The photos we took at the Whickham Remembrance Sunday parade and wreath laying service are now uploaded to my Flickr site. You can view them all on this link.
Squeezed middled pushed to the brink by Conservative's Cost of Chaos budget IFS analysis: Conservative ministers are economic vandals Squeezed middled pushed to the brink by Conservative's Cost of Chaos budget In response to Chancellor Jeremy Hunt's morning round following yesterday's Autumn Statement, Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson Sarah Olney said: Struggling families who have worked hard for years have had their security stolen by this Conservative Government. While non-doms and big banks got off lightly, the already squeezed middle are being pushed to the brink. Those working day-in, day-out are having to choose between food or heating, mortgage payments or ...
From the blurb on YouTube Waterfield Fort was at the top of St John's Street, exactly where Spa Green Estate stands today, linked eastwards by trenches running along Sebastian Street to a huge fort at Mount Mills off the Goswell Road. Westwards, the lines cut to New River Head's circular reservoir and on to Mount Pleasant, east of Black Mary's Hole and another city dump. In between, a covered walkway was cut up the hill that is now Amwell Street, to Islington Pond, which would soon became the extant reservoir in Claremont Square. The author, Guy Mannes Abbott, makes the ...
The West Midlands is haunted by two unsolved wartime murders. In 1943 some boys up to no good in Hagley Wood, Worcestershire, found the remains of a woman in a hollow elm tree. Despite extensive inquiries, the police were unable to establish the identity of the victim or identify her killer. Wikipedia takes up the story: In 1944, a graffiti message, related to the mystery, appeared on a wall in Upper Dean Street, Birmingham, reading Who put Bella down the Wych Elm - Hagley Wood. This provided investigators with several new leads for tracing who the victim could have been. ...
This week marks 19 years since the repeal of Section 28 of the Local Government Act in England and Wales, a landmark date for LGBTQ+ equality ensured by the Liberal Democrats. Introduced by Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government in 1988, Section 28 (or Clause 2a in Scotland) was a controversial and dangerous legislative amendment to the Local Government Act, which sought to 'prohibit the promotion of homosexuality by local authorities.' The introduction of Section 28 was of little surprise to many campaigners following Thatcher's address at the 1987 Conservative party Conference where she stated: Too often, our children don't get the ...
A stonking eight by-elections were held in the mid-November chill yesterday. While we may have only stood candidates in 50% of these, our presence was certainly known where we did. The Conservatives had a poor showing, losing both defences to Labour. Scraping a win in Darwen South Ward, the latter's eyewatering 7-vote majority in Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council highlights Liberal Democrat Mark Davies' 137 votes. Congratulations to Mark for standing! In a similar vein, Greenlands Ward in Blackpool saw Kev Benfold secure 77 votes alongside Labour's slender 32-vote majority over the Conservatives. Even more impressive was Kev standing in ...
Every so often, the LDV team looks at how we do things. We think about how we want to run the site in a way that we can all be comfortable with. We've had a look at our editorial policy and we have agreed to make some changes which reflect our current practice. We have never aligned ourselves with any supposed wing or faction of the party, which is a good thing as they change all the time. We've published a wide range of articles and viewpoints, many of which we personally disagree with, because we want to facilitate debate ...
In spite of two weeks of carefully primed leaks intended to give the impression of a brave government wanting to be caring but forced by circumstances (wholly beyond their control!) forced to do the right and responsible thing,yesterday's mini-budget has received a bad press. The Tories will have expected the scathing headlines from the Mirror ("Carnage") and the Guardian ("From Bad to Worse"), but their normally sycophantic supporters were similarly critical: the Daily Mail ("Tories Soak the Strivers") and The Times ("Years of Tax Pain Ahead.). The one which will cause Jeremy Hunt to wince most is the Telegraph's "The ...
So, I fought two elections and emerged with a 50% success rate. Given that I don't generally benefit from group endorsements, and am not wildly keen on "slates", I rely more than some on the friends I've made over the years and the strength of my manifesto. Luckily, longevity and a willingness to do those jobs that people need doing but would rather not do themselves, means that I know a lot of people (or, rather more importantly, they know me). A study of the endless count sheets for Federal Council will show that there was one candidate who was ...
Four out of the eight principal authority council by-elections this week had Lib Dem candidates, the same number as the last time these seats were up. Greenlands (Blackpool) Council By-Election Result: LAB: 48.0% (-0.1) CON: 45.2% (-6.6) LDM: 6.7% (New) Labour GAIN from Conservative. Changes w/ 2019. — Election Maps UK (@ElectionMapsUK) November 17, 2022
Following on from Michael Heseltine's demolition of Brexit yesterday, the Independent reports on evidence given by a member of the bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) to parliament's treasury committee. Dr Swati Dhingra said British workers had taken a 2 per cent real terms cut in their wages due to the UK's departure from the EU, while Brexit has added 6 per cent to UK food prices. Living standards are under immense pressure around the globe this year due to record inflation, particularly in food and energy prices, but Dr Dhingra said Britain would suffer more as a direct ...
In line with the requirements of the council's Local Development Plan, back in 2019, city council planners consulted on a proposed Design Framework for the future development of the Blackness General Economic Development Area. This covers the industrial area north of the Hawkhill by-pass to Lochee Road running from West Marketgait in the east to Lower Pleasance in the west. The framework was subject to a six week consultation, including a drop-in event at Verdant Works that Fraser attended, in the heart of the area. The concept was to unlock the potential of the area to bring vacant, derelict or ...
