Following Dick Newby's retirement as Lib Dem leader in the House of Lords, Jeremy Purvis has been elected as the new leader. A former MSP, he was appointed to the Lords in 2013: Congratulations to Jeremy Purvis on being elected Leader of our brilliant Lib Dem team in the House of Lords.Jeremy has a proud record standing up for our values, including enshrining our 0.7% aid commitment in law, and I look forward to working with him in his new role. — Ed Davey (@eddavey.libdems.org.uk) 2025-07-21T17:10:11.324Z
I think our leader must be a regular reader of this column, or listener to my Political Frenemies podcast, or purveyor of my Twitter feed. Because, for months now, in those outlets and more I've been calling for Ed to be making more of this unique political moment which gives our party the best opportunity for exponential growth since the modern founding of our party. It had been the case, until last week, that apart from his appearance at PMQs Ed appeared to be doing comparatively little (in a public-facing sense at least); no platform speeches, not very many major ...
Richard Foord, the Liberal Democrat MP for Honiton and Sidmouth, has joined forces with the Otter Valley Association in a new campaign - #ReviveTheRiverOtter - to restore the health of the River Otter. The middle and lower reaches of the Otter are now so contaminated with sewage-related pollutants that it's classed in the bottom 20 per cent of rivers in England for water quality. For the last four months, the Otter Valley Association has mobilised 48 volunteers, who have been monitoring the river's health every two weeks. In the latest round of testing, phosphate levels were found to be over ...
What is this Labour government playing at? Having steadfastly refused to abolish OFWAT until last week, they now blithely announce, as if it's some great triumph, that sewerage dumping will halve by 2030. Once again this pusillanimous Labour government are letting private water companies off the hook. Successive government (including it must be said the coalition government) did nothing about OFWAT and continued to allow water companies to siphon off cash in dividends, outrageous salaries and huge bonuses, instead of insisting that they deal with sewerage treatment so that dumping became a thing of the past. Now Labour is, with ...
On Friday last week, we took a day off to go to Beamish Museum, only a ten minute drive from our house. A new attraction was opened last year though only on weekends - the 1950s hill farm. Now it is open all year round so it was our first opportunity to see it.
At least two peaceful pro-Palestine organisations in the UK have had their bank accounts frozen, reports the Guardian. The two examples the paper gives are the Greater Manchester Friends for Palestine and Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign, which have had access to their funds cut off indefinitely by Virgin Money and Unity Trust bank respectively. The Guardian says of this news: Coming amid the banning of Palestine Action earlier this month and the arrest of more than 100 people for showing support for the group, and the threatened arrest of a peaceful protester for having a Palestine flag and "Free Gaza" ...
Lawrence Oliver, who has died aged 88, was a man who lived Liberalism. He brought his influence to the party in many different places and in many different ways. As a young Glaswegian in 1959, Lawrence Oliver attended a talk in the city by Jo Grimond, on Liberal principles and values. Finding they were all in line with his own he signed up as a member of the Liberal Party, and subsequently set up Rutherglen Liberal Association with Douglas Mitchell and Roger Straker. In doing so, they laid the foundations for the superb work done over many years since in ...
John Healey accused of misleading Parliament over Afghan data breach Water pollution: People fed up with empty promises Water ombudsman: We need fundamental change, not another layer of bureaucracy 521 spills recorded at private sewage plants but 5 sites not even required to monitor spills John Healey accused of misleading Parliament over Afghan data breach The Liberal Democrats have said the Defence Secretary John Healey appears to have misled Parliament over the Afghan data breach – and must "urgently come before Parliament to answer the question of whether he knowingly misled MPs and the public". Only three days ago John ...
DUNDEE CITY COUNCIL - WEEKLY ROAD REPORT REPORT FOR THE WEST END WARD - WEEK COMMENCING MONDAY 21 JULY 2025 Blinshall Street (Douglas Street to 50 metres south) - closed until August 2025 for construction works. Scottish and Southern Energy Networks Elmwood Cable Renewal Scheme - temporary traffic lights and road closure from Tuesday 4 March for 19 weeks: Ancrum Road (at Peel Street) - temporary traffic lights for 3 weeks; andTullideph Road (City Road to Greenbank Place) - closed westbound for 4 weeks.[Please see our previous Facebook posts regarding the delays to this]. Jedburgh Road - closed from Monday ...
Nation Cymru reports on comments by the former Welsh Counsel General Mick Antoniw, who has criticised the UK Labour government's lack of progress on further Welsh devolution since winning the general election nearly a year ago. They say that Antoniw, who will stand down as Labour MS for Pontypridd at next year's Senedd election, has written an article for the Institute of Welsh Affairs' Agenda journal in which he analyses constitutional developments in Wales: His intervention comes less than a week after Chancellor Rachel Reeves confirmed that the Welsh Government would again be bypassed in the administration of post-Brexit regional ...
