Gateshead's local election counts took place on Friday so I was available to attend the Sunderland counts on Thursday evening. It was a fascinating experience watching Labour in meltdown. They were losing seats in all direction and those seats they did retain were all reduced to marginal status. Lib Dems held three seats though technically two were gains as they we defences of by-election gains
Because it stands by a busy road junction, Leicester's 'Pork Pie Library' - Southfields Library - is well known. But the city has a second library in the same style hidden away in North Evington - St Barnabas Library. The two libraries were both designed by the architects Symington, Prince & Pike and both are grade II listed. St Barnabas dates from 1937 and Southfields from two years later. Their style is reminiscent of Charles Holden's Arnos Grove station on the Piccadilly line, which opened in 1932
Ever since I started writing Lord Bonkers there have readers who worry about his age. How can he be so old? Maybe the Lord Bonkers writing now is the son of the one who started contributing to Liberator in 1990? It has never worried me - it's fantasy as well as satire innit? Besides, we all know the reasons he has lived so long. He bathes every year in the spring of eternal life that gushes from the hillside above the former headquarters of the Association of Liberal Councillors in Hebden Bridge and purchases (at a rather steep price) a ...
The SDP spent its early days talking about "breaking the mould". In retrospect, though, it looks more like a last attempt to preserve the mould of postwar politics. There is nothing discreditable in that: we all feel at home with the assumptions we grew up with and in many ways the postwar settlement was preferable to what replaced it. But it does remind us that the way people present themselves may not be the way an objective observer sees them. So I wonder if the Tiggers, in half-rebranding themselves as Change UK, are really about change. We still have little ...
The Ports of Auckland are automating their straddle carriers, which might not seem like much, until you phrase it as...
With a couple of hours of spare sunshine this afternoon, I set off to explore part of the new Art Trail in Street, Somerset which runs for the next two weeks in venues around the town. In all there are ten trail boards to find featuring local artists and their work and the first location is in the beautiful setting of a Georgian house. In the grounds of the building are works by Garry Sharp, large, dynamic sculptures built from re-purposed roadside litter and textural patterns worked into the grass. Exploring these installations in the garden led me to a ...
Welcome to the 1300 people who have joined the Liberal Democrats in the last day or so since our local election gains surpassed all our expectations. It's actually been really heartwarming to wake up every morning for the last few weeks and see a whole rush of "I just joined the Lib Dems" posts on Twitter. Every so often I roll out this post, which is basically a rehash of an article that I first wrote in May 2015 when many joined the party in the wake of the General Election result. I thought it might be useful to tell ...
In the Folkestone and Hythe District and Town & Parish Elections held on May 2nd, I'm incredibly honoured and proud to have been elected as: Folkestone and Hythe District Councillor for Sandgate & West Folkestone Sandgate Parish Councillor for Sandgate Village ward (as an Independent Councillor) Folkestone Town Councillor for Harvey West Hythe Town Councillor for Hythe East [IMG: Thank You] To say I'm surprised to have been elected to all is an understatement, but I'm excited and delighted to be doing so. I'll do my best to represent all those that voted for me (please forgive the odd meeting ...
I like this. A handy line in makeshift poster adjustment from a Liberal Democrat who now finds that they are on three councils... * Paul Walter is a Liberal Democrat activist. He is one of the Liberal Democrat Voice team. He blogs at Liberal Burblings.
So last Thursday in the UK we had our local council elections. This marked the first election test for the main parties since the Brexit deadline was missed in March. First thing to say about this was that the turnout was only slightly below what is the norm for local elections in this country, so [...]
Lib Dem Councillors John Dodd, Daniel Lewis and Yaso Sathiy, are holding their next advice centre on Saturday 11th May. from 11 am to 12 noon at St John's Primary School, Rufford Road, Crossens. We will be there to meet you and discuss any Council problems you may have. No appointment necessary. Just pop in. We also hold a monthly advice centre in Churchtown, at BoxTree Kitchen for Queenscourt café, Manor Road/Cambridge Road, roundabout, fourth Thursday of every month (except December) from 10:30 to: 11.30 am. We will be there to meet you and discuss any Council problems you may ...
Now that the dust has settled on this week's local elections In England — the biggest set of such elections since 2015, though not including London and various other cities and counties — the spin doctors of both the Conservative and Labour parties are in overdrive, bizarrely both pitching the same message that the massive [...]
