Latest inflation figures will be "of cold comfort" Liberal Democrats call for increase to apprenticeship pay as dropout rates soar Davey: Sunak is trashing the economy of the future Over 1,000 sewage leaks in armed forces' accommodation Davey: This is not leadership from Rishi Sunak, this is putting the UK at the back of the queue Latest inflation figures will be "of cold comfort" The latest inflation figures show that inflation has fallen slightly to 6.7% from 6.8% in August. Responding to the news Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson, Sarah Olney MP said: This news will be of cold comfort for ...
Time for a dive down one of this blog's rabbit holes: Norman Bowler, man about Soho in the 1950s and later a star of Softly Softly: Task Force and Emmerdale. Wizbit was children's programme, screened in 1985, that starred and was partly devised by Paul Daniels. I don't remember it, but Nostalgia Central does: This BBC children's television show featured an alien magician called Wizbit and a large rabbit called Wooly, and followed their adventures in Puzzleopolis - a town inhabited by walking, talking (and often singing) sponge-balls, dice, magic wands, playing cards and 8-foot-tall rabbits (all magician's props). Wizbit's ...
Embed from Getty ImagesAn extraordinary story from Inside Croydon: The Tory Government's policing minister, Chris Philp, the MP for Croydon South, is a member of a social media group in which criminal acts, damage and vandalism to public property are celebrated on a near-daily basis. Philp, a member of the King's Privy Council for the past year, has confirmed that he has failed to post anything on the private Facebook page to condemn the criminality and, when 'he was contacted about his membership of 'Croydon say no to ULEZ expansion", he could only offer as an excuse: "I cannot be ...
Many unexpected events, good and bad, have happened to our party during this Parliament. If you'd asked me in January 2020, I don't think any of us would have expected that three and a half years on, I could write a report to members about how our first-in person autumn Federal Conference this Parliament was coming up and about our chance to secure, just after it, our fifth Parliamentary by-election gain from the Conservatives. It's been quite the journey since our last in-person autumn conference. That was also in Bournemouth but back in the very different political times of 2019. ...
If you attend to enough right-wing commentary on the dismal state of the UK, at some point you will hear or read some version of the following: "But they never even cut public spending! We haven't been Conservative at all! This is SOCIALISM". The marvellous Liz Truss event at the Institute for Government provided theContinue reading "The Myth of "No Austerity""
You can download Liberator 419 for free here: Find out the latest news in Radical Bulletin, while our Commentary wonders what the point is of the Liberal Democrat policy process and Lord Bonkers gives his view of the world. You can sign up to be notified when each Liberator comes out here: or visit our stall at Bournemouth IT EVEN HAPPENS HERE Serious poverty can be found even in the outwardly affluent Chesham and Amersham constituency. Sarah Green reports ONLY LOCAL HEROES Is stressing a candidates' local connections really the best the party can do? David Grace looks at the ...
Full council tomorrow in Gateshead and there are two motions from the Lib Dem group. The first is about flytipping and reads:Gateshead Council congratulates Durham County Council on their tough stance on fly tipping by issuing nearly one thousand fines in 2021/22. Council notes that in the same period Gateshead Council issued one fine. Council calls on the Chief Executive to write to the Chief
With our crippled health services, inadequate care services, local authorities in or approaching bankruptcy, crumbling schools and other public buildings, overflowing prisons. pothole-pitted roads, inadequate housing, overcrowded roads, failing public transport, falling pound, reducing life expectancy and declining international standing it is difficult to describe the UK as anything other than failing. It is tempting to see this failure as a result of the shambles of the Johnson and post-Johnson governments, or maybe the policy of public sector austerity since 2020. However, if believe the real causes go much further back, at least to 1945 They can be categorised under ...
We hear lots of talk about rights. Human rights. Consumer rights. The right to free speech. The right to bear arms. The right to remain silent. The right to be forgotten. But what are rights? How do we get them? And how do we know what rights we have? Well, it's complicated. And, to be honest, I don't think anyone's really figured it out (yet). Rights are essentially principles of freedom or entitlement. By freedom, we mean the right to do something, to not do something or to not have something done to us. By entitlement, we mean the right ...
