Latin, On the first appearance.] A fact presumed to be true unless it is disproved. In common parlance the term prima facie is used to describe the apparent nature of something upon initial observation. In legal practice the term generally is used to describe two things: the presentation of sufficient evidence by a civil claimant to support the legal claim (a prima facie case), or a piece of evidence itself (prima facie evidence) The Labour leader made a rather bizarre speech on Thursday evening. Essentially he was arguing that because his brother (Chair of the Mersey transport Exec) had asserted ...
The Friends of Southern Cemetery Group Action Day
Just a note about the Action Day that the Friends of Southern Cemetery Group held yesterday in the New Cemetery. A lot of rubbish was collected and more progress made in removing some of the weeds and shrubbery that is blocking light and air getting to the hedgerow on Nell Lane. There is still a lot of work to be done in the New Cemetery. We are discussing holding a pre-Christmas Action Day, with everyone welcome to come along and help get the cemetery into a condition we can all be proud of. Before that, we will be holding a ...
[IMG: photo (5)] Labour locally, like their colleagues nationally, are in somewhat of a crisis, aware that most of the electorate have rumble them and realising that the Blair and Brown years, were based on mortgaging our future, and covered up by a whooping lie from Brown "the years of boom and bust are over". Local labour have played a pretty poor game of late, own goals like fighting against jobs, social housing, de-selection of Mark Nottingham who has been replaced Ian Driver of whom, it's not clear (at least as I see it) whether he's still a member of ...
The conventional political wisdom is that some ideas are dead and unlikely to to see the light of day for a generation. So just for the record and so I can claim mystical powers when my predictions come true: British Membership of the Euro Electoral Reform Federalism within England/UK (and Europe for that matter Euro At the at Conference in September I suggested to Jon Ball -late of this Parish and now resident in Ealing- that the Euro would be back on the political agenda. He did not agree! Now is not the time to go into great detail in ...
The last we heard of Rupert Matthews, soon to become on of the MEPs for the East Midlands, he was following advice not to speak to the media. But he has clearly changed his mind, because he was quoted by Christopher Cook in yesterday's Financial Times (registration needed): Mr Matthews told the Financial Times, however, that he does not have a "belief in the paranormal". He said that IMU "commissioned me to put together an introductory course along lines they specified and, as a freelance writer, I was happy to do so".Mr Matthews, who has written more than 180 books, ...
Writing on the Guardian website last week, Lib Dem peer Paul Tyler took issue with the lobbying methods on the NHS bill of campaigning organisation 38 Degrees. He commented: The kind of exaggeration 38 Degrees used made people ask whether simply filling up someone's inbox with a lot of half-constructed half-truths was a respectable way to campaign. The organisation had not asked people to engage with any of the detail of this issue, and had given a false impression about the headlines. Some would say this route leads us into a form of one-click rent-a-mob - what is now termed ...
How on earth did I miss this? Delighted hat-tip to sunnytyler001. Also delighted to see my cousin and his wife at 0:35 and 3:04. But it's the moment at 2:40 that really got me.
ITN have recently released a load of news broadcasts on their website - including political and election coverage. Here is Michael Foot's Labour arguing for the equalisation of constituency electorates in the 1983 review. This of course was completely principled and had nothing to do with party advantage at the time, just as their arguing of the complete opposite is now.
Royal succession rules are being changed so that females have equal rights to the Commonweath realm thrones. This throws up some interesting situations if the rule had been in place during different parts of history. Stephen Glenn has an interesting article about what would have happened at the time of Henry VII but I wanted to take it further back in history. I started at the Norman conquest with William I (Willian the Conqueror). The early years are a bit complicated because of Kings choosing which child will inherit the throne and battles between brothers. William I divided his successions ...
As all of us set our clocks back today a far bigger change to time in Britain is being planned in Westminster. The government, or at least some sections of it, seem keen to move British clocks forward by one hour, leaving us with Central European Time (CET) as opposed to the traditional GMT, and ...
On October 16th I blogged about David Cameron doing his cabinet reshuffle while opening a double railway line amidst Charlbury Morris Dancers. Many thanks indeed to Richard from the Charlbury Morris Dancers who sent me the following account of the event. He also pointed me to this video from Witney TV of the event, which includes a shot of David Cameron and the Morris Dancers, plus David Cameron at the end on his mobile phone conducting his cabinet reshuffle (screen shot above). Here is Richard's account of the event: Forgive the belated comment on what is now old news, but ...
