Next month it will be 36 years since I signed up to the Liberal Democrats on my 16th birthday. My parents thought it was a phase. I'm still here and I've long since given up caring what they think of my political beliefs, however much I love them. This party, with its establishment busting, planet saving, freedom loving, poverty bashing ethos never fails to give me a reason to get out of bed in the morning and to try to make the world better and kinder and friendlier for everyone. It absolutely warmed my heart to see 16 year old ...
First, a clip from last night's Newnight "Well the tectonic plates of British politics are shifting." Lib Dem leadership contender Ed Davey says he believes "the Liberal Democrats are now the political home for many people who have been politically homeless"#newsnight | @EdwardJDavey pic.twitter.com/eGOy71nUj3 — BBC Newsnight (@BBCNewsnight) June 6, 2019
[IMG: Saying goodbye to a beloved pet and watching your child sob is heartbreaking] Our lovely Sarah Bluebell was a Ginger cat who loved Haagen-Daz ice-cream, cat milk only if it was poured from a height (strange), dry food and drinking from a cat water fountain. We had the... The post Saying goodbye to a beloved pet and watching your child sob is heartbreaking appeared first on @ambitiousmamas.
Today, Jo got the backing of the leader of the Scottish Lib Dems, Willie Rennie: Sometimes it's a battle to get the best media coverage for the party so we need a leader who has the skills necessary to be heard loudly. "Jo is an excellent communicator and she'll be a fantastic champion to take on the forces of nationalism and populism." He added: "Jo is a fantastic campaigner, who showed the determination and campaigning skill the party needs when she won her seat back from the SNP, and I'm excited to see how she brings all that energy and ...
Eden Hazard has signed for Real Madrid. I wish him well. He is one of the very best players to appear for Chelsea in the 50 or more years I have been following them. Here are 10 of his finest goals for the club.
I had very limited broadband access for two or three weeks, but thanks to Theresa and an engineer from BT all is well again. It's just that I can't think of anything to write. While I do, here is one of the many photographs I took of Market Harborough station in the last few days before the track through it was realigned.
The latest edition of Mark Pack and Stephen Tall's podcast Never Mind the Bar Charts hit the net the other day. It's a good listen - and not just because I get a mention. Particularly valuable is the interview with Tim Farron, who has some wise things to say about what we should look for in a new leader and ask the people who want to be that leader/ And it is good to hear Tim getting credit for reacting to the EU referendum result in the right way and keep in the Liberal Democrat show on the road. What ...
Rimrose Valley Country Park map. Details are on the Rimrose Valley Friends website – see link below:- An idyllic view of Rimrose Valley Country Park
Second section of third chapter: A very light affair, even by the standards of Doctor Who annuals; this is the first one featuring the Thirteenth Doctor, and its main purpose seems to be to get new young fans interested in the past history of the show, with a couple of pages devoted to each previous Doctor and a comic strip story which references all the previous incarnations in its plot (and in which most of the Thirteenth Doctor's appearances seem to have been drawn from the same set of publicity photos, and Ryan is actually drawn as white in one ...
Nominations have closed and it's official: the contest is between Jo Swinson and Edward Davey. No surprise last-minute candidature featuring an ex-Change UK MP or one of the other Liberal Democrat MPs. No need, therefore, for Stephen and I to hurriedly re-record our latest podcast episode. There are quite a few hustings meetings still to come, details of which can be found here: www.libdems.org.uk/hustings. Or you can watch the first hustings in full here and read my analysis here. Meanwhile, in other party leadership news... there was a (very) distant showing for the Renew Party in the Peterborough by-election yesterday. ...
A video has emerged of Lib Dem MPs reading the words of Donald Trump. Ed Davey, Jo Swinson, Christine Jardine, Tom Brake and Alistair Carmichael repeat some of his most egregious quotes. And some of them get scarily into character. https://twitter.com/joswinson/status/1136688970186788865 It is quite a startling reminder of how awful this man is. * Newshound: bringing you the best Lib Dem commentary published in print or online.
