Following the publication of the first report by The Angiolini Inquiry into the murder of Sarah Everard, Lib Dem Mayoral candidate, Rob Blackie, has criticised the Mayor for his continued failures on London's women's safety. Three years after the murder of Sarah Everard by a rogue Metropolitan Police officer, Blackie cites how sex offences have surged, recruitment of officers focused on sexual crime is failing, and public trust in the police has collapsed during Sadiq Khan's time in office. Sexual offences reported to the police in London rose from 16,147 in 2015 to 24,958 in 2023 – a rise of ...
Before I found the Isokon Building just down the road, I came across this structure om Haverstock Hill, just south of Belsize Park tube station. I decided it must be for ventilation, but thought it a bit lightweight if it was intended to ventilate the Northern Line. When I got home and looked it up, it turned out I was right on both counts. It was for ventilation, but what it ventilated was a deep-level air-raid shelter. The London Transport Museum has a page about these shelters: With London suffering major air raids during the Second World War, the London ...
Ed Davey has been on a visit to Israel and Palestine. He has sent out this email: I've just returned from a visit to Israel and Palestine. The 7 October attacks and the ongoing conflict and humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza have affected so many lives. They have also had a profound impact on many communities here in the UK. I felt that it was vital to travel to the region and meet with those whose lives have been turned upside down these past few months, and speak to politicians and civil society leaders about how we get to an immediate ...
Andrew Teale produces a local by-election preview every Thursday, and today's edition also includes the parliamentary contest in Rochdale. His exhaustive history of that town's elections provides our Trivial Fact of the Day: the former Liberal Democrat MP and MEP Liz Lynne once appeared in Agatha Christie's record-breaking play The Mousetrap. I think I already knew this, and an Agatha Christie wiki shows that she played the role of Miss Casewell in 1986. Also in that 1986 cast was David Lloyd Meredith, better known (to me at least) as Sergeant Evans from Softly Softly: Task Force. Agatha Christie fans may ...
I've blogged before about Richard Taylor's intention to sue the makers of the film The Lost King over the way he is represented in it. Taylor was deputy registrar of the University of Leicester at the time of the dig that found the remains of Richard III. The case has now come to court. BBC News reports:Steve Coogan is being sued for libel by a university official who claims he was made to look "devious" and "weasel-like" in a film about the discovery of Richard III's remains. Richard Taylor has started legal action against the comedian, who was a writer ...
In the Guardian on Tuesday (February 27) Polly Toynbee wrote a powerful Opinion piece entitled (in the print version), 'The Tories have miscalculated: Britons do care about poverty'. Quoting the Institute for Public Policy Research's figures, that despite the increase in the local housing allowance from April, more than 800,000 renting households receiving housing benefit will still have to fund the gap between their rent and their benefit, Polly also cites a new Action for Children report finding that many families are falling below the breadline, even when both parents work full-time on the minimum wage. 'The gap between what ...
It's election year, and I'm sure we're going to see some ostentatious victory stunts from the Lib Dems, in the past we've injected razzmatazz into politics by involving showbiz stars, drawing on our strong links with the entertainment world. This reached a zenith in 2010 when the likes of Colin Firth, JK Rowling, Armando Iannucci, ... Continue reading Lib Dem stars of stage and screen, Part 1
The next time a Tory politician complains about small boats bringing immigrants over to the UK, it will be worthwhile directing them to thia article in the Mirror. The paper says that a damning report by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) has warned that Home Office 'chaos' is costing taxpayers millions of pounds with 55,000 asylum seekers in permanent limbo. They say that this damning report has found that tens of thousands of asylum seekers are unable to work and stuck in temporary accommodation. They add that the failure to bring in the costly Rwanda deportation project means ...
Thu 29th
13:34
Three top tier Lib Dem candidates to speak at the Social Liberal Forum pre-conference lunch in York
By the end of the year and after the next general election and the prospects are that we could have 30 or more Lib Dem MPs. In fact, if Nigel Farage decides to lead the Reform party and split the right wing vote even more we could easily win more seats from the Conservatives and have over 50 MPs. So what would our new Parliamentary party look like? Lib Dem conference in York officially starts at 4.30pm on the Friday 15th March. So we in the Social Liberal Forum have decided to organise our "pre-conference lunch" event earlier in the ...
A few years ago it was the French who had the secret of parenting: their children ate up their vegetables and didn't get ADHD. Now it's the Scandinavians, hitherto envied by the British for their tasteful interior design and more adventurous sex lives. The other day Helen Russell wrote a piece for the Guardian to promote her book How to Raise a Viking - The Secrets of Parenting the World's Happiest Children. Those secrets, it seems, include lots of outside play, family meals and singing together in schools. The more I read Russell's article, the more the enlightened world of ...
Last week my husband, Ian, was bluelighted into Kingston Hospital. He was very unwell, and eventually – not immediately – they diagnosed Covid. He is clinically vulnerable because of a number of medical conditions, and we shielded carefully through full and partial lockdowns. Neither of us has had Covid up until now. Given the way it attacked him this time we could see why shielding had been essential for him before vaccines became available. The A&E staff at the hospital were brilliant and he was kept for 48 hours in the Resus unit, but what I want to tell you ...
Councillors were forced out of the chamber last night by a tiny group of demonstrators but there were not enough of them to be a mob! (photo David Humphreys) Last night, for just a few minutes, the adult services committee ... Continue reading →
Michael's ward surgeries take place today and every Thursday during school term time. They are as follows : Thursdays at 5.45pm prompt - West End Campus (come to reception area of St Joseph's RC and Victoria Park Primary Schools) Thursdays at 6.30pm prompt - Harris Academy reception area All welcome - no appointment necessary!