Hertfordshire residents are invited to express their top 3 policing priorities in a Herts Police Authority survey. Go to http://bit.ly/voNzxM
I haven't actually read these proposals which I understand are set out in today's "Observer" but one of our "followers" Phil Pavey, has this to say in a letter with he hopes wil lbe published in tomorrow's "Guardian." I headline it s (1) as I'm sure I shall have something to add myself when I see the proposals. (I don't take the "Observer" as it takes me all weekend to read the Saturday "Guardian.) 'Plan B' published by 100 prominent economists in Sunday's Observer deserves the support of all my fellow Liberal Democrats. The current government policy of cuts to ...
Every few years, the issue of party funding comes up as a matter of negotiation between the main parties. Usually it remains a matter for the wonks before it disappears again, since it is very difficult to find any agreement, and politicians are understandably embarrassed by this issue. Well, it's about to be back: it was included in the coalition agreement and a report with recommendations will be published soon (report in the Guardian; further article on Guardian CIF). The problem is this: how can we wean parties off the support they get from large donors (including the Unions) and ...
A proposal to cut back on pumping water from low lying areasbetween Southport, Ormskirk and Formby is a major worry to local residents,says Lib Dem Councillor John Dodd. The Environment Agency are proposing to cutback on pumping at some or all ofthe 13 pumping stations draining the low lying areas around Southport. Cllr John Dodd (left) and Cllr Simon Shaw Cllr Dodd said: "Within living memory we have had floodingof some homes in Crossens from the pumped watercourses, so this is an issue ofserious concern. I think it isunacceptable that the Environment Agency are only holding two consultationsessions for members ...
Barnet FC report their FA Cup draw against Southport. They don't sound too confident! I am also left wondering what Southport Chairman Charlie Clapham has done to leave such an impression on Barnet................
Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 245th 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 (23-29 October, 2011), together with five hand-picked posts, 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. My stroke on ...
At last Thursday's Sefton Council I again tried to push Merseytravel to publish the background papers and and evidence they used when they made their highly surprising policy 'U" turn earlier this year on vertical integration of our local Merseyrail network. Whilst this can be perceived as a complex issue it is all rather straight forward. For years rail experts have been saying that splitting the operator and infrastructure parts of the railways up has led to greater costs and therefore higher ticket prices. They also say that we could run our railways better if the two were joined ...
David Steel should know what he's talking about when it comes to constitutional politics. As a co-chair of the Scottish Constitutional Convention and subsequently as the chair of the Steel Commission that examined post devolution policy options for the Liberal Democrats, his experience and knowledge is unparallelled. We should, therefore listen to what he has to say. He has stepped into the debate, instigated by Willie Rennie, on the subject of a two question referendum, saying that it could lead to an unclear outcome. He, of course, has had direct experience of politicians with an agenda seeking to manipulate the ...
If you are under a certain age (25? 30?) you probably won't have a clue what I'm writing about here but in the dim and distant past there was quite a large custom of guying. Basically a group of kids would make a guy and then, not to put too finer point on it, beg for money outside of shops calling out "penny for the guy." it was a nice little earner for the kids who did it. The guy was then ritually burned around a bonfire (can't remember the last time I saw this too) This is not a ...
30th October, 1995: 16 years ago today. By the narrowest of margins, the mostly French-speaking Canadian province of Quebec votes against sovereignty, and decides to remain part of Canada: Quebec Referendum, 30th October 1995: Do you agree that Quebec should become sovereign after having made a formal offer to Canada for a new economic and political partnership within the scope of the bill respecting the future of Quebec and of the agreement signed on June 12, 1995? Yes, 2,308,360, 49.42% No, 2,362,648, 50.58% Turnout 93.52% As you can see from the question asked to Quebeckers, the Salmond tactic of bamboozling ...
This week has been a week of work Vs campaigning Vs my friends trying to convince me I should still have a social life of sorts. Saturday and Sunday last week was spent out on the Ground again getting my residents surveys out and about - in the same manner that they have been this weekend. Monday to Thursday was spent earning a living bar and I took a day of Paid Annual Leave on Friday to catch up with errands and open a bank account. *** WARNING MINI-BANK RANT APPROACHING! The closing and opening a bank account part of ...
In just over a decade, cyberspace has completely changed the way we live and work. Access has grown from 16 million internet users in 1995 to nearly 2 billion today, more than half of whom are in developing countries. On November 1st and 2nd, we will be hosting the London Conference on Cyberspace. The first of its kind, it will be a high profile event attended by the Foreign Secretary, Hillary Clinton, and high level delegates from over sixty countries. The rapid development of a globally networked world offers enormous opportunities as well as challenges. When he announced the Conference, ...
