Rishi standing: The Chancellor that hiked taxes on hardworking families and lost billions of pounds Zahawi backs Boris: Beyond belief Boris Johnson out: Leadership contest has become a total farce Rishi standing: The Chancellor that hiked taxes on hardworking families and lost billions of pounds Responding to Rishi Sunak's announcement that he is standing in the Conservative leadership election, Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Daisy Cooper MP said Rishi Sunak cannot be trusted to steer our country through this cost of living crisis. He was the Chancellor that hiked taxes on hardworking families and lost billions of pounds of ...
I welcome guest posts on Liberal England. Not only that: I'm happy to publish posts on subjects far beyond the Liberal Democrats and British politics. If you'd like to write something for this blog, please send me an email so we can discuss your idea. I'm happy to entertain a wide variety of views, but I'd hate you to spend your time writing something I really wouldn't want to publish. Here are the 10 most recent guest posts on Liberal England: Carry On up the Brexit - Stuart WhomsleyWhy the Progressive Alliance is irrelevant in Batley and Spen - Matthew ...
If I were Rishi Sunak, I wouldn't feel too happy about Boris Johnson's statement tonight. The disgraced former PM said that he had 102 MPs willing to nominate him, though only a few shy of 60 have been willing to own that publicly. However, he said that he was not going to submit his nomination because: You can't govern effectively unless you have a united party in parliament. There's an undercurrent of "and neither can you, Rishi." He is showing the likely soon to be PM that he is going to have some shenanigans to deal with in the parliamentary ...
It's going to be hard to write this post without spoilers for See How They Run and even The Mousetrap, but I'll make sure I give fair warning of any that occur. It's fair, though, to say that the identity of the murderer in The Mousetrap is only a secret if you want it to be: you have only to read the play's Wikipedia entry to discover it. There are at least two full performances of the play on YouTube and you can find the complete script online too. You can even hear Tom Holland blurting out the killer's identity ...
I was on Church Green in Whickham this morning helping the volunteers from Planting Up Whickham to strip the flowerbeds ready for replanting next week. My job was to take all the waste to my farm where it will be rotted down to make compost. The beds will be replanted next Sunday.
Sun 23rd
15:09
Do 1 in 10 Liz Truss supporters really think she exceeded their expectations? - The Week in Polls
The latest edition of my weekly political polling round-up, The Week in Polls, is now out. As it says: Most political polling coverage recently has been about how awful Liz Truss's numbers became. So I'm going to do something different. Here's a surprisingly high polling number for our shortest-serving Prime Minister. Find out more by reading The Week in Polls in full here, and you can sign up below to receive future editions direct to your email inbox:
3.10 to Yuma is a 1957 Western starring Van Hefflin, who had also appeared in Shane as Joe Starrett. This, its theme song, was recorded by Sandy Denny and Johnny Silvo for their 1967 album Sandy & Johnny, though I think this is not the take that appears on the record. Sandy Denny has appeared on this blog several times, so let's talk about Johnny Silvo. He died in 2012 at the age of 75, and his Independent obituary is worth a read: Johnny Silvo was the sort of populist folk singer for whom Britain's folk scene coined the expression ...
Embed from Getty ImagesAfter a long lie-down in a darkened room, it's very good to be back with the LDV team. Such a crazy time in UK politics might tempt us to look to the USA mid-term elections for some light relief. Sadly, disappointment awaits us at the other side of the pond. I doubt whether the US mid-term election results will provide any light. Indeed, a great deal of heat and frustration is likely to accompany the outcome. I won't, for a second, make any predictions, aside from advising all to adopt the brace position. Prepare for whatever you ...
I was absolutely horrified when I saw what happened last weekend outside the Chinese Consulate in Manchester last weekend. It is now absolutely clear that the Consul General, Zheng Wiyuan, was involved in an affray which led to the beating ... Continue reading →
Sat, 16:58: Hooray! Daily #251 1️⃣1️⃣⬛1️⃣7️⃣ 1️⃣2️⃣⬛1️⃣8️⃣ 1️⃣9️⃣⬛0️⃣4️⃣ 1️⃣3️⃣⬛1️⃣4️⃣ 0️⃣5️⃣⬛0️⃣6️⃣ 1️⃣5️⃣⬛0️⃣7️⃣ 1️⃣6️⃣⬛0️⃣8️⃣ 0️⃣9️⃣⬛1️⃣0️⃣ https://t.co/1E46GFGhS3 #sedecordle Sat, 17:03: Dynamite from my old friend @GregHands, who refused the job of Northern Ireland Secretary when a desperate Boris offered it to him in July. (I had not seen that reported anywhere else.) https://t.co/jpUtAfBqMT Sat, 19:42: Saturday reading https://t.co/SPSUpIpigL Sat, 19:55: 12 Years a Slave, and Twelve Years a�Slave https://t.co/NyCwiaruir Sat, 20:22: RT @lordbonkers: @nwbrux John Fowles's widow told me that he used to read it every year. Sat, 20:48: From fighter to quitter: the 'weird' rise and fall of Liz Truss https://t.co/9zcLQDRXjy "Although ...
t's tempting seeing the fall in the Tory poll ratings and the turmoil in Government as presaging a disastrous General Election for them. But we have been here before - in the early summer of 2019 they were regular getting polls ratings in the 17-24% range and they lost 1,300 councillors that May and yet they went on to win a General Election a few months later. If there is one thing we know about the electorate it is that it has become hugely volatile with voters much more willing to switch parties which is great in many ways but ...
The (official) Lib Dem Tech Blog reports on another welcome improvement in the party's computer systems: As part of the party's project to update our technology, how we pay your membership rebate & incentive scheme payments is changing. These will now be paid monthly, rather than quarterly. This change is taking place because in addition to the payments you're used to, these will also contain money you've collected via our new events tool, Eventcube and the forthcoming donation tools that are part of [the new website system] Fleet... Changes will be made soon to show the full breakdown of new ...
As did Liz Truss before them, the next Prime Minister will face an extremely challenging in-try.
Ukraine Good news/bad news on the Ukraine front. Good news is that Ukrainian military are now making progress. It is also good news that Vladimir Putin has declared martial law in the parts of Ukraine he recently annexed and imposed lesser but still severe restrictions on other parts of Russia. The crackdown is a sure sign of lack of public support. Bad news that the Russians have started bombing Ukrainian power generating and water pumping stations. So far about a third of the country has lost power. It will be a dark, cold winter for Ukrainians who may also lose ...
Polly Pullar comes to Blackness Library next Saturday - 29th October - for a talk following the publication of her new book, The Horizontal Oak: A Life in Nature. Polly is a renowned wildlife expert, journalist and photographer. She will discuss her new book which includes her experiences of a childhood spent in a remote corner of the West Highlands and her love of nature and wildlife but also touches on the family tragedies she experienced while growing up. The session will be followed by an opportunity for questions from the audience. There will be a book sale and signing ...
