I have a feeling this is right up @lordbonkers street. It's simply lovely https://t.co/E8ri0yOOAM— Richard Morris (@richardmorrisuk) February 23, 2017#OTD 1973: Dad's Army's Captain Mainwaring and Sergeant Wilson visited the Blue Peter set to critique some primary school art pic.twitter.com/LSmjr510t2— BBC Archive (@BBCArchive) February 22, 2017Richard was correct: it is right up my street. And he was correct about it being simply lovely too.
Mark Pack finds that Jeremy Corbyn does not want to raise human rights abuses backed by Russia with the Russian ambassador. Will Brexit mean cheaper food? Harry Wallop has his doubts. Amanda Froelich takes us to Asia's first vertical forest. "Normally when you've got a British county whose name ends in -shire, it's named after its county town (or, in a few cases, its ex county-town). But there's no Shrop in Shropshire. So, why's it called that?" John Elledge discovers the derivation of English county names. "Love offers the dream of an escape from performance ('We won't have time for ...
Mick McNestry is a Labour cabinet member in Gateshead. He is the sort of person who can walk into a room and no one notices. He however seems to notice me. I was sitting in the Civic Centre on Tuesday watching the machinations of the cabinet when he decided to launch an attack on me for smiling and being happy. I appreciate that being around Miserable Mick is not the most endearing of
So, as expected, yesterday the Conservatives won the Copeland by-election and Labour held on in Stoke. Had Stoke gone to the Kippers, Corbyn would have been toast. For once however he was helped by the press he so clearly despises. Early suggestions that UKIP were going to win meant the Labour hold in a seat they have held since the 1930s appeared more like a major victory against the odds rather
And so the much anticipated by-elections of Copeland and Stoke threw up results that were interesting but not altogether surprising. In Copeland, the result was what I feared it would be. True, there were positives for the Liberal Democrats - we increased our vote and moved into a creditable third place (up from 4th in 2015). I'm not sure it can be called a positive result for us, as a Tory win - the first time a party of government has gained from the official opposition since 1982 - has resulted in Conservative triumphalism and has inevitably been taken by ...
Labour 824 [61.6%, +31.2%] Con 472 [35.3%, -10.5%] LD 42 [3.1%, -2.7%] [UKIP 0 [0.0%, -17.9%]] Turnout 28.6% Labour gain from Conservative Percentage change from 2015
Yesterday we saw two by-elections go the way all the pundits (bar apparently David Dimbleby) expected. The Tories to win in Copeland and Labour to hold on in Stoke-on-Trent Central. This wasn't exactly stunning news when I woke up this morning to see that they were indeed the results. The fact is that there were special circumstances in Copeland regarding nuclear power and Jeremy Corbyn that led to the seat always being a tough one to hold on to. Corbyn was saved from humiliation by Paul Nuttall and his quite frankly shambolic campaign that took UKIP from odds on favourites ...
As Brexit continues to hog the spotlight in the British media, there are still important issues being discussed and votes taking place in the European Parliament that Liberals everywhere should care about. On the 15th February 2017, MEPs voted on a package of regulations intended to strengthen the proposed reforms to the European Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) and added their own amendments. Tellingly, the vote was welcomed by a number of high-emissions sectors as well as the European Commission but heavily criticised by a number of NGOs and advocates of carbon market reform, with Climate Action Network, for example, ...
This year sees not only the centenary of the Balfour Declaration, which led eventually to the creation of the state of Israel as a Jewish homeland, bu also the 50th anniversary of the Israeli occupation of territories captured during the Six Day War. The Israeli government and its friends round the world will doubtless wish [...]
43% of 18 - 24-year-olds voted at the 2015 general election. Clearly, this is evidence of political disengagement in young people, which negatively affects our democracy because it means people aren't choosing to vote, leading to more unrepresentative governments due to low turnout. However, all is not lost. The Scottish Independence Referendum of 2014 gave 16 and 17-year-olds the vote and 75% of them turned out to vote with 97% reporting they would vote again in the future according to the Electoral Commission's post-referendum report. This is evidence that 16 and 17-year-olds want to be heard but aren't. I see ...
