The Bailey Head in Oswestry is the new Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) West Midlands Regional Cider Pub of the Year, says a press release from the British Guild of Beer Writers. Well done to the pub's owners Grace Goodlad and Duncan Borrowman, who will be known to many readers of this blog. Grace was a Liberal Democrat councillor in Bexley, while Duncan is a former Lib Dem parliamentary candidate and was a member of party staff at Cowley Street for many years. The Bailey Head is also the reigning CAMRA Shropshire County Pub of the Year and Shropshire County ...
Wed 3rd
21:39
Ed Davey: Tomorrow's election is a once-in-a-generation chance to put an end to years of Conservativ...
Embed from Getty ImagesIn an article posted on the Guardian's website this afternoon, Ed Davey describes tomorrow's election as "a once-in-a-generation chance to put an end to years of Conservative chaos": It is tempting to look at the opinion polls and the shambles of a Conservative party election campaign and think that history is assured. But absolutely nothing has been decided yet. There are seats in former Conservative heartlands across the country - such as Bicester and Woodstock, Frome and East Somerset, and Mid Sussex - where seats are on a knife-edge between the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives. A ...
Welcome to my summary of the latest national voting intention poll from each pollster currently operating in Britain. If you'd like to find out more about how polls work, how reliable they are and how to make sense of them, check out my book, Polling UnPacked: the History, Uses and Abuses of Political Opinion Polls, or sign up for my weekly email, The Week in Polls: General election voting intention polls – indicates that party didn't feature in the polling questions separate from 'Others' or that the data is not yet available. Numbers in brackets show change since the previous ...
How the new government can prove it is progressive. I am not and never have been a football fan, but I'm please that, at the moment, we are still in the competition. Staying there will bring a lot of happiness to a lot of people (and a lot of business to struggling pubs.) As it happens I did watch the closing stages of the 1966 final from the back of a bar in northern Italy, where I was on a camping trip with a Scout Group. We were wearing our Scout Uniforms, with our little Union Flags over our left ...
It's hard to believe that it's 6 weeks since Rishi Sunak stood in the rain in Downing Street to fire the starting gun to the General Election campaign. Since then, there hasn't been much movement in the polls, apart from a few points up for us, sparked by the brilliant, positive, incredible images and messages coming from our leader. What a time to come in to the form of your life, Ed Davey! This party has fought our best campaign for years at every possible level. Our media spokespeople have been amazing. Ed has shown in the debates, Question Times ...
Yesterday, campaigners, including friend of this site Mathew Hulbert, held a vigil outside Conservative HQ to remember their loved ones who had died while waiting for emergency treatment. You may remember that Mathew's mum Jackie died in July 2022 after an 11 hour wait for an ambulance. Mathew's courage in speaking out about their ordeal since then has been incredible. Yesterday, he took part in this video explaining why they were there. Hey @RishiSunak – did you see our memorial bench outside @Conservatives HQ? During the term of this government, #NHS delays caused by failed policies have cost tens of ...
The media must start holding Reform and Nigel Farage to account, says Hardeep Matharu. The normalisation of racism and dog-whistles will only get worse if the press continues to treat Farage as an entertaining figure representing the 'real views' of the British people. Imran Mulla and Peter Oborne examine Rishi Sunak's worrying links with India's far right. "Compared to similar size towns in the UK, Clacton has a limited heritage and cultural offer. It has a wonderful but very small museum space run by active volunteers in the public library. There's room for about five visitors at a time, and ...
On Thursday the 27th of June, Channel 4's Dispatches programme broadcast an episode called 'Can AI Steal Your Vote?' The premise was that 12 undecided households were told they were going to see some social media content that parties had been working on but had not released yet. First hook being they would be told something that others did not know, instant buy-in for most people. What they were not told was that this was an experiment to see how people could be manipulated to vote in specific way based on information they were presented with. Any experimental social scientists ...
There's a great programme of daily activities at Blackness Library for all local children, taking place over the school summer holidays. A whole host of activities includes the reading hour, Warhammer, Great Big Bookbug and Monday Mayhem - Ted Talks. A full list of activities is available to pick up at the library - all welcome!
Labour may well be soaring ahead in England, but here in Wales they are not so buoyant and feedback on the doorsteps is that people are disillusioned with their performance in the Senedd, the 20mph default speed limit, £18m a year extra for 36 more Senedd Members and First Minister, Vaughan Gething's donations scandal, and in particular that he is still there despite losing a no confidence vote. It is no surprise therefore that Nation Cymru has reported that a Labour general election battle bus touring Wales did not have Vaughan Gething as a passenger when it visited the seat ...
