Looking good!Well done everyone involved with Planting Up Whickham. Flower beds and tubs look fantastic. I will be along on Sunday when the volunteers will be stripping the beds. My job is to take the vegetation to my farm and turn it into compost. (more) |
Will the real Green party that cared about people and planet please stand up?One of the values that attracted me and so many of us to the Liberal Democrats is our fundamental belief in personal freedom: that everyone should be free to live their life how they choose, as long as they don't hurt anybody else. That principle is why I'm writing this today. On the very same week as the one-year anniversary of the horrific attack on worshippers at Heaton Park Synagogue, the Green Party conference chose to pass a motion telling people they are wrong for how they choose to live their lives. Worse still, they voted against an amendment that ... (more) |
Rob Blackie joins the race for Mayor of LondonView this post on Instagram A post shared by Rob Blackie (@rblackie) * Mary Reid is a contributing editor on Lib Dem Voice. She was a councillor in Kingston upon Thames, where she is still very active with the local party, and is the Hon President of Kingston Lib Dems. (more) |
We need better conversations on AI and the environmentAI is not one thing. Neither is its environmental impact. We need to keep our eyes, our debates, and our policymaking focused on the problems we're trying to solve. On the outcomes we're trying to achieve and the society we want to build. AI can be machine learning, Grok, or basic (mislabelled) data analytics and simple process automation software. Its impact on sustainability can of course be environmental - its emissions, energy use, water consumption, effect on the local environment, or through the physical materials and supply chains that build datacentres and all manner of other infrastructure. AI's impact can ... (more) |
Woman 'posed as substitute teacher to insult students because she hates kids'Metro wins Headline of the Day and may just have identified a phenomenon that explains some of my own school experiences. (more) |
The Joy of Six 1588"Tony Blair once observed that the first step from opposition to government is an honest analysis of why you are in opposition. Kemi Badenoch and the people around her don't seem to have done that - or if they have, they've come up with the wrong answer."Andrew Cooper goes to the Conservative Party conference. Samantha Asumadu reports that Times Higher Education has given no coverage to the allegations against James Orr, the Cambridge academic and former Reform UK policy chief whose foundation receives Hungary-linked funding. By coincidence, THE signed a partnership with Viktor Orbán's government. Achim Hildebrandt et al. examine ... (more) |
Tories to reward the better offFamously, it was a pledge by Shadow Chancellor George Osborne in autumn 2007, to lift the inheritance tax threshold significantly higher than the standard £325,000 baseline that caused Gordon Brown to wobble on an early general election and decide to see out a full terms, with disastrous consequences for the Labour Party. If Kemi Badenoch hopes to make a similar impact with her conference speech yesterday, then she may well be waiting some time. The Guardian reports that the Tory leader has announced that her party would abolish inheritance tax on family homes if elected, prompting criticism that she is ... (more) |
Roman Leicester wasn't built in a day 2Four years ago I wrote: What with one thing and another, it's been two years since I posted something from this series. So let's carry on the with the first part of its treatment of Roman Leicester. It's time we had the second part. Its YouTube blurb says: In part 2 of this episode exploring the archaeology and legacy of Roman Leicester, we examine the lifestyles of Ratae's former residents, uncovering amazing stories of love, life and death in the town. (more) |
How to spot a RacistI don't know about you, but I find it rather irritating when some 'patriot' (sic) with a flag tells me what it means to be English. I find it similarly galling to have explained to me what Zionism means and how it relates to my Judaism. These helpful Greens give me their definition of Zionism and tell me that it's racist – but it's ok, because there are plenty of 'good' Jews who are anti-Zionists. But I still choose to call myself a Zionist. And because Zionism, while not meaning the same as Judaism is deeply entwined with Judaism, I ... (more) |
Spread it aroundTaxing inheritances. I understand the Tories are about to discuss inheritance tax today Many years ago I heard a suggestion, I can't remember from whom, but probably the Liberal Party, which I found it very attractive. The proposal was that inheritance tax should be charged not on the estate leaving the bequest but on the recipients receiving the bequests (note the plurals.) The recipients would be able to inherit modest amounts tax free, but pay tax on big bonanza inheritances, or a multitude of modest ones. Thus, if we define a "modest amount" as, say, £50 000 (though that's beyond ... (more) |