Sat 4th
16:17
Final count from the local elections last Thursday – Lab & Con leaders think it signalled...
If these results mean what May and Corbyn seem to think they mean (get on with Brexit) then they are even further out of touch than any of us have ever realised. Brexit Parties (Con, Lab & UKIP) lost 1561 seats Remain Parties Lib Dems & Greens gained 897 seats Actually Jez and Teresa the results mean the exact opposite of your positions i.e. STOP BREXIT
I've left the Labour Party after nearly 45 years of service at Branch, Constituency and NEC levels,partly because of it's continued duplicity on Brexit, partly because of it's antisemitism, but also because its leadership is complete shit. — Tony Robinson (@Tony_Robinson) May 3, 2019 * Paul Walter is a Liberal Democrat activist. He is one of the Liberal Democrat Voice team. He blogs at Liberal Burblings.
Do you run one or more Liberal Democrat social media accounts, such as a Twitter account for a local party or a Facebook page for a regional party?
When life long high profile supporters like Tony Robinson walk away from Labour you know it's in trouble. The Independent has the story on its website – see link below:- Another high profile former Labour baker, comedian Mike Harding, said this recently:- Vot Lab. The Bail-Out Party. Overall it was a vote for the remain parties – 1000 seats lost to them. Lab for 56 yrs Active supporter. I and many more have left. You can bail the Tories out if you like – but we're leaving in disgust for our childrens' and grandchildren's sakes. As I say Labour's ...
We had a number of clearly defined targets in Gateshead for the local elections: hold our three defended seats - Low Fell, Whickham North and Whickham South and Sunniside - and to do so in a way that did not detract from sending resources to wards we aimed to gain; to gain Dunston Hill and Whickham East and Pelaw and Heworth wards from Labour; to develop new territory for future gains. I'm
The elves at LDV have been busy digging into the results to bring you a full list of all the Councils in England where Lib Dems made gains. Please let us know if they have made any errors. So here they are. We have highlighted the ones where we are now in control. Arun (where we are the largest party under NOC) Barnsley Basingstoke & Deane Bassetlaw Bath & North East Somerset Bedford (where we are the largest party under NOC, and we retained the elected Mayor) Blaby Blackburn with Darwen Bolsover Bolton Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole Bracknell Forest Brentwood ...
No, it's not about just how well the Liberal Democrats did (so well, the results have triggered a big wave of new members). Rather, it's about the sort of seats that were up for election this year. They were more Leave than the country as a whole. Leave got 56% across these areas in the referendum: Statistic of the day. If the referendum had been confined to those places where there were local elections on Thurs Leave would have won 56% to 44%. Yet the main gainers in the locals, the LDs, are the most anti Brexit national party — ...
At time of typing 1,100 people have joined the Liberal Democrats and several hundred more signed up as registered supporters since 10pm on Thursday. Those brilliant election results are bringing in a wave of new support and help. Just what the party needs with now the fantastic opportunity to turn the European Parliament elections into a major victory in the battle to stop Brexit. If you've not joined, why don't you sign up now and help the Liberal Democrats stop Brexit? You can join the party for just £12* here. Or if joining isn't the thing for you, sign up ...
The Liberal Democrats have renewed calls for a compulsory levy on gambling firms following GambleAware's announcement that the 2018/2019 voluntary levy has raised less than the minimum £10 million asked for.The Liberal Democrats have long argued a compulsory levy should pay towards the cost of research, education and treatment for people with gambling problems.Liberal Democrat Peer, Lord Foster of Bath, said:"I'm pleased that GambleAware has listed all the donations they have received so we can see, for example, that SkyBet, 888 and BetFred are notable by their absence. Bet365 has also given less than the recommended 0.1% of the Gross ...
Vince Cable, Leader of the Liberal Democrats, has hailed the best ever gains of councillors in local elections in the party's history.Alongside over 700 gains the party landed serious blows to the Conservatives with stunning victories to gain councils including Chelmsford, Hinckley and Bosworth and the Vale of the White Horse - as well as holding the Mayoralty in Bedford. With the party on track to secure a national equivalent vote share of 19% - the best since 2010 - Cable hailed the result as a clear sign that the Liberal Democrats are the strongest party for Remain going into ...
