Patel on Trump: "naive and dangerous", say Lib Dems Davey: Trump presidency "deeply worrying for millions" Pressure rises on Govt as two in three Labour voters back closer ties with Europe given Trump presidency More than 11,000 malicious calls to ambulance service in past decade 2024 the worst year on record at A&E Patel on Trump: "naive and dangerous", say Lib Dems Responding to Priti Patel's comments about the Trump presidency on Laura Kuenssberg's programme this morning, Calum Miller MP, Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Foreign Affairs, said: Priti Patel's comments on her 'trust' in Trump are naive and dangerous. The ...
The philosopher, theologian and Anglican priest Don Cupitt died yesterday. I first came across him through his 1984 BBC television series The Sea of Faith. As that Wikipedia entry says, it dealt with the history of Christianity in the modern world, focussing especially on how Christianity has responded to challenges such as scientific advances, political atheism and secularisation in general. The series had six parts, and this one dealing with the thought of Friedrich Nietzsche and Ludwig Wittgenstein is the one I remember best. I also remember it being discussed on Ludovic Kennedy's programme about television Did You See? One ...
The latest edition of my weekly political polling round-up, The Week in Polls, is out. As it says: Occasional calls for big bang reform, such as the – in my view mistaken – calls for polls to be banned, are what usually get attention. But I think there is a lot of mileage in a programme of many small improvements, none expensive and none requiring major work. Read on to see what you think, and do let me know your thoughts. Find out more by reading this edition of The Week in Polls here, and you can sign up below ...
"The policy is less interesting than the politics, simply because the policy isn't going to happen any time soon- at the risk of saying the most boring thing I'll ever write on this substack: the Lib Dems are not in government. But for me, this remains an important milestone, because it is the biggest crack yet in the unloved Brexit consensus. The fact Davey feels able to make the shift at this time, tells us something important about the politics of the moment we're in."Lewis Goodall weighs the importance of Ed Davey's foreign policy speech. Dan McQuillan fears Labour's AI ...
Town Halls such as this one in Bideford which is the HQ of Torridge District Council will soon disappear under proposals to centralise local government in rural shires. As a liberal I strongly believe in the principle of devolution of power to the lowest possible level. if we do so it means that those people who make the decisions have the maximum knowledge of the communities within which they are making those decisions. It also means that the communities themselves can be more involved in the decision-making process. They will therefore 'own' the decisions more and therefore will want to ...
Your or I would have written a Focus leaflet: The Murder Capital started a rock band. Here they are talking to DIY magazine in 2019: Questioning the current social and political climate in their homeland, they're viscerally animated, demanding better at every turn. "It just feels like there are loads of fuckin' hotels going up over Dublin, where there could be new housing," James hammers home. "There are cranes all over the city. There's one on George's Street right now, and they're gutting this beautiful Georgian house, and I stopped and asked the builder what it was gonna be, and ...
Continuing where we left off yesterday, let's look at some of the other proposals in Policy Paper 47. Those who work in the criminal justice system know that the 'simple' possession offence is the one that comes most often before the criminal courts, and Class B is frequently the most common because it covers cannabis, easily the most 'popular' of drugs. I can count on one hand (maybe slight hyperbole) the number of people who have said "yes, I had that drug for supply". It is always for 'personal use' and if that's the case, how do you prosecute those ...
United States Trump's run of good luck continues. It seems likely that all but one of his cabinet nominations will be confirmed by the Senate. Congressman Matt Gaetz was the longest of long shots for Attorney General. The Ethics Committee investigation into his drug-fuelled sex antics ruled him out. Fox News presenter Pete Hesgeth was also expected to fail in his bid to become America's next Secretary of Defense. A seedy past and lack of experience worked against him. But Hesgeth put up a good show against tough questioning from the Democratic members of the Senate Armed Services Committee. There ...
[IMG: Campaigning in Lincoln] It was off to Lincoln yesterday for some campaigning with the local team who are on an impressive upwards trajectory in council elections. It was great to see people travelling from elsewhere in the East Midlands to help up too; the further away we are from a polling day in our own patch, the more time there is to help colleagues elsewhere. Thankfully, no unusual reasons for train delays this time: The bonus epilogue was a train running late due to the weight of passengers on board (!). — Mark Pack (@markpackuk.bsky.social) 2024-12-27T15:25:36.119Z
Even better, despite what the title says on YouTube about "Radio 4", this comes with pictures too:
With thanks to Francis De Franco and Dundee Memories, the east side of Blackness Avenue in 1910.
Governments at every level does not have a good record when it comes to ICT projects, so it comes as no surprise that the Tory government scheme to send asylum seekers to Rwanda at a cost of £715m over two years, included a significant sum of money spent on a now-defunct computer system. The Guardian reports that the Conservative government spent more than £130m on IT and data systems for the scheme, which will never be used. The paper adds that digital tools needed to put the forced removal programme into effect made up the second-largest chunk of the £715m ...
