Four Liberal Democrat candidates in the six principal authority council by-elections this week. That brings to an end the run of several weeks with full Lib Dem slates, but it's still one up on the the last time these wards were contested. First up, a Labour hold: Camperdown (North Tyneside) by-election result: LAB: 66.7% (+7.2) CON: 24.5% (+6.5) GRN: 5.4% (+5.4) LDEM: 3.3% (+3.3) Labour HOLD. No UKIP (-22.5) as prev. — Britain Elects (@BritainElects) September 9, 2021
Shaffaq Mohammed, the Lib Dem leader of our group on Sheffield Council has criticised the a ban on the comedian Ray "Chubby Brown" performing at Sheffield City Hall. Shaffaq says: We live in a liberal society and people have individual freedom to choose to live the life they want and as part of that, they can choose to go watch a comedy show behind closed doors where no children are allowed. He added: It's the start of a very slippery slope. Which comedian will be deemed not to be appropriate to come to Sheffield? Would they move on to banning ...
Second paragraph of third chapter of The Primal Urge:As you went through plate glass doors into a foyer ambushed with cactus, a sign in sanserif announced, "Only books stand between us and the cave. Clyde H. Nitkin. The IBA ran mainly on dollar lubrication supplied by the Clyde H. Nitkin Foundation, and the words of the great man, at once original and obvious, were in evidence throughout the building. In the cafeteria downstairs, among the Mojave Desert decor, was "To read is to strike a blow for culture. Clyde H. Nitkin." In the Main Exhibition room on the ground floor ...
So, the Government is to pour more and more money into the first aid camp at the bottom of the cliff rather than building a fence at the top. Yesterday's announcement on the funding for social care does nothing to enhance the quality of life of older people or reduce the demand for hospital treatment or long-term care. 4/5th of the expenditure of the NHS is on older people, there are 1.8m older people living in poverty, with a correlation between income and demand upon the NHS in all age groups. When campaigning for the abolition of the "retirement age", ...
Maghull Library has been on a 2 day week as a consequence of Covid Lockdown for quite some time now and I'd been assuming, always a dangerous thing, that it would soon be opening up 6 days per week. However, a recent enquiry seems to indicate that increased hours/days may not presently be on Sefton Council's agenda. Anecdotal evidence indicates, I might add, that staff shortage may be the reason for keeping it to 2-day opening. Time to try and get to the bottom of this me thinks so I've approached 2 Sefton Councillors asking them both to try to ...
This morning I spent the first part of the day at a small and quite informal event to commemorate '999 Day'. This is the day on which, every year, we commemorate and say "thank you" to those people who go ... Continue reading →
If ever there is research to determine which was the most dismal week in British political history this first week in September 2021 will be hard to beat. In it the government has announced it will break its manifesto pledge to raise the state pension by at least the rate of price inflation, wage inflation or 2.5%, whichever is the greater. The defining rate of wage inflation is 8%, so out goes the pledge and we're to get 2.5% instead. The problem is not so much the breaking of a manifesto pledge: the Doctrine of the Manifesto has always been ...
A common complaint across all non-Tory politics at present is this: why can't anyone mount an effective opposition against this shambles of a Conservative government? A lot of fire is directed at Keir Starmer, so let's start with him and his party as to why it seems almost impossible to put up any kind of effective opposition to Boris Johnson and his crew. Starmer has two issues as I see it. One, he is inexperienced. He only came into the Commons in 2015 and wasn't really involved in party politics at all, at least as far as I'm aware, before ...
Wed, 12:56: Book Review: John Bruton on The Making of the Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985 https://t.co/bs9ZFNiDH9 The inside story, with reflections on the latest developments. Wed, 15:32: RT @Otto_English: Darren Grimes. All the awareness of a blindfolded tortoise in a tunnel. https://t.co/JcfItPmTb4 Wed, 18:16: RT @BCommNI: @HarryHayfield @BCEReviews @BCommWales @BCommScot Hi - we're still still planning to publish initial reccs and launch consulta... Wed, 18:28: 540 days of plague https://t.co/yVfC7G9AdO Wed, 21:44: RT @simondocvet: Utter rubbish, @johnredwood. I'm a Northern Irish vet & past-President of British Veterinary Association (on run up to EU... Wed, 22:07: RT @Axle_Tree: I'm glad Piranesi ...
The Home Secretary's latest wheeze to turn around small boats carrying migrants in the channel and send them back to France is yet another example of this inward-looking, xenophobic, reactionary government's approach to immigration. It is a disgrace and would add to the sullying of the UK's name in the international community, not that we have much hope of recovering any goodwill at the moment. However, as the Guardian reports, the plan may not be as water tight as Priti Patel hopes. They quote Lucy Moreton, a professional officer at the Immigration Services Union (ISU), who says she would be ...
More than a year has passed since the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement stunned the world into vowing to take racism more seriously. Tackling racism, however, always needs to begin at home, and both Liberal Democrat Campaign for Race Equality (LDCRE) and Liberal Democrats Black Lives Action Committee (BLAC) had hoped BLM would propel the party into making faster progress to increase membership and electoral support from ethnic minorities. LDCRE made a major submission, duly accepted, to the Thornhill Review. The Review's recommendations included that the party fulfil the recommendations of the earlier Alderdice Review "in full, with urgency". It ...
Responding to reports that the Government plans to send back boats carrying migrants back across the channel, Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Home Affairs Alistair Carmichael MP said: "Priti Patel's latest cruel idea shows she is not interested in saving lives. "The Government should be trying to stop people making these dangerous Channel crossings, not forcing them to try again. "The Home Secretary's recklessly ideological immigration rules risk killing off our economic recovery before it has begun. Is it too much to hope that she might spend her time attending to that instead of looking for the next dog whistle photo ...
Thu 9th
09:58
Domestic vaccine passports are a counterproductive, illiberal gimmick - Alistair Carmichael
Writing for Politics Home, Lib Dem MP Alistair Carmichael explains the party's opposition to vaccine passports: An ID card scheme, we are told, is necessary to improve vaccine uptake. In fact, the limited amount of research that has been carried out suggests that using vaccine ID cards for domestic purposes makes people less trusting of vaccines - a counterproductive step if ever there was one. Instead, we risk pushing already marginalised groups even further away from community engagement. Until everyone that can be vaccinated has been vaccinated, vaccine ID cards will be divisive and exclusive. Once everyone is vaccinated, of ...
Residents recently contacted me about TV/satellite loose cables across the pavement in Perth Road just west of Miller's Wynd that presented a trip hazard. I took this up with the council's Roads Maintenance Partnership and the local roads inspector had the cabling tied up to remove the problem. I have since had concerns of a similar problem on Perth road further east at Pennycook Lane and also in Peddie Street (see photos) and have requested similar action there.
Andrew Hickey's magisterial blog A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs has reached the era of the British Invasion and Motown, which is roughly where I came in. As Blogger refuses to display its details properly when I try to add this blog to my favourite XI in the righthand column here, let me pick out a few recent episodes. Episode 129: (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction by the Rolling Stones Jagger is expressing the kind of aggressive sulk that pretty much every teenager, especially every frustrated male teenager will relate to. The protagonist is dissatisfied with everything in ...
