I was drafting a piece for Liberal Democrat Voice to be published on Monday morning, and I was reminded that there's a pretty brutal weather system in America's Midwest at the moment. So, I turned on the weather app on my phone and found this... And that's in Celsius! Yes, on Monday, it's predicted to be no warmer than -19°C (-2°F) in Des Moines, the state capital of Iowa, where the first Republican caucuses are due to take place. But is it likely to have any major effect? You might reasonably argue that the more fanatical Republican activists will turn ...
Editor's Note: Eight years, at the beginning of the 2016 year of Brexit and Trump Hell, Kevin Lang, now our Group Leader on the City of Edinburgh Council, found himself in Iowa during the caucuses. Across three articles, he gives us a great insight of what happened at the Democrat caucus. Much of what he says about the Hillary campaign is worth our own opposition politicians thinking about as we approach our own election later this year. I thought you might like to re-read Kevin's posts. Of course this year it's the Republicans going mad in Iowa with the front ...
Welcome to my summary of the latest national voting intention poll from each pollster currently operating in Britain. If you'd like to find out more about how polls work, how reliable they are and how to make sense of them, check out my book, Polling UnPacked: the History, Uses and Abuses of Political Opinion Polls, or sign up for my weekly email, The Week in Polls: General election voting intention polls PollsterConLabLDGrnRUKCon leadFieldwork WeThink 23% (-2) 45% (-2) 11% (+2) 5% (nc) 11% (+1) -22% 11-12/1 Opinium 27% (nc) 41% (+1) 11% (nc) 6% (-1) 10% (+1) -14% 10-12/1 YouGov ...
Sat 13th
17:56
Journalists are entitled to quiz Ed Davey about the Horizon scandal and he should apologise for his ...
I cannot share the outrage among my fellow Liberal Democrats at the questioning of Ed Davey over his actions as the minister responsible for the Post Office Those actions are bound to be of interest to the media. Ed is a party leader and one of the few ministers to have held that role in the relevant period who is still at the forefront of politics. If you doubt that, read the names of the others: Ian McCartney, Alan Johnson, Douglas Alexander, Stephen Timms, Gerry Sutcliffe, Jim Fitzpatrick, Pat McFadden, Lord Young, Norman Lamb, Jo Swinson, Jenny Willott, Jo Baroness ...
Strongly partisan though I am for Watford, and keen to proclaim the town's merits, I can't really argue it is full of architectural gems. Indeed on that point it is probably most famous for a building it lost, James Wyatt's Cassiobury House, described by Pevsner as 'one of [Hertfordshire's] major architectural losses of the C20'. Its famous staircase, which is often attributed to Grinling Gibbons, but which I've just read isn't, is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York where, unlike last time I looked this up, it does at least appear to be on display. So ...
One question which is being widely asked is whether Ed Davey should apologise for his role in the Horizon scandal. Those who think he should base their case on the need for the victims, who had their lives ruined, to hear a sincere apology from someone. And, as Ed has already said that he regrets not doing more at the time, why shouldn't it be him? But what good would that do? Let's look at where the heat on Ed is coming from. It's mostly from the right wing press and so-called news organisations such as GB News. So what ...
Liverpool's health caused by extremes of poverty is one that Charles Dickens could come and write about today. In some ways our health inside the city and with the rest of the UK haven't changed much in 200 years and ... Continue reading →
The Guardian reports that Labour's plans to scrap non-dom tax breaks would raise about a billion pounds less than the £3.2bn previously claimed, under an option being considered to allow a four-year grace period for those with the status. The paper says that research suggesting that scrapping the breaks could raise £3.2bn a year was cited by Labour when it announced the plans in 2022 to scrap rules allowing some wealthy people to avoid tax on foreign earnings if they have lived in the UK for less than 14 years: The shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, has said abolishing the tax ...
It's worth listening to the Desert Island Discs of DJ Annie Nightingale, who passed away this week (not least because it contains one of the best put-downs of the Daily Mail ever). I first started listening to Annie Nightingale when she did "Sounds of the 70s" on Radio 1 in the evenings with Alan Black. It was a revelation in radio, not least because it was a rare Radio 1 show in crystal clear stereo FM. The music and sensible presentation style just seemed so refreshing, in contrast to the saccharin daytime output of Radio 1. Many were the Sunday ...
The world's nightmare – escalation of the Middle East crisis – is moving rapidly towards reality. Pushing the region to the edge are Israel's Likud government and Yemen's Iranian-backed Houthis. As of this Friday the death toll in Gaza – according to UN figures – was 23,357. Another 59,410 have been wounded. Benjamin Netanyahu refuses to discuss a ceasefire. Britain and America publicly back him because they are afraid of losing what little leverage they have. Privately they want a ceasefire; Netanyahu out and talks for a two-state solution. Meanwhile, 16 missile and drone launch sites have been attacked by ...
From Sheena Wellington : Friends of Wighton are delighted to welcome 2024 with the return of our weekly classes in Scots song, fiddle and mixed instruments, whistle and a new Gaelic song class, monthly for the moment, starting on the 13th. More details : Scots Song, with Amy Lord - Tuesdays 2pm - 3.30pm, this started last Tuesday and continues on Tuesday 16th January Fiddle, with Heather Miranda - Saturday 1.30pm - 2.30pm starts Saturday 13th January Gaelic Song with Wilma Kennedy - 2nd Saturday of month, 9.30am - 10.30am, starts Saturday 13th January Whistle with Helen Forbes - Saturday, ...
