Davey: PM must fess up over Xmas party Williamson party: Met Police must investigate Davey: PM must fess up over Xmas party Responding to a new leaked video which shows the Prime Minister's former press secretary joking about a party in Downing Street last Christmas, Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey MP said: People will rightly be furious with Boris Johnson, not just for holding a party during lockdown, but also for refusing to own up to it. Once again he shows it's one rule for us and one rule for him, with the Conservatives continuing to take people for granted. ...
Earlier this year the Mid-Norfolk Labour Party website looked all normal. But now...
For the past nineteen months minister after minister, in attempting to explain away the Government's omissions, delays and errors in dealing with the COVID crisis,have repeatedly claimed that the situation is "unprecedented," with the implication that, that being the case, a few missteps and mistakes are perfectly understandable and to be both expected and excused. As such their PR exercise has been reasonably successful, and so far, according to the opinion polls , a goodly proportion of the electorate is prepared to give them the benefit of the doubt in spite of their serial bungling. However, it is not strictly ...
Well, I'm basically better. I woke up on Saturday feeling a lot more like myself, had a normal weekend (writiing blog posts, cooking the family dinner twice) and worked the whole day yesterday and today, mainly catching up on a thousand emails but with a fair number of meetings too. Still working from home, and not being very adventurous as yet. On Thursday I will go and work in the office in Brussels, and we have our work Christmas dinner downtown in the evening. Everyone will be tested before dinner; my system must be swarming with antibodies right now, so ...
The Party is currently consulting on how to reform the Federal Board. The voices of members such as yourself are critical if we are to deliver on the recommendations of the 2019 General Election "Thornhill" review. We have already shown progress in Chesham and Amersham, and have an amazing opportunity to deliver another blow to the Tory Government in North Shropshire (volunteer here or donate!) but to be successful in the long term we need to get our own structures right. This consultation is designed to help understand which options are most attractive to members and therefore to help boil ...
This post first appeared on the Radix UK blog... This may seem a peculiar post to write on a thinktank blog, yet writing it is a result of my sense that beliefs are at least as important as Mckinsey-style measurement. They certainly are in the world outside the hothouse we know as the Westminster 'bubble'. Why, after all, is a good quarter to a third of the adult population of continental Europe so keen to avoid vaccination? Because of the fundamental beliefs they hold about covid that frame their responses. The real issue about the disaster that has hit the ...
Delighted to have some new festive cards and gifts, handmade by me, available in my Etsy shop now: A6 seasonal greetings Beads and malas Fridge magnets and handstitched paper bookmarks. Original art and craft by PatriciaRustArt by PatriciaRustArt (etsy.com)
Mon, 12:56: NATO thwarted a Russian invasion in 1980. Could its playbook work today? https://t.co/YryNm4bE2W Maybe. Mon, 18:17: March 2014 books https://t.co/DUMsXDObNM Mon, 18:34: The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun, by J R R Tolkien, ed. Verlyn Flieger https://t.co/KdGOp7iQFj
Since the beginning of December last year, a tornado of fresh air has been sweeping through the Council and Labour Party. We have seen a senior officer summarily dismissed and another resign; the Caller Report publicly documenting the depths of ... Continue reading →
The weekend media have been full again of Rishi Sunak's promise to return to tax cuts before the next election: cutting income tax and VAT further to win over - as Conservatives hope - wavering voters. But is it possible that the majority of voters would now prefer good public services, and targeted spending on long-term projects, to tax cuts that will squeeze public services further? Martin Wolf in the Financial Times the other week argued that 'we have to accept higher taxes to fund health and social care', pointing out that the UK is still a modest spender on ...
Just when we thought that things had calmed down a bit in the ongoing saga of how the UK government bypassed standard procurement practices to give massive PPE contracts to favoured individuals, another revelation hits the media. The Guardian reports that at least 46 PPE deals were awarded to firms put in a special "VIP lane" by Conservative ministers, MPs and officials during the Covid pandemic before a formal due diligence process was put in place. This contradicts the claim by ministers that all PPE contracts were put through a rigorous "eight-stage process" for assuring quality and value for money. ...
Deltapoll's latest survey has a clever pair of questions - first asking people if they support mandatory indoor mask wearing in public places and then asking people what they think the public thinks on the same issue.
I'm just resting up before another blitz of Focii-ing in North Shropshire early this morning. The constituency is similar to Brecon and Radnorshire in that you can drive for what seems like hours and still see orange posters, denoting that you are still in the constituency. – A vast and beautiful rural area with some wonderful towns. Our HQ is exceptional. Thanks, it seems, to some very nice supporters, we have a large, spacious and busy HQ which allows socially distanced stuffing. There are actual parking spaces for us! When I arrived yesterday, I was soon dispatched beneath a ginormous ...
The West End Christmas Concert and Community and Business Awards - featuring our local schools, community organisations, West End businesses and churches takes place tonight at 6.30pm. You can view this online on the Christmas Fortnight Facebook page at www.facebook.com/WestEndChristmas Many thanks to all who have taken part and a particular thanks to Rev Dr Jim Connolly, David Milne, Felicity Wright, Rick Curran, Greig Thomson and Scott Gordon, all of whom have been instrumental in making the concert and awards a reality!
By 1975 Dirk Bogarde was secure in his later career as a star of European arthouse films and soon to reinvent himself as a writer. This is an interview Colin Grimshaw recorded while working at Imperial College, London. It offers a brisk run through Bogarde's career to this point. On YouTube Grimshaw records that before the recording Bogarde "walked around every person in the studio and shook their hands."
