I really couldn't do today's summary without covering Ed Davey's adventures in Somerset. Whilst I'm sure that there are those out there who think that it's all a bit silly, I'd suggest that it does two things: Gets out the message that, actually, Ed is kind of fun, and: Allows him to get across two messages in an easy soundbite when he's got media attention. And, that attention is spread further, to voters who might otherwise not hear our message, as Shelter have demonstrated: [IMG: 👀] The feeling you get when your party has pledged to build 150,000 social homes ...
The latest episode of Never Mind The Bar Charts is another team-up with John Potter and the Lib Dem Pod team. This time we were joined by Bill Revans, leader of the largest elected Lib Dem group in the country, to talk about the start of the general election: Feedback very welcome, and do share this podcast with others who you think may enjoy it. Show notes Lib Dem Pod. Theme tune by Hugo Lee. New to listening to podcasts? Here are some tips on how to listen to podcasts. Check out some of this show's most popular previous episodes. ...
The other day I showed you the combined road and railway bridge over the Trent at Keadby. It's not been lifted since 1956, which may be just as well, because it looks terrifying. But there is another extraordinary railway bridge in operation on the Doncaster to Scunthorpe line near Keady. The Stainforth and Keadby Canal links the waterways of South Yorkshire with the Trent. And this swing bridge takes the railway over it shortly before Keadby, You can see it in operation in the video above. And that's the terrifying lift bridge that no long lifts below.
Embed from Getty ImagesA comment piece by Jack Kessler in the Evening Standard understands: Following the catastrophic 2015 general election, the Lib Dems haven't even been the third party of British politics. Yet under successive leaders, they have frequently punched above their parliamentary weight, based on an understanding that they must be different in order to generate the oxygen of publicity. They need to be, for want of a better word, a little bit wacky. And in Ed Davey, the party can boast a leader who has turned this into an art form. If you remember anything about the Chesham ...
... some of them made campaign videos on good old VHS tapes and sent them to voters, as this example from then Lib Dem MP Brian Cotter shows.
In just over a month's time we will have a new government. But what kind of government will it be? We already know that Starmer is in love with councils, arms-length commissions, and quasi-public bodies of all kinds. Labour is committed to a British Infrastructure Council, a National Wealth Fund and Great British Energy (all under the sponsorship or direction of a Treasury Enterprise Growth Unit). There has also been a commitment to centralise policy delivery in Downing Street. The reflex to embrace concentrated bureaucratic power has deep ideological roots in the party, going all the way back to the ...
From the Daily Telegraph, 1 May 1997, comes this alternative to opinion polls.
Tim Farron on Radio 4 explaining the Liberal Democrat solution to the mess that is the water industry, and how we'd get sewage out of our rivers and off our beaches.
Considering that there is a general election in five weeks time, Welsh Labour are doing a pretty good job at alienating voters with an astonishing display of arrogance over the scandals surrounding the First Minister. Nation Cymru reports that key figures in Welsh Labour have been criticised for claiming voters don't care about donations to Vaughan Gething's leadership campaign despite a new poll showing that the public overwhelmingly agree he should return the money. The website says that in the poll conducted on 18-19 May by Redfield and Wilton Strategies in partnership with WalesOnline, 70 per cent of the weighted ...
It is plainly obvious that the major domestic priority in the UK is to restore our badly run-down public services, and that somehow or other the next government will have to raise the money to do this. Yet both the biggest parties have boxed themselves into "fiscal constraints" by which they will neither increase taxes nor borrow. The Conservatives pretend they can square the circle by their "plan," which seems to amount to carrying on as before, and Labour speaks glibly abut "growth," something we haven't achieved in any significant measure for two decades. The only chink of light on ...
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!
