One in five GPs nearing retirement in some areas as Government's 10 year plan risks "not touching the sides" Lib Dem Bill passes in Commons – MP says animal welfare will be "transformed", bill will end pet mutilation Jardine secures government progress on supporting bereaved children Chamberlain: Vote Lib Dem peach to get Scotland back to its best Greene warns investment needed after litany of failures at Ferguson Marine One in five GPs nearing retirement in some areas as Government's 10 year plan risks "not touching the sides" Thousands of GPs are nearing retirement age with some areas seeing close ...
Peter Black reminds us that the Brecon and Radnor by-election took place on 4 July 1985. I was there, so he is surely wrong when he says that this was 40 years ago. I went down for the last two or three days of the campaign with the Liberal Party's regional agent for the East Midlands, Chris Rennard. I wonder what happened to him? So here are a jumble of memories from those days and a couple of myths that I hope are true. I remember setting off with a couple of other Liberals in a car to deliver blue ...
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 Find Out Now 16% (-2) 22% (nc) 15% (+2) 11% (nc) 30% (nc) -8% (vs Ref) 2/7 GB YouGov ...
The Story of Emily, a museum celebrating the life of the humanitarian Emily Hobhouse, has been named the Royal Institute of British Architects' South West and Wessex Building of the Year. Emily Hobhouse campaigned against Britain's use of concentration camps in the Boer War. The Story of Emily is located partly in her childhood home, the rectory in St Ive, near Liskeard. It is the new buildings on the site, which house the immersive displays about her work in South Africa and a restaurant for visitors, that have won the RIBA award. You can see something of them in the ...
This week, there were two Wednesday by-elections, both in North Tyneside. Reform UK secured a seat from Labour in Killingworth, whilst the other by-election saw Labour hold their seat in Longbenton & Benton. Thank you to Emma Vinton, David Nisbet and the team for flying the Lib Dem flag. North Tyneside MBC, Longbenton & Benton Labour: 739 (39.6%, -16.8) Reform UK: 602 (32.3%, +19.3) Green Party: 259 (13.9%, -7.8) Liberal Democrats (David Nisbet): 183 (9.8%, new) Conservative: 83 (4.4%, new) Labour HOLD North Tyneside MBC, Killingworth Reform UK: 771 (38.5%, new) Labour: 639 (31.9%, -22.7) Conservative: 441 (21.4%, -3.5) Green ...
Today, most of our MPs celebrate the first anniversary of the General Election which saw them elected to Parliament. For one of them, Danny Chambers, MP for Winchester, it was a double celebration as his bill to ban the import of puppies, kittens and ferrets cleared all its Commons stages with Government backing. It now heads to the Lords. The Bill bans the import of animals younger than six months old and also heavily pregnant animals who may be shipped back and forth, at great harm to their welfare. Danny said: I'm so proud that this Bill has passed in ...
On Wednesday, 2nd July, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves was seen crying during Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs). Reeves has stated that the reason for her tears was a personal issue, which she would rather not discuss in public. A perfectly reasonable request that I'm sure everyone can relate to. I've had people close to me mock the Chancellor for displaying her emotions, calling it "unprofessional" and, in some cases, question whether Reeves is up for the job. These same people, to my knowledge, did not say anything when DUP politician Jim Shannon cried when questioning then Prime Minister Boris ...
The Barnsley Chronicle reports: Coun Clive Pickering announced he would be defecting to the Lib Dems – who are currently the opposition to the Labour Party in the town hall – this week... He will now stand as a Lib Dem councillor ... after becoming disillusioned with the politics of the Labour party both locally and nationally... He told the Chronicle: "Given the damage Labour are causing to the country – cutting the Winter Fuel Allowance for pensioners and attacking disabled people in proposed PIP changes, which they have only partly reversed out of political fear, I can't in good ...
There was a by-election in Benfieldshire ward of Durham County Council yesterday. Reform were defending the seat, having taken it from Labour in the May local elections. Back then, Labour had scored a near-death performance in what had, until 4 years ago, been one of their safest councils in the country. Labour were downsized from over 50 members to a miserable 4. The cause of the by-election was
In June 2013, wandering the back streets of Northampton, I discovered Liberty Hall on Washington Street. It was a depot for an ice cream company and had once been a cinema: But I suspect that Liberty Hall had a life before it became a cinema. A church mission hall perhaps? Or does its name point to a connection with the Liberal Party? Indeed it does. Thanks to the wonders of the British Newspaper Archive, I can reveal that Liberty Hall began life as Kingsthorpe Liberal and Radical Hall. Here's the Northampton Mercury for 20 August 1887:Liberal and Radical Hall for ...
A couple of weeks ago Hina Bokhari AM (our Leader on the London Assembly) wrote: "Britain is a tinderbox and our efforts to confront Islamophobia are not good enough". She has now followed that up with a letter to the Mayor Of London, which has caught the attention of the BBC: "London mayor urged to do more to tackle Islamophobia". In her letter she wrote: The threats we face as Muslim Londoners are not abstract or hypothetical – they are immediate, real, and growing. For many of us, this is not merely about perception or politics. It is about safety. ...
Fri 4th
08:11
Reform's first ever council by-election defences result in defeats, including to Lib Dems
Seven principal authority council by-elections on Thursday this week with two more a day earlier, on Wednesday. The two Wednesday contests were both in wards that had not had a Liberal Democrat candidate before, but did have one this time around: Killingworth (North Tyneside) Council By-Election Result: [IMG: ➡] RFM: 38.5% (New) [IMG: 🌹] LAB: 31.9% (-22.7) [IMG: 🌳] CON: 21.4% (-3.5) [IMG: 🌍] GRN: 4.2% (-16.3) [IMG: 🔶] LDM: 4.0% (New)Reform GAIN from Labour.Changes w/ 2024. — Election Maps UK (@electionmaps.uk) 2025-07-02T22:55:02.229Z Thanks here are due to Andrew Davies for being the Lib Dem candidate. For what all this ...
Great to see Dundee Instrumental Band is holding two Sunday band concerts this month on Magdalen Green. The first one is on Sunday - 6th July - at 2pm - all welcome!
Today is the fortieth anniversary of Richard Livsey winning the Brecon and Radnorshire by-election for the Liberal/SDP Alliance. It was a momentous win, against all the odds, and provided a solid base for the two parties, and later the merged party to build on within Wales. As the Journal of Liberal History recants, the by-election was caused by the death of the sitting Conservative MP Tom Hooson (a cousin of the former Liberal MP for Montgomery Emlyn Hooson: The Conservatives held the seat with a majority of over 10,000, however the government encountered problems and the election developed into a ...
