I woke up this morning after 3 hours sleep believing I had gone back in time 30 years, why you may ask ! I joined the Liberal Party 32 years ago at the height of the Thatcherite, loads of money era. The single market was just a dream, the Liberal Democrats were 4 years down the road. At that time there was not a centre voice no third party to speak of the SDP-Liberal alliance had won 23 seats in 1983 and that went down 1 in 1987. Then along came a new campaigning style, a new party and a ...
Just past Newark Castle station the line to Lincoln crosses the East Coast main line on the level. It's all controlled by signals, of course, but if I were driving a Lincoln train I would be tempted to look both ways before proceeding. The photo above was taken from Newark Castle station and shows a train on the East Coast main line using the crossing. There used to be an arrangement like this at Retford too, but one line was raised and the other sunk so that they no longer crossed on the level. At Newark the River Trent makes ...
Last night Giles Watling gained Clacton for the Conservatives - it was the seat that Douglas Carswell won for Ukip at the last election. If you were with this blog during its fixation with the 1960s police series Gideon's Way last year, you may remember that Watling, who played one of the title character's children, fought a school election back in 1964. Play the video above and you will see the snippet of this episode in which he appears.
Fri 9th
20:49
No one knows anything about politics - here are my 12 hot takes on the general election result
Embed from Getty Images More and more, I feel that William Goldman's view of the film business "Nobody knows anything. Not one person in the entire motion picture field knows for a certainty what's going to work. Every time out it's a guess and, if you're lucky, an educated one."also applies to politics. Plenty of political bloggers offer hot takes, but they generally turn out to be wrong. I was more circumspect during the election campaign, offering two modest predictions that turned out to be correct. The Liberal Democrats did have a good chance of winning Bath and the Conservatives ...
Commenting on the Prime Minister's statement on forming a government relying on the support of the Democratic Unionist Party of Northern Ireland, Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron said: "It is clear that the Prime Minister has done a deal with the DUP. She must now make clear what the terms of that deal are. The British people have a right to know. "The sort of government she forms will have profound implications for the Brexit negotiations and the future of the country, especially if it means she is taking sides in the peace process in Northern Ireland. "Theresa May has ...
On the morning of Monday, 22nd May, we were tipped off that Theresa May was coming to the Memorial Hall in Gresford, an old mining village just outside Wrexham where we live. My wife, Joan (Baroness) Walmsley, and I headed off immediately to be part of this unusual and unheralded event – the last PM in Gresford was Ted Heath in 1970. The entrance to the hall was manned by anonymous young men in dark suits and unsurprisingly our names were not on the printed list of expected attendees from the local Tory faithful. However, I pointed out that I ...
Fri 9th
18:45
Willie Rennie: SNP must hold parliamentary vote to cancel divisive independence referendum
I managed to get two hours' sleep this morning. The dog woke me up by deciding to use my stomach as a trampoline after someone let her up the stairs. I checked my phone to see a message inviting lots of us to Party HQ in Edinburgh for an event with Willie. Ten minutes later I was on a train ready to be a yellow diamond bearer in the background as he made a statement and gave interviews to the media With Christine Jardine, Edinburgh West's new MP by his side, he talked about the gains we had made, quadrupling ...
I think it's important, both as an academic and a politician, to look back at things and see where you went wrong in the hope you won't make the same mistakes the next time around. It's important to get rid of all those errors so you can make a whole set of brand new ones the next time around, rather than just repeating the same ones again and again. I'm lucky in that my chosen field within political science is parties and party systems which is related to and uses data from political behaviour and elections, but is much more ...
Brexit – Well it now seemingly has huge support as both Labour and Tories were backed to pursue it. What happened to the 48% who voted against Brexit because many of them must have effectively voted for it this time around? Nick Clegg – Probably for the best that he lost his seat. In many way he was one of the most intelligent and knowledgeable MP in Parliament but because of his poor judgement over tuition fees (he said he would oppose them and did the opposite) he found himself in a place from which there was no return. Indeed, ...
