Inflation: Welcome fall but winter will still be difficult for the most vulnerable McArthur welcomes Leadbetter bill on assisted dying Wendy Chamberlain MP lodges Bill to remove red tape on charity lottery fundraising Closure of Rural Housing Scotland must mean soul-searching for SNP ministers McArthur responds to public letter by chief medical officers Inflation: Welcome fall but winter will still be difficult for the most vulnerable Responding to the latest inflation figures, Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson Daisy Cooper MP said: The fall in inflation is welcome but we can't fool ourselves that this winter won't be difficult for the most ...
So, I've become the Chair of the Micro Councils Network of the National Association of Local Councils (NALC), right? Quite prestigious, I suppose, and a long way from being the Chair of a tiny Parish Council in deepest mid-Suffolk. But it only meets four times a year, and I have a professional team who are there to support me and organise things, so that's not too challenging, is it? And, of course, that's probably too good to be true, isn't it? So, I shouldn't have been too surprised when I was invited to join the Smaller Councils Committee of NALC ...
Wage Growth falls: Govt must back small businesses as the backbone of our economy NI Rise: Chancellor needs to think again Poll: 1 in 4 reveal they are unable to work because they can't get a NHS appointment Lib Dems urge further UK government sanctions to proscribe far-right Israeli ministers Ben-Gvir and Smotrich Highland MP to lead debate on Community Benefits from Renewables Cole-Hamilton: A&E waits once again worse than last year Wage Growth falls: Govt must back small businesses as the backbone of our economy Responding to the latest wage growth figures falling by 4.9%, Liberal Democrat Treasury Spokesperson ...
Look what I've found on YouTube. This radio adaptation of The Box of Delights was first broadcast at Christmas 1966 and repeated in the same season in 1968 and 1969. It may have been through the 1966 broadcast, but is more likely to have been through the 1968 one, that the story won my heart. Who can resist a healthy blend of the Christian and the pagan? I know I was enthralled by it as a little boy. Listening to the broadcast today, it's slow to get going. But when the story picks up, the production makes good use of ...
Four Liberal Democrat MPs submitted Bills to the House of Commons today: Max Wilkinson wants to change the law to make installation of solar panels on new homes compulsory. Roz Savage has revived the Climate and Nature Bill Danny Chambers wants to tackle puppy smuggling Wendy Chamberlain wants to remove the limits for lotteries on for charity fundraising. The chances of any of these Bills becoming law depend on the Government giving them parliamentary time. These Bills from Members are debated on Fridays and are liable to being talked out. Let's hope that these survive the process. At the very ...
This Parliament is only in its infancy but for the second time a Lib Dem kicked off Prime Minister's Questions. Back in July it was Calum Miller. Today it was Winchester's own Danny Chambers, asking about local maternity services. At #PMQs I asked Prime Minister Keir Starmer to assure us that Maternity and A&E services will remain in Winchester and if he can commit to funding the backlog maintenance at the Royal Hampshire County Hospital so services can be provided in a modern, safe facility. [IMG: 👇] pic.twitter.com/PVv7zFU3Fv — Danny Chambers MP [IMG: 🔸] [IMG: 🩺] (@DannyVet) October 16, 2024 ...
The Liberal Democrats have attacked the Labour government in Cardiff over proposed cuts to services on the Cambrian and Heart of Wales railway lines. Herald Wales reports that:Under proposals by government-owned Transport for Wales, services on the Heart of Wales line will be cut from five trains a day to four. They are also removing the two late evening services to Llandovery and Llandrindod Wells. On the Cambrian Line, TfW will cut four services between Machynlleth and Pwllheli (two in each direction). Promises for an hourly service on the Cambrian Line between Aberystwyth and Shrewsbury ... have also been scaled ...
After every General Election, it's become our habit to have a good look at what went well and what went badly and publish a General Election Review. This year's will doubtless be a lot happier than the last few. The Review team is led by Tim Farron. He is joined by Cllr Ade Adeyemo Paul Farthing Cllr Donna Harris Cllr Emma Holland-Lindsay Mike O'Carroll Sally Pattle Their remit is to: review the party's performance at the general election, based on both the campaign period itself and the preparatory work and strategy through the whole Parliament. particularly focus on the lessons ...
