Today is the anniversary of Agatha Christie's birth on 15 September 1890. That has made me think about her play The Mousetrap and its roots in the notorious killing of a child, Dennis O'Neill, in Shropshire in 1945. And that has led me to the news that Dennis's brother Terry died on Sunday at the age of 88. (I hope I have got his birth year and age right.) If you are interested in The Mousetrap and its connection with the death of Dennis O'Neill, I recommend The Mousetrap and Me, an award-winning radio documentary that Terry O'Neill took part ...
Ed Davey to make fifth visit to Mid-Bedfordshire Tomorrow (Saturday 16th September), Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey makes his fifth visit to Mid-Bedfordshire, where he will speak to voters in rural villages. The Liberal Democrats have become the challenger to the Conservative party in this rural Blue Wall constituency which consists of almost 50 villages. The Liberal Democrats opened their second office in the constituency this week. Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey said: It is time for change and lifelong Conservative voters are turning to the Liberal Democrats to send this government a message. Rural communities in Bedfordshire are fed ...
73% of people agree the Government spends too much time talking about 'woke' issues according to a new poll from WeThink.
Fri 15th
20:16
If we really are seeing a Lib Dem revival, what would a good general election result look like?
Embed from Getty ImagesWriting for The House, Sean Kemp gives an amusing account of recent Liberal Democrat history: At one point as a party spinner I found myself trudging round the lobby explaining our performance in the South Shields by-election (seventh place, behind the BNP and edging out the Monster Raving Loonies by 150 votes) and was reduced to gags like "we always said it was a seven horse race" to preserve some dignity. before daring to hope that we are seeing a secure revival in the party's fortunes. If we are really are, what would be a good result ...
When I was a kid, I had a poster on my wall with a big picture of Kermit the Frog and the slogan 'life is hard then you croak'. Underneath this, in a parody of the 'No Fear' extreme sports clothing company that was popular at the time, was scrawled 'No Frogs'. I remember this now because it summarises quite nicely the generally-accepted way of doing things. We get a job, earn money, spend that money, do this repeatedly until we're quite old, get tired and worn out, then retire and sit around until we croak. As someone who's trying ...
Most parents might find (I know that we often do!) morning routine tricky at times; getting ready for work, waking up children, making sure that there is enough food in the fridge for breakfast and lunch. If anyone has kids in two or three different schools, "morning madness" becomes even more challenging or "interesting". We are the first full week in with our two eldest daughters and unfortunately, their school bus, which picks up children from different parts of Welwyn Hatfield, broke down twice in literally a couple of days. Yep, it does happen, I understand. However, after paying £825 ...
I've just signed up for the 2nd conference of the autumn. Northern Region Liberal Democrats will be meeting for the AGM on Saturday 4th November at the Little Theatre in Saltwell, Gateshead. It's four years since we last met in person, having switched to online conferences because of covid. No motions are on the agenda yet as the period for submitting them has just opened. The Little Theatre is
It is not often that an announcement from a Scottish Government appointee makes me cheer, but the news that the Lord Advocate has finally given the green light to proceed with Overdose Prevention Centres did just that. The fight to tackle Scotland's drug death crisis has been a long and often fractious one. Too often, it has been dragged into the constitutional quagmire that bogs so much progress down. Both of Scotland's Governments have let the victims of this crisis and their families down too many times. Whether it was the Scottish Government's decision to decimate rehab budgets or the ...
It was shocking to hear Prime Minister Rishi Sunak say again at Prime Minister's Question Time on Wednesday, as he said before, that there are fewer people living in poverty in this country today thanks to Conservative governments. He will not face the fact that poverty is actually worsening for millions of people in the UK. Last week an independent cross-party group called the Poverty Strategy Commission reported that six million low-income families are 'surviving not living', forced to endure unacceptable levels of poverty. The report, an interim one A New Framework for Tackling Poverty, states in its Foreword that: ...
For a government, which at one point, claimed there is no magic money tree, the amount of cash that they have wasted in the last few years has been unpecedented. The latest money pit is the amount of fraud surounding covid business loans. The Guardian reports that UK taxpayers have been forced to cover a larger bill for Covid support to companies than expected, after fresh government data showed the amount of pandemic business loans flagged for fraud had jumped by 43%. The paper adds that figures released by the Department for Business and Trade showed that high street banks ...
Six principal authority council by-elections this week, with a full slate of Lib Dem candidates - a particularly impressive achievement given that...
