Another week of council by-elections, another week when they weren't all on the Thursday. This time the aberrant timing was on a Wednesday, with a safe Conservative hold in Waverley and a reminder that the Liberal Democrats are not preordained to make progress in Southern contests against the Conservatives: Cranleigh West (Waverley) result: CON: 58.7% (+2.9) LDEM: 29.1% (-1.0) UKIP: 12.1% (+12.1) Con HOLD. — Britain Elects (@britainelects) December 22, 2016
Labour seat. Cause: resignation. (No LD candidate)
LD seat. Cause: resignation. LD candidate: Ian Corben.
Embed from Getty Images As is traditional, the London Review of Books' last issue of the year carries extracts from Alan Bennett's diary. Here are a couple: 7 September. Ed Kemp rings, thoughtfully it seems to me, to say that his mother has died aged 91. She was the widow of Eric Kemp, my tutor at Exeter College and later bishop of Chichester, though I don't recall meeting her in Oxford, but only in Chichester where, though she was the bishop's wife, she enjoyed working as an usherette in the theatre and thus (I hope) scandalising that Trollopean place. 19 ...
Writing for Varsity, the Cambridge student paper, Matt Green surveys the current political scene. He concludes: What does that mean for Cambridge? Current trends suggest a profound problem for incumbent Daniel Zeichner. The boundary review favours the Liberal Democrats locally and combined with the lack of leadership provided by Labour over the EU - arguably Cambridge's most salient issue - Zeichner faces an uphill struggle to maintain his seat. On current trends, it is likely that Huppert will win over liberal Cambridge at the next election.
The world's longest LEGO bridge has been built to help mark the opening of the Institution of Civil Engineers's new exhibition space in central London.
Following the forthcoming resignation of Jamie Reed from the Commons, there'll be a by-election coming soon in the Copeland constituency. As someone who regularly visits the Lake District I was curious about what the full boundaries of the constituency were, both to scope out the potential for an excuse for a quick holiday campaigning hard in the by-election and to work out what would be the highest represented point in England in the period when Copeland, which includes Scafell Pike, has no MP. The answer to that is the summit of Helvellyn, which forms part of the boundary between Copeland ...
The Meols Ward Liberal Democrat Focus Team, John Dodd, Jo Barton and Nigel Ashton wishes everyone all the best throughout the festive season. A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR
When FilmOn made their changes last month they blocked a loophole which allowed users to watch the higher quality (note, I'm not going to call them HD as I feel they aren't high enough to have that label) streams without the need to have a premium FilmOn account. Several people requested that I support being able to login to FilmOn to reach the better streams, so today I'm please to announce version 2.0.8 of my FilmOn app. You can now login with your FilmOn email address and password and if you have an active pro account watch the higher quality ...
[IMG: helensburgh snow] Last week's blog post from Cllr Neil Fawcett, had some great ideas of ways you can use the Christmas break to make sure you are ready for a flying start in the New Year. I've been in touch with a couple of teams to see their campaigning plans for the festive season. In North-East Derbyshire, [...]
What are you talking about? This month has seen Liberal Democrats win another three council by-election victories with huge swings from the Conservatives – securing the party's best ever year for by-election gains. On top of the Richmond Park by-election, the Liberal Democrats have gained 31 seats in local authorities across the country this year. How is [...]
My offical endorsement as Best Granpa in the UNIVIRS from Eva I don't want to boast but my Granddaughter Eva has officially declared me to be the best Grandpa in Dovedale Road? the South End? Liverpool, England, the World? No ... Continue reading →
We have another by-election on the horizon - this time in Copeland, Cumbria, following the decision of incumbent MP Jamie Reed to literally take the nuclear option and call time on his political career. Copeland is an interesting seat. On the face of it, it seems like it's Labour's to lose. After all, they've held it since 1935, and no party of government has gained a seat in a by-election from the main opposition since 1982. But those statistics don't tell the full story - this has often been a marginal Lab-Con seat. Frank Anderson won it for Labour 81 ...
