What is the point of Sadiq Khan, London's Labour Mayor, recently reelected for a second term? He is a powerful symbol of inclusion – a Muslim bus-driver's son making it to the city's highest office. After that I struggle. He has acheived little in five years. But now he has an opportunity to make his ... Continue reading It is time for Sadiq Khan to stand up for London
Second paragraph of third chapter:Romania, along with a slew of other Communist nations, had just established diplomatic ties with China. It was now time to exchange ambassadors. Making that formal would involve an arcane ceremony developed in Europe and practiced around the world: the designated ambassador would hand over a letter to the head of state and ask to be accepted as the official representative of his nation.Peter Martin was a colleague of mine when I started in my current workplace, but left to go back to Beijing as a reporter for Bloomberg. He's now in Washington working Bloomberg's defence ...
Liverpool's Liberal Democrat Councillors have written to the Mayor and Chief Executive of Liverpool City Council and the Chair of the Local Government Association to ask the Government to allow hybrid meetings of councils and their committees whilst the current ... Continue reading →
Way back in 2018 historian Peter Hennessey described Britain's uncodified constitution as the '"Good Chap" theory of government,' and lamented its rapid erosion. Some say the British don't have a constitution: " We just make it up as we go along." It is true that we do not have a single document in which the rules for government are set out. Instead we have a mixture of historic documents (eg Magna Carta,) significant legislation (eg the Bill of Rights 1689, the Reform Acts,) Common Law, judicial decisions (declaring the prorogation of parliament in 2019 to be illegal) and precedents, parliamentary ...
Tue, 12:56: RT @DavidHenigUK: My prediction of a few months ago that the UK would not in fact reopen substantially ahead of the rest of the EU despite... Tue, 16:05: Tinderbox Britain: Four years after the Grenfell Tower fire, the cladding crisis rages on https://t.co/i7L7J6v8Wh Horrifying. Tue, 20:22: Comic Inferno, by Brian Aldiss https://t.co/CWhfW3zYsV Tue, 20:48: RT @nicktolhurst: Britain's new unionist strategy: "Nice country you got there Scotland...shame if anything were to happen to it..." https... Tue, 20:48: RT @leonardocarella: European nationalist autocracies update: ðŸ‡ðŸ‡º 0-3 #HUNPOR 🇷🇺 0-3 #BELRUS 🇹🇷 0-3 #ITATUR #EURO2020 Wed, 09:30: Whoniversaries 16 June https://t.co/dANo4ffPig ...
The Times today has the headline we need ahead of Thursday's by-election. The newspaper reports that Sarah Green, the Lib Dem candidate has 41 per cent of the vote and the Conservative candidate, Peter Fleet, 45 per cent. That is close and this long held Tory stronghold could fall to the Lib Dems. Key issues according to the Times are HS2 which is railroading through the constituency and the government's plan to bulldoze green fields with its planning reform act. We are almost there. A win in Chesham & Amersham would not only upset the Tory applecart. It will give ...
It's eve of poll and I'm off to Chesham and Amersham again shortly to help make Sarah Green the next Liberal Democrat MP. (Quick political trivia question: can you name the last two female Liberal / Alliance / Lib Dem MPs in Buckinghamshire? You're better than me if you can without looking it up.) The media are starting to wake up to what is happening: The Liberal Democrats are close to an upset in the safe Conservative seat of Chesham & Amersham at a by-election tomorrow, the party's internal polling has shown. Figures obtained by The Times suggest that the ...
I was smiling a lot on Monday. On World Blood Donation Day, in the middle of Pride Month, the blood donation rules changed so that they were the same whatever your sexuality. A decade ago, men who had ever had sex with men were completely banned from giving blood. The rules have been gradually relaxed since then but we now have a more equal system based on a level playing field. This means that many gay and bisexual men can now give blood, whereas before we lost out on their donations. This applies over England, Scotland and Wales. My friend ...
The question that every MP should be asking the Home Secretary today is why, in the light of an independent report that has branded the Metropolitan police as "institutionally corrupt" and which personally censored its commissioner, Cressida Dick for obstruction, is she still in post? The Guardian reports that the findings of an independent panel inquiring into Daniel Morgan's killing in 1987 triggered calls from his brother, Alastair, for Dick to consider her position, and denounced the actions of Britain's biggest police force. Of course Dick is no stranger to controversy. She was the gold commander in the control room ...
i) births and deaths 16 June 1932: birth of Norman Jones, who played Khrisong in The Abominable Snowmen (Second Doctor, 1967), Major Baker in Doctor Who and the Silurians (Third Doctor, 1970) and Hieronymous in The Masque of Mandragora (Fourth Doctor, 1976) 16 June 1937: birth of Michael Kilgarriff, who played the Cyber-Controller in The Tomb of the Cybermen (1967) and Attack of the Cybermen (1985), an Ogron in Frontier in Space (1973), and the Robot in Robot (1974-75). (Face never visible, so no photos.) 16 June 1940: birth of Carole Ann Ford, who played the First Doctor's granddaughter Susan ...
Earlier in April I was pleased to join the national Kerslake Commission on Homelessness and Rough Sleeping alongside representatives from local government, housing, health and homelessness bodies, to examine and learn the lessons from the emergency response which supported people sleeping rough during the Covid-19 pandemic. At the start of the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020, the Government launched the Everyone In initiative, which sought to ensure that anyone who was sleeping on the streets was immediately provided with safe and secure accommodation. This involved unprecedented collaboration between government at central, regional and local levels, alongside ...
From the City Council : THE ROAD TRAFFIC REGULATION ACT 1984 - SECTION 14(1) THE DUNDEE CITY COUNCIL AS TRAFFIC AUTHORITY being satisfied that traffic on the road should be prohibited by reason of Scottish Water repair works being carried out HEREBY PROHIBIT the driving of any vehicle in Tay Street Lane, Dundee This notice comes into effect on Friday 18 June for one night (7.30pm to 6.30am). Pedestrian thoroughfare will be maintained. No alternative routes for vehicles are available For further information contact 433082. Executive Director of City DevelopmentDundee City Council
