Rob Blackie: Flashy Fares Freeze Fools No One Welsh Lib Dems push for Senedd reform Rob Blackie: Flashy Fares Freeze Fools No One Following Sadiq Khan's announcement he is freezing fares for a year, Lib Dem Candidate for London Mayor, Rob Blackie, said: Sadiq Khan's flashy fare freeze fools no one. It is typical of a Mayor who prefers delivering headlines to delivering for Londoners. We all know the state of Transport for London's finances and so the Mayor will simply claw this back through other means – most likely after votes have been cast. It is simply an election ...
Sheila Fitzpatrick reviews Anna Reid's A Nasty Little War: The West's Fight to Reverse the Russian Revolution in the new London Review of Books: "A really nasty, dirty little war ... Waste of time, money and everything else" was the way Christopher Bilney, who served as a seaplane pilot in the Caucasus in 1919, remembered it in old age. He was one of many British veterans whose memories of Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War of 1918-20 were "uneasy, with guilt and a sense of failure lurking beneath surface jollity". The American veterans - who had less reason for ...
Fri 19th
17:05
Empty shops: Ludlow has a lot, it has to offer - we need to help it back to full health
Ludlow is still a lively town and well worth visiting to shop and explore its heritage, cafes restaurants, pubs market and really good shops. But it cannot be hidden that there are more empty shops than there used to be. At present there are 23 vacant retail units in the town centre. In November 2017, there were just seven vacant units the lowest number for years. The empty shops are more obvious in Ludlow than they have ever been, particularly on King Street. The recent closure of the Fruit Basket on Church Street was another blow to the town centre. ...
You won't have noticed it, but this week has been momentous for the electricity grid. Six out of nine UK nuclear power plants are offline at the moment, so nuclear power generation has dropped to a decades-long low of just 2.5GW. This compares to a norm of 4.7GW when all our plants are running normally. ... Continue reading Could Britain go nuclear free?
The victorious Sheffield team last night Congratulations to new councillor Will Sapwell, who won the Stannington by-election yesterday in Sheffield Hallam constituency. And what a great swing from Labour... Stannington (Sheffield) council by-election result: LDEM: 52.7% (+15.9) LAB: 28.3% (-0.4) CON: 8.7% (-5.6) GRN: 7.6% (-7.0) LIB: 2.8% (+2.8) Votes cast: 4,288 Liberal Democrat HOLD.https://t.co/bdfrOWKoJv — Britain Elects (@BritainElects) January 19, 2024 This is part two of our by-election reporting this week, you can find part one here. Thanks to Mark Pack for his tireless reporting on his blog, where you can read the latest 2023-24 by-elections scorecard. * Paul ...
The Local Government Association has issued a new 'safer canvassing guide' for councillors and political parties to follow in the run up to the local election and an anticipated general election. The guide outlines seven principles for safe canvassing and builds on those to offer some helpful, practical hints for canvassers. This comes on the back of the LGA's Debate Not Hate campaign, which found that over 80 per cent of councillors of all parties suffered abuse or intimidation last year and 70 per cent experienced abuse during the 2023 local election campaign. You can read the guide in full ...
Embed from Getty ImagesWhen the British Scandal podcast announced it would be doing the Kray Twins next, I was a little underwhelmed. Isn't this a story we've heard too many times already? So it proved until the last episode, which was absolutely riveting. It took the form of an interview with Nemone Lethbridge, a pioneering woman barrister in the 1950s, who became the Krays favourite brief. She is fascinating on both the struggles she faced as a young woman barrister and on the Krays. You can listen to the podcast on the British Scandal site, and there was also a ...
I met up with Alan Guest, secretary of the Sunniside History Society, last night in Sunniside Club, to review some of the photos donated to the Society by Francis Newman. Many of the photos were taken in Sunniside 30 years ago though there were some which were much older. We made a selection of photos to present at the next meeting on 1st February. The aim is to get people to share their memories
It isn't hard to see where the priorities of this Tory government lie. As this article in the Mirror reveals they will always put their own privileges first. The paper says that details buried in the Finance Bill show that the luxury flight-loving Prime Minister plans to raise Air Passenger Duty (APD) on all flights within the UK from April, except for the 'higher' rate that covers private jets: Passengers travelling by economy will see the tax added to the cost of their fare raised from £6.50 to £7 under plans announced in last year's Budget. Travellers using premium economy ...
There were six principal authority council by-elections yesterday, and there were Liberal Democrat candidates in all those contests. After winning 39 of the 54 seats in Richmond-upon-Thames in 2014, the Tories yesterday lost their last seat on the council!: Hampton North (Richmond upon Thames) council by-election result: LDEM: 53.2% (+19.9) CON: 34.8% (+11.2) LAB: 7.2% (-1.1) GRN: 4.8% (-16.2) Votes cast: 2,213 Liberal Democrat GAIN from Conservative. *Defending Con seat was third placed of three-member ward in 2022. Top three... — Britain Elects (@BritainElects) January 19, 2024 This is part one of our by-election coverage this week – you can ...
Fri 19th
09:15
Liberal Democrats name junior doctor Aidan King as candidate for North East mayor election
ChronicleLive reports: The Liberal Democrats have chosen a junior doctor as their candidate for the North East mayoral election. Aidan King, a physician at Newcastle's Royal Victoria Infirmary who specialises in clinical pharmacology, was announced on Tuesday as the latest name to enter the mayoral race. A former councillor in the city, Dr King's early campaign pledges include plans to build the UK's largest on-shore wind farm and deliver a "house building renaissance" across the region. You can read the full article here. * Newshound: bringing you the best Lib Dem commentary in print, on air or online.
Following the fire damage at the West End Campus last summer, we recently asked the City Council for an update on progress with the remaining repairs. The council's Head Of Design & Property Services has now advised us as follows : "As these reinstatement works are being led by the council insurers, we are very much influenced by their processes and procedures. Accordingly, the insurers have decided for the project works to be tendered rather than direct appointing a contractor for the remaining works. Council officers had a meeting with insurance representatives on during December, where it was outlined that ...
Six principal authority council by-elections this week, and a full slate of Liberal Democrat candidates to go with them. (Here's why that matters.) To the results, and let's start with the London borough of Richmond. In 2014 the Conservatives won 39 of the council's 54 seats. This week, they lost their last seat and are down to zero councillors for the first time in the council's history. Hampton North (Richmond) Council By-Election Result: [IMG: 🔶] LDM: 53.2% (+19.9) [IMG: 🌳] CON: 34.8% (+11.2) [IMG: 🌹] LAB: 7.2% (-1.1) [IMG: 🌍] GRN: 4.8% (-16.2) No IND (-13.7) as previous. Lib Dem ...
