The Conservative Government is failing to deliver the promised 452 more police officers for South Wales. Analysis of Home Office statistics by the Liberal Democrats has shown that South Wales' officer numbers rose by only 111 in the last year. A total of 206 extra officers have been recruited by South Wales Police under the Government's campaign that started in September 2019. South Wales Police has so far recruited just 7 more officers per month under the scheme. To meet the Conservatives' own target of 452 by March 2023, that rate would have to increase to 16 per month over ...
The Conservative Government is off track on its manifesto pledge to recruit 20,000 more police officers by March 2023, with new official figures showing the number of officers actually fell by 413 in December. A total of 11,048 extra officers have been recruited under the Government's uplift in the 29 months since it started in September 2019 - a rate of 381 more officers per month. To meet the target of 20,000 by March 2023, that rate would have to increase to 597 per month over the next 15 months. Four police forces now have fewer officers than they did ...
Here's the latest party political broadcast (PPB) from the Liberal Democrats:
A bit gloomier today than I had hoped to be. The numbers in Belgium continue to soar - more than 3% of the country's population had a positive diagnosis last week - and there is no immediate prospect of further relaxations of the restrictions. I had been considering a work trip to the UK next week, but I've decided to postpone that for the time being. (Three weeks from tomorrow I'll be heading off to the USA. I hope.) I've also had a nagging sore throat since the weekend. Not bad enough to stop me working, but irritating all the ...
The decision by the Metropolitan Police to finally investigate the incessant partying in Downing Street is welcome. As the Guardian reports, it was only on Sunday that the Met decided it had enough evidence to merit a criminal investigation into claims of parties in Downing Street and Whitehall, attended by those who made the onerous lockdown rules: Discussions at the top of the Met continued throughout Monday, and it was only on Tuesday morning, just before Dick's announcement before the London assembly, that the scope of those criminal inquiries was decided by the force. That included decisions about which "events" ...
Most people who knew Ronnie have a Ronnie story. If there is a book written about how to become an MP or a Lord, Ronnie never read it. He was never going to be one to tick all the boxes in a bloodless modern selection process and yet he was loved by his constituents and possibly the only one who could have in the 1987 General Election delivered the only Liberal gain in England. He won because he was no political careerist using the constituency as a stepping stone,but because his only ambition was to represent the town of his ...
The inclusion of this site at all makes me cross. The sleight of hand which suggests the increase in the number of houses is 37 rather than 137 makes me crosser. The fact that the council seems hellbent on facilitating development by Taylor Wimpey that we have fought off twice already is even worse. And finally, the icing on the cake is that the council is the land owner, so stands to benefit the most from granting itself permission to build. Given how angry I am, I thought my response to the Local Plan Update consultation was quite restrained. It ...
[IMG: A garden trowel] Image by J Garget from Pixabay. A Liberal Democrat press release says... The Liberal Democrats have called for Boris Johnson to be placed on gardening leave and removed from Number 10 while the Metropolitan Police investigate the numerous rule-breaking parties that took place. Traditionally, people under investigation are placed on leave whilst the proceedings are ongoing. This is to prevent them from attempting to prevent a fair investigation from being carried out by influencing witnesses or destroying evidence. It's been reported in recent weeks that Downing Street staff have been advised to delete emails or texts ...
I first met Ronnie pretty soon after getting involved in Liberal politics in 1980. If memory serves he was at that time a Sefton Borough Councillor for Southport's Norwood Ward and a Merseyside County Councillor. He came across as a campaigner with huge amounts of energy, ideas and enthusiasm. Lord Ronnie Fearn of Southport, passing on a little advice.. He encouraged me as a fresh-faced lad to stand for Maghull Town Council but I also recall him wondering out loud if my beard would go down well with the electorate. It did and I won a seat at a by-election ...
As I have already posted on this blog my Lib Dem colleagues and I have a motion appearing on tonight's council summons calling for a complete review of underused or little used land in Liverpool with a view to using ... Continue reading →
Alistair Carmichael has called for Boris Johnson to be placed on gardening leave and removed from Number 10 while the Metropolitan Police investigate the numerous rule-breaking parties that took place. In many work settings, people under investigation are placed on leave whilst the proceedings are ongoing. This is to prevent them from attempting to prevent a fair investigation from being carried out by influencing witnesses or destroying evidence. It's been reported in recent weeks that Downing Street staff have been advised to delete emails or texts pertaining to parties, ahead of the Sue Gray investigation. Whilst Boris Johnson is on ...
