Lib Dems: Protect swimming pools and leisure centres from closure with "critical health infrastructure" status Welsh Lib Dem leader meets Aber student union following scraping of teacher training Lib Dems: Protect swimming pools and leisure centres from closure with "critical health infrastructure" status The Liberal Democrats have called for swimming pools and leisure centres to be designated as "critical health infrastructure" to protect them from closure. It comes as new analysis by the party shows 266 local authority swimming pools and 261 leisure facilities have been closed since 2015. Once new openings are taken into account, there has been a ...
Here in 1975, introduced by John Arlott, is Phil Edmonds in his blond Adonis phase, making his test debut. In his first 12 overs for England he took 5 Australian wickets for 17, his victims including both Chappell brothers. He was to bowl much better than this for England, but never with so much luck. Still, his sudden appearance on the test scene was part of the revitalisation of the team under Tony Greig's captaincy. From his debut until his last test, against Pakistan in 1987, Edmonds only played 51 of a possible 126 games for England. In part this ...
The prime minister's critics in the Conservative Party, reports the Telegraph, know what he needs to do: Tory critics are urging Rishi Sunak to promote Right-wingers to an "election war Cabinet" after the local elections, which are predicted to deliver sizeable Tory defeats. Two Tory MPs have endorsed the idea to The Telegraph, with Priti Patel, Jacob Rees-Mogg and Robert Jenrick put forward as possible names to be in contention. One name jumps out here: that of Jacob Rees-Mogg. That's because he had to be hidden from the public during the last general election campaign. On 11 December 2019, the ...
Before I move on to the week ahead, I thought that I couldn't do so without mentioning last week's debates on the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Act which saw its final stages in the Lords last Monday. Dispiriting though it was to see such a ghastly piece of legislation passed, I take some (very) slight comfort in the fact that Liberal Democrat peers were in the forefront of the attempt to first defeat the Bill at Second Reading and then to salvage what could be salvaged from the wreckage that ensued, as outlined by Mike German in his ...
Humza Yousaf bowed to the inevitable this lunchtime. Knowing that he could not win the vote of no confidence due to take place this week, he announced his resignation as First Minister and leader of the SNP. He will stay on until his successor is chosen. This should mean that there is no 28 day limit to when the SNP choose their next leader. The rules of the Scottish Parliament state that if there is no First Minister, the Parliament has 28 days to choose another and if they can't agree, there's an election. But if Humza stays on, as ...
In a factory in rural Durham, the government's commitment to 'levelling up' and to manufacturing industry is being tested to destruction. The Hitachi railway manufacturing plant, employing 700 and thousands more in the supply chain, is threatened with closure. Procrastination over HS2, lack of joined up planning for the railway industry and Covid's negative effect on travel have, together, led to a three-year gap in the company's order book. The Japanese owners cannot realistically be expected to mothball the plant for three years and so it will most likely close. I got to visit the plant (along with Lib Dem ...
Photo: BBC No-one can deny that Scottish politics has been interesting in the last week or so. As Harold Wilson once remarked, "a week in politics is a long time". A lot has changed in that time. So much so that I intended to write a very different blogpost this morning considering the options open to Humza Yousaf - but his sudden resignation as SNP leader put paid to that idea. Fundamentally, the situation was created by the First Minister overreaching himself in terminating the Bute House Agreement. It's difficult to see why he felt he needed to do this ...
It's been a pivotal month for us carers in which our dedication to our loved ones has made the headlines for various reasons, good and bad. The good news was that Liberal Democrat MP Wendy Chamberlain's Carer's Leave Act finally became law on 6th April. This provides all carers in employment with a new statutory right to take five days of unpaid leave from work each year to fulfil their caring responsibilities. Wendy, herself, said she would have wanted this to be paid leave but the principle is now enshrined in law and at least doors have been opened. It ...
Government told "the family GP is a thing of the past" as GP crisis worsens Older people most likely to never see the same GP despite warnings from health groups Lib Dem Leader calls for over-70s and those with long-term health conditions to see the same GP for every appointment New plans would cover around 19 million patients across the country, and be crucial for people with long-term care needs New polling commissioned by the Liberal Democrats has led to the government being warned "the family GP is a thing of the past", with people reporting to never see the ...
One way of telling if an election is imminent is when the number of dirty tricks being played by party workers on their opponents start to get out of hand. We have already seen the campaign manager of a Tory MP buying up domain names in their Lib Dem opponent's name before directing them to the Tory's website, now we have allegations that Tory staff in London have been running a network of anti-Ulez Facebook groups riddled with racism and abuse. The Guardian reports that Conservative party staff and activists are secretly operating a network of Facebook groups that have ...
Mon 29th
08:15
GUEST POST So far this year, 49 councillors have left the Tories and 42 have left Labour
Augustus Carp gives his latest bulletin on councillors who have changed party. Individually, these moves may be insignificant, but the overall totals do show which way the tide is running. It's odd the things that political journalists think important, isn't it? On Saturday evening a somewhat obscure Suffolk MP crosses the floor, and it's headline news. Meanwhile, nearly 100 councillors have defected since the New Year, and it barely gets a mention in their local paper. Obviously, the actions of a former health minister have more immediate impact than those of a sometime chair of the highways and byways subcommittee ...
The news that Dr Dan Poulter, the now ex-Conservative MP for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich, has defected to Labour has come as a bit of a shock to many – and let's face it, how on Earth could it have taken him so long to realise that the current Conservative leadership have no real interest in public services? – but I ought now to admit that the evidence was there as far back as 2010. As the brand new MP for the constituency, elected that year, he came to the village as part of his "getting to know the ...
DUNDEE CITY COUNCIL - WEEKLY ROAD REPORT REPORT FOR THE WEST END WARD - WEEK COMMENCING MONDAY 29 APRIL 2024 Blinshall Street (Douglas Street to 50 metres south) - closed until 27 May 2024 for road safety concerns. Douglas Street (Blinshall Street to Brown Street) - temporary traffic lights until June 2024 for construction works. Brown Street (south of Douglas Street) - closed until December 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 ...
