Now that Conservative MP Chris Davies has been recalled and there will be a by-election in Brecon and Radnorshire, you might be wondering what happens next. Well, this evening he has been selected by the local Conservatives to fight the seat in the by-election despite having been convicted of submitting a fraudulent invoice and almost one in five of his constituents signing a petition to get him sacked. The message from the Welsh Liberal Democrats is clear – people in Brecon deserve better: Over 10,000 people signed the recall petition and decisively rejected Chris Davies because they had enough of ...
Jo's interview with the New European came out: I ask Jo Swinson why she should lead the Liberal Democrats and she takes a deep breath and manages to get it out in all of three sentences. "I'm the best person to lead the movement because I can reach out to new voters, through traditional broadcast media, where I have a high profile, and through social media, where I have a high following. I also think I can reach out across the generations and across the country. I have cross-party relationships and a non-tribal style, which I think is exactly what ...
The Panacea Society is no more, but you can visit the Panacea Museum in Bedford.
We last left Ed about to go on Question Time on Thursday night. You can, and should, watch the whole thing here. He answered very effectively questions about Boris (which sparked his lengthy and brilliant Twitter rant of many of the worst things Boris has done), Brexit and knife crime and the importance of winning the arguments on vaccinating children. 'I think we should reject both candidates... I hope there will be a general election to get rid of them' Liberal Democrat MP @EdwardJDavey on the Tory leadership contest. #bbcqt pic.twitter.com/czE2I2e63s — BBC Question Time (@bbcquestiontime) June 20, 2019 That's ...
Nice to see the place I used to live get a Liberal Democrat Prospective Parliamentary Candidate (PPC) in place, as this news release reports: Exeter Liberal Democrats selected Tom Deakin to fight the seat of Exeter at the next election. Tom (23) a graduate of the University of Exeter, lives and works in the city and is an executive in a local international digital consultancy. Speaking after his selection, Tom said: "I am delighted to have been chosen to fight to represent the people of Exeter in Parliament at the next election. For too long the Labour Party have taken ...
Change UK was a British political party that flourished briefly in the spring of 2019. When I sent this off to Liberator it was topical satires. Honest. Saturday Who should I meet at breakfast but Freddie and Fiona? It transpires that I have invited them for the weekend, though I cannot remember doing so. I am reminded of the day I set the dogs on what I took to be a poacher, only to find he was the leader of the Portuguese Liberals whom I had brought here to stay after meeting him at the National Liberal Club. Be that ...
Nicole Goodkind reports on the scandal of Trump's El Paso detention camp for children: "'In my 22 years of doing visits with children in detention, I have never heard of this level of inhumanity,' said Holly Cooper, co-director of the University of California, Davis' Immigration Law Clinic." Back in 2016, Ylan Q. Mui examined the tangled subject of Boris Johnson's US citizenship and tax liabilities there. Working for Jeremy Hunt was the worst three years of my life, says Luke Turner. Lee Brackstone mourns the early death of Gordon Burn, who would have given us "another half-dozen books that may ...
Second paragraph of third chapter: An hour or so later, Frances left the house herself: she went to the florist's to fetch the wreath for her father's grave. And as soon as she and her mother had had their lunch, they set off for the cemetery. Sarah Waters is a recent discovery for me, and I hugely enjoyed Fingersmith (but rather less The Little Stranger) when I read them last year. What she did really well in both books was to convey a sense of what it was like to live in a particular historical era, especially if one was ...
Why do the Liberal Democrats deliver so many leaflets? Do they work? And is there such a thing as too many leaflets?
Haringey Lib Dem Councillor Julia Ogiehor has described, in a very disturbing Twitter thread, how she suffered disgusting racial abuse on the tube earlier this week: According to these vile pigs, I am not English or from this country and I am uneducated. This was literally unprovoked. I was minding my business listening to my music and just going home. But they really wanted to know where I was from and did not accept it when I said London. pic.twitter.com/uHArfjVO2B — Julia (@juliaogiehor) June 21, 2019 Let's hope that the men who subjected Julia to this racist abuse are brought ...
