The leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats Willie Rennie MSP has welcomed the news today that his request to the Transport Minister Derek Mackay to back an inquiry into the closure of the Forth Road Bridge has been granted. Mr Rennie had requested an inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the closure and last night Mr... More Rennie Welcomes Forth Road Bridge Enquiry
Today's council cabinet was chaired by the new leader, Malcolm Pate for the first time. One of the most important items it considered is whether to raise council tax. For years council tax in Shropshire has been frozen while central government funding has been harshly cut back. Now the writing is truly on the wall. [...]
We're hearing quite a lot about the ins and outs of the coalition government these days. Yesterday it was Vince talking about his relationship with Osborne or lack of it. Today, Steve Webb has been speaking to the Institute of Government about his experience as Pensions Minister. Widely regarded as one of the most successful coalition ministers, Steve Webb reformed the Pensions system, making sure everyone has access to a workplace pension, introducing the triple lock to stop the paltry increases of Labour years and enabling people to access their pension fund early if they need to. He specifically referred ...
Blood tests: last 8 results 9 7 25 18 21 5 18 10 Dec Dec Nov Nov Oct Oct Sep Sep Normal Hb 108 79 86 87 107 95 106 81 130-180 WBC 1.6 1.3 1.47 1.76 1.8 1.95 2.53 2.39 4.5-10.0 N'phils 0.47 0.44 0.48 0.46 0.57 0.87 1.05 1.02 2.0-7 Plt 95 107 187 221 202 225 2.41 2.41 150-450 Haematology outpatients this morning. There wasn't a Plan B, and obviously there was no suggestion of going back onto hydroxycarbamide. The stopgap plan is to have weekly blood tests, with transfusions if the Hb plummets, as it may ...
With all the concerns about Northern Rail's fare-enforcement antics in recent weeks, we had the news today that they have lost their franchise and instead Arriva will be taking it on. Arriva currently run the trains in North Wales where they have considerably higher satisfaction than Northern Rail manage in our patch. That's not the biggest part of the news though. Whereas the last franchise in 2004 was "steady state" – asking train companies to carry on running the services as before – this one is very different. To win the franchise a company had to show how they were ...
Wed 9th
18:40
Northern rail franchise – Doubts over Arriva winning it but good news for local rail services
I could hardly say that a cheered when I heard that Arriva had won the Northern rail franchise today as I immediately thought back to them running Merseyrail some years ago and my recollection is that they did not cover themselves in glory back then. [IMG: Northern Rail the present operator of the Northern rail franchise has lost the contract to operate it to Arriva Trains. This is a Northern Rail train standing in Southport Station.] Northern Rail the present operator of the Northern rail franchise has lost the contract to operate it to Arriva Trains. This is a Northern ...
The Council Chamber in Paris where the European Section, CEMR discussed climate change and Syria It's not often that I get emotional about being a politician or the work that I do but the five days that I spent in ... Continue reading →
A novel about a young man in the household of the Earl of Ormond during the 1570s and 1580s, which takes our hero to the major scenes of Anglo-Irish history of the period. It's not a brilliant book - you know where the plot is going, and even major twists are signalled far in advance - but an interesting attempt to convey what life was like in Ireland at the time; a benchmark should my own efforts in that direction ever bear fruit. However, I think I'm going to be too busy with other things in the next couple of ...
More educative entertainment from Tom Scott:
UK govt cuts a disability benefit that already leaves a third of recipients struggling to afford food War on the disabled, again. (tags: ukpolitics disability ) An ordinary week in Serbia Florian nails it. (tags: serbia ) 5 Myths About the UN Human Rights Council Setting the record straight. (tags: uspolitics humanrights ) Donald Trump wants to ban the internet, will ask Bill Gates to 'close it up' Dear God. (tags: uspolitics ) A Note on Trump: We Are No Longer Entertained Arianna Huffington draws a line. (tags: uspolitics ) The fall of Jersey: how a tax haven goes bust ...
The cloud hanging over the Liberal Democrat's sole Scottish MP was lifted today when the member for Orkney and Shetland Alistair Carmichael learnt that the legal bid to oust him from his seat had failed. The petition from four constituents had been largely acknowledged as being politically motivated, although the judges ruling did also confirm... More They're Not Taking The Carmichael
Were the US Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump a character in a movie he would be good for a few laughs. But he is very real and very determined and not funny at all. He is the worst sort of American redneck populist, with the added twist that he has more than enough money to [...]
[IMG: New Voters letters] For most (see separate article on the process, progress and exceptions to the Connect upload process here) the new electoral register will be available to them from Wednesday 16th December. The new register allocates fresh poll numbers to all electors. We need to match existing Connect data to those that have not moved and remain on the [...]
