Welcome to my summary of the latest national voting intention polls for the next general election, along with the latest MRP projections and party leadership ratings. 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: General election voting intention polls PollsterConLabLDGrnRefLab leadFieldwork Techne 19% (+1) 20% (-1) 15% (+1) 9% (-1) 30% (-1) -10% (vs Ref) 17-18/9 GB Find Out Now ...
Delighted to see fellow Councillor Vicky Anderson marry her girlfriend Christee Ord last week. Congratulations and have amazing lives together. Also well done in achieving Gateshead Council's first all female same sex marriage. Photo above - me with Vicky at her reception in the Cafe Under the Spire in Bensham.
Recent polling carried out ahead of the 2026 Welsh Elections suggests that, for the first time since the inception of a devolved Welsh administration, Labour will not be the largest party, with both Plaid and Reform vying to be the leader of a minority government. The race to lead the Senedd has yet to begin, but the Welsh Liberal Democrats must consider their place in a Welsh political landscape that, for the first time since 1999, Plaid Cymru could lead the government. I'll save speculation for a Reform-led Welsh government for another time. Plaid Cymru's aim for the longest time ...
Jane Dodds, Leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats, spoke to Conference today at 10.30am. Here is the text of her speech: Conference, for too long politicians in both Westminster and Cardiff have asked people across Wales to simply settle. Settle for our once-great nation's decline, Settle for a life that is less prosperous than that of our parents, Settle for worse schools, hospitals and public services. Although they don't say it in these words, wherever I go in Wales I hear the same message loud and clear: people are tired of being told that they are powerless to create a ...
Sat 20th
11:56
John Milne MP and cross party parliamentarians write to Wes Streeting with concerns about the ME/CFS...
In a joint letter to Health Secretary Wes Streeting under a title "Concerns regarding ME/CFS Strategy in the Final Delivery Plan", John Milne MP has questioned "the absence of strategic approach to biomedical research into Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) as part of the Final Delivery Plan". John is lead signatory, joined by MP Jo Platt, All-Party Parliamentary Group on ME chair, plus his co-MPs and Huse of Lords members who are Champions for Action for ME. Here is the text of the letter: Dear Wes Concerns regarding ME/CFS Strategy in the Final Delivery Plan As Members of Parliament and ...
Photo by Amanda Jones on Unsplash Senior party figures have told PoliticsHome that the Liberal Democrats will reshuffle their frontbench after their party conference in Bournemouth this weekend.Among the names tipped for promotion in Harriet Symonds' article are Alex Brewer, Jess Brown-Fuller, Josh Reynolds, Anna Sabine, Mike Martin and Bobby Dean. Given the calibre of the new Lib Dem MPs elected last year, this sounds like a positive move. But don't get too excited: Continuity will prevail in some key areas: deputy leader Daisy Cooper is expected to remain in the Treasury brief, as are Callum Miller in Foreign Affairs ...
MAGA and President Trump promised revenge for the assassination of Charlie Kirk and it has already started. Late night comedian Jimmy Kimmel has followed Stephen Colbert into the laughter wilderness after being "suspended indefinitely" by ABC hours following a comment from Brendan Carr, chairman of the broadcasting regulator agency the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that the commission would take action against the network for Kimmel's comments. Kimmel made the mistake of criticising MAGA and the president for blaming left-wing radicals for the assassination of Kirk when, said Kimmel, it was more likely to have been a right-wing terrorist. ABC refused ...
In 1986, the Falkland Islands were granted our own Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and set about establishing a fishing industry. Overnight we went from being sheep farmers to fisherfolk and I remember that time well. This was an exciting time for the Falkland Islands and one that had a transformational effect on our economy. Given that fish are a national resource, we have worked hard to develop a licensing and taxation regime that allows the fishing companies to be profitable and the owners well rewarded, whilst at the same time ensuring the wider population benefits through free education from primary ...
Transition Dundee is looking for new volunteers. Take a closer look at the team's projects at www.transitiondundee.com ... could one be perfect for you? From stopping food waste to giving clothes new life - there's a place for everyone in helping with the Transition Dundee community. There's a volunteer enquiry form at www.transitiondundee.com/volunteer for anyone interested in volunteering - all welcome!
Because of its location, perched above Gower's Three Cliffs Bay, Pennard Castle is by far the most spectacular of Swansea's fortifications, as illustrated by the painting above. It is perhaps, because of that location, that so many stories have grown up about its fate. The history points website records that the ruins of castle have attracted more than their fair share of myths over the centuries: The castle itself was ill-fated. It soon became unusable because exceptionally stormy weather in the 13th and 14th centuries blew large amounts of sand into and around it. See our page about the castle ...