[IMG: The Fife count] The message from two key campaign Launchpad events for candidates and campaigners in Scotland was delivered loud and clear by Willie Rennie, where we work we can win but work harder! We need to be knocking more doors and putting out more leaflets which have to deliver three essential campaign messages:- We are Pro UK: [...]
I was delighted to attend a well attended Energy Capital Conference at University of Birmingham recently as part of my campaign for the election of the West Midlands Metro Mayor. Through work I did at Birmingham City University I got involved with manufacturers first of electric vehicles and then driverless cars. It involved building collaborations and different business models required to lift us into a different future that we can hardly imagine at the moment, a future that's clean, green and a pleasure to live in. I see this area as an area we can 'own' and take leadership. The ...
I've learned that one of the best ways of orienting yourself in a new city is to take a city tour. And yes, the commentary can be a bit dull sometimes, and some of the sights unlikely to tempt you back for a second look, but you do get a sense of scale and a flavour of a place in a relatively short time. And so, knowing that Santiago has such a thing, it was time to find it and, after a few false starts (the map wasn't very good), the bus stop was located and the bus caught. One ...
Lydiate's 1965 Civic Trust Award winning Seafore Close There is at least one other local Civic Trust Award winning development/building in Sefton Borough – Formby Swimming Pool (see 1st photo below) – but if there are others they are not presently not known to me. If you wish to let me know of others I would be pleased to hear from you. Civic Trust Award Winning Formby Swimming Pool The concrete plinth with the Civic Trust Award plaque affixed to it. You can see it as you enter Seafore Close from Southport Road Lydiate. And here's a closer look at ...
Fri 24th
12:15
WATCH: Tim Farron speech: How a clean energy revolution means Britain can lead the world
This week, Tim Farron gave a speech on clean energy and its potential to boost Britain's economy. Watch it here. The text is under the cut. It's possible that there are varying views in this room on the wisdom or otherwise of the UK leaving the EU and indeed of the UK leaving single market. Catastrophic scenarios about both are presented and then ridiculed and we get to the point of no one trusting experts anymore. Maybe that's the point of fake news? It's so that when there is something genuine to be panicked about, people have already become anaesthetised ...
That is the rather sad and just about only conclusion you can draw from the Copeland and Stoke by-elections of yesterday. But then there's always been a tussle in the Labour Party between progressives and regressives. Strangely at a time when Labour ostensibly has a left wing leader, whom you would expect to take his party in progressive direction, the opposite seems to be the case. Have you seen the UKIP-lite literature that Labour put out in Stoke! Yes they beat UKIP but only by being UKIP-like. In Copeland the Tories simply out UKIPed Labour. British politics is now seemingly ...
The Liberal Democrats have tabled a motion to kill Government attempts to severely restrict disability benefits. The move follows an announcement by the Government that they will be tightening the criteria for claimants of Personal Independence Payments (PIP) which could see diabetics and those with mental illnesses stuck without support. The Government has introduced these restrictions after losing two cases at tribunals. From the Minister's statement: The first judgement held that needing support to take medication and monitor a health condition should be scored in the same way as needing support to manage therapy, like dialysis, undertaken at home. Until ...
We live in era of draconian cuts to local public services. Cuts to bus routes have always been on the agenda of Shropshire Council. Many councillors see them primarily as a cost to the public purse. These are councillors that almost never catch buses. Here in Ludlow, our town services are social service, keeping people active and independent. The good news is that both the 701 and the 722 will be continue to be subsidised by Shropshire Council for the time being. I reckon that's for a year at least. Much will depend on the new administration after the Shropshire ...
The Liberal Democrats were always going to get squeezed out of contention in Stoke-on-Trent Central and Copeland because of where they were starting from and the high profile publicity for the main challengers in each contest, UKIP and the Tories respectively. Nevertheless, they increased both their share of the vote, the number of votes cast for them on reduced turnouts and their final position in both contests. In Copeland we finished third by nearly doubling our vote share from 2015, whilst in Stoke, the Lib Dems secured a 5.7% uplift in their vote. The other story of the night though ...