Well, I'm back! The voters of Whickham South and Sunniside voted on Thursday to re-elect me to Gateshead Council for my 10th term. The result, declared yesterday was: Jonathan Wallace (Lib Dem) 1917 (72.9%, +6.2%) Judith Turner (Labour) 479 (18.2%, -4%) Perry Wilson (Conservative) 232 (8.8%, -2.2%) Majority 1438 (54.7%, +10.2%) The changes are on the results last year. I am not one who
Fri, 12:03: SF lost last seat there by only 9.4 votes last time, but still it's a straw in the wind. UUP got two seats in 2014... https://t.co/kyMdwbml0M Fri, 12:29: First result in from Northern Ireland #LE19 - SF's Darren Totten re-elected in Magherafelt (Mid-Ulster). DUP and SF... https://t.co/pWp9DGupqS Fri, 12:45: RT @MarkCarruthers7: @nwbrux @mairiac31 Waving's not allowed. Nor is playing requests. How many times do you have to be told, Nicholas? Fri, 12:49: Am inclined to agree with this. https://t.co/dGuHTALCXN Fri, 12:58: #LE19 Massive Alliance surge in Castlereagh East, +21.7% to 34.2%. Martin Gregg already elected, Tim Morrow will ...
It's 40 years today since Margaret Thatcher walked into Downing Street as Prime Minister. There was an 11 year old girl in Inverness who was really excited by this – especially by the notion that a woman could become Prime Minister was a very powerful one. Ten years ago, for the 30th anniversary, I wrote this post describing my shame. I suppose, in my defence, I have spent most of my time since fighting the forces of small state, selfish conservatism. I'm ashamed to admit it, but thirty years ago tonight, I, a fairly innocent 11 year old, went to ...
It is a truism that not a great deal can be predicted from local election results. After all, only a third of those entitled actually vote, and even in these grim times (turnout was only 66% in the 2015 general election, and 69% in 2017) we can expect around twice as many to vote in the next general election, whenever it comes.Be that as it may, lessons are being drawn , so I may as well join in. The Tories lost 1 334 seats. Given that forecasts of losses in the region of 1 000 were regarded as spin so ...
With a total of 703 Council seats gained and 10 new councils, nobody could argue that yesterday was not an exceptional result for the Liberal Democrats. Everybody who worked so hard for this result should be congratulated, but before we get carried away in thinking that our results, combined with those achieved by the Greens, means that the country has swung massively behind us remaining in the EU, we should reflect on where we really stand with voters. The first thing to say is that Thursday's results were very much a 'plague on both your houses' surge. Both the Tories ...
Plugging away with the same message time after time may sound the obvious way to get your message over, but think how often discussions about...
There are two elements of the BBC's coverage of the local elections that are simply ridiculous and need to be complained about. The first is their oft expressed line that the message the voters were giving to the Conservative and Labour parties is that they wanted them to get on with Brexit. So that would be why they voted in huge numbers for the party whose aim is to stop Brexit, then, is it? The Liberal Democrats gained over 700 seats, a spectacular feat by any standards. We put in our best ever performance in terms of seat gain in ...
DUNDEE CITY COUNCIL - WEEKLY ROAD REPORT REPORT FOR WEST END WARD - SATURDAY 4 AND SUNDAY 5 MAY 2019 TUC Annual Parade - Blackness Road, Hawkhill, West Marketgait, Nethergate, High Street, Reform Street and Meadowside closed on Saturday 4 May (11.45am - 12.45pm). REPORT FOR WEST END WARD - WEEK COMMENCING MONDAY 6 MAY 2019 Nethergate (at West Marketgait) - eastbound lane restrictions for one week for Scottish Water work. Nethergate (Tay Street Lane to West Marketgait) - closed eastbound on Sunday 12 May for Street Lighting work. Hawkhill (o/s Tesco) - off-peak nearside lane closure from Tuesday 7 ...
Sat 4th
05:28
Plans for 18 houses on Fishmore Road, Ludlow rejected by Shropshire Council on grounds of poor desig...
Council planning officers have rejected plans for 18 semidetached homes on the site of the former Whittle bus depot on Fishmore Road. They describe the proposed housing as bland and cramped. Some of the houses would be overshadowed by the quarry face and the site would have a lack of amenity space. This is a comprehensive dismissal of the scheme by planning officers and I doubt any appeal to the planning inspectorate would succeed. This is an eyesore brownfield site that needs to be developed but this was not the right scheme. Clutton Homes failed to respond to requests from ...
