Three principal authority council by-elections this week and, hooray, a full slate of Liberal Democrat candidates. First up, a very impressive second place in a ward where we didn't stand before for Lib Dem candidate Chaitan Shah in Hounslow: HOUNSLOW, Heston West – Lab hold Lab 1104 (52%, -12%) LD 470 (22%, new) C 419 (20%, no change) Grn 65 (3%, -12%) Ind 48 (2%, new) — Andrew Teale (@andrewteale) March 9, 2023
Thu 9th
23:50
Boy who appeared in radio dramatisation of a Malcolm Saville story was later tried for murder at the...
This is not what you expect to find when you do a little gentle research into the BBC Children's Hour dramatisations of Malcolm Saville's early Lone Pine books: Leicester Evening Mail, Monday 2 February 1959 Actor accused of murder TV MAN'S ALLEGED ADMISSION WHEN CAVAN JOHN MALONE (22), actor, of TT Beverley Court, Wellesby-road, Chiswick, London, appeared at Acton today, accused of murdering a South African, Det.-Supt. John Manning said that Malone told him, "Yes, I did it." After a three-minute appearance Malone was remanded in custody for a week, charged with the murder of Jan Momberg, who was found ...
Davey: Shell boss £10m pay packet shows need for "bonanza bonus" tax HS2 Delay Must Trigger Barnett Consequential Funding for Wales Davey: Shell boss £10m pay packet shows need for "bonanza bonus" tax The Liberal Democrats have reiterated their calls for a tax on the bonuses of oil and gas company bosses, following the news that the former chief executive of Shell's pay rose more than 50% to nearly £10m in 2022. Shell announced today that former chief executive Ben van Beurden received a bonus of £2.6m in 2022, up from £2.2m the previous year. Under Liberal Democrat plans, this ...
This is good history and the animation is nicely done.
The internet always goes wild for International Women's Day. If we thought more of improving women's lives for the rest of the year, the world would be a much better place for half its citizens. For example, how can you have decent economic growth if women are being forced out of work because of the cost of childcare. From the Guardian: Data for 2021 showed the gender pay gap widening four times faster in the UK than the average for the OECD, primarily due to the financial penalty from motherhood. Larice Stielow, a senior economist at PwC, said: "An 18-year-old ...
"It is the year 2049, and residents of the UK city of Oxford are unable to leave their neighborhoods. If they do, a network of cameras - installed years earlier under the guise of easing traffic congestion — track their movements. If they stray too far from their registered addresses, a £100 fine is automatically removed from their bank accounts. The only cars now allowed on the streets belong to representatives of the world government, who relentlessly patrol the city for anyone breaking the rules." The 15-minute city freak-out is a case study in conspiracy paranoia, argue Feargus O'Sullivan and ...
Wed, 18:25: Complexity: A Very Short Introduction, by John H.�Holland https://t.co/CU1hhMVd0V Thu, 10:45: RT @SamCoatesSky: Boris Johnson earned 85% of all the outside pay generated by MPs this year, Sky News can reveal. https://t.co/4dNKk9NFA7... Thu, 11:42: #ThursdayArt Fernand Léger, The Card Players (1917). "The crudeness, variety, humour and downright perfection of certain men around me, their precise sense of utilitarian reality and it application in the middle of the life-and-death drama we were in ... made me want to (1/2) </ul
Having commisioned an expert review panel, led by transport consultant Lynn Sloman, to assess 59 road projects and make recommendations on which projects to proceed with, which to abandon and which to reconsider in a different form, one would expect the ruling Labour Party in Wales to back their own Minister, who accepted the outcome of that review. Of those schemes looked at, it is intended to go ahead with fifteen, but all the rest have been rejected or will be substantially revised. However, it seems that a major revolt against this decision is underway. The BBC reports that in ...
Thu 9th
12:29
Council Tax Precepts in Folkestone & Hythe District Council Area 2019-2024 by Town / Parish Coun...
[IMG: Calculator] As they are hitting doormats (and increasingly email inboxes) across the country at this moment, Council Tax bills are a fairly hot topic. Below, I do a bit of number crunching on the most local element of the tax in Folkestone & Hythe District: the Town / Parish Council Precept. This is a sequel to the equally gripping Council Tax Precepts in Folkestone & Hythe District Council Area 2019-2024 by Town / Parish Council from this time last year. Every Council Tax demand is made up of a number of elements. In the Folkestone and Hythe area, they ...
This post first appeared on the Radix UK site. There is a line in James Graham's play This House, about the Tory and Labour whips offices from 1974 to 1979. Graham puts it into the mouth of David Steel. Maybe Steel actually said it - i don't know. Nor can I remember it exactly (I've only see the play twice - give me a chance!) But it suggested that Conservative governments collapse because they think they are destined to rule, and with Labour governments, it's the other way around - they collapse because they no longer feel they deserve it. ...
In the Scotsman this week, Christine Jardine pointed out the irony of Rishi Sunak's pronouncement on Northern Ireland's special and unique position: The picture became even more ridiculous when this arch-Brexiteer enthusiastically proclaimed the benefits Northern Ireland could derive from being in both the EU single market and the UK. Is that not what we all used to have? Are what Rishi Sunak described with a smile as the "exciting prospects" for Northern Ireland not what we all used to take for granted? And yet even as the Tories basked in this self-proclaimed Brexit victory, there was just the slightest ...
Well, work on the infrastructure needed for Gateway 14 is pretty much complete, and construction of the first (and largest) building on the site is approved and underway. The next issue for our community is the distribution of the Section 106 (Town and Country Planning Act 1990) funds associated with the project, something that we have little experience of. Being a countryside village, as defined by Mid Suffolk District Council, we don't get much development, and thus we've never been assigned any such funds in the thirteen years since I first joined the Parish Council. I'd attended a Town and ...
When Shirley Williams died in April 2021, Sir Ed Davey paid tribute to a "a Liberal lion" and remembered her as a "trailblazer" and an "inspiration to millions". There were many other affectionate tributes. Unusually for a politician, Shirley was widely loved during her lifetime. David Steel once described her as "a national treasure, rather like the late Queen Mum". As a Liberal Democrat icon, she stood alongside Paddy Ashdown and Charles Kennedy. Shirley Williams was, after all, the most popular of the "Gang of Four" who broke away from Labour in 1981 and formed the Social Democratic Party (SDP). ...
In response to the Coram Family and Childcare annual survey which showed an increase of 5.6% in part-time childcare costs and 7% fewer local areas reporting sufficient childcare places for children under two, Liberal Democrat Education Spokesperson Munira Wilson said: The huge increase in costs of childcare is hitting cash-strapped young families who are already facing a cost of living crisis. The UK already has some of the highest childcare costs in the world. Parents up and down the country are struggling to afford their nursery fees, while for others the crippling costs of childcare mean they simply can't afford ...
Some months ago, we highlighted that the paths to the rear of the Tullideph Road flats near to the north end of Loganlee Terrace were in a poor state of repair, creating trip hazards. We reported this to the City Council who promised an upgrade and we are grateful to the council team that has ensured a quality job was undertaken as the 'before' and 'after' photos show :
