McArthur makes his final pitch to MSPs to support assisted dying bill SNP failures all over decline in housebuilding and supply Local campaigner Neil Alexander selected to take on Emma Roddick in key Lib Dem target seat Greene demands statement on Glen Rosa news McArthur welcomes victory for Assisted Dying bill at stage one McArthur makes his final pitch to MSPs to support assisted dying bill Speaking ahead of the vote on his Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill, Liam McArthur MSP said: This is an issue on which an overwhelming majority of people of Scotland believe a ...
Tue 13th
23:11
Thought for the Day: "We know that at night-time someone goes by amongst the trees, but we never spe...
I first came across this saying in Visionary and Dreamer, David Cecil's study of the artists Samuel Palmer and Edward Burne-Jones. If I'm remembering correctly, it was a favourite of the latter. Looking for it online the other day, I found this formulation of it in several places: A Pacific island chief was being bullied by a missionary about his beliefs. "Have you, my dear, no conception of a deity?" The chief replied: "We know that at night-time someone goes by amongst the trees, but we never speak of it."
I've come across another Mandela effect online, this one involving the classic Western, Shane. Some people - and I'm one of them - are convinced that after calling out "Come back, Shane!" several times, little Joey Starrett's final words in the film are "Bye, Shane." This changes the meaning of the film's ending by turning it into something about growing up and the death of the old West. Yet any time you find this final scene online it seems to be missing those two words. Have we misremembered the film? No, because here is the full version and you can ...
Thames Water is "putting profit before public good" as CEO reveals they received a staggering 156% bonus Vet MP meets rescue animals at Battersea Dogs & Cats Home as PMB on track to become law Thames Water is "putting profit before public good" as CEO reveals they received a staggering 156% bonus Responding to Thames Water bosses' appearance before the Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee today, the Liberal Democrats have said that the company is "putting profit before public good" and branded their executive bonuses "outrageous". Today, executives from Thames Water, Chris Weston (CEO), Sir Adrian Montague (Chair) ...
Since this session of the Scottish Parliament started in 2021, Lib Dem MSP for Orkney has been working diligently through many consultation stages to bring in a Members' Bill which would allow terminally ill adults with capacity a choice to have an assisted death. Today, the Bill passed its first parliamentary stage by 70 votes to 56. This is the first time an assisted dying bill has reached this stage. Previous attempts, led by then Lib Dem MSP Jeremy Purvis (now Lord Purvis of Tweed), and Margo Macdonald had fallen at this hurdle. After the vote, Liam said: This is ...
BBC News reports, nay reveals, that a newly elected Reform member of Leicestershire County Council was dismissed from Leicestershire Police in January 2024: Andrew Hamilton-Gray won a seat in Loughborough for Reform, with almost 40 per cent of the vote. It has now emerged that a police misconduct hearing in January 2024 found he had called in sick, to travel to Spain, when he should have been working as a PC. The misconduct hearing found that was one of two occasions when he reported sick to pursue his outside business interests. The BBC says Hamilton-Gray has told them he has ...
Tue 13th
14:28
All 72 LibDem MPs sign letter to Wes Streeting expressing concerns about the delivery plan for ME/CF...
Tessa Munt MP has organised a letter from all 72 LibDem MPs to Wes Streeting MP, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, expressing concern about the viability of the forthcoming delivery plan for combatting ME/CFS. Here is the text of the letter (see also photo above): As World ME Day on Monday 12 [IMG: ™] May approaches, we — all 72 LibDem MPs — write to raise our concern about a lack of funding for the forthcoming Final Delivery Plan for ME/CFS and to request a meeting to discuss this further. Following the Covid pandemic, 1.3 million people ...
[IMG: Neil Alexander] Neil Alexander. Selections in Scotland ahead of next year's Parliamentary elections continue, as the Inverness Courier reports: Scottish Liberal Democrats have confirmed that Neil Alexander has been selected as the party's candidate for the target seat of Inverness and Nairn at next year's Scottish Parliament elections. Currently Mr Alexander is the Scottish Liberal Democrat spokesperson for culture and sport and has led a number of campaigns including securing priority housing for those fleeing domestic abuse and pressing for the dualling of the A96. He plays for Moray Rugby Club and has previously represented Scotland at Australian Rules ...
[IMG: Polling UnPacked book cover and Sunday Times review quote] You may just have heard that I've written a book about political opinion polls. If you aren't one of those who have read it yet, here, with apologies to Melting Asphalt, are six good reasons I hope you will: 1. There's nothing else like it That may sound surprising given how much time and attention is given to political polling and how many smart things are written about it. But if you want an accessible guide to the history of polling, to how it works and to how you can ...
A lively debate is going on in our local borough party about how the Lib Dems should deal with the Tories and Nigel Farage, following Reform UK's big advances in the Elections held on 1 May. One view, held by some senior figures whom I respect, and who know how to win elections, is that it is important not to amplify your opponent's message. They consider the first rule of politics to be `Never allow yourself to be lured on to your opponent's territory.'. Regarding the Tories, I accept this strategy. At Council level, publicly wrangling with them over, for ...
A different way of looking at the 2025 local election results is to see how the seats breakdown according to which party has the MP for the area. Here therefore is how the picture of wins looks, broken down by which party had the MP in the area:
As Liberal Democrats, we are rightly proud of our commitment to pluralism, participation, and fairness—not just in policy, but in the way we run our own party. Yet our system for electing and supporting the Party President falls short of these values. The role is unpaid, heavily time-consuming, and increasingly inaccessible to the very members we say we want to empower. It's time to consider reform—and a co-presidency model is a logical next step. Unpaid and Unsustainable The President chairs the Federal Board, sits on multiple key party committees such as the Federal Policy Committee and Federal Conference Committee. The ...
Lib Dems table humble address to force Government to publish impact assessment of UK-US deal Care Workers: Change is urgently needed to fix the mess the Conservatives made Liberal Democrats call on Government to "futureproof" infrastructure following reports of Underground failures Rennie to push amendments to housing bill Lib Dems table humble address to force Government to publish impact assessment of UK-US deal The Liberal Democrats will table a humble address in Parliament this week to force the Government to publish its impact assessments of the agreement with the US announced last week. The Government has so far not published ...
More from "Bridges, not Borders" (see previous post.) Lift up your eyes unto the hills: "Open borders would make the world a richer place . A study* by economist Michael Clemens shows how opening the world's borders could as much as double global GDP. That's because immigrants aren't just workers, they also create jobs and contribute to society . Of course, the economic value of a human being should never be the basis for allowing them to exercise the right to move. And despite economic growth being a problematic measure of wellbeing , we can at least be re-assured that ...
Our joint weekly ward surgeries take place tonight. This week they are as follows : Blackness Library (Tuesdays 5pm - every week during school term time) Harris Academy reception area (2nd Tuesday of each month at 5.45pm during school term time) All welcome - no appointment necessary!
With Labour kow-towing to Farage through Starmer's Enoch Powell tribute acr, and with the Tories rapidly losing all sense of reality. there is at least one political party who are prepared to stand up to Reform's Trump-lite agenda. The Guardian reports that the Liberal Democrats have set up an internal "Reform watch" system to monitor Nigel Farage's party in local government, with Ed Davey saying Labour and the Conservatives are too scared of the threat from Reform to hold it to account. The paper says that as well as gaining more than 160 councillors and taking control of three new ...
