Last updated Friday 26th April 2024 21:30 BST
it's that time of the month again when the hosting meter needs a few more pounds to keep the site ticking. Ideally we need £10 before the end of the month, otherwise it has to come out of my pocket. With over 0 blogs listed, if each author donated just two pounds a year the site would stay alive. Why not make this month the month you help out?
Many thanks
This is an interesting little video. Winchelsea Beach, where we had a family caravan holiday when I was seven, is a small resort that has developed on land that was reclaimed as the sea retreated. Winchelsea, which was once a major port, now finds itself a couple of miles inland, but the sea used to lap at the foot of the cliffs on which it stands. It is Winchelsea Beach that stands by the sea and is at risk from its moods. I suspect these floods in 1931 inspired the plot of Malcolm Saville's third Lone Pine story, The Gay ...
(Above from left to right) Volunteer Colin Eldridge, PPC Tom Morrison and Councillor Mark Jones in Gatley's Church Road yesterday. This week I spent a couple of days helping our campaign in Cheadle. It was great to get stuck in to delivering Focii in the streets of Greater Manchester. It was a great to catch up with Tom Morrison, our PPC, and some of the Cheadle team, who are running an excellent campaign from the HQ in Gatley. Reading the tea leaves and general atmosphere, it is encouraging. The Tories are in all sorts of trouble with sleaze and you-name-it. ...
The final 2 council by-elections of the 23/24 civic year took place this week. In Scotland, there was a by-election on Angus Council in Arbroath West, Letham & Friockheim ward. Thank you to Sandra O'Shea for not only standing for the Liberal Democrats here but working hard to secure an increase in Lib Dem vote share and a healthy 333 votes. The by-election was caused by the resignation of an Independent councillor. With no Independent standing this time the Conservatives gained the seat. Thank you once again to Sandra and the local Lib Dem team in Angus for working so ...
It's election year and it's no great surprise to see a number of hatchet jobs on the Lib Dems across the print media, especially the right wing tax exiled/foreign owned press. Part of the reason I write blogs is to be a (low circulation) liberal counterblast to the partisan media that generally does us no ... Continue reading Could the Greens ever overtake the Lib Dems?
I have learnt from my addiction to the livestream of the proceedings of the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry that there is a transatlantic law firm called Womble Bond Dickinson. Indeed, two of its partners are due to give evidence to the inquiry in June - I believe the firm was retained by the Post Office for a time. (No doubt someone will be on hand to whisper "Remember you're a Womble" in their ear before they take the stand.) Naturally, I was curious about a lawyer called Womble, and the Womble Bond Dickinson site does give some of the ...
Only the two principal authority council by-elections this week as contests have generally been scheduled for next week. In the first, Plaid and the Greens ran a joint candidate again, as they had the last time around in this ward: Grangetown (Cardiff) Council By-Election Result: [IMG: 🌹] LAB: 47.5% (-5.6) [IMG: 🌼] [IMG: 🌍] PLC/GRN: 18.5% (-9.3) [IMG: 🌳] CON: 12.5% (+3.5) [IMG: 🐲] PRO: 9.4% (+6.2) [IMG: 🙋] IND (Samater): 6.6% (New) [IMG: 🔶] LDM: 4.0% (-0.9) [IMG: 🙋] IND (Hovord): 1.4% (New) No TUSC (-2.0) as previous. Labour HOLD. Changes w/ 2022. — Election Maps UK (@ElectionMapsUK) April ...
Apologies – this post has been postponed * George Cunningham is Chair of the Lib Dems Abroad Steering Committee and an Elected Member of the Federal International Relations Committee, Twitter: @GFCunningham
The promotion of public health is a liberal policy. It is an effective tool in the development of fairness and equality, it contributes notably to health and happiness (thereby reducing the need for, and the expense of, medical care; and reducing the cost to businesses of time off work), it enables people to have much more effective control over their own lives, and many of the activities associated with it resist financialisation, which is one reason why it is so unpopular in right wing circles. It is also a wide ranging field. Healthy populations need good quality, warm, dry housing; ...
I was honoured recently to be asked to become the patron of Casus Pax a Liverpool based 'not for profit' company, based in Liverpool, that is playing an important role in delivering humanitarian medical aid to the population of Ukraine. ... Continue reading →
The House of Lords is indefensible in its current form of appointment patronage and bloated size. Yet the failure of the Commons to check the way the executive governs or to ensure that Bills presented don't become law until that make sense has made the current Lords, flawed as it is, essential to British democracy. Yes, that's deeply paradoxical: an appointed chamber standing up for democracy against 'the elected House'. We've just seen with the Rwanda Bill the Commons voting repeatedly to allow the government to declare that Rwanda 'is a safe county' without reference to evidence or changing circumstances. ...
