I was rather surprised by a photo that popped up on my Facebook feed recently. The Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves was pictured with the North East Mayor Kim McGuinness and Newcastle MP Catherine McKinnell walking along a street in South Jesmond where a council by-election to Newcastle Council is currently being held.The surprise is not that the Mayor and the MP are out
The Stiperstones area didn't really go in for villages. It was a landscape of scattered smallholdings where the lead miners and their families lived. Although the school and pub have long been there, the village of Stiperstones seems to be a modern notion. Since the war at least, it's been policy to concentrate new development there and at Snailbeach. The Bog, another mining village in the area, was largely demolished in the Sixties. Today I went to Stiperstones, notably the Stiperstones Inn. I also went for a walk and took some photographs of the Stiperstones ridge lowering over the village ...
Ed Davey had a meeting with BBC director general Tim Davie over Liberal Democrat complaints that the corporations's political coverage claim is weighted in Reform UK's favour at our expense PoliticsHome says the meeting took place at Westminster in June: "Previously, the BBC had always said: 'We will cover you more if you get more MPs, but right now, you've only got 11," a Liberal Democrat source told PoliticsHome. "Now it really feels like they've moved the goal posts and they're just giving Reform massive amounts of coverage based on their poll rating, whereas we were always told it's number ...
Well, we're about to test that maxim again in November. After all our hard work bringing out MPs to 72, I can't help but feel we should be on Santa's good list when it comes to electing the next Lib Dem President. So, what do we need that next president to be? Well history has broadly divided the legacies into 3 groups. The great orators who fire members up (Farron). The administrators who get things done (Pack) and the non-existent at best. The first two certainly have had their advantages at various points in our history. Tim Farron largely kept ...
A local outdoor arts event. As I brush past a family group sitting on the grass, I briefly meet the gaze of a man in his 30s and he speaks to me: "Traveller?" "What's it to you?" "Didn't mean anything by it, just wondering" "Half" "Bishops Waltham?" "No Bradley way, near Basingstoke - they were settled, way back, through my Dad". This does not happen often. I can actually date the last time this happened, July 1995, at Goodwood races with my late Dad. Everyone understands what it means when someone is picked out for visible difference. It is common ...
This week, Britain made a historic announcement – Prime Minister Keir Starmer will recognise the State of Palestine by September unless Israel meets strict conditions, including a ceasefire and allowing the UN to resume aid deliveries. It's the boldest shift in UK foreign policy for decades. But recognition alone will not clear the rubble, feed starving children, or rebuild lives. That's why I am calling for the UK to go further – to lead the mission to rebuild Gaza. Recognition of Palestinian statehood is long overdue. Over 140 countries have already done so. But as the UN warns that "the ...
MPs are now in their parliamentary recess. I know that for Lib Dem MPs, recess does not equal rest. They spend the time they aren't in Parliament knocking doors, visiting every community in their constituency and generally working incredibly hard, as usual. Yes, they might get home at a respectable hour more of the time and their inboxes get a bit more manageable – just a bit – but they are still on duty for well more than the average working week. In the first year of the new Parliament, they have done wonders. Alistair, Jamie and Layla have all ...
Davey on Southport attacks one year on: We are a caring country not one of thuggery Davey calls for Lord Hermer to publish legal advice on Gazan aid blockade Anglian Water fine: Lib Dems urge "No More Sewage, No More Excuses" Lib Dems: "If Trump really loves Scotland, why is he hammering Scotch whisky with tariffs?" Cole-Hamilton accuses SNP of serial failures on A&E, care and drugs Cole-Hamilton responds to decline in healthy life expectancy Davey on Southport attacks one year on: We are a caring country not one of thuggery Reflecting on the one year anniversary of the Southport ...
It is great to see another band concert on the Magdalen Green Bandstand taking place this Sunday - 3rd August - at 2pm. Performers are the superb Louisiana Fairytale Riverboat Jazz Band who will also have a concert on 31st August. Many thanks go to the Friends of Magdalen Green who undertook all the necessary licensing permissions for additional band concerts this year - something the council used to do but sadly walked away from. There will also be concerts from the Forfar Instrumental Band during August on the bandstand as well.
The Guardian reports that MPs have warned that about 50,000 people who become disabled or chronically ill will be pushed into poverty by the end of the decade because of cuts to incapacity benefit, despite ministers dropping the bulk of its welfare reform plan. The paper says that the work and pensions select committee report welcomed ministers' decision earlier this month to drop some of the most controversial aspects of its disability reforms in the face of a parliamentary revolt by over 100 Labour backbenchers, but it reiterated calls for the remaining planned cuts to universal credit to be delayed ...
