The BBC reports that Wales' finance minister has announced that the Welsh government wants to delay a revaluation of homes for council tax to 2032. They say that Elin Jones claimed that the decision was made because she could not afford the kind of financial relief she would want to put in place if she went ahead with a planned revaluation in two years' time. However, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) think tank has described her explanation as "nonsensical" and "absurd logic", while the Welsh Labour finance spokesperson Huw Thomas accused Plaid of failing to back progressive policies in ...
The arrival of Beaujolais Nouveau was a thing, a big thing, in the Britain of the 1980s, with the media taking a huge interest. But then we were a country where wine bars were suddenly everywhere. I remember drinking in one on the High Street in Market Harborough. Loki remembers those days: The United Kingdom fostered one of the most legendary traditions: the Beaujolais Run. Starting in the late 1970s, British wine lovers turned the release into an automotive race - participants dashed from England to Beaujolais and back, aiming to be first to deliver a bottle to London. The ...
Ministers have approved a gas field that will create 27 jobs, while heat pump grants face the axe in next week's budget. They are backing the wrong horse. Gas is in terminal decline in British homes, and today's decision to approve the Jackdaw gas field will not change that. Every year, more developers and families choose clean electric heating over a gas boiler. My own home is one of them: it no longer burns any gas, thanks in part to the £7,500 Boiler Upgrade Scheme. That scheme is now under threat. With Whitehall hunting for savings to fund defence ahead ...
One of our newest peers, Dave McCobb, (Baron McCobb, of Kingston upon Hull in the East Riding of Yorkshire) gave his maiden speech in the Lords last week. Appropriately enough for a former councillor it was in a debate on Local Government: Democratic Accountability, Participation and Electoral Reform – he even managed to include some poetry. The debate itself was opened by John Shipley (Baron Shipley of Gosforth), giving his valedictory speech. He was previously the Leader of Liverpool City Council and vice-president of the Local Government Association, so was eminently suitable to lead on the issue. Dave McCobb said: ...
The Guardian reports: Reform UK has been fined more than £2,000 for failing to declare it was the publisher of campaign material seen by voters - including an additional penalty for failing to pay on time. Remember your imprints folks! It also reports: A former Conservative election candidate has been suspended from the party after he was seemingly filmed discussing the cost of hiring contract killers and offering to "broker" the services of a far-right activist with alleged paramilitary links. It is tempting to ask what it is about parties that talk tough on law and order... Sign up to ...
Few expect Andy Burnham's extended political honeymoon to last beyond the October 28 budget. The fiscal position is precarious. The bond vigilantes are signalling their nervousness about the UK in the form of 10 year bond yields of 5.4% : the highest of developed economies (despite some nice comments from the IMF). The public will expect to see some evidence of the Prime Minister's commitment to spend more on defence, employment for young people, affordable housing, meeting the NHS and social care needs of an ageing population, together with some relief from high energy costs, which may spiral further if ...
Ian Lucas argues that Andy Burnham has the opportunity to lead the fight against Russian interference: "The threatening alliances now emerging worldwide between the tech platforms, politicians not committed to democratic principles and donors committed to hard right views demand that those countries and individuals who are committed to democratic principles must act together now." Hannah Jane Parkinson reports from Teesside, where maritime livelihoods are under threat and, as a new documentary reveals, crews are sure the local freeport is to blame. "What makes school or college debating, and political debates on TV, exciting is the theatre. As such, debate ...
Apologies for our downtime yesterday, and the lack of posts! Our tech guru was sorting out the fallout from the PHP crisis, which affected our website as well as many others globally. * 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.
After this year's really successful Weekend, which included a change of venue, we're pleased to announce that the Lloyd George Society will be heading back to the Lake Country House & Spa in Llangammarch Wells. As you can see in the photo above, the hotel is in a stunning location, and we'll have it all to ourselves. The hotel is on the edge of Bannau Brycheiniog National Park (formerly known as the Brecon Beacons), just a stone's throw away from Builth Wells. We are just finalising the speakers, but a little birdy (ok, our Chair, Prof. Russell Deacon) has told ...
The Guardian reports that a senior Reform UK official raised questions about whether major donations from billionaire backers Christopher Harborne and Ben Delo would be legal under the proposed new foreign donors cap three months before they gave £72m to the party. The paper says that James Orr, who was then Reform UK's head of policy and a Cambridge professor, discussed potential difficulties around future donations from Harborne and Delo in undercover footage captured by the investigative reporting group Verbatim: A reporter was posing as a potential donor when Orr talked to him about "filling the war chest in anticipation" ...