Nick Clegg has joined Ken Clarke, a former Conservative home secretary, and Jacqui Smith, a former Labour home secretary, in a letter to The Times calling for the prison population to be reduced to the levels seen under Margaret Thatcher, the effect of which would be to broadly halve the number of people incarcerated. Here is the letter: Sir, The recent violent unrest at HMP Birmingham is a wake-up call for this country. Our prisons have become unacceptably dangerous places, with a 31 per cent increase in assaults in the past year alone. Every three days a prisoner kills themselves. ...
Healthwatch Sutton have provided the following useful information: Find out what health services will be open locally during the festive period. Check up on local pharmacies' and other NHS services' opening hours by visiting the NHS Service Search website:http://www.nhs.uk/service-search Bookmark good online sources of health information, such as NHS Choices, which can offer reassurance and [...]
A global summit on biodiversity has sparked debate over whether advances in the life sciences are encouraging biopiracy Outside the conference hall of the Moon Palace, a luxury Cancun resort, warm waves lapped white sands, bathed in a pink Mexican sunset. Inside, close to two hundred delegates to the United Nations' 2016 biodiversity conference huddled around a doorway, desperate to get into a windowless room for the final evening's negotiating session. In the end, most of the crowd made it into room, to witness twenty or so country delegates to hammer out compromise text late into the night. This wasn't ...
I bought this in 1973. I used the last peppercorn from it this year. I wonder if there is a museum somewhere that would like to have it.
Manufactured somewhere near Newhaven. Pressed hardboard. The originals had no thong. The thong was added after one disappeared through a letter box, and now has teeth marks on it.
Rail users have had to put up with an appalling service from Southern Rail over the last few months. Even before the strikes the company's service was one of the worse amongst all the train companies across the UK but now the situation has become totally unacceptable. Businesses in the South and South East of England are being adversely affected, important hospital appointments missed, everyday family routines of commuters are being wrecked, people are losing their jobs because they cannot guarantee their employer what time they will get into work or, on strike days, even that they will get into ...
In a small city near San Francisco, the dead outnumber the living by a thousand to one. There's some gruesome history here - and a few questions for the future.
Brexit. Syria. Trump. 2016 in three words. It is human nature to see commonalities where there are none, but there are surely some here. First, of course, there is the not-so-invisible hand of a resurgent Russia to be seen in each. Time magazine's choice of Donald Trump as its Person of the Year was a mistake: it is not Trump but the subject of his admiration, Vladimir Putin, who has shaped world events this year more than any other individual. Second (and not entirely unrelated to the first) is the triumph of mendacity. Key to each of the year's key ...
As we're getting relaxed for the holiday season, here's a quick quiz about a national institution. It's not politically related but I suspect it's on a subject dear to many readers' hearts. Look at the wooden box on the right. You can see that it's nondescript, very battered and held together with insulation tape. It's 35 years old. It's used to create the sounds of what could justifiably be called a "national institution". The question is: What sound is this box used to produce? Please answer in the comments below. The title "2016 Sound effect guru of the year" awaits ...
miss_s_b | The Blood is the Life for 21-12-2016 posted The Blood is the Life for 21-12-2016 to my dreamwidth blog Twitter RT @LordStras: Lib Dems fought long & hard to prevent mass surveillance in #IPAct. The war against huge invasion of our privacy is... Twitter RT @LibDemLords: LD Shadow Home Secretary @brianpaddick submitted a PNQ today on the #SnoopersCharter ruling, It was denied so Govt... Twitter The racists waving and smugly shouting "bye" make me way more scared than anyone speaking another language, @Delta... Sneering at the workers | Flip Chart Fairy Tales RT @FlipChartRick: Blogged: Sneering at the ...
The ruling by the European Court of Justice yesterday, that "General and indiscriminate retention" of emails and electronic communications by governments is illegal, has thrown the future of the UK Government's 'Snoopers Charter' into serious doubt. As the Guardian reports, the ECJ determined that only targeted interception of traffic and location data in order to combat serious crime, including terrorism, is justified. It means that the UK's new Investigatory Powers Act may have to be revisited: The finding came in response to a legal challenge initially brought by the Brexit secretary, David Davis, when he was a backbench MP, and ...
