The first party conference I ever attended was at Buxton in 1984. It was a quaint spa town with assembly rooms small enough to accommodate the SDP. A few hundred people at most. Decades later and we are stuck with the usual venues for conference that are big enough to accommodate the thousands who now attend. Lib Dem conferences in recent years have alternated between Bournemouth and Brighton.
Reform DOGE unit in Kent a "spectacular failure" for which Yusuf must "personally apologise" Lib Dems: Thames Water's data protection "as leaky as its infrastructure" as party calls for company to be placed under special administration Ed Davey statement marking Oct 7 anniversary: "We stand in solidarity" Reform DOGE unit in Kent a "spectacular failure" for which Yusuf must "personally apologise" Responding to reports that Reform's DOGE unit in Kent has found no savings and is set to hike council tax, Daisy Cooper MP, Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats, said: Reform's pledge to slash millions from Kent Council's budget ...
We've seen Ladybower reservoir in the drought, and now it's time to cross the Pennines and have a look at what has been emerging from the water in and around Manchester. If you enjoy this sort of video, then Martin Zero is well worth following on YouTube.
One of my favourite writers is Neal Ascherson. Among many other achievements, it was he, and not Tony Benn, who came up with the well-known quotation above. (There's chapter and verse on this blog.) Here is Ascherson reviewing The Conquest of Nature: Water, Landscape and the Making of Modern Germany by David Blackbourn for the London Review of Books in 2006 - Frederick is Frederick II (Frederick the Great) of Prussia: In Frederick's time, marshlands were regarded as sinister, useless places, breeding malarial vapours and sheltering not only dangerous wild beasts but primitive human beings beyond the reach of law. ...
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Reform In Leicestershire still think they can find millions of pounds of wasteful council spending
Around the country, councils run by Reform UK are beginning to come to terms with the fact that there is little wasteful spending left to cut. But not in Leicestershire, where the county council's minority Reform administration is still living in la-la land. Here's Dan Harrison, the Reform leader of Leicestershire County Council, talking to BBC News the other day: The Reform UK leader of Leicestershire County Council has said a "deep dive" efficiency drive will be carried out to try to cut the authority's costs. Dan Harrison said he wanted to bring in specialists from international firms to find ...
So you might not have noticed, because to say it was beneath the radar is very much an understatement, but our leader reshuffled his top team last week. I only saw one news outlet cover it, Sky News Online. Of course, it happened during Labour Conference so, as ever, the lobby journalists attention was very much elsewhere. But is it just me or does it appear that our whole strategy as a party can be summed up with the phrase 'under the radar'? It was suggested to me by someone senior at Conference that it's the 'don't frighten the horses' ...
Last Thursday, there were seven by-elections but one result stood out from the rest - among six Reform successes, Labour held on in just one seat. I might be a bit biased, being the Lib Dem candidate in that seat, but I have more than a sneaking suspicion that the campaign run by my team, helped keep Reform at bay. On the face of it, by running a campaign in Strawberry ward in Ellesmere Port, we were on a hiding to nothing. There isn't a local Lib Dem party, there aren't enough members. The Lib Dems have never won an ...
Of the six recognised pillars of Liberalism - liberty, equality, community, democracy, environment, and internationalism - each can wax and wane in prominence depending on the Zeitgeist. When human rights are under attack, liberty should be highlighted. When Britain's role in the world is centre-stage, internationalism comes to the fore. All six are always important, but there are times when we need to lean into one pillar more than others. The most crucial pillar of Liberalism as we gear up for elections in 2026 (and every year up to the next general election) will be community. In saying this, I'm ...
DUNDEE CITY COUNCIL - WEEKLY ROAD REPORT REPORT FOR THE WEST END WARD - WEEK COMMENCING MONDAY 6 OCTOBER 2025 Perth Road (Hyndford Street to Rockfield Street) - closed from Monday 6 October for 5 days for Scottish Water work. Forthcoming Roadworks Blackness Road (Balgay Road to Seymour Street) - road closed from Monday 13 October for 3 days for carriageway lining works. Tait's Lane (Hawkhill to No 6) - closed from Wednesday 15 October for 10 days for Scottish Water work. Nethergate (at South Tay Street) - overnight (9.00pm to 6.00am) temporary traffic lights from Monday 20 October for ...
As if it isn't bad enough that Tory leader, Kemi Badenoch, is proposing to take the UK out of the European Convention on Human Rights if they win the next election, and create an immigration taskforce modelled on Trump's ICE, Labour have now got into the act of undermining our democracy as well. We already have the proposal by Labour ministers to introduce compulsory ID cards, with all the potential for linking up databases into one insecure one and the creation of a surveillance state, now, the Guardian reports that Labour Ministers are to give police new powers to target ...
