Tag Archives: chris white

Great election results for LDV team members

Two members of the LDV team were standing for election on Thursday.

Joe Otten has faced the electorate two years running. He was up for election at the end of his four year cycle last year and Sheffield had all-ups this year after new boundaries came in.

The result was impressive:

Joe Otten result

The three Liberal Democrats were 2000 votes ahead of their nearest Labour rivals. That’s a vote of confidence if ever there was one.

Joe wasn’t so lucky in the Police and Crime Commissioner elections, but he put up a good, …

Posted in News | Also tagged , and | 6 Comments

Welcome to my day – 8 February

Before I start, news from Eastwood in Nottinghamshire;

Congratulations to candidate David Hallam and all of our team in Ashfield on this gain from Labour.

Made slightly more complex by the fact that our beloved site crashed late yesterday evening, we’re another day closer to the Eastleigh by-election. Unfortunately, I can’t get to Eastleigh, but am giving money instead. And if, like me, you’d really like to help but can’t get to Hampshire, you can do so by visiting the …

Posted in News | Also tagged | Leave a comment

Opinion: What is keeping councils awake at night?

The Local Government Conference met in conference in Birmingham last week.

I am slightly (only very slightly) embarrassed to confess that I have attended every conference since the LGA was created in 1997. In that first year the conference (in Manchester) ran from Tuesday until Friday. There was a gala night on the set of Coronation Street (this is apparently a television soap opera for those of you too busy each evening with your politics).

John Prescott and Gordon Brown turned up to praise the new body’s birth and the role of local government (delicious irony in hindsight), John Bird and John …

Posted in Local government and Op-eds | Also tagged , , , and | 5 Comments

Chris White writes: The next local elections after May this year will be in November.

It is likely that a number of our cities will, by Government diktat, be holding referendums in May as to whether to move to a mayoral system. Some of these will give the go-ahead and Liverpool is anyway likely to jump straight to a mayoral system by use of a council resolution. The mayoral contests will be on the same day as those for Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs).

There are still some who, in relation to PCCs, are fondly imagining that Liberal Democrat candidates won’t be needed. This is despite the fact that it abundantly clear that the Conservative and …

Posted in Local government and Op-eds | Also tagged and | 9 Comments

Local Government Association Lib Dems announce election results

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

Posted in News | Also tagged , , , , and | 1 Comment

Where next for Lib Dem ‘muscular liberalism’?

Over on the BBC News site, BBC political correspondent Norman Smith has written a piece looking at how the Liberal Democrats will continue to exert their influence in a more public way within the coalition after the combined effect of the AV referendum, the local election results and the success of the party’s push to re-think the NHS reforms.

As Norman says:

From the top to the bottom of the party, there is a hankering for clear yellow lines running through government policy.

However, where those lines should be drawn to best reassert the Lib Dems’ independence, is much harder to agree.

There …

Posted in News | Also tagged , , , and | Leave a comment

More steps in the localism shuffle

Earlier today both Chris White and Nick Barlow pointed out how the government’s “localism agenda” (formerly known as the man in Whitehall doesn’t know best) has taken two steps back this week. But for the two steps back, there are also two steps forward: with councils being given more discretion to decide what parking charges should be in their own patch (a piece of localism which will most likely see some Conservative councils downplay environmental considerations in setting charges, but if you believe in local decision-making…) and also, hooray, a scrapping of the “pre-determination rule” in …

Posted in Local government and News | Also tagged | 11 Comments

Opinion: Hitting who the hardest?

The contents of the emergency budget have been a bitter pill for many Lib Dem activists to swallow. I have to admit that my support for the Liberal Democrats has been mostly on the basis of their commitment to civil liberties, their scientific literacy (Evan Harris is greatly missed!) and their hard work in my local area. I can make no claims about being educated in economics but I like to think my Maths degree qualifies me as basically numerate.

Recently I read The Observer story on the briefing from Tim Horton (of Fabian Society, not doughnut, fame) and Howard …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , and | 41 Comments

Daily View 2×2: 12 January 2010

On this day in 2001, Sven Goran Eriksson took over as manager of the England football team. On the same day, the carers of eight year old Victoria Climbié, who died after being tortured and fed like a dog, were found guilty of her murder, leading to questions being asked of Haringey Social Services.

Today is the 281st anniversary of the birth of Edmund Burke. It’s also the 59th and 56th birthdays respectively of  US radio ‘personalities’ Rush Limbaugh and Howard Stern.

2 Big Stories

Four steps to a fairer Britain

Yesterday saw Nick Clegg set out the priorities which will be at the heart of the party’s …

Posted in Daily View and General Election | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , and | Leave a comment

Daily View 2×2: 10 December 2009

Good morning and welcome to Daily View. 10th December is the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death and the first awards of the Nobel Prize in 1901. Today we also sing happy birthday to Emily Dickinson and Ada Lovelace.

The numerical elements of this post break down a little, as you’ll see.

Must-Read Blog Posts

What are other Liberal Democrat bloggers saying? Here are some posts that have caught the eye from the Liberal Democrat Blogs aggregator:

OnePlace to rule them all

As we reported yesterday, the Audit Commission launched One Place, a website listing government inspection results of all local authorities. And reviews of their own councils have been exercising some Lib Dem bloggers since the site came back up yesterday afternoon:

Posted in Daily View | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , and | Leave a comment

Welcome to the new bloggers…

Six blogs have recently joined Ryan’s Liberal Democrat Blogs aggregator:

  • Chris White – good to see another councillor using ALDC’s excellent MyCouncillor system.
  • Giles Wilkes – a think tank blogger spawns his own blog, which is an interesting take on the question of why there are so few successful think tank blogs. His explanation? “‘Institutional’ blogs look and feel terrible.  You need individual personality.”
  • Jeremy Rowe – do not look at the photograph on this post if you are easily scared.
  • John Ault – the man who triumphed on Top Gear turns to blogging.
  • Nigel Roberts – a

Posted in Online politics | Also tagged , , , , and | Leave a comment
Advert

Recent Comments

  • Nonconformistradical
    @Thelma Davies "The Israeli state operates with the tacit agreement of Western liberal democracies. " So what? Since when did 2 wrongs make a right? Isn'...
  • Peter Davies
    @Peter Martin: That £34.4k p.a is median equivalised disposable income, so it's after tax and NI and adjusted (downwards) for household size....
  • joni masters
    It would seem that a fully trans person with a GRC & a changed Birth certificate, unless there are Police & a medical officer present & an instant t...
  • Peter Davies
    @Peter Martin There is a big difference between your "about 30% of children are living in poverty" and Steve's "20 to 30% cannot afford to feed their children d...
  • Steve Trevethan
    In response to the request for child hunger in the U. K. information, made by Simon R., here is but one website: https://www.barnardos.org.uk/news/quarter-pa...