2016 is not over yet. And one of my bugbears is people reviewing the year before it is finished. Sometimes life delivers a finale in the last week. Who can forget the Boxing Day tsunami? Older readers may remember the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the last days of 1978 – an event which changed ... Continue reading Syria is the biggest blot on an awful year →
Jamie Reed, Labour MP for Copeland, has decided he doesn't want to be a member of parliament any longer. This will trigger a by-election that it would be drastically understating the facts to call tricky for the Labour Party, to take place early in 2017. To say this is exactly what they did not need would again be to play down how bad this is for Corbyn's crew. Copeland is in Cumbria. It has always been a Labour seat, but apart from in 1997, by a narrow margin against the Tories. It voted by a reasonable percentage to leave the ...
I arrived at JFK late in the evening and took a taxi to my hotel. I could have been anywhere. The next morning I left the hotel, turned the corner and saw this. I was in New York,
As we told you last week, South Gloucestershire Council is consulting on plans for the next stage of the Yate Spur cycle path to link our area to the Ring Road cycle path and the Bristol and Bath railway path. The plans propose changes to the Westerleigh Road / Nibley Lane junction and creating a joint pedestrian / cycle path alongside the length of Westerleigh Road between the mini-roundabout and the big Rodford Way roundabout. South Glos has arranged a drop-in at Shire Way Community Centre on Thursday 5 January from 4pm to 8pm to give an opportunity to see ...
More financial trouble for Ukip to add to its plummeting donations, the suspending of funding to a Ukip think tank and its Electoral Commission investigation – the European Parliament has required Ukip and its sister parties to repay €172,000 in misused funds: In a letter sent to the Alliance for Direct Democracy in Europe grouping — of which UKIP is the dominant member — Parliament leaders said €500,615 had been misspent. They said €172,655 must be paid back and a further €248,345 of EU grant money will not be handed over... UKIP is accused of spending EU funds on national ...
Yesterday, the Head of Roads and Transportation at Dundee City Council and I met a large group of residents in Kinloch Park about the parking issues in the street. The street is adjacent to Ninewells Hospital and there is a real issue with inappropriate parking. I am pleased to say that a possible agreed solution was achieved and will be progressed in early 2017. I am very grateful to all residents who attended and for their helpful feedback yesterday.
Donald Trump voting The day after the US electoral college chose Donald Trump to be their new president, Huffington Post ran an article on his use of digital campaigning, where Brad Parscale, the digital director of the campaign explains: We never fought for the popular vote. There was no economic reason, and there was no reason based off the system of our constitution to do so. We needed to win 270 [electoral college votes], and to do so we needed to win in certain states, and we needed to target registered voters that had a low propensity to vote and ...
[IMG: rsz_step_into_boots_-_westway_maghull_-_10_13] I was drawn to this story on the BBC web site not least because we are still waiting for Boots the Chemist to make their Maghull Westway store more easily accessible* for people with disabilities. It's only been just over 3 years since I first raised concerns with them about the step into their shop. As Chemists are probably frequented by the elderly and people with disabilities often is it not strange that such a shop is not 100% disability accessible? My previous blog postings refer and are available via the link below:- And the irony ...
Sick of politics: Ten charts that show why Donald Trump and Brexit could happen in Australia Graphic. (tags: politics australia ) Four myths about Brexit and financial services A sobering message to the industry. (tags: ukpolitics eu brexit ) How We Identified the D.N.C. Hack's 'Patient Zero' Journalism in action. (tags: media uspolitics ) What role for a European think tank in the age of populism? Daniel Gros of @CEPS_thinktank thinks there is one. (I had a good chat with him Wednesday morning, until he realised he had lost the key for his bicycle.) (tags: eu ) EU Court protects ...
