Govt urged to protect funding to house homeless Lib Dems call for Coronavirus honours list Davey: Govt must get a grip on care homes coronavirus crisis Davey: Public would expect Brexit extension Govt urged to protect funding to house homeless Responding to reports that the Government will no longer fund local councils to house homeless people during the Covid-19 pandemic, Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran said: The Coronavirus crisis is an unprecedented threat. It is leaving the most vulnerable in our communities at risk and it is our duty to look after them. It would be irresponsible for the Government ...
I've never been a revolutionary! Just a hopefully useful Minister of the Methodist Church and that faith still steers me from day to day. I have many wonderful friends who belong to other faiths or have no religious faith at all. At times of global crises what every individual believes directs our thinking. In all probability that decides how we respond to various situations. I don't know the beliefs of a man who said that Donald Trump was the greatest President of all time and of others who adore Mr Johnson. I only hope that on November 3rd the United ...
We should all be watching carefully the dispute that is bubbling at the moment between the teaching unions and the government. It could very easily set a precedent for how the rest of us are treated when it comes to workplace protections against COVID-19. When Boris Johnson addressed the nation last Sunday, informing us of the new rules in a way that he alone could have imagined was significantly clearer than the hue of mud, the onus was delicately and deliberately placed on employees rather than employers: Work from home if you can, but you should go to work if ...
Three prominent psychologists have written a briefing on public mental health and Covid-19 for the Association of Liberal Democrat Engineers and Scientists. Paul Gilbert, Felicia Huppert and Kate Brierton advocate a compassion-based approach to aid people's recovery and resilience. They say people in the public eye should avoid suggesting that everyone 'ought' to be damaged or traumatised by their experiences. Instead they should point to people's courage and acknowledge the opportunities for transformation and growth. The psychologists emphasise that even when people experience unusual symptoms, such as flashbacks or sleep difficulties, these may not represent a mental disorder but be ...
Second paragraph of third chapter:A spectacle, certainly, and as an early palace of industry clearly worthy of the guidebooks (themselves novelties). By any stretch of the imagination, though, the Manufacture des Tabacs was an odd place to look for someone who would become the most celebrated mathematical astronomer of his day—but not everyone follows a straight course to the person they might become. Thus it was that in 1833 a young man, freshly minted as a graduate of the celebrated École polytechnique, could be found every working day at the Quai d'Orsay, reporting for duty at the research arm of ...
It seems there are now 2.5 million people in the UK on the Government's list of those who are extremely vulnerable, all of whom will have received the letter above. When you add in people like me who are not on the list but are living with and shielding someone else, that must mean that well over 3, if not 4, million of us are staying at home for the long term. On Monday I wrote that at least 1.5 million people were being shielded. The first tranche of about 900,000 were sent letters from the Government soon after lockdown ...
The following email is going out from me to party members and supporters this afternoon: Today our independent review of the general election has published its report. We asked for this to be frank, thorough and challenging – and it is. More than 20,000 of you contributed your views to Dorothy Thornhill and her team. Thank you to everyone involved. This review challenges us to change as a party and to change the country for the better. It makes a series of clear recommendations about how we can improve our campaigning, plan better, build on what worked well locally, and ...
The report of the review of the Liberal Democrats' 2019 European and general election campaigns has been published online this afternoon: While decisions made in 2019 certainly frustrated our electoral prospects, the underlying lack of preparation is a bigger cause for concern. There was an opportunity for us to win more seats in 2019 but the main causes of that failure are the decisions made over the course of many years, before Brexit was even conceived.
In an email to all members, Mark Pack, the party President, writes: ... today our independent review of the general election has published its report. We asked for this, to be frank, thorough and challenging – and it is. More than 20,000 of you contributed your views to Dorothy Thornhill and her team. Thank you to everyone involved. This review challenges us to change as a party and to change the country for the better. It makes a series of clear recommendations about how we can improve our campaigning, plan better, build on what worked well locally, and win more ...
Rather than beating ourselves up about the record of the 2010 Coalition, we should be thinking about how we would handle the next one. In the 2019 election campaign our leader promoted the fantasy that we could sweep into government, in spite of our structurally-hostile electoral system, on our own. Look forward to the 2022-4 general election, and contemplate its possible outcomes: a Labour landslide, overcoming their 124-seat deficit to gain a clear majority on their own (a huge mountain to climb); a continuing Conservative majority, smaller than now; or a no-majority parliament, in which we and other 'minority parties' ...
