Davey: Sunak leaving D-Day early a "dereliction of duty" Lib Dems pledge to create new National Parks D-Day: Lib Dems call on Sunak to donate Hester £5 million to a veterans' charity Scottish Liberal Democrats commit to returning UK to Erasmus Lib Dems call for new protections for rivers and coastlines as sewage dumped over 83,000 times in Welsh waters last year Davey: Sunak leaving D-Day early a "dereliction of duty" Responding to reports that Rishi Sunak left D-Day commemorations in Normandy early, Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey said: One of the greatest privileges of the office of Prime Minister ...
Before he entered parliament, Giles Watling, the Conservative MP for Clacton, was an actor. His most prominent role was Oswald, the vicar in Bread. And before he was an adult actor, he was a child actor. At the age of 11 or so, he played Malcolm Gideon, son of John Gregson's Commander Gideon of Scotland Yard, in the television series Gideon Way. The series is now a staple of Talking Pictures TV. One of the best episodes of Gideon's Way was The 'V' Men, which dealt with a right-wing demagogue and the problems he and his supporters caused for the ...
The Leader's Debate on Wednesday was a miserable affair. In fact, I couldn't bring myself to watch the whole hour. It wasn't so much what they said, which was pretty predictable, but how they said it. The tone was one of bad tempered school boys itching for a fight. Insults were exchanged – sometimes quite subtly, but they still landed. In fact Sunak and Starmer lived up to everyone's stereotype of opposing politicians, substituting personal attacks for carefully argued criticism. It wasn't helped by the chairing which seemed to egg on the sparring. One response that we hear on the ...
The latest episode of Never Mind The Bar Charts is another team-up with the Lib Dem podcast, taking a look at the general election, mulling over Nigel Farage's entrance and hearing about how a Dalek got canvassed. Appearing on the show is Victoria Collins. The constituency she is standing in includes the village of Aldbury, often used in TV and films, including for Doctor Who and The Avengers. Feedback very welcome, and do share this podcast with others who you think may enjoy it. Show notes Victoria Collins. Aldbury. Lib Dem Pod. Theme tune by Hugo Lee. New to listening ...
J.L. Austin - John Langshaw Austin - was a hugely influential figure in British philosophy in the 1950s, more through his teaching at Oxford than through his limited publications. If you want to explore this side of him, there is a good entry in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. But Austin, who was only 48 when he died, had another career. He was the officer who brought together the intelligence that made the Normandy landings possible. Reviewing a new biography of Austin - J.L. Austin: Philosopher and D-Day Intelligence Officer by M.W. Rowe. - in the London Review of Books, ...
Richard Holden experienced one of the unexpected moments of the 2019 general election. He won the constituency of North West Durham, previously a Labour stronghold. Holden's career seemed to be on an upward trajectory and he was appointed Chair of the Conservative Party. But to keep his star in the ascendency, he needed to continue to be an MP. That was looking like a problem earlier this year
On Wednesday evening, I was the speaker at the Sunniside History Society monthly meeting. The subject of my talk was "Preparations for D-Day". We looked at how the Allies broke Enigma, how troops were transferred across the Atlantic on the Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary ocean liners, how the Nazis were fooled into thinking the invasion would be in the Pays de Calais and how an artificial harbour
To no one's great surprise, Keith Vaz has announced he is to fight his old seat of Leicester East at the general election. Vaz represented Leicester East from 1987 to 2019. but lost the Labour whip and was suspended from the Commons for six months following a scandal involving male prostitutes cocaine and industrial washing machines. He did not stand at the 2019 general election. If you have a free evening, it's worth reading the Controversies section of Vaz's Wikipedia entry. Vaz will stand under the One Leicester banner, which is used by dissident Labour people protesting against the hegemony ...
Nominations for the general election close this afternoon. Here in Gateshead, we have one constituency fully within the area of the council and three that are partially within the borough. In three of these, the Conservatives are still to announce their candidates. I am assuming that they will announce them shortly. Surely, as the governing party, they are going to join the battle in these
Today's Guardian's editorial is scathing about the attitude of Vaughan Gething and the Senedd Labour group towards the non-binding motion of no confidence that was passed on Wednesday. They conclude that it's hard to see how Vaughan Gething can survive as first minister in Wales: Mr Gething won't survive by just dismissing the vote as "non-binding". The first minister lost because two Labour Senedd members, one of whom he sacked and the other a vocal critic, did not turn up to support him. Both were said to be ill. The first minister has annoyed colleagues with his high-handed approach. A ...
Not quite all the council by-elections are being held off until general election polling day. So we've had several this week. There was first an unusual Tuesday by-election, in Wales: Rhiwcynon (Powys) by-election result: [IMG: ๐ณ] John Yeomans (CON): 352 [IMG: ๐ผ] Ann Jones (PC): 286 [IMG: ๐ค] Richard Breese Jones (IND): 110 [IMG: ๐ถ] Richard Edward Amy (LD): 74 [IMG: ๐น] Paul Wixey (LAB): 25 [IMG: โก] Oliver Lewis (REF): 18 [IMG: ๐ข] Rhodri Parfitt (GRN): 13 [IMG: ๐ค] David Markinson (IND): 4 CON GAIN from IND https://t.co/btJRbjvpLx — Lloyd Warburton [IMG: ๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ท๓ ฌ๓ ณ๓ ฟ] [IMG: ๐บ๐ฆ] (@LloydCymru) June 5, 2024 ...
Along the south side of Annfield Street, traditionally there have been four benches but unfortunately although two are still in usable condition, one is badly damaged [see photo] and another is now completely missing. We raised this with our local environment manager following residents highlighting this with us and have received the following helpful response : "Presently there are currently three benches in situ within Annfield Street. I have made several enquiries with regards to the missing bench at the Annfield Road end to determine the reason for removal. I can only assume at this time that the bench was ...
