Winter Fuel Payments: Hundreds of thousands more pensioners set to lose out NHS Scotland Stop Smoking Services fall short of target Cole-Hamilton challenges Health Secretary to tackle cancer crisis Worst ever homelessness figures on the SNP's watch Jardine responds to GB Energy Aberdeen announcement Cole-Hamilton demands action on Highlands care home closures Just 3.2% of acid attacks in London have resulted in charge this year Winter Fuel Payments: Hundreds of thousands more pensioners set to lose out Responding to the latest Winter Fuel Payment statistics showing that there was a 214,000 increase in the number of recipients of the payments ...
How long does it take to get 72 Lib Dem MPs onto the platform at Lib Dem conference for Ed Davey's speech? The answer is 2 minutes. No herding of cats needed as all the MPs were disciplined and went where they were told. We have certainly moved on from 2019 when all our MPs could have fitted into a camper van!
The Mail (via Microsoft Start) wins our Headline of the Day Award for this happy tale of cameline podiatry.
"Council estates are not Labour. Tower Estate, which had Labour councillors continually for almost five decades, now has three Lib Dem councillors all elected on around 50 per cent of the vote. Lincoln's Liberal Democrats have proven we can win anywhere."Darryl Smalley says it's time for us to march into the council estates. Andy Cowper on the Darzi review of the NHS: "It's interesting how much the Darzi review emphasises Lansley's NHS reforms. It's also politically smart, because they were a total failure. Choice, competition, and clinical commissioning achieved nothing in the English NHS over the past 12 years. The ...
Yesterday I covered More in Common's finding that 17% of Labour 2024 general election voters now say they regret their vote. Now we have polling from a different pollster, YouGov, which helps explain the size of and reason for the regret: [IMG: Reasons for disappointment with Labour - YouGov polling] It's notable how higher the Winter Fuel Payments story scores, even – or rather, especially – with 2024 Labour voters. Get the best of polling summarised, weekly Sign up here if you would like to receive The Week in Polls, a weekly round-up and analysis of the latest British political ...
Whilst on the Isle of Man I visited the theatre team at the Nobles Hospital. The award above their head shows that they are a top notch team. It has been a real pleasure for me to visit Douglas from 21st to 24th September at the invitation of the Mayor of Douglas, Cllr Natalie Teare-Wood with the Lord Lieutenant of Merseyside, Mark Blundell The visit follows a visit from Cllr Natalie Byron-Teare who visited Liverpool and came to our Town Hall in June. This coincided with the opening of the new Isle Man Ferry terminal in Liverpool's North Docks. It ...
It's that time of year again when thoughts turn to the National Trust AGM, and voting for the people who will determine the Trust's continuing direction. Do we vote for people who will conserve our history, add to our understanding and increase year by year the numbers who benefit from it, or will we vote for people who do not have the interests of the Trust, or the nation, at heart, but are only interested in exaggerating problems that they can continue to exploit? By the latter I mean Restore Trust - of course. I will be voting once again ...
Speaking with authority and gravitas will no longer suffice. All that remains, in this post-Elizabethan era, are dwindling fragments of respect. We know and might even believe this - if we were bothered to read last week's declaration - the General Confession of Collective Culpability. But the electorate are long past being bothered. Of all the decade's damages - the fiscal black holes, climatic disasters, crumbling hospitals, contaminated blood, midwifery mistakes, flammable flats, irregular regulators - the single greatest disaster is that we no longer know who to trust. Is this readiness to question everything a new sign of maturity? ...
Embed from Getty ImagesPeter Jay is one of those people of whom, if I had any younger readers, my younger readers would not have heard. His Guardian obituary by Stephen Bates is a comic gem. That's not how most of us would wish to be remembered, but there you go: If ever a man was damned by being described as "the cleverest young man in England" it was the economic journalist Peter Jay. When Time magazine decided on the epithet and chose him as one of its 150 world leaders of the future in 1974, Jay was already 37, so ...
Like most Italian cities, Bologna has its fair share of churches, including the exceptional "Seven Churches" Basilica of Santo Stefano (above). All the churches, as is the Italian way, are chock-full of fine art. But the reason for my postcard is to highlight the fact that Bologna is regarded as "the most liberal city in Italy". It hosts the oldest university in the world, it has been at the Italian forefront of human rights campaigning across the decades and it even has its buildings painted red, it is said, to reflect its socialist leanings. It reputedly has the best public ...
Yesterday brought news that Jane McCoid, Labour Councillor for Lamesley in Gateshead, has resigned from Labour and gone independent. The change does not alter the balance on the Council (Labour 47, Lib Dem 17, Independent 1 and 1 vacancy in a Lib Dem held seat). What was of more interest is the reasoning for her leaving Labour.She joined Labour "when there was hope, and in my eyes all hope has
Lee Dillon MP for Newbury made his maiden speech on Monday 9th September. Here it is in text form, or please click on the white arrow below to watch it via the party's channel on YouTube:
Just in case you haven't listened to this (and apologies from me – I am rather slow on the uptake here), in July Nick Clegg sat down with Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart for their "Leading" Podcast series: Part 1 is entitled "Nick Clegg: Coalition, Cameron and Chaos". (Link is the Podcast on Apple Podcasts) Part 2 is called "Nick Clegg: Biden, Brexit, and kicking Trump off Facebook". I was very impressed by Nick's commentary in both the parts. (I should say I have form on this – the last time I was exposed to such a long portion of ...
Fraser's weekly ward surgeries take place later today and every Tuesday during school term time. They are as follows : Tuesdays at 5pm prompt - Blackness Library Tuesdays at 5.45pm prompt - Ancrum Road Primary School All residents welcome - no appointment necessary.
Labour gathered in Liverpool at the weekend for its first annual conferencen since winning the general election under fire for a series of controversial decisions and unsettled by a series of leaks over rows about Sue Gray's pay and the Downing Street operation. The reaction of several senior cabinet members has been to single out the top civil servant in Whitehall as a potential source of the briefings and call for his sacking. The Independent reports that Keir Starmer is being urged by several cabinet ministers to sack the top civil servant in Whitehall immediately and stamp his authority on ...
