Nominations for the local elections in Gateshead closed on Thursday last week and candidates were announced on Friday. One of the notable points to emerge is that the Conservatives have put forward only 14 candidates for the 66 seats available. The last time the Conservatives failed to field a full slate of candidates was in the late 1980s. Since then they have fielded candidates for every
The Whickham South and Sunniside team. Polling day is 7th May.
Along with my colleagues Jonathan Mohammed and Marilynn Ord, we have been nominated for Whickham South and Sunniside ward of Gateshead Council. Polling day is 7th May.
This session was recorded in 2012, three years before Ron Moody died. As well as Moody, who played Fagin in the 1968 film of Oliver! having first created the role on stage, it features Kenneth Cranham, who was Noah Claypole, and Mark Lester, who was Oliver himself. As Kenneth Cranham says, it was Moody's reinvention of Fagin that made the film's worldwide success possible by moving the story away from the medieval antisemitism that Dickens drew upon. I wrote about this aspect of the novel in a book chapter a few years ago - there a short extract in another ...
The simple answer to the question of who is to blame is that their murder was the one to blame. Rudakubana was not an immigrant, terrorist, or Moslem. He was born in this Country, educated in this Country and his parents were regular attenders at a Christian Church. So, the people who created havoc throughout the Country can be confirmed as racist bigots who just wanted a riot. However, is he the only one to blame? Well, the report from the Inquiry chair, Adrian Fulford made clear that there were many people and organisations who should have intervened, or should ...
Over on PoliticsHome there's a full interview with Ed Davey. It covers the wide swathe of politics in the run-up to the May elections: Davey revealed that he had a "long chat" with the former US secretary of state when she spoke at a business reception in the capital late last year. "We talked about how we need to fight Reform in the way they need to fight Donald Trump, and she gave me some choice advice, which I'm not going to repeat because that would be unfair on her," he said. When pressed, he added: "She said you have ...
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: There were two steps forward but also two missed opportunities in Parliament last night to improve how our democracy works, one on voting systems and one on holding elections in the first place. Read on for details. Helpful but insufficient: the government's moves to improve our democracy On voting systems, Labour is going ...
It was a huge privilege and pleasure to spend an extended weekend in the Highlands. Blue letter delivery rarely comes with such a vast helping of scenic delights. We were very fortunate to have very sunny weather as we delivered in Fort Augustus – a fine tourism centre for Loch Ness (above) visitors. A stiff breeze on Saturday made our Isle of Skye (below) outing even more photogenic – with white horses on the surrounding sea. My heartfelt thanks go to the MacDonald family who gave us a very warm Highland welcome – the highlight of which was an enormous, ...
Tuesday 12th May 2026, 5pm to 6pm at Temple Church, London, EC4Y 7BB David Lloyd George knew Fleet Street well throughout his adult life. He took his exams at the Law Society building, at the Fleet Street end of Chancery Lane, and as a politician would cultivate the support of the editors and proprietors whose newspapers dominated its landscape. Lloyd George knew Fleet Street and Fleet Street knew Lloyd George. On Tuesday 12th May, Lloyd George will return to Fleet Street for the second Fleet Street Quarter Festival of Words, where we'll be discussing his unique qualities as a leader ...
If the UK economy were permanently £180 billion larger every year, and that translated into around £54 billion of extra tax receipts annually, the real‑world impact would not be abstract. It would be measured in hospitals built, nurses hired, waiting lists cut, teachers recruited and classrooms made smaller. This is where the story moves from macroeconomics to people's lives and to the choices a government can make with new, sustainable revenue. The NHS: more staff, shorter waits Take the NHS first. Recent estimates suggest that one additional NHS doctor costs the public sector roughly £100,000 per year when salaries, training ...
Why did John Major win the 1992 election when most pundits expected Neil Kinnock's Labour Party to be the victors? Immediately after the contest, a consensus developed that the reason was the effectiveness of the Conservatives' campaign against Labour's economic policies. This view was certainly advanced by the Tories themselves, as its acceptance would make Labour more timid about challenging Thatcherite economics in future. And it was advanced by the head of the Tory campaign, Chris Patten, perhaps as a way of burnishing his reputation and consoling himself after he lost his own seat of Bath to the Liberal Democrats. ...
I was on editorial duty at Liberal Democrat Voice yesterday and, as part of that, I try to promote each published article using our Bluesky account. My first comment began, "The work week starts here...", I posted it and thought little more about it. Until, that is, I did think about it. I've been employed by the same organisation for nearly forty years now, working in offices on, effectively, a 9-5, Monday to Friday basis. I am, you might say, somewhat institutionalised. When I started, in the mid-eighties, if you wanted to talk to a professional, or purchase a service, ...
In Britain, the USA and across Europe an active cultural war is being fought between liberalism and nationalistic reactionaries. I regret that British Liberal Democrats are playing so small a part in this conflict - fought through the intellectual media and think tank world, within Christian churches (and within Judaism) and across university campuses. Anti-liberal tracts and articles spill out from well-funded think tanks and newspapers in the USA, Britain and elsewhere. Liberal rebuttals are fewer. But Allen Lane/Penguin have just published one full-length rebuttal: 'Centrists of the World Unite: the lost genius of Liberalism', by Adrian Wooldridge, who has ...
This week, greyhound advocates and adopters assembled at a parliamentary reception hosted by Neil Duncan-Jordan MP. Our organisation, international greyhound protection group GREY2K USA Worldwide, jointly released a report entitled Reaching the Finish Line, alongside the League Against Cruel Sports. It is the most comprehensive policy argument in favour of phasing out greyhound racing in the UK ever assembled. The timing of this release coincides with reporting that there are Labour MPs, as well as sympathetic Labour Ministers, urging Keir Starmer to follow Scotland and Wales and call time on greyhound racing. It is our belief that it is now ...
DevonLive wins today's Headline of the Day Award. The judges remarked that if the sub writing this headline is that fond of scare quotes - and the story below is even worse - they should get a job at BBC News. And after reading: A Plymouth adult entertainment venue, housed in a former bank, has become the focus of a chilling paranormal investigation. The "alternative" establishment, which features a well-appointed bar and a bondage "dungeon", is reported to have a "horrible" atmosphere in certain areas, a sensation that has intensified since recent renovation work commenced. they suggested the owners move ...
Tue 14th
06:00
Founder of Starmer's legal chambers spells out opposition to plan to abolish jury trials
The Guardian reports that the founder of Keir Starmer's barristers' chambers has condemned the planned restriction of jury trials in England and Wales as "a betrayal of the values for which Labour purports to stand". The paper says that Geoffrey Robertson KC, founding head of Doughty Street Chambers, where the attorney general, Richard Hermer KC, and the justice secretary, David Lammy, also had their professional homes, has written a more than 9,000-word polemic to coincide with the committee stage of the courts and tribunals bill: In the document, published on the Bar Council's website on Monday night, Robertson questions the ...
