Nine principal authority council by-elections this week and seven Liberal Democrat candidates in them.
I was probably 12 or 13 when my whole class was asked by our teacher to choose and then present a topic on our "future occupation". At such an early age, it was a pretty hard task, however I already knew that I would be happy if my job had something to do with football. I decided to become a sports commentator. During my lesson, I passionately tried to cover a match between my beloved Motor Lublin and possibly the most famous club in Poland, Legia Warsaw. I loved the whole experience! 5 to 6 years later, as a History ...
Fri 18th
17:02
The Flaming Soldier, by Christopher Bryant; The Dreamer's Lament, by Benjamin Burford-Jones
Moving up my queued Doctor Who reviews in honour of my presence at Gallifrey One this weekend, here are a novella and novel in the generally good Lethbridge-Stewart spinoff series. Second paragraph of third chapter of The Flaming Soldier, by Christopher Bryant:For a moment, Oliver considered lingering by the local literature table, leafing through the pamphlets about historical smugglers and recently-opened attractions while eavesdropping, but in the end lethargy won the day and he headed up to his room for a bit of an afternoon nap.It was only after I had read this rather good novella that I discovered that ...
On the morning of 19 February 2013, Ludlow awoke to learn that a section of the town walls behind St Laurence's Churchyard had collapsed. There was a further collapse two days later at which point Shropshire Council stabilised the wall with bags of sand. The collapses happened after a prolonged wet period followed by a plunge in temperatures to -10C. Nine years later, the wall is still in a state of collapse though there has been slow progress towards getting this collapsed section of wall rebuilt. After a dispute about who was responsible for the repairs, Ludlow Town Council accepted ...
Last night the winners were announced for the Anthony Nolan Supporters awards. Amongst the nominees in the category for Political Supporter of the year was our own Sal Brinton, Lib Dem Health and Social Care spokesperson in the House of Lords and former President of the Liberal Democrats. The citation reads: Baroness Sal Brinton Sal has been a committed parliamentary advocate for Clinically Extremely Vulnerable people during the pandemic and has helped to raise the profile of Anthony Nolan with senior ministers and officials, enabling Anthony Nolan to take policy asks straight to government. Congratulations to Sal on the shortlisting, ...
The "Golden Visa" scheme, technically known as Tier 1 investor visas, has been scrapped following pressure from the Liberal Democrats in the Lords. The scheme offered residency to people, and their families, from overseas if they invested £2million in the UK. The Liberal Democrats in the Lords had tabled an amendment to the Nationality and Borders Bill calling for the scheme to be stopped until a full review is published. Yesterday the Home Secretary finally recognised that it was a complete can of worms, and scrapped the scheme, with immediate effect. Layla Moran, who is our Foreign Affairs spokesperson, said: ...
Fri 18th
14:21
Revoking golden visas: Priti Patel must stop London being used as "Putin's playground"
The Liberal Democrats have written to Home Secretary Priti Patel urging her to set out a clear action plan and timetable to revoke golden visas and stop London being treated as "Putin's playground." It comes after Security Minister Damian Hinds told Times Radio this morning that "there are routes to revoke" existing visas if circumstances called for it. 2,581 investor visas have been granted to Russian citizens through the controversial golden visas scheme since it was introduced in 2008. It's previously been reported that almost half of the visas granted through the scheme have been reviewed for potential risks to ...
The Liberal Democrats have won yesterday's by-election to gain the Oundle ward of the new North Northamptonshire Council. The seat was previously held by the Conservatives and the votes were counted this morning. The result: Lib Dem: 1683 Con: 1423 Lab: 337 Green: 124 Congratulations to Charlie Best, the victorious Lib Dem candidate.
Thu, 12:56: RT @RRRDonner: #OTD My great-great-aunt Mildred Harnack was beheaded on Hitler's direct order. Born in Milwaukee, she was 26 when she moved... Thu, 18:15: The [Unofficial] Dr Who Annual [1965], by David May https://t.co/7Q5MFSaTS3 Fri, 02:23: @DrMatthewSweet Are you at Gallifrey yet? Am an admirer of your work, hope we can meet up. Fri, 05:16: Mega jet lag... I got up 25 hours ago, and it's still only a quarter past eight! Fri, 10:45: RT @redhistorian: Good piece by @DavidGauke. It was not the "woke left" that tried to overthrow a democratic election in the US, suspended...
Soft money in the United States involves donations to stand-alone political action committees, avoiding the restrictions that apply to elections. It is an alternative form of financing campaigns that "derives from a major loophole in federal campaign financing and spending law that exempts from regulation those contributions made for party building in general rather than for specific candidates". It is only in the last twenty years or so that we have attempted to properly regulate spending by political parties in the UK, who can donate to them and the level of transparency that applies to those donations. Nevertheless, there are ...
England's housing market is fundamentally unfair; it has left millions of people in insecure, unaffordable and low quality housing, whilst many others have seen their wealth increase dramatically. For many people, especially the young, the prospect of a secure home is a pipedream. The Federal Policy Committee's working group on Homes and Planning wants your help to fix the English housing market and deliver the homes the country needs. Although housing and planning is a devolved matter, we would welcome contributions from members outside of England about how their approach works and if there are any lessons we can learn ...
It has been a dark and stormy night. The rivers are beginning to rise as the rain lashes down onto already sodden ground. Wind strengths are increasing. All trains in Wales and the Marches are cancelled, as well as trains between Shrewsbury and Telford. Minsterley Motors are running buses in the south of the county but will review the situation as the weather changes. Several schools are closed. The advice is not to travel, to work from home if possible and to stay indoors. Here is a handy list of numbers should the worst come to pass. Shropshire Council (all ...
