News from Barnet in North London of a new Liberal Democrat councillor: I'm thrilled to welcome my friend @RichmanHelene to the @BarnetLibDems today. We are the only Barnet council group to have increased in size since the last election — both ex-Labour and ex-Conservatives have joined us. Helene is a fantastic voice for West Hendon. Welcome! https://t.co/0nio5pvYlE — Gabriel Rozenberg [IMG: 🔶] [IMG: 🌻] (@rozgab) April 3, 2022
Helen Morgan, MP for North Shropshire, secured an adjournment debate in the House of Commons last Thursday as MPs departed to their constituencies and beyond for the Easter recess. Excluding the deputy speaker, there were just five MPs present. Philip Dunne, Daniel Kawczynski and Mark Pritchard were conspicuous by their absence. Lucy Allen, Tory MP for Telford, did attend. On the day of the debate, NHS England published data showing that ambulance handover times at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and Princes Royal Hospital were among the highest in the country. In the last four months: 51% of ambulances have been ...
Sometime in the not too distant future the Tories will wake up to the fact that there are more people who live in the UK on low to medium wages, if they have a wage at all, than rich people. ... Continue reading →
The East Parishes (Park, Sudell and Molyneux wards) of this Merseyside Borough played second fiddle (or even 3rd) to the coastal communities – Bootle, Crosby, Formby & Southport – from day one of the Borough's creation in 1974. And after a period when this injustice was righted it seems that the old way of doing things in Sefton has been adopted again. I raise this as things have been stirring in the Labour Party grasses in recent times as some of their East Parishes Borough and indeed Parish Councillors have found themselves at odds with the Labour-run Borough. It's led, ...
There are certain advantages to being a councillor on a very small Parish Council with an equally small budget. For one thing, the things you consider are not likely to be hugely contentious. You're hardly going to argue about whether or not to maintain the play area, or the streetlights. It's more likely that disagreement is personal, rather than political, given that party politics seldom impinges on micro-councils. And, heavens knows, a disagreement in a small village is likely to be as much about personalities as about strategy. People bring their agendas with them when they run for public office, ...
On March 31 2022, Boris Johnson announced he was U-turning on the government's pledge to ban conversion "therapy"; a form of abuse that seeks to undermine someone's gender and/or sexual identity, and gaslight them into believing how they view themselves is wrong and must be "corrected". Due to backlash from politicians across the House; including a number of Tory MPs, and LGBT+ pressure groups Johnson acquiesced – to a point. He has promised to uphold the ban on gay and bisexual conversion therapy but has failed to do the same regarding trans conversion therapy. What has been made very clear ...
Shropshire Council is consulting on higher parking charges across the county, including in Ludlow. In Ludlow, on-street car parking costs will rise by an average of 13%. Hourly charges in Galdeford A car park (upper deck) will rise by 17%. In the lower decks (Galdeford B) and in the Smithfield car park, hourly charges will go up by 25%. Season tickets in Galdeford A will rise by between 15% and 17%. In Galdeford B and Smithfield, season ticket charges will rise by between 23% to 26%. The increase in season ticket charges in Galdeford B and Smithfield are well above ...
The jury is out on the value of French President Emmanuel Macron's numerous and lengthy telephone/zoom/face to face talks Vladimir Putin. Some diplomats claim that he is providing a valuable role in keeping open the lines of communication between NATO and the Kremlin. Others maintain that his talks have given Putin a totally undeserved credibility. Either way, the Vlad-Emmanuel chats do not appear to have had a great impact Macron's re-election hopes as the French presidential campaign swings towards the final week before the first round on 10 April. Macron has been the favourite for the past six months, but ...
The Independent reports that almost 300,000 disabled people are losing government help to cut their fuel costs just as bills rocket to record levels. They say that tighter eligibility rules will remove the flagship warm homes discount from the claimants of a clutch of disability benefits, because their incomes are judged to be too high: Ministers argue the shake-up of the scheme will better target fuel poverty, delivering help to an extra 160,000 people with a long-term illness or disability - while hiking payments by £10 to £150. A government document reads: "Our latest modelling estimates that there will be ...
Liberator 412 can be downloaded here . This is the April 2022 online-only edition of Liberator and we hope you enjoy reading it. What's inside this issue? Alongside Radical Bulletin, Commentary and Letters, Liberator 412 includes: UKRAINE'S COMEDIAN PRESIDENT IS NO COMIC. Kiron Reid saw great hope on democracy's eastern border in Ukraine when this article was published in Liberator 398 in November 2019 after the election of Volodymyr Zelenskyy as president. Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, we reprint it here, followed by some necessarily anonymous reflections on Ukraine now and the path to war from an observer who knows ...
A few days ago, Boots was closed all day. Lack of pharmacist. A few days before that, Lloyds was closed all day. Lack of pharmacist. Yesterday, Brown and Francis was closed except for emergencies. These are not isolated incidents. There have been a dozen or more closures this year. Often, they are all day. Sometimes there is hope that a pharmacist will arrive in the afternoon. Sometimes that doesn't happen. In any event, people who don't live in the town centre can't keep dropping back to see if the pharmacy is open. This is not like shopping for a tin ...
As residents will be aware, I have long campaigned for decent lighting at the steps from from Pentland Avenue to Scott Street. The steps are well-used and often by elderly people and are dark at night - particularly in the winter months. People have had to rely on what light reaches the area from the adjacent roads - a most unsatisfactory situation. It has proved technically challenging to provide street lighting here but I am delighted at the final outcome. The Street Lighting Partnership Manager has now advised me as follows : "We have finally been able to complete the ...
