Farage warns Tories of Lib Dem General Election threat Trickett's comments show Labour are a Brexit party Swinson: Liberal Democrats can win in seats we have never won in before Lib Dems: Johnson and Corbyn running scared of Swinson Farage warns Tories of Lib Dem General Election threat Commenting on the Brexit Party's campaign launch, Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader Ed Davey said: Nigel Farage is correct that the Conservative Party should be very worried about the Liberal Democrats in this election. We are the strongest national party of Remain and we are ready to take the fight to Boris Johnson ...
Responding to the news that ITV will host a head to head debate between Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn, Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader Ed Davey said:"Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn are running scared. "They appear determined to block the woman leader of the strongest party of Remain from the debate stage."They know that their vision for our country can't compare to the Liberal Democrat plan to stop Brexit and build a brighter future."
Remembrance Sunday is important to me, for personal reasons. I spent my boyhood in Enniskillen. So last year, when I'd spent time abroad in the run-up toRemembrance Sunday, I hadn't much time to equip myself and my wife with poppies. I started in Station Road. I seemed to remember them being on sale in the [...]
Open Democracy reports news of the police investigation into Vote Leave, the pro-Brexit campaign fronted by Boris Johnson amongst others: Evidence that could lead to criminal charges against the pro-Brexit campaign led by Boris Johnson and his key adviser, Dominic Cummings, has now been passed by police to the criminal prosecution authorities, openDemocracy has learned. Last year, the Electoral Commission found that Vote Leave broke electoral law by overspending during the 2016 European Union referendum, after the campaign funnelled £675,000 through another pro-Brexit group to avoid spending limits. After nearly 16 months of investigating Vote Leave, the Metropolitan Police Service ...
Which planet in our solar system is closest to the Earth? The answer may surprise you...
Another day, another tabloid delivery. Today I was in Marley Hill and I'm pleased to report that the patches I normally deliver in my ward are now done. (I have some elsewhere still to do.) It will mean the selfies of me holding tabloids in local towns and villages will dry up, you will be pleased to know!
We had our latest Lib Dem pint last night which I attended after doing my trick or treat style tabloid delivery. A good turnout but I had to leave early though I was only allowed out of the door once I agreed to take yet another tabloid delivery patch with me!
I delivered more of our tabloids, this time in Sunniside, yesterday morning. I then spent the afternoon working on the small holding and returned home in the early evening to deliver yet more tabloids. It was, of course, 31st October. Halloween. Perhaps I should have got dressed up for the occasion though plenty of people are used to seeing me dressed in scruffy old clothes looking like I've
The Swindon Advertiser brings news that the Richard Jefferies Museum at Coate in Swindon is to be used as a polling station in next month's general election. Which gives me an excuse for quoting from Jefferies 1887 essay Primrose Gold in Our Village. 'Primrose' here is a reference to the Primrose League, which was founded in 1883 to spread Conservative principles. Jefferies writes: The old grocer, who is not a 'professional tradesman', who exposes dirty Radical prints in his window for sale, who said several hard words to the clergyman a few years ago for refusing to bury his Nonconformist ...
So, ITV is holding a leaders' debate of sorts. They'll have two divisive men fighting out which form of brexit they want on 19th December. ITV will show the first head-to-head debate between Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn on 19th November. Details of further multi-party debate and comprehensive general election coverage in due course pic.twitter.com/XTKEZI1EuH — ITV Press Centre (@itvpresscentre) November 1, 2019 I can't think why Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn don't want to be shown up by an assured, articulate, likeable woman presenting the argument for remain with vitality and emotional intelligence. Ed Davey said they were running ...
Well would you believe it? Sadly we probably would. ITV has announced that it will screen the first leaders TV debate on 19th November but that it will only include 2 men in grey suits! Well done ITV, 3 of the main party leaders (Lib Dems, SNP PC) are women yet both the leaders picked for your 1st debate are male Brexiteers! No Remain Leader and no woman in your debate means it has no balance what so ever. Hang your heads in shame ITV. But we can do something about this appalling decision by ITV which inadvertently or otherwise ...
Here is the video that accompanied the launch of our election slogan yesterday. Enjoy!
Photo: Nick Moyes Matthew Parris uses his latest Times column to make an announcement:The day I left parliament in 1986, however, I made a promise to myself: never would I do anything to undermine my outstanding successor, Patrick McLoughlin MP, now a Companion of Honour, whose long career as a humane, deft, steady, middle-of-the-road pro-European Tory remains a lesson in careful management. On Wednesday Sir Patrick confirmed he will not be standing in this coming general election. This releases me from my promise. Despair is no longer enough: finally one must act. So with this column I'm leaving the Conservative ...
In this election there is everything to play for. Traditional voter loyalties have completely broken down, and nearly half the electorate are now regarded to be floating voters. When talking to voters on the doorsteps and asking their thoughts on the current state of politics, the responses are dominated by the words "mess" and "shambles". Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn are not popular, and are not seen as being good options to lead our country. If we get smart we can easily present ourselves as the Stop Brexit, Liberal Democrat and None of the Above party, and hoover up enormous ...
After a tough summer of neglect for the garden, the last week has been a pleasure to get back to some Autumn maintenance. Some projects have been ongoing since we moved, the rejuventation and reduction of the trees and hedges, being one of these. Last week we tackled the remaining laurel hedge, deciding on taking it down by half in height and width, leaving it a 'Trisha-sized' scale for me to manage. There was also a lavetera for the chop, one of two I planted from cuttings taken from the garden. One cutting behaved impeccably, the other decided on world-domination ...
Stephen Lloyd MP has announced that he will be campaigning in the General Election in Eastbourne as a Liberal Democrat, fighting to stop Brexit. Stephen was first elected as the Lib Dem MP for Eastbourne in 2010. He narrowly lost his seat in 2015 but regained it in the snap election in 2017. The background to this announcement is that Stephen Lloyd voted Remain in the referendum, but Eastbourne largely voted Leave. In the 2017 election Stephen promised to honour the will of his constituents and to support Brexit in the Commons. About a year ago he resigned the party ...
Responding to Labour MP Jon Trickett's comments that if Labour got into government and negotiated a new Brexit deal he would vote for Brexit over Remain, Liberal Democrat Shadow Europe Secretary Tom Brake MP said:"Jon Trickett's confirmation that he would vote and campaign for Brexit in a referendum shows yet again that Labour are a party of Brexit."Trickett is a member of the Labour Shadow Cabinet. His comments demonstrate that a Labour Government would let down Remainers right across the country."Liberal Democrats are clear that whether Tory blue or Labour red, there is no form of Brexit that is good ...
Brian Killick is my second cousin once removed, born the same year (1928) and the same generation as my father. His mother, Muriel, was my grandfather's first cousin, one of the first women to graduate from UCD, born in 1884. Her first husband, Sydney Killick, was killed in the first world war, and she married his brother, Neil Killick, Brian's father, who died in a Japanese POW camp in the second world war. It is really bad luck to lose a husband in each World War. Muriel's father Edward Whyte was my great-grandfather's younger brother, born around 1830. (My great-grandfather, ...
Once again, an MP has kindly timed their decision to join the Liberal Democrats for just before the recording of an episode of Never Mind The Bar Charts. So Stephen and I discussed the party's latest Parliamentary recruit along with the outlook for the general election. Show notes Antoinette Sandbach joins the Liberal Democrats. How many Liberal Democrat MPs are there now? The new Liberal Democrat election slogan. Got problems voting in the Liberal Democrat internal elections? Email elections@libdems.org.uk. Find Never Mind The Bar Charts on social media Like the show? Do follow on Twitter or Facebook. It's a great ...
Quite rightly, nearly all our attention now is on winning public elections: winning those council by-elections coming in before the general election and winning then in the general election too. There is also the tail-end of the party's internal elections, with voting closing at 5pm on Friday next week (8 November) and most likely, given some of the problems with the voting system, quite a few members still to vote. (If you haven't yet received your ballot paper, elections@libdems.org.uk can assist.) Those internal contests matter. They will determine, for example, who is on the Federal Policy Committee (FPC), the group ...
President Trump's two handed intervention into our general election is ambiguous in its effect. On the one hand Trump has somewhat torpedoed Prime Minister Johnson's oft-repeated claim that a "free trade deal with the US" is more or less in the bag by announcing that the the deal Johnson has negotiated with Europe will make the negotiation of a free trade deal with the US more difficult. If we take Trump at his word, he has exposed Johnson's boast as groundless. On the other had he has helpfully, for Johnson, advised Nigel Farage to make pacts with the Tories to ...
"My social media account was hacked" has become one of the most cliched even-less-of-an-apology-than-a-non-apology-apology response by candidates .
Thu, 12:56: RT @PeteApps: Somehow a narrative has developed that the Phase One report was all about firefighters and not about building failure. That... Thu, 16:05: RT @AdrianEdmondson: And this is brilliant. https://t.co/eXLeRuxKtV Thu, 17:11: Zora Neale Hurston's Lost Writings To Be Released In 2020 https://t.co/3WYiRHdjU1 Hooray! Thu, 18:48: October Books https://t.co/x1lGSDEl7y Thu, 20:48: Personal Story: Why I became German https://t.co/jSWAkFSOZj Tremendously moving. Thu, 22:51: RT @lowflyingrocks: 2019 UF9, 6m-14m in diameter, just passed the Earth at 10km/s, missing by 784,000km. https://t.co/48rOGwZHZl Thu, 23:17: RT @jonworth: So here they are together. The 1973 joining the EEC and 1998 EU Presidency ...
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Cost, complexity, fear: why it's up to the Lib Dems to deconstruct the Tory election platform and wh...
By common bubble consent, Labour have had the best start to the election campaign. The Tories seem to have not got started yet, either tactically or accidentally; the Lib Dems have been a little wobbly out of the gate, but nothing even close to the magnitude of "homosexuality is a sin", so plenty of time to get better. Meanwhile Labour have managed to make the early campaign about non-Brexit stuff, just as they wanted. They were handed a gift in the form of Trump calling into Nigel Farage's show and suggesting that a Boris-Nigel "dream team" would be the ideal ...
Following a Tuesday and a Wednesday council by-election this week, we finally get to a normal Thursday by-election. Bromsgrove South, Worcestershire Josh Robinson stood for the Liberal Democrats and, I'm glad to be report, can do pointing: If you want a job done, vote for Josh Robinson in Bromsgrove South . He's the only candidate who lives in the area and is passionate about serving in his local community . Polling stations open until 10pm . [IMG: 🔶] pic.twitter.com/7j5CpJ2IR6 — Bromsgrove Lib Dems [IMG: 🔶] (@BromsLibDems) October 31, 2019
Sometimes, a politician is so insensible to public opinion that they take a course of action that proves disastrous to their cause. Yesterday, two politicians fell foul to that malaise when Donald Trump, unaware of how much he despised by the British electorate, phoned into Nigel Farage's radio programme. Now Farage normally has his finger on the pulse, but on this occasion he appears to have been blinded by the glare of his friendship with the US President. Whatever the reasons, I suspect that the outcome of this interview will prove to be the opposite to that intended by the ...
Labour at Westminster is angry with the Liberal Democrats. They were - several Labour peers have insisted - moving slowly towards accepting that there would have to be a confirmatory referendum. And they felt that Boris Johnson would end up with no other way out than to accept such a referendum. And now, they complain, we have 'given' the Conservatives the election they want. Don't fall for this Labour narrative, if you hear it from a Labour activist near you. Their underlying fear is that they are in no state to win an early election, so the Conservatives are bound ...
I am in London yesterday and today working on LGA business relating, separately, to health and social care issues and local government investment strategies. I have been in a meeting firstly with fellow Lib Dems and then cross-Party meetings with ... Continue reading →
From Sheena Wellington : Lunchtime Recital with Kaitlin Ross, voice, and Catriona Hawksworth, pianoWednesday, 6th November, 1.15pm - 1.45pmWighton Heritage Centre, Central Library Kaitlin and Catriona form a Scottish traditional song and piano duo. They blend Kaitlin's singing of traditional Gaelic and Scots songs with Catriona's contemporary piano style, creating a unique sound. The duo began playing together in secondary school, meeting at the National Centre of Excellence in Traditional Music in Plockton. They have since both gained degrees from the University of Highlands and Islands, and Newcastle University. Between them they have performed across Europe in a number of ...
