[IMG: James Clarke - photo from Bromsgrove Lib Dems] James Clarke: the new Lib Dem councillor. It seems to be the season for unusually timed by-elections as this week brought a Monday contest, timed so as to allow the new councillor to attend a full council meeting later in the week: Bestwood St Albans (Gedling) Council By-Election Result: [IMG: 🌳] CON: 47.8% (+16.3) [IMG: 🌹] LAB: 40.1% (-12.3) [IMG: 🔶] LDM: 12.1% (+6.3)No GRN (-10.3) as previous.Conservative GAIN from Labour.Changes w/ 2023. — Election Maps UK (@electionmaps.uk) 2024-09-18T00:09:15.711Z
Improving maternity care must be a key priority for the new government Rennie responds to new Audit Scotland college report Cole-Hamilton urges First Minister to act on antisocial driving Cole-Hamilton attacks "vast" pay off to water industry boss Improving maternity care must be a key priority for the new government Responding to the Care Quality Commission's report into maternity care services, Liberal Democrat Health and Social Care Spokesperson, Helen Morgan said: The ongoing postcode lottery of maternity care must end. That means raising standards across the board and making sure that no mother or baby is put at unnecessary risk. ...
Whilst I did say that I might get a little more involved with all things Liberal Democrat - you know where to find me everyone - I do still have a few other things to do. And this evening, it was time to resume in my capacity as Chair of the Mid Suffolk branch of the Suffolk Association of Local Councils (SALC). We've had a minor organisational reshuffle, with the original two branches, Mid Suffolk North and Mid Suffolk South, combined into one larger branch, which reduces the number of meetings and, hopefully, increases attendance. And whilst I was Chair ...
I spent my last day in Shropshire at Snailbeach and Stiperstones village. Here is the Stiperstones Inn with the hills behind it. The pub, I can report, now has inside toilets and more dining space, including a pleasant outside area. And, unlike some remote establishments I could mention, is still friendly and welcoming, serving food all day, every day. It doesn't do bed and breakfast any more, but owns some self-catering accommodation nearby. This seems a general pattern in the area: everyone wants week-long bookings, and the sort of places I stayed at for one night in my walking days ...
BBC News wins our Headline of the Day Award. Congratulations to them, to Annie Allen and to the alpacas. Ms Allen said: "I've travelled quite a bit and seen so many things, but I've never met alpacas before - they're wonderful."
The Electoral Commission report on Voter ID in the General Election found that 16,000 would-be voters were turned away by polling officers because they did not have approved ID. But the picture is much worse than that, because many people simply did not turn up at the polling station because of the ID rules, or were stopped by the greeter and never returned. In fact, the Electoral Commission reckons that 750,000 people might not have voted in the General Election because of the need for Voter ID. The report also found that while most people were aware of the requirement ...
One of the unalloyed pleasures of the 2024 Election Campaign was speaking to friends about policies, which, it seemed to me, represented the very best of us as a Party. We called for a fair contribution from the energy companies, Social Media giants, and higher rate taxpayers to repair our mental health services and social care system while strengthening the safety net for carers. We campaigned against the pollution of our beloved waterways, the diminution of the Health Service, and threw our weight behind a national strategy to tackle the often-invisible blight of loneliness. However, something niggled at me throughout ...
A largely positive article about the Liberal Democrats by Jonathan Edwards for Nation Cymru points up an irony. We Lib Dems have become very good at first-past-the-post elections but rarely do so well in elections under more proportional systems: However, in a Welsh context the strategy employed by the Liberal Democrats at UK level doesn't work. Quite simply there are not enough Tory/Lib Dem marginals. In July it only yielded one seat in Wales where David Chadwick captured the new seat of Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe. With the Senedd election in mind, Jane Dodds and her team are going ...
The freedom to hope and dream is a precious thing. It is something which I treasure. The ability to wonder and aspire is something that us young people are constantly reminded to do. But I find it hard to dream. I found out about the climate crisis when I was about 12/13 years old and as the curious person I am I decided to read about it. I would read these IPCC reports trying my best to break them down and understand them. I distinctly remember the beginnings of the climate movement, Greta Thunberg talking about it, and I was ...
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!
Sometimes it seems that only the Tories are really convinced that the plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda might make a difference, but as the Mirror reports, there is no unanimity there either. The paper says that, even as two Tory leadership rivals plan to reinstate the scheme, ex-Tory PM Sir John Major has lashed out at it as "odious" and "un-British": Sir John described the costly project as "un-Christian" and said it is "not the way to treat people". He warned the Conservatives against lurching to the far-right and said a merger with Reform UK would be "fatal". ...
Lib Dem conference ended yesterday and so I headed north to get home. Here are some of the photos I took during my stay in Brighton.Ed Davey's speech on Tuesday with the MPs seated behind him on the podium. It almost took as long as the speech just to get them all into the allocated places. That's what comes of having 72 MPs!In the days when we had only 11 MPs, getting a full set of Lib Dem