There have been two bits of good news for Council taxpayers in Cornwall over the weekend. The first is that Kent County Council has won its court battle to get back money it invested in Icelandic banks. Many local authorities were caught out by their failure (including Cornwall County Council and Restormel Borough Council). As the successor authority, Cornwall Council has had to set aside money in case it was unable to get the Icelandic money back. Kent's win makes it much more likely that we will get our money back too and this should free up the 'set aside' ...
Yesterday we had one of those family occasions you only have once in a blue moon. It was my Auntie Jean's 90th birthday, so we had the gathering of the Walter clan at Polkerris, Cornwall. Sadly, not everyone could make it, but those that did made it an exceptional event. Here's a photo of us all on the right. We took over the top end of the Rashleigh Arms, whose management kindly turned on the sea for us, so we had a great scene outside the bay window. It was a sublime, relaxed affair, topped off by a beautiful speech ...
The Campaign Corner series looks 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: I prefer learning by reading rather than by hearing people speak at training sessions. What campaigning books would you recommend? Lots of possible answers, but in the spirit of Campaign Corner's love of threes, here are just three, deliberately chosen as one each from the main party perspectives: ...
I spent an enjoyable afternoon with the Wirral History and Heritage Association at Wallasey Town Hall on Wednesday afternoon. Joy gave an excellent lecture about Wirral's history and how Wallasey Town Hall came into existence (and what has happened in it since) and a really in-depth look at the history of the Borough. The Mayor ...
My Smile Sessions box set is in the post right now. It should be arriving tomorrow. If, like me, you are getting incredibly excited for this box set's release tomorrow, here's a dozen or so albums from 1966 through 1968 that go well with the feel of Smile, or in some cases contrast well with ...
Why both the anti-capitalist Occupy movement and the ideological defenders of the free market are all missing the true fault of capitalism. 99% are angry. Well, actually, we don't know how they feel but a minuscule percentage of them are giving up their weekends to vent what they claim is the anger of the rest of us. They're angry about greed - the greed of the bankers and the policy makers they are blaming for this long economic storm. The last time the global economy seemed so dire, it was the greed of the investors and manufacturers that was blamed ...
Yesterday there was a daft article in the Independent which repeated three canards relating to pay: 1. No-one in the public sector should earn more than the Prime Minister. Let's be clear no-one in the public sector does earn more ... Continue reading →
How the internet's SSL security regime is unravelling in the face of fraudsters, hackers and the security services of despotic regimes. What looks like your email, but may not actually be your email? Possibly a sophisticated fake created by the Iranian government to monitor your communication; so sophisticated in fact that those providing the perfect mock-up of your email are using a valid SSL certificate. This gives your browser the impression that the page is authentic, in the most recent case masquerading as a legitimate Google service, and bypassing any warning that you could normally expect when visiting a fraudulent ...
Matthew Sweet is an official hero of this blog for his books Inventing the Victorians and Shepperton Babylon. The former argues that the Victorians were a great deal less Victorian than we now imagine and the latter shows that the idea that British films are cosy and twee is nonsense.* Today's Observer Magazine has a feature by him, drawn from his new book The West End Front: The Wartime Secrets of London's Grand Hotels: On 17 July 1945, in a room at Claridge's hotel, the rules of cartography went into abeyance. England receded to the four walls of suite 212 ...
Apologies for lack of posting recently. I've been a bit busy and will likely continue to be for a good while. I will dip in and out as I can though. I really felt that I had to comment though on the debacle of the Lib Dems having been made via a 3 line whip to vote against a referendum on membership of the EU. Frankly, what the hell were we playing at? I lost count of the number of times I heard party spokespeople in the run up to the election last year repeat the mantra that we should ...
I'm a candidate in a council by-election in the Hillhead ward in Glasgow. I'm a Liberal Democrat, and the ward has a big old university slap bang in the middle of it. You'd think I'd be bricking it, wouldn't you? After the tuition fees betrayal, students hate the Liberal Democrats, don't they? Well they might do, but I'd like to explain how the real villains in Scotland are the SNP. The SNP are in fact imposing thousands of pounds of up-front fees on each and every Scottish student and their families. "But the SNP have preserved free tuition!" I hear ...
