I recorded this at the end of January - it was after a Gateshead Council advisory group that had been held to consider the budget. The Council has a £29 million funding gap to bridge so some painful decisions have to be made. Nevertheless, there were some proposals in the budget which, even in the times of pre-austerity, would have been the right ones to take. A couple of examples spring to
Lib Dems: Divert our flightpath away from Brexit mess Responding to reports that the East Midlands airline FlyBMI has collapsed amid the uncertainty caused by Brexit, Liberal Democrat Brexit spokesperson Tom Brake said: While the Government claim that Brexit provides the opportunity to create a Global Britain, the evidence is to the contrary; FlyBMI are naming Brexit as one of the reasons for their demise. The truth is, any Brexit is bad for UK Plc, and puts jobs and livelihoods at risk. It is time to divert our flightpath away from this crisis, with a People's Vote and a chance ...
The night the Liberal Party merged with the SDP, I played Allegri's Miserere as an expression of my feelings. It was the famous recording made by the choir of King's College, Cambridge, in 1963, with Roy Goodman singing the treble solo. Here is a documentary Goodman made for the BBC in 2006, which tells the story of that recording and investigates the complicated history of the piece.
Two weeks ago, I took F on his first trip to Bosnia. I lived in Banja Luka, the main city of the Republika Srpska (the Serbian part of Bosnia) from January 1997 to May 1998, and was joined by Anne and B from that September (B, who was born in June 1997, was very tiny). We then moved to Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, from May to December 1998, before I got my first job in Brussels at the start of 1999; by then, F was on his way, but did not fully appear on the scene until July. Since ...
Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 543rd weekly round-up from the Lib Dem blogosphere ... Featuring the five most popular stories beyond Lib Dem Voice according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (10-16 February, 2019), together with a hand-picked seven 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. Former Royal Marine Commadno Bruce Wilson selected ...
There is nothing more absurd than an Old Etonian posing as an anti-elitist. Anyone who has been taken in by Jacob Rees-Mogg's act should read this piece Andy McSmith published back in 2006: State school pupils are 'potted plants', says Tory One of the leading members of the David Cameron generation of new Tories created a storm yesterday by comparing people who were not privately educated and did not go to Oxford or Cambridge universities to "potted plants". Jacob Rees-Mogg, who will be fighting one of the Tories' target seats at the next election, also gave the impression that he ...
"First, some figures. From 1899 to 1902, roughly 48,000 people died in British concentration camps in South Africa. Of the 28,000 white deaths, 22,000 were children under the age of 16. More than 4,000 were women. The 20,000 Black deaths were less clearly recorded - a mark of official indifference - but most estimates suggest that about 80% were children." Robert Saunders puts Jacob Rees-Mogg right on British concentration camps in the Boer War. "Being Asian and a curry lover you would think that I would feel sorry for him but I don't. Those from immigrant communities who vote or ...
An example of what Jo Swinson means by in practice about the Lib Dem record in government played out recently on Twitter when she took Theresa May to task.
In the 70s, my brother and I were... planespotters. Home was near Windsor, and during the holidays we'd pester our mother to take us there to catch the 727 Green Line to Heathrow. She probably didn't mind, two boys out of her hair all day. In our bags went our tools – binoculars, log books [...]
Enshrining the 0.7% GDP for international aid provision in law was a brilliant Lib Dem achievement brought about by former Lib Dem Secretary of State Mike Moore. Now it is coming under threat by Tories who have always opposed it. In an article for Politics Home, Lib Dem peer Shas Sheehan writes a blistering defence of it. Enshrining in law the UK's aid commitment was a hugely progressive step. But it has been haunted by years of attack from Conservative MPs such as former and current DFID Secretaries Priti Patel and Penny Mordaunt. The latest person to take aim at ...
We are having an envelope-stuffing and Focus printing day today in the Lib Dem office in Consett. There are about 15 of us here. The letters we printed through the week and currrently being folded and inserted into envelopes. And more are churning off the printer, as is our next Focus, this time for Lobley Hill and Bensham ward. Meanwhile, lunch is served.
In a guest post for this site, Rabina Khan, Liberal Democrat councillor from the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, takes a look at the issue.
[IMG: A Jacob R-M parody] The post A Jacob R-M parody appeared first on FeministMama.
The Prodigy's first single from 1991 and some good advice from Charley. Wikipedia explains the sample: Charley Says is a series of very short cut-out animated cartoon public information films for children, produced by the British government's Central Office of Information and broadcast in the United Kingdom in the 1970s and 1980s. Six films were made in 1973. Most of the topics dealt with everyday safety issues children face, such as not going off with strangers or not playing with matches. They featured a little boy called Tony (voiced by the seven-year-old son of one of the neighbours of producer ...
