The latest edition of my weekly political polling round-up, The Week in Polls, is now out. As it says: Given the wider reputation of social media, you might expect me to get on a high horse about how Twitter is filled with nonsense about polling. Well it is ("retweet for a larger sample!"), but... it's actually a better place to look to understand polls than traditional media outlets. That's because... You can read it in full online here and you can sign up to receive future editions here.
France was heating up, and I had a long train ride ahead of me. Which, as regular readers may recall, left me with a challenge. You see, I started walking ten thousand steps each day in 2016, and haven't missed a day since. And so, to ensure that I didn't fail, I had an early breakfast and took one of Dijon's very efficient trams into the city centre to take advantage of the best of the day. Dijon is a delightfully walkable city, with seemingly something interesting to see around every corner, as perhaps befits the capital of Burgundy, and ...
The political news of the week has been the by-election wins in Tiverton and Honiton, which fell to the Lib Dems, and Wakefield, which fell to Labour. This of course had no impact on Boris Johnson, forever imperious, impervious and delusional. He wants to be leading the Conservatives and the country until the mid-2030s. Locally, the Lib Dems were also successful. Along with wins in Kingston upon Thames and Waverley, Shropshire Lib Dems took the seat in Highley vacated by independent Dave Tremellen. Mark Williams victory takes Lib Dem numbers on the unitary Shropshire Council to 14, the second largest ...
I joined the Lib Dem Pod team shortly after the amazing win for Richard Foord in Tiverton & Honiton to discuss how it happened and what it means. See what Sam, Richard, John and I made of the result... Feedback very welcome, and do share this podcast with others who you think may enjoy it. Show notes Richard Foord's amazing win.The wonderful Frank Doran.The Lib Dem Pod – do go have a listen to their other episodes.Theme tune by Hugo Lee.New to listening to podcasts? Here are some tips on how to listen to podcasts. Enjoy the show? Spread the ...
I remember when I was first elected as a Councillor in 2014, I used to attend our monthly Councillor Surgeries. Although most of the time, they were not well attended, I often found it useful as it gave me an opportunity to talk to my fellow Councillors and discuss many issues, which needed to be addressed. So much has changed since 2014. It almost feels like we are living in a very different world. We had (and still have!) Brexit, the health pandemic with often no social interaction, and more recently the war in Ukraine. More importantly in this context, ...
Circles. Shared in underlying measurewith some swifts that flicker higher,deft and dark, obsessive on another prey; its cruel beak mewls plaintive callsbut also sates its blood's desire; it is a silent beatless soar of wingsoutstretched to ride the windin heedless majesty, against the void; arching once or twice towards a stall –an almost-stoop, a trigger not released [...]
Go back to the early 1970s and there were two British, piano-playing singer-songwriters beginning to find fame in America: Elton John and Gilbert O'Sullivan. I think it's fair to say that in those days they were seen as being equally talented, though Elton John had zero British number ones against Gilbert O'Sullivan's six. The suddenly it was decided that O'Sullivan was irredeemably naff, and the two have never been spoken off in the same breath since. Yet as he told a Guardian interviewer a couple of weeks ago, Gilbert O'Sullivan has never stopped writing songs. And now and then there ...
Sat, 16:04: The Cleveland conundrum, and more on Sarah�Locke https://t.co/mMGHvBO1Ny Sat, 17:57: RT @KateinWhitehead: @nwbrux I thoroughly recommend this book. Thought provoking and challenging. Sat, 19:10: Saturday reading https://t.co/vK8Q8PDpjd Sat, 20:27: RT @FloellaBenjamin: The girl in the National Windrush Monument represents me and all the children who arrived at #Waterloo Stn in the 50's... Sun, 10:45: The Art of Penguin Science Fiction https://t.co/vcX8wETXEL Lovely! </ul
Two weeks away in sunny Cornwall and hardle anything has changed. Boris Johnson's premiership is still in crisis, a situation exacerbated by a cracking Liberal Democrat victory in the Tiverton and Honiton by-election, petrol and energy prices continue to soar and the cost of living crisis remains a factor in all our lives. There are so many issues that have brought us to this position - the pandemic, the war in Ukraine, Brexit - to name but three, and we are where we are, but in terms of self-harm, Brexit must sit near the top of our problems. Now, realistically ...
Our prime minister is beleaguered, only he doesn't know it. He told the press pack in Rwanda that he intended to remain as prime minister until the mid-2030s. With members of his cabinet scheming against him and negative approval ratings in opinion polls, that looks unlikely. Both Johnson and some Conservative MPs are in denial about the message sent by the government by the public in Thursday's twin by-election defeats. At least two of Tory MPs have blamed the Tiverton and Honiton defeat on the "girls" (MPs to you and me) that shopped Neil Parish for his tractor porn antics ...
The paths to the rear of the Tullideph Road flats near to the north end of Loganlee Terrace are in a poor state of repair and unfortuntealy there have been falls there. See photo below. We raised this with the tenancy officer for the area who has since updated us as follows : "I was out at the property and had a look at the paths. From looking at the condition of the paths I have requested a site meeting with the repairs team to see what can be done to repair the paths. As soon as the site visit ...
