[IMG: Image courtesy of BBC] Image from BBC.
Sun 16th
23:45
NHS first in 11-nation Survey. Best for Access, Best for Efficiency and Best for Patient Confidence
Yes, we all know there are areas of the NHS that need to be improved – but a recent international comparison across 11 countries in Europe, North America and the Pacific showed that Britain's NHS is a world leader. The survey was carried out last year by the Commonwealth Fund, a US thinktank which specialises in health matters. This gave the NHS top marks, in stark contrast to the predominantly private US system where 50 million people are without health cover at all. The Commonwealth Fund survey shows that the NHS delivers a high quality, comprehensive service across the entire ...
For a fleeting moment in my first Introduction to Politics lecture a couple of weeks back I was delighted that the first bit of "multi-media" content in the lecture was an interview with Friedrich von Hayek. The slight moistening, however, was soon stopped when it turned out to be a snippet from uber-cynic Adam Curtis attacking Thatcher for her well known, but, I suspect, much misunderstood, dictum that "there is no such thing as society". I vaguely remember her saying it, and the furore it caused at the time, but when you read through that original interview, I think it ...
Dan Wheldon with his elder son kissing the bricks at the finish line of Indianapolis Motor Speedway this year British motorsports fans often forget about Dan Wheldon. When it comes to car racing it is all about Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton but for the last few years he and Bathgate's Dario Franchetti have been two of the leading lights in the IRL Indycar series. Wheldon actually won the title in 2005, before Dario won the first of his three titles prior to the one he won as a result of the crash that took Wheldon's life today. He has ...
The Mercury's political correspondent David MacLean writes: When I moved to the Mercury it was clear that Keith was very keen for reporters to do some traditional digging and contact-building and come up with stories that press officers would have kept hidden. When I started there were two political reporters, and Keith wanted to make sure we both knew the Freedom of Information Act inside out to help expose the workings of local authorities, and courses in London were offered to us. Two years down the line and I've pulled in some cracking tales from FOI. As a former political ...
Sun 16th
22:57
A local Liberal hero who knew why Liberals still banded together to continue the struggle
'The truth is that Liberalism is the only hope of a world in which dictators still rule; in which preparation for war is the only insurance against chaos; in which men can be victimised because of their colour or creed; in which there is one law for weak and another for the strong. It is because we know this that we Liberals are still banded together to continue the struggle.' David Bentliff January 1952 In those difficult days for Liberalism Southport Liberals still commanded significant support in the town. Local newspapers described 'the old world part of the town (Churchtown ...
Knock on door. Introduce myself. Start talking about candidate. Person quickly interrupts me. Says how angry they are about "those letters" they have received. Start worrying person is going to complain about some Liberal Democrat letters. Then smile broadly when realise they mean "those letters" sent to them by Bromley Council. Hooray. Add another supporter to the list for Anuja Prashar, whose by-election goes to the polls this Thursday and who got an excellent and large team of people out helping her this morning: Details of how to help are on Flock Together.
The always excellent Jock Coats has a post on his site about political socialisation. It got me thinking about my own political views and how they were shaped. Being that objective is never easy. One might like to claim that through intellectual prowess one worked out a whole system of looking at the world and was never influenced by school or parents. The truth is inevitably far more messy. Family always plays a part. The things you hear your family say, what papers a family member reads (if they read a paper at all) and how they vote will probably ...
You can read more about Matthews's course - "PAR 501 Understanding Our Paranormal Universe" - on the International Metaphysical University website. Thanks to Left Foot Forward for this. I suspect there will be more from the fascinating Mr Matthews in days to come.
In the last hour there has been a 15 car collision in the final Indycar race of the season in Las Vegas. There were several cars burst into flames one of which had taken off for about 6-7 car lengths after being unable to avoid a collision in front, while two others also look as if they were airbourne for less time. As a motorsports fan my thoughts and prayers are with the drivers involved, any of their families either at trackside or watching/getting news elsewhere and with the medical teams at the track. I'm not going to embed the ...