Once upon a time, there were four Creetings - St Peter and St Mary will be familiar to regular visitors - but for different reasons, we are now reduced to just two. Yes, you can find Creeting Hills and the evocatively named Creeting Bottoms on maps, but they're just names to fill blank spaces. Creeting All Saints lay between Needham Market and the core of modern day Creeting St Mary, although the two parishes were so intertwined that the parish churches shared a churchyard by all accounts. But All Saints Church blew down in a great storm in the early ...
I'm sure all of us can agree that we want to be more free from the State. The social contract is that I pay taxes and partake in certain activities to benefit the state such as voting, the census, jury duty, conform to the law and should the worst happen perform national service with conscription. In return the state helps to educate, police, heal etc. It is about achieving a balance, obviously a state that has no interest in the lives of its citizens is a bad state destined to be overthrown where as a state like Nazi Germany, where ...
Welsh Labour AMs and MPs are rambling on about how the UK Government is divided on the issue of the Eurozone, both in terms of the 81 Conservative 'rebels' and the opposing view of the junior Coalition partners, the Lib Dems. Surely they've heard the saying 'people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones'? It's a
In September, I highlighted residents' concerns about the poor state of some of the landscaping at the Technology Park, particularly on Riverside Avenue, being a key "ambassador route" entrance into the city. I am pleased to have been given updates from both Scottish Enterprise (who own the technology park) and the City Council following a on-site meeting between the council's Environment Department, Scottish Enterprise and Colliers International, Scottish Enterprise's Property Portfolio Managing Agents. Scottish Enterprise has advised me, "The purpose of the meeting was to inspect those areas of landscaping and road verges along Riverside Way and Apollo Way and ...
One of the highlights of my year is going to the Ripley Bonfire in Surrey to enjoy the bonfire, fireworks and good food. This year I took along friends Chris Mills and Denzil, Amanda and Josh Coulson, none of whom ...
I've written previously about my belief that Lib Dems are more successful electorally when the Conservative vote falls and the Labour vote rises. I've noticed an interesting pattern among previous General Elections that seems to agree with my hypothesis. It is as follows: Election: Largest Party: Did Liberals / Lib Dems gain or lose seats? 2010 Conservatives Lost 2005 Labour Gain 2001 Labour Gain 1997 Labour Gain 1992 Conservatives Lost 1987 Conservatives Lost 1983 Conservatives Gain 1979 Conservatives Lost 1974 (Oct) Labour Lost 1974 (Feb) Labour Gain 1970 Conservatives Lost 1966 Labour Gain 1964 Labour Gain The obvious exceptions ...
I'm still not well enough to work at the moment and its been hard filling my days with things to do when I am a creature of habit that doesn't like sitting still and doing nothing. One of things I did ...
Oh dear. Uncomfortable. Asked by Channel 4 political editor Gary Gibbon about the decision to form a coalition at the last general election, Mr Gove said: "I admire Nick Clegg hugely. "He took an enormous risk for his party and he did so because he believed it was in the national interest to do so... "Nick Clegg said 'we are going to be with you to the end of deficit reduction', and there has been no wavering from any Liberal Democrat ministers and indeed noises from any Lib Dem MPs, and secondly I think Nick Clegg's courage on higher education ...
The gut-wrenching story of agricultural and economic disaster in the late 1930s, and how vulnerable people get exploited both in general and in particular. A tough read in places; the imagery of the final scene particularly lingers. Deservedly won a Pulitzer Prize in its day and helped to secure Steinbeck's Nobel.
The suggestion today, emanating from the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, that council tax for band D properties could be cut by £20 per annum, funded by the abolition of the second home discount, is the sort of stupidity that I have grown accustomed to from the blue wing of the glorious Coalition (although the yellow wing isn't exempt from criticism either). What is a very good story - the abolition of the second home discount on council tax - is utterly ruined by an undeliverable promise of individual savings. Why do I say that?Second homes are ...
This is another song from the days when I still bought vinyl LPs. The Rockingbirds were a shortlived (though they have reformed in recent years) country rock group from London - Muswell Hillbillies, or something like that. AllMusic says their eponymous first LP from 1992 "earned a warm critical response but met with commercial failure". This is my favourite track from it, though I also have a soft spot for Jonathan, Jonathan too - even though it turned out to be a tribute, not to me, but to Jonathan Richman.
[IMG: the queen] No doubt excitement is mounting throughout the upper echelons of the great and the good of Thanet Society and indeed, Kent as a whole. As yet details of the visit due on Friday 11th November are limited, however I would assume a circuit of the Turner Contemporary is most likely, in which case I'd guess Thanet's top knobs might well play second fiddle to KCC wallahs. I see at least one local councillor is showing he's already muchly excited "a great privilege for the town and the island in general. I suspect that the frantic polishing of ...