The Western Alliance is in disarray. Americans are sick of picking up the tab for protecting a rich Europe from a communist threat which no longer exists. Europe is terrified at being abruptly left in the lurch facing a corrupt, authoritarian Russian threat which has replaced the communist one. In the meantime, Britain, the traditional number two in the Western Alliance, voted Brexit and pulled the rug out from under the EU–the political and economic arm of the alliance's European end. It is time for a refresher course in the Western, or Transatlantic, Alliance. It is time for a re-examination ...
Apparently this poster is effective if you want to keep Labour canvassers from your doorstep.
From Blether Tay-Gither : Our February Blether will be on Tuesday 28th February - at 7pm in Madigan's Food Emporium and Bookshop, Castle Street. The theme this month is "Tales Frae Ower the Water." Hope to see some of you there - all welcome!
Yesterday I attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the official opening of the new Subsea 7 offices in Sutton. These stunning new offices replace an old council car park, and enabled this global seabed engineering company to maintain and expand its presence in Sutton. Not only is it an asset for the borough to be [...]
If the Stoke and Copeland by-elections had happened at any point in the last Parliament, the Liberal Democrats would have been squeezed until our pips squeaked. We'd certainly have lost our deposit as we did in both seats in the 2015 General Election in both seats. The results showed how far we have come. Our vote more than doubled in both seats and we did well to avoid a squeeze into oblivion. In Copeland we pushed UKIP into fourth as that party's voters clearly felt comfortable enough voting for Theresa May's Brexit Britain Party. In Stoke, you have to wonder ...
1.Labour are really screwed. I mean, really screwed In a seat that had basically been Labour since 1924, Copeland was a major loss for Corbyn's crew, whatever certain quarters might tell you. Stoke Central was held in the end, but only due to Labour's vastly superior ground campaign. The Tories realised too late in the game that this was a very gainable seat for them (a rare strategic domestic error for May), combined with the fact that UKIP ran what may well be the worst by-election campaign in the history of British politics. Two previously considered safe Labour seats: one ...
Behind the scenes at the Swedish troll factory How we are being spun. (tags: Russia sweden Internet ) Brexit and Europe: A new entente @AndrewDuffEU calls for a transitional supervisory authority to oversee the process. (tags: eu brexit ukpolitics ) On the Milo Bus With the Lost Boys of America's New Right Brilliant from @pennyred: "Whatever the rights and wrongs of punching fascists, if people of good faith and conscience are publicly debating whether or not you deserve a smack in the mouth, it's probably time to have a think about your life...." "The reason the Lost Boys allow themselves ...
Labour sinks(Graphs courtesy of Press Association) In local council by-elections, there were two Liberal Democrat gains from Conservatives.
Fri 24th
03:50++Copeland by-election - Lib Dems more than double vote share and move up to third place, beating UK...
Embed from Getty Images Congratulations to Rebecca Hanson and the team for an excellent showing at the Copeland by-election, caused by the resignation of Labour's Jamie Reed. Our vote share more than doubled from 3.5% at the 2015 general election to 7.25%. We moved up from fourth place to third – beating UKIP. Dramatically, the Tories won the by-election in this normally rock-solid Labour seat. Psephologist John Curtice told the BBC that this was the biggest gain, in share of the vote, by a governing party in a byelection since the Hull North byelection in 1966. Here is the result ...
Embed from Getty Images Congratulations to Zulfiqar Ali and the team at Stoke-on-Trent for more than doubling our share of the vote at the by-election caused by Tristram Hunt's resignation. Labour held the seat. After the result was announced, Liberal Democrat president Sal Brinton said from Stoke: The Potteries decided there was no need to have UKIP's official leader in parliament when UKIP's unofficial leader is already in Number 10, pursuing a hard Brexit. We would have done even better but for many voters, drawn to the Lib Dems, who felt they just couldn't risk being represented by a UKIP ...
At the moment, either the Lib Dems are finishing way short of the winning post, or way beyond it in by-elections. Just not close to it.
