Houthi strikes: Lib Dems to table Bill giving MPs a vote over UK military action The Liberal Democrats are set to table a Bill which will give Parliament a vote over military action. The Lib Dem legislation – dubbed the 'War Powers Bill' – will enshrine the right for MPs to approve military action into law. It comes following criticism levelled at Rishi Sunak, who has failed to grant MPs a vote on the UK's strikes against Houthi rebels in Yemen. From the 2000s onwards, MPs were frequently given the opportunity to vote on military action and intervention. In emergency ...
Historian Alex Grant explains why an often-overlooked spy scandal of the early 1960s matters - and how it changed British journalism, and security vetting, for ever. "He had 'minor public school' printed all over him," an old friend told me during my research into the life of the clerk turned spy, John Vassall. "Because he was not in the same social class as the ambassador and other senior diplomats, he hadn't the nerve to go to them when he got himself in a spot of bother." Who was John Vassall, what was this "spot of bother" and why is it ...
For someone who spends as long as I do noodling over the UK economy, it is flat out embarrassing that I do not have an immediate and confident answer to this question. Here is a reasonable contender for the most important chart of the era. Taken from OBR figures (so easy to do), this showsContinue reading "What is your favourite explanation for our fall in growth?"
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 ...
Back for the second week in a row – and who said that I couldn't manage that? – our (aspirational) regular review of the week ahead at the more genteel end of the Palace of Westminster. After last week's easing back into the routine, it's a more normal week for the Peers, although there is one relatively unusual session included. But Monday starts with the usual round of Oral Questions – there are usually four each day – and two come from Liberal Democrats. Malcolm Bruce opens with a question regarding Government plans to promote the end of absolute poverty ...
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Amateur archaeologists find Tudor palace in the Northamptonshire village of Collyweston
Collyweston Palace in Northamptonshire, the home of Henry VII's mother Lady Margaret Beaufort, was once famous. The pre-wedding celebrations of the marriage of Margaret Tudor and James IV of Scotland in 1503 were held there, and Henry VIII held court on 16 and 17 October 1541. There were meetings of the Privy Council too. But until a group of amateur archaeologists got going in the village, the location of the palace was lost. The Guardian carried the news of its finding at the start of December:"Many of us were brought up in the village, and you hear about this lost ...
Chris Skidmore tells a Press Association reporter that he has "no regrets" over leaving parliament and warns his former party that it faces its "toughest by-election fight so far" in Kingswood. "You expect some silence in a library. But not this much. The reading rooms of the British Library near King's Cross are usually home to busy writers and academics working on their next tomes, but on a visit this week, most of the desks were empty." Robbie Griffiths on the ransomware attack that crippled the British Library. Tom Scott warns that conspiracy theorists are increasingly moving out of their ...
The long-awaited (albeit nervously) US Presidential campaign gets underway in earnest today, with the Iowa caucuses, the first step in a winnowing process that formally ends in the US Virgin Islands on 8 June. It's only the Republicans who are taking part this week, as the Iowa Democratic primary takes place on "Super Tuesday", 5 March. There are 40 delegates up for grabs (out of 2,467 available overall) but it isn't winner takes all – delegates are allocated according to the share of the vote achieved. So, what are we watching out for? The opinion polling that has taken place ...
Framed in a first-storey winder of a burnin' buildin'Appeared: A Yuman Ead!Jump into this net, wot we are 'oldin'And yule be quite orl right!But 'ee wouldn't jump ...And the flames grew Igher and Igher and Igher(phew!) Framed in a second-storey winder of a burnin' buildin'Appeared: A Yuman Ead!Jump into this net, wot we are 'oldin'And yule be quite orl right!But 'ee wouldn't jump ...And the flames grew Igher and Igher and Igher(strewth!) Framed in a third-storey winder of a burnin' buildin'Appeared: A Yuman Ed!Jump into this net, wot we are 'oldin'And yule be quite orl right!Honest!And 'ee jumped ...And 'ee ...
1,150 patients a day faced 'trolley waits' in A&E of 12 hours or more last year Fifty fold increase in 12-hour delays compared to four years ago In some areas almost one in two patients faced delays of 12 hours or more Lib Dems warn funding cuts risk "pouring petrol over the fire" of NHS crisis A record 420,000 patients waited more than 12 hours to be admitted to hospital from A&E in 2023, up 20% on the previous year, new analysis by the Liberal Democrats has revealed. It means an average of 1,150 patients a day faced waits of ...
As the House of Commons vote on the government's Rwanda bill approaches, the Mirror reports on new documentation that has emerged, which highlights the absurdity of Ministers legislating to create their own fantasy solution to immigration. The paper says that Ministers have "brushed aside" evidence of refugee killings, discrimination and suppression in Rwanda in a desperate bid to declare the country "safe: A Home Office assessment said Rwanda was a "relatively peaceful country with respect for the rule of law" but admitted there are "issues with its human rights record around political opposition to the current regime, dissent and free ...
Today is, apparently Blue Monday, the most depressing day of the year. But not here at Liberal Democrat Voice. Whilst Christmas is just far enough behind us now to be becoming a distant memory, the shops are full of Valentines stuff and Easter eggs, and there are at least two more by-elections for the opposition parties to get their teeth into (with a double dip in Blackpool still to come?). The Conservatives continue to find ways of tripping over their own biases and the Telegraph (yes, really) seems determined to add to their woes with polling that suggest that Rishi ...
DUNDEE CITY COUNCIL - WEEKLY ROAD REPORT REPORT FOR THE WEST END WARD - WEEK COMMENCING MONDAY 15 JANUARY 2024 Blinshall Street (Douglas Street to 50 metres south) - closed from 27 November 2023 for 6 months for road safety concerns. Brown Street (south of Douglas Street) - closed until May 2024 for construction works. Seafield Road, Dundee - closed from its westmost end (in cul-de-sac) extending for a distance of no more than 20 metres in an easterly direction to facilitate a site access for a new housing development. Commencing Tuesday 22 August 2023 for 15 months. South Marketgait ...
