Davey: PM must show Trump that the UK will lead the way in recognising Palestine Jardine challenges Government over long waits for driving tests Cole-Hamilton presses Health Secretary over long waits for cataract surgery Davey: PM must show Trump that the UK will lead the way in recognising Palestine Commenting ahead of Keir Starmer's meeting with Donald Trump tomorrow, where the PM is expected to raise the situation in Gaza, Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey said: Starmer must urge Trump to use his influence with Netanyahu to end the unconscionable suffering in Gaza through securing a ceasefire and getting much ...
As the blurb on YouTube explains, there are four coalfields in Shropshire: The Denbighshire field, which stretched from Chirk to below Oswestry.The Shrewsbury field, which included the town of Shrewsbury, Hanwood, Cruckmeal, Condover, Leebotwood, Pontesbury and Westbury.The Coalbrookdale field, which focused on Arleston, Dawley and Madeley but ran to Oakengates.The South Shropshire field around Highley and the Clee Hill, but running into the Wyre Forest.The Shrewsbury field provided the coal that powered the lead mines of South Shropshire and, while I knew that coal had been mined on Clee Hill during the second world war, I didn't realise there had ...
John Oxley says it will be hard to assemble a successful new party to the left of Labour: "Building an effective left populist bloc requires having both electoral breadth (so you are a threat in multiple seats) and depth (so you might win some of them). ... It's presently hard to see how any of the existing groups do this. They have too many incompatibilities between their support and are focused on too narrow a niche - how to pull together affluent progressives in the south and poor, second-generation migrants in the Midlands and North?" "My report calls on TfL ...
An article on Politics Home suggests that some activists want to see us using similar tactics to Reform UK to get noticed. Based on snippets from the Social Liberal Forum conference last weekend, and an interview with Bobby Dean, the article provides some useful insight into discussions happening not just in St Albans but across the party. I'm repeatedly hearing people who want us to stop hand-wringing and actually stand up for our values. Abstentions in Parliament on issues where we should take a stance come in for particular disapproval. I'm still seething from our response to Keir Starmer's disgraceful ...
On Thursday, Calum Miller was quoted as saying:We support the opening of trade, which is vital in the face of the tariff wars launched by Donald Trump. But the gains from this deal are a small fraction of what the Government could deliver for jobs and growth from a better deal with the EU.I don't deny that, at the moment, that statement is true. But, as a first step, this is a significant trade deal. India now has the fourth largest economy, having overtaken Japan this year, and the growing middle class has a craving for branded goods, the sort ...
Yesterday it was the turn of Pelaw, Heworth and Bill Quay to host a Lib Dem action day in Gateshead. 16 members turned up including some who have recently been approved as candidates and will be standing for the first time in the local elections next year. The aim of the day was to deliver the latest Focus. Most were done by lunchtime. Thanks to chairman Matt for providing lunch.
30 years ago today, I woke up before the crack of dawn to go and deliver Good Morning leaflets for the Littleborough and Saddleworth by-election. I spent the rest of the day knocking up – and getting chased and shouted at by Labour people in the process. I also remember spending some time telling and chatting to some lovely people from other parties, including a young Conservative who had a huge cut on his neck from what I understand was a shaving incident. It was a great experience. Bob and I had been there several times during the campaign. We ...
I think Lord B. must have been watching this episode of Time Team. And I certainly remember him observing that we should only worry about Paul Tyler turning into the Beast of Bodmin every full moon [Lawyers advice: Add 'allegedly' somewhere here] if Liberal Democrat voters were disappearing at a greater rate than members of the electorate as a whole. Saturday I spend the morning drafting a memorandum to some of the leading Liberal Democrats in Oxfordshire. You have probably heard that rewilding is all the rage, and it happened that I caught an old television programme about an archaeological ...
After the success of his band Manfred Mann in the Sixties, the man Manfred Mann himself went on to form Manfred Mann's Earth Band in the Seventies. Still with me? Joybringer, which borrows two melodies from the Jupiter movement of Gustav Holst's suite The Planets, reached no. 9 in the UK singles chart in 1973. I would have heard it under the bedclothes on Radio Luxemburg, where it was probably sandwiched between Nutbush City Limits and My Coo-Ca-Choo. I can remember liking it then, and today the way that the song makes Holst sound totally at home, even exciting, in ...
I posted this in a private group on Facebook and had a comment from a senior party staffer who I won't name here because it was a private group. Anyway, they commented that they acknowledge the problems with the email and it is already being redrafted for future releases. This is extremely helpful and more than I had expected and I am impressed that they took the time. I think that in future, though, I should restrict my throwing toys out of the pram to weekdays. I have just about managed to calm down after receiving the following email from ...
A wonderful photo of the Nethergate looking towards the Queen's Hotel, with thanks to Love Scotland!
The Guardian reports that Keir Starmer is under intense pressure from his most senior cabinet ministers and more than a third of MPs to move faster on recognising a Palestinian state in response to Israel withholding aid to starving civilians in Gaza. The paper says that the prime minister is facing a growing clamour to take action amid the international outcry over Israel's actions, with charities saying that cases of severe malnutrition among children under five in Gaza City have tripled in the last two weeks. They add that Angela Rayner, the deputy prime minister, and Yvette Cooper, the home ...