I've written here before about my role as a trustee on the board of Luton Culture, the independent charity that runs the libraries, museums and arts service in Luton on behalf of the Council. Inevitably the austerity measures that the Government is having to take to to deal with the country's deficit problem is working its way down to organisations like ours. So Luton Culture is having to deal with difficult cuts in funding from the different bodies that provide our resources. We will be losing significant revenue from the Arts Council and the Renaissance in the Regions scheme which ...
We have had a report of criminal damage occurring in Thruffle Way, Bar Hill between Wednesday 12th October, and Thursday 13 October. It is believed this took place during the hours of darkness when an unknown offender(s) has thrown a tin of white gloss paint over the front door and windows of a property in this location. If you have any information about this incident, please contact me. Between Sunday 8th October, at approx 13:30, and Monday 10th October at 07:30 October, there was been a burglary in the City Crematorium, Dry Drayton where an unknown offender(s) entered a garage ...
Well as I'm sure you're aware on Tuesday during Full Council us lucky Councillors will have the opportunity to grant ourselves an inflation-busting 25% pay rise.The justification for this seems to centre around the fact that Councillors have not had a rise in several years and the independent panel convened to look at our allowances concluded that allowances in Cambridgeshire we're drastically lower than comparable authorities and it is time for a raise to bring us into line.As someone who would only benefit from the change (I'm not in receipt of any SRA's so only the 25% boost to the ...
Reviewing the new Half Man Half Biscuit album 90 Bisodol (Crimond) for The Quietus, Taylor Parkes says: For insight, wit and imagination, Half Man Half Biscuit are currently peerless. Sharp as The Fall, cackling through fag-smoke at earnest 80s positivity; jarring as The Kinks' sardonic kitchen-sink palaver in the middle of a Swinging London youth-and-beauty cult. Over the past 20 years they've written fifty or sixty songs as smart, as clear-sighted and articulate as pretty much any pop music, ever...Look, I am sure all that is true. But the really great thing about this song is that it is called ...
"Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope..." I'm lover of great speeches! I can listen to them like music - to shut my eyes and imagine that I am there too. Robert Kennedy's 'Day of Affirmation Address' (6th June 1966) in South Africa at the height of apartheid was not only politically noble and brave but the speech is one of enduring liberal ideals. It remains relevant for all those inequalities that still trouble mankind, but also ...
Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 243rd weekly round-up from the Lib Dem blogosphere ... Featuring the seven most popular stories beyond Lib Dem Voice according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (9-15 October, 2011), together with a hand-picked quintet, normally courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed. Don't forget: you can sign up to receive the Golden Dozen direct to your email inbox — just click here — ensuring you never miss out on the best of Lib Dem blogging. As ever, let's start with the most popular post, and work our way down: 1. A memo to ...
At conference, I had the pleasure of meeting many members of the party who, to my surprise, reacted positively and largely in agreement when I described myself as a classical liberal and sympathetic to free market economics. A few weeks before conference, I had heard that some party members were considering forming a grass roots organisation that aims to bring together and facilitate discussion and policy development amongst those in the Liberal Democrats who are sympathetic to economic liberalism, i.e. the 'Orange Bookers'. I believe that there is definitely a demand for such an organisation, and a large number of ...
Here is the Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, on Parents' Week 2011:
This is the text of the speech I delivered yesterday, at the Liberal Democrats' East Midlands regional Conference, in a debate on a motion on the NHS Bill currently going through Parliament: "I'm speaking in support of the motion and in support of a National Health Service which remains free at the point of use ...
LDV reported yesterday that "Nick Clegg has thrown his weight behind a campaign being launched by PR Week and the PRCAs to end the practice of unpaid internships". The post goes on to say "To launch the campaign, the PRCA will today take the step of placing a list on its website of all PRCA member agencies who commit to paying at least the National Minimum Wage to interns". Hmmm. How many unpaid interns do the Lib Dems employ I wonder? Back in April of this year, didn't I read about Jonny Medland who worked – for free – for ...
