So, as I expected, infection rates in Belgium have continued to soar, now almost 50% higher than the previous record; but the other numbers remain fairly stable, hospitalisations drifting slowly upwards at 10% ish a week, ICU numbers slowly decreasing, deaths likewise - the death rate reported for 14 January was the lowest since 30 October. And even the rise in infections seems to be decelerating. So I am fairly confident in expecting a significant relaxation of the restrictions in the next couple of weeks. Myself, I was not feeling well for most of last week, which I put down ...
Lib Dem highlights in our legislatures this week include Jamie Stone holding a debate on gas and electricity costs while Lib Dem peers take on some of the Government's nastier Bills. Watch out for Brian Paddick on the Police Bill and Sal Brinton on the Health and Care Bill. In Wales, Jane Dodds has a debate on free public transport for young people on Wednesday So what's happening? Westminster Monday kicks off in the Commons with Priti Patel and the Home Office ministerial team answering questions from MPs. They then go on to debate the Elections Bill, which would disenfranchise ...
I'm not sure that one person Andrew Rawnsley has spoken with has really thought through their use of political metaphor.
Spring Conference takes place online between 11 and 13 March. Tomorrow is the last date you can register at the early bird rate of £40. Don't miss your chance to take part and save yourself some money – make sure you register here. There's also an in-person companion event f run by ALDC, which is taking place in York on 12 and 13 March and you can register for that here. The agenda has not been published yet. Federal Conference Committee met yesterday to choose which motions will be debated and we should have those details within the next few ...
If this blog post was an animal, what sort of animal would it be? That is the sort of apparently absurd question beloved of coverage of focus groups.
Second paragraph of third chapter:They wanted to gather prickly-pear fruits for jelly. They knew a storm was coming and they went anyway, while he was in his workroom. He follows the narrow animal path between thickets of thorn scrub along the bank, shining his light along the edge of the rising water. Acacias lean into the river with their branches waving wildly in the current, like mothers reaching in for lost babies. The girls ignore his cautions because they are willful children who believe nothing can harm them. Hallie is bad but Cosima is worse, pretty and stubborn as a ...
I've been really concerned this week that some major employers are cutting sick pay for unvaccinated employees to the statutory minimum. ITV reports how companies like Next, Morrisons and Ikea are only going to pay employees who have to self-isolate Statutory Sick Pay of only £96.35 per week, whereas those who have been vaccinated will get their usual pay. And the majority of affected employees will be the lowest paid. In England, if you are a close contact of someone with Covid, you don't have to self isolate if you are fully vaccinated. You just need to take daily lateral ...
There's probably no one who is more despairing about the BBC's news and current affairs output in recent years than me. Indeed, I've been calling this once great public service broadcaster the Brexit Broadcasting Company for the past 6 years as its obsession with Farage and his like was a significant reason, at least to my mind, for Brexit being delivered. Of course, Labour's right-wing, working-class voters were the other significant reason. Left of centre progressives, like me, have good reason to want the BBC to be reformed so that it can retake the ground it once held as a ...
Lib Dems across the country joined protests across the country against the Policing, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill. Protests too place in London, Bristol, Cardiff, Coventry, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Sheffield and Plymouth, as well as a lot of smaller towns. The protests come ahead of a critical vote tomorrow in the House of Lords on amendments introduced in the Lords in November which greatly increase the authority of police to control protests including an increase in stop and search powers. On Friday, Labour Lords belatedly said they will oppose the protest clauses. With the Lib Dems, Greens and independents opposing ...
I believe that Liverpool Labour Party has the same, "Do as I say not as I do culture" as Boris Johnson's Tory Party after an investigation which has shown that former Labour Cabinet members used a back door route to ... Continue reading →
Some good news at last, Omicron cases are falling rapidly across Shropshire and across most of the country. Here in Shropshire, the rate of infection has fallen by around 44% in the last seven days. Rates remain very high but the health impacts of Omicron are proving less than Delta. Eight in 100 people in Shropshire have tested positive for Covid-19 in the last seven days, down from a peak of 18 in 100 ten days ago. In Telford & Wrekin 12 people in 100 tested positive, down from 20 in 100. In Ludlow, 15 in 100 people tested positive ...
The Liberal Democrats have tabled a no confidence motion in Boris Johnson, and challenged Conservative MPs to vote for it to force the prime minister to step down.
Liberal Democrat MPs have tabled a motion of no confidence in Boris Johnson and have written to Jacob Rees-Mogg to ask that it is given parliamentary time. The motion been so far been signed by 18 MPs from four parties. These include all thirteen Liberal Democrat MPs, two Labour MPs, two from Plaid Cymru and Stephen Parry from the Alliance Party. The Liberal Democrats have also written to Leader of the House of Commons Jacob Rees-Mogg, demanding he put the motion to a vote within the next week. Labour Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting says that Labour would back it ...
Sat, 12:56: How Did E.E. Smith Become "Doc"? https://t.co/alClz0hyar In case you were wondering. Sat, 14:48: Dutch King Willem-Alexander retires coach amid slavery row - BBC News https://t.co/tfFGTgqpE3 We saw a really interesting (and horrifying) display about this at the @HaagsHistorisch Museum in The Hague. Sat, 16:05: 'Don't Look Up' Doesn't Get the Climate Crisis https://t.co/niI0uhnfFG A detailed critique. Sat, 16:50: A Radical Romance, by Alison Light https://t.co/nu4tu1eNdP Sat, 17:58: Don't Look Up https://t.co/ES95T4mpe3 Sat, 18:31: Saturday reading https://t.co/E4xTStKXEn Sun, 00:28: RT @rantingkat: "He's so worried he's almost doing his job"
The Lib Dem MP for Bath, Wera Hobhouse addressed the Commons on Thursday on online safety. She told MPs that "gendered harms are endemic" and any bill that does not address misogynistic abuse would not be credible. All too often the trauma that women experience is trivialised. She called for cyber-flashing to be made illegal saying it is a particularly prevalent form of online violence against women and disproportionately affects young women and girls. She called on the government to act without delay on tackle cyber-flashing without consent. Bringing our legislation on harmful online content into the 21st century is ...
It is an irony that will undoubtedly not have been lost onany of the thousands of protestors attending rallies yesterday, that if the police, crime, sentencing and courts bill they were opposing becomes law, then they could well have been arrested for taking to the streets and expressing an opinion. The stakes really are as high as that, as Boris Johnson's government subverts the demcratic process in it's own interests, an action that has been central to the playbook of many dictators down the ages. As the Guardian reports, sections of this bill have been condemned by human rights activists ...
Ukraine After a week of Ukrainian talks the question is whether Vladimir Putin is using negotiations to avoid war or create a pretext to start one. The communiques emerging from Geneva, Brussels and Vienna shed little light on the subject. They are peppered with insubstantial diplomatese phrases such as "frank," "friendly" and "constructive." Off the record, journalists are being told that chief US negotiator Wendy Sherman is offering to widen the talks with suggested discussions on missile deployments and other issues. The US is clearly trying to drag out talks in the hopes that protracted jaw, jaw will lead to ...
