Liberal Democrat member Sal Fulcher has a new play about politics and coalitions on at the Waterloo East Theatre in London.
Shropshire Council made national headlines with its decision to pay a highway consultant £1,000 a day to fix its highways management and resolve the plague of potholes. Lib Dem councillors on the council have called for Steve Davenport, the cabinet member for highways, to resign. He says he will not resign and the consultancy money will come from his underspent staff budget. Want he hasn't explained is why the council has assessed itself as a top performer on highways allowing it to draw down Whitehall funding, even though it has been underspending. If Shropshire Council is a top performer on ...
This weekend our London Mayoral candidate, Siobhan Benita and her team have been campaigning very hard all over the city: Good morning! Today I'll be meeting people at: [IMG: ✨] 11.00 West Hampstead Station [IMG: ✨] 14.00 Ickenham High Street, Hillingdon Come and have a chat about London and the mayoral election. #BackBenita #LoveLondonBetter pic.twitter.com/bygDGTVSPI — Siobhan Benita #BackBenita [IMG: 🔶] (@SiobhanBenita) February 22, 2020 * Newshound: bringing you the best Lib Dem commentary published in print or online.
April 2005 began for me with a job interview to run a Brussels-based thinktank (I didn't get it, and the thinktank has since folded), and also included trips to the USA (Washington and New York) and, for the first time in my life, Albania. I got a letter about Kosovo and Bosnia in European Voice; we published a briefing on refugee rights in South Ossetia (wildly optimistic, as it now turns out) and a full report on the Sandzak, which includes my favourite footnote from my time at Crisis Group:The Sandzak of Novi Pazar is chiefly remembered as one of ...
Good luck to Councillor Andy Corkhill who has been selected as the Liberal Democrat candidate for the Liverpool City Region (LCR) Metro Mayor Selected by party members for this May's Metro Mayor contest, Andy Corkill stood in Wirral West at the 2019 general election and has been a councillor in Wirral since May 2019. He's highlighted five priorities for the Metro Mayor: -To revolutionise transport across the Liverpool City Region; -To equalise education and skills across the region; -To enhance the Liverpool City Region on a global level; -To protect the rights of European Union citizens; and -To take the ...
The great Russian poet Alexander Pushkin has often been poorly served in English translation, which is probably why his star does not shine so bright in British eyes as that of the novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky. And yet for millions of Russians, past and present, Pushkin is the beating heart and soul of Mother Russia — [...]
Sat, 12:35: RT @simoncoveney: This is unfortunately a good assessment of where we are on #Brexit and why the issue will dominate Irish politics for the... Sat, 15:13: Oliver! https://t.co/uFMsx8k6IQ Sat, 17:51: Just had a wee chat with Julian Glover at @comicconbxl. I mentioned I recently watched the 1963 Tom Jones. "My firs... https://t.co/es43WujVei Sat, 17:54: Adherents of the Flying Spaghetti Monster at @comicconbxl. https://t.co/XbSOWgl8wH Sat, 18:26: RT @H_Bettsworth: Colin Baker: the thing with the TV series is that you need to build a set for it, but the Big Finish audio lets you go so... Sat, 18:26: RT @H_Bettsworth: ...
The party is quite rightly campaigning to change the Vagrancy Act so that homelessness is not a crime. This is an initiative that has been spear-headed by Layla Moran: Being homeless shouldn't be a crime. And yet, between 2014 & 2016 alone, over 3000 people were dragged before the court. We should be caring for people who end up on the streets, not locking them up. Sign today if you want to scrap the Vagrancy Act > https://t.co/jWcFlmt9Wt — Liberal Democrats (@LibDems) February 21, 2020 * Newshound: bringing you the best Lib Dem commentary published in print or online.
There's a curious consistent difference between how periods of political rule seem when people paint broad-brush pictures of political history and how they felt at the time.
I walked into the Oxfam book and record shop in Harborough yesterday morning and this was playing. Golden Earring are a Dutch band and Radar Love was a worldwide hit in 1973. It reached number 7 in the UK singles chart and I remember listening to it under the bedclothes on Radio Luxembourg.
How desperate are the UK Government to strike a trade deal with the United States? Are they desperate enough to compromise our food safety standards and allow big business to flood our farms with GM crops, endangering organic producers and putting farmers into financial hock to the seed suppliers? None of these questions are being answered by government, and it is not just because the opposition are in too much chaos to ask them. Instead queries are being met with obfuscation and evasion as is illustrated by this article in the Independent. The news site reports that the newly-elected environment ...
Sun 23rd
09:29
This is the economic theory the Tories really seem set to test at the end of this year. To say it's ...
The weirdest thing about the political times we live in is that the government has pledged to make a revolutionary change at the end of this year and no one is really addressing what that might mean. Part of this is Brexit burnout; part of it is that we just had a general election in which "get Brexit done" was the winning slogan and so most people seem to really think this is the case, even though we're still in the Single Market and Customs Union until the end of the year. A commenter on my blog unconsciously put it ...
The Scottish Liberal Democrats have called for sweeping changes in drugs policy - including partial decriminalisation and the creation of a "regulated cannabis market". The party has announced it has sent a 10-point plan to ministers, which leaders believe will tackle the current drugs problem in Scotland, which killed 1,187 people in 2018... Health spokesman Alex Cole-Hamilton, who unveiled the plan, has called on the Scottish Government to back the proposals, which include diversionary treatment for people caught in possession of drugs for their own use instead of being sent to prison. The plan also suggests the Scottish Government "back ...
The BBC has the article on its website – see link below:- What it says about the Sefton coastline:- 'A site of specific scientific interest, Sefton Coast stretches for 12 miles between Southport and the end of Crosby Beach. Environmental Scientist Tara Shine says: "It's a remarkable piece of coastline, with beaches, mud flats, woodlands and an internationally-recognised sand dunes habitat forming a barrier between the sea and the towns of Southport and Formby." Formby Point Bird spotters, dog walkers and adventure sports enthusiasts alike love this stretch of coast, but its incredible sand dunes, which represent 20% of ...
Two seats were up for election after the resignations of Councillors Tony Mahalski and Nicola Paton. Rod Naysmith from Downton View was been elected to represent Clee View on Ludlow Town Council unopposed. Phillip Adams from Corve Street and Hillary Hall from The Angel battled it out for the Whitcliffe Ward. Congratulations to Philip who won by 14 votes last Thursday. The turnout was 22% and 226 ballot papers were issued. Philip received 118 votes, Hilary 104 votes. Four votes were declared void. The new councillors will have to stand again in the countywide elections in May 2021. Elections are ...
I called in at Leicester's New Walk Museum and Art Gallery today to take in a couple of exhibitions. There was Dissent and Displacement: Contemporary printmaker Monica Petzal explores opposition, persecution and persistence inspired by her German Jewish refugee heritage and the German Expressionist collection in Leicester. Interweaving threads of family, politics, culture and art, the narratives range from the rise of National Socialism in 1930's Germany to the life of a Syrian refugee doctor in Leicester today. Using original sources, it brings together contemporary collaged and painterly lithographic prints with accessible descriptive text, as well as German Expressionist work ...