The latest controversy surrounding Chris Grayling, as reported by the Independent, prompted me to look back at past instances where the Transport Secretary has got himself in hot water. The latest incident relates to Grayling's time as Justice Secretary, when he effectively privatised the probation services. This has now come back to bite him with the collapse of Working Links, which owns three Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) delivering probation services in Wales, Avon and Somerset, and Devon and Cornwall. Under Grayling, ministers overhauled the arrangements for managing offenders in 2014 in a partial privatisation known as Transforming Rehabilitation. The National ...
So Jacob Rees-Mogg, Boris and the rest of the European Research Group of 100 or so Tory backbenchers have been making an almighty fuss about the backstop. They don't like the part of the EU Withdrawal Agreement that would keep the UK in a temporary customs union in the (highly likely) event of a full trade deal not being agreed by the end of the transition period in December 2020. It has alway been clear that the EU will, quite rightly, to be honest, not consider any watering down of that commitment. There is no solution to the Irish border ...
As ever with opinion polls, it is best to look at the trend rather than one poll in isolation. Rather handily, the excellent @UKElectionMaps has just produced an updated graph...
Sat, 12:56: RT @simonjhix: This really is an extremely articulate explanation of the problems of Brexit, far clearer and more sophisticated than anythi... Sat, 12:59: RT @Dublin2019: Don't forget, deadline for nominating in @TheHugoAwards is the 15th of March. Sat, 14:45: RT @quartzen: It bothers me that I keep seeing posts about James Barry talking about his "secret." As far as I can tell, he was quite open... Sat, 14:45: RT @jimfitzpatrick: Found this old sketch of Bobby Kennedy, one of my heroes then+now. Bobby and JFK stood up to the White Suprematists of... Sat, 16:05: British Concentration Camps: A ...
I attended what turned out to be a packed out talk about the Southport & Cheshire Lines Extension Railway, which ran from Aintree Central Station, through Sefton & Maghull & Lydiate Stations and on through rural West Lancs to terminate at Southport Lord Street Station. The talk was given by Keith Hick on 13th February and when I say packed out I mean it! The studio at The Atkinson seats 260 we were told and they had to put extra chairs out to accommodate everyone wanting to hear and see it. Seems there are many railway enthusiasts in and around ...
I quote from one not of my own party, David Lammy, who, in a speech last week in the House of Commons, stated: "Your Department's treatment of the Windrush generation has been nothing less than a national scandal. In November, we learned that at least 164 Windrush citizens were wrongly removed, detained or stopped at the border by our own Government. Eleven of those who were wrongly deported have died. You have announced three more today. Every single one of those cases is a shocking indictment of your Government's pandering to far right racism, sham immigration targets and the dog ...
The next Friends of the University of Dundee Botanic Garden talk is today in the garden's Education Centre at 2pm. The speaker will be Sally McConville, Environmental Assistant at Dundee City Council. Sally will talk about Bonnie Dundee and Beautiful Scotland. Bonnie Dundee works in partnership with Dundee City Council to support Dundee's entry into the Large City category of the Beautiful Scotland campaign. Volunteers are involved in a wide range of projects, from litter picks and tree planting to tending community gardens and the colourful planters you see around the city streets. Hope to see you there - bring ...
Wednesday 6 February saw the inaugural session of Ludlow Young Health, a wellbeing and mental health advice drop-in service. Nearly 50 young people and their parents or carers dropped in to the Ludlow Youth Centre in the first few hours of the service. It will now run every second Wednesday from 3.30pm to 7pm at Ludlow Youth Centre. The next drop-in will be 20 February. From left to right: Andy Boddington, Shropshire Councillor for Ludlow North; Jane Hunt, Beam volunteer; Tim Gill, Mayor of Ludlow; Tracey Huffer, Shropshire Councillor for Ludlow East; Natalie Deakin, Children's Society; Erica Garner, Ludlow town ...
The UK airline Flybmi is going into administration, citing Brexit uncertainty as the reason; there is no guarantee they will be able to fly between European destinations if Britain leaves the EU on 29 March as scheduled. The company is just one of many that are closing or else shifting their operations to another member [...]
It is the season of dog poo. Dark nights encourage people ignore the mess their dog makes. It is left there for everyone to tread on. It looks disgusting and it is downright dangerous for everyone, especially children. A back of envelope calculation suggests dogs in Ludlow and the walking areas adjacent to it produce one tonne of poo every day. If a small fraction of that is left behind, we have a major problem with dog mess - and know we have a major problem with dog mess. This blog and the summit a result in a specific request ...
