The latest edition of my weekly political polling round-up, The Week in Polls, is out. As it says: If I had the talent to write a full book about British politics and society, I'd call it something like, The Two Speed Liberalisation of Britain. It'd be about the conundrum – for liberals, frustrating conundrum – of British politics in the last half century. Find out more by reading this edition of The Week in Polls here, and you can sign up below to receive future editions direct to your email inbox:
Paul Gibson is known as the Delivery Machine by Lib Dems in Gateshead. He will deliver thousands of leaflets guaranteed! Over the years, he must have delivered hundreds of thousands of Focuses for us. Paul is now a Councillor in Sunderland and yesterday was his 75th birthday. A birthday celebration event was held in Heworth Golf Club to celebrate this milestone yesterday. Happy birthday Paul!
This weekend I've been just one of many Liberal Democrats out campaigning with Chaitan Shah ahead of the Heston West council by-election in early March.
Sun, 10:45: RT @amazingmap: Each section has 10% of the world's population https://t.co/YGLtfaB1VX
We're used to thinking of pub rock as the John the Baptist of punk, and the Motors did have edgier singles than this. But it's not hard to imagine Forget About You being a hit for someone like the Dooleys in this era and played on Radio 2. Which means, I suppose, that it's a good song. At least the boys are making clear their for Top of The Pops by making fun of the miming the show requires of them. The piano player (who has remembered his PE kit) decides he'd rather share lead vocals and the guitarist has ...
Willie Rennie has called on the Scottish Government and Scotland's education leaders to do more to tackle the increasing problem of violence in schools. He wrote in the Daily Record that images shown to him by a constituent of a young girl being kicked in the face by another will stay with him forever. He said that there was a "conspiracy of silence" as those responsible didn't admit to the extent of the problem, which led to staff at sone school taking industrial action because they didn't feel their pleas for intervention were being heard. He wants action to tackle ...
The BBC is going ahead with its plans to radically reshape local radio. It is expected that Radio Shropshire will only broadcast in the mornings, after which programming is expected to be subregional, probably with Hereford & Worcester and Stoke. News teams will be reassembled with a greater focus on digital content. There will still be local reporters and news readers but it will inevitably become more regionally based. With only the breakfast and afternoon shows remaining, Radio Shropshire will only need a handful of presenters. Familiar voices will go and some have already indicated they will accept the inevitable. ...
On Thursday evening I went to a Belinda Carlisle concert at the Sage, Gateshead. There is a bit of a back story to this. The two tickets were bought by Richard, two years ago, for a concert in October 2021. In September 2021, Richard went into hospital where he died in the early hours of Saturday 23rd October. On Friday 22nd, he mentioned the concert to me, believing it was due to be held that
The Observer reports that roughly one in 100 police officers in England and Wales faced criminal charges, including for sexual offences, last year alone. The paper's figures are based on the fact that the Police Federation, the staff association for police officers, received 1,387 claims for legal support from members facing criminal charges in 2022. They add that the data also suggested that the number of officers facing criminal charges has skyrocketed by 590% since 2012. That year, just 235 claims were made for Police Federation legal support by its members: The Police Federation of England and Wales represents around ...
China China has marked the first anniversary of the Ukraine War with a pair of unsurprising foreign policy papers. The first one concentrates on the Ukraine War and proposes a well-trod and contradictory solution: Russia respects Ukrainian national sovereignty. Everyone respects Russia's security aspirations and nobody imposes sanctions against anyone. The second paper is more about calls for a new world order. Again, no real surprises. China is trying to re-write the international rule book by playing to the interests of the developing world in Africa, Asia and South America. The second paper is important but China's position on Ukraine ...
Sun 26th
08:27
What's the secret behind building lots of houses and winning lots of elections? LDN #169
Liberal Democrat Newswire #169 features the Lib Dem council leader with one of the best records in the country at building houses, and also one of the best records in the country at winning council election. What's the secret behind this?
The Harris Academy Former Pupils' Association is holding a lunch on Monday 6th March from noon - for a 12.30pm start. All FPs welcome - please contact Dorothy Drummond, President of the FPs' Association, at dorothy.s.d@outlook.com or call 668619.