I know the exact time for EU Referendum. The time will be exactly at 0:00 seconds, 0:00 minutes, at 7 o'clock in the morning. That is when the poling booths will open. However, I do not know the date. Nobody does. As everything about the EU referendum nothing is said or understood, clear or defined. Everything is flexible, including the possible date and how long the campaign will last. How long we will have for the referendum is crucial for the strategy. Start too early and you will run out of steam. Start to late and you will run out ...
[IMG: It is vital to our campaigning to get and enter the marked register. New registers are being published in December 2015.] On the 1st December councils across England, Scotland and Wales published the full electoral register for next year. Each year the party has to get the information on those registers loaded into Connect. In the past they used an external company "Call Credit" to do this but have decide after problems in previous years to [...]
Today's council meeting was everything you would hope never to see in a democracy. Everyone knew that there were three motions for debate, the first one a general one in support of Trade Unions, the other two issues of deep personal concern to many people in this county – the savage pay cuts proposed for teaching assistants and the ending of the DLI Museum. Everyone also knew that, unless the council voted to extend the time for debate from thirty minutes, all three debates could not take place. In the end, predictably, it was worse than that. The Labour Party, ...
Today's Times has a series of fascinating extracts from a report by the Institute for Government think tank called Ministers Reflect. It involves twenty former members of the coalition government lifting the lid on life behind Whitehall's closed doors: Liam Fox, the coalition's first defence secretary, reveals that he was privately opposed to David Cameron's decision to intervene in Libya. He said: "I wasn't in favour of getting involved in Libya. Both the American defence secretary and I were worried about events in other places . . . and were very hesitant about committing more forces." Chris Huhne, the former ...
If you are visiting Bonkers Hall and its famous maze (entry free, exit negotiable) next summer, why not take in Oakham Castle too?
There's a petition doing the rounds at the moment which, at the time of writing, has some 120,000 signatures, close to the threshold at which it will be considered to be debated in Parliament, calling on the Government to ban Donald Trump from entering the UK. Trump has disgraced himself with his recent call for Muslims to be refused entry to the United States. I get that people find his views repugnant. So do I. This, however, isn't the first time Trump has said something outrageously prejudiced. It's his stock-in-trade. Earlier this year, the Huffington Post compiled a list of ...
[IMG: Syria. CC0 Public Domain] With the help of a leaked ISIS budget, that's the question which a recent edition of the Planet Money podcast set out to answer. What most struck me was how important the looting and black market sale of archaeological treasures is. This has been well reported on, but when people talk about cutting off the flow of money to ISIS, cracking down on the art treasurers black market is rarely mentioned. Yet it seems to be rather more important than that which usually gets the headlines. So the podcast is well worth a listen in ...
Today is another day of life. It is a bitter-sweet day. I have seen my friend Alistair Carmichael win his court case, which takes a huge strain off his family and preserves the Scottish Liberal Democrat voice in the House of Commons. I have known Alistair since we were students in Aberdeen and have always enjoyed his human take on politics. The vindictive case raised by the SNP has rightly been denied, and will I hope rebound on the shrill and narrow minded nationalists whose vituperation against anyone who opposes their views borders on the psychotic. The SNP have been ...
[IMG: 7% of voters make their mind up on the day. 14% of our supporters are more likely to vote if spoken to on polling day] Many areas with local elections in 2016 are facing the challenge of new boundaries or established councillors standing down. In some wards it will be a tricky combination of both. With a record of action and years of campaigning being central to many of our local election campaigns and with national poll ratings stuck, this [...]
Tim Farron has written for Politics Home to explain why he's put forward a Bill to ensure that this country takes 3000 unaccompanied refugee children: But tens and thousands of children travel alone. They are without parents or relatives, and have made their way to Europe in the toughest of circumstances. It is this particularly vulnerable group which our bill aims to support. The bill would award of asylum-seeker status in the United Kingdom to certain unaccompanied children from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Eritrea displaced by conflict and present within the European Union I know that there are enough families ...
"We need a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States while we figure out what the hell is going on. We are out of control." These are Donald J. Trump's unrepentant words and they are supported by at least twenty percent of Republican voters in the upcoming selection of the party's presidential candidate. Much has been said since then: bigoted, un-American, Trump should be stripped on his honorary degrees etc. I doubt much of this matters to the man in question for his eyes are fixed upon one target at this time. Much print has already been ...