That way you get to vote in our leadership election. If you want to know what you get from being a member you should read this post by m'friend 'n' colleague Caron. Think all that sounds good? Join up here Once you've joined, then you will get to choose between Ed Davey and Jo Swinson to be our next leader. Choose wisely! Here is Jo's campaign website and here is Ed's. And if you can't make up your mind there's a bunch of hustingses going on all over the country. If you go to the Yorkshire one you might even ...
Nominations close today for Lib Dem Leader. Unless there is a sudden and unexpected 3rd candidate, the race will be between Ed Davey and Jo Swinson. Both are first class candidates and I will be happy with either as Leader. However, I will be voting for Ed. For me, Ed has the lead on the environment. 10 years ago I gave up work to live the good life. The aim was to produce our own food and
Thu, 12:56: RT @jl_owen: The UK will probably never be as ready for 'no deal' as it was in March My new comment for @instituteforgov highights: - sta... Thu, 16:05: "I Am A Transwoman. I Am In The Closet. I Am Not Coming Out." https://t.co/NsvdNqR6uG Strong personal account. Well worth reading. Thu, 18:34: The Slender-fingered Cats of Bubastis, by Xanna Eve Chown https://t.co/J7g3iYz0wG Thu, 21:30: RT @davidallengreen: The candidature of Raab must be a ruse to make Johnson seem acceptable as leader. Fri, 08:12: RT @MarkyGoodrich: If BxP can't win a by-election in a 60% Leave seat where the previous ...
Peterborough is a place I don't know. I have been there once, many years ago, for a Lib Dem training event. I have passed through on the train hundreds of times when I used to go to London most weeks. From the train I could see the prison on one side and the cathedral on the other. Yesterday however it was on our radar screens as we awaited the much trumpeted Brexit Party's victory to win their
After nearly 1,000 responses to its consultation, the council's cabinet is to reconsider the planned bus cuts. Papers to be considered next Wednesday accept planned cuts to budget subsides by £405,000 will not now be achieved. The cabinet is being asked to approve cuts of £180,000 to be realised through making changes to current routes. The only details of those changes provided at this stage are to the Shrewsbury park and ride service. The consultation highlighted that buses provide a vital service and play a very important role in reducing traffic congestion, the numbers of vehicles on our roads and ...
Today there is much needed rain in the form of storm Miguel, yesterday there was time for a few June photos in the garden... This year, the wet, warm Spring means giant perrenials! Phlox settling in new position. Coreopsis Bumble bee on white valerian grapevine nigella and orange wall squash seedlings growing new rose seems happy lilies flowering this year 'love in a mist' growing through the decking! clematis climbing well Some photos from last month, foxgloves and iris (celebrating World Bee Day.)
Blaydon constituency Lib Dem branch had its monthly meeting last night at Marley Hill. I say "monthly" but our last meeting was actually in March. April and May meetings weren't held because we were too busy winning Dunston Hill and Whickham East ward from Labour. The usual issues were discussed and plans for Focuses were agreed. I am currently writing the next edition for Whickham South and
I want to begin by saying that for those of you gloating about the Brexit Party not winning when they were widely forecast to do so, and that this somehow represents them being vanquished, I'd think again. People tend to think of by-elections as fertile ground for insurgent parties, but they actually reward parties with a larger and more organised activist base. The Eastleigh by-election in 2013 was a good example of this: the Lib Dems held the seat, staving off a UKIP surge, mostly by dint of being much more organised, having better data and a more experienced bunch ...
Fri 7th
09:55
Your last chance to vote in the Lib Dem leadership election - and yet another reprise of the Lib Dem...
Only those people who are members of he Liberal Democrats at 23:59 tonight will be able to vote in the leadership election. It has been a hell of a month for Lib Dem recruitment. In the five weeks since our local election success, 17000 people have joined the party. This creates a hell of a lot of work for our amazing membership team, led by the brilliant Greg Foster, so huge thanks to them. Welcome to you all and a special mention to the 1000 who joined yesterday. Wow – 17,000 new members since local elections! The Liberal Democrats are ...
