As I wrote yesterday, I'm joining Sal Brinton, Stephen Kinnock, Natalie Bennett, Polly Toynbee and a few hundred others in fasting for 24 hours. It's organised by the Make Votes Matter campaign and it's to highlight that our democracy is broken and how badly we need Proportional Representation at Westminster. Just before 8pm, I finished my meal of Macaroni Cheese and oven chips (going for the carb loading there) and that's it until 8pm tomorrow. Unlike the brave women of the early 20th century who went on hunger strike and endured unspeakably cruel force feeding, I doubt I'll get to ...
A seven-foot bronze statue of the Leicester suffragette Alice Hawkins was unveiled in the city's new market square yesterday. You can read all about Alice Hawkins on a website devoted to her: Born in 1863 in Stafford of a working class background, Alice left school at thirteen to spend her working life as a shoe machinist, in the 'boot and shoes'.From her early teens Alice realised that the working conditions and pay for women in industry were inferior to that of their male colleagues and so began a lifetime work of participation in the boot and shoe trade union to ...
Tommy Krångh is on it. This is Eurovision made wonderful. Never have key changes been so good.
Today we find Lord Bonkers at home on important Estate business. Strasburgers for the young people The morning news informs me that the Manchester Guardian has shrunk and the mistress of the leader of the Ukip Party has resigned. Not only that, a Sinn Fein MP has been appointed Her Majesty's Crown Steward and Bailiff of the three Chiltern Hundreds of Stoke, Desborough and Burnham. I hope Her Majesty knows what she is doing. And then someone rushes in to tell me the carillon at Loughborough has collapsed, but when I make enquiries in London by telephone it turns out ...
On Friday the Conservative-run Northamptonshire County Council brought in emergency controls on spending to avoid breaking the law by setting a budget where income does not cover expenditure. Today the county's seven MPs - all of them Conservatives - issued a statement saying they had lost confidence in the council's leadership. The MPs are Michael Ellis (Northampton North), Andrew Lewer (Northampton South), Chris Heaton-Harris (Daventry), Andrea Leadsom (South Northamptonshire), Philip Hollobone (Kettering), Peter Bone (Wellingborough) and Tom Pursglove (Corby). The Northamptonshire Telegraph has the full text of the statement, part of which runs: We also knew from backbench County Councillors ...
Current Who Is The Doctor, by Graeme Burk and Robert Smith? He, She and It, by Marge Piercy The Universe Between, by Alan E Nourse Last books finished Woman on the Edge of Time, by Marge Piercy A Tangle Of Fates, by Leslie Ann Moore Gone With The Wind, by Margaret Mitchell Next books Toast, by Charles Stross Planesrunner by Ian McDonald Parallel Lives, by Rebecca Levene, Stewart Sheargold and Dave Stone
The tide comes in at Southport surrounding the longest iron pier in Britain The Lib Dem Conference is coming to Southport in March so I thought it might be helpful to if I did a guide to our town. In later posts I will go into more detail about some of the things that should be part of any visit to the town like the British Lawnmower Museum, excellent bookshops like my favourite Broadhurst's , the best places for afternoon tea (top choice Lillibet's), pubs and breweries, restaurants, Southport shrimps ,fish and chip shops, our brilliant municipal gardens, RSPB nature ...
The Gini* coefficient provides an index to measure inequality. A measure of 0 shows everybody is equal, and 1 where the country's income is earned by a single person. Allianz calculated (in 2015) each country's wealth Gini coefficient and found the U.S. had the most wealth inequality, with a score of 0.80. As a comparison Rome's top 1% controlled 16% of the wealth (compared to America's 40%, today) with a Gini coefficient of 0.44. How can a modern, educated, democratic society allow such a massive discrepancy in the distribution of wealth? The distribution of news (TV, Radio, Newspapers, Magazines etc.) ...
What do Liberal Democrats believe? We strive for a society where everyone belongs and is free to be themselves. Inclusiveness comes first, because freedom alone is not enough. Liberal Democrats value individual liberty, but at the same time we recognise that none of us can be truly free without the support and consent of everyone around us. And society as a whole is stronger, healthier and happier when everyone is able to play their part. We all win when we work together, while respecting our differences. This historic Liberal tradition is today a thoroughly modern political philosophy, perfectly in tune ...
I posted a while back about the fact that one of the outdoor fitness items at Lydiate Village Centre on Lambshear Lane was broken and had been taken away. My previous posting is available via the link below:- Happy to say the item has now been returned to the site and it is fully working again. The item is the one on the far left of the photo below:- Click on the photo to enlarge it.
While reading in preparation for one of my seminars this week, I came across an article about one of the artists referenced. These are just some of my random, preliminary thoughts that pinged off the back of the piece. A Google image search for the name 'Chris Burden' produces this as the very first picture. Despite Burden working prolifically after the event (I think 'Shoot' was maybe his second action?) this is still how he is defined. Image Source: openculture.com Shoot, a performance art work by Chris Burden, is not something that particularly appeals to me. I don't think it ...
13:00 Today I launched Health and Social Care: Delivering a Secure Funding Future, which offers some compelling answers on how to reform NHS funding. This report was initiated by my colleague, Norman Lamb, who is rightly recognised as one of the most important figures in modern British health policy. Compiled for the Liberal Democrats by 10 health & social care specialists, including former chief executives of NHS England, the Royal College of Nursing and the Patients Association, the timing could not be more significant given the Conservatives postponed more than 50,000 operations just last month. Drawing on their recommendations I ...
