I am, as I've admitted in the past, the consummate Liberal Democrat bureaucrat. I have a seemingly unlimited curiosity about how the organisation works, read constitutions and standing orders because they matter and serve on committees so long as they interest me and I can make a contribution. I stood down from Federal International Relations Committee at the end of last year having not sought re-election. I felt that I had pretty much run out of purpose - the Committee is running well, it's far more politically effective than it was when it first emerged from the last Governance Review, ...
Welsh Government Not Monitoring GP Waiting Times HMRC and Zahawi investigation: Sunak must rule out a stitch up £220,000 Johnson bailout fund for "cost-of-lying crisis" Welsh Government Not Monitoring GP Waiting Times Information obtained by the Welsh Liberal Democrats shows the Welsh Government has no idea how long waiting times for GPs are across Wales. The Welsh Liberal Democrats claim this hinders the Welsh Government's ability to see where resources should be directed to help local health boards. The Welsh Government is not collecting data on how long GP waiting times are across Wales according to information uncovered by the ...
It was my last meeting as Leader of the Lib Dem group and Opposition in Gateshead today. Full council and my last duty was to move a Lib Dem motion on aiming to use surplus fruit from old orchards and people's gardens. The new Leader is Low Fell Councillor Ron Beadle. Taking over from Ron as Deputy Leader is Whickham North Councillor Chris Ord. I am of course remaining as Councillor subject of
I'm down so many rabbit holes at the moment that I feel like a portly ferret, but here's a little more on Eric Idle at the Phoenix Theatre in Leicester. The Leicester Daily Mercury for 7 December 1965 ran a short profile of him, complete with a Rutlesesque photo: Phoenix Face Cambridge graduate, Eric Idle, who has joined the Phoenix Theatre company for the current production "Oh, What A Lovely War" and "One For The Pot," gained his first theatrical experience with The Footlights company and the university's Amateur Drama Club. He went to the Edinburgh Festival for two consecutive ...
Dartmoor was the only area of England and Wales where under a local law there had been an assumed right to wild camp without the landowner's permission. However a High Court judge ruled earlier this month that this was legally wrong and permission was needed. That affects not only casual wild campers but also schemes such as the Duke of Edinburgh awards scheme. A limited agreement for camping access with some landowners on has been agreed. But concern remains that an already restricted right of access to camp is being restricted further. Following the decision, wild camping outside of a ...
The church hall at St Hugh's in Granville Street, Market Harborough, is on the market for £215,000 and "suitable for a variety of commercial, community and residential uses". Its sale must be connected with plans to adapt the church itself for more community use. I took these photos of it this lunchtime. St Hugh's began as one of those flatpack 'tin tabernacle', which means that the hall used to be more substantial than the church. You can read about how practical these corrugated iron churches were for worship in another Liberal England post about St Hugh's. The tin tabernacle served ...
Tim Farron spoke in a Westminster Hall debate on steel production yesterday: Steel is vital to our green economy. As Britain decarbonises with new infrastructure based on steel, let us make sure that we also decarbonise the processes we use to make that steel. His comments come in the shadow of the government approving the controversial Woodhouse coal mine in Whitehaven, the first deep coal mine in England since 1986. The steel industry is so important to our economy and so we must support it. But we should back it by helping it decarbonise and invest in long-term, renewable jobs ...
Liberal Democrat controlled Bath and North East Somerset Council has become the first council in England to adopt an energy-based net zero housing policy as part of its commitment to tackling the climate emergency. The new housing development policy will ensure the energy use of any proposed development is measured and meets a specified target — setting a limit on the total energy use and demand for space heating. It will also require sufficient on-site renewable energy generation to match the total energy consumption of the buildings — ensuring the development is 100% self-sufficient. New policies will also address building ...
The Independent reports that Britain's creative industries are missing out on more than £160m in EU funding because of Brexit. They say this loss follows the Conservative government's decision to pull the UK out of the EU's Creative Europe project - which helps fund the continent's arts and culture sector - during the Brexit negotiations: Brussels recently increased the budget of its flagship cultural programme by 66 per cent to £2.1bn for the period running up until 2027. The UK Trade and Business Commission estimated that without Brexit, the UK's creative sectors would have received an extra £163m from the ...
Despite being a Labour MP, House of Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle is opposed to Labour's plan to replace the House of Lords with an elected chamber. His view is that it would undermine the authority of the House of Commons. This has always been the problem with attempts to reform the Upper House. Change it into something democratic and accountable, and you are bound to ask why it doesn't have more power. Leave it as a Ruritanian collection of robed elders, and you can defend putting limits on what it can do. For Hoyle it has a part in ...
We received concerns in the New Year from Seafield Lane residents about further power outages for households served by the electricity sub-station in Seafield Road. We contacted SSE about this and have been updated as follows : "Unfortunately we are aware of an ongoing fault on one of the underground cables at Seafield Lane in Dundee. Every time this has faulted, it has blown the fuses at the substation, we have been able to restore power by replacing the fuse. To build expectations, this will continue to happen until we can identify the exact location of the cable fault. The ...
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