UK should be home energy leader but Cons "cut the green crap" - DaveyCommenting on the latest government proposals for home energy generation, former Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Ed Davey said: "The UK could have been a world leader in home energy generation by now but the last two years have seen renewable investment nose-dive after the Conservatives decided to "cut the green crap'. "While today's announcement is a belated step in the right direction no-one will forget how Conservatives damaged the progress made by Liberal Democrats by their right wing attack on the green agenda since 2015 - from the slashing of feed in tariffs to ending onshore ... (more) |
Concorde was the Brexit of 50 years agoEmbed from Getty Images I was going to include Tom Kelsey's Guardian article drawing parallels between Concorde and Brexit in a Six of the Best, but it deserves an article in its own right. Kelsey shows that Concorde never had a hope of making money for Britain: As secretary of state for industry, Tony Benn revealed to parliament in 1974 that Britain would not recover any of the £600m that the government spent on Concorde. Putting sixteen Concordes into production would also cost another £200m, at the very least. Due to their high running costs, Concordes could not be sold ... (more) |
Liberal Democrat strategy: a brief updateIt's been a while since I've written about the strategy process being run by the Liberal Democrat Federal Board (FB). The FB now has responsibility for drawing up a draft strategy and putting it to federal conference for members to vote on. That process was kicked off earlier this year with a consultation paper and a survey of party members. But then came along an early general election followed by a leadership election and of course the new leader now needs a chance to be closely involved in the process. So rather than a proposed strategy being presented to party ... (more) |
Vince Cable: Voters should have chance to 'exit from Brexit'Here's the new film from the Liberal Democrats, featuring Vince Cable talking about the party's policy on Europe and the need to work with people in other parties. (more) |
Brexit: an idea whose time has passed?One view of our divided country is that it was always a land of potential Leavers and Remainers, the rift being merely exposed by the referendum. On this theory, Remainers were born rather than made and Leavers, like leopards, will never change their spots. Yet the truth is that Leavers comprise all sorts of people, as do Remainers. They are not a different species. I am coming round to the view that our current turmoil is not the fault of the people themselves, so much as the power of a virulent ideology that has swept the country like a tsunami, ... (more) |
Doctor Who: advice for someone who hasn't seen it yetDear Chris, You asked me:Friend in US wants to start watching Dr Who now there is a female doctor. Which are the seminal episodes she should watch in advance? Is there one episode per season she should watch?Unless your friend is already a big fan of sf shows from the last century, she should probably start with New Who, meaning the 2005 reboot with Christopher Eccleston. One sometimes needs to be forgiving of the production values of Old Who, and it may not be right to demand that tolerance of a newbie. For what it's worth, I answered a similar ... (more) |
Report back from July Beddington & Wallington Local CommitteeCllr Steve Cook has provided the following summary of the July Beddington & Wallington Local Committee meeting attended by your ward councillors: The meeting started with Public Question Time which majored on the current situation with Veolia, collection of waste, street cleaning and re-cycling. Scott Edgell (local area manager from Veolia) and Mark Dalzell (Sutton [...] (more) |
LibLink: William Wallace gives the William Beveridge Memorial LectureWilliam Wallace – one of our eminent peers – delivered the William Beveridge Memorial Lecture at the Social Liberal Forum Conference a week ago. Professionally William was a professor in International Relations at the London School of Economics, and he has worked as a visiting professor in Universities around the world. So you would be right in expecting his lecture to be intellectually rigorous and thoroughly relevant to social liberals. He took as his theme the question: Is a liberal and democratic society compatible with globalisation? You can read the full text of his lecture here, but here is a ... (more) |
St Johns Market- A tale of council incompetence!Cllr Juarez and I visited the traders at St John's Market for a 3rd time. At the committee this week we want the whole story and not the Toy Story! You would think that after 810 years as a market ... Continue reading → (more) |
On Vince Cable's tweet about Jeremy Corbyn's student debt 'promise'...Oh Vince. Vince, Vince, Vince. Why? Why? Why? So as some will have noted over the past few days, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has backtracked from his promise that he would deal with student debt. The issue is he never promised anything. He just said that he hoped he'd be able to deal with it. If anyone took it as meaning that he would cancel student debt along with scraping tuition fees then that is on them, not on him. It was super smart politically. By saying that he hoped to deal with the issue surrounding student debt, he would ... (more) |