Lib Dem Councillors John Dodd, Daniel Lewis and Yaso Sathiy, are holding their next advice centre on Saturday 14th September 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.
Swinson: Rudd resignation another blow to Boris Johnson Responding to the news that Amber Rudd has quit both the cabinet and the Conservative Party, Liberal Democrat Leader Jo Swinson said: Amber Rudd's resignation is yet another blow to Boris Johnson and his reckless plans to crash the country out of Europe without a deal. His disregard for the country's interest and those who are meant to be his colleagues is symbolic of how broken our politics has become. As this Government continues to decay, the need and urgency to stop Brexit cannot be clearer - we need a people's vote ...
Seven years ago I wrote: St Wistan's, Wistow, has Norman fabric but a pleasing Georgian interior, complete with box pews and plain glass.I was back there yesterday, and my appreciation of church architecture must have come on because I was positively excited by the Norman arch above. It reminded me of those I saw at Breedon on the Hill. That Georgian interior now includes a tablet in honour of someone I served on Harborough District Council with: Sir Timothy Brooks. I wrote about him 10 years ago (note the connection to Iain Duncan Smith).
Liberal Democrat members have selected Hina Bokhari to be their new Prospective Parliamentary Candidate (PPC) for the Sutton and Cheam constituency.
Wild recent polling produces wild results The columnists had a lovely job this week: the Johnson government in unprecedented meltdown (seemingly owned by the opposition, in possession of a minus-43 majority, a heated debate about what kind of prison food the former PM might expect, etc etc) and yet a swarm of polls suggesting things [...]
At church this morning the Epistle began with these words from St Paul to the Romans: I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. Could have been written as words of comfort for Mr Johnson and his Brexiteers. Yesterday Leeds for Europe held a very successful day conference entitled Europe: Remain and Reform. One of the highlights was a speech from Hilary Benn, who was applauded for masterminding the successful Bill to stop any no-deal Brexit on 31st October. If I understood him correctly he outlined ...
In 2017 I was the Administrator of the Hugo Awards for Worldcon 75 in Helsinki, an experience I wrote about here and here. I repeated the experience for last month's Dublin 2019: An Irish Worldcon. I was an early if passive supporter of the Dublin Worldcon campaign. James Bacon, who I have known since I really joined fandom in 2002, had announced the Dublin bid before the 2014 London Worldcon, and gradually made it an inevitability which won the vote in Helsinki without opposition. I had much earlier expressed my interest in taking on the role to Vince Docherty, the ...
Willie Rennie writes for the Herald, saying that the Liberal Democrats can win big in the coming election because we have the solutions to the current chaos. He explains why we have to wait a few weeks to have that election: So we want an election before the end of the year but I'm afraid we can't trust the Prime Minister to abide by the law of the land and request an extension to negotiations with Europe. So we need to hold his feet to the fire until he does and until we have seen an end to the no ...
Boris Johnson has been Prime Minister of the United Kingdom for less than two months, but already the wheels are coming off his government's carriage. He swept many Cabinet Ministers from their posts, replacing most of them with Brexiteer hardliners, and when some of those ousted had the temerity to vocalise their objection to a [...]
Britons everywhere should share the same rights. The government treats British citizens differently depending on where they live. It does so for convenience and cost management and that isn't fair. For example, most of our working lives we contribute to the state pension via National Insurance. If you live in the UK when you retire or one of the 48 countries that currently have an agreement in place you'll receive your state pension in full along with an annual uplift to help it keep pace with inflation. If you live in one of the other countries during retirement – including ...
Ruby were a band formed by the former Creedence Clearwater Revival member Tom Fogerty, though the lead guitarist here is Randy Oda. This is a great instrumental track and comes from the band's eponymous first album, issued in 1976. It's also a fitting tribute to a public transport system: San Francisco's Bay Area Rapid Transit. All we British have is Finchley Central by the New Vaudeville Band. If BART sounds oddly familiar, there may be a reason. It was often used by the BBC to accompany pages from Ceefax and before that it was the continuity music for the corporation's ...
Sat, 13:48: A thread on the effect of Parliament barring a No-Deal Brexit on the EU's approach to agreeing a new deal with the... https://t.co/j5sPkNgZ9X Sat, 14:48: RT @davidallengreen: Now a blogpost What if the Prime Minister deliberately broke the law over extending Article 50? https://t.co/QA62ZbG... Sat, 20:01: My week on Twitter 🎉: 48 Mentions, 54.9K Mention Reach, 439 Likes, 127 Retweets, 619K Retweet Reach. See yours with... https://t.co/2qLdj5lg77 Sat, 21:57: The Apartment (1960) https://t.co/2LztlSb1FM #oscars Sat, 22:28: RT @PoliticsForAlI: Full Letter Of Resignation From Amber Rudd https://t.co/Uytn2VTUtV Sat, 22:30: Now we know the answer for at least one of ...
