Jago Hazzard is our guide to a collection of lost lines, repurposed lines and abandoned oddments, some of them 50 miles out of London and deep in the Buckinghamshire countryside. You can support Jago's videos via his Patreon page and follow his YouTube account. One scheme that never advanced far enough to carry trains was the Waterloo & Whitehall Railway, which: was authorised in 1865 to construct a pneumatic railway (that is, one where trains are pushed though a tunnel by air pressure) from Great Scotland Yard to Waterloo station. The single cast iron tube, 3.89 m (12'9") in diameter, ...
Welcome to my summary of the latest national voting intention polls for the next general election, along with the latest MRP projections and party leadership ratings. If you'd like to find out more about how polls work, how reliable they are and how to make sense of them, check out my book, Polling UnPacked: the History, Uses and Abuses of Political Opinion Polls, or sign up for my weekly email, The Week in Polls: General election voting intention polls PollsterConLabLDGrnRefLab leadFieldwork Techne 18% (-1) 22% (-1) 15% (+1) 9% (+1) 29% (+1) -7% (vs Ref) 14-15/5 GB Find Out Now ...
Reform UK won 25 of the 55 seats on Leicestershire County Council on 1 May and has now formed a minority administration. What will they do with this power? It's hard to know. They didn't produce a local manifesto for the elections, and I'm not sure things are much clearer after the new council leader's interview with the Leicester Mercury. A few extracts... Q: Reform UK has promised an audit of the county council's finances to identify waste and efficiencies. How are you going to fund the audit given the council's difficult financial position? A: We'll find that sort of ...
This week saw 4 by-elections with 3 Liberal Democrat candidates - an improvement on last time these wards were up for election. These were two Labour defences, with one each defended by the Conservatives and the SNP. The Lib Dems were new onto the ballot in Whetstone ward in Barnet, as Luigi Bille secured 6.1% of the vote in a crowded field. Thank you, Luigi, for entering us into the race! Barnet London Borough Council, Whetstone Labour: 965 (33.4%, -18.0) Conservative: 818 (28.4%, -7.8) Reform UK: 592 (20.5%, new) Green Party: 208 (7.2%, -5.1) Liberal Democrats (Luigi Bille): 176 (6.1%, ...
Registration has now opened for the Autumn Federal Conference which will be held in Bournemouth from 20th to 23rd September. As usual Early Bird registration rates are available until 12th June. You can find all the categories and prices here. There is one change this time which will benefit members who are unable to attend for the whole conference. A Day Pass will now entitle the member to vote and speak in debates. In the past Day Visitors were not allowed to vote, which always surprised me. Mind you, Day Passes are not cheap at £60, and you can only ...
Lord Bonkers mentioned the other day that my rent falls due on Lady Day. I took this as a subtle reminder that it's a long time since I looked to see what the old brute was saying 30 years ago. So here's an entry from his diary in Liberator 227 (March 1995), when John Major was fighting the bastards of Euroscepticism - he now seems a giant in comparison to the Tory leaders who were to come after him: The Palace of Westminster is not a happy place at present. One can hardly enter the gentlemen's lavatory without seeing a ...
It's time to fact facts- the UK's food system is broken, and the food industry is to blame. In addition to failures by successive governments over the last 30 years to reduce obesity rates, get a grip on the advertising of healthy foods, and stop food companies from using misleading labels, there is one major failure which has gone unaddressed for too long – the failure to protect the public from the carcinogenic chemicals being added to our everyday foods. A clear scientific consensus has developed which shows that nitrites, chemicals which food companies add to processed meats such as ...
In the 1950s and 1960s, the leader of the Liberal party, Jo Grimond, believed our long-term aim should be to supplant the Labour party as the main party of the left in Britain. Over half a century later, our current leader, Sir Ed Davey, has said that it is the Tories that we should push into third party status. Both these strategies assumed that the Labour-Conservative duopoly was too strong to be completely removed. Over the past couple of years, this assumption has been put to the test by Nigel Farage and Reform UK (RUK). Now the old duopoly is ...
Four principal authority council by-elections this week. They featured three Liberal Democrat candidates, which is two up on the last time these wards were up – a welcome continuation of the improvement in candidate numbers we saw in the May elections. Birches Head & Northwood (Stoke-on-Trent) Council By-Election Result: [IMG: ➡] RFM: 58.5% (New) [IMG: 🌹] LAB: 21.4% (-22.4) [IMG: 🏘] CI: 16.5% (-15.3) [IMG: 🌳] CON: 3.5% (-16.3)No GRN (-4.5) as previous.Reform GAIN from Labour.Changes w/ 2023. — Election Maps UK (@electionmaps.uk) 2025-05-15T23:05:51.452Z It was indeed an SNP hold. The Liberal Democrat candidate, Cameron Stewart, was the party's first ...
From the Curator of Museum Services at the University of Dundee : "The latest exhibition in the Tower Foyer Gallery showcases the work of painter Peter Flynn and celebrates 50 years since he enrolled at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art. Entitled Crossings, the exhibition features work representing ideas and thoughts influenced by the artist's travels and environment. They explore what he has gathered both physically and emotionally as he travels around the world and in the world. It includes recent work as well as some of Peter's student works from the DJCAD Collection. Born in Paisley, Peter Flynn gained ...
A final word from "Bridges not Borders" (See previous posts) " We may not be able to open all borders tomorrow, but we need to make a start. We need to begin working towards achieving the conditions that could make this a reality, for example greater global wage parity, universal standards for workers' rights and meaningful cross-border environmental protections. We must strive for a more equal world where people are not forced to migrate, but instead have the right to move as well as not to move. This might all sound like a naive Utopian dream, but so too did ...
The Independent reports on the view of a former economic adviser to Sir Keir Starmer, who has warned that the prime minister and his chancellor Rachel Reeves have no choice but to raise taxes. The paper says that Nick Williams, who left Number 10 last month, said Labour's current public spending plans were "not credible" and would have to be reconsidered, with tax rises being unavoidable: Mr Williams's departure from Downing Street raised eyebrows in Westminster and came as part of a clear out that also included Tom Webb, the prime minister's health adviser. He had been with the party ...
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