Rabina Khan is a Liberal Democrat councillor for Shadwell ward in Tower Hamlets and came second in the Mayoral race in 2018.
This post first appeared on the Radix UK blog,,,. I have to say that I feel sorry for Allegra Stratton. I completely agreed with Matthew Parris about her predicament - that was no laugh of hilarity against sick people, or anything remotely like it. It was a laugh of nervous embarrassment. As Boris Johnson must also have recognised. So when he hung her out to dry, by implying otherwise, I felt pretty ashamed to have him as prime minister. I'm not sure I can remember a time when everyone I met in southern England seemed so united in their rage ...
Most shares (Slovenian EU presidency books): Most reactions (105 meets 22): Most comments (catching the bug): The FB posts here are embedded into the post and visible on most devices, but not on my MacBook that I use for work; the brief descriptions link separately to each post.
Academics Andrew Russell and David Cutts have been taking a look at Helen Morgan's victory in North Shropshire. This is part of what they have to say: The full force of the Liberal Democrat campaign machine was unleashed. The much vaunted 'ground campaign', combined with a formidable online presence, operated with ruthless effect. As ever with the Liberal Democrats, when voters deem the party as the credible challenger and firmly on the front foot, there are few party campaign machines across the world that can match the conversion and mobilisation competence, cold-bloodedness, and mercilessness of the Liberal Democrats. Their readiness ...
Second paragraph of third chapter:Hard to say what they were watching for. Signs of life? A later-than-last-minute reprieve?Having got all enthusiastic about the first of the Faction Paradox books last month, I'm afraid this left me rather cold. It's a story of a few key characters interacting with a town that is being devastated by a mysterious war. I didn't care about them and I was annoyed not to know more about what was going on. And there is a chapter written almost entirely in anagrams, which is really self-indulgent. Many people like it more than I did, or find ...
The third section is a comic, of which these are the second and third frames: I am not one of those who delights to dump on the Whittaker/Chibnall era of Doctor Who. I think it's had its highs and lows, and while its highs have not perhaps been as high as other eras of the show, its lows have not been epochal either (though we came close with Kerblam!). I was astonished when a Twitter poll of all 296 Who episodes up to mid-2019 put The Battle of Ranskoor av Kolos at the very bottom, behind even The Twin Dilemma; ...
As we bask in the warm glow of the success of the North Shropshire by-election, let us not forget the Labour attempt to stop us winning (and to help the tory). It seemed to be mostly the local party (Starmer stayed away) but do they have control of the national facebook account? There seemed to be some sort of informal pact in place: Lib Dems and Labour should only target seats they can win, says Ed Davey but this seems to break down as we approached the final 10 days as Labour put out a ridiculous "internal poll" which showed ...
Writing in the Independent today, Vince Cable predicts: "A realistic if optimistic outlook is that the Lib Dems could take 30 more Tory seats at the next general election." Some may think that is ambitious but if we don't have ambition we are never going to succeed. He begins with Orpington, a by-election, on a massive 26 per cent swing in 1962. That was fifty years ago and the political quicksand has shifted since then. But it doesn't mean that, buoyed by our successes in Chesham and Amersham and North Shropshire, we can't deliver 30 MPs. The experience in North ...
The remarkable by-election victory provides an immediate opportunity to grasp the chance to revive the party's derelict associations. As readers of Liberal Democrat Voice are aware from my previous postings, I am very dubious that the party has the resources or the motivation to tackle the huge task of reviving activity in the majority of constituencies that simply do not have the individuals or knowledge of how to start from scratch. This is now the moment to grab those who are attracted to the party by the the North Shropshire – and Chesham and Amersham – results. The moment will ...
If anybody thought that the appointment of a former pro-European to negotiate with the EU might lead to a more considered approach to the Northern Ireland protocol and the implementation of Brexit, then they would have been swiftly disabused of such a fanciful notion by Elizabeth Truss's early actions in her new role. The Independent reports that the Foreign Secretary has been accused of using her new Brexit responsibilities to position herself for a future Tory leadership contest, after she told European Commission vice-president Maroš Šefčovič in their first phone talks that she was ready to suspend the UK/EU agreement ...
Tue, 12:56: My career of treating patients has ended https://t.co/qESR3j6KSO A grim, grim account of QAnon and COVID conspiracies. Tue, 16:05: RT @TheAtlantic: With reengineered election rules, Hong Kong's already limited democratic freedoms have been almost entirely stripped away,... Tue, 17:11: RT @DPMcBride: The government's war against Britain's only termite colony will enter its 25th (and possibly final) year in 2022, after last... Tue, 18:35: Lying Under the Apple Tree, by Alice Munro https://t.co/AGhTUFAuQc Tue, 20:10: The 2021 overnights meme: a new low https://t.co/mT8ni5mNGy Tue, 22:25: RT @doctorwho1980s: 21/12/81 - Blake's 7 BLAKE BBC 1 7:20 PM The crew think ...
Tim Farron has warned that farmers are being "sold down the river" by the Conservatives, after it emerged the government's own impact assessment found the Australia deal will cause a £94m hit to the farming, forestry and fishing industries. There is also an expected £225 million hit to the semi-processed food sector, such as tinned foods. The Liberal Democrats are demanding that MPs are given a vote on the Australia deal so they can stand up for the interests of British farmers. It comes following the party's by-election win in North Shropshire during which concerns over the impacts of government's ...
Last night's Radio 4 PM had a discussion with a mother and son who were dealing with an issue that many families will be trying to resolve this Christmas. This particular family had members who are particularly vulnerable to Covid and the son had chosen not to get vaccinated. The compromise they reached was that the son would have a PCR test before mixing with the rest of the family. It made me think about what I would do in these circumstances. I am about as Covid cautious as they come and my household is being very careful about who ...
Brexit has not been done. There never was an oven-ready deal. Whatever Johnson thought was ready for the oven is now burnt to a cinder. It's time to use ridicule to explain how this UKIP-Tory government has made such a mess of Brexit. Five and a half years since the Brexit referendum, and Liz Truss has just become the sixth minister in charge of getting Brexit done. The public are beginning to understand that Johnson did not have a clue what sort of Brexit he wanted when he was campaigning to leave and is now struggling to come to terms ...
Faith in the Community Dundee has compiled a very helpful list of available food provision over the festive season, which you can read at :