Tue, 17:24: Twice a Stranger: How Mass Expulsion Forged Modern Greece And Turkey, by Bruce Clark https://t.co/HVKLLadrEj Tue, 23:02: Hooray! https://t.co/BheVP0mSpR https://t.co/riDbRJGBBc Wed, 01:04: Rest in peace, Erlend. This was his last tweet. https://t.co/iZqnmLiBQX Wed, 10:45: RT @emollick: Here are the lighthouses of Europe. The map is even better than it might seem at first glance: the colors are the real color... Wed, 11:29: Today's Wordle spoiled by someone posting the answer on their Facebook. Don't do that, folks.
Rail tracks ran on that embankmentwhere we naively played, where we escaped the man –suspecting us of setting fires, or damaging the lines –who chased us on his crutches...Yesterday is always far away and faded.What have we grown into, now scattered near and far? He died young. London called, he went and led the way.He [...]
[IMG: Erlend Watson with Sarah Green - who together ran a committee room in the Brecon and Radnor by-election] Erlend Watson with Sarah Green, who together ran a committee room in the Brecon and Radnor by-election. Born in 1963, and first taken canvassing by Laura Grimond, Erlend Watson gave a large part of his life to helping others in the Liberal and then Liberal Democrats get elected. As Alistair Carmichael recently said of him: I have known Erlend Watson since he was chronologically a Young Liberal in Orkney in the late 1980s in Orkney. His commitment to the cause of ...
The Liberal Democrats have called for Boris Johnson to be placed on gardening leave and removed from Number 10 while the Metropolitan Police investigate the numerous rule-breaking parties that took place. Traditionally, people under investigation are placed on leave whilst the proceedings are ongoing. This is to prevent them from attempting to prevent a fair investigation from being carried out by influencing witnesses or destroying evidence. It's been reported in recent weeks that Downing Street staff have been advised to delete emails or texts pertaining to parties, ahead of the Sue Gray investigation. Whilst Boris Johnson is on leave, Deputy ...
(with apologies to Claude-Michel Schönberg, Alain Boublil and Jean-Marc Natel) There's a grief that can't be spoken There's a pain goes on and on Empty chair at empty RIsos Now our friend Erlend has goneHere he talked of social justice Here it was he helped campaigns Here he sang at Glee with gusto And regaled us all with talesFrom the Riso in the corner He could see a world reborn And he rose Riso restarting And I can hear it now!The very words he had sung Became our walking campaign song On this lonely Good Morning At dawnOh my friend, ...
Sad news reached our ears on Monday night, that former Southport Lib Dem MP Ronnie Fearn had died. We wanted to wait for the news to become more public before we shared it though. From the Liverpool Echo Tributes have been paid to a former Merseyside MP, described as "Mr Southport", who has died aged 90. Ronald Fearn, known as Ronnie, was MP for Southport from 1987 to 1992 and 1997 to 2001, serving first as a member of the Liberal party and later as a Liberal Democrat. He also served as a councillor for Sefton Council from 1974 to ...
Update from Dundee Pensioners' Forum : "The West End Blethers cafe has re-started for 2022 - and will continue every Thursday at The Friary, Tullideph Road, between 12 noon and 2pm. This has been a very successful project - we have managed to secure funding to take us through until around September 2022 and will seek further funding this year to extend that even further. The blethering levels are rising by the week ... and now that the pandemic restrictions are lifting, we can resume singing all the old songs. It is amazing how well older people remember every word ...
"Johnson's personal greed, hypocrisy, clumsy lies and sheer extravagance in overseeing the distribution of billions of pounds in government contracts to 'VIP' donors and friends of government ministers have made the workings of this machine all too publicly visible." Tom Scott says the Conservative Party will almost certainly act to remove Boris Johnson in the near future. To preserve our environment, we must realise that nature is not elsewhere - in the safari park or on an eco-resort - but here and everywhere, argues John Burnside. Jonathan Meades revisits the county of his boyhood: "Wiltshire, in the grip of the ...