The following emergency motions have been submitted and chosen for ballot by the Federal Conference Committee: -A Liberal Vision for Digital Rights -Building a Fair Asylum System -Standing up for the most vulnerable in society -Trump's State Visit Two motions selected by a ballot of registered conference attendees will be debated at 09:00 on Tuesday 23rd September (F41). The ballot to select the two motions to be debated is now open and will close at 5pm tomorrow, Saturday 20th September. The motions in full are: Emergency Motion 1: A Liberal Vision for Digital Rights Young Liberals Conference notes: I. The ...
This post was written for Written for Terence Towles Canote's 12th Annual Rule, Britannia Blogathon. What do we know about Britain in the Fifties? Well for one thing, people couldn't get enough of films about the recent war, could they? Not so fast. Here's the beginning of a film review from Picturegoer (24 October 1953): Hold your groans about yet another war film. This one really is different. The war flashbacks are just the frame for an enthralling postwar story about an ex-soldier who goes to the dogs. What turns a good combat-man into a bitter delinquent? Colonel Jack Hawkins ...
I phoned in to the meeting from Bournemouth, only to find that the judges had already decided that this blog's Headline of the Day Award should go to Kenilworth Hub News.
What makes us different With the Labour government becoming deeply unpopular so quickly and with Reform on the rise, the need for us to expand into being a credible force across more of the country has never been more pressing. We are the party that stands up against populist extremists, willing to call out Donald Trump and willing to take on Nigel Farage. With the pernicious volume of extremist views – aided by Elon Musk's love affair with extremism – there's a crucial role for the Liberal Democrats in being willing and proud to stand against such extremism. While both ...
Editor's note: Jonathan Parry will be discussing his ideas at the Journal of Liberal History Fringe at the Durley Suite in the BIC at 8:15 pm. Liberal Democrats have come to the party by all sorts of routes - some through specific campaigns, others through local activities, through parental encouragement or through education and persuasion. All of us within our broad church, whatever path brought us here, will benefit from Jonathan Parry's short history, 'Liberalism' (Agenda Publishing 2025), which has been written to remind us of the continuities of 'the ideas and visions put forward by Liberal politicians' since the ...
This weekend our Conference in Bournemouth will be full of volunteers. And, for a myriad of very good reasons, tens of thousands of more Lib Dem volunteers will not be in Bournemouth. At Conference a handful of volunteers will receive awards from the Party for their service. And that's right and proper. But all of them need cherishing and recognising as the heroes that they are. There is almost nothing in paid employment that can prepare anyone for working with volunteers. Leadership and team management training in paid employment relates exclusively to working with colleagues who are paid to do ...
Some thirty years ago (according to his famous Diaries) Alan Clark MP, at the time a minister in Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government, was sent to Truro in Cornwall to beef up support for the Conservative candidate in a by-election caused by the tragic death of local Liberal MP David Penhaligon in a road accident. Clark complained that despite Truro being 'natural' Conservative territory, the candidate he supported was likely to lose (indeed he did). This produced a lament in the Diaries about the way the Liberals got 'dug in' by working hard in constituencies (his visits to his own constituency ...
Five principal authority council by-elections this week and let's start with another example of the Lib Dems coming from a long way back to make a ward a Reform/Lib Dem contest: Trowbridge (Cardiff) Council By-Election Result: [IMG: ➡] RFM: 39.6% (New) [IMG: 🔶] LDM: 23.6% (+15.9) [IMG: 🌹] LAB: 21.3% (-31.1) [IMG: 🌼] PLC: 7.7% (New) [IMG: 🌳] CON: 3.1% (-14.8) [IMG: 🌍] GRN: 2.3% (New) [IMG: 🐉] PRO: 2.2% (-4.5)No PC/G (-12.5) or TUSC (-2.7) as previous.Reform GAIN from Labour.Changes w/ 2022. — Election Maps UK (@electionmaps.uk) 2025-09-19T00:48:03.554Z The Lib Dem candidate here was Rudi Dikty-Daudiyan – thank you. ...
Dundee Community Youth Orchestra is performing along with Caledonian Winds on Saturday 27th September for a night of music and fundraising at Dundee Westgait Church (Roseangle). All welcome! Entry by donation - either on the night or on DCYO's JustGiving page Interval and refreshments Read more about the event and get your tickets at
The BBC report that the Welsh government has been accused of "manipulation" and "electioneering" by rival parties over changes to how NHS waiting times statistics are published. The broadcaster says that the Welsh government has started to publish provisional data a month sooner than "official data", which has a seven-week lag. They add that without the change, the Welsh Labour government could have gone into next year's Senedd election unable to show whether it had hit its targets of bringing the overall waiting list down by 200,000 and reducing two-year waits to zero: Both the Conservatives and Plaid Cymru said ...