Julian Le Grand makes the case for universal basic capital: a £10k grant for every 18-year-old. "Seventeen minutes in, after presenting evidence of an 'orchestrated campaign' against Corbyn, the narrator, Alexei Sayle asks: 'But if it was an orchestrated campaign, who was in the orchestra?' There follows a silent montage showing the Jewish Board of Deputies, the Jewish Labour Movement, Labour Friends of Israel, and the Israel Advocacy Movement. As a professional film-maker I recognise this wordless presentation of a controversial idea not as an accident but as a technique: using captions and pictures to state what, if spoken aloud, ...
First published on LibDemVoice. The UK's response to Covid has been, and still is, characterised by delay and indifference. This is largely but not wholly because Boris Johnson was Prime Minister when it struck. Johnson made being irresponsible fun, and we all paid the price for it, as the Covid inquiry is now slowly and painstakingly beginning to make clear. The British electorate was shallow enough to fall for it, and resistant enough to taking responsibility seriously to make it very risky for a political party to advocate it. But sometimes it is right for political parties to say unpopular ...
The UK's response to Covid has been, and still is, characterised by delay and indifference. This is largely but not wholly because Boris Johnson was Prime Minister when it struck. Johnson made being irresponsible fun, and we all paid the price for it, as the Covid inquiry is now slowly and painstakingly beginning to make clear. The British electorate was shallow enough to fall for it, and resistant enough to taking responsibility seriously to make it very risky for a political party to advocate it. But sometimes it is right for political parties to say unpopular things. A liberal response ...
Lee Dillon has been selected by the local membership to be the Lib Dem candidate for the Newbury constituency at the next general election.
Thu 22nd
13:21
Clive Myrie and Have I Got News For You: Do BBC executives watch their own programmes?
Embed from Getty ImagesFrom the Independent: BBC newsreader Clive Myrie was reportedly pulled from last Friday's episode (16 June) of the News at Ten, after making jokes about Boris Johnson on the broadcaster's comedy show Have I Got News For You, which aired the same evening. The pre-recorded satirical comedy show, which sees Ian Hislop, Paul Merton and guests panellists poke fun at current affairs, was screened at 9pm on Friday, just one hour before Myrie was due to present the news. Myrie, 58, was replaced at the very last minute by presenter Jane Hill, after Charlotte Moore, the corporation's ...
At the weekend I spent far too long in an A&E department. Now my story is nothing special and it could be repeated by thousands of people around the country. The worrying thing is precisely that – my experience is now normal, rather than exceptional. It was my husband Ian who needed medical care, complicated by the fact that he is 79, has some disability and uses a wheelchair outside our home. We didn't think we needed to go to A&E but phoned 111 on Sunday afternoon for some advice. They sent us to the out-of-hours GP unit at a ...
As sure as night follows day, yesterday's news that inflation in the UK unexpectedly remained stuck at 8.7% in May is going to provoke yet another hike in interest rates today, possibly as much as 0.5 percentage points, an increase of 11.11%, leaving many people struggling to pay their mortgage, and thousands of families facing the prospect of losing their home. But we've performed this dance before and still prices remain stubbornly high, and even when inflation does start to slide downwards, there is no way that things will become cheaper, we will have just climbed to yet another plateau, ...
The Stray Ferret reports: The Liberal Democrats have selected NHS worker Matt Walker as their candidate for the forthcoming Selby and Ainsty by-election. Mr Walker was brought up in Knaresborough, just outside the Selby and Ainsty constituency boundary, and currently represents the Knaresborough West division on North Yorkshire Council... He said: "As a candidate I will be a passionate campaigner for the area, listening to residents' views and championing their issues. "Residents across Selby and Ainsty have been let down, our NHS is on its knees. In my professional life I am a manager in the NHS, and in one ...
Windrush Day is celebrated on 22 June every year. HMT Empire Windrush arrived in Britain on 22 June 1948. On board were more than 800 passengers from the Caribbean. This June marks 75 years since that voyage. It is a major national moment, a chance to come together and celebrate this shared history. Last week, Liberal Democrat Baroness Floella Benjamin met with successful black business owners to commemorate this event. A heart warming and empowering afternoon spent in Parliament, talking about personal experiences being a second and third generation of Windrush. Special thanks to Baroness Floella Benjamin, Roderick Lynch from ...
Andrew George, former MP for St Ives, writes: Conservative MPs voted against a bill to combat puppy smuggling and live farm animal exports again . Labour, with Liberal Democrat support attempted to reintroduce animal welfare legislation which had been dropped by the Cons, in contradiction to their manifesto promise.The RSPCA's head of public affairs, David Bowles, said: "It's terrible news for animals and we are calling on the UK government to rethink and bring back all the proposals contained within the binned bill back by other means. We cannot go on allowing cruel practices such as the live exports of ...
We recently received this resident's concern about the gate at the playpark on the corner of Bankmill Road and Milnbank Road : "The big gate that would open for the grass cutter is missing a padlock and kids can get out without any effort." We reported this to environment management and received the following helpful response : "We have attended the playpark and the gates appear to be functioning correctly. We have locked the gates with a new padlock."
