FSB no-deal warning reinforces Tory irresponsibility Responding to the warning this morning on Sky from the Chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), Mike Cherry, that a no-deal Brexit would be disastrous for small businesses in the UK, Liberal Democrat Business and Treasury spokesperson Chuka Umunna MP said: The uncertainty of Brexit hangs over all businesses in the UK. Small businesses spent millions preparing for the UK's exit from the EU on the 29th March this year, but they do not have the resources to do so again. The Conservatives have failed to put the interests of the country ...
Another weekend and another action day in Gateshead, this time in Chowdene ward. Our aim was to get a Focus out across the ward. We achieved most of this. A small number of patches were left at the end of the day but these were taken by a couple of members to do later this week. Only one person refused to take a copy. At first I thought she was going to give me a pro-Labour tongue lashing. I
Following Tavish Scott's resignation as the MSP for Shetland, Caron Lindsay has news of the Liberal Democrat candidate to replace him: The Scottish Liberal Democrats have today announced Cllr Beatrice Wishart has been selected as the parliamentary candidate for Shetland. I am absolutely delighted at this news. As Alistair Carmichael's caseworker and as a local councillor, Beatrice knows exactly what she needs to do to improve people's lives in Shetland. I've known her for the better part of 20 years and think she would be a fantastic MSP. On being selected, Beatrice Wishart said, I am thrilled to be standing ...
This extract from a 1988 BBC television programme shows steam locomotives still working the internal railway system at Castle Donington power station in Leicestershire. I believe these were the last industrial steam locomotives to work in Britain. Preserved British Steam Locomotives suggests that one of them was still in use as late as 1990. The power station closed in 1994. The site was later cleared and is now occupied by a Marks & Spencer distribution centre.
Beatrice Wishart, depute convener of Shetland Islands Council, has been chosen as the Liberal Democrat candidate in the forthcoming Holyrood by-election for the islands. It has been caused by Tavish Scott's resignation after 20 years in the Scottish parliament - he is going to take up a new job with Scottish Rugby. Beatrice Wishart is a trustee of Women's Aid in Shetland and is an active WASPI (Women Against State Pension Inequality) campaigner. Willie Rennie, leader of the Scottish Lib Dems, told Shetland News:"She's a devoted campaigner and an attentive councillor. I have no doubt she will bring the same ...
In the final of our three MPs' speeches in favour of assisted dying, Vince Cable explains what prompted him to change his mind on the issue. I thank the hon. Member for Grantham and Stamford (Nick Boles), my right hon. Friend the Member for North Norfolk (Norman Lamb) and others for giving us the opportunity to debate this subject. Members have spoken movingly and from experience about their views. I am someone whose views have radically changed. Until recently I was a vehement opponent of assisted dying, but I have changed my views and think I should explain why. That ...
The Scottish Liberal Democrats have today announced Cllr Beatrice Wishart has been selected as the parliamentary candidate for Shetland. I am absolutely delighted at this news. As Alistair Carmichael's caseworker and as a local councillor, Beatrice knows exactly what she needs to do to improve people's lives in Shetland. I've known her for the better part of 20 years and think she would be a fantastic MSP. Beatrice is the Depute Convener of Shetland Islands Council, a trustee of Women's Aid in Shetland and an active campaigner for the State Pension rights of women born in the 1950s. Beatrice said: ...
Since it's that time of decade again, let's remember my distant relative, Chevalier James F.X. Whyte (also referred to as Comte Whyte de Malleville), who was one of the seven prisoners liberated from the Bastille on this day in 1789. To quote one website: Whyte was a private prisoner. He was of Irish Jacobite descent. He was born in Dublin in 1730 and had served during the Seven Years War, first as a cornet in the Soubise Volunteers then a captain in Lally Tollendal's Franco-Irish regiment. In 1781 he had suffered some kind of mental breakdown and been confined in ...
Responding to Chancellor Philip Hammond's warning that "many of the levers" that would affect a no-deal Brexit are not in the UK's hands, Liberal Democrat Brexit spokesperson Tom Brake MP said:"Even this Conservative Chancellor accepts a no deal, which no one voted for, would see the UK lose control over our future."This warning makes a mockery of the promises of the Leave campaign. It simply isn't acceptable that the Tory leadership candidates are willing to see the UK crash out of the EU to ingratiate themselves with their hard right."People deserve better, and the Liberal Democrats demand better. We must ...
Which book has most challenged your previous political views, putting them under heavy strain or even changing them?
