As Gateshead Lib Dems' communications officer, I was pleased that Lib Dem group Leader in Gateshead, Ron Beadle, was invited onto the BBC North East Politics Programme on Sunday 2nd March. Sadly, I was out checking on road signs in my ward at the same time so I missed him. No doubt he will be invited back in the future.
With my two ward colleagues - Marilynn Ord and Jonathan Mohammed - we were out and above in Whickham on Sunday 2nd March checking on the state of street signs. It may not necessarily be the most exciting of tasks to do on a Sunday morning, but for Lib Dem councillors this is the bread and butter of community politics. We identified two signs that were in urgent need of replacing as the
On Monday 3rd March 2025, I attended the meeting of Gateshead Council's corporate resources scrutiny committee. On the agenda (at Lib Dem request) were the accounts of the council-owned Regent Funeral Services and whether or not there had been a beneficial return to the council, despite the company's eight years of losses which anyone can read about in the company's accounts lodged with
Having had what I might describe as "not the happiest experience" with my Regional Party four years ago, I decided that, perhaps, I ought to dip a toe back into the water. And so, I ran for, and was elected to, the Regional Candidates Committee. As a former member of the English Candidates Committee, Senior Returning Officer and candidate assessor, I do know my way around the world of candidate selection and approval and, I like to think, I have some wider credibility amongst the "candidates fraternity" within the Party. In short, I though that I could be useful. But ...
On Saturday 1st March 2025, Gateshead Lib Dems held an action day in Ryton, Crookhill and Stella ward. Lib Dem Leader on Gateshead Council Ron Beadle joined with other members to help deliver a targeted survey and meet people outside the Coop. It was great to see Ione Rippeth, former councillor for Ryton, join us on the day.Pictured: Ron Beadle, Steve Kelly, Jack Muers and Ione Rippeth.
It's World Book Day today! Children all over the country are heading to school dressed up as their favourite book character. My 12 month old great niece even went to nursery in a Very Hungry Caterpillar costume. Unfortunately, MPs don't dress up, but some have marked the occasion. Here's Christine Jardine on books at lunchtime in her office: I'm not sure why Tom Gordon is reading Brave New World when he could just watch the news. He said on Twitter: Happy World Book Day. I'm currently reading Brave New World for the first time. There's probably a joke here about ...
I never did find a video of Jim Callaghan singing 'There was I Waiting at the Church' to a bemused TUC Conference in 1978. (He was mocking the press, who had turned up expecting him to call a general election.) But here is his successor as Labour leader, Michael Foot, singing a song from the Twenties that appeared on the B-side of the Bonzos' first single 'My Brother Makes the Noises for the Talkies'. h/t Alwyn Turner
In what Mark Perryman on Labour Hub calls "a sorry tale of hypocrisy and snitching", two members of Labour's constituency party in Lewes have been expelled for advocating a tactical vote for the Liberal Democrats there in last year's general election. The Lewes seat, which was held by Norman Baker between 1997 and 2015, was recaptured from the Tories last year by James MacCleary. Perryman calls it hypocrisy because: Labour publicly identified Lewes as a 'non battleground' seat .... The candidate and his team were instructed to minimise campaigning; instead they were sent to seats where Labour could win. Which ...
Since Donald Trump first got elected, and even more so since he was re-elected, the world has become a much more dangerous place Trump seems intent on overthrowing the alliance of western states that has kept peace across the North Atlantic and indeed throughout much of the world since the Second World War. Instead, trump has cozied up to rogue states like Russia and Belarus and seems to get determined to exact the maximum possible money from countries that are being fought by those aggressive powers If some old friends disappear then we must find or confirm new friends. One ...
BBC Sport wins our Headline of the Day Award with this unexpected Catholicism and cricket mashup - the ECB is the England and Wales Cricket Board.
The latest quarterly donations figures from the Electoral Commission show that the Liberal Democrats raised more than Labour in declarable donations and public funding in the last quarter of 2024. Note also how low Reform's fundraising figure was: [IMG: Electoral Commission donation report Q4 2024] Sign up to get the latest news and analysis
First published in LibDemVoice 6th March 2025. A while ago someone was looking for what they called a brief non-wonk's guide to liberalism. In a fit of activism I wrote one. Once I had fleshed it out, I was surprised by the centrality the idea of debate had to my entire presentation. The logic is quite simple. Liberalism has at its centre a broad brush of principle - that each should be free to do whatever they want provided they do not harm others in exercising that freedom. There is relatively little else that is central to the principles. That ...
A while ago someone was looking for what they called a brief non-wonk's guide to liberalism. In a fit of activism I wrote one. Once I had fleshed it out, I was surprised by the centrality the idea of debate had to my entire presentation. The logic is quite simple. Liberalism has at its centre a broad brush of principle - that each should be free to do whatever they want provided they do not harm others in exercising that freedom. There is relatively little else that is central to the principles. That means that every strategy, position, rule or ...
In my consulting practice, I spend a lot of time meeting with people. Indeed, most of the projects I work on involve, at some point, meeting or speaking with a whole load of people to ask them questions, to reflect on their experiences or to test out my ideas. And whether I'm meeting with these people in person or virtually, setting up fifteen or twenty one-to-one meetings has the potential to be a logistical nightmare. If you send everyone a list of dates and times you're available, you can pretty much guarantee that they'll all pick the exact same time ...
The Independent reports that government departments have reportedly been asked to identify 20 per cent of their lowest priority spending areas as Rachel Reeves eyes up billions of pounds in cuts ahead of the Spring Statement. The paper quotes Treasury sources as saying that several factors have impacted plans presented under Reeves' October budget, with increased borrowing costs and weak economic growth likely to require further spending cuts in order to meet commitments on managing the public finances: Curbing the cost of welfare and a drive for greater efficiency across Whitehall are expected to contribute the bulk of the savings. ...
I haven't used Skype in years, and nor have many of my contemporaries, and it was only reading a reference to it by a Lib Dem peer in a debate that I remembered it still existed, but in the wake of Microsoft's announcement that it will soon be discontinued, it's worth remembering what the world of international telecommunications was like before it. Having lived and travelled abroad in the 1990s, I remember when international calls were a thing, and an expensive one at that, either entailing buying phone cards or frantically feeding coins into a payphone just to get someone ...
We are holding a street surgery tonight to speak with residents on any local issues or concerns they may have. Should you have an issue you wish to discuss with us, e-mail us at westend@dundeelibdems.org.uk or call Dundee 459378 and we will be pleased to meet you - many thanks.