Nick Clegg these days reminds me of the episode of The Simpsons where Homer gets a new job and doesn't realise he is working for a Bond villain bent on world domination. But he does feature in this blog's Trivial Fact of the Day. Previewing a local by-election today in Lincolnshire, Andrew Teale writes: Quarrington and Mareham is Sleaford's southern ward, taking in the Quarrington and New Quarrington areas on the southern fringe of the town. Also here is Greylees, a large and very new housing development on the site of a former asylum next to Rauceby railway station. This ...
Claudia Webbe, the MP for Leicester East, today lost her appeal against a conviction for harassing a love rival. But her sentence was reduced to a community order for 80 hours' unpaid work with no custodial element, so there will be no recall petition. She was elected for Labour in 2019. Though she was born in Leicester, many regarded the Islington councillor Webbe as a candidate imposed on the local party by the Corbyn leadership. Resigning from the Labour after her selection, the Leicester East constituency chair called it "a fix and a disgrace". Webbe was expelled from Labour after ...
Thu 26th
19:30
Independent View: Lib Dems are turning heads in the Tories' rural heartlands. Here's how they can wi...
The recent local election results continue to demonstrate that rural support for the Conservatives is dwindling. Their loss was, by all appearances, the Liberal Democrats' gain. Where the Conservatives faltered, the Lib Dems thrived: in newly created council Westmorland and Furness, they took 36 seats compared to just 11 for the Tories, and in the Conservative stronghold of Somerset, they won 65 seats compared to a meagre 36. Our recent opinion poll could well have predicted this Conservative downfall in the countryside. Published just weeks before locals took to the ballots, it indicated a 7.5% drop in support for the ...
Ed Davey was unimpressed with the package announced by Rishi Sunak aimed at helping people with the soaring cost of living. He described it as the "Sunak Scam." The Chancellor is hammering families with a £800 tax hike this year, more than wiping out what he announced today. It is the Sunak scam, promising you help but picking your pockets while you're not looking. Soaring inflation and devastating tax rises have left proud families who never dreamed they would find themselves in trouble struggling to pay the bills. The British people need help right now, but instead have been left ...
The people of Moray deserve better from our elected Member of Parliament. Douglas Ross should resign now as an MP. Let someone do the job who actually wants to make a positive difference in the lives of those who live and work in Moray. Our MP has not only backed down on calling for a Prime Minister that has committed a criminal offence to resign, but he has also got a track record for missing key votes that would benefit his Moray constituents due to his commitments as MSP and as a Scottish party leader. Only last week, our MP ...
Powys County Council is to be led by the Welsh Liberal Democrats for the first time since its creation, in a partnership with Welsh Labour. Previous administrations have been led by independents. James Gibson-Watt, the Welsh Liberal Democrat Group Leader on Powys Council, was elected as Leader of the Council at the Council's AGM this morning, becoming the first Welsh Liberal Democrat Council leader since 2012. The agreement between the Welsh Liberal Democrats and Welsh Labour will focus on delivering a fresh and distinctive path to meet the serious challenges the county faces. A Green Party councillor is expected to ...
Despite a damning report from Sue Gray and photos of Boris Johnson at a party during lockdown, the Prime Minister continues to hang onto his job, and senior Tories can still be found to defend him in the media. However, not all Tories are so supportive. The Mirror reports that three more Tory MPs have broken ranks in the wake of Sue Gray's report. One of them, Conservative MP John Baron, said he did not believe Johnson's claims that he was unaware of the scale of lockdown boozing in Downing Street laid bare in the dossier, and that his repeated ...
If you live in the West Midlands and are going to fall ill, you better get on with it. Certainly, don't leave it until 17 August because if you want an ambulance, you may not get one. That's the apocalyptic prediction from a director of the West Midlands Ambulance Service (WMAS). Ambulance provision in the West Midlands, as in many other areas of the country, has been struggling for a couple of years. There are endless stories of delays in ambulances reaching patients. Handover delays from ambulance paramedics at the county's two hospitals, both maintained by the Shrewsbury and Telford ...
If you going to fall ill and likely to require an ambulance, you better get on with it. Certainly, don't leave it until 17 August. Ambulance provision by West Midlands Ambulance Service (WMAS) has been struggling for a couple of years. There are endless stories of delays in ambulances reaching patients. Handover delays from ambulance paramedics at the Royal Shrewsbury and Princes Royal Hospitals, both maintained by the Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Hospital Trust (SaTH), are among the longest in England. There are far too many reports of patients dying during these delays when they might have survived. Too many ...
Wed, 12:06: Daily Octordle #121 5️⃣4️⃣ 🕚6️⃣ 🔟7️⃣ 9️⃣8️⃣ https://t.co/j7MjyMDtNS Wed, 12:56: RT @KatyaYushchenko: In Jan 1988, I attended a Kissinger lecture at the Heritage Fndtn. He said then that the USSR wouldn't fall apart, tha... Wed, 16:05: RT @BGriofa: I map the surnames for the 1901 and 1911 Irish census. Today I added distribution maps for the 3 main religions. People of Gae... Wed, 17:11: UK outsources post-Brexit border checks to EU - POLITICO https://t.co/SllRrGhuJn #takingbackcontrol Wed, 19:18: The Sun is Open (and Type Face), by Gail McConnell https://t.co/peVj8g3NE4 https://t.co/OaQvcHPJSO Wed, 20:48: Great thread! https://t.co/zhCAYN7HYK Wed, 20:53: RT @ChaplainChloe: ...
On behalf of Liverpool's Liberal Democrat Group, I have submitted a requisition for an Extraordinary Meeting of Liverpool City Council to confer on the manager of Liverpool Football Club, Jurgen Klopp, the title of Citizen of Honour of the City ... Continue reading →