When Ray Davies introduces this as "a little-known album track" in 1973, he is telling the truth. Because The Kinks are the Village Green Preservation Society failed to make the album charts when it was released in 1968. Today it is regarded as his masterpiece. As Andy Miller says in his little book on the album: Year-by-year, it reveals new colours and new depths. It is not simply a snapshot of The Kinks at their peak, and not just an exhibit in the museum of classic rock, but a work whose relevance and perceptiveness grow more acute as the years ...
Sat, 12:53: Thread. https://t.co/zKiQucgyUB Sat, 13:37: BBC News - Apollo 11: Four things you may not know about the first moon landing https://t.co/GBeD7wQxeD Sat, 15:07: Star-gazing https://t.co/Z3tsOoNtX8 Sat, 17:26: One of a number of reasons why it was a bad idea for @alanmendoza to say that the new UK prime minister could "brib... https://t.co/6IkYXCqoc3 Sat, 19:12: RT @jonworth: Thanks for discussions at #FreudenBrexit with Patricia Conlan (University of Limerick), @sirgrahamwatson and @StefanMBuettner... Sat, 20:12: RT @DavidBrin: Stunning closeups of asteroid Ryugu! After JAXA's successful Hayabusa2 touchdown, spacecraft to collect subsurface samples f... Sat, 21:53: RT @LCreighton: Maybe this fool thinks ...
One of my barometers for the health of the Special Relationship is a weekly broadcast I do for American talk stations. The host is Trumptonian Lockwood Phillips who also happens to be an old schoolmate. I am referred to as the Looney London Liberal by the vast majority of my 500,000 listeners who are staunch Trump supporters. They are just the sort of people I want to reach. The purpose of the hour-long show is to provide a European assessment of American politics and to analyse events in Europe that should be of interest to American audiences. Normally the discussion ...
Sockmonkey is funding about two thirds of a nurse, two police cars or four 'lollipop people' for school crossing patrols. Continue reading →
It's not been a good week for British politics has it?! Our Ambassador to the USA was forced to resign because Johnson wouldn't publicly support him for doing the job we paid him to do. Labour anti-Semitism was exposed in ... Continue reading →
I didn't know when I joined the Liberal Democrats aged 15, that it would change my life dramatically. I've lived in Brecon and Radnorshire my whole life, which means I am incredibly lucky to have had at least one Liberal Democrat representative for my life so far. However that day in 2015, when we lost Roger Williams as the Member of Parliament was one of the worst days. It was not what he deserved for being a devoted MP for fourteen years. However Liberal-voting to its core, I knew then that Brecon and Radnorshire would be orange once again. I ...
I read with interest the article on the front page of this week's Aintree & Maghull Champion newspaper regarding the cost of holding a by-election to fill a vacancy on Melling Parish Council. There can be little doubt that this particular vacancy came out of unusual circumstances i.e. a Labour candidate who had won one of the 11 seats from this May's full parish council elections decided not to take up the seat they had won on Melling PC. I wonder what changed their mind? According to the paper the winning candidate has not said why he did not take ...
The Financial Health Check service is delivered by the Citizens Advice Network in Scotland. It aims to help low income families to seek financial advice to maximise their income by ensuring that they are not paying more for essential goods and services that they need to and that they are getting all the benefits, grants and exemptions to which they are entitled. Anyone can access this service by calling 0800 085 7145 to receive telephone advice or be referred for a face to face appointment :
It is al kicking off in the Labour Party, with the Observer reporting that the Labour high command is to be sued by former employees who broke cover last week to criticise the party's handling of cases of alleged antisemitism in a dramatic escalation of the row engulfing Jeremy Corbyn's party: Two of the whistleblowers who featured in last week's explosive BBC Panorama programme entitled Is Labour Anti-Semitic? - Sam Matthews and Louise Withers Green - contacted the Observer last night to say they had instructed the prominent media lawyer Mark Lewis to act on their behalf because they believed ...
Ten years ago I wrote about my memories of watching England's Headingley victory over Pakistan in the 1979 cricket world cup: It was a typically seam-friendly Headingley wicket and England, batting first, made only 165 - the highest scorer was Graham Gooch with 33. I remember Sikander Bakht bowling very well for Pakistan. What followed was a display of the tactical genius of the England captain Mike Brearley. He had four frontline seamers and he bowled them out to take wickets. Mike Hendrick's figures were particularly good: 12-6-15-4. The game ended with Phil Edmonds and Geoff Boycott bowling at the ...
