Ghost Trains Add to GWR Chaos - Welsh Lib Dems Davey: Govt needs to stop hitting people with higher energy bills Vince Cable announces changes to top team Lib Dem International Trade spokesperson slams Liam Fox for misleading House Ghost Trains Add to GWR Chaos - Welsh Lib Dems The Welsh Liberal Democrats have criticised Great Western Railway (GWR) for 'ghost trains' after trains after 21:00 between London Paddington and Swansea for Monday to Thursday next week (11th-14th) disappeared from the timetable. The tickets have been removed from the timetable so passengers are unable to buy them but the trains ...
Here are the latest general election voting intention figures from each of the main pollsters currently polling in the UK, with Ipsos-MORI and YouGov new in since the last update: Polling company Con Lab LibDem Ukip Green Con lead Fieldwork Method BMG 36% 36% 12% 6% 5% 0% 8-11/1 Online ComRes 38% 37% 10% 6% 3% 1% 16-17/1 Online ICM 39% 40% 9% 5% 3% -1% 16-18/1 Online Ipsos-MORI 38% 38% 10% 4% 3% 0% 1-5/2 Phone Kantar TNS 35% 38% 9% 6% 4% -3% 10-14/1 Online Number Cruncher Politics 41% 39% 8% 4% 2% 2% 10-17/1 Online Opinium 41% ...
Look, I'm sorry but I can't put this off any longer. The February issue of Liberator is out, which means it is time to spend another week with Lord Bonkers. See you on the other side. Monday The obituaries will tell you how Sir Paddy Ashplant fused the community politics promoted by the Association of Liberal Councillors with his expertise in jungle warfare to win a string of by-elections and raise the Liberal Democrats from the ruins of Steel's grand strategy. What they will not tell you is how my domestic staff loved his visits (Cook would frequently announced that ...
The recently converted toilet on New Road has turned an eyesore into a useful building. When planning permission was given, its use was restricted to a shop or sandwich bar. Now the owners also want permission for it to be used as a café or restaurant. There is likely to be a mixed reaction to this. Some will welcome a new outlet. Others will be concerned about parking and damage to existing businesses. The new retail unit The use of buildings is controlled by what are know as Use Class Orders. The former toilet, formally known as 1 New Road, ...
Populists like to blame elites, but from Israel to Britain to the United States their crusade against hardworking civil servants is undermining the foundations of democracy, argues Shalom Lipner. A creeping trend of anti-immigrant educational material is worming its way into the curriculum, portraying EU migrants as outsiders and criminals, says Tanja Bueltmann, Gary Younge is right to be critical of Liam Neeson: "Neeson is angry and upset and decides to invest his rage in the collective punishment of a group of people based on the colour of their skin. It is perhaps now clearer to some why the early ...
Today is Time to Talk Day. Norman Lamb was probably the best Minister we had in the Coalition years. He did so much to try to change the culture of the NHS on mental health. And what I particularly liked was that there was no bullshit from him. If something wasn't good enough, he owned it and tried to do something about it. Today, for Time to Talk Day, he urged people to talk to each other about mental health. On #TimeToTalkDay it's so important we encourage everyone to talk openly about their mental health and be willing to have ...
Vince has announced several changes to his top team of spokespeople. Tim Farron will be taking over the Communities and Local Government brief, which really suits him with his longstanding interest in housing. Wera Hobhouse moves from there to cover Energy and Climate Change. Edinburgh West MP Christine Jardine will now cover issues relating to Work and Pensions, taking on the portfolio vacated by Stephen Lloyd when he resigned the Whip in December. Jamie Stone becomes Scottish spokesperson. Chief Whip Alistair Carmichael will speak on Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Vince said of his new team: I am pleased to ...
Our Trivial Fact of the Day comes from Brian Glanville's obituary of Arthur Turner, who played for Charlton in the 1946 final against Derby County but never played for them in the league. Glanville writes: As it was too soon to resurrect a proper league programme for 1945-46, the main focus of that first postwar season fell on the FA Cup, with ties extended into two-legged affairs to spin out the excitement.