There's a free app available for Android and iPhone which makes canvassing much easier and quicker, and was used successfully in the Witney by-election.
New York Mining Disaster 1941 was the first song the Bee Gees recorded after returning to Britain from Australia in 1967. Aided by rumours that they were the Beatles recording under another name, it was a hit on both sides of the Atlantic. This folk version of the song by Martin Carthy comes from his 1998 album Signs of Life. Perhaps it reveals the limitation of the lyrics, but it represents an interesting coming together of different musical styles.
Sat, 12:56: RT @bexin2d: Today I just want someone to comfort me the way the PM of Luxembourg comforts Juncker https://t.co/sAdzLAN25i Sat, 12:59: Astronomy and Rome https://t.co/Y1ROYAEx20 Sat, 13:10: RT @Jeremy_Hunt: Don't bottle it @BorisJohnson https://t.co/j17JipWaIH Sat, 13:26: RT @AmberRuddHR: For the record, I'm NOT available as a stand in this time. I agree with @Jeremy_Hunt: if you want the job, you have to t... Sat, 13:27: The Carrie Symonds tape will always threaten Boris Johnson https://t.co/wTKJ6pfWVQ From the @Spectator, which Boris used to edit. Sat, 13:51: RT @BarristerSecret: I've lost count of the number of domestic violence cases I've ...
Likely next PM, Boris Johnson, now has the unenviable task of facing disgruntled Tory party members at hustings across the UK. Worse, he has to do this side-by-side with the bland Jeremy Hunt. Boris is surely aware that these disgruntled souls feel that way because, after 40 years of anti-EU and anti-immigrant campaigning by the far-right UK press, they were then promised (and voted for) a painless easy Brexit, and a grovelling EU. Once Brexit is implemented, the UK can then go about kicking out various foreigners, as they have been led to believe. Britain as a Great Power, they ...
I blogged about my doubts over opinion polls during the European election. My caution however appeared misplaced when the Lib Dems outpolled both Labour and the Conservatives. Since then, a number of polls show there is something of a 4-way divide across the Labour, Conservative, Lib Dem and Brexit parties in terms of share of the vote. Some of them continue to show Labour and Conservatives
Yesterday, we had a successful action day in Birtley, one of our target wards for the Gateshead local elections next year. We started with a street stall on Durham Road and then headed off to deliver thank you focuses across the ward. Birtley Focus Team members Paul Elliott and Jo Davidson also delivered 500 focuses as well as doing some door knocking. Generally speaking, there was a positive
Liberal Democrat members in Truro and Falmouth have selected Ruth Gripper as their new Prospective Parliamentary Candidate (PPC).
We've now had four opinion polls in a row which have put the Lib Dems in second place behind Brexit and in front of both Tory and Labour parties. This is not a flash in the pan! Real votes have been cast in real elections. Of course, in the Euro-Elections we came second and gained 15 seats. In local elections yesterday we made major advances in 9 out of 10 wards contested and a gained a seat from Labour for a mediocre third place. Does this mean a real change in the way that the UK does business? I suspect ...
As a local councillor I spend a disproportionate amount of my time dealing with recycling issues, in particular the council's policy on what plastic it is prepared to accept in the fortnightly collections. However, the real problem lies not with the council but with the manufacturers and the supermarkets who, for all their rhetoric about saving the planet, are actually making it more difficult for us to act in an environmentally conscious way. The Independent reports that half of packaging used by major UK supermarkets cannot be recycled easily. This makes it difficult for customers who wish to dispose of ...
From the City Council : THE ROAD TRAFFIC REGULATION ACT 1984 - SECTION 14(1) THE DUNDEE CITY COUNCIL AS TRAFFIC AUTHORITY being satisfied that traffic on the road should be prohibited by reason of crane lifting works being carried out HEREBY PROHIBIT the driving of any vehicle in Greenmarket (between Greenmarket car park access and Sensation access), Dundee. This notice comes into effect on Monday 24 June 2019 for 1 day. Pedestrian thoroughfare will be maintained. Access and exit to / from Greenmarket Car Park will be maintained at all times. Alternative routes are available via DCA / Sensation access ...
