Hunt's speech is cold comfort for families and pensioners Responding to Jeremy Hunt's speech this morning, Liberal Democrat Treasury Spokesperson Sarah Olney MP said: This Conservative party sounds like an unfaithful partner asking for yet another chance – but after crashing the economy and sending mortgages sky-high – why should we trust them again? Jeremy Hunt's speech is cold comfort for families and pensioners facing unbearable price rises. This Government's economic record is nothing less than a shambles and the British public will see right through this desperate attempt by yet another Conservative Chancellor to rewrite history.
I was asked at a recent Parish Council about the action we have taken towards Suffolk's goal of being carbon neutral by 2030. And yes, even a tiny parish like Creeting St Peter can make a contribution, as Ros noted yesterday... My Lords, I too thank the noble Baroness, Lady Hayman, for securing today's debate so soon after the publication of this excellent report. In his report, Skidmore says that"there must be more place-based, locally led action on net zero. Our local areas and communities want to act on net zero, but too often government gets in the way. The ...
"This book is a short sharp shock. It's delivery is thoughtful, reflective but also unflinching. It is hard to believe that an ethnic group that experienced an organised genocide within living memory is having their concerns for safety trivialised by many." Zachary Barker reviews Jew Don't Count by David Baddiel. Stella Perott argues that the response of Jonathan Gullis to the disappearance of 200 asylum-seeking children is: "very reminiscent of the views of teachers, social workers and police officers when teenage girls from Rotherham, Oxford and other UK cities were trafficked and sexually abused by older men. The underlying assumption ...
Those of us who worry that the Liberal Democrat vote is not going up when the Conservative vote is going down will be encouraged by the result of yesterday's only local by-election: Keppel (Rotheram) Council By-Election Result: LAB: 36.1% (+4.6) LDM: 21.6% (+14.7) IND: 18.5% (New) YP: 15.2% (New) CON: 5.8% (-18.2) GRN: 2.9% (New) No Localists (-37.7) as previous. Labour GAIN from Localist. Changes w/ 2021. — Election Maps UK (@ElectionMapsUK) January 27, 2023 It's dangerous to read too much into one local by-election result, when turnouts can he so low. And, as the indispensable weekly by-election preview by ...
Laying the groundwork in the north... A solitary by-election occurred this week, in Rotherham Council. In 2021, Keppel ward returned 2 Labour and 1 localist councillor, of the Rotherham Democratic Party. Last night saw a surge of 12% in the Lib Dem vote, with Khoulod Ghanem achieving 445 votes, 300 behind Labour. Also notable was the collapse in Conservative vote, going down by 25% compared to the previous election in this ward. Rotherham is a region where we're a growing presence, gaining 3 seats in 2021. This is a fantastic result for the party making in-roads to new areas of ...
Outer Mongolia is a very large independent truly democratic country, landlocked between a pair multi-ethnic giant empires: the sprawling Russian Federation and the multi-ethic Inner Mongolia within the realm of China. Mongolia enjoyed a huge economic boom from investments by the Soviet Union and its Comecon satellites in eastern Europe notably East Germany, Bulgaria, Czechoslavakia and Poland. The Mongol workers and elite became fluent bilingual Russian-Mongolian, and a second huge construction boom in military construction ensued as a bulwark against China in the Soviet-China Cold War. At the peak of booms, disintegration of the Soviet Block and Comecon triggered immediate ...
There are few books that I have read which have made me stop, think and completely re-evaluate my world view. "Jews don't count" by David Baddiel was one of them and without a doubt the most important book I read last year. The author's argument is simple. There is a gap in the UK and much of the West for recognising Anti-Semitism and standing up against it. He directs his argument not against would be racists but quite deliberately at those who see themselves as progressives. The author frankly states that his personal belief as a British Jew that progressives ...
Thu, 12:52: RT @Tom_deWaal: On the #Karabakh blockade, Russia's weakness and inaction, the security vacuum in the Caucasus, and the challenge to the EU... Thu, 18:38: "The Mountains of Mourning" by Lois McMaster Bujold https://t.co/pfZNjUJ7Yb Fri, 10:45: Sal Piro Dead: 'Rocky Horror' Superfan, Subject Of Upcoming Movie https://t.co/99szdWnBxY
The new Federal Conference Committee had its first motion selection meeting on Saturday, 21 January to run through the motions on the agenda for the Spring 2023 conference in York - the dates for conference at 17 to 19 March 2023. If you haven't had a chance to register yet for conference, you can do so here. Going back a little further, at the end of 2022 the committee met shortly after the new federal elections and elected its officers, established its subcommittees, and started work on preparing objectives and a work plan for the term of office. I am ...
The Guardian reports on the findings of a National Audit Office investigation that the Department of Health wasted a total of £15bn on unused personal protective equipment, Covid tests and vaccines. They say that the department spent £8.9bn during 2020/21 and another £6bn last year on such supplies, including masks and gowns for NHS staff that have proved unuseable and are now being burned: The sums were revealed in the Department for Health and Social Care's (DHSC) annual accounts and report for 2021/22, published on Thursday, and highlighted in a highly critical assessment issued by the National Audit Office (NAO). ...
A Liberal Democrat press release brings the news: Conservative MPs vote through "pathetic" target of 80% reduction of phosphates in rivers by 2038 Lib Dems slam "betrayal" of public who are demanding tougher action on water companies Conservative MPs voted through a new statutory instrument (SI) setting new targets to reduce water pollution (The Environmental Targets (Water) (England) Regulations 2022). Under the Environment Act the government is obliged to bring forward new binding environmental targets. Sewage dumping monitors missing or broken on a huge scaleMonitors being used for measuring the amount of sewage being pumped into the sea across the ...
Just the one principal authority council by-election this week, in Rotherham which both saw Labour gain the seat and an impressive improvement in the Lib Dem result: Keppel (Rotheram) Council By-Election Result: LAB: 36.1% (+4.6) LDM: 21.6% (+14.7) IND: 18.5% (New) YSP: 15.2% (New) CON: 5.8% (-18.2) GRN: 2.9% (New) No Localists (-37.7) as previous. Labour GAIN from Localist. Changes w/ 2021. — Election Maps UK (@ElectionMapsUK) January 27, 2023
The City Council is asking residents to renew their garden waste permits for 2023 following the opening of the permit's ordering system. Householders are being urged to plan ahead to ensure they are signed up in advance of the first collections in March. The cost of a permit is £42.50 per bin and covers the 20 collections allocated to eligible households across this year. The Liberal Democrat group has always objected to the charge and in fact proposed it be cut - not increased - at the 2022 council revenue budget. Unfortunately, the other parties on the council voted that ...
From Primo Levi's "The Truce." After his abandonment in the concentration camp, accompanied by "a Greek," and walking towards Cracow, Levi spends the night in a barracks "requisitioned by the Russians and full of Italian soldiers." Levi writes: [The Greek] told curious stories about the war; of how after the Germans had broken through the front he had found himself with six of his men ransacking the first floor of a bombed and abandoned villa, searching for provisions; he had heard suspicious noises on the floor below, had cautiously climbed down the stairs with his sten gun at the ready, ...