[IMG: Ed Butcher with the visitor permits that are now worthless] Last month my colleague Ed Butcher predicted the Council's plans to force residents in the Finsbury Park Controlled Parking Zone (CPZ) to return all their visitor parking permits would result in chaos (see previous post). This prediction has proved correct – and we have been inundated with complaints from residents about how long it has taken to get replacement permits and from some who have been given incorrect permits. And council officials patrolling the zone a few weeks ago found many cars still using old permits. As a result ...
Sometimes we can get caught up in the big issues and forget about the small every day reasons we get interested and involved in politics. Our position in Europe has been the big story nationally this week, but locally in Essex we have seen a schoolboy killed and a schoolgirl seriously injured outside schools this month. The branches of the local party are mobilising as any incident on our roads is one too many but a fatality is just terrible news. Local campaigner Chris Butler has set up an online petition for anyone to sign to get Essex County Council ...
Turning on my television set, I just caught part of a sensible-seeming Westminster Hall debate on fuel poverty. Joyously, it has been followed by a debate on seagulls in coastal towns, introduced by Peter Aldous, the Tory MP for Waveney in Suffolk. This is actually a serious problem. Gulls' habits have changed, so they do now attack people quite nastily. It isn't funny. Except, it does show that England is still England, that we can have such a debate in our Parliament. "We do have to look at ourselves, as a race, as a people...", Mr Aldous just said. Apparently, ...
The Importance of Mind-Wandering On constructive daydreaming (tags: psychology ) Income Inequality Is Not a Myth - Derek Thompson - Business - The Atlantic U.S. tax policy has given a break to poor families for a long time. It's not the enemy, and it won't be the entire solution. What we're dealing with is a vast, complicated conspiracy of incentives. (tags: economics usa ) Norman Davies on Europe's Vanished States | The Browser Countries that once were and in some cases are again. (tags: history ) George Soros attacks Brussels rescue deal - Telegraph He says it only last between ...
There was a good example of Project Creep at one of the European Scrutiny Committees this week.There is a proposal for the EU to develop its own criminal law and prosecutory apparatus. This, which we can opt out of anyway, is a good example of project creep.Matters relating to the various European Bodies are matters of detail. There is, however, a general point. The general point is that of
I don't argue with giving £295 million in annual aid to India. About a third of all the world's poor live there. But it is a tragedy that we have to give aid to India. It is a tragedy that the country has 450 million poor people who are often lower caste and very marginalised. And yet, they host a Grand Prix, give aid to other countries themselves, spend £36 billion a year on defence, have more billionaires than the UK, have nuclear weapons and a space programme. Bonkers or what? Photo credit: Some rights reserved by roblener [IMG: Post ...
This has been the week for jaw-dropping stories and this one in yesterday's Telegraph does not disappoint. The paper says that former deputy prime minister Lord Prescott has blamed a "cloned" government credit card for what appears to be excessive spending by his officials. He believes that fraud is the "only explanation" after records suggested that staff in his private office used a card to spend more than £15,000 in bars, restaurants and cafés over two years: A bill for £456 was run up at an Australian casino in 2004 when the then-Cabinet minister was visiting to review the country's ...
You just have to look at him, really. Mitt Romney is straight out of central casting, in terms of apearance. Mr President. Available for dramas, disaster movies, weddings, barmitzvahs... (thinking about it, perhaps not barmitzvahs? The Mormon thing might not go down well) Just the right application of hair dye. The ready smile. Ready to please. And his policies, such as they can be identified, are a one-size-fits-all, "what do you want me to think?", ready-to-please amorphous mass. The omni-candidate. It's hard to make out his true policies above the din of his flip-flops. But we are now getting on ...
The welcome decision to end male primogeniture for the monarchy has presented historians like myself with an excuse to step outside the realm of history and speculate on what could have been. The current rule on primogeniture saw Prince Albert Edward become Edward VII in 1901 despite having an older sibling - a sister called Princess Victoria. Keeping up with the tradition of the age, Victoria,
If you mean a pint, say a pint, not a "large half". I am aware the glasses are marked with third lines. But we don't sell thirds at this festival. I have told you this multiple times. Stop asking. "They let girls do the cellar work now?" is not an appropriate comment for the 21st century. Please go to hell. A top up on that half, sir? No, I'm afraid not - it's only not reaching the half line because you're tilting the glass. Set it straight, and you'll find it's sitting exactly on the line. Because I am just ...