We're on the perihelion of the government's Brexit cycle – when the official position is closest to Rees-Moggness. After Hammond's "slip" at Davos, admitting that a soft Brexit is what we're headed for, May has to assert all manner of hard Brexitiness, with Downing Street telling us now that we will definitely be leaving the Customs Union. There will probably be a customs union of some sort between the EU and the UK – a red, white and blue customs union, if you will. You see, it's important to understand that being in THE Customs Union – very bad. Being ...
miss_s_b | The Blood is the Life for 04-02-2018 I posted The Blood is the Life for 04-02-2018 to my dreamwidth blog If you like what you see here (or even if you don't) please consider dropping me a tip: [IMG: Paypal Donate Button] [IMG: Buy Me an uncaffeinated beverage (because I'm allergic to coffee) at ko-fi.com] [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
Sun, 12:56: Leslie Howard's screen test for Gone With The Wind. https://t.co/Amf9AmS5n0 Sun, 16:06: Tomorrow, 5 February 2018, the Berlin Wall will have been down for as long as it was up. https://t.co/gCUkVBx69s Sun, 20:48: RT @faduda: Thread worth reading on a common anti-EU myth getting a lot of purchase along the west coast https://t.co/rNhaZvmskV Mon, 08:55: RT @joncstone: The Berlin Wall has now been down as long as it was up, 10316 days. Today's front page of Berliner Zeigung https://t.co/jTOk... Mon, 10:45: Today, 5 February 2018, the Berlin Wall has been down for as long as it was up. ...
Mon 5th
10:12
From our Lords correspondent: the Bill cometh, but will the building fall down before it can be pass...
And so, the EU Withdrawal Bill came to be debated in the Lords over two days. One hundred and eighty-seven speakers, all heard courteously enough but, at the end of it, it was just the hors d'oeuvres before the real work on the Bill begins. It seemed to be broadly accepted accepted across the Chamber that the House of Lords does not see its role as stopping Brexit – the lack of an electoral mandate hangs heavy on all corners – and as Dick Newby put it, opening for the Liberal Democrats; I should make it clear that we on ...
Picketing and demonstrations or a properly costed policy which will provide proper long-term funding for the NHS. Which do you think is the most likely to succeed? On Saturday Labour in Liverpool picketed the Royal Liverpool hospital in support ... Continue reading →
Far from clarifying matters, the announcement from Downing Street yesterday that we are not seeking any form of involvement in a customs union with the European Union has plunged the UK into a policy vacuum in which Ministers are publicly contradicting themselves and nobody knows what end game we are aiming for. As the Guardian reports, the statement came after the exposure of divisions between ministers over the UK's future relationship with the EU. But in saying that it is not UK policy to be in a customs union, the official source went further than the Prime Minister who, on ...
DUNDEE CITY COUNCIL - WEEKLY ROAD REPORT REPORT FOR WEST END WARD - WEEK COMMENCING MONDAY 5 FEBRUARY 2018 Riverside Drive at Dundee Railway Station - eastbound nearside lane closure for 5 weeks for footway works. Lochee Road (Polepark Road to Gardners Lane) - closed on Sunday 11 February for Scottish Water reinstatement works. Bellfield Street (at Blackness Road) - temporary traffic lights from Monday 12 to Wednesday 14 February for BT cable repair. Forthcoming Roadworks Glamis Road (Blackness Road to Dickson Avenue) - off-peak (7.30pm - 6.30am) temporary traffic lights on Thursday 15 and Friday 16 February, then closed ...
The Liverpool Echo has the most worrying of stories on its web site – see link above This is a very good article by Joe Thomas and its worth reading it through to gain a better understanding of the worrying and seemingly ever rising gun crime crisis across Merseyside in recent years.
Mon 5th
08:15Expert health panel calls for ringfenced health and care tax to replace National Insurance
A new tax earmarked solely for the NHS and social care is among the recommendations from a panel of 10 experts in a report on healthcare funding in England commissioned by the Liberal Democrats. This heavyweight report, Health and Social Care: Delivering a Secure Funding Future, will form the blueprint of the Liberal Democrats' ongoing healthcare policy. The panel, which includes former chief executives of NHS England, the Royal College of Nursing, and the Patients Association, concluded that the NHS in England needs a real terms funding increase of £4bn in 2018-19 and further real terms increases of £2.5bn in ...
The US government shutdown this year has been short-lived. For now. In the UK, such a shutdown is unthinkable. A government that cannot get its budget through falls and an election is called. In the US, the budget is a battle of wills – and a battle for political advantage. An email I recently received [...] The post Trump will benefit from more shutdowns appeared first on Radix.
It seems that the forecast for the coming week is for temperatures to drop a bit. So, be like me and make sure that you wrap up warmly, especially if you're campaigning for the May elections! This week, I'm hoping for a sign, any sign, that the Government has a clearly stated plan for how it is going to handle negotiations with the European Union. Admittedly, there are a number of potential plans out there, but as there isn't an apparent majority for any of them, we may have to keep on waiting. Today is the 368th anniversary of the ...
Mon 5th
07:00
Expert health panel calls for ringfenced health and social care tax to replace National Insurance
A new tax earmarked solely for the NHS and social care is among the recommendations in a report on healthcare funding in England. The report comes from a panel of ten health experts set up by the Liberal Democrats in autumn 2016. As Norman Lamb said when they previously published their interim findings: The Government is dragging its heels on offering anything resembling a vision for the future of health and social care in Britain. We are a wealthy country, we have to do right by our sick and elderly. Excuses and promises of fixes tomorrow simply are not good ...
