously extravagant, indeed decadent, British Embassy ball in the grand military building in Warsaw where the Pact was signed - an episode I have just been writing up for my next volume of ...
broadcast anniversaries 15 October 1966: broadcast of second episode of The Tenth Planet. The Cybermen take over the base. "Our scientists and doctors devised spare parts for our bodies until we could be almost completely replaced." 15 October 1977: broadcast of third episode of The Invisible Enemy. Leela and K9 defend the laboratory while the cloned Doctor and Leela explore the real Doctor's brain. And what is that giant prawn thing at the end? 15 October 2007: broadcast of first episode of Warriors of Kudlak (SJA). Children who play Combat 3000 are going missing; Luke and Clyde investigate and get ...
Fri 15th
06:25
Clegg secures £7 billion extra to fund education for the most disadvantaged - from pre-school ...
Just as plays have a classic three-act structure, so too do tricky political decisions: first you rule out a potentially popular alternative, then you put out the bad news and finally you sweeten the pill as you try to avert people's worst fears. Last weekend saw act one on the tuition fees message, with Vince Cable taking to email to rule out a graduate tax - and trying to pre-empt Labour support for it by emphasising that party's own previous opposition to the idea. (Given the subsequent news of now Shadow Chancellor Alan Johnson's continued opposition to a graduate tax, ...
I love this election video from one of the candidates in the Edmonton City Election:
On Wednesday evening I went to a lecture by the physicist Brian Foster from Oxford University. He was talking about physics in general and Einstein in particular. Einstein enjoyed playing the violin and Brian was joined by the violinist Jack Liebeck for a very entertaining evening at the end of which we had time for questions. My question was about the creation of the universe and whether physics alone could provide an explanation. On three or four occasions Brian spoke about explanations in physics that stem from the moment just after the big bang. There is the obvious question about ...
