Nominations for the Whickham North and Swalwell by-election closed at 4pm today. There are 4 candidates in the running - Labour, Conservatives, Greens and Lib Dems. Susan Craig is the Lib Dem candidate. Missing from the line up are Reform. Their absence was a bit of a surprise given they fielded a candidate in the Bridges by-election who, ironically, lives in Whickham North!The absence of Reform
Cole-Hamilton responds to Scottish Conservative leadership news Council opposition "must be final nail in coffin" for care service takeover Cole-Hamilton responds to Scottish Conservative leadership news Responding to the election of Russell Findlay as Scottish Conservative leader, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said: I'd like to congratulate Russell Findlay on being elected as Scottish Conservative leader. It's going to be a hospital pass because his is a party in decline. He will also find it hard to escape his record of cheering on Liz Truss. There will also be voters out there who were persuaded by Ruth Davidson but ...
There were 12 principal council by-elections this week (2 on Tuesday and 10 on Thursday) and it has been another very successful week for Lib Dem candidates. We registered yet another gain (this time from the Conservatives) as well as several holds and some very impressive second places. For the second week in a row the results were tumultuous with many seats changing hands. But the 4 Lib Dem victories put us joint first with the Conservatives overall. Our gain came on Perth and Kinross Council in Strathallan ward where Councillor Alan Watt took the Lib Dems from third place ...
I was swapping tweets earlier today (as you do) about the night that the Walker Brothers had their shirts ripped off by the teenage girls of Market Harborough. More about that another day, I hope. But the Walker Brothers weren't the only big names to play Harborough in those days. I've blogged before about Jethro Tull, and now I can add some more names to the list. Because a reader kindly pointed me towards an old post about the town on the Soul Source site: The club was called the Frollockin' Kneecap and had been there since 1968, I saw ...
One of my concerns about the Liberal Democrats is that we resemble myself as student. We are rather better at spending money than working out where its coming from. Although we made some sensible tax proposals in our manifesto, we still ended relying upon the need to reduce tax avoidance and evasion and 'resource HMRC accordingly'. I have few problems with this position. Not least is the fact that every opposition party in my lifetime has argued it. Our record in coalition on avoidance was excellent; we forced through the General Anti Avoidance Rule (GAAR) which Labour had resisted. My ...
If you were lucky enough not to have come across this, er, unique Guardian article 'The rise of Britishcore: 100 experiences that define and unite modern Britons', do not click this link. It was suggested to me by on Twitter that the author must be the son of someone on the paper to have got it published. The new Private Eye shows that was almost right: he's the long-term partner of someone there. When the editor saw this article, the Eye goes on, she gave orders for it to be buried in the depths of the Guardian's website. But I ...
"The Houses of Parliament are sinking into the Thames. Many dozens of offices were condemned upon their vacation by outgoing MPs. There are electrical and water hazards only a few metres underfoot, and the whole thing will cost billions to fix - not least because MPs are insistent they stay in the building while it happens."Steffan Aquarone says the physical state of the Palace of Westminster is a metaphor for the organisational changes that are needed there. Richard Kemp promised to put the cause of carer leavers at the heart of his work as Lord Mayor of Liverpool. He writes ...
Welcome to the latest in my occasional series highlighting interesting findings from academic research. Today – new party member data from the ever-excellent Tim Bale and colleagues, Paul Webb and Stavroula Chrona this time. They report: The party members project, run out of Queen Mary University of London and Sussex University, has been surveying party members about their activities after every election since 2015 and has just completed the 2024 exercise. And it appears that, following a decline in election campaigning in 2017 and 2019, there was a slight uptick overall this time round. Here is the pattern of activity ...
This is just a bit of fun but scarecrows will be populating Sunniside in late October. People are encouraged to take part by making their own scarecrow and putting it into their front garden or on display in their front window for everyone to see.It's likely that mine will be modeled on me, given the scruffy clothes I often wear while mucking out my animals!Sunniside scarecrows was first
What a conference! Perhaps my favourite moment at our Brighton conference was having dinner with a member who had rung her partner to say how great the conference rally was. She had told him about how our MPs had stood to applaud the audience, thanking us all for our efforts to get them elected. 'Were all our MPs there?', he asked. 'I don't know. There are too many MPs now to be able to count them all!' she replied. Too many to count, more than enough for us to be rightfully on a high – and not as many as ...
Molly-Ann and Omar were, without a doubt the real stars of the event yesterday which we held to celebrate the work being done to support care leavers into a successful life. Yesterday was perhaps the most important day of the year that I will spend as the Lord Mayor of Liverpool. I welcomed more than 220 people to the Concert Room at St Georges Hall to discuss how they could help care leavers. I have adopted the cause of care leavers in two ways. As Chair of LAMIT (the Local Authority Mutual Investment Trust) we have pledged £600,000 for three ...
A big bundle of principal authority council by-elections this week, split over two days. The first two came on a Tuesday: Godalming Binscombe & Charterhouse (Waverley) Council By-Election Result: [IMG: 🌳] CON: 40.6% (+19.7) [IMG: 🔶] LDM: 40.0% (+10.7) [IMG: 🌍] GRN: 10.9% (-16.3) [IMG: 🌹] LAB: 8.5% (-14.1)Conservative GAIN from Labour.Changes w/ 2023. — Election Maps UK (@electionmaps.uk) 2024-09-24T23:00:20.141Z
Fri 27th
07:30
Public Service Announcement: Liberal Democrat Voice announces an update to our Privacy Policy
You know how it is with these "back office" things on websites – times change, technology moves on and the site evolves as you deal with that. The consequences of that aren't always as thoroughly appreciated... However, it has been noticed that our privacy policy made reference to two elements: The Members' Forum, which had faded away unloved and unremarked upon, until we put it to sleep forever in January 2022, removing the material from it the following month. The use of a nifty piece of software which allowed the site to verify that those claiming to be members were ...
The West End's Dundee Art Society is a registered charity and one of the oldest art societies in the UK. Founded in 1890 to encourage 'art for all' it is still very active hosting classes, exhibition and monthly art talks at its home in the Roseangle Gallery. You can read more about the society's fascinating history at www.dundeeartsociety.co.uk/about-das and more about current events and classes at www.dundeeartsociety.co.uk/classes-and-workshops Membership is only £30 per year with a reduction for students. Read more at www.dundeeartsociety.co.uk/membership You can contact the society for further information at : Roseangle Gallery17 Roseangle, Dundee, DD1 4LP Phone : ...
The Independent reports that former Tory chair Baroness Sayeeda Warsi has quit the Conservatives in a furious row just as the party is preparing to gather for a crucial conference on its future in Birmingham. The paper says that the Muslim peer was brought in as chair by David Cameron in 2010 to help detoxify the party's brand and bring it into the 21st century, but since leaving government in 2014 Warsi has had a difficult relationship with the Tory leadership consistently calling out racism and islamophobia in the Conservative Party: She has angered many recently as a passionate advocate ...
