The first woman Liberal MP was Margaret Wintringham, who held Louth in a by-election in September 1921. She won despite being in mourning for her husband Tom, whose death caused the election. This video explores her political career and achievements during her short time in the Commons (1921-4), including her work on the Widow's Orphans' and Old Age Contributory Pensions Act and the Guardianship of Infants Act.
It's back-to-back by-election gargantuan week for by-elections as we see 16 held this Thursday. It was another disaster week for Labour: they only held half of the 8 seats they were defending, losing 3 seats to the Tories and 1 to the Greens. The Tories and Plaid Cymru both held onto all their seats (2 and 1 respectively). The Lib Dems were the only party to be contesting all 16, holding 4 out of 5 seats. The most dominant result of the Lib Dems no doubt belongs to Cllr Tim Bloomer in the Grange & Cartmel ward of Westmorland & ...
The fall in inflation to 1.7% this week from 2.2% in August should be good news for borrowers, but it could result in a blow to benefit recipients. Although the rate is expected by the Resolution Foundation to rise shortly again to 2.2%, the September inflation rate is that which determines the annual uprating of welfare benefits next April. For all the difficult decisions facing the Chancellor as she finalises her Autumn Budget, for her to increase the annual uprating of benefits above the rate of inflation should be demanded by our party. If the increase was 2.2% instead of ...
Roz Savage made her maiden speech last week. You may remember that we highlighted her last week, after her success in being given the chance to introduce a private members bill on Climate Change and Nature. However she choose the Farming and Food Security Bill for her maiden speech. And here is the full text: Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, for the opportunity to speak to the House. I also thank my hon. Friends for their contributions to this important debate on food and farming. It is an absolute honour to address the Chamber as the newly elected Member of ...
I strongly recommend Ian Dunt and Dorian Lynskey's latest Origin Story podcast, which covers the rise and rise of Russell Brand: Dorian and Ian reassess Brand's extraordinary rise to fame in the 2000s in light of recent allegations of sexual misconduct and explore how British culture gave him a free pass. In 2013 Brand swapped sex and fame for a new compulsion, reinventing himself as a flamboyant agitator to great acclaim. In the void between Occupy and Corbynism, his verbose mishmash of self-help and socialism briefly made him a lion of the left. During the pandemic Brand embraced a darker ...
I've reported before how two Lib Dem MPs came out very high up in the ballot for Private Members' Bills in the House of Commons. We now know what they are going to use with their slots. Max Wilkinson, who came second, is going to promote solar power: [IMG: 🌞] [IMG: 🌞] [IMG: 🌞] It's Private Members' Bill day! I promised action on the cost of living and to protect the environment. My Sunshine Bill would do both. It would force developers to put solar energy generation equipment on new homes. Good for the planet. Good for people's pockets. [IMG: ...
Biohacking to Improve Everyone's Health, the team of Biohackers intending to compete in XPRIZE Healthspan, have won some early prizes in the 2024 MEDICAL AFFAIRS INNOVATION OLYMPICS #MAIO2024. The MAIO is organised by The Medical Affairs Professional Society and sponsored by a number of leading biotech companies including Amadea Pharma. Of all of the biotech groups proposing ideas the
In Citizen's Britain Paddy Ashdown argued that despite the Conservative government's claims of "rolling back the frontiers of the state", they were in fact spending more and more on social control, coercion, and surveillance. The closing months of Sunak's government echoed this aspect of the Thatcher era, with it planning to introduce mass surveillance legislation, which now could be implemented under the present Labour government. The Data Protection and Digital Information Bill, which the Conservative's failed to pass before this year's general election, included surveillance provisions would have forced banks to monitor the accounts of all means-tested benefits claimants, and ...
A bumper set of 16 principal authority council by-elections this week, and with a full slate of Lib Dem candidates. That is up five on the last time these wards were up, a promising sign given the importance of standing more candidates. Let's start with some Lib Dem defences: Grange & Cartmel (Westmorland & Furness) Council By-Election Result: [IMG: 🔶] LDM: 84.8% (+7.6) [IMG: 🌳] CON: 15.2% (-3.5)No TUSC (-4.1) as previous.Liberal Democrat HOLD.Changes w/ 2024. — Election Maps UK (@electionmaps.uk) 2024-10-17T23:45:44.616Z
We have received recently a number of residents' concerns about deterioration of the road surface in Hyndford Place - see photos. We raised these with the council's Roads Maintenance Partnership and have received the following helpful response : "There are currently a number of outstanding orders to be done here with a timescale for completion of thirty working days so repairs should be carried out fairly soon."
The Mirror reports that a major report from the Refugee Council has found Labour inherited an asylum system in 'meltdown' that had been brought to a 'near-standstill' due to Conservative mismanagement. The report says that without Keir Starmer's decision to scrap the Rwanda plan and kick-start asylum decision making, the backlog of people waiting for an initial judgement could have ballooned to over 177,000 by January - higher than in the pandemic: According to the report's analysis, 70% of those who crossed the channel in the year up to June would be expected to be recognised as refugees - yet ...
