Tag Archives: dorothy thornhill

Local Government Association Lib Dems announce election results

By Helen Duffett | Published 22nd August 2011 - 4:21 pm

ALDC reports:

The Liberal Democrat Group in the Local Government Association has announced the results of its elections to group positions and the various LGA commissioners, boards and panels. Those elected are listed below with the results available here and the full breakdown of the results by stage available here.

Group Executive

Group Leader – Gerald Vernon-Jackson, Portsmouth (Elected unopposed)
Deputy Leader (Policy) – Chris White, Hertfordshire (Elected unopposed)
Deputy Leader (Political) – Dorothy Thornhill, Watford
Group Chair – Jill Shortland, Somerset (Elected unopposed)
Group Whip – Howard Sykes, Oldham (Elected unopposed)

See the full list of those elected at the ALDC website …

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Liberal Democrats receive Queen’s Birthday Honours

By Helen Duffett | Published 11th June 2011 - 7:53 am

Graham Watson, Liberal Democrat MEP for South West England and Gibraltar, has received a knighthood in the Queen’s Birthday Honours 2011.

He’s listed under Knights Bachelor – Knighthoods:

Graham Robert WATSON, MEP. For public and political services.

Congratulations, Sir Graham!

Also:

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Labour struggle to understand election results

By Sara Bedford | Published 6th June 2010 - 1:20 pm

The Watford Labour Party has published a members’ newsletter and placed a copy online. In the report of May’s local elections it reads:

In the Mayoral election, Nigel Bell came a close second.
Which is strange. Because in the vote for Watford’s elected mayor, won for the third time by Lib Dem Dorothy Thornhill, Labour’s candidate Nigel Bell didn’t come second, close or otherwise. He came third.

In the first ballot of the AV election, the votes were:

  • Nigel Bell (Labour) 10,029
  • Steve Johnson (Conservative) 10,403
  • Alex Macgregor Mason (Green) 2,173
  • Dorothy Thornhill (LibDem) 19,153

After the votes in this AV election were transferred, …

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Obama would have been blocked by Labour – what about the Lib Dems?

By Iain Roberts | Published 1st March 2010 - 10:50 am

A former US grassroots campaigner, now working in Manchester, has claimed that Labour is an alienating force in our big cities and Obama would never have made it in the Labour Party.

Gregory Galluzo, the Guardian claimed on Saturday, trained Obama in grassroots politics over a decade ago.

Galluzo is quoted in the Guardian as saying:

In my experience the Labour party in your big cities like Manchester is one of the most alienating forces in Great Britain.

It is a very small group of people that controls the city council and they get voted in because they are Labour, not because of

…

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Opinion: Kill puffins and paint horizontally to save millions

By Chris White | Published 25th February 2010 - 11:24 am

Local newspapers in western Hertfordshire exploded on Friday evening with news that the county council had lost a court case. It was chasing an invoice for £335 in a dispute with a water company over a broken manhole cover. The county council had had to put up a couple of cones to warn passing motorists and apparently cones are expensive things to handle.

The water company felt that this was excessive and the council and the utility had seen each other in court. The costs of the case were awarded largely against the council and were reportedly £110,000.

Debate has raged. The …

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Posted in Local government, Op-eds | Also tagged | 1 Comment

Sara Bedford on the Watford play areas ‘Flat Earth News’ day

By Stephen Tall | Published 29th October 2009 - 6:45 pm

I reported here on LDV this afternoon on the serious mis-reporting of Watford Borough Council’s children’s adventure playgrounds policy, indulged by Iain Dale and some newspapers.

For all the media attempts to stir-up some cliched ‘political correctness gone mad’ controversy, it’s clear that Lib Dem Mayor Dorothy Thornhill has acted sensibly and straightforwardly throughout. I hope all those who have copy ‘n’ pasted the mythologised story without first verifying their sources will now ensure they amend their articles to reflect the facts.

One person who does know what she’s talking about – both as a near-by councillor, and as …

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Watford’s liberal Lib Dem Mayor – what Iain Dale didn’t report

By Stephen Tall | Published 29th October 2009 - 1:40 pm

Tory blogger Iain Dale should perhaps have paused before clicking ‘publish’ on his latest – highly inaccurate – post, How Very Illiberal of a LibDem Mayor. Those few seconds’ hesitation would have been sufficient for him to do a quick Google and find out what he was about to write was nonsense.

In his article, Iain recycled a Metro report to allege that Watford Borough Council (run by elected Lib Dem mayor Dorothy Thornhill) has “barred [parents] from public playgrounds in parks. Instead, they are forced to wait outside the railings whilst council-employed “play facilitators” assist the children.”

Iain describes the …

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Posted in Local government | Also tagged , , | 36 Comments