Second MP backs Mark Pack for Liberal Democrat PresidentFollowing Layla Moran's support, here's the second Member of Parliament backing me in the race to be Lib Dem President. (more) |
Why Remainers should be worried if a People's Vote comes to passThere was a good article in the Spectator by Nick Cohen yesterday about the People's Vote campaign and how while they have done well to advance the cause of getting a second referendum seriously considered, they haven't done a lot of thinking about what to do if a referendum actually happens. What ideas will the Remain campaign be based on? Who will lead it? The scary thing to me about the People's Vote campaign is that they are already sounding a little like Yes to AV, which if you need reminding, lost their referendum campaign by 36 points in 2011. ... (more) |
Carbon fee and dividend - how it would workIn my first post, I introduced the idea of carbon and fee and dividend. Now I want to look at how it would work in the UK. Fees steadily rise and are economy-wide, paid by companies that sell fossil fuels in the UK. The tax would steadily rise at a rate set by an independent body such as the Climate Change Committee to give the policy institutional certainty and bankability. This would mean that the price of burning fossil fuels account for their true social and environmental costs. Fees are structured around border carbon adjustments, to create a level playing ... (more) |
Printing for DeckhamAfter cabinet yesterday morning I headed to the Lib Dem office in Consett to print our next leaflet for Deckham ward. It will be going into circulation shortly. (more) |
The Plot: Folkestone Triennial 2020 Announced[IMG: Folkestone Triennial 2017 exhit [house]] Creative Folkestone is pleased to announce that the fifth edition of Folkestone Triennial will be taking place from Saturday 5 September - Sunday 8 November 2020. Curated for the third time by Lewis Biggs, the Triennial in 2020 will take the title The Plot. The Plot invites visitors to consider urban myths and their relation to verifiable realities, the gap between the story and the actuality and presents around 20 newly commissioned artworks by internationally acclaimed artists. It will use three historic Folkestone narratives as a point of departure: St Eanswythe's Watercourse; the physician ... (more) |
Brexit: the penny drops as Sir Humphrey is wheeled in amidst the "whiff of sexism"Sir Ivan Rogers, former UK ambassador to the EU, had to have an uncomfortable conversation with the then Prime Minister, Theresa May in 2016. He told her: ...you have made three commitments in good faith to different audiences, but they are not really compatible with each other. You have said to the Irish, under no circumstances will a hard border be erected across the island of Ireland. You have said to the Democratic Unionist community under no circumstances will there be divergence from the rest of Great Britain. And you have said to the right of your own party that ... (more) |
The real threat to our democracyWhile the Conservative UK Government propose to pursue legislation to suppress the votes of those most likely to support their rivals by introducing stringent ID checks at polling stations, the real threat to our democracy remains ignored. The Guardian points out that a new study has concluded that Britain needs to take concerted action to reduce the risk of malicious actors in the UK and abroad from contaminating the results of a looming general election: A group of experts say government, political parties and social media companies all need to take immediate action, at a time when there is rising ... (more) |
Opinion: Europe has a big Turkey problemHaving been given the green light the day before by President Trump, the Turkish army's invasion of northern Syria began on October 8. The invasion is not simply an additional military episode in a Middle East that has become totally disrupted since the catastrophic American invasion of Iraq in 2003. This is not an incident with purely regional consequences. It is a crucial event that reveals two major trends in contemporary geopolitics. On the surface, one might think that the issue is limited to the Turkish President's desire to destroy Rojava, the region in almost autonomous rule by the anti-Islamist ... (more) |
Lipstick on the pigA conservative civil service and a Conservative government react to demands for change in one of two ways (sometimes both): introduce a new tax with an appropriate name, or set up a new ministry or quango surrounding it with a fog of PR presentation. Neither measure is designed to upset the status quo. The proposed Office for Environmental Protection fits neatly into that scenario. Fossil fuel suppliers need not fear their future market. The truth is that ecological recovery will not come from a grand gesture at the top but from a series of local decisions. Received wisdom about "efficiency" ... (more) |
Car firm job losses show Johnson's disregard for British businessResponding to the reports that one in three car firms are cutting jobs, Liberal Democrat shadow Brexit Secretary Tom Brake said:"It is time Boris Johnson woke up to the fact that the manufacturing sector, and the automotive industries in particular, are suffering badly from Brexit-related uncertainty. Jobs are being lost, investment is down sharply, and confidence is low."Brexit will be disastrous for British business, but the Conservative Government know this. They simply don't care. We know Boris Johnson's disregard for business, but we must be clear that this will mean people right across the country losing their livelihoods. Liberal Democrats ... (more) |