When Derek Fowlds was cast in Yes, Minister he was, as a secondary modern boy, apprehensive about playing a Whitehall highflyer, So he turned up for the first rehearsal with a pair of glasses and a posh accent. "What are you doing?" asked Paul Eddington, "Just talk to me the way you used to talk to Basil Brush." And this is how he talked to Basil Brush. Mr Derek was the best of Basil's companions, perhaps because he was stricter with him, which meant that they got through the story. There's a moral about parenting there somewhere. This is, as ...
Fri 5th
23:14
Might the US Supreme Court actually rule that Trump is in breach of the Fourteenth Amendment?
Section 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress ...
When will it be? For days now the chattering classes in and on the media have been banging on about the possible date of the next general election. With so much actual news to report, from the sickening traumas in Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan and elsewhere, tensions between Taiwan and China, the inadequacy of our flood defences, homelessness, children in poverty, to the star quality of a sixteen-year-old darts player, it is irritating in the extreme to find so much air time and print space devoted to something that the pundits know no more about than we do. The next election ...
Computer Weekly has investigated the Post Office Horizon scandal since 2008. Now Karl Flinders has written a guide that tells you everything you need to know about it. Chris Bowers finds that Mark Pack's recent Never Mind the Bar Charts with Duncan Brack shows striking parallels between the Liberal Democrats under Charles Kennedy's leadership and the party today. Peter Simons on a call by more than 30 prominent figures in critical psychiatry for the government to acknowledge the evidence that antidepressants are no better than placebos for most patients and to increase funding of social and psychological interventions while decreasing ...
Fri 5th
18:02
By-election as Conservative MP Chris Skidmore resigns from party and Westminster over Sunak's energy...
Chris Skidmore, the Conservative MP for Kingswood, has resigned the party whip in protest against Sunak's decision to maximise the extraction of North Sea oil and gas. He explains his decision in a long statement on Twitter, saying "I can no longer stand by." Skidmore has also announced his intention to leave Westminster "as soon as possible," which must mean another parliamentary by-election. Kingwood is in South Gloucestershire and Skidmore had a majority over Labour of over 11,000 at the last election. Labour held the seat between 1992 and 2010.
Fri 5th
17:38Three Green town councillors join the Lib Dems in Helen Morgan's North Shropshire constituency
Helen Morgan's chances of holding North Shropshire, the seat she won in the 2021 by-election, have been boosted by the recruitment of three local Green councillors, reports the Border Counties Advertizer. Oswestry Town Council members Jay Moore, Rosie Radford and Jonathan Upton have all announced they are to join the Liberal Democrats. Jay Moore was mayor of the town in 2022/3. The Lib Dems will now have four councillors in Oswestry after James Owen won a by-election there last year. You can see them in the photo above: from the left they are: Cllrs James Owen, Jonathan Upton, Rosie Radford ...
How was it? Have you survived? There was quite a bit to do to prepare and organise a "memorable Christmas". I wonder how many of us genuinely tried to have a little break, stay away from the news and use the Festive Season as an opportunity to "inhale some positivity", recharge our batteries and reconnect with friends and nature. January is often a tough month. The weather is still pretty miserable, many of us have to go back to work and the joyful Christmas spirit evaporates. The New Year resolution often kicks in. Society encourages us to exercise more, to ...
Three Green Party town councillors in Oswestry have announced their plans to join the Liberal Democrats and support Helen Morgan.
In the 36 years the Liberal Democrats have existed as a political party, we have had eight leaders, and Mark Pack's latest Never Mind the Bar Charts podcast offers an evaluation of one of those eight, Charles Kennedy (1999-2006). The podcast, featuring Mark chatting with the Liberal historian Duncan Brack, has just come out, and the timing is interesting. Most of the information in it has long been in the public domain, and anyone who has read Greg Hurst's biography of Kennedy - or, for that matter, mine of Nick Clegg - will find it a refresher rather than a ...
Fri 5th
10:09
Now is time to tackle the Ludford Question - should Ludlow Town Council expand into Ludford parish?
Shropshire Council is consulting on the parish boundary between Ludlow Town Council and Ludford Parish Council. This is the last stage in a series of reviews of local governance. It began with a review of parliamentary boundaries, leading to the creation the new South Shropshire constituency. This was followed by a review of Shropshire Council's electoral divisions (wards), Now, Shropshire Council wants to review boundaries between five town and parish councils, including Ludlow and Ludford. This is necessary because the market towns have expanded into neighbouring parishes. Some major town developments are now not represented town councils but by parish ...
The Guardian reports on the view of the leader of Britain's police chiefs' organisation that policing is institutionally racist. Gavin Stephens, the chair of the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) has called for a fundamental redesign of national policies and practices to eliminate discrimination, saying that black people should no longer experience disproportionate use of force, and that too little progress had been made to reform policing, with some leaders slow to accept the size of the challenge: Stephens - elected by his fellow chief constables to lead their representative body - emphasised it was his personal view that discrimination ...
Baroness Morris of Bolton begins her New Year message as President of Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) as follows: In 1984, a group of doctors and humanitarians, horrified by the massacre of Palestinian civilians they had witnessed in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Lebanon, grouped together to form Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP). For them, medical relief wasn't just about saving lives, but was a tangible act of solidarity with a people who had suffered so much for so long. Forty years later, amid the heartbreaking scenes we are witnessing in Gaza, the future for Palestinians appears bleaker ...
From the City Council : Dundee City Council proposes to make an Order under Section 14(1) of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 for the purpose of facilitating demolition and construction works. The Order is expected to be in force for six months from 8 January 2024. Its maximum duration in terms of the Act is eighteen months. The effect of the Order is to prohibit temporarily all vehicular traffic in Blinshall Street from Douglas Street for a distance of 50 metres or thereby south. An alternative route will be available via Douglas Street, West Hendersons Wynd and Miln Street. ...
