Did any of you who were in Bournemouth earlier this week had a ride on the West Cliff Lift? For £2, it was worth it!
This is just a short post to note that I published a new piece on the Liberal Democrat Voice news site, on the party leadership's frankly rubbish decision to cancel a long-standing goal of introducing a 1p income tax rise to fund core public services – the lack of which will weaken the party's already [...]
As the LGA Liberal Democrat Group's spokesperson on health issues, I am very pleased that we may be seeing a successful outcome to the call by LGA and councils to ban disposable single use vapes. The government have just announced that they are looking at bringing in legislation to ban single use vapes. In consultation with our Health Spokesperson Daisy Cooper MP I have successfully called for the Local Government Association to back a ban, especially given the plethora of alternative vapes available for smokers to use as an aid to quit. Evidence shows that there is an alarming increase ...
FRDH Podcast with Michael Goldfarb · How Do You Know for Sure? Conspiracy and the MediaThis new edition of Michael Goldfarb's FRDH ('The First Rough Draft of History') podcast is well worth listening to. Matthew Sweet explains how knowledge is intentionally corrupted by conspiracy friendly media and why people embrace these ideas. Talking of Dr Sweet, this is a chance for me to recommend his book Inventing the Victorians, which shares my view that the Victorians were a lot less Victorian than we imagine.
It's easy to forget how little even politically engaged voters see of our conferences. Some family members - middle-class voters in a rural Conservative seat, environmentally inclined and still considering who to vote for next year - saw just one headline from the past, and it was "Lib Dems drop pledge to raise income tax". Their verdict? "Disappointing". Changes to a major policy are something to be done with caution and care. Any political benefits of a change need to be weighed against the costs. Shifting positions can weaken a party's brand, making it less clear to voters what we ...
The Trade Union Congress (TUC) has been campaigning for the renationalisation of Britain's railways, citing how different services are owned or part-owned by the Dutch, German, Italian and Hong Kong governments and asking why the British government doesn't own these. It concludes with the TUC calling for the British government to renationalise the railway services. I take umbrage with the language used by the TUC. Framing this as "foreigners shouldn't own our stuff" plays into the hands of nationalists, giving power to those who want to cut Britain off from the world and transform us into a regressive hellhole. With ...
It's been a fairly bad 15 years or so for economic growth, hasn't it? There are plenty of ways of discussing this – charts of a line rising steadily up to mid 2008, turning sharply down and then never quite getting back on track. I have quite a few in this somewhat downbeat attempt fromContinue reading "A blob-chart way of dissecting Britain's prosperity failure"
Federal Council is not yet a productive committee. In fact, given I've had to skip at least one canvassing session to attend it, I might go as far to say that it's been a net negative in terms of achieving the party's goals of getting liberals elected. It has so much promise. In the handy visual diagram of the party's committees provided in the conference handbook, it's shown as equal to Federal Board, so is a committee that if effective yields important power. But so far, we have little to show for our time. Much has been said about our ...
The BBC reports on an investigation that has found that police officers are switching off their body-worn cameras when force is used, as well as deleting footage and sharing videos on WhatsApp. The broadcaster says that they have uncovered more than 150 reports of camera misuse by forces in England and Wales - described as "shocking" by a leading officer: The Home Office says police use of cameras must be lawful and justified. The roll-out of body-worn cameras, costing at least £90m over the past decade, was intended to benefit both victims and the police - protecting officers against malicious ...
Thu 28th
10:58
Given the Chinese spy issues, should I, a Chinese immigrant, pursue a political career in the UK?
After the release of the news last week of Conservative candidates dropped after the MI5 warned they could be Chinese spies, I paused my application to be a Prospective Parliamentary Candidate (PPC). I was shocked and scared. If the political atmosphere is moving to the extreme right wing, I could be a victim for two reasons: my Chinese-immigrant background, and the definition of a spy - the line between influencing British Chinese policy and freedom of speech is getting blurred. Since I have started to speak the truth about what happened in China from 2022, I have made a really ...
"For at least a generation, the Aliyev regime in Baku has lied to its citizens, claiming that Armenian Christians, who have lived in Karabakh for centuries, are invaders - alien, subhuman, a cancer. Wherever it has had a chance, the Baku regime has destroyed Armenian churches and gravesites to erase evidence of Armenians' indigeneity to the territory." Mark Movsesian explains the background to current events in Nagorno-Karabakh. Prem Sikka says the collapse of Wilko shows why we need to reform insolvency laws: "In the previous decade, around £77m in dividends was paid out. Directors extracted dividends and chose not to ...
Outline plans have been submitted for nine houses on the former Whittles coach depot on Fishmore Road. Few details are given in the outline application for the 0.4 hectare site other than an outline plan and a brief description (23/03716/OUT). The lack of information has led to an objection from the Environment Agency which is concerned about contamination on the site from previous uses and the potential for pollution of watercourses if contaminants are disturbed. There is no mention of affordable housing in the outline proposal. However, an affordable housing contribution will need to be paid. It is however commonplace ...
Michael's surgeries take place today and every Thursday during school term time. Please note that, although St Joseph's RC Primary School is closed today due to the city-wide industrial action, both Victoria Park PS and Harris Academy are open so Michael's surgeries can go ahead as normal. They are as follows : Thursdays at 5.45pm prompt - West End Campus (come to reception area of St Joseph's RC and Victoria Park Primary Schools) Thursdays at 6.30pm prompt - Harris Academy reception area All welcome - no appointment necessary!
We recently received a request from residents that the council cut back some of the foliage on Riverside Drive just south of the bridge over the rail line and the Botanic Garden. We therefore raised this with the City Council requesting it is attended to.