Tim Farron says that the British people have a right to know the terms of any deal made between the DUP and the Conservatives. It is clear that the Prime Minister has done a deal with the DUP. She must now make clear what the terms of that deal are. The British people have a right to know. The sort of government she forms will have profound implications for the Brexit negotiations and the future of the country, especially if it means she is taking sides in the peace process in Northern Ireland. Theresa May has taken the British people ...
[IMG: J12 M20 Cheriton Interchange (Screenshot from Google Maps under Fair Use https://www.google.com/intl/en_uk/help/terms_maps.html)] A neighbour got in touch recently to mention that their are a number of streetlights that are out on the slip roads / roundabout at the Cheriton J12 M20 junction. Essentially, the lights on the M20 and slip roads are the responsibility of Highways England, and those on the roundabout those of Kent Highways. I've contacted both, and have had the below response from Highways England today, saying they should be fixing at least some of the slip road lights on Monday. Progress I hope! "I appreciate ...
Fri 9th
17:02Farron: We must challenge the Conservative orthodoxy that is tearing this country apart
Tim Farron gave a speech in response to the election result at the National Liberal Club this morning. You can watch a little bit here: Theresa May "should be ashamed" & should resign – Lib Dem leader Tim Farron https://t.co/8xOR0z6PJc #bbcelection #hungparliament #GE2017 pic.twitter.com/ITNtYhtaVS — BBC Breaking News (@BBCBreaking) June 9, 2017 This was the hardest of elections, marred by the tragedy of those vile terrorist attacks in Manchester and in London. And now the future of our country is less certain than it was when Theresa May called this election a month and a half ago. For the Liberal ...
Fri 9th
15:09
"Theresa May promised strong and stable leadership. She has brought weakness and uncertainty" - Tim ...
Theresa May promised strong and stable leadership. She has brought weakness and uncertainty. If she has an ounce of self-respect she will resign.
It will come as no surprise to anyone following the results that no trans members of parliament were elected yesterday, as despite the shock over the overall result relatively few seats actually changed hands. However, a record number of people standing (9) also means some record results – yesterday saw three trans candidates gaining second place. The last time a trans candidate at a parliamentary level reached second place was also the first known trans parliamentary candidate, Alexandra "Sandra" MacRae, who stood for the SNP in 1992. General elections are predominantly national rather than local campaigns, and the fates of ...
Written in a rush, so expect errors of fact and grammar. Also, full disclosure I have been out of the UK since February. Dylan on way to help cast proxy for @FactCollector @ColorofCat #dogsatpollingstations pic.twitter.com/2e1Hk6EGwO — hellomynameisVerity (@veritycycles) June 8, 2017 General 1 – There is a (possibly apocraphyl) story that during a state visit [...]
Well that was all a bit unexpected, for me at any rate. Having confidently predicted the Conservatives would cruise to a 100+ landslide here we are facing a hung parliament, with Theresa May reliant on the DUP for her majority. My prediction was based on solid enough foundations. Most polls (though not all - kudos YouGov and Survation) pointed to a sizeable win, including, crucially, the parties' own internal polls - if Labour had known how the night would pan out, they'd have targeted more effectively and likely scored an even better result. The visits of the leaders during the ...
The bird is still flying with a 50% increase in MPs compared to just 2 years ago. Another 436 votes in 4 constituencies would have given us 4 more MPs Ok I was wrong. I didn't see at the start ... Continue reading →
With just another 463 votes, Sarah in Richmond Park, Mark in Ceredigion, Andrew in St Ives and Elizabeth in North East Fife - who missed out by a heartbreakingly tiny two votes - would have made the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Party 16.
Embed from Getty Images I braced myself at 10pm last night. "Oh gawd – here we go again" I thought – along with "goodness how I hate David Dimbleby's pompous accent and patronising manner". There were some distressing losses for us, and some frustrating near-wins, which Caron wrote about earlier. But I'd like to just think about the wider picture. As the exit poll appeared, and then the results unraveled, one thing became clear: This was the election of the young voter. There were reports of queues of young people waiting to vote all over the place. The effect could ...
