The latest edition of my weekly political polling round-up, The Week in Polls, is out. As it says: For a long time the story has been 'not much change to see here' but with the media talk of a Sunak recovery followed by the excitable, and sometimes implausible, reactions to the local elections, it's time for a more detailed check-in. 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:
A shorter gap than usual between editions as we've got a bumper set of election results to pour over and learn lessons from. With plenty of celebrations along the way.
I was so chuffed to see the result of the Lib Dem selection in the Richmond, Yorkshire constituency of the Prime Minister. Daniel Callaghan, who will take on Rishi Sunak at the election is a former colleague of mine. He is fantastic to have on your team – calm, clear, hard-working and he has a brilliant sense of fun. Daniel now works in public affairs in the science and technology sector. Born into an army family at the Friarage Hospital in Northallerton, he grew up in Catterick and Richmond, attending Richmond's St Francis Xavier Secondary School and then Darlington Sixth ...
The free public roof garden at the top of The Post Building has amazing views out over London, including a very small looking Tower Bridge.
What a Eurovision, what a party, what a city. Eurovision held on behalf of Ukraine said to the World Liverpool is European and Liverpool is open for business I'm so proud of my city this morning. In 2008 we delivered ... Continue reading →
I wrote an article earlier this week about the hope for renewed democracy in Turkey should the opposition leader – Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu - be successful in the upcoming Presidential elections. But democracy continues to come under threat across the globe, as more countries seem to be sliding down the steep path to dictatorship and the abolition of civil liberties and human rights. Human Rights Watch has today published an article focusing on the state of affairs in Tunisia. The authorities have placed a further 17 current or former members of Ennahda, the largest opposition party in the country, in prison. ...
Shelagh McDonald wrote a piece in the Guardian under the title 'I disappeared for 30 years'. It wasn't my intention to walk out of my own life and vanish, especially when things were going so well. I was an ambitious 24-year-old folk singer and had just started work on my third album. The second had been a critical success and had really started to get me noticed.A bad trip was the catalyst for unexpected change. I took LSD at a party, expecting the effects to be short-term, but ended up losing three or four days. I remember wandering across London, ...
The editorial in yesterday's Guardian is spot-on in identifying the consequences for millions of propperty owners of the Tory u-turn on abolishing leasehold in England and Wales. As the article points out the leasehold system of property ownership in England and Wales is a feudal relic, a hangover from the middle ages when powerful families wanted to retain ownership of their land while maximising their earnings from it. They say that about a fifth of homes in England are leasehold properties, many of them flats in cities. Under such contracts, homeowners enter into long-term leases in which they must pay ...
Pakistan Pakistan is a nuclear power with an estimated 165 nuclear warheads and bombers and missiles to deliver them. This is important to remember as the country slides into political, economic and social chaos. Also remember that Pashtos are the second largest ethnic group in Pakistan (18 percent) and the largest (42 percent) in neighbouring Islamic fundamentalist Afghanistan. Mustn't forget either that Pakistan's Pashto community are supporters of the Taliban and that Al Qaeeda and ISIS are re-establishing bases in that benighted and dangerously unstable Afghanistan. Then there is also the fact there have been 434 terrorist attacks in Pakistan ...
Residents have raised the uncared for state of the planters at the south end of Blackness Avenue near the Sinderins. We raised this with the City Council and our local environment manager updated us as follows : "I can inform that the planters at the foot of Blackness Avenue, Hawkhill side, have been cleared and, if not already done so, both planters will be restocked with new plants. Once complete this will help improve the aesthetics of the area."
