Green responds to independence bill Almost 500 repairs needed in Scottish police buildings Cole-Hamilton responds to SNP's first 100 days failure Chamberlain responds to serial rapist police officer passing vetting checks Green responds to independence bill Responding to the Scottish Government publishing a draft referendum bill on independence, Scottish Liberal Democrat public service reform spokesperson David Green MSP said: Yawn. Almost 500 repairs needed in Scottish police buildings Scottish Liberal Democrat justice spokesperson Yi-pei Chou Turvey MSP has today urged the SNP to "wake up" to the pressures facing the justice system, as she revealed that there are almost 500 ...
Yesterday there was a by-election in the Newcastle City Council ward of Throckley, Walbottle and Newburn. Yet again, it was another Reform resignation after just a few weeks in the role of councillor. The ward itself was comfortably held by Labour until their near wipe out in Newcastle. From a council Labour had run with a significant majority, they were reduced to two. But with the Burnham
Embed from Getty ImagesHere's a heartening story from the Lancaster Guardian: The North Lancashire Liberal Democrats are calling for Lancashire Police to reveal the full extent of its dealings with controversial US tech firm Palantir. It comes after an investigation by Computer Weekly and the Good Law Project revealed the force is one of six across the country testing Palantir's AI tools in contracts worth a total of £7.8m. Reportedly, no minutes were kept from Lancashire Police meetings about the procurement of Palantir AI tools. The newspaper reports comments by Rowan Fitton, a Lib Dem campaigner from Morecambe, who has ...
Plans by Banks Group to build 210 houses on the fields to the south of Sunniside are not going down well in the village. The planning application is not yet submitted to Gateshead Council but it is expected later this year. I organised a photo op for the Evening Chronicle on Thursday for residents to protest against the proposals. With only a couple of days' notice, 30-40 came along, having
Tomorrow I will be taking two of our goats to another local fair, this time in Dunston Park, Gateshead. I will be taking dandelion (see above) one of our young nannies and Basil (see below), a billy kid born earlier this year. The fair is open 11am to 3pm.
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 Survation 19% (+1) 27% (+1) 9% (-1) 10% (nc) 24% (-2) 3% (vs Ref) 26-28/8 UK Find Out Now ...
Tom Perry links to a review of the duty to report child sexual abuse brought in by the Crime and Policing Act 2026. It finds that because of the way the law is framed, this new duty will have little effect. Anand Kumar is part of the team writing the next edition of psychiatry's bible, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. This edition will, for the first time, attempt to draw on findings from neurobiology - a reminder of how little we currently know about the biology of mental health and neurodevelopment. "In Idaho, parents who say their ...
Five principal authority by-elections took place across England on Thursday 27th August. Labour were defending two seats (in Wandsworth and Sheffield), Reform UK were defending two seats (in Newcastle and St Helens), and the Conservatives were defending one seat in Dover. The standout performance of the week for the Liberal Democrats came in Newcastle, where an extraordinary campaign saw us vault from 5th place all the way into a clear 2nd with a massive 24.3 percentage point surge in vote share. Elsewhere, Reform UK gained a seat from Labour in Sheffield while losing another to Labour in St Helens, and ...
Fri 28th
12:19
Remember why we started: What the Hong Kong Alliance case means for Hong Kong's future
As I write this, I am looking at my small model of the Goddess of Democracy (民主女神像) on the shelf. It takes me back to my student activist years in Hong Kong, when democracy was something my generation argued about, organised around and fought for. The original Goddess stood in Tiananmen Square for only a few days before it was destroyed in June 1989. Its image survived. In Hong Kong, one organisation kept that memory alive for more than three decades: the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China (支聯會). On 21 August 2026, the Hong ...
Fri 28th
10:50
Sky Sports face down Pakistan authorities over Michael Atherton's interview with Imran Khan's sons
The Pakistan Cricket Board threatened to tell its team not to take the field yesterday afternoon if Sky Sports screened a Michael Atherton interview with Imran Khan's two sons. Sky delayed the broadcast while conversations with the board took place, but to their credit eventually broadcast the 18-minute insert. In the interview, reports Cricinfo, Imran's sons Suleiman and Kasim Khan expressed concern about the health of their father, who has been in prison for three years, and said they feared for his life.
Five principal authority council by-elections this week, and once again Labour and Reform traded gains with each other. The last few weeks have seen both the long run of consistent net gains for Reform come to an end and also the long run of consistent net losses for Labour come to an end. The variability of which seats are up week to week means drawing trends from by-elections should be done cautiously and over longer time periods. We do though seem to have come to a turning point in the electoral fortunes for both parties. There was also a dramatic ...
Nation Cymru carries an extensive review of the new book by Luke Harding and its various revelations about former Wales UKIP leader. UKIP Welsh Assembly Member, Farage buddy and Reform UK leading light, Nathan Gill. In Betrayal: Trump, Putin and The New Age of Conquest, Harding, who has described Putin's Russia as a "Mafia state", suggests that Nathan Gill was part of a bigger pro-Russian network than has previously been reported. The website notes that Gill is serving a 10 and a half year sentence after being paid £40,000 by the pro-Russian Ukrainian diplomat, Oleh Voloshyn to ask questions in ...
