Oxford City Council's Liberal Democrats group is ready to take over running the council after the resignation in recent days eight Labour councillors. They have left the party over Keir Starmer's apparent endorsement of Israel's cutting off of water and power supplies to Gaza. Chris Smowton, leader of the group on Oxford City Council, told the Oxford Mail: "Oxford needs a stable administration, united to deal with the city's most urgent problems: to get on top of the city's spiralling housing costs, to decisively set Oxford on course to net zero, and to ensure much-needed affordable homes don't come at ...
The Guardian reports: Jeremy Hunt is expected to stand down as an MP before the next election, according to senior Conservatives, who say the chancellor is aware he could suffer a "Michael Portillo" moment on polling day. Hunt has already put himself forward and been selected for the new Surrey constituency of Godalming and Ash, after his South West Surrey seat was dissolved and split into two under boundary changes. This news, ahem, follows the selection of Paul Follows by the Liberal Democrats for the Godalming and Ash constituency. Jeremy Hunt wouldn't be the first Conservative under electoral threat from ...
Here's the latest tally of seats changing hands in principal authority council by-elections held since the last May round of local elections.
There have been some very good articles on the tragic events in the Middle East published by the Lib Dem Voice over the last two weeks, especially those by Leon Duveen, and Ruvi Ziegler, both Israeli/British citizens and very active members of our Party. I want to approach this from a different angle coloured by my own experience. I have worked and travelled in Palestine and other parts of the Middle East and have been Vice Chair and/or Secretary of the Lib Dem Friends of Palestine since 2013. I helped draft the 2021 motion on Palestine that was overwhelmingly passed ...
So the dust has settled on a couple of by elections this week. Both produced terrible results for the Tories and one in particular, Mid Bedfordshire generated a lot of heat because it was an extremely rare event in Britain – a three way contest. Precisely because Mid Bedfordshire had a unique set of circumstances ... Continue reading Mid Bedfordshire – What happened?
Lily Gladstone, star of Killers of the Flower Moon, was interviewed about an earlier film - Certain Women - in the Guardian in 2017: Gladstone was born in 1986 and grew up on the Blackfeet Reservation in north-western Montana, and, as her biography in the film's press notes proudly elaborates, has "tribal affiliations that include Kainai, Amskapi Piikani and Nimi'ipuu First Nations". She explains: "I lived in the reservations until I was 11, when we moved for lack of economic opportunities." But what wins her my Trivial Fact of the Day Award is another extract from that interview: Gladstone then ...
An American-led offensive is desperately trying to thread a narrow diplomatic needle and prevent the Gaza Crisis from exploding into an uncontrollable wider war. Joe Biden, Olof Scholz and Rishi Sunak have all been to Israel this week. Emmanuel Macron and Giorgia Meloni will soon follow. Together they are known as "The Quint" and they are all preaching the same message: 1- Support for Israel and its right to defend itself. 2- Total condemnation of Hamas. 3- The need to differentiate between Hamas and Palestinians. 4- The urgent need for humanitarian aid to reach Gaza residents 5- Prevent the red ...
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