Welcome to my summary of the latest national voting intention poll from each pollster currently operating in Britain. If you'd like to find out more about how polls work, how reliable they are and how to make sense of them, check out my book, Polling UnPacked: the History, Uses and Abuses of Political Opinion Polls, or sign up for my weekly email: Understanding different polling firms You may find these posts useful: 'Waiting for Survation': a reminder of the value of checking the evidence. YouGov: is it biased to the Conservatives? Frequently Asked Questions Why isn't polling company X in ...
This memorial. which remembers three Wellington bomber crew who lost their lives in a wartime training flight from RAF Desborough, can be found among new housing in the town. The Northamptonshire Telegraph reported when it was unveiled in the town last autumn: Pilot officer Reg Byrne, 23, Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), Royal Air Force Voluntary Reserve (RAFVR) members Sgt Bill Barnett, 32, and Sgt Eddie Brisbourne,19, all died when their Wellington Bomber failed on September 5 in 1944. The plane with six crew aboard crashed into a paddock on Feakin's Farm in Harrington Road, now a housing estate off ...
In December of last year, former Prime Minister Gordon Brown published his report A New Britain. It endorsed constitutional changes including the replacement of the House of Lords with an elected senate and greater devolution for cities and regions across the UK, intended to resolve the 'unreformed, over-centralised way of governing that leaves millions of people complaining they are neglected, ignored, and invisible'. Last Thursday, he announced the launch of the Alliance for Radical Democratic Change, a campaign aiming for the adoption of A New Britain's recommendations as policies in Labour next election manifesto and subsequent enactment by a future ...
No-one would pretend that the sort of body pictured here is the ideal that we should be aiming for but too few people are prepared to take effective action to tackle the scourge of obesity in the way that we ... Continue reading →
A matter of Trust A few days ago I heard a front-bench politician say on the radio that our problems were not just that people had lost trust in the parties, but that they (ie we) were also losing trust in the political process itself. Quite right too. It is naïve to suppose that there was golden age in which all political actors were Simon-pure and imbued with the spirit of public service to the exclusion of all else. But the last 30 years have been pretty dire, with Tony Blair's illegal invasion of Iraq on a false prospectus; MPs ...
In 2016, the plans for devolution in the North East collapsed. In what was effectively a palace coup, Labour's Martin Gannon seized the leadership of Gateshead Council from Mick Henry who had been prepared to sign up to the deal. He killed off the deal and North and South of Tyne went their separate ways. 7 wasted years later, Martin is now backing the new devolution plan which is currently on
There's a good piece in the Financial Times by Miranda Green today asking whether Ed Davey's determination not to talk about Brexit or post-election deals with Labour is damaging the Liberal Democrats: The psephologist Sir John Curtice has pored over last month's results in battleground areas, combined with how people voted in the 2016 referendum and what they now think about it. He is unconvinced: "It's not obvious what the benefits are at the moment to the Liberal Democrats of staying schtum on Brexit." Curtice can track even Rejoiners heading to Labour, despite the main opposition party's even more extreme ...
And so, in the end the inevitable happened and the obsession with secrecy within government won out - the cabinet office decided to challenge its own public inquiry in the courts. The Guardian reports that ministers have launched an unprecedented high court attempt to avoid handing over Boris Johnson's unredacted WhatsApp messages and diaries to the government-commissioned public inquiry into the handling of Covid. Apparently, despite setting a very wide-ranging remit for the inquiry that allows it to poke into every nook and cranny of government for over a decade, the Cabinet Office believes that there are "important issues of ...
From the City Council : THE ROAD TRAFFIC REGULATION ACT 1984 - SECTION 14(1) THE DUNDEE CITY COUNCIL AS TRAFFIC AUTHORITY being satisfied that traffic on the road should be prohibited by reason of road safety measures during Westfest event being carried out HEREBY PROHIBIT the driving of any vehicle in Magdalen Yard Road (westbound between Thomson Street and Windsor Street), Dundee. This notice comes into effect on Sunday 4 June 2023 for one day. Pedestrian thoroughfare will be maintained. Alternative routes for vehicles are available via Roseangle / Perth Road / Windsor Street For further information contact 433082. Executive ...
One principal authority council by-election this week, in Camden in North London. It brought a promising result for Patrick Stillman and the Lib Dem team, with the Lib Dem vote share up by seven percentage points, and that despite there being a Green candidate this time around. That made for a 13 point swing from Labour, who held the seat: The #SouthHampstead by election @CamdenCouncil full results Tommy Gale, Labour 882, Lorna Russell, Green, 295, Patrick Stillman, Liberal Democrat, 531, Don Williams, Local Conservative 766 — Gregory_ldr (@ldr_gregory) June 1, 2023