The emails I've been getting from the Ken Livingstone campaign often raise a smile. I don't think they really meant that Ken's election chances depend on people "like myself" for example... And sometimes the details in such campaign messages are rather telling – as with this weekend's email which listed the many professions of people who have helped his campaign. Well, I say many professions but in fact five were listed – of which four were public sector and only the one (builders) private sector. Only a detail of course, but a telling one about the instinctive view the Labour ...
Where to begin with the muppet that is Oliver Letwin. OK, perhaps I shouldn't call him a muppet, but anyone who has been in public office for as long as he has should know better right? Clearly not. This week the ...
We lost an extraordinary woman in Newbury last Sunday. Peggy Anderson passed away, aged 85, in one of the Rainbow rooms of West Berkshire Community Hospital. Peggy was a tireless worker for the "Liberals" (as she affectionately called us) for around half a century. You name the occasion, if it was to do with West Berkshire Liberals/LibDems over the last 50 odd years, Peggy was there. Bundling, stuffing, envelope addressing, fronting the campaign HQ, acting as a very cheerful and sympathetic receptionist for David Rendel MP for twelve years, leading what was affectionately called the "Granny Gang" administrative team for ...
Welcome to a new series of posts, each of which will look to give three tips about commonly asked campaign issues. Do get in touch - mark.hat.libdemvoice.org.spam.com (this is spam bot hidden email address, replace .hat. with @ and remove .spam.com for the real one) if you have any questions you would like to suggest. Today's Campaign Corner question: What can Liberal Democrat campaigners learn from research that academics and others have done into British politics? There is a huge literature of potentially relevant research, especially if you also cast your net outside Britain or look at research in other ...
Edmund Burke is often cited as the philosophical founder of modern conservatism. He was never a Tory but a Whig who favoured the American Revolution but fell out with his fellow Whigs over the French Revolution. The thoughts he set down in 'Reflections on the Revolution in France' set the tone for much political debates for decades, if not the next two centuries. I recently discovered that Murray Rothbard believed that Burke's 'Vindication of a Natural Society', written when Burke was 27, reveal his anarchist inclinations. If Rothbard is right, then perhaps Burke was a bit of an anarchist and ...
The economic problem about jobs is a bit like a game of football. A football game needs a certain number of referees and linesmen to keep the game going. However the point of the game lies in the skills of the players, not of the officials. Small children do not generally have pictures of the officials on their walls, even when a poor decision by an official may have substantial impact on the result of a match. The same issue arises with state sector jobs. The fact is that poor regulation can kill an economy just as it would kill ...
Sun 16th
14:20
The Independent View | 'Truth, Lies & the Internet' - how we need to educate our children for th...
The Internet can be a hugely liberating force. Bypassing the traditional gatekeepers — publicists and editors — the 'public sphere 2.0' empowers pressure groups, citizen journalists and researchers to hold the powerful and the responsible to account, armed with far more specialist expertise, analysis and facts at our fingertips than ever before. But the Internet can also trap and snare. Now that the floodgates of self-published and user-generated content have opened, there is also an unprecedented amount of utter nonsense floating around in the digital aether: from genuine mistakes to selective half-truths, hidden bias and outright, naked propaganda and disinformation. ...
Well done the Leicester Mercury: The name of a town's annual Pork Pie Fair has been changed - because it has nothing to do with pork pies.
If that comes to pass, if by then the fight is still against a recessionary cycle of low consumer spending, lengthening job queues, increasing poverty and social crisis - we will have failed, and failed terribly. There are many factors outside of the control of this country alone (and on its own), and the legacy of economic and banking mismanagement over the past decades is a given but as Nick Clegg said, you can do a lot with £700 billion a year. A deep set recession leading to deflation was previously averted by considerable international stimulus and effectively devaluing the ...