Within politics, there are lots of under-appreciated groups. People who work tirelessly to ensure that the roadshow goes on, so that those front and centre can walk, run and sprint to victory. Be it the campaign organisers and their hoardes of volunteers pushing paper through letterboxes, or the tech people running important communication methods, or the spouses, partners and confidantes who prop up tired candidates ready to fall. Yet I want to throw my own special shout-out to another group, the MPs' staff. I'm very privileged to have worked in one capacity or another for a number of our party's ...
[IMG: 🌟] We hope you're doing well and continuing your efforts towards a sustainable future. QS ImpACT is bringing you some exciting programmes to engage in! [IMG: 👇] [IMG: 🌟] Awards Countdown: 3 Weeks Left! [IMG: 🌍] [IMG: 👇] Apply for an award today [IMG: 🌟] Unified Action, Global Impact [IMG: 🌍] [IMG: 🌟] Skills Challenge Finalists Announced [IMG: 🌍] [IMG: 🎮] Pre-register with exclusive access [IMG: 🌟] Expert-Led Climate Literacy Training [IMG: 🌍] [IMG: 🌟] Monthly ImpACT Spotlight [IMG: 🌍] [IMG: 🇨🇳] Shouna's initiative engages students in transforming discarded plastic bottles into plant pots, sparking creativity and environmental responsibility. ...
In his latest book Turning Over the Pebbles: A Life in Cricket and the Mind, Mike Brearley writes of being an intellectual among professional sportsmen and turns it into a reflection on the accident of our birth: Similar cynicism came my way when I was doing philosophy in my early days playing cricket for Middlesex Fred Titmus, the senior player (whose first game for Middlesex in 1949 coincided with the first of my father's two games, so that after Fred played in my last game at Lords In 1982 he was able to say he 'saw the father in and ...
Wed 16th
11:55
LibLink Christine Jardine: Why cruel laws forbidding terminally ill people from ending their life mu...
Edinburgh West's Lib Dem MP Christine Jardine has long been an advocate for a change in the law to allow assisted dying in limited circumstances. Ahead of Labour MP Kim Leadbetter introducing a Private Member's Bill "to allow adults who are terminally ill, subject to safeguards and protections, to request and be provided with assistance to end their own life; and for connected purposes," Christine set out why she supports it in her Scotsman column. Why is she supporting Kim's Bill? Because I recognise the widespread demand to address an inequality in the law and for legislators like myself to ...
This is part of an individual contribution to the Government's current Strategic Defence Review The current Strategic Defence Review has a thankless task: with existing international conflicts and tensions threatening to degenerate into all-out war and unprecedented budget restraints at home, now is perhaps not the best time to be holding a review of our depleted armed forces. Some statistics highlight the problem: At the time of the Falklands War, we spent 5.2% of our Gross Domestic Product on our military. Today, thanks to four decades of cuts in military spending by politicians of both Labour and Conservative parties in ...
Half of my social media timelines at the moment are questioning why Starmer going to a Taylor Swift concert is even a story. It's not news, they say, it is just tittle tattle. Well, yes it is, but in politics tittle tattle counts and if you are naive enough to put on a fully-justified police escort for a superstar performer, and then accept freebie tickets that enable you to meet her backstage then frankly, you shouldn't complain. It is precisely because the opposition and their allies in the media are able to tie up the freebie misjudgement with the police ...
Today is the first Liberal Democrat Opposition Day of this Parliament. This means that we need to set the agenda. Does anyone want to take a guess about the topics we have chosen to debate? You get no brownie points if you correctly answered Carers and Health – though you could, I guess have chosen sewage. We are highlighting the issues that we ran on during not just the election but in the four years leading up to it. Our Carer's Allowance motion says: That this House recognises the remarkable contributions that the UK's 5.7 million unpaid carers make to ...
As residents are aware, we have long-campaigned for the resurfacing of most of West Park Road and are very pleased that this was finally successful last month - Michael is pictured at the new road surface - a vast improvement on the potholed and badly deteriorated, old surface. Whilst this is good news, it must be remembered that the current budget is wholly inadequate and far too few roads and footpaths are being upgraded. It is particularly stark this year and brings into focus the bad effect of many years of SNP under-investment in pavements and roads. At the council's ...
