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Livingstone is compeletely wrong in his so called facts. Hitler did not involve himself with the Haavara aggreement until 1937, by which time Jews in Germany had already been stripped of all rights. It is completely crazy to see the Nazi's signing this agreement as anything other than a way to get Jews out of Germany - nothing to do with Zionism at all. Here are two good articles by people far more expert than Livingstone the armchair historian. https://medium.com/@josephweissman/but-ken-livingstone-is-right-google-the-haavara-agreement-ddca87ab123b http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/world-history/adolf-hitler-zionism-zionist-nazis-haavara-agreement-ken-livingstone-labour-antisemitism-row-a7009981.html And yes ????, I am utterly dismayed by the way my party is being ruined by idiots like Livingstne and Corbyn. What was I thinking when I voted for that completely inept idealogue.

I think what's interesting, is how quickly Trump has been pulled into line. Because of his inexperience, he has no option but to take the word of well established pentagon experts and military personel. So we are going to see exactly the same geo political policy from the Trump administration as we saw under Bush and Obama etc. All the hot air about Hilary Clinton being a hawk, was just that, hot air. The reality is that US politics, and Washington, is a well oiled machine, run by a whole number of people who make any radical diversion from the status quo impossible. The issue with Trump, is not what will he do, but just how impotent will he be. He is no idealogue, so that force of nature, that appalled so many of us during the persidential campaign, won't follow through in Washington, imo. In reality, he is another Bush, a puppet for those who are really in power. Think what Rumsfeld was to Bush, and you get my drift. The balls are elsewhere. As for the air strike. That was just a warning shot over the bows. Russia and America are not going to be the touchpaper of WW3. There will be a lot of posturing and at worst, a proxy war, of the likes seen in Afghanistan in the 80's, where both sides arm opposing forces. And while the media likes to label every rebel group in the region as IS, this is not at all true. There are enough rebel forces for the superpowers to arm and support if they want to remove Assad. For us in the West, the impacts will be the same as always. Refugee flight, and an endless stream of war zone footage and distressed civilians, none of which is quite relatable enough for people to really care that much about. I'm thinking of a line from 'Hotel Rwanda' which goes that 'when (western) people see dead Bosnians, they see someone like them. When they see dead Africans, they just see another dead African'. If anything meaningful is ever going to happen in international terms, it will require Russia and China to be on board (unlikely) and it will require far more than 30 'Stop the War' protesters outside of Downing Street every time the USA (but not Russia or Assad) engage in military internvention.

The group who find it hardest to live on benefits, are single people receiving JSA with no dependents. But for most of those, the new benefits cap, won't have an impact, except where housing is concerned is a small number of cases. For families with say, two dependents, the cap does start to bite, especially in areas of more expensive housing. People with more than two children are those who will be hardest hit. The disabled have also been hit hard with the removal of many extra benefits that pay for mobility and care packages. Programmes on TV tend to seek out those with no sense of personal responsibility and we can't pretend that isn't a problem. There are people who just keep having kid after kid, who think the state should pay for it all, and it is a generational problem in some ways. The question is, what does it take to change that way of thinking? How do you make someone resigned to a life on benefits, start to understand that benefits are not free money, but paid for by others who go out to work and pay tax, many of them just as poor as them. And how do you do that in a way that doesn't also penalise the far greater number of claimants who do want to try and get back into work if they can. The cap gets one thing right, in that it does not apply to those in part time work. That in itself should incentivise some to seek work. And I can perfectly understand why it's hard to have sympathy with anyone spending money on cigarettes and alcohol while on benefits. There is plenty of free help avaiable on the NHS to help people give up cigarettes.

How about addressing why those shops become vacant and stay vacant. At least half a dozen shops have been lost because of landlords whacking up the rents.

Actually scruffy mummy, many of us do lead community initiatives that genuinely benefit the community. Spending 21k on street furniture to promote shops when funding on much need front line services has been cut is questionable. That 21k btw comes from our taxes. If traders want advertising, they can pay for it themselves out of their own business costs.

The shared space areas though (the crossing, the pulse plaza, the canal path) aren't the problem, because everyone understands they are shared spaces. The problem is a designated cycle lane across a busy pedestrian area, where cyclists expect a right of way and pedestrians don't see the cycle lane. That's what doesn't work. So you either have to have a clearly designated cycle lane (different colour, on tarmac etc) or you have a the pavement as a shared space with no marked cycle lane. It's a psychological thing.

These guys are in Lambeth and have everything. http://www.directphotographic.co.uk/

Nigello. A cycle lane is for cyclists to use. If the council are stupid enough to put that on a pavement with a brick colour that matches the rest of the pavement, you can hardly blame the cyclist if a pedestrain walks into them without looking can you?