Councillor Geoff Juby In Friday 7th October's Medway Kent Messenger local Liberal Democrat councillor and stalwart Councillor Geoff Juby wrote a small piece on the NHS and Medway. (page 22 if you have it.) Geoff exposes some facts that I'm sure members of the community will not know, including me! There does seem to be a major discrepancy between the NHS reform and services and the role of the public. As Geoff says, the NHS is one of the Government services that touches all of our lives and is the support for "Cradle to grave." yet who gets to say ...
Sun 16th
12:05
Video and photo links: Here are the Morris Dancers who danced around David Cameron as he did his res...
The Charlbury Morris Dancers danced around the Prime Minister as he carried out his Cabinet Reshuffle on the platform of Charlbury Station, Oxfordshire on Friday afternoon. His mobile phone reception was particularly poor, so he kept on having to redial MPs to tell them he'd promoted them. There are several photos here on the Charlbury Morris Dancers website, of them dancing at Charlbury Station at the "Cotswold line redoubling celebrations" with David Cameron present. This photo shows Cameron coming down the steps with the Morris dancers in the foreground. (Yes, I did carefully scour the photos to see if I ...
Sun 16th
11:53
Lobbying and party funding reform are both vital and urgent - so why aren't the Lib Dems saying so?
If there is one thing the Liberal Democrats are not it is a party of vested interests: not beholden to trade unions, to professional lobbyists or to big business. Free to advocate policies that work and are right for the ... Continue reading →
I suspect few of you know this, but Wednesday was actually World Arthritis Day. For charities in the musculoskeletal sector this can be a pretty big deal, as we jostle to publish new research and try and ensnare policy makers in dialogue. And so it proved to be when NRAS participated in a live webchat with the Health Minister, Paul Burstow MP, the man with responsibility for long-term conditions, like Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA). Needless to say we were cock-a-hoop that the Minister agreed to participate. He could have quite easily cancelled on us due to all the palaver surrounding the ...
Why do we tolerate Joseph Kony and the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA)? By 'tolerate', I mean: why are we not so much more angry? Why have most people barely, if ever, even heard of them? Why is this not much higher up the priority list of people who care about foreign policy? Why is Kony's name not as notorious as that of Osama Bin Laden? If Kony was a Muslim, his evils would constantly (and spuriously) be reported in the context of Islamist radicalism. Here we have a man raised as a Christian who has waged a brutal war to ...
The Council plans to spend around £100,000 improving Cheadle village centre next year (this follows on from the work in Gatley to improve the Church Road pavement and Gatley Green). We'd like your thoughts and ideas on what could best be done. Note that this money is for work on roads and pavements. We've got a couple of ideas: Parking bays on the High Street Sections of Cheadle High Street are wide enough to take short-stay parking, but it currently gets messy with (illegal) parking along the road that then holds up traffic. Elsewhere there has been success in putting ...
This is a governmental consultation, link to the current Government consultation on the proposal to deregulate entertainment. http://www.culture.gov.uk/consultations/8408.aspx The Council's Licensing Team, together with Public Protection and Environmental Protection will be preparing a detailed response to the consultation, as well.
God I need to do something with my life!
Back in the 1990s I wrote my Masters dissertation on Richard Jefferies, so he has long been a hero of this blog. See the guest post by Rebecca Welshman from August for more about him and about the Richard Jefferies Museum at Coate. Jefferies also featured in the Guardian yesterday, where Adam Thorpe described him as "arguably the founding father of environmentalism in Britain and (through fans such as Liberty Hyde Bailey) the US". Thorpe went on to describe the threat to Coate and "Jefferies" Land today: The area outside Coate Water, a 19th-century reservoir and park saved in 2006 ...
I've blogged before about some of the security issues around the NHS's Personal Demographics Service – a mammoth database with 80,000,000 personal records in it, yet with 700,000 people granted access to it – and with such limited auditing systems that experts have concluded it is "incredibly difficult if not impossible" to detect or trace misuse of the data. So it was good to see Julian Huppert take up with issue with a Parliamentary question, asking the Department of Health what assessments it has made of how adequate the safeguards in the PDS really are at preventing illegal access to ...
