Cole-Hamilton comments on declining nursing applications Cole-Hamilton comments on declining nursing applications Cole-Hamilton comments on declining nursing applications Responding to an embargoed report by the Royal College of Nursing about a falling number of applications for nursing courses, with over 1,000 fewer people applying to study nursing in 2025 compared to 2019, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said: For nineteen years, the SNP have made a dog's dinner of NHS staffing. These gaps stretch all the way back to Nicola Sturgeon cutting nursing training places and claiming that was sensible. Such a drastic fall in the number of people ...
The latest edition of my email newsletter about work in Parliament, A Lord's Eye View, is out and you can also read it in full below. But if you'd like to get future editions emailed direct to you as soon as they are published, sign up now: A longer read this time, as I try to flesh out the bigger picture from some of the details I've shared in previous editions of A Lord's Eye View and on social media. Regular readers will know that there are many examples of secondary legislation moving slowly. What, though, is the bigger picture ...
The list of Reform UK candidates for the Welsh Senedd who have now been dropped in one form or another is: Cory Edwards: quit as candidate after Nazi salute controversy. Patrick Benham-Crosswell: quit as candidate saying Reform UK has "sunk deep into the sewer". Derek Roberts: quit as candidate "for personal reasons". Owain Clatworthy: quit as candidate over unhappiness with selection process. Caroline Jones: will run as an independent instead. Robert Ian Williams: quit as a candidate after questioning selection process. Meanwhile, Reform candidates in Scotland have also gone and Reform UK councillors keep on going too. Note: Andrew Barry ...
In this British Film Institute video Sylvester McCoy, Sheila Hancock and members of it production team discuss the 1988 Doctor Who story The Happiness Patrol. You can watch all three parts of it on the BBC website. My Doctor was Jon Pertwee, though in those days the Brigadier and Roger Delgado were a large part of the success of the show. These days I'm not a great Doctor Who fan, but I am a Sheila Hancock fan.
I am seeking re-election to Gateshead Council. Nomination papers went in earlier this week and were accepted. I have already done 11 terms as councillor for Whickham South and Sunniside, starting in 1987. Four weeks of solid campaigning ahead of us. Given Gateshead Lib Dems have been working solidly on the elections since May 2024, the next four weeks shouldn't be much different for us!
As I travel around my ward, I spot things that fall into the categories of Good, Bad and Ugly. This one definitely falls into the Good category. This is the daffodil bed ay Byermoor next to the A692 and very close to the border with Co Durham. It comes up blooming every year and makes a great display for people coming into Gateshead.
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 17% (-1) 16% (+1) 11% (+1) 20% (nc) 25% (-1) -9% (4th, vs Ref) 8/4 GB ...
I've got quite a black eye! Florence, one of my nanny goats, had two babies yesterday but her udders where so full of milk that the babies could not suckle. I therefore took her to out milking shed and encouraged her to get onto the milking stand. That was when it happened. I made the mistake of bending over as she jumped onto the stand. The result was an impact as her horn collided with my
There was only one principal council by-election this week. The count took place on Friday morning, so the result didn't filter through until later on Friday afternoon. Kent County Council, Cliftonville The Green Party has taken the seat of Cliftonville in Kent from Reform UK. This result was perhaps inevitable given the turmoil surrounding the previous holder; having only won the seat last year amidst a wave of Reform gains from the Conservatives, the incumbent councillor was suspended by Reform following a guilty plea in February regarding a domestic incident, which ultimately triggered this by-election. Beyond the individual conduct of ...
There can be little doubt that the language used by politicians has coarsened over the past few years. Just look at this exchange between a Democrat pundit and the Republican White House as reported in the Independent newspaper. "In an expletive-laden video on the Politicon YouTube channel posted earlier this week, Carville said if the Democrats take control of the House of Representatives and the Senate, they will launch investigations into Trump and his family, which will eventually lead to the president's resignation. "The Democrats are going to investigate you to no end," Carville said. "Then they're going to go ...
With the big May local election polling day nearing, there was only one principal authority council by-election this week, in Kent. Remarkably, 10 of the councillors elected for Reform last year have departed the party. As for this contest: Cliftonville (Kent) Council By-Election Result: [IMG: 🌍] GRN: 38.8% (+26.7) [IMG: ➡] RFM: 33.1% (-7.0) [IMG: 🌳] CON: 15.2% (-4.5) [IMG: 🌹] LAB: 10.4% (-11.6) [IMG: 🙋] Ind: 1.3% (New) [IMG: 🔶] LDM: 1.2% (-1.9)No Ind (-3.0) as previous.Green GAIN from Reform UK.Changes w/ 2025. — Election Maps UK (@electionmaps.uk) 2026-04-10T11:26:43.554Z Thank you to Mo Shafaei for being the Lib Dem ...
Most Liberal Democrat MPs, and most of the limited number of target seats we have yet to win, are in the South of England, with inevitable consequences for the policy positions we adopt. So it's good to see two reports on BBC News about Ed Davey visiting areas in the North where we hope to do well in next month's elections. One is about a visit to Stockport, where the report says we are "eyeing full control". Ed also spoke of the party making gains "in places like Preston and Manchester and Trafford". He is pictured sewing a blazer at ...
Like Alanis Morissette, the judges are amused by irony, so BBC News has strolled away with our Headline of the Day Award.
I wonder if Labour spot the irony in this banner. The issue at hand here is the closure of the Gateshead flyover which, a year and a half ago, was found to be in a poor and dangerous state. The resulting closure has added to the congestion next to a zone where Labour's one way system has itself added to congestion in the town centre. "Brought to you by Gateshead" - the words are really
And here it is: * Mary Reid is a contributing editor on Lib Dem Voice. She was a councillor in Kingston upon Thames, where she is still very active with the local party, and is the Hon President of Kingston Lib Dems.
The Independent reports on warnings by a senior MP that Britons could face higher household bills for years to come - even if the fragile ceasefire in the Middle East holds. The paper says that Graeme Downie, a Labour MP who sits on the energy select committee, has warned it "will still take a long time for prices to return to normal" and the full impact of the crisis on the cost of living could be felt "until 2027/28 at least": His comments follow warnings from experts and industry figures that the two-week ceasefire - which is already in jeopardy ...