So, here I am, sitting on a balcony overlooking a small spa town in the South Caucasus. And the water is slightly, but noticeably salty, best drunk warm. You may wonder what I'm doing here and, to some extent, I'm wondering too. But it's been fun, and a little bit erratically journeyed. Perhaps I ought to go back to the beginning... When I arranged this trip, it was on the basis that Ros would be busy travelling somewhere else and, as is our habit, when Ros goes somewhere, I go somewhere that Ros might not be that interested in, or ...
Having read in this week's edition of the Aintree & Maghull Champion that Alan Charnock had passed away my thoughts went back to 2012 when I nominated him for Maghull's Civic Award. Here's the nomination detail:- ***** Nomination of Mr Alan R Charnock for Maghull's Civic Award Alan has been involved in helping to run Maghull & Lydiate Homewatch for many years and has been its Chairman/Leader/Coordinator for a long time. He cares about our community and always tries his best to help and support it. If the Council chooses to honour Alan with its Civic Award it will also ...
Despite a 90 minute lecture from Prince Charles on climate change, it appears that Donald Trump left these shores as confused as ever about the subject and the United States contribution to the global disaster we are facing. It is handy therefore to have this CNN guide to put him right, a piece where they fact check his interview with Piers Morgan. Trump will no doubt pronounce it fake news, but the reality is that his lack of understanding of the subject, and his reluctance to acknowledge the problem, is putting the world at greater risk. These are the key ...
Fri 7th
08:17
Re-imagining our societies 4: Rethinking town planning - by valuing the vested interests
"Any change is resisted because bureaucrats have a vested interest in the chaos in which they exist." Richard Nixon There doesn't seem to be any discussion about fundamental change of town planning development control. From the current top-down system of town planning development control. Top-down town and country planning (T&CP) has created unintended vested interests. Maybe [...] The post Re-imagining our societies 4: Rethinking town planning – by valuing the vested interests appeared first on Radix.
In the last two elections, Lib Dems have barely scraped 3% in Peterborough. Had the by-election happened 5 years ago, we'd have lost our deposit with no question. This was not a seat where we have historically been a challenger. Going back to the 70s, our vote has been mid teens – 20%. So the only way we would have had a chance of competing is if we'd thrown the kitchen sink at it. And we'd already used up our supply of kitchen sinks during the European campaign. We can't, yet, do everything and it made sense to save our ...
The first Magdalen Green Sunday band concert of 2019 is this Sunday ... featuring Forfar Instrumental Band
Fri 7th
05:49+++Lib Dem vote quadruples at Peterborough. Labour wins while dumbstruck Farage leaves hastily by ba...
Many congratulations to Beki Sellick and her team on nearly quadrupling the Lib Dem vote share at Peterborough. We won 12.3% of the vote – up from 3.3% at the 2017 by-election. Here's the full result from yesterday's parliamentary by-election, following the recall of Labour's Fiona Onasanya: Peterborough, full result: LAB: 30.9% (-17.2) BREX: 28.9% (+28.9) CON: 21.4% (-25.5) LDEM: 12.3% (+8.9) GRN: 3.1% UKIP: 1.2% CHR: 0.5% EDEM: 0.5% SDP: 0.4% MRLP: 0.3% IND: 0.3% CG: 0.2% RNW: 0.1% UKEU: 0.1% IND: 0.0% (5 votes) — Britain Elects (@britainelects) June 7, 2019 There was much campaign hoo-haa from the ...
Wow! Ross North (Herefordshire) result: LDEM: 75.1% (+28.0) CON: 18.7% (-34.1) LAB: 6.2% (+6.2) Liberal Democrat GAIN from Conservative. — Britain Elects (@britainelects) June 6, 2019 * Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings
