Three principal authority council by-elections this week and alas a continuation of the mediocre trend of the last few weeks in the number of Lib Dem candidates. However, where there was a Liberal Democrat... Penhurst, Fordcombe & Chiddingstone By-Election, Sevenoaks LibDem GAIN LibDem: 54% Con: 46% New Council: 45 Conservative 4 Independent 4 LibDem 1 Labour pic.twitter.com/VgJaY48NLV — English Elections Centre (@EnglandElects) June 9, 2022
Thu 9th
21:24
Lord Bonkers' Diary: Useful for scaring off Conservative tellers at remote polling stations
My experience of parliamentary by-elections goes back to Birmingham Northfield in 1982, but that's nothing to Lord Bonkers. Drawing on his experience, however, I have written to the ALDC sharing his top about the gorilla suit and remote polling stations. Useful for scaring off Conservative tellers at remote polling stations You can imagine how peeved I was when I discovered that I had missed a great Liberal Democrat victory: positively pea green with peevement. When winter fires burn low and talk turns to by-elections long ago, tales will be told of North Shropshire - of Wem and Ellesmere - and ...
"On Monday evening, concerns were raised by the executives of the 1922 committee after several MPs reported the Tory whips were asking members to photograph their ballot papers to prove they had voted in favour of the PM. As a result, all mobile phones were confiscated from Conservative MPs in a bid to maintain privacy and democratic norms." Ava Evans on fear and loathing inside Boris Johnson's Conservative Party. Tom Chivers explains why the NHS needs more managers, not fewer. Girls tend not to want to study physics because of the maths it involves, Katharine Birbalsingh told the Commons science ...
Devonlive reports today that the target for ambulances responding to life-threatening calls is now being missed in all of Devon's seven local districts. Patients in Mid Devon waited an average of over 15 minutes for life-threatening calls in 2021, longer than anywhere else in the county. Category 1 calls cover the most serious incidents such as a cardiac arrest or heavy bleeding and should be responded to within an average of seven minutes. The average waiting time for Category 2 calls in the county has more than doubled over the past year to 49 minutes, way above the target of ...
The Welsh Liberal Democrats have called on the Welsh Labour Government to outline plans to end what it describes as Cardiff Airport's blackhole on taxpayers' money. Figures released by the Welsh Government yesterday show that passenger numbers at the airport continued to decline in 2021 from 2022, despite less travel restriction being in place. According to the data released, passenger numbers declined by 44 per cent in 2021 to 123,000. The Welsh Government bought Cardiff Airport in 2013, despite former Assembly Member Eluned Parrott and the Welsh Liberal Democrats warning of the massive risk the purchase posed to Welsh taxpayers. ...
Here's the latest tally of seats changing hands in principal authority council by-elections held since the last May round of local elections.
Thu 9th
11:46
Two weeks to go in Tiverton and Honiton - we can get there, if you get there (or on the phone)
Local people are crying out for help but Boris Johnson simply isn't listening. He's more focused on trying to cling to power that helping struggling families. That's the message from Richard Foord, our Lib Dem candidate for Tiverton and Honiton. He said the Conservatives had taken the area for granted for decades and the party's current infighting would mean further neglect. The Telegraph today says: "This month's vote takes place amid [Tory] fears Sir Ed Davey's Liberal Democrats are parking their tanks on the lawn of Boris Johnson's party as they seek a third by-election scalp in the space of ...
Wed, 12:56: RT @pmdfoster: The @DUPonline now look unlikely to be persuaded into power by tabling the NI Protocol-busting legislation, Brandon Lewis ha... Wed, 16:05: Johnny Depp Amber Heard: how the trial and verdict duped America. https://t.co/pN7s0cV61x Grim and comprehensive. Not a read for the faint-hearted. Wed, 17:11: RT @BestForBritain: Slowly and patiently, @johnmcdonnellMP is dismantling Frost. Latest gem: UK doesn't have separation of powers. Executi... Wed, 19:52: Terrorism In Asymmetric Conflict: Ideological and Structural Aspects, by Ekaterina A.�Stepanova https://t.co/7ZuBAXRzIA Wed, 20:48: RT @Mij_Europe: There's much sensible in this article by a former M16 head & much that's misleading or ...
After one focus group and two opinion polls had bad news for the Conservatives in the Wakefield Parliamentary by-election, a new focus group from JL Partners brings further bad news. This one, taken after the no confidence vote in Boris Johnson, shows Conservative voters are continuing to be put off by him: Firstly in the immediate wake of the confidence vote in Boris Johnson, "disappointed" was the word every voter used. All but one thought Johnson should now resign, with anger still there on partygate. Here are the words of Mandy (voted Conservative 2019) 2 pic.twitter.com/d1i02T75PG — James Johnson (@jamesjohnson252) ...
In my experience, all governments, of whatever hue, devolved and non-devolved, are experts in producing strategies that omit vital details and "completely fail" to show how targets would be met. Often the targets concerned are so far in the future that even if there was a workable action plan, nobody could be held to account for failing to deliver it. I have seen this in the Welsh Assembly and in the UK Government. So-called ambitious plans, are really no more than unaccountable wishlists with no chance of ever being achieved, and the more difficult the objective, the more obstuse the ...
The Guardian reports: Alok Sharma, the UK cabinet minister who led last year's COP26 climate summit, is in the running to be the UN's global climate chief, at a crucial time for international action on greenhouse gas emissions. The UN's current top climate official, Patricia Espinosa, will step down next month, leaving a vacancy as the world prepares for the next stage in vital negotiations to stave off climate breakdown... Sharma will face stiff competition, as some developing countries would prefer a candidate from the Global South. There is an unspoken understanding that top UN roles should be shared among ...
According to both their Wikipedia entres, which cite this Guardian column as a reference, Chelsea legend Pat Nevin is the cousin of the former England captain Terry Butcher. I thought I had my Trivial Fact of the Days, but the judges were not convinced because nowhere on the net does it explain exactly how they are related. Nevin has mentioned the connection a couple of times, but in a way that muddies the water. In a Big Issue interview he describes Butcher as "my erstwhile cousin" and in an edition of the podcast The Totally Football Show he describes a ...
Residents have highlighted to us that in the Larch Street to Blackness Road public path, there is extensive graffiti and also weeds needing attended to. We have raised this with the council's Neighbourhood Services requesting removal of the weeds and graffiti.