As someone who has been both involved in campaigns against the growing, vile, antisemitism, and for the engaging with the Independent Group members of parliament, the decision of Luciana Berger, to become a Liberal Democrat gives real delight and is a pivotal defection, and, indeed, a poignant one. This warm, eloquent, dynamic woman, is a courageous and feisty opponent of the prejudice and abuse she and others experience, and in support of a better more caring society and politics. She is a voice for mental health and a dedicated mp. She has been the target of far left Labour baiting. ...
Gateshead Lib Dems' latest social event was held yesterday in the Land of Oak and Iron Heritage Centre near Winlaton Mill. A good turnout and it was great to see some new members attending as well. I recommend the potato rostis.
Gateshead is hosting the 4th leg of the Tour of Britain cycle race on Tuesday. This is great news for the image of the area and the local economy. Just think of all those visitors coming here and spending money with local businesses. But I was not overly impressed with an invitation from Labour run Gateshead Council to attend the start of the race. I received an email inviting chairs and vice
I had a stack of Whickham Focuses to deliver in the Whickham part of my ward this week. The first batch went out on Tuesday. I finished the entire patch on Thursday. Hooray! Now, all I have to do is deliver the patch I have to do in Sunniside!
And now for something completely different! Forget politics (just for a moment). On Tuesday I was re-elected chairman of Sunniside History Society. My thanks to members for returning me to the post and to the officers and committee members who have made the past year such a success. Our big project over the coming months is to collect people's memories of wartime and postwar periods. In May next
"May you live in interesting times" is an English expression purported to be a translation of a traditional Chinese curse. Despite being so common in English as to be known as the "Chinese curse", the saying is apocryphal, and no actual Chinese source has ever been produced. But what times we are living in. Just a sample of this morning's headlines illustrate the point, involving the Lib Dems having just acquired their seventeenth MP, Angela Smith from Penistone and Stocksbridge in Yorkshire, doing a deal to stand aside for Tory rebels in the forthcoming General Election, and former Home Secretary ...
The '3 Graces' on Liverpool waterfront taken from the new Museum of Liverpool www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlttX7x5qHo This video (see link above) on YouTube is well worth watching as it shows how well the City is appreciated by others.
Whereas the thought of being on the road fighting two elections in twenty months would once have fired me up; the threat of spending hundreds of hours away from my home and family now fills me with dread. So said former Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson in her resignation letter last week. Most campaigners, candidates or MPs will know exactly what she meant when she said those words. Politics can be fun, addictive and all-consuming (especially in these extraordinary times) but we nearly all reach a point when home and hearth tug in a way that canvassing a whole street ...
After going to speak to Aldershot Liberal Democrats on Friday, it was Sheffield yesterday to support the ever-excellent Laura Gordon.
Residents in Pentland Crescent and Pentland Avenue have asked me why they currently do not get offered a brown bin garden waste collection. I raised this with the City Council and received the following positive response from the Service Manager - Waste Management in Neighbourhood Services : " ... neither Pentland Avenue or Crescent appear on our current brown bin routes. However, going forward, I can't see any reason why they would be excluded. I'll discuss with the routing team to ensure they are sent appropriate information prior to the permitting scheme going live so they can participate if they ...
Sun 8th
06:53
Shropshire Council to launch new consultations on its parking strategy, including changes in Ludlow
The new parking regime has had a lot of "teething troubles". Adjustments to car parking have already been made in Shrewsbury. Now more changes are about to go out to consultation. The changes were set out in a paper approved by cabinet last Wednesday. For Ludlow, the main proposed changes are: Two on-street parking residents permits for each property A change in boundaries between the Red Zone and Blue Zone to move College Street residents into the Red Zone One digital on-street permit for each holiday let property A different way of capping the number of season and resident permit ...
Sun 8th
00:32
Latest UK general election opinion polls: Conservative lead sustained across all pollsters
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 general election voting intention figures from each of the polling firms currently active in the UK. Below the table, you'll find the option to sign up to email updates about new polls and also a set of answers to frequently asked questions about political polling. The current topline is: Conservatives consistently ahead by a good few points, but at a level of ...