This Al Jazeera report highlights the growing scandal of forced evictions in the developing world. This example is from Uganda. For some background to this issue see the Oxfam resource page.
Link to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN with information about World Food Day. BBC article about the benefit of trees for crop security. Information about TreeAid. Independent newspaper article about the one billion that will go hungry this year. A link to the HEWS(Humanitarian Earling Warning Service) map. Fairtrade Foundation article on Food, Farming and the Future.
Metrolink Tram Replacement; I LOVE MCR campaign; Private Sector Engagement Yesterday was the regular monthly meeting of the AGMA/GMCA Scrutiny Pool (Association of Greater Manchester Authorities/Greater Manchester Combined Authority). This brings together 30 councillors, 3 from each of the 10 districts in Greater Manchester. This year I am one of two "Co-Chairs" of the Pool, and this month was my turn to Chair. Metrolink Fleet Renewal The main item on the agenda was the replacement of some of the older trams on the Metrolink system, with some new trams, identical to the new ones recently introduced. The item was a ...
My view of Sutton Liberal Democrats and their raffle-organising abilities are of course shaped by the way their raffles meet my Lib Dem raffle best practice advice and in no way shaped by the fact that on Saturday evening I walked away with this:
This morning's Observer contains another example of how Liberal Democrat Ministers are working to keep the worst excesses of the Conservatives in check. The paper says that Lynne Featherstone, the Liberal Democrat equalities minister, has attacked the "hideous" ideas of David Cameron's closest aides in a sign of coalition tensions over the government's family policies: In a wide-ranging interview with the Observer, Featherstone said it was vital the coalition delivered on its family-friendly rhetoric, amid concerns that the government is haemorrhaging support among disillusioned female voters. In a forthright attack on some of the advisers shaping government policy, she criticised ...
Incredible Edible Prestwich and District invite you to their apple day PHILIPS PARK BARN on SATURDAY 22nd OCTOBER, 11am - 3pm * Drink apple juice fresh from the press (we have some apples - but please bring your own if you can). * Play games: Apple bobbing, pin the maggot on the apple, apple printing, longest apple peel competition etc. * Buy apple and other fruit products: Chutneys, jellies and jams, cakes, pies, chocolate apples, toffee apples etc. * Sample our apple pancakes * Help us plant an apple tree on our fruit garden site * Explore the history of ...
Cambridgeshire County Council is asking residents to comment on its plans to build a new secondary school for Cambourne as a consultation is launched this week. Plans for the new school will be on display on Wednesday 12 October between 2pm and 8pm at The Hub, Cambourne Community Centre, High Street, Cambourne. Planning Officers from the County Council will be on hand at the event to answer questions, particularly about the planning process and how local residents and other members of the public can have their say on the proposed development. The new school is intended to take some of ...
The fifth AGM of the Dundee Fair Trade Forum takes place on Thursday 27th October at 7pm in Room 2522, Bell Street Building, University of Abertay, Dundee. The guest speaker for the evening will be Martin Rhodes, Director of the Scottish Fair Trade Nation campaign, who will give an update on Scotland's bid to become a Fair Trade Nation by 2012.
As one of Coronation Street's greatest fans, I was very sad to learn of the passing of Betty Driver - Betty Turpin and Williams to the millions of Coronation Street followers. A brilliant actress, who looked twenty years younger than she actually was, the vegetarian famed for her Rovers' hot pot, she will be sadly missed.
An issue raised by Acocks Green Neighbourhood Forum recently is the nuisance caused by the endless succession of scrap metal merchants advertising their presence. Most residents have a scrap metal merchant pass by most days, including Sundays, using amplifiers, horns or bugles. The noise wakes young children and babies as well as disturbing people on night shifts. I've discussed the matter with Henry Biddington, an Environmental Health Officer at Birmingham City Council, who has clarified the legal situation as follows: "An offence under the Control of Pollution Act is if the Scrap Metal Merchants use an amplified loud speaker attached ...
