Brentford was where the Grand Union Canal met the tidal Thames. So by the time Brunel's branch opened in 1859 (the year of his death) the town was already an established inland port. Goods were transhipped from the canal and the new railway on to barges and sent down the river to the Pool of London to be shipped around the world. And the reverse process happened, with goods from abroad being distributed around the country by railway and canal. Jago Hazzard gives the history of the Brentford branch in this characteristically engaging video. In recent years there has been ...
This extraordinary leaflet did not help the Conservatives in the Hampstead Town ward by-election yesterday. The seat was gained for the Liberal Democrats by Linda Chung and we send her our congratulations. But it does tell you what Conservative voters had been saying about Boris Johnson on the doorstep. In May the Hampstead Town ward had elected one Labour and one Conservative councillor to Camden Borough Council. But the Labour one had been a paper candidate and had already accepted a job elsewhere in the country when he was woken in the small hours to be told he had been ...
Seven Liberal Democrat candidates for the ten principal local authority seats up for election this week, though two of the ten are for the City of London Corporation which the party does not contest so it's really seven out of eight. The oddest by-election was the one for Hampstead Town in Camden. In May it was a surprise Labour gain from the Conservatives, with the Labour candidate, having expected to be well out of the race, being rung at home and woken up to come to the count when it turned out he was going to win. He has since ...
Last month, around the time of the Tories' own internal no confidence vote, Ed Davey called tabled a no confidence motion in Parliament. At that stage it had no hope of succeeding, but was clearly stating the Lib Dem position on Boris Johnson as PM. Today Angela Rayner is publicly voicing support for the idea. She says Labour will call for a no confidence vote if Boris Johnson is still in post on Monday. Ed Davey has said he will back it. Of course, the motion will only succeed if it some disgruntled Tories vote for it – but there ...
Thu, 12:31: RT @JohnHyde1982: Love the attention to detail on the Wikipedia page for the Secretary of State for Education. https://t.co/LTaDVMHsHv Thu, 12:34: Best of luck to @GregClarkMP ! https://t.co/cLGqF7fCs7 Thu, 12:42: RT @10DowningStreet: The Rt Hon Greg Clark MP @GregClarkMP has been appointed Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities... Thu, 12:56: RT @wernerhoyer: Sadly @POLITICOEurope it's not true that I was a vocalist at the Scorpions, much as I would like to have been. Still, I am... Thu, 13:19: RT @10DowningStreet: Shailesh Vara MP @ShaileshVara has been appointed Secretary of State for Northern Ireland @NIOgov. https://t.co/s0SR4Z... ...
On Tuesday evening, I proposed a motion to Bristol City Council entitled "Trans Rights are Human Rights". This had been put together locally by Councillors and activists from Lib Dems, Labour, and the Green Party as well as non-party people - and was seconded by a Green Party member of council. I am indebted to them for their hard work, and to the Councillors who supported it on the night: bar some abstentions, and Tory votes against, the motion was overwhelmingly passed. The motion can be found here, and my speech was as follows: This is the week of Bristol's ...
With thanks to the Led by Donkeys website
Hello! I'm Mark Pack, author of Polling UnPacked: The History, Uses and Abuses of Political Opinion Polls, as well as 101 Ways To Win An Election and Bad News: what the headlines don't tell us. Welcome to my summary of the latest national voting intention poll from each pollster currently operating in Britain. Below the table, you'll find the option to sign up to email updates about new polls and also a set of answers to frequently asked questions about political polling. Or, if you'd like to find out more about how polls work, how reliable they are and how ...
Here's the latest tally of seats changing hands in principal authority council by-elections held since the last May round of local elections.
Amid the political maelstrom of Wednesday, MPs found time to debate the continuing ambulance crisis (video). The debate was led by Wera Hobhouse, Lib Dem MP for Bath. There were important contributions made by Lib Dem, Labour and Conservative members. The government response was given by the Minister for Health, Edward Argar. His view seemed to be that the problems are not as bad Lib Dem, Labour and some Conservative members were suggesting and where there are problems, they are being solved. Watching the debate, I had the distinct impression if MPs were allowed to a appear in fancy dress ...
