It is Halloween and this morning, while I was delivering Focus newsletters in Sunniside, I spotted this garden full of Halloween figures. Someone has certainly put in a big effort.Meanwhile, heading home after feeding the livestock and I encounter a T-Rex on Gateshead Road!
The latest edition of eFocus for Birtley was published tonight. The main issue covered is Gateshead Council's threat to Birtley Sports Hall. Other issues covered include the removal of the footbridge over the A1 and plans to build 22 new houses. You can ready eFocus on this link.
Our political system is broken. We need to fix it. Find out how in the October Lib Dem Newswire.
The Liberal Democrats have selected Bowbrook councillor and NHS campaigner Alex Wagner to stand for Shrewsbury and Atcham at the next general election. reports the Shropshire Star, whose readers will know that Bowbrook is a locale in the North West of Shrewsbury. Shropshire Lib Dems have achieved wonders in local elections over the past few years, and that record of success had a lot to do with the party being able to come from third place to win the North Shropshire parliamentary by-election last December. Shrewsbury is a seat that both the Lib Dems and Labour will have in their ...
COP27: Boris Johnson embarrassing Rishi Sunak into attendance Braverman: One rule for Conservative Ministers and another rule for everyone else Scandal-ridden Home Secretary has no credibility left Suella Braverman Risks Inciting Violence - Jane Dodds COP27: Boris Johnson embarrassing Rishi Sunak into attendance As Rishi Sunak refuses to confirm his attendance at COP27, Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Energy and Climate Change, Wera Hobhouse MP said: It shouldn't take Boris Johnson going to COP to embarrass Rishi Sunak into doing the right thing. He must immediately confirm his attendance at COP27 and appoint a climate minister to the Cabinet. We cannot ...
I used to have bed and breakfast regularly at a house in Shropshire whose core was medieval - it's not the one in the picture.. The owner told me she had once found her young son sitting on the landing with his colouring book. When asked why he wasn't using his bedroom, he replied matter-of-factly: "The people are being a bit of a nuisance." Now read another ghostly story from Shropshire that involves children.
The latest edition of my weekly political polling round-up, The Week in Polls, is now out. As it says: Having been quite down on the Conservative Party's standing in the polls in recent editions of The Week in Polls, let's start with some good news for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. 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:
I thought I knew you, as a lover and a friend: Your boldness and your complex fears,Your mix of promiscuity and love; Your voice, your openness, your tolerance –or your fixed and negative opinions Your passions and your absences,Your strength and physicality and grace;Your focus on correctness –even with a word or few too many Your kindness [...]
One of my favourite journalists died on Friday. Ian Jack was 77 and writing as well as ever up to the day he died. The Guardian has an obituary of him and also an article in which six people pay tribute to him and choose their favourites among his articles. My own is his piece from June 2021 on the decline of Rothesay, which left me with a strong desire to visit the resort:Lack of demand ended the hotel's cold-bath and wet-blanket therapies in the 1930s, but its superior atmosphere survived into the last decades of the last century, when ...
Adding to my earlier report of Liberal Democrats winning town and parish council seats due to standing in by-elections where no-one else put up a candidate, here's news of a bigger prize: control of Royal Wootton Bassett Town Council. In May 2021, the Lib Dems won nine out of the 18 seats to nine also for the Conservatives, ending decades of outright Conservative control. But now with Martin Denz standing in a town council by-election and no-one else putting up, the Lib Dems have gained at tenth seat, getting overall control of the council. It really is a good idea ...
I used to do this regularly, primarily because the party's press releases seldom mention the work of the Lords Parliamentary Party. Perhaps it is time to reincarnate this feature... Time once again to return to the red benches at the more dignified end of the Palace of Westminster, for a preview of events this week, and in particular the Liberal Democrat highlights. Monday is a relatively low-profile day for the Liberal Democrat peers, with the Third Reading of the Social Housing (Regulation) Bill and the more controversial Northern Ireland Protocol Bill reaching its Committee Stage. Incidentally, it's a sign of ...
Sun, 12:56: RT @derektmuller: Birth year of winning candidate of the last eight presidential elections: 1946 1946 1946 1946 1961 1961 1946 1942 Sun, 13:05: Neighborhood barbecue on what is likely to be the last warm weekend of the year. https://t.co/COdKyxXbIq Sun, 14:48: RT @bbcdoctorwho: "I think we're going to be here for quite some time!" 💙💙➕🔥 #DoctorWho 📸: @jamespardon https://t.co/sAj5yyoUgS Sun, 16:05: RT @ashleylynch: Christ, the guy who tried to murder Pelosi's husband with a hammer says on his blog he was radicalized by gamergate. https... Sun, 16:58: September 2018 books https://t.co/8x25jyw0yS Sun, 19:00: RT @friendoface: 🚨 GIVEAWAY! 🚨 ...
Frontline Events Ltd has withdrawn its application for a change of use of land at Rock Hill Farm, Greete, south west of Ludlow (22/03770/FUL). The application has been controversial with more than 70 local people objecting on the grounds that this quiet, rural location is not suitable for war gaming events and the level of traffic the events would generate. Richard Huffer is Shropshire councillor for Clee division, which includes Greete parish. He said last week: "Greete is down narrow, twisting backroads while are often a single carriageway width. It is totally unacceptable place for events that will generate a ...
One would have thought that after the saga of Liz Truss's phone being hacked by the Russians, the use of a personal email account by the Home Secretary to leak confidential information, Boris Johnson's moble phone number being publicised on the internet and even the controversy over Hillary Clinton's emails, the alarm would have been raised amongst Tory Ministers, but nobody appears to have being paying attention. According to the Guardian, intelligence experts and former officials have warned that Ministers risk creating "wild west" conditions in matters of national security by the increased use of personal email and phones to ...
Mon 31st
07:31
Welcome to my day: 31 October 2022 - whatever happened to Grigori Zinoviev, anyway?...
Historians amongst our readers might recall the "Zinoviev letter", published on 25 October 1924, just four days before the General Election of that year, in which the Daily Mail suggested that the normalisation of UK relations with the Soviet Union under a Labour government would radicalise the British working class and put the Communist Party of Great Britain in a favourable position to pursue a Bolshevik-style revolution. It was, of course, a hoax but did its job, leading to a huge Conservative win and, in the process, the crushing of the Liberals. The notion that Labour might be the opportunity ...
DUNDEE CITY COUNCIL - WEEKLY ROAD REPORT REPORT FOR THE WEST END WARD - WEEK COMMENCING MONDAY 31 OCTOBER 2022 Miller's Wynd - closed until 26 December 2022 at its junction with Hawkhill for major construction works. Guthrie Street (Brown Street to West Marketgait) - closed from Monday 31 October for 3 weeks for Scottish and Southern Energy Network work. Forthcoming Roadworks Dunmore Gardens and Dunmore Drive - full closure of both roads for carriageway resurfacing from 9 November for 5 days. Milnbank Road - closed westbound from junction of Bankmill Road for 4 days from 15 November for ground ...