The news of a trial of universal basic income in Jarrow and East Finchley sparked a true watercooler moment. For a party like the Lib Dems, it is important to recognise what that means. It wasn't a viral meme to like, or share, and it wasn't a culture war issue that triggered rage, or anxiety. In conversations in staff rooms and pubs, in social media spaces from LADBible to Gransnet, people were talking about an idea. There are lots of reasons why. The cost of living crisis, obviously; the fear by every political party that they interrupt the Tories whilst ...
No sooner does Lord Bonkers divine a social problem than be proposes a solution. Here, that solution is characteristically robust. So welcome to another week with the old boy. 'Scrobbled', it turns out, was coined by John Masefield in his The Midnight Folk. It's well known from his later book The Box of Delights, but I had wondered if it was older than that. The word has a Scandinavian flavour. Monday I find myself increasingly worried about right-wing comment journalists, who can only be described as unhappy, unskilled and unmoored. Flabby chested public-school types to a man, their eyes hollow ...
The excellent Five Leaves Books of Nottingham - you'll find their shop in an alley near the Council House - have brought out a new edition of Nikolaus Pevsner's The Leaves of Southwell. Gillian Darley, who contributed an introduction, writes in the London Review of Books: Pevsner, whose name is inescapably attached to the Buildings of England, seems to have begun work on this little volume very soon after he was released from internment and had begun to pick up the pieces of academic life in Britain. Although published in 1945, it was probably written in 1942. The text is ...
Wed 20th
10:30
Supporters of Palestine and Israel must stand with the defenders of Israel's democracy
Whether you are a supporter of Israel or a support of Palestine or even, like me, a supporter of finding a peaceful end to the decades old conflict, what is happening in Israel currently should worry you deeply. When Netanyahu returned to the office as Prime Minister after the Israeli elections last November, he included a number of parties in his coalition who are either, not to beat about the bush, fascists or ultra-orthodox zealots. Netanyahu's main drive appears to be to end his on-going corruption court case which could see him sent to jail. To do so, he seems ...
The Guardian reports on the conclusion of the National Audit Office that the Cabinet Office failed to follow proper processes when it allowed taxpayers' money to be used to fund Boris Johnson's Partygate legal bills. The paper says that the NAO also concluded that the government's justifications for the £265,000 spend were also deemed to be "borderline" and not "wholly persuasive": In a report that will cause embarrassment inside the Cabinet Office, Gareth Davies, head of the NAO, said its audit team had exerted "significant effort" to investigate whether the spending was "a legitimate use of public money". The decision ...
I can't find out when Gandhi said: There is enough for everyone's need, and not for everyone's greed," but it must have been before 1948 because that's when he died. Yet, still 80 or so years later, rather than concentrating on better sharing of the world's munificence, we are still looking for yet more economic growth as a free pass for "enriching" everyone without anybody paying the price. The measurement of an economy's growth via its GDP is largely a post 1945 obsession. When he was the UK's Chancellor R A Butler alerted us to the fact that, if we ...
Dudhope Castle will be open 10am to 4pm on Saturday 23rd and Sunday 24th September 2023 to give the people of Dundee access to the People's Castle thanks to The Circle and Doors Open Days. There will be snacks and refreshments available for free to the public courtesy of the Asda Foundation alongside a range of activities from build your own castle to colouring in. There will be a range of activities over the day including model building, quizzes, historical videos and tours of the castle. For more information go to where you can find out about all of ...
It was an absolute honour to be selected as the PPC for Cambridge at the next General Election. I now walk in the footsteps of great Liberal Democrat MPs and candidates such as Julian Huppert, David Howarth and Shirley Williams. These are big shoes to fill, but at Autumn Conference these shoes are glittery platform heels... As Cambridge PPC, it is my honour to host the return of Lib Dem Disco! In time honoured tradition, we will be welcoming current and future MPs to compete for the crown of Lib Dem Disco King or Queen. This year we have a ...
