We should all be more like Jason Beer KC, the lead counsel to the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry. Because you don't hear politicians accused of lying any more. Instead, they're accused of gaslighting us. The concept comes from Gas Light, a 1938 play by Patrick Hamilton set in the London of the 1880s. In it, a man tries to convince his wife that she is going mad. The story is so well known because, under the title Gaslight, it was twice filmed. First in England in 1940 and then in Hollywood in 1944. It was the latter production that ...
Jan Dehn outlines the many questions being considered by the government inquiry into what happened on Alderney under Nazi occupation: "It is known that the camp held Russian and Ukrainian prisoners as well as Spanish Republicans, captured French resistance fighters, and jews, but precisely how many people were there, who they were, and where exactly they came from remains clouded in mystery. There are also suggestions in some quarters that there are mass graves on Alderney, but where they are located and who is buried in the pits is unknown." Carlos Moreno, the father of the '15-minute city' has a ...
Last night my watching of the first Eurovision semi-final was rather interrupted with a Twitter storm created by Liberal Reform, or at least someone with access to its Twitter account. Liberal Reform is a group within the party which exists, according to its website, to promote personal liberty and a fair society supported by free, open and competitive markets as the foundation of the party's policy. So what had they said that wound people up so much? We need to have a rethink about how we regulate trade unions in the UK. Far too often, rail union barons are able ...
Scottish Liberal Democrats gather in Hamilton on 18 and 19 May for their Spring Conference. It may have seemed a risky decision to hold a Conference in what could have been the middle of a General Election campaign, but it's great that we have the chance to set out our stall at a time of change. The Final Agenda has now been published. In his introduction, Alex Cole-Hamilton said: It's great to be back. We meet at such an important time for the liberal revival both in Scotland and across the UK. Recent election successes show us poised to tear ...
Alex Cole-Hamilton's bid to become Scotland's First Minister was never going to end in success, unfortunately. It was important that he did it though. The MSPs in the Chamber were not his audience. That snippet on Reporting Scotland where he got the chance to be on the record, speaking to the people of Scotland, was an important part in Liberal Democrats setting out our stall. Hope, he said, was at the heart of everything the Scottish Liberal Democrats stood for as he outlined our vision for better healthcare, education and giving power back to communities. Watch here: The text is ...
The damaged bollards in Mid Wynd were recently replaced. However, there have been unfortunate instances of some riders of motorbikes ignoring the 'no through road' at great speed and causing alarm to pedestrians. Along with local residents, we asked the City Council if the spacing between the bollards could be narrowed to prevent this and the Senior Engineer in the council's Traffic and Road Safety Team responded helpfully as follows : "(The bollards) have been installed to our regulation/design criteria of 1.2m, an absolute minimum. This allows for pushchairs and various widths of mobility scooters to pass through as they ...
The Guardian reports that MPs and election candidates are being provided with a guide on recognising conspiracy theories - ranging from false claims about 5G technology to others about vaccines and global organisations such as the International Monetary Fund. The paper says that the guide was commissioned by Penny Mordaunt, the leader of the House of Commons, who launched it on Tuesday with the shadow leader, Lucy Powell, amid concern about the impact of conspiracies theories, in many cases with antisemitic overtones. The paper lists some of the conspiracies covered: The Great Reset Originally a vague set of proposals from ...
Jago Hazzard presents a short but complicated history. Note one of the comments: It seems to have been forgotten that the initial pressure to build Bermondsey (and Southwark) Jubilee line stations came from the then local MP Simon Hughes, whose aims came to fruition, meaning that the line didn't run direct from London Bridge to Canada Water without stopping. You can support Jago's videos via his Patreon page.
On 5th June I will be doing a talk about D-Day, a day before the 80th anniversary of Operation Overlord and the Normandy landings. I will be looking at some of the national coverage but much of the talk will be about how the news was received in the North East. The talk starts at 7pm in Sunniside Social Club. £1 for society members, £2 for non-members.
The Whinnies Community Garden in Sunniside have yet more additions to entice more visitors through the gates. In an attempt to encourage children to eat vegetables, a series of wood carvings of vegetables has been created, using wood from a large ash tree that had to be felled last year. The carvings are proving to be quite popular with children.
'Levelling up' chess tables costing £50k installed https://t.co/z6t9A7Nhi7 — BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) May 7, 2024 This BBC News story has been generating outrage and ridicule all day, not least because it has been written to make it sound as though each table has cost £50,000. In fact that's the total cost of all 20 tables. And let me extend a particular hello to the gentleman from Buckinghamshire who asked if people in the North can play chess. I will admit these tables are another of the strange ragbag of policies that Rishi Sunak has come up with as prime ...
A fun little finding from Deltapoll: overall, 40% of people are planning to watch election coverage by news broadcasters on the day and/or night of the next general election. But...
The party has sent out this excellent May 2nd election result summary to members: [IMG: Ed Davey with Lib Dem Members, three dinosaurs and a sign which reads 'Make this Conservative Government History'] We're making this Conservative Government history, Paul – our incredible local election results in full. With all the results now in from last week's local council, mayoral and PCC elections from across England and Wales, it's official – we've pulled off another historic result. For the first time since 1996, the Liberal Democrats elected more councillors than the Conservatives, electing 522 councillors and winning control of 12 ...
📮🗳️ Postal voting - it's time to scrap it. — Brendan Clarke-Smith MP (@Bren4Bassetlaw) May 7, 2024 If I am reading this correctly, at the last election the Conservative Party won 43.7 per cent of the votes cast at polling stations and 49.3 per cent of votes cast by post. As the Conservatives won 42.3 of all votes cast in 2019, I may have missed a subtlety or two. Perhaps it's that these figures rely on how respondents said they voted rather than how they actually voted or that the sample is on the small side. Still, Clarke-Smith's comments a ...
Arguably Anglo-Irish relations have reached their lowest point in many years. Of all the issues that could have set back relations between the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, it is not likely many would have suggested a divide would open over asylum seekers. How this has come about is comments from the Irish political establishment regarding the United Kingdom governments Rwanda Plan, a plan to send asylum seekers to the third country of Rwanda while their asylum claim is processed. Ireland's Deputy Prime Minister Michael Martin said, ""So, they're leaving the UK and they are taking opportunities to ...
The House returns today after the Bank Holiday weekend, and Ed Davey is ready for it with a no confidence motion. If it passes it will force a General Election next month. The actual wording is: "That this House has no confidence in His Majesty's Government." Ed says: These local elections showed the country has had enough of Rishi Sunak and his out-of-touch Conservative Government. The Conservatives were pushed into third place for the first time in a generation as Liberal Democrats swept the board in former true blue heartlands. Yet Sunak continues to desperately cling on to power, holed ...
Nation Cymru says that they have evidence that Vaughan Gething misled the UK Covid Inquiry and the Senedd by concealing the fact that he deliberately deleted records of conversations he had with other ministers: As a witness to the Inquiry, the First Minister insisted that messages had been deleted from his mobile phone not by him, but when it was serviced by the Senedd's IT department. But a previously undisclosed message that has been leaked to Nation.Cymru proves that he admitted deleting conversations he had with ministerial colleagues on a group chat. In a text message posted to the ministerial ...
Fraser's weekly ward surgeries take place later today and every Tuesday during school term time. They are as follows : Tuesdays at 5pm prompt - Blackness Library Tuesdays at 5.45pm prompt - Ancrum Road Primary School All residents welcome - no appointment necessary.