I had hoped to go to the Gibside Community Farm open day today after my advice surgery in Whickham. I left the surgery late as it overran due to a higher number of constituents calling in than expected. Alas, the rain was tipping down so when I passed the community farm on Fellside Road, there was no one there. I took refuge instead in the nearby Pack Horse. Lunch was a rather pleasant chicken
Hello! I'm Mark Pack, author of 101 Ways To Win An Election, and the maintainer of the largest database of national voting intention polls in the UK, stretching back to 1943. Welcome to a round-up of the latest voting intention figures from each of the polling firms who have conducted at least one poll since the European elections. We now have polls from three different pollsters carried out after the elections of Boris Johnson and Jo Swinson as party leaders. All put the Conservatives in first place. Scroll down to the end of this post if you'd like to receive ...
I braved the rain and went into Leicester today to visit two exhibitions. The first was The Wonderful World of the Ladybird Book Artists at the museum and art gallery on New Walk. On the walls was some of the original artwork from the Keywords books with which my mother taught me to read before I went to school. They first came out in 1964, so they must have been the latest thing when she bought them. And I learnt that most Ladybird books were a collaboration between sometime Liberal candidate L. Du Garde Peach and the Leicestershire illustrator John ...
Responding to the news that Jared O'Mara will resign as the MP for Sheffield Hallam, Liberal Democrat PPC for Sheffield Hallam Laura Gordon said:"By resigning Jared is doing the right thing - both for himself and his constituents."People in Sheffield will now get their chance to have their say, both on Boris Johnson's dangerous Conservative Government and on Jeremy Corbyn's failure to provide effective opposition at a time of national crisis."This by-election can send a powerful message for change and the Lib Dems ready for the challenge."
This afternoon the Sheffield Star claimed an exclusive with the news that Jared O'Mara will resign as MP for Sheffield Hallam within weeks: The MP, aged 37, said he was 'not well and in the process of receiving medical help' and would resign following the MPs' summer recess, which is due to end on Tuesday, September 3. Mr O'Mara: "Please let everyone be assured that I will be tendering my resignation via the official Parliamentary process as soon as term restarts. "I am not in any fit state to continue and nor would that be appropriate if I was. I ...
Our new prime minister A B de P Johnson (I shall try to avoid calling him Boris because that plays into his technique of deflecting criticism by pretending to be a joker) has followed Paddy Ashdown's rule and "hit the ground running." Mr Johnson has made outrageous and undeliverable promises, purged the cabinet of all criticism rather than seeking the usual balance (at least in his party) and stands a chance of converting much of the North to his cause by promising a high-speed rail line between Leeds and Manchester. Some of the commentators claim has has boxed himself into ...
Sat 27th
16:40
Sheffield is a lovely part of the world, and Laura Gordon would be an excellent Lib Dem MP
The Star is reporting that Sheiffield Hallam MP Jared O'Mara is to resign his seat after the parliamentary recess: The MP, aged 37, said he was 'not well and in the process of receiving medical help' and would resign following the MPs' summer recess, which is due to end on Tuesday, September 3. Mr O'Mara: "Please let everyone be assured that I will be tendering my resignation via the official Parliamentary process as soon as term restarts. "I am not in any fit state to continue and nor would that be appropriate if I was. I reiterate my apology to ...
Parliamentary by-elections are a bit like buses...you wait for ages for a winnable one to come along and then you get three at once. Next Thursday sees the Brecon and Radnorshire by-election, where Jane Dodds is looking to overturn a Conservative majority of 8,038. Polls are suggesting she will succeed, but campaigners on the ground are reporting that it could be very close. On 29th August the voters of Shetland will go to the polls to elect a successor to Tavish Scott, who has stood down as the islands' MSP after 20 years of service. There aren't too many Liberal ...
Sat 27th
14:18
Choose Your Future: Night of the Kraken, by Jonathan Green; Terror Moon, by Trevor Baxendale
I've previous written up the Find Your Fate, FASA and Decide Your Destiny Doctor Who game books. These are two Twelfth Doctor choose-your-own-adventure books, both published in 2016. I'm not aware of any more of this type of book being produced since. Night of the Kraken, by Jonathan Green Second paragraph of Chapter 3: Warily, the Doctor approaches the rider and, when the man still doesn't react, grabs hold of his hat and throws it aside. What he sees makes him leap backwards again. As with Green's previous game book, The Horror of Howling Hill, this is set in southern ...
Fri, 12:56: RT @kevinhorourke: There was never going to be any pressure on Ireland to drop the backstop but this makes Varadkar's task even easier: it... Fri, 13:00: 140 hours left to vote in the 2019 Hugo Awards and 1944 Retro Hugo Awards! Fri, 13:58: RT @nick_gutteridge: Strong words from Coveney: 'Statements of British PM were very unhelpful. He seems to have made a deliberate decision... Fri, 16:05: No-deal Brexit may be the only way out for Boris Johnson https://t.co/jHe4AGqdzu @larissaarabelle puts the case. Fri, 17:55: RT @hayward_katy: An open letter from a 'Border Bishop', Rt Revd John McDowell, to ...
If you have a Netflix account it's likely you've already seen The Great Hack. This near two hour documentary details the Cambridge Analytica scandal and examines the wider issue of our rights to our data. For many Liberal Democrat campaigners and Pro-EU activists who have kept up with this whole scandal, what the documentary revels is not new but it leaves us with a cause that should be a natural rally for the Liberal Democrats. It creates a foundation for meaningful policy regarding the giants of Silicon Valley and how our democracy and use of social media can work in ...
Sat 27th
09:00
Boris Johnson is way less likely to win an autumn general election than most people are telling you....
At the very end of Theresa May's premiership, a certain sobriety started to finally creep into Westminster punditry. Some started to reflect a little on past assumptions made about what the EU would and would not do at long last. Some even went as far as googling what the Irish backstop might be. With the arrival of Boris Johnson into Number 10, all of that has gone out the window and the amount of bollocks being spewed is even greater than what was witnessed at the height of May's popularity, pre-2017 general election. Here are the main things I keep ...
I was taken by the article below from the Huffington Post by Tim Walker as it seems to sum up so well why we progressives, outside of Labour, can't get our heads around the party's Remainers staying within Corbyn's camp. I too have heard Labour's leading Remainers make big speeches but each time I hear one they become less inspiring as you know they will not follow through and do anything remotely useful to get the Labour Party off it's ridiculous job-loss Brexit hook. How many times have we heard David Lammy wringing his hands and sounding like he ...
DUNDEE CITY COUNCIL - WEEKLY ROAD REPORT REPORT FOR WEST END WARD - SATURDAY 27 AND SUNDAY 28 JULY 2019 Perth Road (West Wynd to Seafield Road) - closed on Sunday 28 July for manhole repairs. Perth Road (at Union Place) - temporary traffic lights on Sunday 28 July for BT works. Forthcoming Roadworks West Marketgait (at Ward Road) - southbound offside lane closure on Saturday 10 August (9.30am - 3.30am) for Scottish Water work. Kirsty Semple Way - closed on Saturday 17 August for crane lifting operations.
It is intriguing to learn that whilst the country is facing an existential crisis over Parliament's inability to resolve Brexit, that one of Boris Johnson's new ministers has altogether different priorities. As this article explains, Jacob Rees Mogg, the honourable member for the eighteenth century, has already started to make a mark on his new department as Leader of the House. He has issued a 'style guide' to his new ministerial staff, which includes a demand to only use imperial measurements: The guide includes a list of banned words and phrases, including "very", "ongoing", "invest (in schools etc)", "disappointment" and ...
