It's Carers Week 2026! Once a year, between 8 – 14 June, carer charities and groups come together to raise awareness of the work carers do, what impact caring has on carers and those around them, and what we can do on a societal level to better support them. The theme this year is "Building Carer-Friendly Communities", highlighting how communities can better support carers, empowering them and easing the strain of their responsibilities. I'd like to contribute to this week by talking about my mum's experience as a carer, and what I believe can be done to better support her ...
Tue 9th
08:03
The shame of Liverpool Labour councillors taking their allowances but not turning up to do the work
I am one of only 3 Liverpool councillors who, elected in the 1970s, received a daily allowance of £10. It was not much then and there was no Special Responsibility Allowance on top of it. I chaired a major committee which involved 5 days a week for £50. Gradually the daily rate went up to allow for inflation, but it was not until the Blair Government came in that councillors began to get a sum which made an allowance for the input that they made inside the council and inside our communities. The money is not a commercial rate but ...
The Independent reports that a UK Minister has suggested that Labour will revisit its Brexit "red lines" as the government seeks to create closer ties with the European Union. The paper says that the minister tasked with leading the UK's so-called reset negotiations with the EU has suggested that the government may have to reconsider its manifesto red lines, which rule out rejoining the customs union and single market or allowing free movement of labour: European affairs minister Nick Thomas-Symonds said Labour currently did not have a "mandate" to begin talks on its red lines, but added: "It is something ...
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: It had to happen... I asked a question about letterboxes in Parliament today. They are a great British invention, later patented by an American and more recently sullied by decades of poor design. (Though I have a soft spot for those that come with music.) But there is a safety issue too. The ...
Geoff Marshall is our guide to the charms of East Finchley station before he contrives to arrive at one of a pair of little-used platforms there.
[IMG: Matt Sanders and Daisy Cooper] Matt Sanders and Daisy Cooper. A press release from the local party brings the news of the selection of Matt Sanders: Liberal Democrats in the battleground seat of South West Hertfordshire have chosen local campaigner and education champion Matt Sanders to contest at the next general election. Matt has already been campaigning across the constituency. He is proud to return to the county where his Mum went to school, and will be a strong voice for our towns and villages. Matt's local priorities include: Fighting for better health provision including a new hospital at ...
On Friday we saw D.H. Lawrence getting all Lawrentian about the Stiperstones: "It was one of those places where the spirit of aboriginal England still lingers." But when did he visit the area? The answer's in the video clip above: January 1924. A paper by Lawrence Jones and Paul Simpson-Housley tells us something about Lawrence and Frederick Carter got up too: They enjoyed a winter's walk together, which they began by climbing Cad's Hill. Later they crossed a narrow gauge railway and ascended the Stiperstones. The tiny Lord's Hill Chapel, located at the edge of the moors, and the works ...
BBC News reports today's announcement by Daisy Cooper of new Liberal Democrat proposals for reducing consumer energy prices: Under the scheme every household would receive an "Essential Energy Allowance", which would provide "enough to get by" and be charged at a discounted price. There would be an extra allowance for families with more children. Households that need more help, such as those on the lowest incomes, or with extra needs such as charging an electric wheelchair or a home ventilator, would receive a "discount on all their energy". Cooper said her party estimated it would mean a saving of £100 ...
EXCLUSIVE: "We need to be bold, we need to be relevant, and we need to show people that we're serious" – party figures react to news of strategy review This weekend news broke, via PoliticsHome, that the Lib Dems are conducting an internal review of policy after concerns that had previously been kept mostly behind closed doors became public, with figures including former leadership candidate and current Chair of the Commons Health Select Committee Layla Moran speaking to the outlet about a "frustration" that the party's been talking about the same things and that we "weren't really moving forward." Despite ...
From forgotten days / form's echoes control our hearts, / morals locked in place
There's a fear emerging in the so-called realignment of British politics. All the talk is of Reform UK and the Greens being the insurgent parties that are taking over from the traditional main forces of the Conservatives and Labour. If that's the current media and social media narrative, where do the Lib Dems fit in? The harsh truth is that, unless we have a message that gives us an identity among those who don't take a massive interest in politics but do at least vote, we are heading for irrelevance. That's not true in terms of our electoral performance in ...
A few photos from Saturday's fair at Chase Park, Whickham. I took along Dandelion and one of the baby goats. They raised £58.20 for the park.
Community councils, which last operated in Southwark in 2016, are to be restored by the Green and Liberal Democrat coalition that took control of the borough from Labour at last month's elections. Victor Chamberlain is the Lib Dem deputy leader of the council and holder of the neighbourhoods, strategic planning and wellbeing portfolio. He told Southwark News: "This is something that both parties are very passionate about and making sure that we are supporting and empowering our diverse communities. "That's best done by bringing the council back into their neighbourhoods and making sure the council is visible and responding to ...
Economic decline, Conservative austerity and misguided government policy have all been blamed for worsening inequality in the UK, however, this fails to take a rounded view of inequality and leads to debate over economic solutions that neglect local challenges. By defining inequality solely as an economic problem, we enter further debate about inequality as an economic indicator. Critics can readily underplay the impact of inequality in our society by pointing out that relative poverty has remained constant. Inequality must be viewed through the lenses of income, wealth, health and education, all of which are rooted our local communities. Unaffordable housing, ...
As we approach the tenth anniversary of the Brexit referendum, Jonathan Freedland writes in the Guardian about the country we have become as a result. He says that the choices Keir Starmer and his would-be successors face, indeed the entire political and cultural landscape we now inhabit, are informed or were shaped by that event. We are living in Brexit Britain. Freedland writes about Etonians working out their schoolboy rivalries, with nothing less than the destiny of the UK at stake, a recklessness with the future of seventy million people that remains unforgivable, the guilt belonging to Cameron and Osborne ...