3 in 10 still not being contacted to isolate Responding to the Government missing its 80% target for a tenth consecutive week, with more than 3 in 10 close contacts of people testing positive for COVID-19 not being contacted, Liberal Democrat Health Spokesperson Munira Wilson said: With children going back to school, the priority has to be keeping people safe. Instead, Ministers have failed to deliver a comprehensive strategy to test, trace and isolate every case of coronavirus. It is utterly unacceptable. The public deserves to know what is going wrong. That's why the Liberal Democrats are calling for an ...
Why does London have an underground railway that was for most of its history not regarded as part of the London Underground? Jago Hazzard explains.
When Bob Dylan played Birmingham in 1996 with The Band, Steve Winwood and his brother Muff met him backstage before the concert. Dylan told them he was really into ghosts, so Muff Winwood mentioned Witley Court. This derelict Worcestershire mansion was said to be haunted by its last owner, who could be seen walking the grounds with his dog. And Dylan insisted they took him there after the show. Muff Winwood takes up the tale: After the gig they'd got the limos ready and so we just jumped into these limos - there we were in four bloody stretch Princess ...
The new Exec of LGBT+ Lib Dems is now entering its second month. We've got an exciting mix of returning experts and new voices, and I'm very lucky to have the opportunity to Chair the team. One of the key objectives that many Exec members discussed in their manifestos back in July, was the need for us to open up and reach out. That's a priority for me for the rest of our term – and that's why I'm writing in Lib Dem Voice today. In our first month we've made a good start on the important work that needs ...
Current Jerusalem: Vernal's Inquest, by Alan Moore Titus Groan, by Mervyn Peake The Mirror and the Light, by Hilary Mantel The Sky Road, by Ken MacLeod Last books finished Bring Up the Bodies, by Hilary Mantel Star Wars IV: A New Hope, by Roy Thomas and Howard Chaykin The Conqueror's Child, by Suzy McKee Charnas Next books Shadow Scale, by Rachel Hartman East West Street, by Philippe Sands
You only need to read the comments on any news coverage that we happen to get to see the problem. We're so used to the jokes that we are often the first to make them, pre-empting the inevitable. "The Lib Dems are wishy-washy centrists. They sit on the fence, stand for nothing, and betray their principles at the first hint of power. They're irrelevant. Being a Lib Dem is just a marginally more socially acceptable front to being a Tory." We are not good at selling the story of liberalism. Shocking as it may seem to some of us, voters ...
I have voted Liberal or Liberal Democrat since my first opportunity in 1987, having seen as a teenager the emergence of the SDP and the Alliance and having understood the need to reform British politics. I then became more and more aware of the many flaws of our anachronistic, dysfunctional and increasingly corruptible political system and I clamoured for a sea-change in our political landscape. It was never "just PR" for me. In many walks of life it is the structure of our governance that holds the country back - the stultifying straitjacket placed on England by the unitary state ...
Uncomfortable as it is for people of a liberal and democratic disposition to face the harsh realities of a rough and tumble world, the government must deal with the bully who disregards the norms of international rule-based peaceful co-existence. The same applies within the nation-state; it is the government which polices the law of the land and in both cases is there to provide the secure infrastructure which supports the well-being of the citizen and society. In a globalised world, how on earth (literally) as liberals can we perpetuate the emotive implication of them and us? Citizens everywhere belong to ...
The East Midlands Live page from BBC News wins our Headline of the Day Award.
Alright, I admit that how our taxation system is administered is perhaps not high on the agenda of many of you out there. But, perhaps because I am part of the current tax administration system, I take a closer interest in the topic. After all, shouldn't the organisation which raises £600 billion for public spending be of interest to anyone who cares about governance? Five weeks ago, HM Treasury and HM Revenue & Customs published "Building a trusted, modern tax administration system", which outlines a path towards a major overhaul of how taxation is administered over the next decade with, ...
Whickham School's replacement building is now complete. The old school buildings are now starting to be demolished. I have happy memories of the being a pupil there in the later 70s and early 80s. Some of the buildings that are now being demolished were built when I was a pupil and we were among the first to use them!