Once again libraries across South Gloucestershire are getting into the festive spirit during December and the Christmas holidays with a fun-filled programme of activities, including storytimes, rhymetimes and crafts. All activities are free unless otherwise stated. Here are our local events: Friday 11 December Christmas rhymetime Yate Library, 10.30am to 11am Festive songs and rhymes for pre-school children. Saturday 12 December Festive family singalong Yate Library, 11.30am to 12pm Seasonal songs for everyone to join in and enjoy. Wednesday 16 December Christmas storytime Chipping Sodbury Library, 2pm to 2.30pm Festive fun for pre-school children Thursday 17 December Stories and songs ...
Wed 9th
11:34
I am astonished that police commissioner's ambassador is "astonished" at speeding in Ludlow
If it wasn't so serious, it would be funny. A press release from the Police and Crime Commissioner tells of how the Community Ambassador for Shropshire was astonished at the level of speeding in Ludlow. Graham Oliver was here to witness the first day of Ludlow police's Christmas speed and drink-driving enforcement campaign. Seven vehicles [...]
My anxiety-meter was at maximum this morning. I was pretty much at the throwing up stage first thing. I will be eternally grateful to the person who put me out of my misery as soon as they knew that the petition to overturn Alistair Carmichael's election had been thrown out. If I was that worried, what on earth must the last seven months have been like for Alistair and his family? On the face of it, the petition looked as if it had no basis in law, but legal proceedings are uncertain, expensive and incredibly stressful. Even the smallest of ...
Photo: Scottish Republican Socialist Movement From BBC News: Morgan Stanley has said former Chancellor Alistair Darling will join the bank's board of directors. Mr Darling, who served as the Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2007 to 2010, will take up the role in January ... Morgan Stanley's chief executive James Gorman said the US bank would "greatly benefit from his experience." "He brings strong leadership experience, as well as insight into both the global economy and the global financial system," said Mr Gorman. In 2014 members of Morgan Stanley's board of directors received $75,000 (£49,960) a year plus an additional ...
I recently attended a Southeastern Lib Dem conference where one of our members stated that Liberal Democrats are "born." He further stated that Liberal Democrats do not choose the party, their values determine whether they are party members or not. I assume that he was supporting our leader, Tim Farron's, invitation for all of those who have liberal values in their hearts to join the party. While I, too, support Tim's invitation and believe that there are many U.K. citizens and those living in this country who have and stand up for liberal values, I cannot entirely do away with ...
This morning we will know whether the petitioners who have challenged Alistair Carmichael's election have been successful. The ruling will be published mid-morning. From the BBC: The result of legal action challenging the election of Orkney and Shetland MP Alistair Carmichael is due on Wednesday. Four constituents raised the action against the Lib Dem MP under the Representation of the People Act 1983. They claimed Mr Carmichael misled voters over a memo which was leaked before May's general election. The result of the special election court hearing will be announced on Wednesday morning. The election court in Edinburgh heard evidence ...
Last night, I attended the first West End Community Council meeting following the recent elections to community councils in Dundee. Congratulations go to the 12 newly-elected community councillors (8 new; 4 existing but re-elected) and to the new Chair Peter Menzies. Also, thanks go to Andrew McBride who served as Chair over the past five years. Last night there was also a presentation from Colin McCrae, the City Council's Private Sector Services Manager, who talked about HMO licensing. The community council meets on the second Tuesday of each month (except January, July & August) at 7pm in Logie St John's ...
The Office for Budget Responsibility came out yesterday and stated that David Cameron's attempted changes to the rules regarding benefits EU migrants can claim in what timeframe are "unlikely to have a huge impact" on the numbers of EU migrants coming to the UK. Fair enough; this only makes sense. This is because most EU migrants don't come to the UK seeking benefits in the first place, but rather better job opportunities and higher rates of pay. Which is what pro-Europeans have said all along, while we've been told again and again that it's our supposedly generous and lax benefit ...
This man is questioning Britain's double-standard of who it labels a terrorist The 100 greatest British novels according to foreign critics. Look how women dominate this list. That's awesome 15 things I learnt about Islam & British Values by being a gay boy living opposite a mosque Twitter continues to experiment with riding itself of USPs Yorkshire devolution: Who says we want a mayor? - @lentingle on what Yorkshire folk actually want Surprise surprise it exactly matches Yorkshire lib dem policy ISIS claims responsibility for Donald Trump The DWP is cutting a disability benefit that already leaves a third of ...
Meols Ward Lib Dem Councillors John Dodd, Nigel Ashton and Jo Barton are holding their next advice centre on Saturday 12th December, from 11 am to 12 noon at St John's Primary School, Rufford Road, Crossens. We will be there to meet you and discuss any Council problems you may have. No appointment necessary. Just pop in. We also hold a monthly advice centre in Churchtown, at Cafe Moo Moo on Cambridge Road (by the junction with Preston New Road, next to Boots) on the fourth Thursday of every month (except December) from 10:30 - 11:30 am.