The world's other problems have not disappeared while we struggle with coronavirus. Here is a sample. There are lots more. Climate Change: The big item pre-pandemic and possibly bigger post-pandemic. Clear skies, uncongested roads, a drop in petrol prices, fresh air and birdsong are prompting a quality of life re-think. Many countries are planning increased facilities for cyclists and the French are considering banning domestic air flights. But can this environmental impetus survive the desperate need to return to work when the lockdown ends? Locusts: Almost totally absent from the news headlines has been successive locust plagues in East Africa—the ...
Thu, 12:56: The Ruby Slippers and the Wizard's Coat https://t.co/g1SdlTKiC4 Connie Willis with some fascinating details from Oz. Thu, 16:05: TfL: The Impossible Finances of Fighting a Pandemic https://t.co/OlGcwmINgt How can London afford to keep moving? Thu, 16:40: RT @cybertechaccord: Products that are connected to a network are called the "internet of things" or "IoT" and they are here to stay. Hacke... Thu, 17:11: EU diplomats face the enemy within https://t.co/s3gDYLcF4X Vimont speaks out - fascinating if you have been following the EEAS's troubles. Thu, 18:45: RT @DougSaunders: In France, it's currently possible for a woman simultaneously to be fined ...
The Times wins our Headline of the Day Award.
Fri 15th
09:36
The party President writes...Key party decisions coming up at the Federal Board meetings next week
How do we improve as a party and achieve greater success in future elections? That's the theme running through the bumper set of key decisions the Federal Board is looking at next week at our meeting. (Or rather meetings, as to avoid Zoom fatigue, we're splitting one long meeting into halves on consecutive nights.) Included in that will be the Board's first considerations of the independent election review, headed up by Dorothy Thornhill and coming out later today. Thank you for all their hard work to her, her colleagues and everyone who contributed evidence to the review. Even without that ...
The Guardian reports that the Parliamentary joint committee on human rights (JCHR) has taken the unusual step of producing a draft bill for the government to pass as soon as possible that would require the government to delete all the data it captures using the NHS Covid-19 contact-tracing app after the pandemic ends, and prevent it from using the information gathered for any other purpose than fighting Covid-19. They say that the impending release of Apple and Google software for building decentralised contact-tracing apps will put more pressure on the government, which took the controversial decision to forge its own ...
Fri 15th
08:55
EU Commission launches legal action against UK government's failings over citizens' rights
Responding to the reports that the European Commission has launched legal action against the British government for its "failure to comply" with European Union rules on free movement, Liberal Democrat Home Affairs Spokesperson Christine Jardine said: "It is beyond frustrating that it has got to the point where the UK Government is facing legal action to protect the rights of people who contribute so much to this country. The fact that the Commission feels it has to take this action to protect rights after the transition period reflects terribly on the UK government and their actions. "The current crisis has ...
The Department of Education's chief scientific adviser has not made any assessment on how effective the guidance on safe reopening of schools is or how it might be implemented.
Fri 15th
07:55
Maghull – C19 & how our world seemed to change from locked down to unlocked so quickly
Liverpool Road North shops in 2015 It's normally very hard to access the shops on Liverpool Road North Maghull by car as the few parking spaces there are will usually occupied most of the time. C19 changed all that as the businesses closed and there were no cars wanting to park apart from those belonging to a few very local residents. And then yesterday I went to deliver food to our isolating daughter and found pretty much the last parking space; the world has moved on or is that moved out very fast indeed! Oddly though it seemed only 3 ...
2 big stories You can tell when the Conservatives are rattled. After the easy years of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour Leader, Keir Starmer is clearly more of a worry, which might explain why Conservative MPs Nadine Dorries, Maria Caulfield and Lucy Allan decided to draw attention via Twitter to a very dubiously edited video purporting to represent his views on child grooming. It wasn't actually true, indeed it might represent defamation, and disappeared, along with the account it came from. Maria Caulfield was obviously concerned about the possibilities, as her entire Twitter account has been deleted. Even Number 10 wasn't ...
Residents recently drew to my attention potholes in Pennycook Lane. I reported these to the City Council's Roads Maintenance Partnership and am pleased to advise that, despite the challenges facing services during the current health emergency, I have been assured that these repairs will be scheduled for repair - to quote : "We'll arrange for an inspector to have a look at Pennycook Lane and log any defects identified for repair."