Welcome to my summary of the latest national voting intention poll from each pollster currently operating in Britain. If you'd like to find out more about how polls work, how reliable they are and how to make sense of them, check out my book, Polling UnPacked: the History, Uses and Abuses of Political Opinion Polls, or sign up for my weekly email, The Week in Polls: Sign up to The Week in Polls "*" indicates required fields Email* Enter Email Confirm Email If you submit this form, your data will be used in line with the privacy policy here to ...
We recently slammed graffiti vandalism of a newly upgraded seating area at Sinderins which was not long completed. Graffiti was sprayed on a new 'chess board' outdoor games table at the "Sinderins triangle" and on other street furniture which had been recently upgraded by Dundee City Council with new seating and planters as part of a number of environmental improvements in the Perth Road shopping centre, which also included an upgrade at the Miller's Wynd Car Park and new planter and seating at Pennycook Lane in front of the Ryehill Police Station. Residents have commented very favourably on the improvements ...
The row over the £200,000 donation to Vaughan Gething's leadership campaign is refusing to go away. Over the weekend the new Welsh Economy Minister and leadership rival, Jeremy Miles effectvely threw the First Minister under the bus when he would not have accepted the money. Now, the new Welsh Transport Minister and co-chair of Vaughan Gething's leadership campaign, Ken Skates has said he had nothing to do with the controversial donation from a waste firm owned by a man previously convicted of waste offences. Furthermore, he revealed that the Gething campaign was aware of the donor's previous convictions at the ...
Here's the latest tally of seats changing hands in principal authority council by-elections held since the last May round of local elections.
Imagine a cross between Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and the interview episode of The Apprentice. That's what you get from the hearings of the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry. The inquiry's website carries a livestream during the day and also has a complete archive of recordings of all the hearings to date. It's well worth exploring. I won't pick out any names, but I doubt you'll come away impressed with the quality of Post Office personnel at any grade. To whet your appetite, I've chosen part of this afternoon's evidence from Angela van den Bogerd, former People Services Director at ...
Who would have thought that Scottish voters could face two national elections this year – and the first one for the Scottish Parliament before the too-long awaited Westminster poll? If First Minister Humza Yousaf is forced to resign in the next few days, if the SNP can't agree on a successor, if the Parliament can't agree on a new First Minister within 28 days, then Scottish voters could be going to the polls on 4th July. The SNP has been sharing power with the Scottish Greens for the past two and a half years with Green Co-Conveners Patrick Harvie and ...
Embed from Getty ImagesMark Menzies has resigned from the Conservative Party but is to remain as a member of the House of Commons until the general election. This is what generally happens when an MP gets into hot water, but it has long seemed to me that it gets things the wrong way round. It's being a member of the Commons that requires a degree of probity, not belonging to a political party. I suppose if your behaviour while a party member is bad enough you will be slung out in disgust or from fear you will become a liability, ...
Polling from Survation/Best for Britain may indicate changes to come in the editorial lines of Conservative supporting newspapers.
Oxford University Liberal Democrats graduate and worst prime minister ever, Liz Truss, raised eyebrows last week by describing the government's Tobacco and Vapes Bill as "unconservative". This is rather odd, because the Conservative instinct has always been to ban the things they don't like. They didn't like the idea that children might find out that gay people exist, so they banned teachers from talking about them. They didn't like that people in Scotland might be able to self-identify as trans, so they banned the Scottish government from allowing it. And, most pertinent to what I am writing about now, they ...
The Guardian reports that the Tories have pushed through a duty on the water regulator to prioritise growth, which experts have said will incentivise water companies to value their bottom lines over reducing sewage pollution. They add that campaigners fear this move will weaken Ofwat's ability to crack down on water companies as it may force the regulator to consider a company's financial situation and the impact on its growth if the firm is heavily fined for polluting: The Liberal Democrats forced a vote in parliament on Wednesday on the government's new "growth duty" for Ofwat, which requires the regulator ...
Michael's ward surgeries take place today and every Thursday during school term time. They are as follows : Thursdays at 5.45pm prompt - West End Campus (come to reception area of St Joseph's RC and Victoria Park Primary Schools) Thursdays at 6.30pm prompt - Harris Academy reception area All welcome - no appointment necessary!
