Going into yesterday's elections, the expectation was that the Democrats would be hard pressed to repel the five seat swing required by the Republicans to win control of the House. But, as it turned out, the task is made easier if you have extremist candidates carrying the red banner, and you threaten abortion rights in a country where the majority favour abortion rights with some, usually mainstream, restrictions. And so far, that's how it seems to be playing. Of the sixty-four seats judged to be in play by the Cook Political Report, forty-five Democrat-held to just nineteen Republican-held, as I ...
A delayed bit of video editing but here is the video I shot on 30th October in Whickham when I joined other volunteers from Planting Up Whickham to plant up the flower beds on Church Green.
HFM News has the news about the Boundary Commission's final proposals for Leicestershire. The idea of a radical redrawing of boundaries within the county has been dropped, with the result that the Harborough constituency will keep its spine of Oadby, Wigston, Kibworth and Market Harborough. As the trend has been at many boundary views now, the proposals would mean more villages will be moved into other constituencies. Fleckney, Saddington, Husbands Bosworth and the Kilworths would move into the South Leicestershire constituency, while villages in the north of the District, along with Hallaton and Melbourne, would become part of a new ...
A Liberal Democrat press release brings the news: The Liberal Democrats have written to the Forfeiture Committee, calling for Gavin Williamson to be stripped of his knighthood if the complaints against him are upheld. In a letter to the committee's chair Sir Chris Wormald, Liberal Democrat Chief Whip Wendy Chamberlain said that the serious allegations against Williamson risked bringing the whole honours system into disrepute. She also called on Rishi Sunak to confirm he would back taking away Gavin Williamson's knighthood if the investigations into his behaviour find him guilty. The Forfeiture Committee has the powers to take away knighthoods ...
Wed, 10:45: Farewell to @SirDavidButler, the patron saint of psephology, who entertained us all by joining Twitter for a few months in 2017 when he was 92. And apart from that contributed massively to our wisdom and knowledge about elections! https://t.co/HsnSuGdJgw Wed, 12:56: Strong and stable. https://t.co/ru39fix9bx Wed, 16:05: Reading the Power Dynamics of Gender in Ovid's Metamorphoses ‹ Literary Hub https://t.co/PlZEyZspSo Wed, 17:06: RT @wartranslated: Moment Surovikin and Shoygu admit defeat in the Kherson direction and announce the withdrawal of troops. https://t.co/10... Wed, 18:26: Welcome to the Doomsphere: Sad Puppies, Hugos, and Politics,�by Matthew M.�Foster https://t.co/lx71NGgWXr Wed, 20:48: RT ...
The Washington Post wins our Headline of the Day Award. After thanking a reader for this nomination, the judges were heard muttering "only in America".
Sarah Olney was granted an adjournment debate yesterday, so took the opportunity to visit an issue that plagues her constituency – aircraft noise, especially at night. She was joined by her neighbouring MP, Munira Wilson, whose Twickenham constituency is affected even more. Christine Jardine and Wera Hobhouse also chipped in. Who knew so many Lib Dem constituencies had this problem? You can read the full debate in Hansard, but here are some highlights. Sarah Olney: Night flights are the most intrusive form of aircraft noise and there is clear evidence that they harm both the physical and mental health of ...
Wed 9th
12:08
The Boundary Commission for England reports... can I see three constituencies from my house?
I currently live in Bury St Edmunds constituency, Conservative majority 24,988. The Liberal Democrats didn't contest it in 2019 - it was one of the seats ceded to the Greens for little effect (they came third with 15.7% of the vote). And the new proposals move Creeting St Peter into the revised Central Suffolk and North Ipswich constituency in the centre of the map, I've marked us with a green dot. This represents a return to where we were prior to the last boundary changes but what is interesting is the significant redrafting from the previous proposals. Suffolk still moves ...
I decided not to stay up all night to watch the US mid term election results come in. It felt like self-inflicted punishment. When I woke this morning I discovered the news was not as bad as many feared. The election results seem to be more of a ripple than a red Trump wave. It looks as though the Republicans will win control of the House of Representatives but with a much smaller majority than
Good morning, and welcome to our further coverage of the critical US midterm elections. Many thanks to Paul Walter, who set the scene yesterday. On the plus side, it looks as though the 'red tsunami' only just made it to the shoreline, but the prospects still look on the gloomy side. We'll start with the knife edge that is the Senate, where just one flipped seat (net) would hand control to the Republicans. Starting with Paul's 'five to watch': New Hampshire was, traditionally, a Republican bastion in New England but, as the southern part of the state has seen a ...
Lib Dem peer John Sharkey has written in Politics Home under the headline "We must protect the triple lock on pensions ahead of a difficult winter". He writes: For the second time in a month, pensioners have been plunged into uncertainty over the future of their payments with the new Prime Minister refusing to take anything off the table ahead of the fiscal statement. The triple lock was a core Liberal Democrat policy brought in by the Coalition government and we are determined to protect it throughout this turbulent time in politics. This is in spite of the pledge by ...
The BBC reports that Welsh government ministers have decided not to attend the COP27 climate summit in Egypt in order to limit their air miles, instead they are going to attend December's COP15 on biodiversity in Canada. All this is very laudable of course, but as Welsh Liberal Democrats leader, Jane Dodds asks: "Why does the Welsh government consider going to COP27 an inappropriate use of air miles on the one hand, yet they are ploughing ahead on an inappropriate trip to Qatar on the other hand? "The planned visit to Qatar by three Labour ministers is totally unnecessary and ...
We have been in correspondence with the council's Public Art Officer and the creator of the West Port Pyramid and Canopies sculptured artwork Stan Bonnar and are pleased that there has now been given some long overdue tender loving care, with the paintwork washed on the canopies and removal of the unsightly rails round it. The Public Art Officer hopes to have a further upgrade of the sculpture and to include the seats as part of this - and we will keep residents updated on this.
Last week I gave my talk on the lost forts of Whickham to the Sunniside History Society. Double the number of people attended the meeting so it was clearly a subject of some interest. I'm pleased to report the talk went down well and I've had comments since from local residents that they attended and enjoyed the presentation. My next talk is to the U3A in February when I will be speaking about
