[IMG: Matt Bunday joins the Lib Dems] Left to right: Cllr Thomas Gravatt (Swaythling ward), Cllr Matt Bunday (Swaythling ward) and Cllr Richard Blackman (Bassett ward and Liberal Democrat group leader on Southampton City Council). Matt Bunday, councillor for Swaythling ward and who was secretary of the Labour Party group on Southampton Council, has joined the Liberal Democrats. He takes the Lib Dem group up to six. The Bitterne Park local website reports: Although he didn't stand himself, he expressed frustration about the process for electing the new Labour group leader, claiming it lacked "sufficient transparency, integrity and engagement". He ...
Sienna Rogers says No. 10 sleepwalked into a crisis on welfare cuts: "The media rounds of ministers only deepened the frustration of dissatisfied MPs. Cabinet members repeatedly stated that the threshold changes to PIP eligibility were about getting people back into work, yet employment does not preclude receiving PIP; in fact, PIP was seen by the rebels as a key way of enabling disabled people to work." Jenna Corderoy and Peter Geoghegan report that British police forces are hiding their collaboration with the US spying technology firm Palantir: "In both 2024 and 2025, multiple FOI requests about Palantir's police contracts ...
Welfare concessions: Government should pull the bill that still "risks stripping thousands of carers of vital assistance" Scot Lib Dems win from 5th place in ultra-competitive Edinburgh bellwether Welfare concessions: Government should pull the bill that still "risks stripping thousands of carers of vital assistance" Responding to the Government announcing concessions on the welfare bill, Liberal Democrat Work and Pensions spokesperson Steve Darling MP said: It should not have taken a major rebellion for the Government to realise that these cuts would cause immense damage to some of the most vulnerable and risk creating a false economy by actually forcing ...
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) 23% (nc) 16% (+1) 8% (nc) 28% (-3) -5% (vs Ref) 25-26/6 GB Find Out Now ...
Zac Polanski's pitch for the leadership of the Greens is centred on the idea of attracting the sort of urban, left-wing voters who were enthused by Jeremy Corbyn. Which makes this Buzzfeed news story from 2016 unexpected reading: The man who heckled Jeremy Corbyn at a Momentum rally on Wednesday evening is a Liberal Democrat activist who stood for the party in last month's London Assembly elections. Zack Polanski told BuzzFeed News he decided to interrupt the meeting of Corbyn supporters because the Labour leader's "passivity and ambivalence for Europe" had contributed to Britain voting to leave the EU in ...
Trump's bombing of Iran and the NATO summit mark the beginning of a new era in international relations. They were both a political success for the American president. They were also both a disaster for international law and the rules-based order that has underpinned the longest period of peace and prosperity in world history. We have now entered an age of strong man politics where laws and political outcomes are determined not by legal precedence and a sense of equality and justice, but by the strength of the political leader and the country they lead. In short, might is right. ...
BBC News wins our Headline of the Day Award. Lord Bonkers happened to look in just now. He remarked that from his long experience of the world of espionage, what worries him about Blaise Metreweli is that she went to Cambridge.
There's a host of fun activities for all children, young people and families during the summer school holidays. A full list of activities is available at https://t.co/OfRmq2zGSc
Spent a lovely day at the City of St David's yesterday and the magnificent cathedral. I haven't been there for about five years and, apart from some new housing estates on the outskirts. it hasn't changed one bit. On display was the first Welsh translation of the bible from 1588. I hadn't realised either that the tomb of Edmund Tudor was situated there either. The brass on top is a copy of that stripped off by Oliver Cromwell's men in the 1640s. The renovation work inside the cathedral is very impressive. There are also a number of poems displayed by ...
