If any evidence is needed that our way of life needs drastic change, look no further than the current state of affairs with energy supplies in the UK. Not only have we made our country dependent on foreign fuel supplies, the sources include some of the worst regimes on the planet, such as Russia and Saudi Arabia. Furthermore, we continue to burn fossil fuels at an alarming rate. Meanwhile, even
Lord Frost seems to be everything Brexiteers hate - a jet-setting unelected bureaucrat who gave Britain a rotten Brexit deal which abandoned British sovereignty in part of the UK, while attacking MPs who had the audacity of exercising Parliamentary sovereignty. Now, he wants to junk a significant part of the Brexit deal, the Northern Ireland Protocol. He helped write it. The Conservative
For an instant my blood ran cold. A spokesman for the proposed new coal mine in Cumbria was being interviewed on the radio. Opposition to it is based on its inconsistency with Britain's plan to reduce greenhouse gases. The interviewee had barely started when he took the line that Britain only contributed 1% of greenhouse ... Continue reading Will climate action be the battleground for the next General Election?
This is the latest post in a series I started in late 2019, anticipating the twentieth anniversary of my bookblogging which will fall in 2023. Every six-ish days, I've been revisiting a month from my recent past, noting work and family developments as well as the books I read in that month. I've found it a pleasantly cathartic process, especially in recent circumstances. If you want to look back at previous entries, they are all tagged under bookblog nostalgia. My two trips were again both pleasure rather than business - I went to Belfast to launch the new Northern Ireland ...
Federal Conference Committee chair Nick da Costa has announced the plans FCC has drawn up for next year's Liberal Democrat conferences: We considered a number of options for next year's conferences and took the difficult decision to hold Spring Conference as an online conference and only returning to an in-person event for Autumn Conference. The dates of Spring Conference will be 11-13 March 2022 and we will announce the dates and venue for Autumn Conference in due course. The Committee discussed several options with regards to the format of Spring Conference and, whilst there was a strong desire within the ...
The Federal Conference Committee recently met to discuss the Conference format for 2022. We considered a number of options for next year's conferences and took the difficult decision to hold Spring Conference as an online conference and only returning to an in-person event for Autumn Conference. The dates of Spring Conference will be 11-13 March 2022 and we will announce the dates and venue for Autumn Conference in due course. The Committee discussed several options with regards to the format of Spring Conference and, whilst there was a strong desire within the Committee to return to in person meetings and ...
Warning this posting could get some on the left effing and jeffing! Or is it now called 'doing a Rayner'? You might recall that Labour's sometimes loose cannon Deputy Leader was being chased by the media for calling Johnson some names recently, but does her approach win hearts and minds to oppose the Tories? Name-calling in politics is rooted in tribalism so within political groups it is actually commonplace, particularly in the further reaches of the right and left. It can also be something that is required/expected within certain political groupings/sects to have any street credibility. But outside of such ...
Tue 12th
11:58
Ed Fordham: Why I can't attend a civic event in a venue that rejects me, my marriage and my communit...
LDV contributor and Chesterfield Councillor Ed Fordham has written to the Mayor of Chesterfield, her predecessors and the Council Chief Executive to be open about the reasons he can't attend the annual Mayor-making procession and service – because it is held in a Church of England church, an organisation which doesn't support same sex marriage equality. I need to be honest about my absence from civic events at @CrookSpiChes and I need to speak my truth about @churchofengland and same sex marriage & equality @lfeatherstone https://t.co/JzZt7xbI1i pic.twitter.com/NYC8QDlkyq — Cllr Ed Fordham (he/him) (@edfordham) October 11, 2021 I am really impressed ...
Mon, 12:56: And another good Brexit thread. https://t.co/7QfmwSI7tT Mon, 16:05: RT @DPhinnemore: Where the UK government was on the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland ten months ago... https://t.co/48LCszOM1B https://t... Mon, 17:11: RT @Howard_Goodall: 1 musician, 1 gig. One example posted by @judithbusbridge of the #BrexitReality for our once-thriving, mobile, growing... Mon, 18:12: RT @Mij_Europe: Worth noting that since the Protocol has been in place, there have been NO rulings or pending cases before the ECJ Mon, 18:15: RT @jonworth: As someone else said: the UK Government wants to make the NI Protocol (that works) look like it doesn't, and the TCA ...
Tue 12th
10:28UPDATED: Commons committees' report says government's Covid response was "one of the most important ...
Updated at 11:19 12/10/2021 with Sarah and Layla's responses. * Paul Walter is a Liberal Democrat activist. He is one of the Liberal Democrat Voice team. He blogs at Liberal Burblings.
Might election campaigns have the foundations of attractive ideas, emotional appeal and a plausible previous record? This government has/had strong emotional appeal, especially through its leader. Its ideas have the benefit of being based on the currently dominant economic theory of Neo-liberalism. It is supported, directly and indirectly by the mainstream media which, mostly, bolsters the performance of HM Government. Opposition parties lack the theatrical style of Mr. Johnson. Therefore attack his language techniques. Ratios of jokes to facts? Ditto facts to inaccuracies. Ditto future tenses to past tenses. Which speech has the most metaphors etc.? The oppositions propose variants ...
Just as he was missing in action at the beginning of the pandemic, Boris Johnson is also absent as the first damning report is published condemining his government's handling of covid. As the Guardian reports, a landmark inquiry by the House of Commons science and technology committee and the health and social care committee has concluded that Britain's early handling of the coronavirus pandemic was one of the worst public health failures in UK history, with ministers and scientists taking a "fatalistic" approach that exacerbated the death toll: "Groupthink", evidence of British exceptionalism and a deliberately "slow and gradualist" approach ...
The southern section of Glamis Road was "surface dressed" some time ago to prolong the life of the road surface. To be honest I am not a fan of surface dressing (tar and chippings on top of the existing surface) and proposed at the budget this year an increase in the roads capital programme of £2 million this year, which could have been funded and would have increased the amount of "real" quality resurfacing. Sadly I did not win the vote at the budget but continue to campaign for greater funding for roads and pavements improvements. Many residents have contacted ...
Good news from Oxford where my favourite pub in the city, the Lamb and Flag, is to come back to life. It was closed at the end of January by its owner, St John's College, because of difficult trading conditions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. The pub, according to the college's website, is to reopen thanks to an agreement with a diverse and eclectic mix of Oxford people, past and present, scientists and entrepreneurs, writers and artists, Town and Gown, as well as local businesses and suppliers. This assemblage is called 'The Inklings Group' in honour of a set of ...
