A few years back, The Guardian's ran a feature, A book that changed me: we want your choices, which got me thinking about which book most influenced my political views.
I did not feel up to travelling on Saturday, but I wanted to take some photographs. So I explored Market Harborough. Well, Little Bowden actually - a village that was long ago absorbed by the town. The same thing is in the process of happening to Great Bowden today. One quirky fact about Little Bowden is that it used to be in Nortbamptonshire. The border between Northants and Leicestershire used to be the Welland, but by the 1890s there had been enough new building south of the river to annoy the tidy minded. You can still see, in Northampton Road, ...
I have found myself wondering recently whether people holding giant orange diamonds behind Lib Dem notables just look silly. It seems Lord Bonkers agrees with me. Saturday When we do have a new leader, he, or indeed she, will have to something about our membership cards. I admit it makes an impressive photograph when one of our candidates stands in front of a bank of card-carrying members, and you can see a fellow Liberal Democrat coming down the street a mile away. But are those giant orange diamonds practical? They do take up an awful lot of space on the ...
Good news from an openDemocracy article on wards with only a single nominated candidate in next month's local elections: the Liberal Democrats are guaranteed 11 victories. The less good news is that there are also 5 seats with just an Independent candidate, 17 with just a Labour candidate and 267 with just a Conservative. Such non-contests have always been a sad fact of political life in this part of the world, so I am not surprised to learn that the East Midlands has more of them than any other region. Still, openDemocracy is right to see their existence as a ...
Pornography meets philosophy today, in two novels both named after their protagonists. Second paragraph of third chapter of Fanny Hill:Alas! it was enough I knew his pleasure to submit joyfully to him, whatever pain I foresaw it would cost me.Second paragraph of third chapter of Candide: Enfin, tandis que les deux rois faisaient chanter des Te Deum, chacun dans son camp, il prit le parti d'aller raisonner ailleurs des effets et des causes. Il passa par-dessus des tas de morts et de mourants, et gagna d'abord un village voisin ; il était en cendres : c'était un village abare que ...
Voting rules range form the very simple such as the plurality rule (commonly known as "first past the post") to a plethora of more or less complex schemes. These schemes attempt to capture notions of fairness such as proportional representation and and majority preference. Voting takes place for many purposes; even choosing a voting system. Whatever the more general position may be, if there is one, proportional representation has been Liberal Democrat policy on voting reform at all levels of government for so long it has become an entrenched view. In its defence, the policy is well worked out in ...
This piece is about the single most important aspect of our re-imagining, writes Barry Cooper. The future will not be a different kind of "business as usual". It will be a fundamentally different world. It has been written for us by Dr Tim Morgan. His website is a world leader in discussing this topic. A topic, which is [...] The post Re-imagining our societies: 2 - Energy, prosperity and government appeared first on Radix.
Yesterday Ed Davey gave a really open and moving interview to Radio 5 live about how he was a young carer to his mother for 3 years before she died when she was 15. His dad had died when he was 4. He talked about the key moment of his life, coming a few months after his Mum died, realising that he was doing things for himself and not her any more. He said that it has affected his attitude to politics – caring for the most vulnerable is what politics should be about, he said. He said it informed ...
Just published, edition 116 of the Whickham area eFocus. Issues covered include new speed limit on Fellside Road, Staiths reopens this weekend, streetlight problems on Watergate Bank, and the local elections. You can view eFocus on this link.
As he launched the Scottish Liberal Democrats list of candidates or the European election, Willie Rennie stressed that every vote for a Lib Dem MEP will help stop the division and damage imposed by Brexit. The list includes a partner in an Aberdeen law firm who has spent 20 years supporting start-up businesses and entrepreneurs in the North East, the former head of the European Parliament's office in Scotland, and an EU citizen who represents the hundreds of thousands of people who have made their home in Scotland but whose futures are put at risk by Brexit. The list is ...
Croston Station I was just a little surprised to come across a seemingly pre-May 2018 railway timetable change video* (see link below) being circulated via Twitter very recently. I've been of the view that Community Rail Lancashire was rather disinterested in the line. The video promotes an hourly train service on the line from May 2018 and of course that didn't happen back then** with the line suffering huge service failures during much of 2018 which even made the national news!:- www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvqCraWQYfU&app=desktop I've blogged before (August 2018) about the seemingly disappointing approach of Community Rail Lancashire towards the Ormskirk – ...
Wed, 12:56: RT @pmdfoster: So am told this was pretty spicy encounter...but it speaks to the extent that ERG @Jacob_Rees_Mogg @OwenPaterson have just h... Wed, 18:07: Happy Patch: short films in Brussels https://t.co/nTRnEgYgfb Wed, 19:07: Quelle surprise. https://t.co/xRnpyjdilj Wed, 22:39: RT @KevDoyle_Indo: All the TDs and senators who slagged off Leo for his fan letter to Kylie can shut up now. The queue of them lining up to... Thu, 08:41: RT @lowflyingrocks: 2019 GC6, 13m-30m in diameter, just passed the Earth at 6km/s, missing by 219,000km. https://t.co/J2DuRJcmOv Thu, 10:16: RT @pmdfoster: Misses 4 basic points. 1. The backstop (all UK ...
* News Meerkat - keeping a look-out for Liberal Democrat news. Meerkat photo by Adair Broughton
Thu 18th
09:28
Greens, Change UK misunderstand how Euro elections work as they reject calls for cooperation
One of the perils of political activism, or indeed sports team support, is the readiness with which you can slip into thinking that those outside your tribe are stupid.
Well, I suppose they might have been that day when they made their protest in the Commons chamber. It was a visible reminder that we are preoccupying ourselves with Brexit when the entire future of our planet is in doubt. And it was quite funny watching MPs trying to maintain their composure and keep their faces straight. But the recent spate of protests by the climate change campaigners are doing their cause more harm than good. Ok, so they get attention, but what on earth is the point of gluing themselves to trains, for goodness sake? I thought public transport ...
The Independent reports that Vince Cable has lashed out at Change UK (CUKoos?) and the Greens for rejecting his pleas to stand joint candidates on 23 May, to boost the number of MEPs demanding a second referendum. The paper says that the Lib Dem leader has revealed that his party proposed fighting together - a move that one election expert has predicted could have delivered an extra six seats in Brussels. Somehow Vince forgot to ask the membership what they think about such an electoral pact. There is a myth growing up amongst some Remainers on social media that because ...
Tories' high-stakes testing culture pushing children out of school Responding to the EPI report revealing that over 50,000 pupils who took their GCSEs in 2017 were removed from the school roll for unexplained reasons during their time at secondary school, Liberal Democrat Education spokesperson Layla Moran said: This is yet more worrying evidence that the Conservatives' high-stakes testing culture is letting down our most vulnerable children. The desperate drive to secure a better Ofsted grade or climb up the league tables has given schools a perverse incentive to push children they regard as difficult on to other schools, alternative providers, ...
From Sheena Wellington : This Saturday - 20th April - Easter Special - Bob Stewart, songs Cappuccino Concert - 11am - 12 noonWighton Heritage Centre, Central Library Bob Stewart has been entertaining for over 25 years and plays a variety of Scottish/Celtic and contemporary acoustic music. His performances are a very lively affair with a mixture of traditional and original material, a driving acoustic guitar sound, bodhran and mandolin (not all at the same time) and humour. Bob was born and bred in Alyth, Perthshire and has been a full time musician since 1989. He has played in several successful ...