It is most probably not a good idea to sit down so soon after a General Election result and commit my thoughts to public record, especially on three hours sleep, but here are some initial reflections: Theresa May's position is untenable. She can salvage a majority with the help of the DUP because of the absence of an enlarged Sinn Fein contingent of MPs, but the strong and stable government she was seeking was and remains an illusion. When even the Italians are saying Britain is ungovernable then we know that we are in trouble. Having voted for Brexit by ...
Imagine it's Bank Holiday Monday in 2027. We're not going to be out in the sunshine. We nerds will be watching the rerun of the results of the (June) 2017 election. Ten years on, the drama will be just as nail biting as we relive some incredible moments. I can't imagine the North East Fife or Richmond Park results ever becoming less tense. Maybe we'll look on it and the events of the past year as a season of a hard-hitting political drama. We'll also be asking each other if we were still up for Salmond. I have spent the ...
WEST END COMMUNITY COUNCIL MEETINGTUESDAY 13TH JUNE 2017 AT 7.00PMLOGIE AND ST JOHN`S (CROSS) PARISH CHURCH HALL(ENTER FROM SHAFTESBURY TERRACE - OFF BLACKNESS AVENUE) 1. WELCOME, INTRODUCTIONS AND APOLOGIES 2. SPEAKER FROM XPLORE DUNDEE (TO BE CONFIRMED) 3. POLICE SCOTLAND UPDATE 4. MINUTE OF MEETING 9TH MAY AND MATTERS ARISING 5. WECC HIT LIST 6. PLANNING UPDATE 7. CORRESPONDENCE 8. OTHER MEETINGS ATTENDED ON BEHALF OF WECC 9. AOCB - MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC INPUT 10. DATE OF NEXT MEETING - Tuesday 12th September 2017
At present, the Lib Dems have 12 confirmed victories, a net increase of 3. They are: Tom Brake (Carshaton and Wellington) – re-elected Vince Cable (Twickenham) – newly-elected Alistair Carmichael (Orkney and Shetland) – re-elected Ed Davey (Kingston and Surbiton) – newly-elected Tim Farron (Westmorland and Lonsdale) – re-elected Wera Hobhouse (Bath) – newly-elected Christine Jardine (Edinburgh West) – newly-elected Norman Lamb (North Norfolk) – re-elected Stephen Lloyd (Eastbourne) – newly-elected Layla Moran (Oxford West and Abingdon) – newly-elected Jamie Stone (Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross) – newly-elected Jo Swinson (East Dunbartonshire) – newly-elected Of those 12, four have never ...
I need to start off by saying that I very badly got the election wrong in terms of what I predicted, being sure of a Tory landslide right up until the exit poll was released last night. So take everything I say for a while with a grain of salt as my finger is not on the pulse of the nation at present, clearly. Yet while I can't predict what is in the minds of 40 million or so voters up and down the country, it seems to me getting clear at least what we're in for in the coming ...
In what may be the last general election in the Ludlow constituency, Philip Dunne has been elected MP for Ludlow for the fourth time. He gained 31,432 votes (63% of the vote), with an increased majority of 19,285. No one expected him to lose. The real action in this campaign was for second place. Labour had high hopes for Julia Buckley. She was a good performer in the hustings and came in second, with a respectable 12,147 votes. Heather Kidd, representing the Liberal Democrats, came third with 5,336 votes. Green candidate Hilary Wendt was fourth with 1,054 votes. Across the ...
The results of the 2017 General Election in the Thornbury and Yate constituency are as follows: Luke Hall (Conservative) 28,008 ELECTEDClaire Young (Liberal Democrats) 15,937Brian Mead (Labour) 6,112Iain Hamilton (Green) 633Many thanks to everyone who supported us, and to all those who worked so hard on our campaign.
The exit poll has led to all sorts of speculation about the political future. And hence this: We are getting a lot of calls so just to be clear: No Coalition. No deals. — Lib Dem Press Office (@LibDemPress) June 8, 2017 Which is a repeat of course of what the party has been saying through the election campaign.
