Zoe Crowther from Politics Home has been out canvassing with Sarah Dyke in Somerton and Frome, and her report is encouraging for the Lib Dems: Jane, a pensioner who also chose not to give her last name, said the previous MP "had no bloody clue" about local issues. Parish councillor Sarah Webb, 60, said she had only seen Warburton once when he held a clinic shortly after being elected. Answering her door to Dyke in the village of Templecombe, Webb said her family had always been "historically true blue" but she had now switched her vote to the Lib Dems. ...
Are you as angry as I am by Defence Secretary Ben Wallace's comments today? At the NATO summit, as a side issue, the G7 nations promised more military supplies for Ukraine. In a briefing to journalists Wallace said: There is a slight word of caution here, which is that whether we like it or not people want to see gratitude. ... My counsel to the Ukrainians is sometimes you're persuading countries to give up their own stocks of weapons and yes the war is a noble war and yes we see it as you doing a war for – not ...
With apologies for the delay in posting this – Ed So much has happened in British politics in the last year, it's easy to forget along the way that Rishi Sunak managed to lose a leadership election to Liz Truss. Having been selected for a safe seat, that was the first hard fought contest in the public's eye that he had to contest. He lost, and lost badly. For all his career success, he isn't very good at the basics of politics. We saw that again with his decision to duck the House of Commons vote on the Privileges Committee's ...
Wed 12th
17:22
Will we eventually feel nostalgic about petrol-driven cars, as we do now about steam? Definitely.
It is occasionally hard to believe how long I've been a member of the National Assembly of the National Association of Local Councils - more than two and a half years now - and today I met my colleagues "in the flesh" for the first time. There's little doubt that meeting in person comes with certain advantages. For example, you can read a room rather better and decide whether or not you really need to add your voice to a debate - and the answer is often... well, no, not really. And you can exchange muttered comments with those around ...
The Canal & River Trust is to lose almost half its funding from the government, putting the future of some parts of the inland waterway network in question. New Civil Engineer reports: Canal & River Trust says the cuts will see it lose almost half of its funding for this period - amounting to more than £300M in real terms. It said the planned shortfall comes as the costs of maintaining historic canals are increasing due to climate change, with drought and extreme events impacting 250-year-old infrastructure. Canal & Rivers Trust chief executive Richard Parry said the cuts will have ...
We recently received concerns that part of the fence in Balgay Park near to Royal Victoria Hospital was damaged. We reported this to environment management at the City Council and have received a commitment to make this safe. The department will thereafter have a closer look at the fencing in this area in terms of requirement/condition, looking to potential replacement along with the fencing at a few other points within the park.
