Jago Hazzard on two schemes proposed in a 1989 report but never built. One would really have put Turnham Green on the map. You can support Jago Hazzard's videos via his Patreon page.
Following up my earlier posts on campaigning advice from 1890 and 1933, one of my favourite extracts from the minutes of a Liberal Democrat or predecessor party meeting is this gem from a 1983 branch meeting: Campaign Strategy: After a long discussion, it was agreed that we organise ourselves, and have a separate meeting for this subject. Wise advice indeed. For more up-to-date advice, I can of course recommend this.
In the mid 1930s, just before I was born, there was a proposal that our local Unban District of Birstall, with its own elected Council, should be merged with the next-door Borough of Batley. A referendum was held to judge public views on this and the results were: For the proposal: 25 Against: 3500 Spoiled papers: 190 Nevertheless the "powers that be" went ahead and forced through the merger (take over?) This enlarged Borough of Batley endured for just over 35 years when, under the Heath Conservative government's proposals, we in turn were merged (taken over?) to form the Metropolitan ...
The judges were heard to grumble about "trying too hard," but the Guardian still wins our coveted Headline of the Day Award.
It is obvious that we, Liberal Democrats, are excellent local campaigners, as evidenced with us winning over 72 MPs in the recent 2024 General Election. However, there is one clear problem present with the strategy – we are too reliant on local champions, such people who are great for local constituencies, but often weak on a national level. We don't always have campaigns that everyone across Great Britain resonates with. Despite having over fourteen times more MPs than Reform UK, our activists struggle for national media coverage. Meanwhile, figures like Mr Farage continue to dominate the media, securing endless airtime ...
The Liberal Democrat History Group website is a goldmine. With my pick and my mule, I have found this video of a fringe meeting the group held during the Lib Dem Conference last September. Its title was Friends or Enemies, Allies or Competitors? Liberals and Labour 1903-2019, and the speakers were David Laws and Jim Wallace. Wendy Chamberlain was in the chair. You can also hear David Laws speaking on the subject on a recent edition of Never Mind the Bar Charts - I endorse David's condemnation of Lloyd George, but am slightly mystified by the parallel Mark Pack draws ...
Mon 6th
12:15
The Fall of the German Government: How the liberal FDP and the Debt Brake Shook the Country.
In late 2024, Germany's political landscape was upended by the collapse of Chancellor Olaf Scholz's "traffic light coalition", comprising the Social Democrats (SPD), the Greens, and the market-oriented Free Democratic Party (FDP), one of our sister parties in ALDE. This coalition, which once promised a progressive agenda, fractured under mounting economic pressures, the war in Ukraine, ideological differences, and a ruling by the Federal Constitutional Court. The FDP's commitment to fiscal discipline was central to this political upheaval, particularly the controversial Schuldenbremse—Germany's debt brake. The crisis started in November 2023 when the Court ruled that the government's allocation of €60 ...
Starmer NHS speech: Government risks "putting hip replacements over heart attacks" as 12-hour A&E waits soar Just 38 upskirting cases a year being passed to Crown Office 4 in 10 Scots go without recent dentist check-up Starmer NHS speech: Government risks "putting hip replacements over heart attacks" as 12-hour A&E waits soar Lib Dems warn that Government risks "putting hip replacements over heart attacks" by neglecting the crisis in emergency care and 'bed blocking' caused by the social care crisis. Figures reveal almost 200,000 12-hour "trolley waits" in A&E since Labour took office last July. Average of 1,330 patients a ...
Mon 6th
07:30Welcome to my day: 6 January 2025 - notes from the Democratic People's Republic of Elon...
So, for this Day Editor at least, another year starts and, in my case, in a country ill at ease with itself, the United States. It's an insular and curiously transactional politics here, where the impact of its leadership is seen mostly in terms of what America does to others rather than in terms of how it is perceived by allies and enemies alike. There is no room for doubt or uncertainty in the minds of the radicals soon to be running this country. Which inevitably brings me to the recent antics of Elon Musk, whose astonishing firehose of untruths ...
The NHS Tayside Children and Young People's Speech and Language Therapy Service's advice line is available on Dundee 740317. The service offers advice, guidance, reassurance, and strategies for parents, carers, and professionals who have concerns about a child or young person's speech, language, communication and swallowing difficulties. The advice line is open on Tuesdays from 9.30am to 11.30am and Thursdays from 4pm to 6pm.
As bromances go, the Farage-Musk love-in turned out to be very short-lived. The Guardian reports that having told the King how to do his job, berated Keir Starmer, called Jess Phillips a "rape genocide apologist", and sought to interfere in the UK's judicial processes. Elon Musk is now calling on Farage to be replaced as leader of Reform. The paper reports that Musk has said Nigel Farage "doesn't have what it takes" to be Reform UK's leader, despite Farage refusing to condemn the billionaire businessman for his inflammatory comments about Keir Starmer and Jess Phillips just hours earlier: In a ...