Issue 394 of Liberator is on its way to subscribers. Our first free sample article for this issue gives three perspectives from the continent on Brexit, by Søs Haugaard, Kate Vanovitch and Sonja Rentz. In the second, Tony Greaves explains how the Liberal Democrat preamble – barely contentious when written – now reads like a revolutionary text. Both are on: www.liberatormagazine.org.uk Also in this issue: PARLIAMENT PERFORMS THE PARROT SKETCH The contortions of Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn over Brexit remind David Grace more of Monty Python than an effective legislature PADDY ASHDOWN 1941 - 2018 Obituaries by Alan Leaman, ...
The big news this week: Jeremy Corbyn is ready to do a deal with Theresa May. Well, sort of – one of the red lines in his proposal is that we join a customs union but still have a say on trade deals, which is not something that May is going to get the EU to concede. So, in the end, it's yet another gambit. But a weird one, when you stop and think about it. It's no longer clear what Corbyn is trying to achieve with his Brexit stance. While I never bought into the whole "He's playing a ...
The past few years in Westminster have largely been nightmarish, but there has been some silver linings. As everything around us falls apart, some underrated aspects of politics have become more apparent, which can only be a good thing for people aiming to understand how everything truly works. One of them is mentioned often; few pundits [...] The post Why trust in politics is so low – and what can be done about it appeared first on Radix.
Having five brothers and one sister means that I am lucky to have lots of glorious nieces and nephews, and, nowadays, great nieces and great nephews. I am a bit like "Great Uncle Bulgaria" in the Wombles. But last July, we lost one of my nieces, Holly (pictured, right). Never mind me being her uncle, Holly's passing has, of course, devastated her close family. Today, on Time to Talk day, there is a chance that, by sharing Holly's story, we may be able to raise awareness of mental illness and, hopefully, save someone's life. To tell the story, I will ...
On Tuesday, Sunniside History Society, we had our monthly society meeting, and the speaker was Clive Bowery who gave us a fascinating talk about the DLI (Durham Light Infantry) during the First World War. He focused on the discovery, identification and burial of three soldiers killed during the conflict whose remained were found in the past five years. The most intriguing was 2nd Lieut Arnold
Wed, 12:15: RT @Lou_Jameson: Favourite scene https://t.co/vBMMkDgTcK Wed, 12:45: RT @eucopresident: I've been wondering what that special place in hell looks like, for those who promoted #Brexit, without even a sketch of... Wed, 12:45: RT @tconnellyRTE: Tusk: I wonder what the special place in Hell is for those who pushed for Brexit without a sketch of a plan Wed, 12:56: All the times David Davis said that Brexit was simple https://t.co/J2xkhiTAsQ Just in case you had forgotten. Wed, 13:28: RT @ChairmanYaffle: 2nd class idea runs into 1st class regulator. Despite a political head of steam, it hit the buffers and ...
During the 2016 referendum, the Brexit campaign offered an idyllic future in which we would have all the benefits of EU membership with none of the costs. We were told the EU needs us more than we need them. We were the giant forcing those little Europeans to the negotiating table where Britain would use its superpower status to beat up all those foreigners and make them accept a British dictated
While UK Ministers and Donald Tusk exchange insults over the Government's failure to properly prepare for Brexit, there has been an interesting development at home where Jeremy Corbyn has finally, and publicly, got off the fence and aligned the Labour Party behind the movement to leave the EU. It has, of course, been clear for some time that Corbyn is a Brexiteer, but his letter to Theresa May setting out his party's five demands has finally confirmed that and, more importantly, shown that he has wrestled control of this agenda from more pro-EU figures such as Keir Starmer. As the ...
Following last week's blog on managing my work/life balance as a PPC, I'm writing this week on building a team in a constituency. I have some expertise in working with volunteers - in the past, I chaired the Parent Teacher Association at my child's secondary school. Leading a group of volunteers, who each had different amounts of time to give and various reasons for giving that time, was a challenge. Nothing like playground politics among parents! A team in a local party can be similar - everyone is a volunteer, some with masses of time to give, others with very ...
Join students and staff later today to help tackle litter on campus and the surrounding area. Free soup and a roll for participants. Meet outside the Student Union.
