As I remember it, this is where the Seventies began. There were no more flower children or village green preservation societies: we had landed in a new decade of supersonic air travel, traffic and pollution. (I seem to recall another Cadbury's commercial, using the same tune, that mentioned "the supersonic Seventies", but I can't find it online.) "Like it always will be?" Cadbury's was sold to the US firm Kraft Foods after the Gordon Brown's government declined to intervene. And supersonic travel is no more. As Jonathan Meades has pointed out, the future happened briefly in 1969. It seems Cadbury's ...
Gateshead Council tenants' satisfaction rating has gone over the cliff, according to a report considered at the recent scrutiny committee that covers housing. The drop is staggering. In 2015, the rating stood at 88.5%. Now it has crashed to just 44%. The survey of 1086 tenants reveals that people are not happy with repairs, anti-social behaviour, street repairs and cleaning.Gateshead Labour are
Wed 17th
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GUEST POST Will compulsory ID at polling stations break our model of canvassing and knocking up?
Will requiring voters to produce photographic ID at the polling station spell the end for political parties' current polling-day methods? Augustus Carp reports on his experience of telling in this month's local elections. We all know the game, and a lot of us rather enjoy it. We spend hours canvassing the electorate, and make detailed notes on the register, some of which are accurate. Then, on polling day, we sit outside the polling station and collect the voters' numbers, send them back to the Committee Room, where someone crosses them off the marked register. Anyone whose name is not crossed ...
Today is the International Day against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia.It's great to see Ed Davey state unequivocally the party's commitment to and record of delivery of LGBT+ rights. Watch his video here. As a lifelong feminist I think it is so important for women and LGBT+ people to stand together. That way, we have more chance of winning equality and rights for both. * Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings
Summer 1994 Camberwell. A small 20-something woman with long dark hair is ambling along a side street. Sixties' tower blocks on one side; red brick low rise on the other. She has a brown and black bag slung over her shoulder. She is enjoying a bag of jelly tots as she goes and is weighed down by a heavy white plastic bag containing her council paperwork. A tall 30-something male with dark hair and translucent pale skin hovers nearby. Suddenly he picks up speed, runs at the woman, grabs the bag off her shoulder. She rather lamely shouts: "Oh no!" ...
Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey MP marks 2023's International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia.
So the National Conservatism Conference 2023 has kicked off in London. For three days our capital will play host to a procession of right-wing, populist speakers ranging from government ministers to climate change deniers. Even before the event began, it was mired in controversy. Snippets of the speech to be given by the Home Secretary leaked, with suggestions she would suggest training our own fruit pickers would resolve some of Britain's economic woes, and left-wing media organisations reported being barred from attending. OpenDemocracy reports that they, along with others, were denied passes to the conference due to space and availability, ...
The Indepedent reports on a study that has shown that more than 10 million adults in the UK are currently struggling with bills with some eating less and cancelling insurance policies in order to get by. They say that the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) found the number in financial trouble has grown by 3.1 million since May 2022 to now represent one in five of the population. Many have been forced to take measures such as using savings to fill an oil tank, using credit to pay for food shopping, cancelling insurance, quitting sports memberships and eating less: The FCA ...
The Foreign Office has an unspoken strategy: whenever possible, it frames conflict as a humanitarian disaster, not a political problem requiring a political solution. Supporting UN aid efforts is laudable, but it is also easier than devoting diplomatic time and capital confronting deep-seated issues like systemic corruption, the persecution of minorities or the marginalisation of ethnic groups. No wonder so many civil wars defy our efforts to secure a genuine sustainable peace. The current violence in Sudan is an example of how officials respond to conflict as if it were an earthquake rather than a man-made disaster. Twenty years ago, ...