Wed, 12:56: Naked self-interest should steer Johnson towards a late Brexit deal https://t.co/H4CVlASdou Maybe. Wed, 14:59: Being invited to have a fight in public. Not fighting. Moving on. Wed, 16:05: How the 1918 flu pandemic ended, according to historians and medical experts https://t.co/OnY8pD5ESm Summary: it's still with us. Sobering reading. Wed, 17:11: How to Make Rational Decisions in the Face of Uncertainty https://t.co/BK4X2qgqm9 Wise advice. Wed, 18:08: RT @nchrysoloras: If Terry Pratchett and Franz Kafka had co-authored a book, the scene could be the Etterbeek commune. Wed, 19:05: RT @APHClarkson: The UK thinks it can argue with the ref when ...
Any Tory who argues that they did not expect their hostile environment towards immigrants and asylum seekers to provoke a new wave of racism whilst condemning many of those targeted to poverty, is lying in my opinion. Nobody should be surprised that this is exactly the outcome of that policy. As the Guardian reports, a report published by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) has concluded that the "hostile environment" policy has fostered racism, pushed people into destitution and wrongly targeted people who are living in the UK legally. The measures formally introduced by Theresa May while she was ...
Perhaps the leadership election is time for reflections on our party's aspirations, policies, practices and assessments thereof? The "Preamble to our Constitution" presents our aspirations. Perhaps it is a statement of the need for and achievability of justice for the individual, the group, the nation and the World? It could be a compass for the creation and management of policies, policy implementation and their monitoring. We could then monitor the policies of others too. Thus we could develop ourselves as a party of service, information, transparency and reliability. Preamble paragraph 1 refers to the state's role in enabling citizens, and, ...
This morning on Sky News, the following exchange took place: KAY BURLEY: Tony Abbott is a homophobe and a misogynist. MATT HANCOCK: He's also an expert of trade. If cancel culture worked to its intended aim, the Health Secretary would be worried for his job after that remark. Yet we all know nothing of the kind will take place. The big problem with cancel culture is that the real bad guys never get cancelled. The whole thing doesn't work at all to its intended aim. Cancel culture is like many annoying facets of 21st century life. It is a restrictive ...
In response to a previous posting about cycling infrastructure in Sefton Borough a Twitter responder (Clive Durdle) pointed me (and indeed Sefton Council) towards something called CROW. Yes, I wondered what it was too but after some Googling I realised it's pretty much the 'Bible' for building cycle friendly/safe roads. And surprise, surprise (NOT) it's a Dutch publication. Here's a blog posting about it:- therantyhighwayman.blogspot.com/2019/07/crow-flow.html And here's a link to the publishers – by gum it's not cheap! crowplatform.com/product/design-manual-for-bicycle-traffic/ The new Alt JUnction Of course, the obvious question is what manual were Sefton Council using when they designed the new ...
i) births and deaths 3 September 1940: birth of Pauline Collins, who memorably played companion-that-never-was Samantha Briggs in The Faceless Ones (Second Doctor, 1967) and Queen Victoria in Tooth and Claw (Tenth Docrtor, 2006). ii) broadcast anniversaries 3 September 1977: broadcast of first episode of Horror of Fang Rock, starting Season 15. The Fourth Doctor and Leela land at the lighthouse of Fang rock, where the two keepers, Reuben and Vince, are behaving oddly (indeed, Reuben so oddly that he is dead). And a ship is wrecked on the Rock... 3 September 1993 - broadcast of second episode of The ...
Further to the recent discussion about the spelling of Strawberrybank (or is that Strawberry Bank?), residents have queried the spelling of Paton's Lane or is that Patons Lane, without the apostrophe? I sought the advice of the City Archivist who has helpfully responded as follows : "The Dundee directories, electoral registers and Ordnance Survey maps include the apostrophe whilst the valuation rolls do not. Curiously the street name appears to be listed both with and without the apostrophe on the One Scotland Gazetteer of addresses. According to Gillian Molloy's 'Street Names of Old Dundee' the street is thought to be ...
