Three Parliamentary by-elections to go with three principal authority local by-elections this week, and the big news for the Lib Dems was pretty obvious from just after the polls closed: I think we're going to need a bigger tractor. [IMG: 🚜] — Ed Davey (@EdwardJDavey) July 20, 2023
Matthew Pennell expects the Conservatives to look to the US Republicans when devising their strategy for the next general election. The good news is he doesn't think it will work. "For mandatory reporting to work effectively, a law needs to ensure reporting of reasonable suspicions. But the lack of any criminal penalty for non-reporting undermines both the impetus to do so, and the cover for those who want to report." Richard Scorer fears the recommendations of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse may not be enough to protect children from abuse in religious settings. "Thirteen months after first making ...
As so often, the Shropshire Star supplies our Headline of the Day.
Putting the leaves on the Magic Money Tree, seeking a radical Liberal approach to economics. Fairness and the pursuit of it is essentially the purpose of the Liberal Democrats. If that is the case, how then do we expect to be taken seriously without that we have a radical agenda for economic reform? The last 40 years of our national political story has been dominated by the Thatcher / Reagan /Hayek economic experiment. It has failed. If we agree that to be the case, then it is essential that rather than pretend to seek a better way to manage the ...
It's remarkable how the London gangs of the Sixties - the Krays, the Richardson, the Bonhams Carter - continue to be of interest today. Lord Bonkers' own He Never Touch Kids or Nothing: My Years with Violent Bonham Carter has proved to be one of his best-selling publications. Wednesday I see the coming Labour man Wes Streeting is putting it about that his grandfather was a member of the London underworld in the Sixties. All I shall say on the subject is that if the old geezer was one of Violent Bonham Carter's boys, young Streeting would do well to ...
Even by the standards of the UK's post-Brexit decline, this is a banner week for the cynicism that now acts as a cipher for political debate. 10 years after the passage of the Same-Sex Marriage Act - one of the only remaining positive legacies of the Liberal Democrats' ill-fated coalition with the Conservatives - both the Tories and Labour have chosen to double down on their respective impulses towards the mean-spiritedness that a supine media has long mistaken for competence. On one side, you have Rishi Sunak, standing for a forward-to-the-past elitism by pledging to reduce the chances that young ...
So today's the day. Three by-elections to fight, although Lib Dems are really just concentrating on the one in Somerton & Frome. Ed Davey has sent this message: Today voters across Somerton and Frome have a chance to send a clear message to the Conservatives that they have failed our country on the NHS, the cost of living crisis and protecting our rural communities. Every vote for Sarah Dyke, our brilliant Liberal Democrat candidate, is a vote for a local champion who will put Somerset first and hold these Conservatives to account. It's clear this by-election is a two horse ...
We recently received concerns about the deteriorating state of the roadway in Hillcrest Road as the photo highlights. On behalf of residents we raised this with the council's Roads Maintenance Partnership and have received the following helpful response : "The local inspector has raised a repair for this pothole, approximate timescale thirty days."