Can't get rid of the rats. They are everywhere in London, and every sewer and drain/ manhole is a gateway for them anyway. There's an interesting documentary about rats on Netflix at the moment. It's not for the faint of heart :D

Southwark are facing a ?15 million overspend on their social care budget alone, having used up all their surplus, offsetting central government cuts of 40% over the past few years. That is why many council services have been cut back. It does seem rather odd that money is available for lamp post banners and the like.

This has gone one and on since the lane was created and the council haven't listened to a single point. Now the lane is in such bad repair anyway on the kerbs that you would have to be a complete idiot to not see that the design and materials are not fit for purpose. For the record, I have had four collission with pedestrians who walked straight into my front wheel without looking. Even though I always cycle at walking pace, it did not stop the collision.

James is right in what he says. And also, the referendum campaign itself cut accross party lines, so it seems perfectly logical that it would do so in subsequent parliamentary business too. What Labour have to do now though is fiercely affect the kind of brexit we end up with. Labour should makes access to the single market a key demand and win the economic argument for it. The tories line will be whatever it takes to appeal to brexit views on immigration, so Labour should argue for other ways that disincentivise immigration, over sacrifising single market access. Then voters will have a clear choice between Conservative, Labour and Libdem (offering hard/soft and no brexit) in future elections, if that issue really matters to them. Farage is just a vile hypocrit anyway. And the election of Trump will also have a bearing on where we go as well. 18% of our exports are to America,and they have a trade deficit with us (of around $7billion). Trump isn't going to stand for that, nor does he want America importing goods - he wants to bring back mass US manufacturing (although how he will do that given the much higher production costs over China is anyones guess). So we could find ourselves in a position where we not only face tariffs into the EU, but also increased Tariffs on some of our exports to the US. That's 62% of our exports at risk of costing (10-20%) more to the customer. This is serious stuff.

There were 131 constituencies who voted remain and most of the 114 MP's that voted against triggering the article yesterday, represent those constituencies - so criticising them for doing so is a bich rich (especially after the Richmond bi-election). I thought Ken Clarke's speech was excellent (not that I like very much about his political career). I too am disappointed in Harriet's decision to vote in favour but it was a whipped vote and calls for deselection are a bit much. I certainly wouldn't support that.

There is a lot to worry about in the psychological profile of someone who tortures, kill and mutilates animals. This person needs to be caught, before he or she moves onto larger targets as the Lilo says above.

All of this from a single tweet where the use of language is as clear as day!

This film IS a reflection of what welfare reform has done to thousands of people. Of the 1.3 million people and families that were referred to foodbanks last year, 63% were as a result of welfare delays, sanctions and removal of benefits. This should not be happening. It was a deliberate act by Osborne and Ian Duncan Smith to make accessing benefits as hard as possible, especially for the sick and diabled. Just 6% of the welfare and social security budget is spent on the unemployed and those claiming ESA. The over 65's swallow 65% of that spending, with housing benefit and child tax credits taking sizeable percentages as well. So it is hard to argue that making savings justify the harshness. Under New Labour, food parcels were just 25,000 a year. There has been a backlash against this film by tory apologists masquerasing as journalists, and Tory MPs themselves. I hope every one goes to see it. Last week, a policy unit set up by the tories delivered a report commissioned by government, which citicised pretty much every aspect of welfare repform. This government has made people ill and made them less able to look for work. And none of it, not one bit, is necessary.

Some wheelchair users can reach speeds of 8 mpr too. Should we have those in cycle lanes too? There's a clear dfference between something with a top speed of 8 mpr and a cycle that can go much faster. I also think that mobility scooters on roads will lead to the same kinds of accidents that cyclists suffer from. But if we do ever get to a place where there are millions of mobility sccoter users, we may well want to look at road or pavement provision for them. That would just make sense. Right now though, while it might make sense to allow a mobility scooter to use a bus lane, it makes no sense to allow them in narrow cycle lanes.

This is why I have mirrors on my bicycle and they are the most useful thing I've ever added. I use them all the time.

Ha ha Pickle. That's very funny. Those Catherine Wheels were always the tricky ones. It's the bonfires I miss. Used to be one in every village, town and street corner. Not allowed to do that anymore.

I agreed ????. Until the actual process begins and the talks start, we know nothing. I still think we'll end up with a Norway type deal, especially as the two years of talks takes us right up to the doorstep of the next GE. Most of the marginals that matter in the next GE voted leave. This has to be shaping the public government line on this. What happens in reality though is sometihng else.

Correct. The EU will go for self preservation over any deal with us. This the most naive aspect of the leave argument, that we are somehow special. This empirical nonsense is establishment through and through. And it will be exposed over single market access.

To answer Alan though, access to the single market only, without full membership would cost us about half of what we pay at the moment, athough we'd probably lose our rebate, so probably around 60% of what we pay at present.