LibLink: Chris Davies MEP - Why I'm backing Verhofstadt for Commission PresidentOver on his blog, North West MEP Chris Davies explains why he is backing former Belgian prime minister Guy Verhofstadt to continue leading the ALDE grouping and be the group's nominee for president of the European Commission. Over to Chris to explain why: He is a man who can provide the European Union with a degree of leadership and inspiration that it has been missing. I am seriously concerned that Europe is stagnating while countries elsewhere gain greater economic influence. Verhofstadt is absolutely right in saying that we must break free of our self-imposed shackles and move forward. National governments ... (more) |
Go Ahead for Kenilworth Station At Last![IMG: john railway] I was thrilled to hear the news today that the Government had approved the £5 million funding bid for Kenilworth Station. With the rest of the £11.3 million funding already secured, this means that we have a final go ahead at last! I've been campaigning for a station since 2003, and some others for longer than this, so today is really a "red letter day". The station should be opened by 2016. What I'm now pushing the County Council to develop further are plans to ensure accessibility for walkers and cyclists to the station from all parts ... (more) |
The bad name of the Liberal DemocratsAh the Lib Dems. The sandal wearing, beard loving, irrelevance of a political party. When Millwall chanted 'no-one likes us, no-one likes us, we don't care' they did so as a badge of honour. For the Lib Dems it was all very different, it was 'no-one worries about us, no-one particularly dislikes us, no-one cares' as the party bumbled along being relatively popular at local level across the country but when it came to national governance, people wanted to see the two big parties battle it out. There was no third way. Then things changed. In the space of a ... (more) |
By-election night 18Last week saw a Lib Dem near miss in the wonderfully named Splott Ward in Cardiff, where Labour held on by 100 and also comfortably saw off Plaid in Riverside. In the other city contests Labour held on comfortably in Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester with the Lib Dems polling 148 votes in total, but the party did have the - ahem - satisfaction of seeing its vote double in the Glasgow Shettleston contest to 1.4%. Outside of the cities all the seats changed hands with the Independents gaining from the Tories in Chelmsford, the Tories gaining from Labour in Nuneaton ... (more) |
Why testing seven-year-olds will backfireA generation ago, the former Bank of England director Sir Charles Goodhart developed what is now known as 'Goodhart's Law'. It was originally a principle in macro-economics, but it is now more usually used about the distortions of public service targets. The principle is that numerical measurements will always be inaccurate if they are used to control people. The reason is that, however incompetent staff may be, they will always be skillful enough to make targets work for them rather than against them. Take for example, the original response - more than a decade ago now - to the rule ... (more) |
Little Black BookSo David Cameron's keeping a little black book of the things Lib Dems have stopped him doing in Government - things he wants to put in the next Tory manifesto. A copy has been found, and it's scary reading: (more) |
Blyth Town Council, rearranged meeting of Allotments CommitteeThe meeting of the Blyth Town Council Allotments Committee which was postponed because of the Quayside floods of 5th December , has been rearranged for Tuesday 17th December, at 6:30 at Arms Evertyne House (more) |
Drones and journalism: an example of the future from BangkokVia Benedict Evans comes this example of a drone being used to film riots in Bangkok: Of course the media already has access to helicopters, but they are expensive and the ease of getting a helicopter in the right place varies hugely depending on where a story is happening. Covering a London traffic jam is far easier than a Central African Republic human rights disaster. The Arab Spring showed how the easy availability of footage can make a huge difference to how events play out. The availability of drones takes it one step further, both as the perspective from the ... (more) |
Lib Dems should aim for a budget surplus not because the Tories want to, but because it is rightAll parties have a mixture of deficit hawks and doves – those who believe in balanced budgets and those who aren't too bothered. The Lib Dems are no exception, but I think we are different in the motivations underlying these positions. Many Tories often seem to see deficit reduction as an end in and of itself, not even necessarily because they want to see a smaller state and lower taxes, but simply because their ideology teaches that budget deficits are Bad Things. And in recent years, some Labour figures have begun to sound like their ideology teaches that budget deficits ... (more) |
The inspiration of Nelson MandelaThis article was first published on Lib Dem Voice. The passing of Nelson Mandela is a moment in history which has touched almost everyone as we reflect on the momentous achievements of the great man and compare them to his ... Continue reading → (more) |